Devonshire Adventurer, CONDUCTED BY The Rev. George John Freeman, L. L. B. No. XII. AUGUST 1, 1815. Price Eighteen Pence. Taviflock: PRINTED BY JAMES CHAVE, HIGHER BACK-STREET; And Sold by Messrs. Trewman and Woolmer, Booksellers, Exeter: by Poole, Taunton; Haydon and Nettleton, Plymouth; Syle, Barnstaple; Fowler, Torrington; Martin, Launceston; Liddle, Bodmin, and by White, Cochrane, and Co. Fleet Street, and Murray, Albemarle, Street, London. SECTION I. -000000 TO THE DEVONSHIRE ADVENTURER. MR. ADVENTurer, It is impossible to be ignorant of God. Every creature, by an impulse which he cannot resist, thinks of, and believes in, a Creator. The soul of man, conscious of its heavenly origin, pays an involuntary homage to the Great Source whence it is derived. No human art or sophistry can annihilate this lively and natural principle. The deadly poison of atheism may for a time pervert, degrade or even confute our religious belief; but the sentiment of a Deity must survive in the mind, and cannot be destroyed. Though many instances of professed atheism are recorded in history, yet unless we knew how conscience dealt with these men, in secret, we have no right to confound them with the beasts that perish, as creatures devoid of understanding. Many things are assumed, and supported with infinite pains and ingenuity, in which the soul and the feelings have no share. It is equally certain, that the mode of offering adoration to the Deity is infinitely varied. Though God hath sent down his Religion from Heaven, and hạth accompanied it with signs and wonders surpassing human power; and though he hath promised that it shall remain to the end of time, and that all nations shall own it; yet at present the Divine Economy is contented with its being partially received. Thus the Religion of a man depends in a great measure on his country. Our |