in all ages between the so-called rationalists
and the supernaturalists. Intellect and reason are rays from the Divine
wisdom, bestowed upon man to assist him to discern between true and
false, between good and evil; but such a function is not exercised by
those faculties with an absolute power over the human will; they, on the
contrary, are subservient to such desires and passions as have acquired
a preponderance in the heart; they are similar to those ministers of a
prince who, in offering him advice, only aim at facilitating the
attainment of their master's wishes; or to the known effects of a glass
applied to a jaundiced eye. So long as man remains faithful to his moral
duties, and desires nothing but what is good and honest, his intellect
and reason always offer him valid arguments to confirm him in his
purpose, and to augment his love of virtue; and then, also, the noblest
dogmas of faith, God, providence, and immortality find easy access to
his mind, and are Harboured with joy. But if depraved propensities have
corrupted his heart, so that his aspirations are in a wrong and base
direction, then these same faculties become ministers to the predominant
passion, and suggest to man sophisms, fallacies, and specious
subtleties, whereby to disown that which he heretofore respected, to
upset the edifice of his faith, to lull his conscience and quiet
remorse, to excuse his weaknesses and break through every restraint, and
thus to warrant every kind of fault and vice. Hence it is that the
knowledge and discernment of what is true or untrue, in the moral world,
depends, in a considerable degree, upon the practice of good or evil;
hence it is, that the judgments of the mind are modified by the
inclinations of the heart, and that virtue opens the way to faith, and
vice is the author of infidelity.

XLIX. From what we have hitherto briefly stated, it will appear
sufficiently obvious that the dogmas of revealed religion, though based
rather on the ground of faith than on that of philosophy and strict
criticism, are yet, for an upright man, susceptible of a degree of
evidence equal to that of any other demonstrable truth, inasmuch as they
have their foundation in human nature itself, and can be rejected but by
him who rebels against the noblest impulses of the heart, to give
himself up to the sway of passions or inordinate appetites.

One of the features, which most enhances the value of religion, is
precisely this, that it