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AGE OF REASON.
i i X-
THE
AGE OF REASON..
BEING AN
INVESTIGATION *
OF
TRUE AND OF FABULOUS
THEOLOGY.
By THOMAS PAINE,
Author of Works entitled " Common Senfe, Rights of Man.'" &c. ... . .., , ,
Printed by T. and J. Swords, for J. Fellows, Nc. 13 1,. Water-Street* '
-
*6L27+0 .-A J
17 94*
Dtftria of New- York, f.
E it remembered, that on the feventeentfr day of June, in the eighteenth year of the Inde- pendence of the United States of America, John Fellows, jun. hath depofited in this OfHce, the tide of a Book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in the words following, to wit: " The u Jlge cf Reafotif being an Invefligation of True and 44 cf Fabulous Theology. By Thomas Paine, An- other of works entitled, Common Senfe, Rights " of Man, &c,"
In conformity to the act of the Congrefs of the United States, entitled, " An Aft for the encou- '* ragement of learning, by fecuring the copies of << Maps, Char,t?rarid cBooksr to \hft , Authors and '-.'Prdprl^or.i pt :"uch copies, riiiri/ig tl-e times |{ therein mentioned."
lllt'i T 'ROBERT TROUP, Clerk of the Diftria.
TO MY
FELLOW CITIZENS
OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
PUT the following work under your pro- tection. It contains my opinion upon Reli- gion. Tou will do me the juftice to remember , that I have always ftrenuoufly fupported the Right of every Man to his own opinion^ however different that opinion might be to mine. He who denies to. another this rights makes a Jlave of himfelf to his frefent opi- nion^ becaufe he precludes himfelf the right of changing it .
A 3 • The
( vi )
The imft formidable weapon againfi errors of every kind is Reafon. I have never ufed any other , and I trufi I never jhall.
Your affectionate friend and fellow citizen -9
THOMAS PAINE.
Luxembourg^ (Paris) 8th Pulviofe^ Second year of the French Republic , one and indiviJiMe^ January 2JyO.S. 1794.
THE
THE.
AGE OF REASON.
IT has been my intention, for feveral years pad, to publifh my thoughts upon Religion. I am well aware of the diffi- culties that attend the fuhje&y and, from that confideration, had refer ved it to a more advanced period of life. I intended it to be the laft offering I mould make to my fellow citizens of all nations -3 and that at a time* when the purity of the motive that induced me to it could not admit of a question, even by thofe who might difap- prove the work.
The circumftance that has now taken place in France, of the total abolition of
thQ
( -8 )
the whole national order of priefthood, and of every thing appertaining to compulfive fyftems of religion, and compulfive articles of faith, has not only precipitated my in- tention, but rendered a work of this kind exceedingly neceflary ; left, in the general wreck of fuperftition, of falfe fyftems of government, and falfe theology, we lo& fight of morality, of humanity, and of the theology that is true.
As feveral of my colleagues, and others of my fellow citizens of France, have given me the example of making their voluntary and individual profefiion of faith, I alfo will make mine; and I do this with all that fincerity and franknefs with which, the mind of man communicates with itfeif.
I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happinefs beyond this- life.
I believe the equality of man, and I be- lieve that religious duties ccnfift in doing
juftice,
C 9 )
juftice, loving mercy, and endeavouring to make our fellow creatures happy.
But left it iliould be fuppofed that I believe many other things in addition to thefe, I fhall^ in the progrefs of this work, declare the things I do not believe, and my reafons for not believing them.
I do not believe in the creed proferTed by th^ Jew ifh church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by th^ Turkifh church, by the Proteftant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church, s
All national infections ^of churches, whether Jew ifh, ChrifHan, or Turkifh, appear to me no other than human inven- tions fet up to terrify and enflave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.
I do not mean by this declaration to condemn thofe who believe otherwife. They have the fame right to their belief
as
( io )
as I have to mine. But it is neceflary to the happinefs of man, that he be mentally faithful to himfelf. Infidelity does not eontift in believing, or in difbelieving : it confiils in profefiing to believe what he does not believe.
It is impofilble to calculate the moraF mifchief, if I may fo exprefs it, that mental lying has produced in fociety. When a man has fo far corrupted and proilituted the chaflity of his mind, as to fubfcribe his profeffional belief to things he does not believe, he has prepared" himfelf for the commifiion of every other crime. He takes up the trade of a prieft for the fake of gain, and in order to qualify himfelf for that trade, he begins with perjury. Can we conceive any thing more deftruclive to morality than this ?
Soon after I had publifhed the pamphlet, Common Sense, in America, I faw the
exceeding
( II )
exceeding probability that a Revolution in the Syftem of Government would be fol- lowed by a Revolution in the Syftem of Religion. The adulterous connection of church and ftate, wherever it had taken place, whether Jewifh, Christian, or Turk- im, had fo effectually prohibited, by pains and penalties, every difcuflion upon efta- bliiried creeds, and upon firft principles of religion, that until the fyftem of govern- ment mould be changed, thofe fubjects could not be brought fairly and openly before the world : but that whenever this mould be done, a revolution in the fyftem of religion would follow. Human inven- tions and prieft-craft would be detected; and man would return to the pure, unmix- ed, and unadulterated belief of one God, and no more.'
Every national church or religion has eftablimed itfelf by pretending feme fpecial
million
( *2 )
miflion from God communicated to certain individuals. The Jews have their Mofes ; the Chriftians their Jefus Chrift, their apoftles and faints ; and the Turks their Mahomet; as if the way to God was not open to every man alike.
Each of thofe churches mow certain books which they call revelation, or the word of God. The Jews fay, that their word of God was given by God to Moles face to face ; the Chriftians fay, that their word of God came by divine infpiration ; and the Turks-fay, that their word of God (the Koran) was brought by an angel from heaven. Each of thofe churches accufes the other of unbelief; and, for my own part, I difbelieve them all.
As it is necefiary to affix right ideas to words, I will, before I proceed further into the fubj eel, offer fome observations on the word revelation. Revelation, when ap- plied
( 13 )
plied to religion, means fomething com- municated immediately from God to man.
No one will deny or difpute the power of the Almighty to make fuch a commu- nication if he pleafes. But admitting, for the fake of a cafe, that fomething has been revealed to a certain perfon, and not re- vealed to any other perfon, it is revelation to that perfon only. When he tells it to a fecond perfon, a fecond to a third, a third to a fourth, and fo on, it ceafes to be a re- velation to all thofe perfons. It is revela- tion to the firfl perfon only, and hearfay to every other; and confequently, they are not obliged to believe it.
It is a contradiction in terms and ideas to call any thing a revelation that comes to us at fecond hand, either verbally or in writ- ing. Revelation is neceffarily limited to the firft communication. After this, it is only an account of fomething which that B perfon
I 14 )
per fon fays was a revelation made to him; and though he may find himfelf obliged to believe it, it cannot be incumbent upon me to believe it in the fame manner, for it was not a revelation made to me, and I have only his word for it that it was made to him.
When Mofes told the children of Ifrael that he received the two tables of the com- mandments from the hand of God, they were not obliged to believe him, becaufe they had no other authority for it than his telling them fo •, and Ihave no- other autho- rity for it than fome hiilorian telling me fo. The commandments carry no internal evi- dence of divinity with them. They con- tain fome good moral precepts, fuch as any man qualified to be a law- giver or a legis- lator could produce himfelf, without hav- ing recourfe to fupernatural intervention.*
When
* It is, however, neceiTary to except the decla- ration which fays, that God vijits the Jim of the fa-
C 15 )
When I am told that the Koran was written in heaven, and brought to Maho- met by an angel, the account comes to near the fame kind* of hearfay evidence, and ~fe- cond hand authority, as the former. I did not fee the angel my felf, and therefore i have a right not to believe it.
When alfo I am told that a woman, cal- led the Virgin Mary, faid, or gave out, that me was with child without any coha- bitation with a man, and that her betrothed hufband, Jofeph, faid, that an angel told him fo, I have a right to believe them or not: fuch a circumftance required a much ftronger evidence than their bare word for it : but we have not even this ; for neither Jofeph nor Mary wrote any fuch matter themfelves. It is only reported by others that they faid fo. It is hearfay upon hear- B 2 fay,
thers upon the children. It is contrary to every prin- ciple of moral juftice.
( i6 )
fay, and I do not chufe to reft my belief upon fuch evidence.
It is, however, not difficult to account for the credit that was given to the ftory of Jefus Chrift being the Son of God. He was bom at a time when the heathen my- thology had frill fome fafhion and repute in the world, and that mythology had pre- pared the people for the belief of fuch a (lory. AJmoft all the extraordinary men that lived under the heathen 'mythology were reouted to be the fons of fome of their gods. It was not a new thing at that time to believe a man to have been eelefHally begotten : the intercourfe of gods with women was then a matter of familiar opinion. Their Jupiter, according to their accounts, had cohabited with" hundreds : the ftory, therefore, had nothing in-it either new, wonderful, or obfcene: it was con- formable to the opinions that then prevailed
among
( i7 )
among the people called Gentiles, or my- thologifts, and it was thofe people only that believed it. The Jews who had kept ftrictly to the belief of one God, and no more, and who had always rejected the heathen mythology, never credited the ftory.
It is curious to observe how the theory of what is called the Chriftian church, fprung out of the tail of the heathen mytho- logy. A direct incorporation took place in the'firfr. inftance, by making the reputed founder to be celeftially begotten,. The trinity of gods that then followed was no other than a reduction of the former plu- rality, which was about twenty or thirty thoufand. The flattie of Mary fucceeded the itatue of Diana of Ephefus. The dei- fication of heroes changed into the can- nonization of faints. The mythologies had gods for every thing 5 the Chriftian B 3 mytho-
( I* )
mythologies had faints for every thing. The church became as . crouded with the one as the pantheon -had been with the other j and Rome was the place of both. The Chriftian theory is little elfe than the idolatry of the ancient mythologies, ac- commodated to the purpofes of power and revenue ; and it yet remains to reafon and philofophy to aboliih the amphibious fraud. < Nothing that is here faid can apply, even with the moil diftant difrefpect* to the real character of Jefus Chrift. He was a virtuous and an amiable man. The morality that he preached and practifed was of the moil benevolent kind; and though fimilar fyitems of morality had bQtn preached by Confucius, and by fome cf the Greek "philofophers, many years before, by the Quakers iince, and by many good men in all ages, it has not been exceeded by any,
Jefus
( 19 )
Jefus Chrift wrote no account of him? fel-f, of his birth, parentage, or any thing elfe. Not a line of what is called the New Testament is of his writing. The hiftory of him is altogether the work of other people *, and as to the account given cf his refurreclion and , afcenfion, it was the necerTary counterpart to the ftory of his birth. His historians having brought him into the world in a Supernatural man- ner,- were obliged to take him out again in the fame manner, or the firit part of the dory muft have fallen to the ground.
The wretched contrivance with which this latter part is told, exceeds every thing that went before, it. The firft part, that of the miraculous conception, was not a thing that admitted of publicity; and therefore the tellers of this part of the fory had this advantage, that though they might not be credited, they could
not
C 20 )
not be detected. They could not be ex- pected to prove it, becaufe it was not one of thofe things that admitted of proof, and it was impoflible that the perfon of whom it was told could prove it himfelf.
But the refurrection of a dead perfon from the grave, and his afcenfion through the air, is a thing very different as to the evidence it admits of, to the invifible con- ception of a child in the womb. The re- furrection and afcenfion, fuppofing them to have taken place, admitted of public and occular demonftration, like that of the afcenfion of a balloon, or the fun at neon day, to all Jerufalem at leaft. A. ihing which every body is required to be- lieve, requires that the proof and evidence of it mould be equal to all, and univerfal; and as the public visibility of this laft re- lated act was the only evidence that could give fanction to the former part, the whole
of
( 2* )
of it falls- to the ground, becaufe the ev£ dence never was given. Inftead of this, a fmall number of perfons, not more than eight or nine, are introduced as proxies for the whole world, to fay, they fazv it, and all the reft of the world are called upon to be- lieve it. But it appears that Thomas did not believe the refurreclion ; and, as they fay, would not believe, without having oecukr and manuel demonftration himfelf. So neither will I\ and the reafon is equally as good" for me and for every other perfbn, as for Thomas.
It is in vain to attempt to palliate or difguife this matter. The ftory, fo far as relates to the fupernatural part, has every mark of fraud and imposition ftamped upon the face of it. Who were the au- thors of it is as impoflible for us now to know, as it is for us to be affured, that the books in. which the account is related,
were
( 22 )
were written by the perfons whofe names they bear. The beft Surviving evidence we now have refpecling this affair is the Jews. They are regularly defcended from the people who lived in the times this re- furrection and afcenilon is faid to have hap- pened, and they fay, it is not true. It has long appeared to me a ftrange inconfiftency to. cite the Jews as a proof of the truth of the {lory. It is juft the fame as if a man were to fay. I will prove the truth of what I have told you, by producing the people who fay it is falfe.
That fuch a per/on as Jefus Chrift ex- ifted, and that he was crucified, which was the mode of execution at that day, are his- torical relations ftrictly within the limits of probability. He preached moll: excel- lent morality, and the equality of man ;■ but he preached alfo againft the corrup- tions and avarice of the Jewim priefts ; and
this
1 *3 )
^this "brought upon him the hatred and ven- geance of the whole order of prieft-hood. The accufation which thofe priefts brought againrt him, was that of fedition and con- fpiracy againft the Roman government, to which the Jews were then fubject and tri- butary, and it is not improbable that the Roman government might have fome fe- cret apprehension of the effects of his doctrine as well as the Jewifh priefts ; nei- ther is it improbable that Jefus Chrift had in contemplation the delivery of the. Jewifh nation from the bondage of the Romans. Between the two, however, this virtuous reformer and revolutionise loft his life.
It is upon this plain narrative of facts, together with another cafe I am going to mention, that the Chriftian mythologies, calling themfe!ves~the Chriftian church, have erected their fable, which, for abfur- dity and extravagance, is not exceeded by
any
( *4 )
any thing that is to be found in the mytho- logy of the ancients.
The ancient mythologies tell that the race of Giants made war againft Jupiter, and that one of them threw an hundred rocks againft him at one throw -, that Ju- piter defeated him with thunder, and con- fined him afterwards under Mount Etna ; and that every time the Giant turns him- felf, Mount Etna belches fire. It is here eafy to fee that the circumftance of the mountain, that of its being a vulcano, fuggefted the idea of the fable; and that the fable is made to fit and wind itfelf up with that circumftance.
The Chriftian my thologifts tell that their Satan made war againft the Almighty, who defeated him, and confined him af- terwards, not under a mountain, but in a pit. It is here eafy to fee that the firft fable fuggefted the idea of the fecond ; for
the
( H )
the fable of Jupiter and the Giants was told many hundred years before that of Satan.
Thus far the ancient and the Chriftian mythologies differ very little from each other. But the latter have contrived to carry the matter much farther. They have contrived to connect the fabulous part of the ftory of Jefus Chrift, with the fable originating from Mount Etna : and in order to make all the parts of the ftory tye together, they have taken to their aid the traditions of the Jews; for the Chriftian mythology is made up partly from the ancient mythology, and partly from the Jewifh traditions.
The Chriftian mythologies, after hav- ing confined Satan in a pit, were obliged to let him out again, to bring on the fe- quel of the fable. He is then introduced into the garden of Eden in the fhape of a C make,
( #6 )
fnake, or a ferpent, and in that fhape he enters into familiar converfation with Eve, who is no ways furprifed to hear a fnake talk •, and the iffue of this tete-a-tete is, that he perfuades her to eat an apple, and tht eating of that apple damns all mankind. After giving Satan this triumph over the whole creation, one would have fup- pofed that the church mythologies would have been kind enough to fend him back again to the pit ; or, if they had not done this, that they would have put a mountain upon him, (for they fay that their faith can remove a mountain) or have put him under a mountain, as the former mytholo- gies had done, to prevent his getting again among the women, and doing more mif- chief. But inftead of this, they leave him at large, without even obliging him to give his parole. The fecret of which is, that they, could not do without him; and after
being
( 27 )
Being at the trouble of making him, they bribed him to flay. They promifed him all the Jews, all the Turks by anticipa- tion, nine-tenths of the world befide, and Mahomet into the bargain. After this, who can doubt the bountifulnefs of the Ghriftian mythology ?
Having thus made an infurreetion and a battle in heaven, in which none of the combatants could be either killed or wounded — put Satan into the pit—let him out again— given him a triumph over the whole creation — damned all mankind by the eating of an apple, thefe Chriiiian mv- thologifts bring the two ends of their fable together. They reprefent this virtuous and amiable man, Jefus (Thrift, to be at once both God and man, and alfo tht Son of God, celeitially begotten, on purpofe to be facrificed, becaufe, they fay, that Evfc in her longing had eaten an apple.
C 2 Putting
( 28 )
Putting afide every thing that might excite laughter by its abfurdity, or detef- tation by its prophanenefs, and confining ourfelves merely to an examination of the parts, it is impofHble to conceive a fiery more derogatory to the Almighty, more inconfiftent with his wiiBom, more con- tradictory to his power, than this flory is.
In order to make for it a foundation to rife upon, the inventors were under the ne- ceflky of giving to the being, whom they call Satan, a power equally as great, if ;iot greater, than they attribute to the Al- mighty. They have not only given him the power of liberating himfelf from the pit, after what they call his fall, but they have made that power increafe afterwards to infinity. Before this fall, they reprefent him only as an angel of limited exiftence, as they reprefent the reft. After his fall, he becomes, by their account, omniprefent.
He.
i 29 )
He exifts every where, and at the fame time. He occupies the whole immenfity of ipace.
Not content with this deification of Sa- tan, they reprefent him as defeating by fbatagem, in the fhape of an animal of the creation, all the power and wifdom of the Almighty. They reprefent him as having compelled the Almighty to the direft ne- ceffiiy either of furrendering the- whole of the creation to the government and fove- reignty of this Satan, or of capitulating for its redemption, by coming down upon earth, and exhibiting himfelf upon a crofs in the fhape of a man.
Had the inventors of this ftory told it the contrary way, that is, had they repre- fented the Almighty as compelling Satan to exhibit himfelf on a crofs in the fhape of a make, as a punifhment for his new tranigreffion, the ftory would have been C 3 lefs
( 30 )
Iefs abfurd, lefs contradictory. But inftead of this, they make the tranfgreflbr tri- umph, and the Almighty fall.
That many good men have believed this ftrange fable and lived very good lives under that belief (for credulity is not a crime) is what I have no doubt of. In the firffc place, they were educated to believe it, and they would have believed any thing tKe in the fame manner. There are alfo many who have been fo enthufiaftically enraptured by what they conceived to be the infinite love of God to man, in making a facrifice of himfelf, that the vehemence of the idea has forbidden and deterred them from examining into the abfurdity and prophanenefs of the ftory. The more unnatural any thing is, the more is k ca- pable of becoming the object of difmal admiration*
But
( m )
But if objefb for gratitude and admi- ration are our defire, do they not prefent themfelves every hour to our eyes? Do we not fee a fair creation prepared to re- ceive us the inflant we were born — a world, furni/hed to our hands that cofi us no- thing? Is it we that light up the fun^ that pour down the rain ; and fill the earth with abundance? Whether we fleep or wake, the vail machinery of the univerfe ftill goes on. Are thefe things, and the hlefiings they indicate in future, nothing to us ? Can our grofs feelings be excited by no other fubjeds than tragedy and fuicide? Or is the gloomy pride of man become fo intolerable, that nothing cari flatter it but a facrifice of the Creator ?
I know that this bold inveftigation will alarm many, but it would be paying too great a compliment to their credulity to forbear it upon that account. The times
and
( 32 )
and the fubjecl: demand it to be done. The fufpicion that the theory of what is called the Chriftian church is fabulous, is becom- ing very extenfive in all countries : and it will be a confolation to men ftaggering under that fufpicion, and doubting what to believe and what to difbelieve, to fee the fubjecl: freely investigated. I therefore pafs on to an examination of the books cal- led the Old and the New Teftament.
Thefe books, beginning with Genefis and ending with Revelations (which, by the bye, is a book of riddles that requires a Revelation to explain it) are, we are told, the word of God. It is therefore proper for us to know who told us fb, that we may know what credit to give to the re- port. The anfwer to this queilion is, that nobody can tell, except that we tell one another fo. The cafe, however, hiftori- cally appears to be as follows:
When
( m )
When the church- mythologies efta- blifhed their fyftem, they collected all the writings they could find, and managed them as they pleafed. It is a matter alto- gether of uncertainty to us, whether fuch ef the writings as now appear, under the name of the Old and the New Teftament, are In the fame ftate in which thofe collec- tors fay they found them -, or whether they added, altered, abridged, or drefTed them up.
Be this as it may, they decided by vote^ which of the books, out of the collection they had made, mould be the word of god, and which mould not. They re- jected feveraH they voted others to be doubtful, fuch as the books called the Apo- craphy •, and thofe books which had a ma- jority of votes, were voted to be the word of God.* Had they voted other wife, all
the
* The book of Luke was carried by a majority of one only.
( n )
the people, fince calling themfelves 'Chris- tians,- had believed otherwife ; for the be- lief of the one comes from the vote of the other. Who the people were that did all thiSj, we know nothing of; they call them- felves by the general name of the church 5 and this is all we know of the matter.
As we have no other external evidence or authority for believing thofe books to be the word of God than what I have men- tioned, which is no evidence or authority at all, Icome, in the next place, to examine the internal evidence contained it the books- themfelves.
IN the former part of this eilay I have /poken of revelation. I now proceed fur- ther, with that Subject, for the purpofe of applying it to the books in queftioa.
Revelation-
( 35 )
Revelation is a communication of fome- thing, which the perfon to whom that thing is revealed, did not know before. For if I have done a thing, or £qqi\ it done, it needs no revelation to tell me I have done it, or {ten it, nor to enable me to tell it, or to write it.
■ Revelation, therefore, cannot be applied to any thing done upon earth of which man is himfelf the adlor or the witnefs ; and con- fequently all the hiPcorical and anecdotal part of the Bible, w7hich is'almoft the whole of it, is not within the meaning and com- pafs of the wordj revelation, and; therefore is not the word of God.
When Samfon ran off with the gate- pofts of Gaza, if he ever did fo, (and whe- ther he did or not is nothing to us) or when he vifited his Delilah, or caught his foxes, or did any thing elfe, what has revelation to do with thefe things P If they were facls,
he
( 36 )
lie could tell tliem himfelf -, or his fecretary, if he kept one, could write them, if they were worth either telling or writing -> and if they v/ere fictions, revelation could not make them true ; and whether true or not, we are neither the better nor the wifer for knowing them. — When we contemplate the immenfity of that Being, who directs and governs the incomprehensible whole, of which the utmoft ken of human fight can difcover but a part, we ought to feel fhame at calling fuch paltry {lories the word of God.
As to the account of the creation, with which the book of Genefis opens, it has all the appearance of being a tradition which the Ifraelites had among them before they came into Egypt; and after their departure from that country, they put it at the head of their hiftory, without telling, as it is moft probable they did not know, how they
came
( 37 )
came by it. The manner in which the ac- count opens, fhews it to be traditionary, It begins abruptly. It is nobody that fpeaks. It is nobody that hears-. It is addrefTed to nobody. It has neither firft, Second, nor third perfon. It has every criterion of being a tradition. It has no voucher. Mofes does not take it upon himfelf by introducing it with the forma- lity that he ufes on other occasions, fuch as that of faying, " The Lord /pake unto <c Mofes, faying"
"Why it has been called the Mofaic ac- count of the creation, I am at a lofs to conceive. Mofes, I believe* was too good a judge of fuch fubjects to put his name to that account. He had been educated among the Egyptians, who were a people as well flailed in fcience, and particularly in aftronomy, as any people of their day ; and the filence and caution that Mofes ob- D fervesj
< 3« )
ferves, in not authenticating the account,-. is a good negative evidence that he neither told it, nor believed it. — The cafe is, that every nation of people has been world- makers, and the Ifraelites had as much right to fet up the trade of world- making as any of the reft; and as Mofes was not an Ifraelite, he might not chufe to contra- dict the tradition. The account, however, is harmless •, and this is more than can be faid of many other parts of the Bible.
When we read the obfcene ftories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting yin- dictivenefs, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more con- iiffcent that we called it the word of a de- mon, than the word of God. It is a hit. tory of wickednefs, that has ferved to corrupt and brutalize mankind, and, for
mv
'( S9 )
my own part, I Sincerely act-tO: it, as. I deteSl every thing that is cruel;
We fcarcely meet with any thing, a few phrafes excepted, but Tvvhat deferves either our abhorrence, or our contempt, till we come to the miscellaneous parts of the Bible. In th^ anonymous publications, the Pfalms and the Book of Job, more particularly in the latter, we rind a great deal, of elevated Sentiment reverentially ex- preSTed of the power and benignity of the Almighty; but they ftand- on no higher rank than many other compositions on Similar Subjects, as well before that time as Since,
• The proverbs, which are faid to be So- lomon's, though moft probably a collec- tion, (becaufe they difcover a knowledge of life, which his fituation excluded him from knowing) are an inftruclive table of ethics. They are inferior in keennefs to D 2 the
( 40 }
the proverbs of the Spaniards, and not more wife and ©economical than thofe of the American Franklin.
All the remaining parts of the Bible, generally known by the name of the pro- phets, are the works of the Jewifh poets and itinerant preachers, who mixed poetry,, anecdote, and devotion together; and thofe works ftill retain the air and ftile of poetry, though in translation.*3
There
* As there are many readers who do not fet that a composition is poetry unlefs it be in rhyme, it is for their information that I add this note.
Poetry confifts principally in two things: Ima- gery and compofition. The compofition of poe- trv'differs from that of prole in the manner of mixing long and fhort fyllables together. Take a long fyilable out of a line of poetry, and put a fnort one in the room of it, or put a long fy liable- where a fhort one mould be, and that line will iofe its poetical harmony. It will have an effect upon the line like that of mifplacing a note in a long.
The imagery in thofe books called the Pro- phets, appertains altogether to poetry. It is ficU-
( 4i :•)
There is not, throughout the whole book called the Bible, any word that de- scribes to us what we call a poet, nor any word -that defcribes what we call poetry. D-3 The
tious and often extravagant, and not admimble in any other kind of writing than poetry.
To fhew that thefe writings are ccnipofed in poetical numbers, I will take ten fyllables as they fland in the book, and make a line of the fame number of fyllables, (heroic, meafure) that (hail rhyme with the laft word. It will then be feen, that the competition of thofe books is poetical •meafure. The inftance I mall firft. produce is from Ifaiah. -
•
44 Hear, D'ye heavens, ana7 give ear, & earth."
'Tis God himfelf that calls attention forth.
Another inftance I mall quote is from the mournful Jeremiah, to which I mall' add two other lines, for the purpofe of carrying out the figure, and mewing the intention of the poet.
44 G ! that mine head zvere waters, and mine eyes' }- Were fountains, flowing like the liquid fkies 5 Then would I .give the mighty flood releafe,- ' And weep a deluge for the human race,
( 42 f
The -cafe is, that the word prophet, to which later times have affixed a new idea, was the Bible word for poet, and the word prophefying meant the art of making poe- try. It alio meant the art of playing poe- try to a tune upon any inftrument of muflc.
We read of prophefying with pipes, taborets, and horns -, of prophefying with harps, with pfalteries, with cymbals, and' with every other inftrument of muiic then in fafhion. Were we now to fpeak of prophefying with a fiddle, or with a pipe and tabor, the exprerlion would have no meaning, or would appear ridiculous, and to fome people contemptuous, becaufe we have changed the meaning of the word.
We are told of Saul being among the prophets, andalfo that he propheiied; but we are not told what they prophejted, nor what he prophefied. The cafe is, there was nothing to tell -3 for thefe prophets were a-
company
. C 43 )
company of muflcians and poets ; and Saul' joined in the concert; and this was called: prophefying,
The account given of this affair in the -Book called Samuel, is, that Saul met a- company of prophets-; a whole company of them ! corning down with a pfaltery, a ta- boret, a pipe, and a harp*, and that they propheiled, and that he prophefied with them. But it appears afterwards, that Saul propheiled badly; that is, he performed. his part badly ; for it is faid, that " an evil- " fpirit from God* came upon Saul, and " he propheiled.59
Now, were there no other paflage irr the book called the Bible than this, to de-
monftrate
* As thofe men, who call themielves divines Sha commentators, ( are very fond of puzzling one mother, I leave them to content the meaning of the ftrft part of the phrafe, that of an evil fpirif j-rom God, I keep to my text. I keep to thg ~: c^aing of the word prophefy,.
( 44 )
monftrate to us that we have loft the origi- nal, meaning of the word prophefy^ and fub- ftituted another meaning in its place, this alone would be fufficient ;- for it is imperii - ble to ufe and apply the word prophefy in thQ place it is here ufed and applied, if we give to it the fenfe which later times have affixed to it. The manner in which it is here ufed ftrips it of all religious meaning* and mews that a man might then be a prophet \ or might propbejy, asjie may now be a poet or a muiician, without any regard to the morality or the immorality of his character. The word was originally a term of fcience, promifcuoufly applied to poetry and to muiic, and not reftrided to. any fubjecl: upon which poetry and muiic. might be exercifed.
Deborah and. Barak are called prophets* not becaufe they predicted any thing, but becaufe they compofed the poem or.fong
that
( 45 )
that bears their name in celebration of an act already done. David is ranked among the prophets, for he was a muftcian; and was alio- reputed to be (though: perhaps very erroneously) the- author of thepfalms, But Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob, are not called prophets. It does not appear from any accounts we have that they could either fing, play'muiic, or make poetry.
We are told of the greater and lefler prophets. They might as well tell us of the greater and the lefTer God •, for there cannot be degrees in prophefying confid- ently with its modern kn(Q. But there are degrees in poetry, and therefore the phrafe is reconcilable to the caie, when we under^ Rand by it the greater and the leffer poets.
It is altogether unneceffary, after this, to offer any observations upon what thofe men, iiiled prophets, have written. The axe goes at once to tLe root, by mewing
that
C 46 )
that the original meaning of the word has been miftaken, and confequently all the in- ferences that have been drawn from thofe books, the devotional refpect that has been paid to them, and the laboured commen- taries that have been written upon them, underthat miftaken meaning, are not worth difputing about. . In many things, how- ever, the writings of the Jewifh poets deferve a better fate than that of being bound up, as they now are, with the tram that accompanies them, under the abufed name of the word of God.
If we permit ourfelves to conceive right ideas of things, we muff, necefiarily affix tht idea, not only of unchangeableneis, but of the utter impoiTibility of any change taking place, by any means or accident whatever, in that which we would honour with the name of the word of God; and
therefore
( 47 )
therefore the word of God cannot exirl: in any written or human language.
The continually progrelli ve change to which the meaning of words is fubjecl:, the want of an univerfal language which ren- ders tranflations necefTary, the errors to which tranflations are again fubjecl:, the mis- takes of copyifts and printers, together with the poflihility of wilful alteration, are, of themfelves evidences, that human lan- guage, whether in fpeech or in print, can- not be the vehicle of th.Q word of God.— The word of God exifls in Something elfe.
Did the book called the Bible, excel, in purity oS ideas and expreflion, all the books that are now extant in the world, I would not take it for my rule of faith, as being the word of Godj becaufe the pof-. Sibility would neverthelefs exirl: of my being impofed upon. But when I See through- out the greater! part of this book, icarcely
any
( 4§ )
any thing but a hlftory of the grofTeft vices, and a collection of the mod paltry and con- temptible tales, I cannot dishonour my Creator by calling it by his name.
THUS much for the Bible. I now go on to the book called the New Teftament. The new Teftament! that is, the new Will, as if there could be two wills of the Creator.
Had it been the object or the intention of Jefus Chrift to eftablifh a new religion, he would undoubtedly have written the fyftem himfelf, or procured it to be written in his life time. But there is no publication extant authenticated with his name. All the books called the New Teftament were writtefi after his death. He was a Jew by birth and by profeilion -> and he was the
Son
( 49 )
Son of God in like manner that every other perfoais-, for the Creator is the Father of All.
The firft four books, called Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, do not give a hiftoryofthelifeof Jefus Chrift, but only detached anecdotes of him. It appears from thefe books, that the whole time of his being a preacher was not more than eighteen months ; and it was only during this ihort time, that thofe men became acquainted with him. They make men- tion of him, at the age of twelve years, fitting, they fay, among the Jewifh doctors, aiking and anfwering them que A tions. As this was feveral years before their acquaintance with him began, it is moil probable they had this anecdote from his parents. From this time there is no account of him for about lixteen years. Where he lived, or how he employed E himfclf
( 50 )
himfelf during this interval, is not known. Moft probably he was working at his fa- ther's trade, which was that of a carpenter. It does not appear that he had any fchool education, and the probability is that he could not write, for his parents were ex- tremely poor, as appears from their not being able to pay for a bed when he was born.
It is fomewhat curious that the three perfons, whofe names are the mofl univer- fally recorded, were of very obfcure pa- rentage. Mofes was a foundling, Jefus Chrift was born in a flable, and Mahomet was a mule-driver. The iirft and the laft of thefe men, were founders of different fyftems of religion; but Jefus Chrift founded no new fyftem. He called men to the practice of moral virtues, and the belief of one God. The great trait in his character is philanthropy.
The
( 5* )
The manner in which he was appre- hended, fliews that he was not much known at that time; and it mews alfo that the meetings he then held with his followers were in fecret : and that he had given over, or fufpended, preaching publicly. Judas could no otherwife betray him than by giving information where he was, and pointing him out to the officers that went to arreft. him ; and the reafon for employ- ing and paying Judas to do this, could arife only from the caufes already men- tioned, that of his not being much known, and living concealed.
The idea of his concealment not only agrees very ill with his reputed divinity, but afibciates with it fomething of pufilla- nimity; and his being betrayed, or in other words, his being apprehended, on the information of one of his followers, fliews that he did not intend to be appre- E 2 hended,
( 52 )
hended, and consequently that he did not intend to be crucified.
The Chriftian mythologies tell us that Chrift died for the fins of the world, and that he came on purpofe to die. Would it not then have been the fame if he had died of a fever, or of the fmall-pox, of old age, or of any thing dft ?
The declaratory fentence which, they fay, was palled upon Adam in cafe he ate of the apple, was not, that thou Jhalt fur ety be crucified, but thou Jhalt fur ely die. The fentence was death, and not the manner of dying. Crucifixion, therefore, or any other particular manner of dying, made no part of the fentence that Adam was to fufrer, and confequently, even upon their own ta&ic, it could make no part of the fen- tence that Chrift was to fuffer in the room of Adam. A fever would have done as
well
( 53 )
' well as a crofs, if there was any occafion for either.
This fentence of death, which, they tell us, was thus pafTed upon Adam, muft ei- ther have meant dying naturally; that is, ceafing to live ; or have meant what thefe mythologies call damnation ; and confe- quently, the act of dying on the part of Jefus Chrift muft, according to their fyf- tem, apply as a prevention to one or other of thefe two things happening to Adam and to us.
That it does not prevent our dying is evident, becaufe we all die -y and if their accounts of longevity be true, mtn die fafter fince the crucifixion than before: and with refpect to the fecond explanation, (including with it the natural death of Je- fus Chrift as a fubftitute for the eternal death or damnation of all mankind) it is impertinently reprefenting the Creator as E 3 . coming
( 54 I
coming off, or revoking the fentence, by a pun or a quibble upon the word death. That manufacturer of quibbles, St. Paul, if he wrote the books that bear his name, has helped this quibble on, by making another quibble upon the word Adam. According to him, there are two Adams ; the one v/ho fins in fact, and fuffers by proxy \ the other who fins by proxy, and fuffers in fad. A religion thus interlarded with quibble, fubterfuge and pun, has a tendency to inftruct its profeffors in the practice of thefe arts. They acquire the habit without being aware of the caufe.
If Jefus Chrift was the Being which thofe mythologies tell us he was, and that he came into this world to fuffer^ which is a word they fbmetimes ufe inftead of to diey the only real fuffering he could have en- dured would have been to live. His exist- ence here was a Sate of exilement or trans- portation
( S3 5
portation from heaven, and the way back to his original country was to die. — In fine, every thing in this ftrange fyftem is the reverfe of what it pretends to be. It is the reverfe of truth, and I become Co tired with examining into its inconfiilencies and abfurdities, that I haften to the conclusion of it, in order to proceed to fomething better.
How much, or what parts of the books called the New Teftament, were written by the perfons whofe names they bear, is what we can know nothing of, neither are we certain in what language they were origi- nally written. The matters they now con- tain may be clarTed under two heads ; anec- dote, and epiftolary correfpondence.
The four books already mentioned, Mat- thew, Mark, Luke, and John, are altoge- ther anecdotal. They relate events after they had taken place. They tell what
Jefus
( «6 )
Jefus Chrifl did and faid, and what others did and faid to him; and in feveral . in- stances they relate the fame event differ- ently. Revelation is neceffarily out of the queftion with refpect to thofe books ; not only becaufe of the difagreement of the writers, but becaufe revelation cannot be applied to the relating of facts by the per- fons who faw them done, nor to the re- lating or recording of any difcourfe or converfation by thofe who heard it. The book called the Acts of the Apoftles, an anonymous work, belongs alfo to the anec- dotal part.
All the other parts of the New Testa- ment, except the book of enigmas, called the Revelations, are a collection of letters under the name of Epiftles ; and the for- gery of letters has been fuch a common practice in the world, that the probabi- lity is, at leaft, equals whether they are
genuine
( SI )
genuine or forged. One thing, however, is much lefs equivocal, which is, that out of the matters contained in thofe books, together with the afMance of iome old flories, the church has fct up a fyftem of religion very contradictory to the charac- ter of the perfon whofe name it bears. It has fet up a religion of pomp and of reve- nue in the pretended imitation of a perfon whofe life was humility and poverty.
The invention of a purgatory, and of the releasing of fouls therefrom, by pray- ers, bought of the church with money; the felling of pardons, difpenfations, and indigencies, are revenue laws, without bearing that name or carrying that appear- ance. But the cafe neverthelefs is, that thofe things derive their origin from the proxyfm of the crucifixion, and the theory deduced therefrom, v/hich was, that one perfon could ftand in the- place of ano- ther*
( 58 5
ther, and could perform meritorious fer- vices for him. The probability therefore is, that the whole theory or doctrine of what is called the redemption (which is laid to have been accomplifhed by the acl: of one perfon in the room of another) was originally fabricated on purpofe to bring forward and build all thofe fecondary and pecuniary redemptions upon \ and that the paflages in the books upon which the idea or theory of redemption is built, have bcQti manufactured and fabricated for that purpofe. Why are we to give this church credit, when fhe tells us that thofe books are genuine in every part, any more than we give her credit for every thing elfe fhe has told us, or for the miracles fhe fays fhe has performed. That fhe could fa- bricate writings is certain, becaufe fhe could write ; and the compofition of the writings in queftion, is of that kind that any body
might
( 59 )
might do it -, and that flie did fabricate them is not more inconfiftent with probability, than that fhe fhould tell us, as fhe has done, that fhe could and did work mi- racles.
Since then no external evidence can, at this long diftance of time, be produced to prove, whether the church fabricated the doctrine called redemption or not, (for ruch evidence, whether for or againft, would be fubjecl: to the fame fufpicion of being fa- bricated) the cafe can only be referred to the internal evidence which the thing car- ries of itfelf ; and this affords a very ftrong prefumption of its being a fabrication. For the internal evidence is, that the theo- ry or doctrine of redemption has for its bafis, an idea of pecuniary juftiee, and not that of moral juftice.
If I owe a perfon money and cannot pay him, and he threatens to put me in
prifon,
( Co )
prifon, another perfon can take the debt upon himfelf, and pay it for me. But if I have committed a crime, every circum- ftance of the cafe is changed. Moral jus- tice cannot take the innocent for the guilty, even if the innocent would offer itfel£ To fuppofe juflice to do this, is to deflroy the principle of its exigence, which is the thing itfelf. It is then no longer juftice. It is indifcriminate revenge.
This fingle reflection will mew that the doctrine of redemption is founded on a mere pecuniary idea, correfponding to that of a debt which another perfon might pay > and as this pecuniary idea correfponds again with the fyftem of fecond redemp- tions, obtained through the means of mo- ney given to the church, for pardons, the probability is, that the fame perfons fabri- cated both the one and the other of thofe theories; and that, in truth, there is no fuch
thing
( «I )
»
thing as redemption; that it Is faBulous; and that man {lands in the fame relative condition with his Maker he ever did ftand iince man exifted ; and that it is his greater!; confolation to think ib.
Let him believe this, and he will live more confidently and morally than by any 'Other fyftem. It is by his being taught to contemplate himfelf as an out-law, as an out-caft, as a beggar, as a mumper, as one thrown, as it were, on a dung-hill, at an immenfe diftance from his Creator, and who muft, make his approaches by creep- ing and cringing to intermediate beings, that he conceives either a contemptuous dis- regard for every thing under the name of religion, or becomes indifferent, or turns, what he calls, devout. In the latter cafe, he confumes his life in grief, or the affec- tation of it. His prayers are reproaches. His humility is4n gratitude. He calls him- F felf
i 62 )
ielf a worm, and the fertile earth a -dung- hill; and all the bleilings of life by the thanklefs name of vanities. He defpifes the choicer!: gift of God to man, the gift of reason; and having endeavoured to force upon himfelf the belief of a fyftem againft. which reafon revolts, he ungrate- fully calls it human reafon^ as if man could give reafon to himfelf.
Yet with all this .-ftrange appearance of humility,, and this contempt for human rea- fon, he ventures Into the bolderl: prefump- tions. He finds fault with every thing. His
felfiihnefs is never fadsfied; his ingratitude is never at an end. .He takes - on himfelf to direct the Almighty what to do, even in the go vernmentrof the univerfe. He prays didlatorially. When it is fun-mine, he prays for rain, and when it is rain, he prays for fun-fhine. He follows the fame. idea in every thing that he p*ays for ; /or what is
the
c m )
the amount of all his prayers, but an at- tempt to make the Almighty change his mind, and acl: otherwife than he does. It is as if he were to fay — thou, kno weft not fo well as L.
BUT fome perhaps will fay, Are we to" liave no word of God — No revelation ! £ anfwer yes. There is a word of God^ there is a revelation.
The word of god is the creation we sehold: And it is in this wordy which no human invention can counterfeit or alter, that God fpeaketh univerfally to man.
Human language is local and changeable, and is therefore incapable of being ufed as the means of unchangeable and univerfal in- formation. The^dea that God £ent Jefus Ghrift to publifh, as they fay, the glad tidings to. all nations, from one end of the F 2. earth,
( <H )
earth unto the other, is confident only with the ignorance of thofe who knew nothing of the extent of the world, and who believed, as thofe world- fa viours be- lieved, and continued to believe, for Several centuries, (and that in contradiction to the difcoveries of phiiofophers, and the expe- rience of navigators) that the earth was flat like a trencher; and that a man might walk to the end of it.
But how was Jems Chrift to make any thinp* known to all nations? He could fpeak but one language, which v/as He- brew ; and there are in the world feveral hundred languages. Scarcely any two na- tions fpeak the fame language, or under- ftahd each other -, and as to tranflations,.. every man who knows any thing of lan- guages, knows that it is imporlible to tranf- late from one language into another, not only without lofxng a great part of the ori- ginal,.
( <% )
glnal, but frequently of miftaking tKe fenfe : and befides all this, the art of print- ing was wholly unknown at thQ time Chrift, lived.
It is always neceflary that the means that are to accomplifh any end, be equal to the * accomplifhment of that Qnd, or the tnd cannot be accomplifhed. It is in this that the difference between finite and infinite power and wifdom difcovers itfelf, Man frequently fails- in accompli filing his end^ from a natural inability; of power to the purpofe, and frequently from the want of wifdom to apply power properly. But it is impoflible for infinite power and wifdom to fail as man faileth . The means it ufeth are always equal to the end : but human language, more efpecially as there is not an univerfal language, is incapable of being ufed as an univerfal means of unchangeable and uniform information -} and therefore it
F'3- is
( 66 )
is not the means that God ufeth in mani~ fefHng himfelf univerfally to man.
It is only in the creation that all our ideas and conceptions of a word of God can unite. The creation fpeaketh an univerfal language, independently of human fpeech or human language, multiplied and various, as they be. It is an ever-exifting original, which every man can read. It cannot be forged ; it cannot be counterfeited \ it can- not be loit ; it cannot be altered \ it cannot be fupprefied. It does not depend upon the will of man whether it mall be publifhed or not ; it publifhes itfelf from one end of the earth to the other. It preaches to all nations and to all worlds; and this word of God reveals to man all that is neceflary for man to know of God.
Do we want to contemplate his power ? We fee it in the immennty of the creation, Do we want to contemplate his wifdom?
We
C 67 )
We fee it in the unchangeable order by which the incomprehenfible Whole is go- verned. Do we want to contemplate his munificence ?' We fee it in the abundance with which he fills the earth. Do we want to contemplate his mercy ? We fee it in his not withholding that abundance even from the unthankful. In &!&> do we want to know what God is ? Search not the book called the Scripture, which any human- hand might make, but the fcripture called the Creation.
The only idea man can affix to the name ©f God, is that of a firjh caufey the caufe of all things. And incomprehenfibly dif- ficult as it is for man to conceive what a firfi: caufe is, he arrives at the belief of liy from the ten-fold greater difficulty of dis- believing it. It is difficult beyond defcrip- tion to conceive that fpace can have no end ; but it is more difficult to. conceive an end.
It
C 68 >
It is difficult beyond the power of man ts conceive an eternal duration of what we call' time •, but it is more impoiTible to conceive a time when there fhall be no time. In like manner of reafoning, every thing we behold carries in itfelf the internal evidence that it did not make itfelf Every man is; an- evidence to himfelf, that he did not make himfelf; neither could his father make himfelf, nor his grandfather, nor any of his race; neither could any tree, plant, or animal, make itfelf: and it is the- conviction arifing from this evidence, that: carries us on, as it were, by necem* ty, to* the belief of a firfl caufe eternally exiting, of a nature totally different to any material exigence we know of, and by the power of which all things- exift, and this iirft caufe man calls God.
It is only by tht exercife of reafon, that man can difcover God. Take away that
reafon.
( % )
reaion, and he would be incapable of un- demanding any thing; and, in this cafe, it would be juft as confident to read even: the book called the Bible, to a horfe as to a man, How then is it that thofe people pretend to reject reafon ?
Almoft the only parts in the book called the Bible, that convey to us any idea of God, are fome chapters in Job,. and the 19th pfalm. I recollect no other. Thofe parts are true deiftical compositions %. for they treat of the Deity through his works. ' They take the book of Creation as the word of God;- they refer to no other- book ; and all the inferences they make are drawn from that volume.
I infert, in this place, the 19th pfalm,, as paraphrafed into Englim verfe, by Ad- difon. I recollect not the profe, and where I write this I have not the oppor- tunity of feeing it-
The
( 7o )
TheXpacious firmament on high, . With all the blue etherial Iky, And fpangled heavens, a mining framer. Their great original proclaim. The unwearied fun, from day to day,: Does his Creator's power difplay, And publiih.es to every land, The work of an Almighty, hand. Soon as the evening, fnades: prevail, The moon takes up the wond'rous tale, And nightly to the lift'ning earths Repeats the ftory of her birth. . Wnilf! all the ftars that round her burn. And all the planets in their turn, Confirm the tidings as they roll, And fpread the truth from pole to pole, What tho' in folemn iilence, all Move round this dark tcrreftrial ball, What tho' no real voice, nor found, . Amidft their radiant orbs be found, In reafon's ear they all rejoice, And utter forth a glorious voice ; For- ever finging as they fhine,
The HAND THAT MADE US IS DIVINE.
What more does man want to know than that the hand, or power that made thefe things is divine, is. omnipotent. Let
him
{ 7* )
Tiim believe this, with the force it is im~ poffible to repel if he permits his reafon to act, and his rule of moral life willibl- low of courfe.
The allufions in Job have all of them the fame tendency with this pfalm; that of deducing or proving a truth, that would be otherwife unknown, from truths al« ready known.
I recoiled not enough of thepaflages in Job to infert them correctly : but there is one that occurs to me that is applicable to the fubjecl: I ,am,fpeaking upon. " Canfi u thou by fearching find out God -, canft " thou find out the Almighty to perfec- -" tion."
I know not how the printers have pointed this paffage, for I keep no Bible: but it contains two diftind queftions that admit of diftincl anfwers.
Firft,
t 7* )
Firrt, Canfl thou by fearching find out God ? Yes. Becaufe, in the fir ft place, I know I did not make myfelf, and yet I have exiftence ; and by fearching into the nature of other things, I find that no other thing could make itfelf -, and yet millions of other things exifl: ; therefore it is, that I know, by pofitive conclusion, refulting from this fearch, that there is a power fu- perior to all thofe things, and that power is God.
Secondly, Canfl: thou find out the Al- mighty to perfection? No. Not only be- caufe the power and wifdom he has ma- nifefted in the ftructure of the creation that I behold, is to me incomprehenfible ; but becaufe even this manifestation, great as it is, is probably but a fmall difplay of that immenfity of power and wifdom, by which millions of other worlds, to me
Invifible
.( 73 )
•Invisible by their diftance, were created ancf continue to exift.
It is evident that both thefe queftions were put to the reafon of the perfon to whom they are fuppofed to have been ad- drefled; and it is only by admitting the firft queftion to be anfwered affirmatively, that the fecond could follow, It would have been unneceflary, and even abfurd, to have put a fecond queftion more difficult than the firft, if the firft queftion had been anfwered negatively. The two quef- tions have different objects, the firft refers to the exiftence of God, the fecond to his attributes. Reafon can difcover the one, but it falls infinitely fhort in difcovering the whole of the other.
I recoiled not a fingle pafiage in all the
writings afcribed to the men called apof-
ties, that conveys any idea of what God is.
Thofe writings are chiefly controverfial ;
G mid
( 74 )
and the gloominefs of the fubjecT: they dwell upon, that of a man dying in agony on a crofss is better fuited to the gloomy genius of a monk in a cell, by whom it is not impoflible they were written, than to any man breathing the open air of the crea- \ tion. The only paflage that occurs to me, that has any reference to the works of God, by which only his power and wifdom can be known, is related to have been fpoken by Jefus Chrift, as a -remedy againft dif- truftful care. ^ Behold the lillies of the •field, they toil not, neither do they fpin.'3 This, however, is far inferior to the allu- fions in Job, and in the nineteenth .pfalm,; but it is fimilar in idea, and the modefty of the imagery is correfpondent to the mo-. deily of the. man.
As to the chriflkn fyftem of faith, h •appears to' me as a fpecies of atheifm ; a fort of religious denial of God. It pro-
fefies
( IS )
ferTes to believe in a man rather than in God. It is a compound made up chiefly of manifm with but little deifin, and is as near to atheifm as twilight is to darknefs. It introduces between man and his maker an opaque body which it calls a redeemer v as the moon introduces her opaque felf be- tween the earth and the fun, and it pro- duces by this means a religious or an irre- ligious eclipfe of light. It has put the whole orb of reafon into ihade.
The eiTecl: of this: obfcurity has been that of turning every thing upfide down, and r eprefenting it . in reverfe ; and among the revolutions it has thus magically pro- duced, it has made a revolution in theo- logy..
That which is now called natural philo-
fophy, embracing the whole circle of fci-
ence, of which aftronomy occupies the chief
place, is the ftudy of the works of God
G z and
( >6 )
and of the power and wifdom of God in his works, and is the true theology.
As the theology that is now ftudied in its place, it is the ftudy of human opinions and of human fancies concerning God. It is not the ftudy of God himfelf in the works that he has made, but in the works or writings that man has made** and it is not among the leaft of the mifchiefs that the christian fyftem has done to the world, that it has abandoned the original and beautiful fyftem of theology, like a beautiful innocent to diftrefs and reproach, to make room for the hag of fuperftition*
The book of Job, and the 19th plafm, which even the church admits to be more ancient than the chronological order in which they (land in the book called the Bible, are theological orations conformable to the original fyftem of theology. The internal evidence of thofe orations proves
tQ
( 77 )
to a demonftration, that the ftudy and con- templation of the works of creation, and of the power and wifdom of God revealed and manifefted in thofe works, made a great part of the religious devotion of the times in which they were written -, and it was this devotional ftudy and contempla- tion that led to the difcovery of the prin- ciples upon which what are now called Sciences are eftablifhed ; and it is to the difcovery of thefe principles that almoft all the Arts that contribute to the convenience of human life owe their exigence. Every principal art has fome fcience for its pa- rent, though the perfon who mechanically performs the work does not always, and but very feldorn, perceive the connection,
IT is a fraud of the chriftian fyftem to
call the fciences human inventions $ -it is only
G 3 the
( 7§ )
the application of them that is human; Every fcience has for its bafis a fyftem of principles as fixed and unalterable as thofe by which the univerfe is regulated and go- verned. Man cannot make principles ; he can only difcover them :
For example. Every perfon who looks at an almanack fees an account when an eclipfe will take place, and he fees alfo that it never fails to take place according to the account there given. This fhews that man is acquainted with the laws by which the heavenly bodies move. But it would be fomething worfe than ignorance,, were any church on earth to fay, that thofe laws are an human invention.
It would alfo be ignorance, or fomething worfe, to fay, that the fcientirlc principles by the aid of which man is enabled to cal- culate and fore-know when an eclipfe will take place, are an human invention. Man
cannot:
( 79 )
cannot invent any thing that is eternal' and immutable •, and the fcientific principles he employs for this purpofe, muft, and are* of neceflity, as eternal and immutable as the laws by which the heavenly bodies move, or they could not be ufed as they are, to afcertain the time when, and the manner how an eclipfe will take place.
The fcientific principles that man em- ploys to obtain the fore-knowledge of an eclipfe, or of any thing elfe relating to the motion of the heavenly bodies, are contain- ed chiefly in that part of fcience that is called trigonometry, or the properties of a triangle, which, when applied totheftudy of the heavenly bodies, is called aftronomy; when applied to direcl the courfe of a fhip on the ocean, it is called navigation •, when applied to the conftruclion of figures drawn by a rule and compafs, it is called geome- try^ when applied to the confcruclion of
plans
( 8o I
plans of edifices, it is called architecture \ when applied to the meafurement of any portion of the furface of the earth, it is called land-furveying. In fine, it is the foul of fcience. It is an eternal truth : it contains the mathematical demonftration of which man fpeaks, and the extent of its- ufes are unknown.
It may be faid, that man can make or draw a triangle, and therefore a triangle is an human invention.
But the triangle, when drawn, is no other than the image of the principle : it is a delineation to the eye, and from thence to the mind, of a principle that would otherwife be imperceptible. The triangle does not make the principle, any more than a candle taken into a room that was dark, makes the chairs and tables that be- fore were invifible. All the properties of a triangle exift independently of the figure,.
and
( »I )
and exifted before any triangle was drawn or thought of by man. Man had no more to do in the formation of thofe properties,. or principles, than he had to do in mak- ing the laws by which the heavenly bodies move; and therefore the one mud have- the fame divine origin as the other.
In the fame manner as it may be faid, that man can make a triangle, fo alfo- it may be faid, he can make the mechani- cal inftrument, called a lever. But the principle by which the lever a6fcs, is a thing diftinct from the instrument, and would exift if the inftrument did not : it attaches itfelf to the inftrument after it is made;- the inftrument therefore can act no other- wife than it does act; neither can all the effort of human invention make it act: otherwife. That which, in all fuch cafes, man calls the effeff, is no other than the principle itfelf rendered perceptible to the- ■ibnfesa. Since.
( §2 )
Since then, man cannot make princi- ples, from whence did he gain a know- ledge of them, fa as to- be able to apply thtm, not only to things on earth, but to. afcertain the motion of bodies fo immenfe- If diftant from him as all the heavenly bo- dies are? From whence, I afk, could he gain that knowledge, but from the ftudy of the true theology ?
It is the uxucture of the univerfe that has taught this knowledge to man. That: ftructure is an ever exifiing. exhibition of every principle upon which every part of mathematical fcience is founded. The orT- fpring of this fcience is mechanics -, for mechanics is no other than the principles of fcience applied practically. The man who proportions the feveral parts of a mill, ufes the fame fcientific principles, as if he had the power of conducting an univerfe : but as he cannot give to matter that invifible
agency*
( §3 J
Agency, by which all the component parts of the immenfe machine of ih^ univerfe have influence upon each other, and act in .motional unifon together without any ap- parent contact, and to which man has given the name of attraction, gravitation, and re- pulfion, he fupplies the place of that agency by the humble imitation -of teeth and cogs. All the parts of man's microcofm muft virlbly touch. But could he gain a know- ledge of that agency, fo as to be able to apply it in practice, we might then fay, that another canonical book of the word of God had been difcovered.
If man could alter the properties of the ■lever, fo alfo could he alter the properties of the triangle: for a lever (taking that fort of lever which Is -called a fteel-yard ;for the fake of explanation) forms, when in motion, a triangle; The line it defcends tfrom, (one point of that line being in the
fulcrum)
1 *4 )
fulcrum) the line it defcends to, and the chord of the arc, which the ^nd of the le- ver defcribes in the air, are the three fides of a triangle. The other arm of the lever defcribes alfo a triangle •, and the corref- ponding fides of thofe two triangles, cal- culated fcientifically-or meafured geometri- cally; and alfo the fines, tangents, and fe- cants generated from the angles, and geo- metrically meafured, have the fame propor- tions to each other, as the different weights have that will balance each other on the lever, leaving the weight of the lever out of the cafe.
It may alfo be faid that man can- make a ^vheel and axis, that he can put wheels of different magnitudes together, and produce a mill. Still the cafe comes back to the fame point, which is, that he did not make the principle that gives the wheels thofe powers. That principle is as unalterable
as
C 85 )
as in the former cafes, or rather it is the fame principle under a different appear- ance to the eye.
The power that two wheels, of differ*' ent magnitudes, haye upon each other, is in the fame proportion as if the Semi-diame- ter of the two wheels were joined together and made into that kind of lever I have defcribed, fufpended at the part where the fe mi- diameters join; for the two wheels, fcientincally considered, are no other than the two circles generated by the motion of the compound lever...
It is from the Study of the true theo- logy, that all our knowledge of fcience is derived, and it is from that knowledge that all the arts have originated.
The Almighty lecturer, by .displaying
the principles of fcience in the; Structure of
the univerfe, has invited man, to Study and
to imitation. It is as. if he had faid to' the
H inhabitants
( So )
inhabitants of this globe that we call ours, " I have made an. earth foreman to dwell "upon, and I have rendered the {tarry "heavens vifible, to teach him fcience and " the arts. He can now provide for his ^ own comfort, Am) learn from my
" MUNIFICENCE TO ALL, TO BE "KIND TO *c EACH OTHER."
Of what ufe is it, uhlefs it be to teach man fomething, ; that his eye is endued with the power of beholding, to ;an in- comprchenfible ; diftance, an immenfity of worlds revolving in the .ocean of fpace? Or of what life is at that this immenfity of worlds is vifible to man? What has man to do with the Pleiades, with Orion, with Sirius, with the flar he calls the north ftar, with the moving orbs he has named Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury, if no ufes are to follow from their being vifible? Alefspower of virion
would
I 87 )
would have been fufficient for man, if tftfc immenfity he now pofleffes were given only to wade itfelf, as it were, on an immenfe deferfc of fpace glittering with fliows.
It is only by contemplating what he calls the ftarry heavens, as the book and fchool of fcience, that he difcovers any ufe in their being vifible to him, or any ad- vantage refulting from his immenfity of virion. But when he contemplates the {ab- ject in this light, he fees- an additional mo- tive for faying that nothing was made in vain : ' for in vain would be this power of virion if it taught man nothing.
As the chriftian fyftem of faith has made a revolution in theology, fo alfo has if made a revolution in the flate of learning,, That which is now called learning, was not learning originally. - Learning does noe ccnfiil, as the fchool s now make it to con- H 2 lift,
the knowledge of languages, but m t&g knowledge of things to which language gives names.
The Greeks were a learned people % but learning with them did not conM in fpeaking Greek any more than in a Ro- man's {peaking Latin, or a Frenchman's fpeaking French, or an Engliihman's ipeakmg Englifh. From what we know of the Greeks, it does not appear that they knew or fludred any language but their own ; and this was one caufe of their be- coming fo learned -, it afforded them more time to apply themielves to better ftudies. The fchoois of the Greeks were fchools of Fcience and philofophy, and not of lan- guages; and it is in the knowledge of the things that fcience and philofophy teach, that learning connits.*
Putting
* Almoft all the fcientific learning that now e-xifb, came to ns fromrthe- Greeks, or the people
\
(' H )
Putting afide, as matter of -difthA con- ilderation, the outrage offered co the moral. H 3 juftice
who fpoke the Greek language. It therefore be- came necefTary to the people of other nations^ who fpoke a different language, that fome among them mould learn the. Greek language, in order that the learning the Greeks had, might be made known in thofe nations, by tranflating the Greek, books of fcience and philofophy into the mother- tongue of each nation.
The ftudy therefore of the Greek language, (and in the fame manner for the Latin) was no other than the drudgery buflnefs of a linguifi; and the language thus obtained, was no other than the means, or as it were, the tools employed to obtain the learning the Greeks had. . It made no part of the learning itfelf; and was fo diftindt. from it, as to make it exceedingly probable that the perfons who had ftudied Greek fufficiently to tranflate thofe works, fuch, for inftance, as Euclid's Ele- ments, did not underltand any of the learning the works contained*
As there is now nothing new to be learned from the dead languages, all the ufeful books being, al- ready translated, the languages are become ufelefs, and the time expended in teaching and learning them is wafted. So far as the ftudy of languages may contribute to the progrek and ccmmunka-
( 9o )
jaftice of God, by fuppoiing him to make the innocent fuller for the guilty, and alfo
the
t'ion of knowledge (for it has nothing to do with the creation of knowledge) it is only in the living languages that new knowledge is to be found: and certain it is, that, in general, a youth will learn more of a living language in one year, than -of a dead language in feven; and it is but feldom that i\iQ teac her knows much of it himfelf. The dif- ficulty of learning the dead languages does not arife from any fuperior abftrufenefs in the lan- guages themfelves, but in their being dead, and the pronunciation entirely loft. It would be the fame with any other language when it becomes dead. The bell Greek linguift, that now exifls, does not imderitand Greek fo well as a Grecian plowman did, or a Grecian milkmaid; and the lame for the Latin, compared with a plowman or a milkmaid of the Romans. It would therefore be advanta- geous to the ftate of learning, to abolifh the ftudy of the dead languages, and to make learning con- ■fift,_ as it originally did, in fcicntific knowledge.
The apology that is fometimes made for con- tinuing to teach the dead languages is, that they are taught at a time when a child is not capable of exerting any ether mental faculty than that of me- mory. But this is altogether erroneous. The hu- man mind has a natural difpofition to fcieatific
C 9* )
the loofe morality and low contrivance of fuppofing Him to change himfelf into the fhape of a. man, in order to make an ex- cafe to himfelf for not executing his fup- pofed fentence upon Adam; putting, I
fay.,
knowledge, and to the things connected with it. The firft and favourite amufement of a child., even before it -begins to play, is that of imitating the works of man. It builds houfes with cards or fticks; it navigates the little ocean of a bowl of water with a paper boat, or dams the ftream of a gutter, and contrives fomething which it calls a mill j and it interests itfelf in the fate of its works with a care that refembles affection. It afterwards goes to fchool, where its genius is killed by the barren ftudy of a dead language, and the philofo- pher is loft in the linguift.
But the apology that is now made for continu- ing to teach the dead languages, could not be the caufe at firft of cutting down learning to the nar- row and humble fphere of linguiftry; the caufe, therefore, muft be fought for elfewhere. In all refearches of this kind, the beft evidence that can be produced, is the internal evidence the thing carries with itfelf, and the evidence of circumftan- ces that unites with it; both of which, in this cafe, are not difficult to be difcovered.
( 9* )
fay, thofe things afide, as matter of diftinS: confideration, it is certain, that what is called the chriftian fyftem of faith, inclu- ding in it the whimfical account of the cre- ation •, . the ftrange. fiory of Eve, the fnake, and the. apple y the amphibious idea of a man-god'v. the corporeal idea of the death of a god-; the mythological idea of a fa- mily of gods j and the. chriftian fyflem of arithmetic, that three are one, and one is three, are all irreconcileable, not only to the divine gift of reafon that God has given to man, but to the knowledge that man gains of the power and wifdom of God, by the aid of the fciences, and by ft.udying the ftruclure of the univerfe that God has made. .
The fetters up, therefore, and the ad- vocates of the chriitian fyftem of fairly could not but forefee that the continually progreilive knowledge that man would gain
by
( 93 )
by the aid of fcience, of the power and wifdom of God, manifefled M the ftruc- ture of the univerfe, and in all the works of creation, would militate againrt, and call into queition, the truth of their fyrtem of faith •, and therefore it became necefFary to their purpofe to cut learning down to a iize lefs dangerous to their project, and this they erTedted by reftri&ing the idea of learning to the dead ftudy of- dead lan- guages.
They not only rejected the ftudy of fci- ence out of the chriftian fchools, but they perfecuted itj and it is only within about the laft two centuries that the ftudy has been revived. So late as 1610, Galileo* ■a Florentine, difcovered and introduced the ufe of teiefcopes, and by applying them to obferve the motions and appear- ances of the heavenly bodies, afforded ad- ditional means for afcertaining the true
ftructure
( 94 ,v
ffructare of the univerfe. Inftead of be- ing efteemed for thefe difcoveries, he was fentenced to renounce them, or the opi- nions refulting from them, as a damnable hereiy. And prior to that time. Vigilius was condemned to be burned for afferting the antipodes \ or, in other words* that the earth was a globe, and habitable in every part where there was land-, yet the truth of this is now too well known even to be told.
If: the belief of errors not morally bad did no mifchief, it would make no part of the moral d'dty of man to oppofe and re- move them* There was no moral ill in- believing the earth was flat like a trencher, any more than there was moral virtue in believing it was round like a globe ; nei- ther was there any moral ill in believing that the Creator made no other world than this, any more than there was moral vir- tue
( 95 ')
*tuem believing that he made millions, and: that the infinity of fpaee is filled with worlds. But when a fyftem of religion is made to grow out of a fuppofed fyftem of creation that is not true, and to unite itfelf therewith in a manner almoft infeparable therefrom, the cafe affumes an entirely different ground. It is then that errors, not morally bad, become fraught with the fame mifchiefs as if they were. It is then that the truth, though otherwife indiffer- ent in itfelf, becomes an efTential, by be- coming the criterion, that either confirms by correfponding evidence, or denies by contradictory evidence, the reality of the religion itfelf. In this view of the cafe, it is the moral duty of man to obtain every poffible evidence that the flru&ure of the heavens, or any other part of creation af- fords, with refpect to fyftems of religion. But this, the fupporters or partizans of
the
( 9<S )
the chriftan fyftem, as if dreading the re- fult, incerTantly oppofed, and not only re- jected the fcienees, but perfecuted the pro- ferTors, Had Newton or Defeartes lived three or four hundred years ago, and pur- fued their {Indies as they did, it is moil probable they would not have lived to finifh thern -, and had Franklin drawn lightning from the clouds at the fame time, it would have been at the hazard of ex- piring for it in flames.
Later times have laid all the blame upon the Goths and Vandals-, but, how- ever unwilling the partizans of the chrifti- an fyftem may be to believe or to acknow- ledge ity it is neverthelefs true, that the age of ignorance commenced with the chriftian fyftem. There was more know- ledge in the world before that period than for many centuries afterwards-, and as to religious knowledge, the chriftiair fyftem,
as
( 97 )
as already faid, was only another fpecles of mythology, and the mythology to which it fucceeded was a corruption of an ancient fyftem of theifm.*
I It
f* It is impoflible for us now to know at what time the heathen m ythology. began ; but it is cer- tain^ from the internal evidence that it carries, that it did not begin in the fame ftate or condition ia which it ended. All the gods of that mythology, except Saturn, were of modern invention. The fuppofed reign of Saturn was prior to that which is called the heathen mythology, and was fo far a fpecies of theifm that it admitted the belief of only one God. Saturn is fuppofed to have abdicate^ the government in favour of his three fens and one daughter, Jupiter, Pluto, Neptune, and Juno ;. after this, thoufands of other gods and demi-gods were imaginably created, and the calendar of gods increafed as faft as the calendar of faints and the calendar of courts have increafed fince.
All the corruptions that have taken place in the- ology, and in religion, have been produced by admitting of what man calls revealed religion. The mythologies pretended to more revealed religion than the chriilians do. They had their oracles and their priefts, who were fuppofed to receive
( 98 )
It is owing to this long interregnum of fcience, and to no other caufey that we have now to look back through a vaft chafm of many hundred years to the refpectable characters we call the ancients. Had the progrefiion of knowledge gone on propor- tionally with the flock that before exifted, that chafm would have been filled up with characters rifing fuperior in knowledge to each other -3 and thofe ancients, we now fb
much
and deliver the word of God verbally on almoft all occasions.
Since then, all corruptions, down from Moloch to modern predeftinarianifm, and from the hu- man facrifices of the heathens to the chriftian fa- crifice of the Creator, have been produced by ad- mitting what is called revealed religion. The mofl effectual means to prevent allfuch evils and impo- fitions is not to admit of any other revelation than that which is manifefted inthebook. of Crea- tion; and to contemplate the Creation as the on- ly true and real word of God that ever did or ever will exift, and that every thing elfe, called the word of God, is fable and impofition.
( 99 )
much admire, would have appeared res- pectably in the back ground of the fcene. But the chriftian fyftem laid all wafte; and if we take our fraud about the beginning of the fixteenth century, we look back through that long; chafm, to the times of the anci- cnts, as over a vaft fandy defert, in which not a fhrub appears to intercept the virion to the fertile hills beyond.
It is an inconfiftency, fcarcely poffible to be credited, that any thing fhould exift under the name of a religion* that held it to be irreligious to ftudy and contemplate the ftructure of the univerfe that God had made. But the fact is tGo well eflablifhed to be denied. The event that ferved more than any other to break the fir ft link in this long chain of defpotic ignorance, is that known by the name of the reformation by Luther. From that time, though it dees not appear to have made any part of I 2 the'
( IOO }
the intention of Luther, or of thcfe who are called reformers, the Sciences began to revive, and Liberality, their natural afibciate, began to appear. This was the only public good the reformation did; for with refpecl: to religious good, it might as well not have taken place. The mytholo- gy frill continued the fame ; and a multi- plicity of national popes grew out of the downfal of the Pope of Chriftendom.
HAVING thus fhewn, from the inter- nal evidence of things, the caufe that pro- duced a change in the ftate of learnings and the motive for fubftituting the ftudy of the dead languages in the place of the Sciences, I proceed, in addition to the fe- veral obfervations already made in the for- mer part of this work, to compare, or rather to confront, the evidence that the
ftructure
{ m J
hlmfelf afterwards. Every perfon of learn- ing is finally his own teacher •, the reafon of which is, that principles, being of a dif- tinct quality to circumflances, cannot be impreffed upon the memory. Their place of mental reiidence is the underftanding, and they .are never Co lading as when they begin by conception. Thus much for the introductory part.
From the time I was capable of conceiv- ing an idea, and acting upon it by reflection, I either doubted the truth of the chriftian fyitem, or thought it to be a Grange affair; I icarcely know which it was : but I well remember, when about feven or eight years of age, hearing a fermon read by a relation of mine, who was a great devotee of the church, upon the fubject of what is called Redemption by the Death of the Son of God. After the fermon was ended I went into the garden, and as I was going down the
garden
( io6 )
garden fteps (for I perfe&ly recoiled the fpot) I revolted at the recollection of what I had heard, and thought to myfelf that it was making God Almighty act like a paf- iionate man that killed his fon when he could not revenge himfelf any other way, and as I was fare a man would be hanged that did fuch a thing, I could not fee for what purpofe they preached fuch fermons. This was not one of thofe kind of thoughts that had anything in it of childifh levity, it was to me a ferious reflection, arifing from the idea I had, that God was too good to do fuch an action, and aifo too Almighty to be under any neceiHty of doing it. I believe in the fame manner to this moment -, and 1 moreover believe, that any fyflem of religion that has any thing in it that mocks the mind of a child cannot be a true fyftem. It feems as if parents, of the christian profeflion, were afhamed to tell their chil- dren
( io7 )
dren any thing about the principles of their, religion. They fometimes inftrucft them- in morals, and talk to them of the goodnefs of what they call Providence; for the chriftian mythology has five deities : there is God the Father, God the Son, God the> Holy Ghoft, the God Providence,«and the Goddefs Nature. But the chriitian ftory of God the Father putting his fon to death, or employing people to do it (for that is the plain language of the ftary,) cannot be told by a parent to a child s and to tell him that it was done to make mankind happier and better, is making the ftory ftill worfe, as if mankind could be improved by the example of murder ; and to tell him that all this is a myftery, is only making an excufe for the incredibility of it.
How different is this to the pure and mrrple profeiTion of Deifm ! The true deiil has but one Deity -, and his religion con- firms
C 108 )
Ms in contemplating the power, wifdom, and benignity cf the Deity in his works, and in endeavouring to imitate him in every thing moral, fcientifical, and mechanical.
The religion that approaches the nearer!: of all others to true deitm, in the moral and benign part thereof, is that profeffedby the quakers, but they have contracted them- felves too much by leaving the works of God out of their fyftem. Though I reve- rence their philanthropy, I cannot help fmiling at the conceit, that if the tafte of a quaker could have been confulted at the creation, what a flier, t and drab -coloured creation it would have been ! Not a flower would have bloflbmed its gaities, nor a bird been permitted to ling.
QUITTING thefe reflections, I pro- ceed to other matters. After I had made
myfelf
t 109 )
myfelf mafter of the ufe of the globes and of the orrery,* and conceived an idea of the infinity of fpace, and of the eternal di- visibility of matter, and obtained, at leaft, a general knowledge of what is called na- tural philofophy, I began to compare, or, as I have before faid, to confront the in- ternal evidence thofe things afford with the chriftian fyftem of faith.
Though it is not a dired article of the K chriftian
* As this book may fall into the hands of per- sons who do not know what an orrery is, it is for their information I add this note, as the name gives no idea of the ufes of the thing. The or- rery has its name from the perfon who invented it. It is a machinery of clock-work reprefenting the univerfe in miniature ; and in which the revolu- tion of the earth round itfelf and round the fun, the revolution of the moon round the earth, the revolution of the planets round the fun, their re- lative diftances from the fun as the center of the whole fyftem, their relative diflances from each other, and their different magnitudes, are repre- fented as they really exifl in what we call the heavens.
( no )
chrirrian fyftem that this world that we in- habit is the whole of the habitable creation, yet it is fo worked up therewith, from what is called the Mofaic account of the creation, the {lory of Eve and the apple, and the counterpart of that ftory, the death of the Son of God, that to believe otherwife -, that is, to believe that God created a plurality of worlds at lead as numerous as what we call ftars, renders the chriftian fyftem of faith at once little and ridiculous, and (bat- ters it in the mind like feathers in the air. The two beliefs cannot be held together in the fame mind; and he who thinks that he believes both, has thought but little of cither.
Though the belief of a plurality of worlds was familiar to the ancients, it is only within the la ft. three centuries that the extent and dimenfions of this globe that we inhabit have been afcertained. Several
veflels,
( I" )
veffels, following the tract of the ocean-, have failed entirely round the world, as a man may march m a circle, and come round by the contrary fide of the circle to the fpot he fet out from; The circulai- dimenfions of our world in the wideft part, as a man would meafure the wideft round of an apple or a ball, is only twenty- five thoufand and twenty Englifh miles, reckon- ing fixty-nine miles and an half to an equa- torial degree, and may be failed round in ihQ fpace of about three years**
A world of this extent may, at fir ft thought, appear to us to be great \ but if we compare it with the immenfity of fpace in which it is fufpendecl, like a bubble or a balloon in the air, it is infinitely lefs in K 2 proportion
* Allowing a fliip to fail, on an average, three miles in an hour, fhe would fail entirely round the world in lefs than one year, if fhe could fail in a direct circle; but file is obliged to follow the ccurfe of the ocean.
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proportion than the fmallefr. grain of fand is to the fize of the world, or the fineft par- ticle of dew to the whoJe ocean, and is therefore but fmall; and, as will be here- after fhewn, is only one of a fyftem of worlds, of which the univerfal creation is compofed.
It is not difficult to gain fome faint idea of the immenfity of fpace in which this and all the other worlds are fufpended, if we follow a progreffion of ideas. When we think of the fize or dimenfions of a room, our ideas limit themfelves to the walls, and there they flop. But when our eye, or our imagination, darts into fpace ;. that is, when it looks upward into what we call the open air, we cannot conceive any walls or boundaries it can have ; and if for the fake of reiting our ideas, we fup- pofe a boundary,' the queftion immediately renews itfelf, and afks, what is beyond that
boundary ?
( m )
boundary ? and in the fame manner, what is beyond the next boundary ? and fo on, till the fatigued imagination . returns and fays, there is no end. Certainly, then, the Creator was not pent for room when he made this world no larger than it is; and we have to feek iliQ reafon in fomething elfe.
If we take a farvey of our own world, or rather of this,- of which the Creator has given us the ufe, as our portion in the immenfe fyitem of creation, we find every part of it, the earth, the waters, and -the air that furround it, filled, and, as it were, crouded with life, down from the larger! animals that we know of, to the fmallehV infects the naked eye can behold, and from thence to others itill fmalkr, and totally invifible without the aiiiltance of the mi- crofcope. Every tree, qvqtj plant, every leaf, ierves not only asan habitation, but as a K 3 world
( "4 )
world to Tome numerous race^ till animal exiftence becomes fo exceedingly refined, that the effluvia of a blade of grafs would be food for thoufands.
Since then no part of our earth is left unoccupied, why i$ it to be fuppofed, that the immenfity of fpaceis a naked void, ly- ing in eternal wafte ? There is room for millions of worlds as large or larger than ours, and each of them millions of miles apart from each other.
Having now arrived at this point, if we carry our ideas only one thought further, we fhali fee, perhaps, the true reafon, at leaft a very good reafon for our happinefs, why the Creator, inftead of making one immenfe world, extending over an immenfe quantity of fpace, has preferred dividing that quantity of matter into feveral diftincl and feparate worlds, which we call planets, of which our earth is one. But before I
explain
( "5 )
explain* my ideas upon this fubjedl, it is neceffary (not for the fake of thofe that al- ready know, but for thofe who do not) to ihew what the fyftem of the univerfe is.
That part of the univerfe, that is called the folar fyftem (meaning the fyftem of worlds to which our earth belongs, and of which Sol, or in Englifh language the Sun, is the center) confifts, befldes the Sun, of fix diilincl orbs, or planets, or worlds, be- fides the fecondary bodies, called fatellites, or moons, of which our earth has one that attends her in her annual revolution round the Sun, m like manner as the other fatel- lites, or moons, attend the planets, or -worlds, to which they feverally belong, as may be feen by the afliftance of the tele- fcope.
The Sun is the center, round which thofe fix worlds, or planets, revolve at dif- ferent diftances therefrom, and in circles
concentric
concentric to each other. Each world keeps conftantly in nearly the fame tracl: round the Sun, and continues, at the fame time, turning round itfelf, in nearly an up- right pofition, as a top turns round itfelf when it is fpinning on the ground, and leans a little fideways.
It is this leaning of the earth (23 1-2 degrees) that occaiions fummer and winter, and the different length of days and nights. If the earth turned round itfelf in a pofi- tion perpendicular to the plane or level of the circle it moves in round the Sun, as a top turns round when it ftands erecl: on the ground, the days and nights would be al- ways of the fame length, twelve hours day, and twelve hours night, and the feafon would be uniformly the fame throughout the year.
Every time that a planet (our earth for example) turns round itfelf, it makes what
we:
( "7 ')
we call day and night; and every time it goes entirely round the Sun, it makes what we call a year, confequently our world turns three . hundred and toy-rive times round itfelf, in going once round the Sun.* " The names that the ancients gave to thofe fix worlds, and which are ftill called by the fame names, are Mercury, Venus, this world that we call ours, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. They appear larger to the eye than the ftars, being many million miles nearer to our earth than any of the ftars are. The planet Venus is that which is called: the evening ftar, and fometimes the morning rlar, as me happens to fet after, or rife before, . the Sun, which, in either cafe, is never more than three hours.
The:
* Thofe who fuppofed that the Sun went round the earth every 24 hours, made the fame miftake in idea, that a cook would do in fa&, that fhould make the fire go round the meat, inftead of the meat turning round itfelf towards the fire.
( II* )
The Sun, as before faid, being the cen- ter, the planet, or world, nearer!: the Sun, is Mercury j his diftance from the Sun is thirty-four million miles, and he moves round in a circle always at that diftance from the Sun, as a top may be fuppofed to fpin round in the tract in which a horfe goes in a mill. The fecond world is Ve- nus; fhe is fifty-feven million miles dif- tant from the Sun, and confequently moves round in a circle much greater than that of Mercury. The third world is this that we inhabit, and which is ninety-five mil- lion miles diftant from the Sun, and con- fequently moves round in a circle greater than that of Venus. The fourth world is Mars; he is diftant from the Sun one hundred and thirty-four million miles, and confequently moves round in a circle greater than that of our earth. The fifth is Jupiter ; he is diftant from the Sun five hundred and
fifty-
( "9 )
fifty-feven million miles, and confequently moves round in a circle greater than that of Mars. The iixth world is Saturn ; he is dif- tant from the Sun fcvtn hundred and fixty- three million miles, and confequently moves round in a circle that furrounis the circles or orbits of all the other worlds or planets.* The fpace, therefore, in the air, or in the immenfity of fpace, that our folar fyf- tem takes up for the feveral worlds to per- form their revolutions in round the Sun, is of the extent in a ftrait line of the whole diameter of the orbit or circle in which Saturn moves round the Sun, which being double his diftance from the Sun, is fifteen hundred and twenty-fix million miles ; and its circular extent is nearly five thoufand
million,
* Mr. Paine has made no mention of the planet Kerfchel, which was firft difcovered by the per- fon whofe name it bears, in 1781. It is at a greater diftance from the Sim than either of the other planets, and confequently occupies a greater length of time in performing its revolutions.
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•million, and its globical content is almoft three thoufand five hundred million times three thoufand five hundred million fquare
miles.*
But
* If it mould be afked, how can man know thefe things? I have one plain anfwer to give, which is, that man knows how to calculate an eclipfe, and alfo how to calculate, to £ minute of time, when the planet Venus, in making her revolutions round the fun, will come in a ftrait line between our earth and the Sun, and will ap- pear to us about the fize of a large pea paffing a- crofs the face of the Sun. This happens but twice in about an hundred years, at the diHance of about eight years from each other, and has happened twice in our time, both of which were foreknown by calculation. It can alfo be known when they will happen again for a thoufand years to come, or to any other portion of time. As, therefore, man could not be able to do thofe things if he did not understand the folar fyftem, and the manner in which the revolutions of the feveral planets or worlds are performed, the fact of calculating an eclipfe or a tranfit of Venus, is a proof in point that the knowledge exifts ; and as to a few thou- fand, or even a few million miles more or lefs, it makes fcarcely any fenfible difference in fuch im- menfe diftances.
( I« )
But this, Immenfe as it is, is only one fyftem of worlds. Beyond this, at a vaft diftance into fpace, far beyond all power of calculation, are the ftars called the fixed ftars. They are called fixed, becaufe they have no revolutionary motion as the fv£ worlds or planets have that I have been defcribing. Thofe fixed ftars continue al- ways at the fame diftance from each other, and always in the fame place, as the Sun does in the center of our fyftem. The probability therefore is, that each of thofe fixed ftars is aha a Sun, round which an- other fyftem of worlds or planets, though too remote for us to difcover, performs its revolutions,, as our fyftem of worlds does round our central Sun,
By this eafy progreffion of ideas, the
irnmenfity of fpace will appear to us to be
filled with fyftems of worlds ; and that no
part of fpace lies wafte, any more than any
L part
( "2 )
part of our globe of earth and water is left unoccupied.
HAVING thus endeavoured to con- vey, in a familiar and eafy manner, fome idea of the ftruclure of the univerfe, I re- turn to explain what I before alluded to, namely, the great benefits arifing to man in confequence of the Creator having made a plurality of worlds, fuch as our fyftem is, confirming of a central Sun and fix worlds, befides fatellites, in preference to that of creating one world only of a vaft extent.
It is an idea I have never loft fight of, that all our knowledge of fcience is derived from the revolutions (exhibited to our eye, and from thence to our underftanding) which thofe feveral planets, or worlds, of which our fyftem is compofed, make in their circuit round the Sun.
Had
( m ))
Had then the quantity of matter which thefe fix worlds contain been blended into one folitary globe, the confequence to us Would have been, that either no revolu- tionary motion would have exifted, or not a fufficiency of it to give us the ideas and the knowledge of fcience we now have ; and it is from the fciences that all the me- chanical arts that contribute fo much to our earthly felicity and comfort are derived.
As therefore the Creator made nothing in vain, fo alfo muft it be believed that he organized the ftru&ure of the univerfe in the moil advantageous manner for the benefit of man : and as we fee, and from experience iqgI the benefits we derive from the ftrudhire of the univerfe, formed as it is, which bene- fits we mould not have had the opportuni- ty of enjoying, if the ftructure, fo'far as relates to our fyftem, had been a folitary globe, we can difcover, at leaft, one rea- L 2 fon
( 124 )
ion why a plurality of worlds has been made, and that reafon calls forth the devo- tional gratitude of man, as well as his ad- miration.
But it is not to us, the inhabitants of this globe, only, that the benefits arifing from a plurality of worlds are limited. The inhabitants of each of the worlds, of which our fyftem is compofed, enjoy the fame opportunities of knowledge as we do. They behold the revolutionary motions of our earth, as we behold theirs. All the planets revolve in fight of each other ; and therefore the fame univerfal fchool of fei- mcQ presents itfelf to all.
Neither does the knowledge flop here. The fyftem of worlds, next to us, exhibits in its revolution the fame principles an4 fchool of fcience to the inhabitants of their fyftem, as our fyftem does to us, and in like manner throughout the iramenfity of fpace. Our
( 125 )
Our ideas, not only of the Almighty- nefs of the Creator, but of his wifdom and his beneficence, become enlarged in pro- portion as we contemplate the extent and the ftructure of the univerfe. The folitary idea of a folitary world rolling, or at reft, in the immenfe ocean of fpace, gives place to the cheerful idea of a fociety of worlds, fo happily contrived, as to admini&er, even by their motion, infraction to man. We fee our own earth filled with abundance; but we forget to confider how much of that abundance is owing to the fcientiflc know- ledge the vail machinery of the univerfe has unfolded.
But, in the midrt of thofe reflections, what are we to think of the chriftian. fyf- tem of faith that forms itfelf upon tht idea of only one world, and that" of no greater extent, as is before ihewn, thaii twenty- five thoufand miles ? An extent, which a man L 3 walking
( 126 )
walking at the rate of three miles an hour, for twelve hours in a day, eould he keep on in a circular direction, would walk en- tirely round in lefs than two years. Alas I what is this to the mighty ocean of fpace, and the Almighty power of the Creator !
From whence then could arife the folita- ry and flrange conceit that the Almighty,, who had millions of worlds equally depen- dent on his protection, mould quit the care of all the reft, and come to die in our world, becaufe, they fay, one man and one wo- man had eaten an apple ? And, on the other hand, are we to fuppcfe that every world, in the boundlefs creation, had an Eve, and apple, a ferpent, and a redeemer ? In this cafe, the perfon who is irreverently* called the Son of God, and fometimes God himfelf, would have nothing elie to do than; to travel from world to world, in an end- lefs fucceffion of death with fcarcely a mo- mentary interval of life, It
( i27 )
It has been, by rejecting the evidence^ that the word, or works of God in the creation, affords to our fenfes, and the ac- tion of our reafon upon that evidence, that £o many wild and whimfical fy items of faith, and of religion, have, been fabricated and fet up. There may be many fyftems of religion, that, fo far from being morally bad, are in many refpecls morally good: but there can be but one that is true; and that one neceffarify muft, as it ever will, be in all things confident with the ever ex- iffing word of God that we behold in his works. But fuch is the ftrange construc- tion of the Chriftian fyftem of faith, that: every evidence the heavens afford to man, either directly contradicts it, or renders it abfurd.
It is poflible to believe, and I always- feel pleafure in encouraging myfelf to be- lieve it, that there have been men in the
world
( 128 )
world who perfuaded themfelves that what is called a pious fraud, might, at leaft under particular circumftances, be productive of fome good. But the fraud being once es- tablished, could not afterwards be explain- ed \ for it is with a pious fraud, as with a bad action, it begets a calamitous neceftity of going on.
The perfons who firft preached the chrii- tian fy ft em of faith, and in fome meafure combined with it the morality preached by Jems Chrift, might- perfuade themfelves that it was better than the heathen mytho- logy that then prevailed. From the firft preachers, the fraud went on to the fecond, and to the third, till thQ idea of its being a pious fraud became loft in the belief of its being true-, and that belief came again en- couraged by the intereft of thofe who made a livelihood by preaching it.
But
;( **9 )
But though fuch a belief might, by fuch means, be rendered almoft general among the laity, it is next to impoffible to account for the continual perfecution carried on by the church, for feveral hundred years, againrr. the fciences and again-ft the profef- fors of fcience, if the church had not fome record or fome tradition that k was ori- ginally no other than a pious fraud, or did not forefee that it could not be maintain- ed againft the evidence that the ftructure of the univerfe afford ed.
HAVING thus fhewn the irreconcile- able inconfiftencies between the real word of God exifting in the univerfe, and that which is called the word of God, as fhewn to us in a printed book that any man might make, I proceed to fpeak of the three principal means that have been em- ployed
( m> )
ployed in all ages, and perhaps in all coun- tries, to impofe upon mankind.
Thofe three means are, Myftery, Mira- cle, and Prophecy. The two fir ft are in- compatible with true religion, and the- third ought always to be fufpe&ed.
With refpect to myftery, every thing we' behold is, in one fenfe, a myftery to us. Our own exiftence is a myftery : the whole vegetable world is a myftery. We cannot account how it is that an acorn, when put into the ground, is made to develope itfelf, and become an oak. We know not how it is that the feed we fow unfolds and mul- tiplies itfelf, and returns to us fuch an abun- dant intereft for fo fmall a capital.
The fact, however, as diftincl from the- operating caufe, is not a myftery becaufe we fee it; and we know alfo the means we are to ufe, which is no other than putting the feed into the ground. We know there- fore
( IJI )
fore. as much as is neceflary for us to know; and that part of the operation that we do not know, and which if we did, we could not perform, the Creator takes upon him- felf and performs it for us. We are there- fore better off than if we had been let into the fecret, and left to do it for ourfelves.
But though every created thing is in this fenfe a myftery, the word myftery -cannot be applied to moral truths any more than obfcurity can be applied to light. The God in whom we believe is a God of. moral truth, and not a God of myftery or obfcu- rity. Myftery is the antagonift of. truth. It is a fog of human invention, that ob- jures truth and reprefents it in diftortion. Truth never invelopes it felf in. myftery ; and the. myftery in which it is at any time inveloped, is the work of its antagonift, and never of itfelf.
Religion,
( 132 >
Religion, therefore, being the belief of a God, and the practice of moral truth, can- not have connection with myftery. The belief of a God, fo far from having any- thing of myftery in ft, is of all beliefs the moft eafy, becaufe it arifes to us, as is be- fore obferved, out of necefiity. And the practice of moral truth, or in other words, a practical imitation of the moral goodnefs of God, is no other than our acting towards each other as he ads benignly towards all. We cannot ferve God in the manner we ferve thofe who cannot do without fuch fervice -, and, therefore, the only idea we can have of ferving God, is that of contri- buting to the happinefs of the living crea- tion that God has made. This cannot be done by retiring ourfelves from the fociety of the world, and fpending a reclufe life in felflm devotion.
The
( |33 )
The very nature and deiign of religion, If I may fo exprefs it, prove even to de- monstration, that it muft be free from every thing of myftery, and unincumbered with every thing that is myfterious. Re- ligion, confidered as a duty, is incumbent upon every living foul alike, and therefore muft be on a level to the underftanding and comprehenfion of all. Man does not learn religion as he learns the fecrets and myfteries of a trade. He learns the the- ory of religion by reflection. It arifes out of the action of his own mind upon the things which he fees, or upon what he may happen to hear or to read, and the practice joins itfelf thereto.
When, men, whether from policy or pious fraud, {ct up fyftems of religion in- compatible with the word or works of God in the creation, and not only above, but repugnant to human comprehen/ion, M they
( 134 )
they were under the neceflity of inventing, or adopting, a word that mould ferve as a bar to all queftions, inquiries, and Specula- tions. The word myftery anfwered this purpofe ; and thus it has happened, that religion, which, in itfelf, is without myf- tery, has been corrupted into a fog of myfteries.
As myftery anfwered all general purpo- fes, miracle followed as an occasional auxi- liary. The former fe'rved to bewilder the mind, the latter to puzzle the fehfes. The one was the lingo, the other the leger- demain.
But before going farther into this fub- jedf., it will be proper to inquire what is to be under flood by a miracle.
In the fame fenfe that every thing may be faid to be a myftery, fo alfo may it be laid, that every thing is a miracle, and that no one thing is a greater miracle than
another-
( 135 )
another. The elephant, though larger, is not a greater miracle than a mite •, nor a mountain a greater miracle than an atonx, To an Almighty power, it is no more dif- ficult to make the one than the other, and no more difficult to make a million of worlds than to make one. Every thing therefore is a miracle in one fenfe; whilftj, in the other fenfe, there is no fuch thing as a miracle. It is a miracle when compared to our power,, and to our compreheniion, It is not a miracle compared to the power that performs it. But as nothing in this defcription conveys the idea that is affixed to the word miracle, it is necefTary to carry the inquiry further.
Mankind have conceived to themfelves certain laws, by which, what they call na- ture is fuppofed to act ; and that a mi- racle is fomething contrary to the opera- tion and effect of thofe laws. But unlefs M 2 we
( 136 )
we know the whole extent of thofe laws, and of what are commonly called the powers of nature, we are not able to judge whether any thing that may appear to us wonderful or miraculous, be within, or be beyond, or be contrary to, her natural power of acting.
The afcenfion of a man feveral miles high into the air would have every thing in it that conflitutes the idea of a miracle, if it were not known that a fpecies of air can be generated feveral times lighter than the common atmofpheric air, and yet pofTefs elafticity enough to prevent the balloon in which that light air is inclofed, from being comprefled into as many times lefs bulk, by the common air that furrounds it. In like manner, extracting flames or fparks of fire from the human body, as vifibly as from a fteel ftruck with a flint, and caufing iron or fteel to move without any viiible
agent,
( m ).
agent, would alfo give the idea of a miracle, if we were not acquainted with electricity and magnetifm : fo alfo would many other experiments in natural phiiofophy, to thofe who are not acquainted with the fubje<$h The reitoring perfons to life, who are to appearance dead, as is praclifed upon drowned perfons, would alfo he a miracle, if it were not known that animation is ca- pable of being impended without being extinft.
Befides thck^ there are performances by flight of hand, and by perfons acting in concert, that have a miraculous appear- ance, which, when known, are thought nothing of, And befides thefe, there. arc mechanical and optical deceptions. There is now an exhibition in Paris of ghorb or fpeclres^ which, though it is not impofed upon the fpectators as a fact, has an alio- milling appearance. As therefore we know M 3 not
( '38 )
not the extent to which either nature or art can go, there is no poiitive criterion to determine what a miracle is; and man- kind, in giving credit to appearances, un- der the idea of their being miracles, are fubjecl to be continually impofed upon.
Since then appearances are fo capable of deceiving, and things not real have a ftrong refemblance to things that are, nothing can be more inconfiftent than to fuppofe that the Almighty would make ufe of means, Tuch as are called miracles, that would fub- ject the perfon who performed them to the fufpicion of being an impoftor, and the perfons who related them to be fufpected of lying, and the doctrine intended to be fupported thereby, to be fufpected as a fa- bulous invention.
Of all the modes of evidence that ever were invented to obtain belief to any fyf- t em or opinion, to which the name of re- ligion
( 139 )
ligion has been given, that- of 'miracle, however fuccefsful the impoiitkm may have been, is the moft inconfiftent. For, in the firft place, whenever recourfe is had to fhow, for the purpofe of procuring that belief, (for a- miracle, under any idea of the word, is a. fhow) 'it! implies a lame- nefs or weaknefs in the doctrine that is preached. And, in the feeond place, it is degrading the Almighty into the character of a fhow-man, playing tricks to amufe and make the people ftare and wonder. It is alfo the moft equivocal fort of evidence that can be fet up; for the belief is not to, depend upon the thing called a miracle, but upon the credit of the reporter, who fays that he faw- it •, and therefore the thing, were it true, would have no better chance of being believed than if it were a lie.
Suppofe
( *40 )
Suppofe I were to fay, that when I fat down to write this book, a hand prefented itfelf in the air, took up the pen, and wrote every word that is herein written; would any body believe me ? certainly they would not. Would they believe me a whit the more if the thing had been a fact ? certainly fhey would not. Since then, a real mi- racle, were it to happen, would be fub- jecl: to the fame fate as the falfhood, the inconfiftency becomes the greater, of fup- poiing the Almighty would make ufe of means that would not anlwer the purpofe for w7hich they were intended, even if it were real.
If we were to fuppofe a miracle to ber ibmething fo entirely out of the courfe of what is called nature, that me muffc go out of that courfe to accomplifh it ; and we fee an account given of fueh miracle by the perfon who faid he faw it, it raifes
a queflion
( m )
a queftion in the mind very eafily decided 5 which is, Is it. more probable that nature mould go out of her courfe, or that a man mould tell a lie ? We have never {qqb, in our time, nature go out of her courfe, but we have good reafon to believe that mil- lions of lies have been told in the fame time; it is therefore at leaft millions to one, that the reporter of a miracle tells a lie.
The ftory of the whale fwallowing Jonah, though a whale is large enough to do it, borders greatly on the marvel- lous ; but it would have approached near- er to the idea of a miracle, if Jonah had fwallowed the whale. In this cafe, which may ferve for all cafes of miracles, the matter would decide itfelf as before dated, namely, Is it jsore probable that a man mould have fwallowed a whale, or told a lie?
But
( 142 )
But fuppofing that Jonah had really fallowed the whale, and gone with it in his belly to Nineveh, and to convince the people that it was true, have can: it up in their fight of the full length and iize of a whale, would they not have believed him to have been the devil inftead of a pro- phet ? or, it the whale had carried Jonah to Nineveh, and caft him up in the fame public manner, would they not have be- lieved the whale to have bQQn the devil3 and Jonah one of his imps ?
The- maft extraordinary of all the things called miracles, related in the New Tef- tament, is that of the devil flying away with Jefus Chrift, and carrying him to the top of a high mountain •, and to the top of the higher!: pinnacle of the temple, and mow- ing him, and promifing^to him all the kingdoms of the world. How happened It that he did not difcover America ? or is
it
( 143 )
it only with kingdoms that his footy high- nefs has any in-tereft?
I have too much refped for the moral character of Chrift, to believe that he told this whale of a miracle himfelf ; neither is it eafy to account for what purpofe it could have been fabricated, unlefs it were to im- pofe upon the connoiffeurs of miracles, as is fometimes praclifed upon the connoif- feurs of Queen Anne's farthings, and col . lectors of relics and antiquities; or to ren- der the belief of miracles ridiculous, by outdoing miracle, as Don Quixote outdid chivalry-, or to ernbarrafs the belief of miracles by making it doubtful by what power, whether of God, or of the devil, any thing called a miracle was performed. It requires, however, a great deal of faith in the devil to believe this miracle.
In every point of view, in which thofe things called miracles can be placed and
con-
( *44 )
eonfidered, the reality of them is impro- bable, and their exigence unnecefTary. They would not, as before obferved, an- fwer any ufeful purpofe, even if they were true; for it is more difficult to obtain belief to a miracle, than to a principle evidently moral, without any miracle. Moral prin- ciple fpeaks univerfally for itfelf. Mi- racle could be but a thing of the moment, and (QQn but by a few ■-, after .this, it re- quires a transfer of faith, from God to man, to believe a miracle upon man's re- port. Inftead therefore of admitting the recitals of miracles, as evidence of any fyrtem of religion being true, they ought to be confidered as fymptoms of its being fabulous. It is neceiTary to the full and upright character of truth, that it rejects the crutch-, and it is confident with the character of fable, to feek the aid that truth
rejects.
( H5 )
rejects. Thus much formyftery and mi- racle.
As myftery and miracle took charge of the paffc and the prefent, prophecy took charge of the future, and rounded the tenfes of faith. It was not fufHcient to know what had been done, but what would be done. The fuppofed prophet was tht fuppofed hiftorian of times to come; and if he happened, in mooting with a long bow of a thoufand years, to ftrike within a thoufand miles of a mark, the ingenuity of pofterity could make it point blank; and if he happened to be directly wrong, it was only to fuppofe, as in the cafe of Jonah and Nineveh, that God had repent- ed himfelf, and changed his mind. What a fool do fabulous fyilems of religion make of man !
N IT
( i4« )
IT has been fhewn in a former part of this work, that the original meaning of the words prophet and prophefying has been changed, 'and that a prophet, in the fenfe the word is now ufed, is a creature of modern invention ; -and it is owing to this change in the meaning of the words, that the flights and metaphors of the Jew- ish poets, and phrafes and exprefiions now rendered obfcure by our not being aquaint- ed with the local - circumftances to which they applied at the time they were ufed, have been erected into prophefies, and made 'to "bend' to explanations at the will and whimfical conceits of feclaries, ex- pounders, and commentators. Every thing unintelligible was prophetical, and every thing iniigniiicant was typical A blunder would have ferved for a prophecy j and -a dim-clout for a type.
if
( i4-7 ;)
f f by a prophet we are to fuppofe a man to whom the Almighty communicated fbme event that would take place in fu- ture, : either there were fuch men, or there were not. If there were, it is confiftent to believe that the event, fo communicat- ed, would be told in terms that could be linderftood, and not related in fuch a loofe and obfcure manner as to be out of the comprehension of thofe that heard it, and fo equivocal as to fit almofl any circum- ftance that might happen afterwards. It is conceiving very irreverently of the Al- mighty to fuppofe he would deal in this jetting manner with mankind : yet all the things called prophecies, in the book called the Bible, come under this defcription.
But it is with prophecy, as it is with mi- racle. It could not anfwer the purpofe even if it were real. Thofe to whom a prophe- cy mould be told, could not tell whether N 2 the
( U8 )
the man prophe/ied or lied, or whether it had been revealed to him, or whether he conceited it : and if the thing that he pro- phesied, or pretended to prophecy, mould happen, or fomething like it among the multitude of things that are daily happen- ing, nobody could again know whether he foreknew it, or guefled at it, or whe- ther it was accidental. A prophet, there- fore, is a character ufelefs and unnecefiary \ and tliQ^ft fide of the cafe is, to guard againfc being impofed upon by not giving credit to fuch relations.
Upon the whole, myftery, miracle, and prophecy, are appendages that belong to fabulous, and not to true religion. They are the means by which fo many Lo heres ! and Lo theres ! have been fpread about the v/orld, and religion been made into a trade. The fuccefs of one impoftor gave encou- ragement to another, and the quieting fal-
vo
( m )
vo'of doing fome good by keeping up a pious frauds protected them from remorfe. Having now extended the fubject to a greater length than I firft intended, I mall bring it to a clofe by abftra&ing a fummary from the whole.
Firft, . That the idea or belief of a word of God exifting in print, or in writing, or in fpeech, is inconfiftent in itfelf for the reafons already aiTigned. Thefe reafons, among many others, are the want of an imiverfal language -, the mutability of lan- guage ; the errors to which tranflations are fubjedt; the porlibility of totally fuppref- img fuch a word; the probability of al- tering it, or of fabricating the whole, and irnpofing it upon the world.
Secondly, That the creation we behold, is the real, and ever- exifting word of Godb in which we cannot be deceived. It pro- claimed! his power, it demonil rates his N-3 wifdom,.
( ISO )
wifdom, it manifefts his goodness and be- neficence.
Thirdly, That the moral duty of man confifts in. imitating the moral goodnefs and beneficence of God manifefted in the cre- ation towards all his creatures. That fee- ing, as we daily do, the goodnefs of God to all men, it is an example, calling upon all men to practife the fame towards each other; and confequently that every thing of perfecution and revenge between man and man, and every thing of cruelty to animals, is a violation of moral duty.
I trouble not myfelf about the manner of future exigence. I content myfelf with believing, even to pofitive conviction, that the power that gave me exiftence is able to continue it, in any form and manner he pleafes, either with or without this body \ and it appears more probable to me, that I {hall continue to exifl: hereafter, than that
I mould
( *5* )
I mould have had exigence, as I now have*,. before that exiftence began,
It is certain that, in one point, all na- tions of the earth and all religions agree. All believe in a God. The things in which they difagree, are the redundancies annexed to that belief; and therefore, if ever an univerfal religion fliould prevail, it will not be believing any thing new, but in getting rid of redundancies, and believ- ing as men believed at firfb Adam, if ever there were fuch a man, was created a Deift; but in the mean time let every man- follow, as he has a right to do3 the reli- gion and the worfliip-he prefers,
END OF THE AGE OF REASON, CptJ
EPITOME
OF
LEQUINIO's PREJUDICES DESTROYED,
The Publifher of the American Edition of Mr.
Paine's ' Age of Reafon' having juft received an abftract of a book lately printed in Pa- ris, entitled Prejudices DefryeJ, by J, M. Le- quinio, Member of the National Convention of France, and Citizen of the Globe, which isfuppofed to have been very inftrumental in producing that fcepticifm fo prevalent at this time in France, he prefumes the following Epitome of this curious performance will be acceptable.
PREJUDICES DESTROYED,
Mi
R. Lequinio has always, diftinguifned himfelf by a fervid attachment to the caufe of liberty. He was a patriot previous to the revolution of 1789, and a republican before the 10th of Auguft, 1792, when France ceafed to be governed by a king. But he has .rendered himfelf no lefs re- markable by his fcepticifm^ than by his ha- tred
( 156 )
ftred of tyranny; for he is one of the phi- lofophers to whom Dr. Prieftley exprefsly addrefies his late publication.*
Mr. L. dedicates this extraordinary work not to any particular nation, but to the whole univerfe: a future race may blefs him for affkiling the prejudices of the prefent ; yet he aims not to procure their applaufe, but to afcertain their happinefs and their liberty. After inviting the prieft- hood, ' who among all nations are proud, hypocritical, avaricious, and the fupporters of that defpotifm which receives new , ftrength .from their efforts,'-)- to read this
production,
* " Letters to the Philofophers of France, on the fiibjeft of religion."
•f To moil of the readers of this work it would be unnecefTary to obferve, that thefe reflections on the clergy can be applicable only in thofe countries where there are religious eftablifhments fanCtion- ed by law. In the United States there is happily no alliance of church and ftate.
American PubUJJier.
( *57 ;
production, as it would afford them food for new calumny, and for frefh anathemas, he concludes by exclaiming, c Men, dare to think ! nations, arife ! tyrants, dis- appear !
Of Prejudices. Prejudices are defined to be c general errors, to which men in- cline without reflection, becaufe they ima- gine them to be truths.5 Among thefe are reckoned a belief in aftrology, a fcience which reigned unrivalled for whole ages ; In ghofts, which fome ftupid people frill confide in, &c. c Prejudices arife out of ignorance and the want of reflection -, thefe are the bafis on which the fyftem of def- potifm is erected, and it is the mafter- piece of art in a tyrant, to perpetuate the Cupidity of a nation, in order to perpetu- ate its flavery and his own dominion. If the multitude knew how to think, would they be dupes to phantoms, ghofts, hob- O goblins,
goblins, fpirits, &c. as they have been at all times, and in all nations ? What is no- bility, for example, to a man who thinks ? What are all thofe abftracT: beings, children of an exalted imagination, which have no exiftence but in vulgar credulity, and who ceafe to have being as foon as we ceafe to believe in them ?
' Mohammed, who was arrogant enough to command carnage in the name of hea- ven, has made ignorance an exprefs article of religion, and the greater!: difficulty, which virtuous men, who may wijh to reftore the Mohammedans to liberty > have to encounter, will be to make them violate that principle which prohibits inltruclion. The PrufTian foldiers, thofe military ma- chines, who are fo powerfully fubfervient to the defpotifm of Frederick, have no com- munication whatever with the citizens; this circumftance engenders a fhameful
prejudice,
( H9 )
prejudice, which renders them at one and the fame time, the (laves of the defpot, and defpots thernfelves.' The greater!:, the moft abfurd, and the mod foolim of all prejudices, is here dated to he that very prejudice which induces men to believe that they are neceflary for their happinefs5 and for the very exigence of fociety. The author is determined to hunt down errors of every kind, and he advifes thofe who have not courage to hear him, ' to plunge into the miry ocean of ancient abfurdities, and from^able to fable afcend to the reve- lations of Mofes and Mohammed, to the thirty incarnations of the god Wifnou, to the creation of matter extracted cut of nothing, to the reiurreclion of the body, and to all the monftrous abfurdities, which until this day have degraded man, by {mothering his intellectual power, and fet- tering his reafon,5
O 2 Of
( i6o )
Of Truth, A fage has obferyed, that truth lies concealed at the bottom of a well, and to this idea our author thinks every one will accede, who reflects how much it is ft ill covered with dirt, by what a deluge of error it is overwhelmed, by how many prejudices it is walled in, and how very unlike it is to itfelf. Its moil ardent admirers have hitherto veiled it from the eyes of the multitude ; Jefus has had recourfe to parables, Efop and Fon- taine to fables, Voltaire to tales, and Rouf- feau to romances. c Come then, fublime truth ! haften thy fteps, for thou art dt(- tined to produce the falvation of mankind, and to crive the mortal blow to fanaticifm and to tyranny ! Iftue from my mouth with all the force of Simplicity; appear without any ornaments, the better to be perceived in thy flight, and viiit the whole univerfe, deftroy fuperftition $ overturn
its
( i6i )
its idols •, break the rod of the oppreffor % chafe away defpotifin *, annihilate flavery % and gladden the hearts of nations!5
Of Glory. A paffion for glory is ftated to have been the deffcruction of all the vir- tues, -the germ of all the vices, and, dur- ing every age, the fcourge of human na- ture. ' Anathema to all thofe who feek any other glory than the pleafure of doing good, and any other applaufe than the teftimony of their own confcience !-
Of Honour. Cuftom makes that an ho- nour in one country which is deemed a difgrace in another. A Laplander will offer his wife or his daughter to a ftranger, and consider it as a point of poiitenefs \ a Parifian is indifferent about the virtue of his frail moiety; a citizen born in the pro- vinces is miferable at the idea of her ceafing to be chaile. In the capital of England, a Lord ends a quarrel with his fijis ; in O 2 the
( ^2 )
the capital of France, a point of honour obliges one man to run another through the body. It was always deemed to be a difgrace to be hanged, but there was no difhonour in having the head cut off! To become a mother without the intervention of marriage is rtill held in horror in a thoufand places ; in others it is confidered as an honour. To fleep with a ilave in America is very common, but to eat with her would be a reproach ! Before the re- volution, to be the fervant cf a iimple ci- tizen,, was looked upon as a very humili- ating iituation ^ but to be the valet or lacquey of a prince, was an honour which was purchafed with large fums of money, and with a life of mifery and difcontent. In fhort, the point of honour is not only, dif- ferent in different countries, but it is al- ways varying, always changing with cir- cumftances, and is hardly worth the atten- tion.
( *6-3 )
tion of a man, who can be a good father* a good hufband, and a good citizen, with- out wilhing to obtain any reward for his virtues.
Of Eloquence. c What is eloquence? the - art of deceiving men, by making them fond of error ready made ; an art by which the factious may obtain fuccefs-5 and a certain fcourge to liberty. The pa- triotic focieties form the beft and moft pro- per innutritions for creating and- propagat- ing public fpirit, for fhedding light upon a nation, and annihilating the reign of ty- ranny ; but they, and even the National, ArTenibly itfelf, are fubjecled by a parti- cular kind of defpotifm, that of the ora^ tors, and thence may remit great and in-r numerable evils. What fignifies it to me* whether the defpot, who fubjugates me, be king, prieit, or demagogue I I will not fubmit to any of them. The attach- ment
( 1 6+ )
ment of the audience fornetimes approaches towards idolatry ; the liberty of opinion is invoked m vain •, and, if you do not offer up incenfe to the. idol of the day, you are termed a bad citizen, an ariftocrat, a vil- lain!' Mr. L. gives a receipt, by follow- ing which any public fpeaker may obtain applaufe. c Begin,' fays he, c by flatter- ing your hearers; fay every thing that may tend to pleafe •, make ufe of all your art on purpofe to deceive them'; let your difcourfe abound with a vait multitude of words, in order to prevent them from forming any juft idea of things ; your vo- l'ubity mufc be fuch, that one idea fhall- drive away that which preceded it, and that your audience may be rendered inca- pable of either judgment or reflection; call out pompous pbrafes, fonorous words, regular periods, and conclude by fome fen- timent calculated to affect the heart and
to
( *<*5 )
to overwhelm the reafon. You will have no fooner ended, than the repeated Itravos, the clapping of hands, the movement of the feet, and plaudits of every poffible kind, will enfure you a complete triumph, and woe to him who dares utter a fingle word agarnft you !' Such, we are told, will ever be the effect of eloquence in a numerous affembly j it is never ferviceable but in books, for it may be ufed there without any great danger, becaufe the reader can paufe and take time for reflection. It is neceflary that enflaved nations fhould be led by quack orators, and by defpots who deceive, and who fubjugate them : but a free people want only a philofopher, who will point out the road to truth, and allow- them to purfue it.
Of Miracles. As to c the pretended mi- racles' which have been worked by the au- thors of all religions, he accounts for them
in
( i66 )
in the blindnefs of the multitude, and the arts of their leaders, whom he reprefents as the Mefmers and Caglioftros of former ages. Mr. L. pays many compliments to the genius of John Guttemberg, a native of St^afbpurg, and a citizen of Mentz, who invented the art of printing, and thus enabled philofophy to difFufe truth and de- tect error.
Of Kings. We are here told, that kings have, ever been tyrants, more or lefs des- potic, more or lefs cruel, more or lefs un- jufl, but equally fmitten with a love of power, intoxicated by the fpirit of domi- nation, forgetful that they were men, anxious to place themfelves on a level with gods, and averfe to recollect that all their power and authority was derived from the very nations whom they opprefied.
c It may eamy be perceived, that by the word tyrant $ I do not mean folely thofe
monilers
( 167 3 jiionfters of the human race, fuch as .Nero, Caligula, Charles IX. &c. my definition -extends to almoft all kings, pail and pre- lentj I do not even except that king of France fo often vaunted as the $ good Henry;3* although lefs cruel than moftof his predeceffors, he was afTuredly no lefs defpotic, and thought no lefs than they, that all France was deftined for his pleafure and his glory ; if an innovator during his reign had dared to have recalled the me- mory of their unalienable rights to the minds of the people, he would have been crufhed under the weight of the royal authority, -j-
* What
* Henry IV.
f ' Let any one recoiled the game laws enacted by this monarch, and then afk himfelf if he were really a good king. By an article of his ordonance on this fubjecl, it was decreed, that every peafant, found with a gun in his hand, near a thicket, mould be flripped naked, and beaten with rods around it until the blood came. It was thus that
( i68 )
c What mould a king be, if he were as he ought ? A man covered with a paper jacket, on which is written, (De par la nation & la lot) " By order of the people and the law ;" the herald of the nation, the proclaimer of its orders, and nothing more. It is ridiculous enough to fee royalty propagated from father to fon, like the king's evil ; it is ftill more ridiculous to fee nations fo deceived by being accuftomed to flavery, as to become the fervile idola- ters of that power by which they are op- prefTed, without once recollecting that it is their own.5
Of
the life of man was facri'ficed to the repoiie and the exigence of hares and partridges, deftined for the pleafures of a prince, more culpable, perhaps, in refped to this barbarous Iazv, than .any of his pre- deceiTors, becaufe, educated among the indigent and unfortunate, he ought never to have permitted any other fentiments than thofe of gentlenefs and humanity to penetrate into his mind.'
( i69 )
Of' Equality. It is but juflice to the French nation, to obferve here, that, while the malice of their enemies has accufed them with a want to equalize property, an ^qual partition of rights has been alone in- culcated by their philofophers and politici- ans ; this principle, with a few exceptions, has been adopted in our own conftittition.
Of Dome/lies. This chapter recommends the practice of humanity and beneficence towards fervants : the former imlils the love of morals.
Of the labouring Clafs. We are here told, that ignorance leads tombjection and mi - fery; education to happinefs and liberty.
Of Women. Our author laments, that throughout all Alia, Africa, and mod parts of Europe, it is {till the cuftorn to fhut up the fair fex, and make them prifoners from their earlieft youth. He adviies them to renounce their parlion for trinkets and P baubles,
( iyo )
iaubles, which leads to their fubjection i to abandon their errors and their preju- dices; to conquer their love of dominion \ to renounce a life of frivolity; to deteft vanity; -and to figh no longer after ob- jects, the attainment of which can confer no real pleafure. He conjures them to free themfelves from the yoke of religious prejudices, and above all things to learn to think and to make ufe of their reafon, as fuperftition and weaknefs alone can enfure the dominion of the other fex over them.
Of Baftards. By the ancient laws of France, a woman's fortune palled away, from her illegitimate fan, -and went to the collateral branches of her family ; this is affirmed to -have been a great hardfhip. The injuftice of that fcorn, with which children begotten out of the pale of mar- riage are treated, is here very forcibly in- culcated.
Of
( m Y
Of Slaves. Mr. L. like all other liberal and enlightened men, uninterefted, and un warped by the traffic of -human flefh, loudly declaims againft the favage, barba* rous and inhuman cuftom of flavery.
Of Mourning. The author cannot dlf- cern the connexion between grief and the colour of a coat or gown.-
The Punifhment of Death, and Suicide. The idea of legitimating a crime, by en- acting a law in favour of homicide, is here held in defer ved abhorrence. The prin- cipal end of fociety is the prefervation of the co-afTociates, and the defence of their lives againft all who may wifh to attack or to abridge them ; the intemperance of the feafons, the voracity of animals, the perfecution of one man againft his fellow- man; in fhort, mankind have united againft every thing that may endanger exiftence, and it is an evident confequence of this P 2 principle.
( *Jf* )
principle, that a nation cannot take away the life of an individual. Mr. L. thinks it would be far more conducive to mora- lity, to public education, and to the edifi- cation of poflerity, that culprits fhould fur- vive their crimes •, and he would rather fee Louis XVI. chained as a galley flaye, and tugging at an oar, and his wife working during twenty or thirty years at the Salpe- triere^ than behold their heads (truck off •at the CarroufeL In fhort, he wiihes for the fuppreiTion of capital punifhments, and this circumftance, inftead of conferring im- punity upon crimes, would, according to him, produce infinitely more terror, as the offender would be fubje&ed to a lefs bar- barous, but an infinitely more long and fevere puniftiment.*
All
* The American Fubiifher thinks the import- ance of the fubjeft a fufficient apology for infer*- ing this note,
( *73 )
All the laws againfl filicide are ftated to
be abiblutely ridiculous, ineffectual, and
P 3 unjuftj
"'There is a manifeft difference between punlfli- ment and correction; the latter, among rational beings, may alwaysbe^ performed by inftruction; or at moft by fome gentle fpecies of reftraint. But punimment, on the part of the public, arifes from nG other fource but a jealoufy of power. It is a confeflion of the inability of fociety, to protect it- felf againfl an ignorant or refractory member. When there are factions in a ftate, contending for the fupreme command, the pains inflicted by each party are fummary ; they often precede the crime; and the factions wreak then** -vengeance on each other, as a prevention of expected injuries. Some- thing very fimilar to this is what perpetually takes place in every nation,, in what is called a flate of tranquillity and, order:, for government has usu- ally been nothing -more than a regulated faction. The party- which governs, and the party which reluctantly: fubmits to be governed, maintain a continual conflict p and out of that conflict pro- ceed-the crimes and the, punimments, or, more properly fpeaking, the punimments and the crimes. When we fee. the power of the nation feizing an individual, dragging him to=a tribunal, pronounc- ing him worthy cf death, and then going through the folenin formalities of execution, it is natural to
( i?4 )
unjuft; the only way to prevent a man from taking away his life is, to declare
that
afk, what is the meaning of all this? It certainly means, that the nation is in a flate of civil war; and even in that barbarous ftage of war, when it is thought necefTary to put all prifoners to death. In deciding the queftion, whether a particular cri- minal mould be put to death, I never would aik .what is the nature of his offence: it has nothing to do with the queilion; I would limply inquire, what is the condition of the fociety. If it be in a fbte of internal peace, I would fay it was wicked, and abfurd to think of inflicting fuch pimifli- ment. To plead that there is a neceffity for that defperate remedy, proves a want of energy in the government, or of wifdom in the nation.
" When. men are in a ftate cf war, with the enemy's bayonets pointed at their breafls, or when they are in the heat of a revolution, encompalTed 1 by treafon, and tormented by corruption, there is an apology for human daughter ; but when yon have efrabiifhed a wife and manly government, founded on the moral; -fenfe, and invigorated by the enlightened reafon of the people, let it not be fullied by that timid vengeance, which belongs only to tyrants and ufurpers. I could wifli that your conftitution might declare, notmerely what it has already declared, that the penal co^e mall be
( 175 )
that he has a right to do itr if hefhoi?Idbe {b difpofed.
Of Oaths. Mankind muft have been well convinced, that they were naturally difhoneft, when they invented oaths as the teft of truth: thefe do not bind rogues, and good men have no manner of occafiom for them.
Of Intolerance. While there are reli- gions, we are told there will be fanaticifm9 miracles, civil wars, knaves, and dupes. There are penitents, fanatics, and hypo- crites,, in China and in Turkey, as well as
in
reformed, but that, within a certain period after the return of peace, the punijfiment of death JJiall be aboliflted. It ought likewife to enjoin it on the le- gislative body, to foften the rigour of punifhments in general, until they fhall amount to little more than a tender paternal correction. Whoever wilt look into the human heart, and examine the order ©f nature in fociety, .muft be convinced, that this is the mod likely method of preventing the com- million of crimes."
Barlow's Letter to the Convention, p. £_$.
( 176 )
in France ; but there is not any religion, perhaps, in which there exifts fuch a fpirit of intolerance, as in that profefTed by the chriftian priefls, the author of which preached up. toleration. by his example, as well as by his precepts.
Of JVar. Who is that perverfe, and ever execrable man, who firft invented the murderous art -of - war, and -that famous fcience of tactics, which confifts in the ben: means of maffacreing .whole nations ? One creature may atfaflinate another in a mo- ment of paiTion, and, however barbarous this act really is, and however much it may be repugnant to the fenfibility of a good man, yet he can conceive it: but for two men, in cool blood, to think" of afTaflmating one another, or thoufands of men of af- fafllnating other thoufands, with whom they are utterly unconnected, and can have
no
C m )
no quarrel or even difference with \ of this- he can form no idea.
O fhame to the human fpecies ! Na- tions, blind, and afleep, will you never awake? What!, mall not an individual whom you have placed upon the throne, and whom- you have overwhelmed with your bounties, be fatisfied with confuming the fruit of your fweat and of your toils, in the bofom of indolence and voluptuouf- nefs, and with laying your induftry and your fortune under contribution ! And fliall he wifh to difpofe of your very ex- igence ? mini: you be the inftruments of his anger and his vengeance, of his ambi- tion and his mad defires I
He wifhes to conquer a province, that is to fay, to ufurp the dominion over a country, and pillage the inhabitants; and It is to affift this audacious robbery, of which you will enjoy no lucrative portion,
that
( i7«- )
that :you. are about to defolate the territo* ries of a people who never offended you, to burn their villages, and to fpread. death and defolation over their fields; while in this attempt you expofeyourfelves to exceffive fatigues, . to continual priva^ tions, and even to death itleif ; or, what is frill worfe, to wounds, which but pro- long a miferable exigence \
Of Hiftory. It is allowed to be highly probable, that- an Alexander and a Caefar, thofe two great plunderers of the earth, and perfecutors -of nations, have really ex- ited ; it would indeed be unreafonable to doubt it; but when it is confidered in how- many different manners the tranfaclions of the prefent day -are reprefented, it is with fome degree of hesitation that a wife man will give credit to the narratives faid to be written twenty or thirty centuries ago, and long previous to the art of printing,
Of
( m )
<0f the Creation and -Antiquity -of-ihv \ World. Whoever is impelled by the defire of believing, and yet neverthelefs knows how to reflect, will be induced to think the creation of the world, as laid down, and its novelty, as maintained in our holy hooks i exceedingly ftrange ; for, letting afide the incbmprehenfiblenefs of ' "the work of feven days,' it will appear amazing, how- nations, in the fhort fpace of fix thoufand years, could have been fo polifhed and in- telligent £n refpectrto the arts and feien- oes, as y/e fee them at this very day, when we mirfelves behold fo little progrefs dur- ing a whole age .
Of Politics and -Intrigue. 'The one of thefe is ufually denominated the fcience of government-, the other, the mode of ac- quiring fortune and credit; but they -are both termed here the arts of deceiving.
Of Jefus Qhrift. He always difplayed
virtue -9
( i8o .);
virtue ; he always fpoke according to the dictates of reafon ; he always preached up -wifdom; he flncerely loved all men, and wifhed to do good, even to his execution- ers; he developed all the principles of moral equality, and of the pureft patriot- ifm ; he met danger undifmayed^ he mowed himfelf averfe to the great, who in all* ages have made a bad ufe of their power; he defcribed the hard-heartednefs of the rich ; he attacked the pride of -kings ; he dared to refift, even in the face of tyrants; he defpifed glory and fortune; he was faber; he folaced the indigent ; he taught the un- fortunate how to fuffer ; he fuflained weak- nefs ; he fortified decay ; he confoled mif- fortune, and knew how to med tears with them that wept; he taught men to fubjugate their parTions, to think, to reflect, to love one another, and to live happily together ; he was hated by the powerful men whom
he
( i8i )
he offended, and persecuted by the wicked whom he unmafked : he died under the indignation of that blind and deceived mul- titude, for whom he had always lived.' Such is the amiable character of Jems Chrift, as drawn by the pen of a man who feems to inculcate virtue, although fte differs with the chriftian world in re- fpecl to certain opinions, which he does not imagine to be effential to happinefs.
Of the Grave. We highly approve of what the author fays relative to the pom- pous tombs and lying infcriptbns erected to the memory of the dead : thefe maufo- ieums' are fo many tributes to the pride and the vanity of the living.
Of Impiety. I am an impious man, my dear reader j and I tell the truth to every man, which is perhaps fti.ll worfe. Four years are fcarcely elapfed, iince the follies of the Sorbonne, and the furies of Q^ defpotifm,
( i32 )
ilefpotifm, might have railed a ftorm, •which would have burft upon my head -, they would have fmitten me, like a de- ftruclive monfter, an afTaflin of the human race, a perturbator, a traitor ! Each of thefe coloftal phantoms has difappeared before the eye of reafon, and the auguft image of liberty, however, an infinite number of prejudices, perfonal intereft, and hypocricy, all of them no lefs the tyrants, .and the enemies of knowledge, ftill dwell among us.
There ftill remains at the bottom of thy heart, at the bottom of thy own -heart, -the prejudices of thy infancy, -the lerTons of thy riiirfe, and the opinions of thy flrft inftruclors, which are -the effects of that renunciation of thought which thou haft pradtifed all the days of thy life, from the cradle upwards ! In addition to*. this, it is the intereft of every one to keep thee in
total
c m )
total blindnefs. The rich and powerful man dreads left- thou fhouldft open thy eyes, and perceive that his ftrength and grandeur proceed from thy ignorance and; fiibmiflion. The vain man, with equality in his mouth, but not in his heart, fears left thou ihbuldft difcover the abfurdity of his pretentions to fuperiority; the hypo- crite, who terms himfelf the reprefentative of the divinity, and the meiTcnger of hea- ven, trembles left thou fhouldft begin to reflect, for, from that moment his credit and his authority are at an end. He eats and drinks at his leifure ; he fleeps without care ; he walks about in order to procure an appetite ■; he enjoys the price of thy la- bours in peace -, thou payeft for his plea- fures, his fubfiftence, and even for his fieep. But, wert thou to begin to reafon, thou wouldft . foon perceive thy error; thou wouldft touch the phantom, and it would Q^2 inftantly
( i84 )
inftantly vaiqim , thou wouldrr. difcover that- he is an ufelefs parafite, and that all his authority repofes on thy foolifh credulity, thy weaknefs, thy chimerical fears, and the ridiculous hopes which he has taken care to infpire thee with, ever fince thou earner}, out of thy mother's womb. Per- haps thy very wife is interested to. deceive thee, on purpofe to conceal her diforders, and to fanelify her connexions with the re- prefentative of the divinity, who renoun- ces the holy laws of nature, becaufe he fpares himfelf, at one and the fame time, the uneaflnefs' and the duties of paternity! Thefe will excite thy paiiions, arm thy heart, and call up thy hatred again ft my leiTons and my doctrine ; for I am an im- pious being, who neither believe in faints nor in miracles •, I am an impious being, who would drink wine in the midfl: of Turks at Conftantinople, who would eat
pork
( i&5 )
pork with the Jews, and the flefh of a tender lamb or a fat pullet among the Chris- tians on a Friday, even within the palace of a Pope, or beneath the roof of the Va- tican, I am an impious man, for I firm- ly believe that three are more than one \ that the whole is greater than one of its parts ; that a body cannot exiit in a thou- fand places at one and the fame moment, and be entire in a.thoufand- detached -por- tions- of itSelf; '
I am an impious man, for I' never be- lieve on the -word of another whatever contradicts my. own reafon •, and if a thou- fand doctors of the law mould tell me, that they had {qcii a -Sparrow- devour am ox in a quarter of an hour, or take the carcafe la its bill, and carry it to its ned in order to feed its young, were they even to Swear by theinSurplices, their iioles, or their Square bonnets, they would -ft ill find me incredu- lous! Q^3 I am
( 1 86 )
I am an impious man, for I do not believe- that anointing the tips of the fingers with, oil, wearing the ecclefiaflical tonfiire^ or cutting the hair, that the being cloathed in a black caifock, or a violet robe, and carrying a mitre on the head, and a crofs in the hand, can render an ignorant fellow (in- capableof conducting that ploughwhich he- has but juft quitted) able to work miracles. In ihort, my brother, I mull; be an im- pious man, fince my conduct has no other regulator than my confcience -, fince I my- felf have no other principle, than the de- fire of public happinefs, and no other di- vinity than virtue. Thou mufr, necefTarily hate me, for it is a great crime to think and to believe otherwife than thy felf !
But have I committed murder or car- nage, theft, rapine, evil fpeaking, calum- ny ? have I taught the art of deceiving men ? have I infmuated a fpir.it of ven- geance i
( i«7 )
geance ? have I preached up fornication or adultery ? have I inculcated defpotifm oh the part of the great, and flavery on that of the humble?
No — on the contrary, I have pointed- out the road to truth \ I have proved tc^ thee, that thy happinefs confifts in virtue ; I have proved to thee, that thou hail hi- therto been the dupe of thofe who fatten upon thy fubftance, and bathe themfelves* m thy fweat, and that all thy unhappinefs arifes from thy credulity, thy habitual ha- tred to refieclion, and thy purlllanimity.. Are thefe crimes I I am not guilty of any other.
Whoever thou art, thy friendship is precious to me-, whether thou be Chriftian* Mohammedan, Jew, Indian, Perfian, Tar- tar, or Chinefe, art thou not a man, and am not I thy brother ? Believe in future^ in that fpecies of happinefs which may- give
( i88 )
give thee delight; believe for the prefent, in thofe myfteries which pleafe and enter- tain thee; place thy god in the fun, or in the moon, in light, or in darknefs ; make him refide on the earth, or in the heavens i place him in a water, or in the pulfe in thy garden, or in the birds of thy court- yard, what does it concern me ? O my friend ! I place mine in virtue, and my fupreme happinefs confifts in doing thee good; I mall partake thy pleafures, and thy pains, and when thy heart is fatisfled, mine mall be at reft ! Tolerate, therefore, an impious man, who has never laboured but for the good of others, and who now labours for thine, at the very moment when thou wifheft to perfecute him*
The,
The following Catechifm> which feems now to be the orthodox creed of the French,, is agreeable to the fentiments contained in the preceding work, and may with great propriety be annexed to it. The moral duties it inculcates, thofe which refpect the temporal circumftances of France excepted, are well worthy the attention-- of all civilized nations.
TWENTY-FIVE PRECEPTS OF REASON.
Do not do to me lohat thou ivouldj} not that I Jhuld do unto thee.
7- /ILL nature announces to thee a creator; itdore him. He is every where; every where he will hear thee.
i. The wonders which furround thee are his minifters: know no others; thefe will always fpeak truth to thee.
3. To thy confcience only thou malt confefs thy faults: me alone fpeaks frankly; me alone can abfolve thee.
4. To miracles, to witch-craft, give no faith; miftrufi the perndious carefles of all falfe priefls, of the heretofore great \ the enemies of the republic :
if
( 19° }
if they ftill exift, thefe are the jugglers who deceive thee, who lie, and wifh thy deftruction.
5. Obferve, in every particular, the law of thy country, and thou wilt never err.
6. After thy creator, love thy country above all things: (lie alone ought to fix thy thoughts and di-- reel: thy actions; thy life is her's.
7. After thy country, thou malt love and cherifh, as thyfelf, thy father and thy mother : thou oweit them refpe<£t and fubniifiion, if they are repub- licans: before thyfelf, thou cweft them the necef- faries of life, and comfort in their old age; honour them, and heaven will blefs thee.
8. Liberty. This is the device of the good citi- tizen; me is the recompeufe or the civic virtues.
9. Equality. This is thy inheritance.
10. Eternal hate, a war of death, to tyrants and vile defpots.
11. To traitors, to perjurors, to the enemies of the country, give no afylum, if tbou wouldlt. not be guilty of their crimes,
12. When thy county is in lo not bafe- ly conceal thyfelf: be the frrft to mow .en- ly; in combating for her, thou ccmbateit
felf; here is thy duty.
13. Asa true Republican, watch the enemies of liberty; unravel feditious plots, denounce conibi- rators, coir: . - Cy feize -patricides^ and deliver them to th* : u (rice of the k1-
14. Openly protect oppreiTed innocence^ lend
an-
( *9.i )
an ear neither to hatred, refentment, nor paffions ; pardon eafily, if thou wouldft be pardoned; hold fcandal in horror, and remember that a calumnia- tor is the greater! of criminals.
15. Every Republican mortal is thy brother? always extend to him the helping hand; with can- dour explain to him his errors, carefully conceal his failings; draw him from his evil path; and al- ways fay to thyfelf, / am a man, noihong which in~ terejis humanity is foreign to me.
16. JFly envy, jealoufy, ambition and intrigue, if thou wouldft. not commit bafenefs.
17. Be not wicked; love thy neighbour as thy- felf; render him fervice, and be beneficent; do not to another what thou would!! not that he mould do unto thee ; and in the practice of thefe virtues thou wilt find thy recompense.
18. Be referved in thy words; be reflected; de- left a lie; love truth; fly from violence and anger;
let thy heart dictate thy oaths, if thou would efcape evil confequences.
19. Be frank, difinterefied; avoid diffimulation, and thy actions will be pure and without reproach.
20. Remember that ufury, mononpolizing and felhthnefs are capital crimes.
21. Defpife riches, they are the portion of fools ; content with thy lot, envy not that of another, nor the fortune of thy neighbour; do not borrow if thou canft. not return; what belongs to another is not thine; deteft avarice, ufury and idlenefs, if thou wouldir. not be defpifed and live in fhame.
22. Be
( i92 )
22. Be charitable; comfort fuffering humanity: let the widow and orphan find in thee a defender: protect women and children, and regard with vene- ration every aged perfon.
23. Do thou, old man, teach and inftruet. the youth; and thou matron, remain in thy family; watch over thy children — they belong to the coun- try.
24. Sans Culotte Republican, to all thy brethren thou oweft a good example; what they advance treat with kindnefs; cherifh conftantly thy wife, thy children, and thy family; with mildnefs in- fpire the facial and republican virtues; be a good father, a good huiband, a good fon: thou wilt be worthy of being free, and thy country will love thee.
25. Remember, laftly, that the Mountain, the center of virtues, is the rallying point of each good citizen; thou oweft it homage, veneration, and fidelity; it alone has willed thy happinefs, alone has eftablimed it; to the Mountain, and the brave de- fenders of the country, thou art indebted for thy libertv.
By J. GRASET St. SAUVEUR. The Reprefentatives of the People, in their fitting at Bourdeaux, order the impreffi- on of thefe precepts.
PEYREND D. HERVAL, Secretary of the Commifiion-
FINIS.
I is* 3
THE French have been reprefented by their enemies as a nation of Atheiils, as having abolifhed all religion, belie veing neither in a God, nor a future existence, but that death was an everlafting fleep. That among 27,000,000 of people there fhould be two or three fpecnlative philofbphers of this opinion is not hard to conceive, but that a whole nation fhould all fudden-ly become Athe- ifis is unaccountable, and deferves not the leafl: credit. This idea, which has been fo induftri- oufly circulated, and which is one of the often- fible reafons for the righteous king of England's joining the holy crufade, arole from a hafty expreflion of Mr. Dupont, a member of the Convention, who in a frenzy of paffion, ex- claimed " I am an Atheift" ! a great number of members cry out "whatisthat to us, fo you are an honeft man." It is true fome inconfiderate people in the galleries, applauded this fpeech.
But hafty plaudits in a popular aflembly are by no means the criterion of public opinion. And in the prefent inftance mav probably with more propriety be confidered a compliment paid to the manner and independent fpirit of the orator, than an acquiefcence of principle.
The following Decree will mow at lead; that the Frence nation are not all Atheifb, and will give fome idea of the mode of worfhip which they are about to inftitute.
A
L *9.2 ]
FRANC E.
NATIONAL CONVENTION. 1 8th Floreal.— (8 Muy 1793.)
Robertspiere, m the name of the commit- ■tee of Public fafety, made a very lengthy re- port on the inftiturion of National Feftivals • at the concluiion of which, he propoied the following decree, which was unanimoufly adopted.
Art. 1. The French people acknowledge the exigence of a Supreme Being, and the im- mortality of the foul.
Art. 2. They acknowledge that a worfhip Ivor thy the Supreme Being is to practife the duties of men, and they clals among thefe du- ties, the deteftation of treachery and tyranny — . the punifhment of tyrants and traitors — the Succouring of the unfortunate — refpect for the weaknefs of men — the defending the opprefTed ; the doing to others all the good we are capable of, and injuring no one.
Art. 3. They will inftitute FefKvals to recal men to the remembrance of the Divinity, and to the dignity of their Being.
Art. 4. The names of the feftivals (hall be taken from events the moft glorious in our re. volution, from virtues the molt cherifhed and the moft ufeful to man, and which have produ- ced the greateft benefits to nature.
Art.
[ 193 ]
Art. 5. The French Republic will celebrate every year, the Feftivals of the 14 July 1789* iothof Auguit 1792,1 21ft January 1793,$ and 31ft of May t 793*§
Art. 6. They will celebrate on the days of Decadi, the Feftivals which follow :
To the Supreme Being, and to Nature* To the Human Race. To the Benefactors of Mankind. To the Martyrs of Liberty. To Liberty and Equality. To the Republic. To the Liberty of the World. To the love of our Country. To the hatred of Tyrants and trai- tors. To Truth. To Juftice. To Charity- To Glory and Immortality. To Friendfhip- To Frugality. To Courage. To Fidelity- To Hercifm. To Difmtereilednefs. ToSto- icifm. To Conjugal Faith. To Paternal Love. To Maternal Tendernefs. To Filial Piety. To Infancy. To Youth. To Man- hood. To Old Age. To Misfortune. To Agriculture. To Indufhy. To our Fathers. To Poilerity.
Art. 7. The Committees of Safety and In- ilruction, are charged to prefent a plan for the organization of theie feftivals.
Arc*
* Taking of the Baftile. + Execution of the Swifs- guards. J Execution of Louis XVI.
\ Firft meetiug of the Nations! Convention, and De-> cree for the eternal abolition of Monarchy in France, j^
C 194 3
Art. 8. The National Convention invite thofe who have talents worthy to ferve the caufe of humanity, to the honor ot concurring in this eftablifhment, by hymns and civic fongs, and by all the means which fhall contribute te its ^mbellifhment and utility.
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Viewed as philolbphic treatifes thefe works- embrace thofe ideas which the moft perfect rea- foil mult approve.. They elevate the mind above thofe prejudices which are the effect of a faife education ; and illuftrate an importantant truth that the vices and miferies, which over fpread the earth are not to be afcribed to the inherent propenfities of human nature fo much as to faults and defects in thofe artificial inftkuti- ons, which have exifted under an unnatural and perverfe date of fociety- Reftore man to the proper deitiny of his nature, and it will an- nihilate the fources from which have flowed thofe crimes and misfortunes which hitherto have been deemed infeperable from human be- ings. Nature has been perverted in moft of the fociettes that were ever formed. Whene- ver we behold an individual or a nation corn- committing
[ J97 3
mitting evil, andprefled by adverfity, we fhould look for the caufe among the faults of education or government. Thefe objects are fully illuf- trated in the writings under contemplation.
In examining thefe works as pieces of fine compofition, we find an energy and elegance that cannot be furpaffed, nor too much admir- ed. The {file, it miift be confefTed, is bold and figurative • but the imagery is lo natural and well chofen, that we are charmed in every in- stance, where the expreffion rifes above fiai- plicity. In fhort we here find the ardor of eloquence united with the precifion of philofo- phy. This forms a blend that makes the per- formances at once fafcinating and inftructive.
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This
[ >9* 3
This work contains 3 46 i2mo. pages, is orna- iiiented withjtwo elegant copper- plate prints, and fold at One Dollar. A continuation of this hif- tory is in the prefs, and will be out by the middle of Auguit next. It will make a vol- ume rather larger than the one now published, and will alfo be ornamated with two prints, and fold at a moderate price. This volume brings the hiftory of this important revolution down to the execution of the Geronde, or Briflotine party, which took place the ift. Dec. 1793* That part of the hiftory which relates particu- larly to the conipiracy of the BrifTotine party, including the intrigues of the Briti/h and other European courts in attempting to effect a coun- ter-revolution in France, the American publish- ers have tranilated immediately from the French, which they have juft received from Paris, and is not in any Englifh edition. They are forry to obferve that the author of the Rights of Man is enrolled in the number of the accufed, they tru(l he has been calumniated, and hope for a fpeedy iiTue to his prefent fufferings.
The following Remarks on this hiftory have appeared in the American Minerva.
Rabaut's Hiftory of the Revolution in France lately published by Meifrs. Greenleaf and Fel- lows of this city, recommends itfelf to the curi- ous enquirer after truth, by its brevity, precilion
and
[ *99 I
and candid naration of facts. The firft volume only is before the -American public ; but wg arepromifed the fecond in a fhort time. The firft volume opens with fome general account of the civil fhte of France at the commence- ment of the Revolution, and of the accumulati- on of caufes which concurred to produce that event. Among thefe the author enumerates the fevere burthens of unequal taxes, the capri- cious tyranny of the kings and miniflers of France, the writings of Locke, Clarke, New- ton, Leibnitz, Cordillac, Montefquieu, Voltaire, Rouflfeau, and the Encyclopedia. Reruns over the adminiflration of Maurepas, Turgor, Clug- ny, Neckar, Joly de Fleury, d'Ormeifon, and Calonne under whofc miniitry, the diftrefles of the nation arifmg from demands on an exhauft- ed treafury, had arrived to a moil ferious cri- fis. Under his fucceflbr M. de Brienne, the parliament of Paris demanding a convocation of the itates general.
The author then proceeds to narrate the principal events from the afTembling of the iiates general to the kings acceptance of the conftitution of 179 1. The hiitory appears to be impartial, and, as the writer was a member of the national aflembly, it has the faireft claim to the character of authenticity. The ftile is eafy, elegant and perfpicuous, and wholly free
frois
[ 200 ]
from thatfalfe brilliancy which throws a glare over many of the late French publications.
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[ 202 ]
THOUGHTS
ON THE
DIVINE GOODNESS,
RELATIVE TO THE
Government of Moral Agents,
PARTICULARLY DISPLAYED IN
FUTURE REWARDS and PUNISHMENTS.
as*
God our Saviour will have all mm to b? fayed, and to come unt$ the knowledge of the truth, l Tim. ii. 4.
Tranflated from the French of
FERDINAND OLIVER PETITPIERRE,
Formerly Mhitfter r Chaux-de-Fond.
THE Tranilator of 1 e~ibllc wing pages hav- ing witnefTed the approb rhey met with abroad, the ardor with v : : ] m ; were fought, and the difficulty with which they were obtained thinks it may be rendering fer.vice to the caufe of religion, and contributing to the happinefs of mankind to make them eafy of accefs, in a nation diftinguilhed by its lite . id which in the- ology and philofophy has produced to many lu- minaries.
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