Elihu Palmer's Principles of Nature

I'd like to thank fellow Deists Steve Dowell and Jay Boswell for their hard work in transcribing this important Deist work by Deist pioneer and personal friend of Thomas Paine, Elihu Palmer, and allowing the WUD to use it!

Elihu Palmer was a Presbyterian minister who became blind from the effects of yellow fever. As a Deist, Mr. Palmer did much to advance the cause! With the help of his wife, he gave talks on Deism, wrote and edited a Deist publication called The Prospect and wrote an outstanding book on God, Deism, "revealed" religions, etc. called Principles of Nature which we have below in its entirety.

Elihu Palmer's writing style is similar to Thomas Paine's in that he pulled no punches and was very honest. Regarding Elihu Palmer's writing Thomas Paine had this to say, "I received by Mr. Livingston the letter you wrote me, and the excellent work you have published. I see you have thought deeply on the subject, and expressed your thoughts in a strong and clear style. The hinting and intimating manner of writing that was formerly used on subjects of this kind produced skepticism, but not conviction. It is necessary to be bold."

To read and/or download this book in PDF please click here.

Principles of Nature;
or, A Development of the Moral Causes of Happiness and Misery Among the Human Species

by Elihu Palmer

CONTENTS.

Page.

CHAPTER I.

THE POWER OF INTELLECT, ITS DUTY, AND THE OBSTACLES THAT OPPOSE

  ITS PROGRESS......................................................

5

CHAPTER II.

THEOLOGY AND ITS EFFECTS............................................

10

CHAPTER III.

CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY..................................................

13

CHAPTER IV.

THE BIBLE, OR THE SACRED WRITINGS OF THE JEWS AND

CHRISTIANS.........19

CHAPTER V.

ORIGINAL SIN, ATONEMENT, FAITH, &c. A CHRISTMAS DISCOURSE,

  DELIVERED IN NEW YORK, DEC. 1796..................................

29

CHAPTER VI.

ORIGIN OF THE EARTH.................................................

50

CHAPTER VII.

UNIVERSAL DELUGE....................................................

56

CHAPTER VIII.

CHRISTIAN WONDERS...................................................

60

CHAPTER IX.

IS THE EVIDENCE DRAWN FROM MIRACLES SUFFICIENT TO PROVE THE

  DIVINE ORIGIN OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION?..........................

62

CHAPTER X.

PROPHETIC EVIDENCE IN RELATION TO THE DIVINITY OF THE CHRISTIAN

  RELIGION..........................................................

74

CHAPTER XI.

THAT THE IMMORALITY OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION PROVES THAT IT IS

  NOT OF DIVINE ORIGIN..............................................

84

CHAPTER XII.

CHRISTIAN MARTYRS, THE CHURCH, OPINIONS OF LEARNED DIVINES..........

95

CHAPTER XIII.

ORIGIN OF MORAL EVIL, AND THE MEANS OF ITS ULTIMATE EXTIRPATION

  FROM THE

EARTH....................................................101

CHAPTER XIV.

INFIDEL

PHILOSOPHY..................................................110

CHAPTER XV.

INQUIRY, ARE THE EVILS INCIDENT TO HUMAN LIFE THE RESULT OF THE

  OPERATION OF THE LAWS OF NATURE; OR, ARE THEY SPECIAL JUDGMENTS

  FROM

GOD?.........................................................115

CHAPTER XVI.

CHRISTIAN

DEVIL.....................................................127

CHAPTER XVII.

DEATH, OR THE DISORGANIZATION OF INTELLIGENT

BEINGS.................136

CHAPTER XVIII.

PROPOSITION, THAT THE WANT OF UNIVERSALITY OF THE CHRISTIAN

  RELIGION DEMONSTRATES THAT IT IS NOT OF DIVINE

ORIGIN.............146

CHAPTER XIX.

THAT MORAL PRINCIPLES ARE NOT FOUNDED UPON THEOLOGICAL IDEAS,

  NOR UPON ANY SECTARIAN MODIFICATION OF THESE IDEAS, BUT UPON A

  BASIS AS IMMORTAL AND INDESTRUCTIBLE AS HUMAN EXISTENCE

ITSELF....153

CHAPTER XX.

UNIVERSAL

BENEVOLENCE...............................................158

CHAPTER XXI.

MOSES, JESUS, AND

MAHOMET...........................................163

CHAPTER XXII.

PREJUDICES..........................................................1

67

CHAPTER XXIII.

MORAL

PRINCIPLE.....................................................173

CHAPTER XXIV.

MATTER AND POWER; ORIGIN OF MOTION; LIBERTY AND

NECESSITY...........181

CHAPTER XXV.

COMMENCEMENT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY; CHRISTIANITY; DEISM;

  REASON; SCIENCE; VIRTUE;

HAPPINESS................................192

CHAPTER XXVI.

PHILOSOPHICAL

IMMORTALITY...........................................201

"I'll not be made a soft and dull ey'd fool,

To shake the head, relent and sigh and yield

To Christian intercessors," -- Shakespeare

"Prove all things." I Thess. v. 21.

Preface

"God, to remove his ways from human sense,

Plac'd Heaven from earth so far, that earthly sight,

If it presume, might err in things too high,

And no advantage gain." -- Milton

    The establishment of theological systems, claiming divine

origin, has been among the most destructive causes by which the life

of man has been afflicted. History furnishes an awful picture of the

sad and fatal effects of fanaticism among the nations of the earth;

but history furnishes only the exterior; there is a deeper internal

wound, which superstition has inflicted in the bosom of society,

subversive of all moral sympathy and the fairest traits in the

character of man. The sincerity with which many upright minds are

attached to the Christian religion, can form no substantial objection

against an unqualified investigation into its truth of falsehood. If

it be founded in truth, it will stand the test of every examination -

it will stand the test of all future ages, and become immortal. It is

a point of justice to observe, that this work has been written under

the misfortune and embarrassment of a total loss of sight. This, in

the estimation of candid minds, will form at least a partial apology

for verbal incorrectness, or the want of better arrangement in the

construction of sentences; but it is not offered as constituting any

kind of apology for errors of opinion or principle. On this head the

fullest examination is invited; and, if any one can point out in what

respect the principles herein advanced are inconsistent and

erroneous, the author will be among the first to reject and condemn

them. But this must be done upon the ground of evidence, and not of

authority, as the latter bears no relation to truth. The great moral

and political questions which now agitate the world, cannot be

settled by an appeal to the authority of law books, theological

books, or the decisions of ecclesiastical councils; they rest upon

the broad basis of evidence, and by this principle alone they must be

determined. The circumstance that the author was once a public

speaker in the cause of Christianity, which is here opposed, so far

from forming a reasonable objection against the perusal of this work,

ought to become an additional motive of attention; for it was by a

candid and attentive investigation into the character of revealed

religion, that he became convinced that it was neither true nor

divine. It was, therefore, a duty which he owed to the integrity of

his own mind, and what was deemed the best interests of human

society, to abandon that system, and assume a higher and better

ground - that of Nature, and the immutability of her laws. If any one

should be disposed to censure on this account, let him remember that

there is more honour and much more utility in the relinquishment than

in the retention of errors. The new chapters contained in this

edition are intended to awaken a spirit of philosophic inquiry in

every description of adherents to the ancient regimen, and to induce

them to pass once more in review the religious theories to which they

have been so strongly attached. The principal design of the author,

through the whole of this work, has been to give to moral principle a

basis as durable as time, and as immortal as the specific succession

of human existence; and to render the sentiment of virtue, as far as

possible, independent of all the theological reveries of antiquity.

CHAPTER I.

THE POWER OF INTELLECT, ITS DUTY, AND THE OBSTACLES THAT OPPOSE ITS

PROGRESS.

    The sources of hope and consolation to the human race are to be

sought for in the energy of intellectual powers. To these, every

specific amelioration must bear a constant and invariable reference;

and whatever opposes the progress of such a power, is unquestionably

in most pointed opposition to the best and most important interests

of our species. The organic construction of man induces a strong

conclusion that no limits can possibly be assigned to his moral and

scientific improvements. The question relative to the nature and

substance of the human mind, is of much less consequence than that

which relates to the extent of force and capacity, and the

diversified modes of beneficial application. The strength of human

understanding is incalculable, its keenness of discernment would

ultimately penetrate into every part of nature, were it permitted to

operate with uncontrolled and unqualified freedom. It is because this

sublime principle of man has been constantly the object of the most

scurrilous abuse, and the most detestable invective from

superstition, that his moral existence has been buried in the gulf of

ignorance, and his intellectual powers tarnished by the ferocious and

impure hand of fanaticism. Although we are made capable of sublime

reflections, it has hitherto been deemed a crime to think, and a

still greater crime to speak our thoughts after they have been

conceived. The despotism of the universe had waged war against the

power of the human understanding, and for many ages successfully

combated its efforts, but the natural energy of this immortal

property of human existence was incapable of being controlled by such

extraneous and degrading restraints. It burst the walls of its

prison, explored the earth, discovered the properties of its

component parts, analyzed their natures, and gave to them specific

classification and arrangement. Not content with terrestrial

researches, intellect abandoned the earth, and travelled in quest of

science through the celestial regions. The heavens were explored, the

stars were counted, and the revolutions of the planets subjected to

mathematical calculation. All nature became the theatre of human

action, and man in his unbounded and ardent desire attempted to

embrace the universe. Such was the nature of his powers, such their

strength and fervour, that hopes and anticipations were unqualified

and unlimited. The subordinate objects in the great mass of existence

were decompounded, and the essential peculiarities of their different

natures delineated with astonishing accuracy and wonderful precision.

Situated in the midst of a world of physical wonders, and having made

some progress in the analytical decomposition of material substances,

and the relative position of revolving orbs, man began to turn his

powers to the nice disquisitions of the subtle properties of his

mental existence. Here the force of his faculties was opposed by the

darkness and difficulties of the subject; and superstition, ever

ready to arrest and destroy moral improvement, cast innumerable

difficulties in the way, and the bewildered mind found this part of

the system of nature less accessible than the physical universe,

whose prominent disparities struck the understanding and presented

clear discrimination. The ignorance and barbarism of former ages, it

is said, furnish an awful intimation of the imbecility of our mental

powers, and the hopeless condition of the human race. If thought be

reflected back for the purpose of recognizing through a long night of

time, the miseries and ignorance of the species, there will be found,

no doubt, powerful causes of lamentation; but courage will be

resuscitated when the energy of intellect is displayed, and the

improvement of the world, which has been already made, shall be

clearly exhibited to view. It is not sufficient that man acknowledge

the possession of his intellectual powers, it is also necessary that

these powers should be developed, and their force directed to the

discovery of direct principle, and the useful application of it to

social life; errors, evils, and vices, every where exist, and by

these the world has been rendered continually wretched, and the

history of mankind furnishes the dreadful lessons, and shocks the

sensibility of every human being. The savage ferocity of despotism

has destroyed the harmony of society; the unrelenting cruelty of

superstition has cut asunder the finest fibres that ever concreted

the hearts of intelligent beings. It has buried beneath its gloomy

vale all the moral properties of our existence, and entombed in the

grave of ignorance and terror, the most sublime energies, and the

purest affections of the human mind. An important duty is therefore

imposed upon intellect, and a departure from its faithful performance

should be ranked among the crimes which have most disgraced and

injured the felicity of the world. If the few philanthropists who

have embarked in the cause of humanity, have not been adequately

rewarded, it is, nevertheless, true, that the principle and force of

duty remain the same, unbroken and incapable of being abrogated. It

is the discovery and propagation of truth which ought to engage the

attention of man, and call forth the powerful activity of his mind.

    The nature of ancient institutions, instead of forming a reason

against the activity of mind, should be considered as constituting a

double stimulus; these institutions are such a complete abandonment

of every just and correct principle; they have been so destructive in

their operation and effects, that nothing but the strong and

energetic movement of the human understanding will be capable of

subverting them. The whole earth has been made the wretched abode of

ignorance and misery; and to priests and tyrants these dreadful

effects are to be attributed. These are the privileged monsters who

have subjugated the earth, destroyed the peace and industry of

society, and committed the most atrocious of all robberies; that

which had robbed human nature of its intellectual property, leaving

all in a state of waste and barrenness. Moses, Zoroaster, Jesus, and

Mahomet, are names celebrated in history; but what are they

celebrated for? Have their institutions softened the savage ferocity

of man? Have they developed a clear system of principle, either

moral, scientific, or philosophical? Have they encouraged the free

and unqualified operation of intellect, or, rather, by their

institutions, has not a gloom been thrown over the clearest subjects,

and their examination prohibited under the severest penalties? The

successors and followers of these men have adhered to the destructive

lessons of their masters with undeviating tenacity. This has formed

one of the most powerful obstacles to the progress of improvement,

and still threatens, with eternal "damnation", that man who shall

call in question the truth of their "dogmas", or the divinity of

their systems.

    The political tyranny of the earth coalesced with this phalanx

of religious despots, and the love of science and of virtue was

nearly banished from the world. Twelve centuries of moral and

political darkness, in which Europe was involved, had nearly

completed the destruction of human dignity, and every thing valuable

or ornamental in the character of man. During this long and doleful

night of ignorance, slavery, and superstition, Christianity reigned

triumphant; its doctrines and divinity were not called in question.

The power of the Pope, the clergy, and the church, were omnipotent;

nothing could restrain their phrenzy, nothing could control the

cruelty of their fanaticism; with mad enthusiasm they set on foot the

most bloody and terrific crusades, the object of which was to recover

from infidels the "Holy Land". Seven hundred thousand men are said to

have perished in the two first expeditions, which had been thus

commenced and carried on by the pious zeal of the Christian church,

and in the total amount, several millions were found numbered with

the dead: the awful effects of religious fanaticism presuming upon

the aid of heaven. It was then that man lost all his dignity, and

sunk to the condition of a brute; it was then that intellect received

a deadly blow, from which it did not recover till the fifteenth

century. From that time to the present, the progress of knowledge has

been constantly accelerated; independence of mind has been asserted,

and opposing obstacles have been gradually diminished. The church has

resigned a part of her power, the better to retain the remainder;

civil tyranny has been shaken to its centre in both hemispheres; the

malignity of superstition is abating, and every species of

"quackery", imposture, and imposition, are yielding to the light and

power of science. An awful contest has commenced, which must

terminate in the destruction of thrones and civil despotism; in the

annihilation of ecclesiastical pride and domination; or, on the other

hand, intellect, science, and manly virtue, will be crushed in one

general ruin, and the world will retrograde towards a state of

ignorance, barbarism, and misery. The latter however is an event

rendered almost impossible by the discovery of the art of printing,

by the expansion of mind, and the general augmentation of knowledge.

Church and State may unite to form an insurmountable barrier against

the extension of thought, the moral progress of nations and the

felicity of nature; but let it be recollected, that the guarantee for

the moral and political emancipation is already deposited in the

archives of every school and college, and in the mind of every

cultivated and enlightened man of all countries. It will henceforth

be a vain and fruitless attempt to reduce the earth to that state of

slavery of which the history of former ages has furnished such an

awful picture. The crimes of ecclesiastical despots are still

corroding upon the very vitals of human society; the severities of

civil power will never be forgotten. The destructive influence of

ancient institutions will teach us to seek in nature and the

knowledge of her laws, for the discovery of those principles whose

operation alone can emancipate the world from dreadful bondage. If in

the succeeding chapters we shall be able to destroy any considerable

portion of human errors, and establish some solid truths, our labours

will bear a relation to the progressive improvement of the human

race, which, to intelligent minds, is of all considerations the most

beneficial and important.

CHAPTER II.

THEOLOGY AND ITS EFFECTS.

    The impressions that are made on the human mind by the awful and

tremendous powers of nature, have filled it with terror and

astonishment. If by a laborious investigation of the universe, and

the laws by which it is regulated; if by an examination of our own

constitution and the refined properties of our existence; if from a

view of the moral and physical world, in the aggregate, we are led to

the idea of simple Theism including all possible perfection; it will

nevertheless be found substantially true, that with all savage

nations, and even with the mass of the people in civilized countries,

that no such sublime conception has ever formed any part of their

systems of theology. Rude, immoral, and incoherent opinions have been

heaped together upon this subject, and gods innumerable have been

fabricated by a distempered and disordered imagination. It is only

with those who have made some progress in science, that any clear and

correct ideas of theology have been found; the God of Ignorance has

always been an immortal monster, whose attributes spread terror

through the whole animal world. The power of thought, directed to the

examination of the laws of nature, or to the science of ontology, is

pressed by an ultimate necessity to the admission of an immortal

principle, to the faint conception of an eternal Being, whose

perfections guarantee the existence and harmony of the universe. The

essence of such a Being is inconceivable, and that mind which has no

doubt on the reality of the case, is, nevertheless, incompetent to

the discovery of mode, manner, or place of residence. If the material

world be excluded from constituting any share in the essence of such

a Being, the refinements and speculations will afterwards become

extremely subtle, and conception will, perhaps, be nearly lost in the

spirituality of the subject. The principle of causation is, of all

others, the most difficult of examination, because it includes the

idea of an infinite series in which the last point at which the mind

arrives presents a new difficulty not less than the former, and

involving the idea of eternal progression. Metaphysical reasoning on

the subject is, however, reserved to occupy a place near the close of

this Work, where Theism and its combatants will receive a suitable

share of reflection. At present it is sufficient that we refer the

universe, its laws, and order, to the divinity of thought emanating

from the most perfect of all beings. It has been a great question,

how far the principle of theology affects the principle and practice

of virtue. It can be matter of no doubt, in the first place, that a

corrupt and vitiated theology has ever been the bane of morality, and

produced effects of the most destructive and detestable nature. An

infinite Being, clothed with immoral attributes, and yet made an

object of worship and affection, will indubitably pervert the finest

sensations of the human heart, and render savage and ferocious the

character of man. This is not conjecture, it is verified by facts;

the history of all churches proves it beyond contradiction. It is

natural to expect such an effect; the Being that is worshipped is

presented as a pattern, and to imitate his properties is declared to

be an essential duty. If such a Being commit murder, or at any time

gives orders to the human race to perform such a cruel act, the order

once given is the signal for military assassination, national

vengeance, or the exercise of domestic resentment. The world becomes

a field of blood, and man is slaughtered in the name of Heaven. From

the introduction of Christianity into the world to the present

moment, there is scarcely a single war that has taken place in Europe

but what has verified this opinion. The church has always been in

danger, it is in danger still, and always will be, so long as there

shall be found on earth a single privileged impostor, to sound in the

name of Heaven, the trumpet of alarm among the nations of the world.

The purest ideas of the Divinity are necessary for the correct

operation of the moral powers of man; there cannot remain a shadow of

doubt, when recourse is made to the history of the Jews and

Christians, that the god or gods whom they have adored have produced

an unfavourable effect upon their moral temperament and habits. The

Jewish god is denominated a god of vengeance, wrath, and fury. He

gives commands for the indiscriminate massacre of men, women, and

children, declaring that not a soul should be left alive. The God of

the Jews is inherited by the Christians with additional specimens of

injustice and immorality. An infinite and eternal Son, equal to

himself, becomes the object of his wrath, and on him with unrelenting

severity he wreaks his terrible vengeance. This awful and immoral

action is considered in the view of the Christian believer, as an

excellent preparatory step to the exercise of gratitude, and the

overflowings of filial affections. When man makes to himself gods of

such a character, it were far better that he had been destitute of

all theological opinions, or that his adoration should have been

offered to that resplendent luminary that enlightens the world, and

vivifies the productions of the earth. The principle of morality is

founded in the nature of man, and modified by his reciprocal

relations; this principle cannot be augmented in its force or

application by a reference to those barbarous phantoms and

incongruous beings which the theology of the Jews and Christians, as

well as all savage nations, has presented to view. Individuals and

nations will always be wicked so long as they adore a divinity of

loose and immoral character. Theology must first be rendered pure,

and then it will become a question of magnitude, what influential

relation it bears to the science of morality and happiness of the

world.

CHAPTER III.

CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.

    Believers in the Christian system of religion are seldom aware

of the difficulties into which their theological theories have

plunged them. They are in habits of bestowing on this religion the

most unqualified applause, and in most cases, no doubt, the most

sincere approbation; but the errors and absurdities, the immorality

and the incorrectness of principle, have never made any serious

impression upon their minds. The dreadful idea of opposing that which

has been called divine, strikes with terror the uninstructed mind,

and ignorance feeds the ecclesiastical deception. Ignorance is an

excellent friend to an ancient system of error, to the church and the

different projects by which mankind have been enslaved. If you can

once persuade a man that he is totally ignorant of the subject on

which you are about to discourse, you can make him believe any thing.

Impositions of this kind are furnished by every day's experience; and

the victim of such imposition is commonly the first to applaud the

instrument of his ruin.

    Nothing can be more true, nothing more certain, or important,

than that a man owes to himself due respect, that his intellect is an

object of veneration, and its result interwoven with the best

interests of human society. The distorted exhibitions of imaginary

beings contained in all ancient theology, ought to excite within us a

strong desire to discover truth, and reclaim the dignity which nature

gave to man. Fanaticism, when armed with the artillery of Heaven,

ought not to be permitted to shake the throne or empire of reason;

the base is immortal, and the superstructure will be augmented in

beauty and excellence, in proportion to the progress of knowledge and

the destruction of religious bigotry. It is remarkable, that with

many honest minds the consciousness of intellectual independence has

never been realized, and fear has prevented the activity of thought

and the development of truth. Names have assumed a weight and

authority, which in reality does not belong to them. The church and

its maxims have been revered; subordinate agents of the Creator have

produced universal trepidation; the Devil has broke into the felicity

of the moral world, and God himself, even with the Christian church,

is an object of terror and dismay. These subjects carry along with

them the most dreadful alarm, and man, amidst the reveries of

supernatural theology, becomes either feeble or foolish, his power

relaxed, his energy is gone, and he sinks beneath the system of fear,

which it is the office of cultivated reason alone to destroy. Such

are the fatal effects of all theology, but more particularly of that

which is denominated Christian. The Christian world worships three

infinite Gods, and one omniscient and omnipresent Devil.(1) This last

being is an object rather of terror and frightful apprehension, than

of worship and adoration; but as he is clothed with nearly all of the

attributes which this system of religion has ascribed to its

divinity, or divinities, and as the latter is also clothed with the

awful qualities of wrath and vengeance, it would be difficult to

offer any good reason why the one should be entitled, in the view of

the Christian believer, to more homage than the other, since between

them there is so striking a resemblance of character. But whether

Christian theology represents the Devil as an object of worship or

only of fear, it is nevertheless certain, that he is a very important

and essential character in the drama therein acted. He holds a

prominent and conspicuous place in this wonderful system of

mythology, and his destruction would go far to the ruin of the scheme

itself. There are many other subordinate agents, who are actors in

the Christian scenes, such as angels, ghosts, and witches; these,

however, are not considered as objects of adoration, but are only to

be treated with that degree of civility and respect, to which their

station in this celestial and mythological aristocracy may justly

entitle them. This variegated groupe of gods, devils, angels, ghosts,

and witches, is what constitutes essentially the supernatural

theology, or rather mythology of the Christian world. One sect, the

most ancient, and like all others, in their own estimation, the most

orthodox, have added one female divinity to complete the beauty and

wonder of the scheme. The "Virgin Mary", among the Papists, is called

the mother of God; and having produced so respectable an offspring,

is frequently addressed with prayers and supplications, and to her,

also, divine honours are paid.

[1. These assertions have been objected to as incorrect by some

believers who read the first edition of this work. The explanatory

and qualifying remarks which follow this phrase in the text, ought to

have silenced objections of this kind; but there are other Scriptural

considerations which will abundantly destroy the force of the

objection. God is represented as a being of wrath, vengeance, and

fury - so also is the Devil! The worship of God consists in a very

high degree in the sentiment of fear. The fear of the Lord is the

beginning of wisdom, fear God and keep his commandments, &c.

Christian believers are also most terribly afraid of the Devil; if

the sentiment of fear be worship in the one case, why should it not

be so considered in the other case? But this is not all; the

description given of these two beings in Holy Writ, is so perfectly

similar, that believers, in order to be consistent, ought to include

them both as objects of worship. Speaking of God, the Scriptures say,

"He was unto me as a Bear lying in wait, and as a Lion in secret

places." Lam. iii. 10. And of the Devil, "He goeth about like a

roaring Lion, seeking whom he may devour." I Peter v. 8. The only

distinction here is, that the one was a roaring lion, and the other

did not roar; but this deficiency is made up by coupling with the

still lion, and a still bear also; for these two put together would

probably be about equal, in point of terror, to the roaring lion.

When Christian believers are so inconsistent as to worship these

immoral monsters, or either of them, they ought to cease to charge

others with lies and blasphemies. As to the first part of the phrase,

That the Christian world worships three infinite Gods - this is

"certainly" true, and demonstrated by the single consideration, that

they attribute infinite perfection to each person in the Trinity. The

unintelligible union of these three persons cannot destroy in any

degree whatever, the infinite perfection ascribed to each; it

therefore remains true, that the Christian world really worship three

infinite Gods, or infinite persons, which is exactly the same thing.]

    Next to the absurdity of the leading idea contained in the

nature of this theological system, is that branch of it which

violates all the rules of arithmetical calculation, and mathematical

proportion; that which violates all ideas of common sense and common

understanding, the awful doctrine of the Trinity. "The Father is God,

the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God; and yet there are not

Three Gods, but One God. The Father is Almighty, the Son is Almighty,

and the Holy Ghost is Almighty; yet there are not three Almighties,

but one Almighty."(1) The essence of this doctrine is, that there is

but one infinite and perfect being, yet there are three infinite and

perfect beings. When the Christian is asked how many Gods there are,

he will answer, there is but one. If the inquiry be made, how many

persons this God is divided into, the answer is three; but to each of

these three persons all possible perfection is attributed, and yet in

a compound state, the whole mass of perfection continues the same.

Let this doctrine be subjected to rational investigation, and its

absurdity and contradiction must strike with astonishment every

correct mind. There cannot possibly exist in nature more than one

infinite, eternal, and perfect being; one infinity swallows up all

others, and it is impossible to add to that which is already as great

as it can be. If God the Father posseses all possible excellence, if

he be infinite in extent, infinite in duration, there can be no space

or time in which any other infinite being could possibly exist. Two

infinities must either coincide and coalesce, and then they would

become one, or they would destroy each other. If the Father is

possessed of infinite wisdom, such attribute cannot belong either to

the Son, or to the Holy Ghost; if the Son, the second person,

possessed such infinite wisdom, it would operate as a

disfranchisement of the other two; the same will apply to the "Holy

Ghost", in exclusion of his competitors; there can be but one

infinite; a double infinite is a double absurdity, and the

Trinitarian idea in incongruous and impossible. If the assertion be

made, that one is equal to three, and that three are no more than

one, all numerical distinction is totally destroyed, and man consents

to become a fool upon the plainest points. Trinitarian declarations

are direct contradictions to each other; the part is as great as the

whole, and the whole is no greater than the part; three infinities

put together make only one, and the destruction of two of them does

not diminish the mass of existence or perfection. If facts did not

stare us in the face, we should never have believed that it was in

the power of superstition to have perverted in so gross a manner the

human understanding. In all the common concerns and calculations of

human life, Christians themselves, practically declare, that they do

not believe in the doctrine of the Trinity. In these concerns, they

would be very unwilling that a part should be considered as equal to

the whole, or that the whole should be estimated no higher than the

part; they would not consent to destroy all numerical distinction,

nor would they be willing to annihilate the just ideas of

discrimination, by which their interest is supported; but although in

common life they would reject all this, yet in theology the nature of

things is stripped of its true character, and every species of just

distinction is perverted or destroyed. This doctrine of the Trinity,

Christianity has borrowed from the ancient heathen ideas, and the

church has incorporated it for the purposes of mystery and

ecclesiastical imposition. It was found among the reveries of Plato,

and being transferred to the followers of Jesus, it has appeared

under the modification, and with the names of Father, Son, and Holy

Ghost. Thus modified, it became the foundation of a cruel and

ferocious dogma, that eternal damnation should be the portion of him

who called in question this holy mystery. The spirit of this

trinitarian opinion has diffused itself through several other parts

of the Christian system, and the idea of an atonement is not the

least shocking amongst the consequences that are to be ascribed to

this theological absurdity. The followers of the Son of Mary boast of

the purity of their theistical doctrine; but a candid examination of

it proves, that it is nothing more than a modification of the

mythological opinions of all ancient and barbarous nations.

[1. See St. Athanasius's Creed.]

CHAPTER IV.

THE BIBLE, OR THE SACRED WRITINGS OF THE JEWS AND CHRISTIANS.

    Among all nations that have pretended to any kind of literary

improvement, there have always been found ambitious, designing, and

fanatic men, who are impelled by one or the other of these

considerations to become leaders of influential characters among the

beings who surround them. Superiority of talents or improvements,

constituted a ground of hope and strong belief, that they should

succeed in an attempt of this kind. Advantage was taken of human

ignorance, and the most destructive and erroneous plans were

introduced and established by length of time and the force of

authority. In nations not at all, or very little improved, tradition

has supplied the place of sacred writings, and they have been equally

the dupes of those unprincipled chieftains who have assumed authority

over them. Moses and Mahomet governed their followers with a rod of

iron, and a military despotism. They were savage and ferocious men,

crafty and intriguing, and they knew how to subject to their will the

stupid but unfortunate followers who were devoted to their views. If

Jesus was more mild, benevolent, and temperate, it was because he had

less power, and because his disposition was less cruel and resentful.

His followers, when clothed with power, have not paid a very high

compliment to their master, for the history of their conduct evinces

the most malignant design, and the earth has been drenched in blood,

to defend that system of religion, of which the meek and lowly Jesus

is reputed to be the author.

    The Christian religion is a compound and combination of all the

theological writings of the followers of Moses and Jesus. We have no

evidence that either of these men wrote any part, either of the Old

or New Testament. From Genesis to the Apocalypse of St. John, a vast

variety of fact, fable, principle, wickedness, and error is exhibited

to view. The book, though bound together, appears to be in many

respects discordant; the historical part has no accurate connection;

the moral part is distorted, deficient, or wicked; the doctrinal

parts are either unintelligible, or contrary to moral and

philosophical truth. These positions shall be proved in the course of

the examination of these sacred writings; it is sufficient for the

present that the consideration which relates to the origin and nature

of such productions, should form the basis of our inquiry. It is

because man has forgotten the dignity of his nature; it is because he

does not realize the force of his faculties, that he consents to

yield to the impositions of superstition. What is a book, whether it

be denominated sacred or not, unless the human mind is capable of

discovering the evidence by which the truth of such book can be

substantiated? The Bible, which means nothing more than a book; the

scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, which means nothing more

than the heterogeneous writings contained in the former, and the

incoherent and unintelligible will of various beings contained in the

latter; what are all these to the correct decisions of human

intellect, unless the matter therein contained can be collated with

the immortal principles of truth in the system of nature?

    The title page of the Bible subjects it to a strong suspicion of

fraud and deception, of error, alteration, and absurdity. It is as

follows, and ought to be examined: "The Holy Bible, containing the

Old and New Testaments, translated out of the original tongues, and

with the former translations, diligently compared and revised, by his

Majesty's special command. Appointed to be read in churches." The

title page of this book, which for many centuries has been the rule

of faith and action in the Christian world, is of itself sufficient

to destroy its supernatural origin and divine authority. It is to be

observed, that the book in the first place was denominated holy; but

its holiness and divinity are both destroyed before we get through

the title page. It is a well known fact, that this book was not

written at first in the English language, but in Hebrew, Greek, and

Latin; that it has been translated out of these languages into

English; and the believer who understands no language but English,

rests his faith upon the knowledge and integrity of the translators

alone. He cannot tell whether these men were either scientific or

honest, and consequently he does not know whether he believes what

was really contained in the original writings or not. He cannot

determine whether the sentiments which have drawn forth the

affections of his heart, have really emanated from God, or proceeded

from the mind of man; he cannot tell whether the supposed truths of

the gospel are the result of human or divine power. If the sentiments

and the doctrines be consistent with the nature of things, he may, on

this account, pronounce them true; but they are true because they are

consistent, and not because they have been revealed. This single

consideration, that the English believer knows nothing of the

original state of the Bible, is of itself sufficient to annihilate

all his confidence. But this is not all; this book is said to be

given by divine inspiration; but is it possible that inspiration can

be either transferred, translated, altered, or revised? Certainly the

very nature of the thing forbids it. If the scriptures be given by

divine inspiration, their contents must be communicated to certain

individuals by supernatural power. These individuals had no such

power to transfer to other individuals with the same force of

authority, the celestial information which they had received. If it

were binding on the first persons who received it, it could not be

equally so upon the second, for the nature and force of the

communications were essentially destroyed. The first power that

communicated was divine, the second was human; the first was

incapable of error, the second deceptive and fallacious. If it were

therefore to be admitted that any human beings were ever inspired, it

would not follow that the result of that inspiration could be

communicated with certitude or divine authority to any other minds.

The idea of transferring celestial information received by

supernatural means, is absurd and impossible; it is as impossible as

that man could become a God, and exercise the attributes of the

Divinity. The idea of translating a supernatural system of religion,

is equally incorrect. The readers of such a system, even in the

original languages, could not know that the things therein contained

were inspired by God himself, if those few be accepted who were

supposed to be the recipients of such sacred instruction; much less

could the reader in subsequent ages be assured of the truth or

validity of such translated doctrines. To render this system correct,

and keep up the chain of divine connection, it is not only necessary

that the first prophets and apostles should have been inspired, but

that all the translators, transcribers, printers, and printers' boys,

should have been inspired also. In deficiency of such arrangement,

the Christian believer at the present day must be uncertain whether

he believes in holy writ, or the imaginary conceptions and wild

reveries of the human understanding. If inspiration be a thing

founded in truth, there can be no occasion to alter or revise it. It

is defect alone that creates the necessity of alteration and

revision. If, therefore, the Bible was right at first, every

alteration is a deviation from that rectitude; and, consequently, in

proportion as the scriptures have been altered and revised in modern

times, the Christian believer has been led astray; he has not

believed in the real and true word of God. If the scripture was wrong

at first, the faith of the primitive Christian was nothing more than

a delusive error; in either of these cases we are thrown into a

dilemma, from which clerical ingenuity alone will be able to

extricate us. The last resort of the believer, must be to the

authority and command of his Majesty, who has kindly interfered for

the purpose of rendering divine and holy, a book, whose indecency and

immorality shocks all common sense and common honesty.

CHAPTER V.

ORIGINAL SIN, ATONEMENT, FAITH, &c. A CHRISTMAS DISCOURSE, DELIVERED

IN NEW YORK, DEC. 1796.

    This, my friends, we are told is Christmas-day; and while the

pious and learned divines of all Christendom are extolling the

beauties, the excellencies, and the divinity of the Christian

religion; while its doctrines are represented as the most pure and

celestial, its morality exalted above that of any other ethical

treatise, and the goodness of the Creator represented as demanding

the most unreserved gratitude, and the highest affection of the human

heart: while this absurd and cruel system is every where held up to

admiration, as containing the height of divine perfection and the

most unbounded displays of infinite benevolence; while an ignorant

and astonished world are called upon to yield an unqualified credence

to the mysterious dogmas of this mysterious religion; while, in a

word, the thundering voice of the Christian world is proclaiming to

the elect few the joys which are reserved as their unfailing portion,

and damnation to the many who are unfortunately destitute of what

they call saving and supernatural faith; be it our task to inquire

into the truth or falsehood of these declarations. This inquiry shall

be made without reference to any other principle than that of truth,

or any other effect than that of the happiness of mankind. Elevated

in our conceptions above every possible consideration resulting from

hope or fear, and having truth only for our object, we shall proceed

to an unreserved examination of this so much celebrated system of

religion, called Christianity. The world has been so long in the

habit of believing it to be true, that the mind seems to have lost

all traces of independent investigation; a mental stupidity has taken

possession of the human faculties, and liberal inquiry has been lost

in the vortex of clerical authority. A general torpor has reigned for

ages past, and it is now time to throw in our aid, to awaken the

mental energy of intelligent beings. Let us proceed, then, to an

unprejudiced discussion of the subject; and in order to do this with

perspicuity, the following method shall be observed: - 

1st. We shall make some remarks concerning Jesus Christ.

2dly. We shall consider the doctrines of the Christian religion.

3dly. The morality of this religion.

4thly. The effects of the introduction of Christianity into the world.

    With respect to the first proposition, we may observe, that

among other strange and marvellous things contained in this scheme of

religion, the conception of Jesus Christ is very singular and

unnatural; he is ushered into the world in a manner neither credible

nor cognizable by the human mind; he has a mother, it is true, but he

has no father; for although the lineal descent is traced through many

generations down to the person who ought to have been his father, yet

the chain is here broken, and he is said to have been begotten by a

ghost. To what purpose is this genealogy given, when the lineal

descent is to be wholly destroyed in the conclusion of the scene? And

after having destroyed it, and ascribed the conception to an unknown

phantom, called the Holy Ghost, he is then said to be the eternal Son

of the Father, that is, of the Creator and Preserver of the universe.

If he is the only-begotten Son of the Father, how can he be the Son

of the Holy Ghost? And if he was really begotten by this Ghost, what

had the Father to do with this scene of debauchery? At any rate, what

conception can the human mind form of this absurd and contradictory

representation? This child, when born, appears to be a human being,

and yet his is supernaturally begotten by two supernatural fathers,

and he is as old as either of them. Sophistry and folly united cannot

exhibit a greater specimen of nonsense and irrationality. This story

of the virgin and the ghost, to say no more of it, does not wear the

appearance of much religion; and it would not, it is presumed, be

difficult in any age or country, to find a sufficient number of men

who would pretend to be ghosts, if by such pretensions they could

obtain similar favours, especially with the consoling reflection

superadded, of becoming the progenitors of the pretended Saviour of a

wicked and apostate world. How absurd and contradictory are the

principles and the doctrines of this religion! In vain do its

advocates attempt to cover this transaction with the machinery of

ghosts and supernatural agents. The simple truth is, that their

pretended Saviour is nothing more than an illegitimate Jew, and their

hopes of salvation through him rest on no better foundation than that

of fornication or adultery.

    But let us suppose that the mode of bringing him into the world

was natural and consistent; what valuable purpose has been effected

by it? There has been none, either in his conception, his birth, his

life, or his death, unless the horrid cruelties, the murderous wars

and devastations, which have disgraced the annals of the Christian

world, can be considered as blessings to mankind. In every moral

point of view, the world is infinitely worse, and so far as relates

to their felicity, we may boldly assert, that wretchedness has been

increased; yet this was the man who was to do away sin, and bring in

an everlasting righteousness; this was the source whence innumerable

benefits were to be derived; but, alas! wickedness and misery have

been the continued and uniform result.

    But to proceed, - What was the conduct of this person, called

Jesus Christ? Was it like the conduct of a deity, or like that of an

ignorant uninformed man? Was it the conduct of divine wisdom, or that

of imbecility and distrustful apprehension? If this man, Jesus

Christ, had really entered into a coalition with the Creator of the

world, for the accomplishment of important purposes relative to the

happiness of the human race; if the stipulation had been well

understood by the two contracting parties, in the origin of the

business; if the intelligent Creator of the world on his part, had

asserted that there was no other mode of producing the benefits

intended, than by the death of his only begotten Son, and the

multiplicity of sufferings and calamities which necessarily resulted

from so arduous and important an undertaking; and if, on the other

hand, this pretended Son of God was apprized of the unavoidable evils

which were connected with his mission; if all the previous

arrangements and subsequent events had been well and clearly

determined between them; and if the whole had been directed by

infinite wisdom, power, and goodness, what ought to have been the

final effect of this splendid celestial embassy? Ought we not to

conclude, that the general felicity of intelligent beings on the

surface of the globe, must have been the unavoidable consequence? Are

we not bound to suppose that a plan of operation formed in the

cabinet of eternal wisdom, must have answered all the purposes which

that wisdom was calculated to produce? Instead of this, how

wretchedly are we disappointed? Vice is not destroyed, and the fears

of future damnation are increased. Three infinite Gods have laboured

in vain, and their united efforts have not been able to rescue

mankind from endless torments. But further, why was not this

pretended Saviour exhibited to the world, the nature of his scheme,

and extensive benefits of his mission? Was he uninformed, or was he

incapable of communicating to intelligent beings the knowledge of a

plan on which their eternal felicity depended? If, as is pretended,

he had been God himself, or if he had been enlightened by the wisdom

of the Creator, no progressive steps of science could be applicable

to his condition. It could not be necessary for him to go to a school

or academy in order to learn to read or write, and yet we have no

evidence that he was capable of either, and the negative evidence on

this point is almost conclusive, as to his want of common

information. To have convinced the world of his supernatural

conception and celestial mission, he ought to have written a moral

and theological treatise, in which the principles of his mission

should have been elucidated in a manner intelligible to every living

creature, interested in the possession of such knowledge. But

unfortunately for mankind, this has not been the case; all is doubt -

all is uncertainty; and we are left to depend on the opinions and

declarations of others, who seem to have known but little of the

matter. They tell us an unconnected and inconsistent story, of the

conception, the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus

Christ; but they have no system, and their development of moral

principles is partial, and inaccurate; but the concluding scene of

his life exhibits some information worthy of our impartial attention.

In his last moments he cries out, "My God, my God, why hast thou

forsaken me!" What conclusion is it natural to draw from this

distressing exclamation? It appears to be this, that on the part of

Jesus Christ, there was a virtual renunciation of his confidence in

the Creator; and on the supposition that there was originally a

concerted plan of execution well understood by both the parties, the

fulfilment of it seems here to have been relinquished, and the

beneficial effects annihilated. On the part of Jesus, it is saying,

"I have been deceived in this undertaking. I did not expect that I

should have been forsaken in this hour of my greatest distress; but I

rested with confidence on eternal wisdom, for a timely escape from

this wretched misfortune." On the part of the Father, there is a want

of attention and support in this trying hour. He forsakes his beloved

Son; he gives him up to the murderous fury of vindictive enemies; and

neither the one nor the other of the parties exhibits that spirit of

fortitude and constancy which might justly have been expected on so

interesting an occasion. The reflecting mind concludes, therefore,

that the whole is but a fiction, and that no such stipulation ever

took place between the man Jesus Christ, and the Creator of the world.

    We shall now proceed to an examination of the doctrines of the

Christian religion, and compare them with the principles of a genuine

and natural morality, the nature and character of man, and the

perfections of the intelligent Creator of the universe. If the

founder of this religion was destitute of authority in his mission,

the doctrines which are applicable to him will fall of course; but so

strong are the prejudices of mankind in favour of these doctrines,

that it becomes necessary to expose the immorality of them before we

can expect that they will be relinquished. The most important

doctrines of this supposed celestial scheme, are those of original

sin, atonement, faith, and regeneration. The first two of these are

essentially immoral in their nature. The third, though considered as

a virtue by Christians, has nothing in it either of merit or demerit,

and the last being supernatural, is not cognizable by the faculties

of the human mind. This strange and unnatural system, call the the

Christian religion, commences the development of its dogmas, by the

destruction of every principle of distributive justice. It makes the

intelligent beings who are now in existence accountable for the

errors and vices of a man who lived six thousand years ago; a man

who, its advocates say, God created upright, free from every kind of

impurity, and placed in a state of uniform happiness, with a strong

natural propensity to the practice of every virtue, and an equally

strong aversion to every vicious and immoral principle; created in

the image of God himself, and possessing an unqualified attachment to

celestial purity and goodness. This man, nevertheless, transgressed

the divine law, and this solitary violation becomes temporarily and

eternally fatal to the human race. Moral impurity assumes a new

shape, and becomes transferable through successive generations.

Though none of this man's descendants could possibly be partakers of

this original criminality, they are, nevertheless, implicated in the

consequences and effects of his primary apostacy. "They sinned with

him, and fell with him, in his first transgression." This is the

language of pious and learned divines, and of the rectitude of the

principle we are not permitted to doubt, under pain of eternal

damnation. But the truth compels us to assert, that this doctrine,

called original sin, is, in the first place, totally impossible, and

in the second place, that it is as immoral and unjust, as the Creator

is righteous and benevolent. The virtues and the vices of intelligent

beings are not of a transferable but of a personal nature. In a moral

point of view, the amiable or useful qualities of one man cannot

become those of another, neither can the vices of one be justifiably

punished in the person of another. Every man is accountable for

himself; and when he can take no cognizance of the intentions or

actions of any other man, how can he be justly responsible for their

injurious effects, or applauded for any benefits resulting from them?

If Adam or any other man, who lived several thousand years ago, was

guilty of an immoral conduct, what has that to do with the moral

condition of the present generation? Is a man to become criminal

before he has existed? or, is he to be criminated afterwards, by the

immoral conduct of those who lived long before him? Has not every man

errors enough of his own to answer for, without being implicated in

the injurious consequences resulting from the bad conduct of his

neighbour? Shall there be no line of moral precision, by which human

beings can be tried, condemned, or acquitted? It seems by the general

tenor of this doctrine, that every rule of moral precision is here

totally disregarded, and setting aside the want of justice, the whole

business wears a farcical and ludicrous appearance. This original

evil so destructive to the human race, commences by the eating of

what is called the forbidden fruit. Whether the fruit was an apple, a

peach, or an orange, is not material for us to know; if it was either

the one or the other of these, and the fruit was good, there could be

no harm in eating it, and if bad, let him take the consequence whose

ignorance or temerity induced the action. But whether good or bad,

whether eaten or not eaten, is nothing to us, and we are neither

worse nor better for reading this foolish story. The moral impurity

of the heart can bear no possible relation to the criminality of

Adam, or any other man of that day or generation. Let Adam,

therefore, and his partner Eve, together with the Devil and his

snakes, attend to their own concerns, and if they have fallen into

difficulties by their own follies and vices, let them extricate

themselves as well as they are able. For myself, I have so much

regard for all of them, that I hope they will not be damned for ever.

For notwithstanding much noise and clamour has been raised, I think

that neither party was so bad as the pious ambassadors of Heaven have

represented them. The story is almost too foolish to deserve a

serious examination. Let intelligent man study his own nature, and

the passions of his heart, let him observe his relative condition and

the springs of his action, and he will soon discern the causes of his

calamity. He will find that disorganization or physical death is an

unavoidable appendage of animal life. That the very construction of

his nature insures the certainty of a subsequent derangement, and

that the primary qualities of all sensitive beings gradually lead to

dissolution. No organic perfectibility of animal existence has been

discovered yet, which is capable of excluding the anticipation of

decay through the progressive operations of physical causes upon the

constitution; and perfect moral rectitude, though it were capable of

extending the period, could not give ultimate durability to beings

organized like ourselves; nevertheless, we are told that death(1)

spiritual, temporal, and eternal, are the consequence of his

primitive apostacy. By spiritual death is meant moral turpitude of

the heart and character; but this in many beings obtains but

partially, and is always the effect of personal infraction of moral

principle, bearing no possible relation to Adam. By temporal death,

is meant that death which experience teaches us to be the fate of

every creature in the present world, and this death, though an

essential ingredient in the constitution of nature, is foolishly and

unphilosophically attributed to the sin of Adam. If Adam, previous to

his supposed apostacy, had been thrown into a fire, or immersed in

water, would not one of these elements have disorganized him, or the

other have drowned him? or would he have returned from these trials

with all the beauties of youth and vivacity in his appearance? If it

be contended that he would, a constitution must then be attributed to

him of which the human mind can form no conception. If it be admitted

that he must have perished, temporal death can then no longer be

attributed to the commission of moral evil, and it must be

acknowledged as an essential property of our primary and physical

organization; and that death is as natural as life in the order of

the world. By eternal death, is meant a state of endless punishment;

and so powerful is the influence of this sin of Adam upon the human

race, that they all become liable to eternal torments on this

account. One would have supposed that after having brought temporal

death into the world by this transgression, and after having

corrupted every moral principle of the human heart, the contrivers of

the scheme might have been contented, without annexing to this crime

any other fatal consequences; but fanaticism and superstition delight

in murder, misery, and eternal fire; and to this flaming lake I wish

them a speedy passage, never more to rise to insult the dignity, or

destroy the happiness of the human race. To punish the temporary and

finite crimes of a finite life with eternal fire, would be to

relinquish every principle of distributive justice, and to act like

an arbitrary and malevolent tyrant. All the sins that ever have been

committed do not deserve this unlimited severity of punishment; and

to attribute to one solitary infraction of a moral law these terrible

consequences, is to lose sight of infinite benevolence and eternal

justice. It is to represent the God of Nature as cruel and

vindictive, and even less merciful than the majority of his

creatures; it destroys all degrees in moral turpitude, and inflicts

on a petty offender a punishment not merited by the greatest

criminal. It is therefore evident that this original sin has not

produced, and that it could not produce, any of the consequences

which have been attributed to it, for death is one of the physical

properties of our nature. Vice is the result of individual and

personal infractions of moral law, and an eternal Hell is a bugbear

of superstition, which has never answered, and never can answer, any

valuable purpose even in preventing crimes.

[1. See chapter on Death.] 

    Another important doctrine in the Christian religion is the

atonement supposed to have been made by the death and sufferings of

the pretended Saviour of the world; and this is grounded upon

principles as regardless of justice as the doctrine of original sin.

It exhibits a spectacle truly distressing to the feelings of a

benevolent mind, it calls innocence and virtue into a scene of

suffering and reputed guilt, in order to destroy the injurious

effects of real vice. It pretends to free the world from the fatal

effects of a primary apostacy, by the sacrifice of an innocent being.

Evil has already been introduced into the world, and in order to

remove it, a fresh accumulation of crimes becomes necessary. In plain

terms, to destroy one evil, another must be committed. To teach

mankind virtue, they are to be presented with the example of murder;

to render them happy, it is necessary to exhibit innocence in

distress; to provide for them the joys of Heaven, wretchedness is to

be made their portion on earth. To make them love one another, they

must be taught that the Deity, regardless of this principle,

voluntarily sacrificed his only begotten Son. In fine, to procure for

intelligent beings the happiness suited to their nature, cruelty and

vindictive malice must be exhibited for their contemplation. This

doctrine presented in its true colours contains neither justice nor

utility. Its principle is vicious, and its consequences are not

beneficial. The reflecting mind which views the operation of causes

and their natural effects, possesses a nice and accurate power of

discrimination. Moral precision is an important object of attention,

and although it traces the nature of the infinitely combined

relations subsisting among beings of the same species, it cannot

discern either the justice or the the utility of the relation which

suffering virtue can bear to the destruction of moral evil. No

connection can be discovered between the exclamations of expiring

innocence, and the triumphant march of vice over an apostate world.

Does the suffering of the virtuous man destroy the evil habits or

propensities of him who is vicious and abandoned, especially when he

is told that these sufferings are to annihilate his own crimes? Can

this induce the mind to exhibit any efforts wearing the appearance of

reformation? Does it not rather contribute to the practice of vice,

from the belief that the burden and effect must be sustained by

another person? Yet this is the true ground on which this scheme of

atonement is promulgated. It is exhibited as a substitute for moral

perfection. It teaches man that his own virtues are insufficient for

his felicity; that the cultivation of his faculties, and the

discovery and practice of moral truth, can never lead to substantial

happiness. This must be obtained from the sufferings and expiring

groans of the Deity himself. But even on Christian principles, what

useful purpose has this atonement answered? Though the believers of

this religion have sacrificed the God of Nature to gratify their

pride, have they by this means accomplished their end? Have they

established a sure foundation for the destruction of moral evil? Have

they insured permanent happiness to every intelligent being? No; this

desirable end is not completed. Sin, say they, is an infinite evil.

Was the atonement infinite? Alas! No; for although Jesus Christ, who

suffered, was equal to God himself, yet all of them acknowledge that

it was the human, not the divine nature that partook of this

suffering. If, therefore, it was the human nature only that suffered,

this suffering could only make a finite atonement, and if the sin was

infinite, this atonement could not reach its nature or destroy its

effects; for to have done this, the atonement must have been

commensurate with the evil to be destroyed; but as the one is finite,

and the other infinite, no relation could have subsisted between

them, and no beneficial effect has been or can be produced from it.

This method of destroying evil is an unfortunate one; it is

essentially unjust in its principles, and useless in its effects; it

professes to sacrifice an infinite being, but it denies the

possibility of this sacrifice producing any thing more than a finite

atonement. If an atonement was necessary, it ought to have been as

extensive and complete in its nature as the offences intended to be

destroyed by its influence. But instead of this, every thing is

reversed. According to believers themselves, this atonement has not

reached the condition of more than one-tenth part of the human race.

The efforts of Trinitarian wisdom have all failed, and

notwithstanding the pretended good news of the Gospel, every living

creature is destined to never-ending torment. The elect themselves

are incapable of escaping eternal damnation, for without an atonement

they cannot be saved, and the atonement that has been made is not

equal to the crime committed. If, therefore, our hopes of salvation

are to rest on this vicarious suffering, we shall be essentially

disappointed, and endless misery must be the lot of man. Priests and

fanatics of the world! is this your scheme of infinite benevolence?

This your theme of divine eloquence? Is this the only way in which

you can exhibit the perfections of your God, and adore his eternal

wisdom? Are murder, carnage, and injustice, the objects in which you

delight? Have you lost all attachment to moral virtue, all veneration

for the dignity and faculties of your nature? Have you dismissed all

respect for nature and for truth? Will you never learn wisdom from

the book of Nature, will you never derive instruction from the

permanency of her laws? Is it only among miracles, ghosts, and

crucified Gods that you delight to walk? Oh! prejudiced and

superstitious man, look at the splendid beauties of Nature, look at

the vast machinery of the universe, and through these thou mayest

discover the intelligent organizer of the whole, perfect in all his

attributes, and worthy of thy adoration.

    The next principle of discussion is, that of Christian faith;

and this among the believers of this religion has been considered as

a great virtue. But is this substantially true? What is the real

meaning of the word "Faith"? It is necessary to inquire concerning

its true definition, and from this inquiry we shall be able to draw a

conclusion whether or not the principle of faith is meritorious.

Faith is an assent of the mind to the truth of a proposition

supported by evidence. If the evidence adduced is sufficient to

convince the mind, credence is the necessary result; if the evidence

be insufficient, belief becomes impossible. In religion, therefore,

or in any other of the concerns of life, if the mind discerns that

quantum of evidence necessary to establish the truth of any

proposition, it will yield to the force and effect of the proofs

which are produced; if, on the other hand, the intelligence of man

does not discern the necessary influence of such evidence, infidelity

will be the natural and unavoidable result. Why then is the principle

of faith considered a virtue? If a man beholds the sun in its

meridian splendour, and declares the truth of this exhibition, is he

meritorious in making this acknowledgment? If any truth in nature is

well substantiated and supported by the testimony of his mind or

senses, does he deserve credit for his mental acquiescence? No. Why

then have the Christian world annexed to this principle of belief any

degree of merit? Is necessary acquiescence a virtue? Does man become

entitled to praise for the acknowledgment of facts guaranteed by his

senses, or essentially supported through the channel of his mental

faculties? Does truth really exist in the system of nature? And is

this truth discoverable by the operations of the human mind? And

shall man, notwithstanding this, arrogate to himself a high degree of

importance, for the rejection of the splendid testimonies which are

exhibited for his contemplation? No; after a full display of

evidence, the mind must yield to its necessary and unavoidable

influence. When, therefore, the Christian religion represents faith

as being meritorious, it loses sight of the natural operations of the

human mind; it betrays an ignorance of nature, and becomes censurable

by its deviation from the primary and essential arrangements. Yet in

this holy book we are told, that "he that believeth not shall be

damned." But what are we to believe? Are we to believe that the

Creator of the universe is the parent and friend of the whole human

race? Are we to believe that his wisdom acts in coincidence with

general felicity, or operates on the ground of universal happiness?

Are we to believe that the establishment of general laws is

sufficient for the well-being of intelligent agents? Are we to

believe the vast machinery of the universe to be under the guidance

and direction of eternal perfection? Are we to believe that the

primary principles of our nature are sufficient for our improvement

and ultimate perfectibility? Are we to believe that the practice of

moral virtue is essentially connected with the dignity and final

improvement of the human species? Are we to believe that the

establishment of good laws, and the exhibitions of moral energies,

are essentially interwoven with the permanent happiness of sensitive

creatures? No! We are not permitted to believe this. What then is

Christian belief? What are the dogmas and principles to which we are

required to give an unqualified credence? However painful it may be

to declare it, they are of the following nature: - That the great

Creator of the world sacrificed his only-begotten Son for the

happiness of the human race; that he sent numerous prophets and

apostles to teach and instruct mankind; that they were charged with

the disclosure of every species of celestial knowledge, relative to

the future felicity of intelligent beings; that they were unwearied

in their attention to enlighten and inform the human race; that they

exhibited every possible effort for the accomplishment of this

desirable end, and all this to no valuable purpose; that man is to be

criminated for the bad conduct of a person who lived 6,000 years ago;

that he can be made happy only by a crucified God; that he can

perform no virtue of himself, and yet, that without being perfectly

holy, he cannot be happy; that he must give an unlimited credence to

the greatest absurdities, and most palpable contradictions, and view

the most immoral specimens of human actions as sanctioned by the

Deity; that he must venerate the most senseless opinions, admire the

most unexampled ignorance, and love the most detestable crimes; in

fact, that he must believe in a book which contains, systematically

considered, neither truth nor morality, neither purity of sentiment

nor principle, neither propriety of arrangement, nor progression of

human improvement; erroneous in all its primary establishments and

vindictive in all its consequences; unjust in its origin and

malevolent in all its subsequent movements; incorrect in its

relations and impure in its intentions; destructive to science, an

insult to morality, and essentially injurious to human felicity.

    This then is Christian faith. Great God of Nature! Must we then

renounce the justifiable exercise of all our faculties, in order to

be happy? To attain felicity, is it necessary that we believe in

contradictions? Must we deem cruelty one of the attributes of

divinity? Must the benevolent mind be called to the view of murder,

in order to be fitted for the performance of its essential duties?

Must injustice and revenge be interwoven with the morality of man?

Shall we never be permitted to love truth, admire nature, and

practice a pure and genuine morality? Oh, superstition! how much thou

hast to answer for! thine influence has corrupted the faculties of

man, debased his heart, and rendered wretched the whole human race.

Thou hast spread ruin, misery, and devastation over a beautiful and

productive earth, and thou art deserving of the curses of every

intelligent being in every part of the universe.

    Another divine doctrine of this divine religion is that of

regeneration. This doctrine appears to be scarcely deserving of a

serious consideration. When the mind of man takes cognizance of the

operations of nature, it discerns no effect which can possibly

include an event of this sort. We behold the renovations and

alterations in the material world; we observe the principles and

progression of gradual decay, in all its essential and relative

movements, and we recognize the benefits which result from the

principle of mutability. The principles of disorganization and

reproduction, are every where discoverable in the works of nature,

but no justifiable analogy can possibly be drawn from this view of

the subject. The renovation in the material world bears no

resemblance to the Christian principle of regeneration. The one is

cognizable and rests on natural grounds, the other is inconsistent

with the knowledge derived from experience. The human mind, through

the channels of its observation, discovers the means of perpetuating

the species; but this mental regeneration bears no relation to these

progressive means of production. It is necessary, therefore, that we

examine what is meant by this unintelligible principle, called

regeneration. It seems to be almost impossible to obtain any accurate

or definite idea, from the representation which is given concerning

this pretended and important change. Those who are the subjects of it

profess themselves to be incapable of disclosing its real movements

or genuine operations. If it were an event, of which the human mind

had any real knowledge or experience, one would suppose that the

faculty of communication would render it in some measure intelligible

to others; but enthusiasm delights in mystery, and by embracing this

doctrine, has given a powerful specimen of its fanaticism and

importance. It pretends to the acquisition of something, concerning

which, it can exhibit no adequate idea or useful information. It is a

mysterious and inexplicable change of the mind, pretendedly for the

better, and yet no valuable purposes seem to be answered by this

divine renovation. The being, who is the subject of it, becomes

neither the wiser nor the better; he is not the wiser, because he can

give no proofs of additional knowledge; his disposition is not

amended, for his conduct continues the same. For the truth of this

observation we may appeal to experience. Are the saints of the world

more just, more honest, more benevolent, or charitable, than those

who make no pretensions to supernatural grace? Is their heart or

their temper of mind ameliorated? Is their conduct in stricter

conformity with useful or exalted virtue? Do they sympathize more

with the unfortunate, or exhibit greater specimens of genuine

benevolence? Is the heart tranquillized, the mind improved, and their

actions more consistent with the invariable principles of rectitude?

Have they diminished human misery, or improved the condition of human

nature? No! Where then is the utility of this thing called

regeneration? If the heart be not improved, the mind cultivated, or

morality extended in the sphere of its influence, no advantage has

resulted from this pretended change. If any benefit has been derived,

it ought to be shown; but the history of the Christian world forbids

the attempt.

    But further, the performance of the duty which is assigned to

the being called the Holy Ghost, seems to have been attended to in a

manner not discernible by the highest faculties of the human mind. If

this being had really undertaken the moral renovation of the human

species, he ought to have rendered it universal, and explained its

operations on cognizable grounds. But no such thing having been done,

the rational conclusion must be, that the whole is a delusion. Indeed

the New Testament representation of this affair bears an unequivocal

and unmeaning appearance. It is there declared, "Except a man be born

again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." And when Nicodemus makes

the rational inquiry how such an event could possibly happen, he is

put off with an evasive answer, (John chap. 3.) "Nicodemus saith unto

him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second

time into his mother's womb, and be born? Jesus answered, verily I

say unto thee; except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he

cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Marvel not that I said unto

thee, ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and

thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh,

and whether it goeth, so is every one that is born of the spirit.

Nicodemus answered and said unto him, how can these things be? Jesus

answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest

not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak that we

do know, and testify that we have seen, and ye receive not our

witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how

shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things?" &c. From this

passage it is evident that Jesus, who made the answer to Nicodemus,

knew nothing of the nature of this marvellous change. Being born of

water and of the spirit is a phrase without meaning; what ideas can

this possibly convey to the mind? but the advocates of this doctrine

contend that one part of this sentence relates to baptism, and the

other to the influence of the Holy Ghost. This does not mend the

matter, neither does it exhibit any new species of information; for

what has baptism to do with the moral condition of man? Can water,

externally applied, destroy internal moral turpitude? If human vices

could be cured through this channel, the more rational efforts for

the renovation and improvement of our character would become

unnecessary. But it is clearly discernible, that as vice is a

violation of moral law, the way to remedy the mischiefs resulting

from this violation, is not to pour water on the face, which can have

no possible influence on the mind, but to return to uniform conduct,

consistent with the primary principles of moral virtue. And further,

to be born of the Spirit, being unintelligible, and without any

beneficial effect, is equally ridiculous and absurd. The comparison

of this regeneration with the blowing of the wind, exhibits nothing

but the ignorance of him who made it. Indeed the principle on which

the doctrine rests, is so unnatural and so destitute of any valuable

effects, that it is unworthy of further consideration. 

    The next point of examination is the morality of the Christian

religion. On this head, the advocates of this revealed system have

made a mistake injurious to themselves, by extolling its morality

above that of any other moral treatise; they have provoked inquiry

and comparison, and the result serves only to diminish the pretended

excellence of their scheme. It is not denied that this religion

contains some good moral maxims. But it is denied that it contains

any thing like a pure "system" of genuine morality. Its moral maxims

are but thinly interspersed, and they are inaccurate and incomplete,

trifling, and often without utility, destitute of justifiable

application to the moral condition of intellectual life. All morality

that is genuine, is drawn from the nature and condition of rational

beings. It is calculated to preserve and augment their happiness, to

raise and extend the dignity and utility of social existence. It

assumes for its basis, the genuine principles of reciprocal justice,

and an extensive benevolence. While it regards the felicity of

others, it also regards the preservation of our own life and

happiness. But the moral doctrine concerning injuries, contained in

the Christian religion, is not established upon a principle of this

mutual nature, but solicits an accumulation of insult, by commanding

us after being smitten on one cheek to turn the other also. This is

sacrificing the dignity of our character, and inviting fresh

injuries. It is surrendering up the manly part of our nature, into

the hands of him who is sure to trample it under foot. And again it

is said, "If any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy

coat, let him have thy cloak also;" that is, after thine enemy hath

unjustly taken away a part of thy property, it becomes thy duty to

bestow upon him the remainder. If thy coat is already gone, thou must

give away the remainder of thy garments, and go naked thyself. If

thine enemy do thee all possible injury, thou must in return exercise

towards him sincere love and affection. If he persecute thee, thou

shouldst bless him for his curses and persecutions. In short, to

comply with the spirit of this morality, we must invert the order of

nature, and bestow on crimes and continued abuse, the most endearing

affections of our heart. Where is the believer who puts this morality

into practice? It is not considered by every one as merely

theoretical. Have you who are believers in this system, coats and

other garments to bestow, in order to comply with its injunctions?

Are you willing to surrender your natural dignity, to sink your

nature to a level of a spaniel, in order to become a true Christian?

And can you, with any appearance of truth and justice, advocate the

purity and celestial nature of this species of moral maxims? It may

reasonably be presumed that if one coat had been obtained through the

channel of a law suit, another law suit would be necessary in order

to obtain the cloak. And thus this celestial morality would become

the cause of endless litigation. But if we should accede to the truth

of the assertion, that all the maxims held as moral by the professors

of Christianity, were really and truly so, this would not prove the

celestial origin of their religion. For if we attribute to them all

the excellence which is contended for, they still fall below ancient

and modern dissertations on this subject. This religion does not draw

its morality from the right source. But the correct, the elegant, the

useful maxims of Confucius, Antoninus, Seneca, Price, and Volney,

beautifully display its principles from the physical and moral

organization of intelligent beings. The writings of these men are in

the hands of the public, and may be perused by every one whose

prejudices do not forbid it, and when examined with a spirit of

candour, they will rise far superior to the boasted morality of the

Christian system. But when the numerous, cruel, and immoral maxims

contained in the Bible, are placed in the balance, they greatly

outweigh all its genuine morality, and the influence of this religion

upon the human heart and human actions verifies the remark.

    But of this we shall speak in the next division of the subject,

which is the consideration of the effects produced by the

introduction of the Christian religion into the world.

    When the human mind takes a retrospective view of past ages,

through the mirror of history; when it calls up to its contemplation,

the murderous devastations, the horrid wars and cruelties which have

desolated the Christian world; when it beholds the fagot every where

lighted up for the destruction of man; when gibbets, imprisonment,

and persecutions are presented on every quarter; when it sees

domestic peace and tranquillity tortured and almost annihilated,

malevolence and sectarian spirit enkindling the most unbridled

resentments to disturb the benevolent sentiments of the human heart;

when, in fact, all Christendom exhibits a spectacle shocking to

humanity, the weeping voice of Nature cries aloud, and demands a

disclosure of the causes which have produced this general misery and

distress. It asks, in the name of Reason and Truth, whence all these

calamities, whence these innumerable evils that have overwhelmed and

laid waste a beautiful and productive earth? Where is the source of

these human misfortunes? Where the fountain whence these miseries

proceed? Righteous God of Nature! What questions are these to ask in

the face of the Christian church? But however painful the task, truth

compels us to declare, that to this "holy" religion they are to be

attributed. In this wonderful system of divine benevolence, we must

seek for the origin. 

"Does the God of Nature then require devastation for homage, or

conflagration for sacrifice? Would he have groans for hymns?

Murderers to worship him, and a desert and ravaged world for his

temple? Yet such, holy and faithful generations, are your works!

These the fruits of your piety! You have massacred the people,

reduced cities to ashes, destroyed all traces of cultivation, made

the earth a solitude, and you demand the reward of your labours. For

myself, I solemnly affirm by all laws, human and divine, by the laws

of the human heart, that the hypocrite and the deceiver shall be

themselves deceived. The unjust man shall perish in his rapacity, and

the tyrant in his usurpation; the sun shall change his course, before

folly shall prevail over wisdom and science, before stupidity shall

surpass prudential economy in the delicate art of procuring to man

his true enjoyments, and of building his happiness on a solid

foundation."(1)

[1. Volney's "Ruins".]

    We now proceed to exhibit, more particularly, the fatal effects

of the Christian religion, relative to science, to morality, and

human happiness. In vain do the advocates of this system contend for

its beneficial effects as it regards these three principles. Science

has been suppressed, morality insulted, and human happiness partially

destroyed.

    If the introduction of this religion into the world had been

calculated to accelerate the progress of human improvement, or to

render mankind wiser and happier, history should have recorded the

progressive steps of this accumulating knowledge. But instead of

this, the reverse stands confessed on the face of the record. When

did the light of science begin to extend its benign influence over

the surface of the globe? Was it at the commencement of the Christian

era, and did it keep pace with the progressive belief of the

Christian doctrines? Did the mind of man receive any impulse

beneficial to the cause of knowledge, when this religion was first

promulgated; and did the extension of useful information bear any

justifiable relation to the diffusion of Christian principles? Did

the world become either wiser or better after this religion had

unfolded its genuine effects for more than fifteen centuries? Was

this the cause of giving energy to the intellectual faculties of man?

Were the genuine principles of science, which are contained in the

system of nature, displayed and manifested by the establishment of

this religion? In a word, has Christianity enlightened the world? No!

But it has served as a means to suppress useful knowledge; for

neither the commencement nor progressive establishment of this

religion has contributed to useful information. If science were

connected with the establishment and belief of Christianity, its

advancement ought to have kept pace with the accelerated operation of

its cause. But the reverse is the fact, for while the Christian

religion has its greatest effect on the human mind, the useful

branches of science were totally neglected, and the world was buried

in the most profound darkness and ignorance; but when the physical

energy of man roused itself from its slumbering and depressed

condition, it took cognizance of primary principles, and discovered

truth from the invariable laws of nature. While the mind was under

the influence of clerical authority, independent reflection was

effectually suppressed, and fear had destroyed all scientific

efforts. Geography, astronomy, and natural philosophy, in short, the

whole science of physics was denied the privilege of liberal inquiry

and discussion. Religion affirmed the earth to be as flat as a

trencher, and he who denied this assertion, was charged with a

damnable heresy. Religion denied the existence of the Antipodes, and

Genius trembled beneath its threatening rod. Religion inverted the

whole order of nature, and truth and science had no safe or

beneficial appeal. Religion pronounced damnation to the philosophic

inquirer, and he sought tranquillity in the dark abodes of ignorance,

or the suppression of useful knowledge. In short, religion governed

by terror, and the mind of man painfully submitted to its destructive

influence, till, at length, wearied and distressed by this degrading

authority, it boldly asserted its own natural dignity and

independence, and dared to draw its knowledge from the pure fountain

of nature. As knowledge began to increase, the influence of the

Christian religion and the authority of the church were seen to

diminish; and as in the one case, ignorance kept pace with the

promulgated influence of this religion, so in the other, science has

kept pace, and extended itself in proportion to the destruction of

Christian influence and authority; and where at this period there is

the most science, there the least credence is given to revealed

religion; where the principles of physics, morality, and politics

have been most clearly understood, there the least respect is paid to

this system of fanaticism and superstition. In short, they are

incompatible with each other, and it may be confidently maintained

that the world must either retrograde to a state of darkness, or that

the belief of the Christian religion must become wholly extinct. If

the mind of man should progressively advance towards a state of

perfectibility, this system of religion, so injurious to its

researches and so incompatible with the dignity and happiness of his

nature, must be forever annihilated and destroyed. If, on the other

hand, this unnatural scheme of ethics is permitted to retain its

mischievous influence, the highest and best hopes of the

philanthropist must be abandoned, and ignorance and misery become the

lot of mortals. But God forbid that this should ever be the case. The

benevolent mind, while reflecting on the subject, entertains a strong

hope, that the reverse will obtain, and that the world will

ultimately become virtuous and happy.

    Again, this religion claiming with so much imperious austerity,

celestial origin, has not been less injurious to the cause of

morality, than to that of science. Its fundamental principles are of

a nature destructive to all moral virtue, its doctrines openly

disavow all benefit resulting from the practice of a genuine

morality. Faith, atonement, and supernatural grace are the essential

requisites of eternal happiness, and these have nothing to do with

the mental or moral energies of our nature. The cultivation of our

minds, the improvement of our faculties, and the performance of moral

duties, by which alone man can expect or deserve to enjoy permanent

felicity, are not considered as the proper means of acquiring it; but

a blind an unintelligible faith, a mysterious and inexplicable belief

in carnage and murder, are to become the objects of our highest

admiration! "Not of works," says Paul, (the apostle of fanaticism and

superstition) "lest any man should boast." And again, "It is not of

him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth

mercy." When maxims such as these are fundamental in any system of

religion, what beneficial effects can result from it? It goes to the

destruction of all moral effects. It represents man as incapable of

performing any virtuous action. "For of yourselves ye can do

nothing," is another maxim of this "holy religion". If man then can

do nothing, nothing ought to be required of him; and if he is capable

of practicing moral virtue, he ought to receive his reward. But

inspiration teaches, that he ought to depend on the merit of another,

and fanaticism cries aloud, that in Jesus alone you have hope; when

the truth is, that neither the hopes, the welfare, or the happiness

of man, can bear any possible relation to Jesus Christ or his

opinions. Man is a being possessed of certain powers and faculties,

and it is only through the justifiable exercise of these that he can

be happy. But when he is taught to believe that his highest moral

efforts can avail nothing; that he is completely under condemnation,

in consequence of the imputed sin of him who lived six thousand years

ago; that he can be relieved from the effects of this primary

apostacy, only by the murder of an innocent person; that he can lay

claim to this relief only through the channel of supernatural grace

and divine aid; in fact, that of himself, he can do nothing; when he

is taught to believe all this, what inducement can remain to the

practice of virtue? There is none, and the mind is left to the gloomy

anticipation of eternal fire. Was this religion instituted for the

benefit and improvement of man? And do its professors deny him the

power and beneficial results of moral exertions? Do they call him to

virtuous activity for the purpose of insulting the useful energy of

his nature? Do they in one breath represent him as an intelligent

being, and in the next degrade him to the condition of a beast or a

devil? It may be pronounced with certainty, that morality or real

virtue can never be promoted by a scheme of religion containing such

contradictions and absurdities, and that human enjoyment has been

essentially diminished by the promulgation of such unnatural

principles. Since it has already been shown that the Christian

religion has been destructive to science and to morals, it seems

almost unnecessary to make any observations on its relation to

general happiness; for since the happiness of man depends essentially

on the possession of knowledge and the practice of virtue, whatever

injures these must be detrimental to his true felicity. The

descriptions given in this religion of the character and conduct of

the Almighty, are shocking to the reflections of the benevolent mind;

they represent the Creator of the world, not as the friend, but as

the enemy of man; as a being agitated by passions, and acting

capriciously for the gratification of his own resentment; sometimes

he is said to be merciful, at other times cruel and vindictive;

sometimes just, at other times malevolent and revengeful; sometimes

permanent and immutable in his actions and designs, at other times

changeable, and to have repented of what he had previously determined

to perform; at one time unbounded in his love, at another time

unlimited in his fury and vengeance; sometimes the God of peace, at

other times the God of wars and battles; now mild and peaceable, the

next moment angry and resentful. "In short, this Christian God is

ever at variance with himself," and in him no genuine confidence can

be reposed. Can any one then be happy who trusts to a being of this

description? To one who is imperfect, unstable, passionate, and

revengeful? To a being who has, in fact, no uniformity of conduct, no

system of action, and no immutability of procedure? No! Those who

place their confidence here must be wretchedly disappointed, and an

agitated mind will be their unavoidable portion. Yet to all this is

added, the fear of an eternal Hell, as the certain and inevitable lot

of nine-tenths of the human race. To say, therefore, that this

religion has made mankind happy, is to disregard all the operations

of the human heart, and the most justifiable hopes of the human mind.

    Man! If thou wouldst be happy, thou must come home to Nature,

admire her splendid beauties, develope truth from the permanence of

her laws, cultivate real virtue, improve and exalt thy character,

extend the sphere of thy utility, and invariably adhere to the

practice of a pure and genuine morality.

CHAPTER VI.

ORIGIN OF THE EARTH. 

    Supernatural religion has been fertile in inventing systems

concerning the origin of the world. The period which has been

assigned to its duration has been extremely different among different

nations of the earth, and has been limited or extended by theological

authority. The Chinese records ascribe to the earth a duration of

more than 20,000 years, and according to the opinions of some, of

more than 40,000 years. These opinions are controverted by Christian

believers, because, according to their sacred writings, the age of

the earth is only about 6,000 years. Every opinion on this subject,

which is supported by a popular and supernatural theology, is

maintained with a tenacity which fanatic dogmatism never fails to

inspire. It is, no doubt, a matter of curious inquiry when and by

what means the earth was produced, what important changes it has

undergone, and by what means these changes have been effectuated, and

what will be their final result upon the modification and existence

of the earth. While we inquire into the origin of the earth, we are

also naturally led to the idea of the other extreme, and are

solicitous to ascertain the ultimate extent of its duration. It is,

however, a subject of vast difficulty, and involved in so much

darkness and uncertainty, that it will probably always be impossible

to reduce to absolute certitude any philosophical ideas upon this

abstruse and difficult case. One thing, however, is certain, that if

philosophy be ignorant upon the origin of the earth, theology, from

the nature of its character, must be still more ignorant; philosophy

investigates with patient and temperate perseverance, while theology

is impelled by the gales of ranting enthusiasm. The latter is

certain, without evidence, and the former is in doubt because it is

deficient in evidence. When it is asserted by Christian believers,

that without the Bible we should know nothing of the beginning or the

end of this world, what do they say more than this, that we must take

the authority and declaration of a theological book for absolute and

positive truth, that assertion must supply the place of evidence; the

ignorance of antiquity is to be preferred to the science of modern

times; the decisions of the church ought to have more weight than the

demonstration of intellect; that the mythology of every nation should

be put into the balance against the strength of human judgment, and a

comprehensible development of moral and physical laws. The earth

which we inhabit occupies a station in that vast system which is

presented to our view in the regions of space; it is the residence of

beings whose powers are inadequate to a comprehension of all those

vast objects which surround them; it is this ignorance that has

induced the necessity of so many false and whimsical conjectures

concerning the origin of the world. 

    There is, however, in this case one substantial consideration,

to which we ought to direct our reflections. It is among the

philosophical truths which cannot be controverted, that nothing can

never become something, and that something can never become nothing.

If this truth be applied to the present case, we shall have in part a

solution of the difficulty, so far as it relates to the existence of

the materials of which the earth is composed; but modification and

local situation in the planetary system will constitute another part

of the inquiry. Christian philosophers themselves have acceded to the

axiom, that from nothing, nothing can be made; if this be true, as it

clearly is, the eternal duration of the earth, in some form or other,

will follow as a necessary consequence. It is declared in the 1st

chapter of Genesis, that in the beginning God created the Heaven and

the earth. But we are not told from what materials, or in what manner

this work was performed. One thing, however, is remarkable in the

account, that there were three days and three nights before the

creation of the sun, which is the sole cause of day and night. This

proves that Moses, or whoever wrote the 1st chapter of Genesis, was

neither a good world-maker, nor a good astronomer. If the whimsical

and incongruous opinions of theologists were to be credited, every

part of the physical universe would be distorted, and all the useful

discoveries of philosophy would be destroyed by a single dash of

authority. Moses makes day and night without the existence of the

sun; Joshua stops the course of the sun; and the author of the gospel

of St. Matthew precipitates the stars from their celestial condition,

and causes them to descend upon the earth with as little difficulty

"as if they had been so many pebble stones." It is not in the

fanciful reveries of religionists that we are to expect to discover

physical truth; the smallest frantic impulse is sufficient to

overturn the beauty and harmony of Nature, and there is scarcely a

religious zealot on earth who would not sacrifice natural truth to

the phrenzy of his enthusiasm. When the temperate philosopher asserts

that it is probable, in his view of the subject, that the earth has

existed from all eternity, the Christian fanatic rises in all the

power of holy and vindictive resentment, as if the question, in its

ultimate tendency, involved the best interest of moral existence, and

all the practical considerations of human life. Progressive

investigation upon this subject will constantly be attended with a

diminution of respect for theological opinions; but a doctrine once

established in "supernatural religion" is henceforth to be

denominated absolutely true and infallible; the most abstract

speculations of a philosophical kind are damnable heresies, and the

authors and supporters of them destined hereafter to experience the

vindictive fury and unrelenting vengeance of the Jewish and Christian

God. 

    The eternal duration of the earth, in some form or other, is

rendered certain, by the essential properties of matter; whatever

does exist must have existed from all eternity, and must, from its

very nature, continue to exist for ever. Creation and annihilation,

so far as these words are applied to the essence of things, are words

without meaning, but so far as they are applied to a specific

modification, they are intelligible and universal. Experience bears

testimony to this solemn truth; but if the earth existed from all

eternity, did it always hold the same relative position in regard to

the sun and other planets? This is a question that can receive only a

partial and probable solution, nor is it of importance to the true

interest of philosophy that it should engage any high degree the

attachment and energy of human intellect. The productions on the

surface of the globe constitute, in some small degree, the foundation

of ingenuous conjecture. The vivifying influence of the sun seems to

be an operating cause, without which vegetation and life would be

unknown; in the present condition of the earth, the effect of the sun

is clearly discovered, and the productions which we behold are the

result of its celestial power. Men exist, large animals of various

species also exist, together with all subordinate exhibitions of

physical energy. Procreation and reproduction of specific kind and

class are the invariable laws of Nature. But the question of the

greatest difficulty is that which relates to the origin of the first

and most powerful kind of animals that exist upon the earth; the

position which the globe at present holds in relation to the sun does

not warrant us in the conclusion, that either man or the larger kinds

of animals in brute creation could have resulted from this position.

The same power that formerly produced them would be able to produce

them still, and in addition to the ordinary process of reproduction,

we should have a right to expect new beauties and wonders, equal, at

least, to the most excellent which we now behold. This, however, is

not the case, and the fair deduction on the ground of philosophy, is,

that the relative position of the earth and sun must formerly have

been different from what it is at present, and that it is upon a

hypothesis of this kind that we are to seek for a solution of the

highest difficulties with which we are presented in the animal world.

    There is one other idea of analogical weight in the discussion

of this part of the subject. Nature is every where periodical in her

exertions and energies; she is susceptible of fatigue and lassitude,

and her most powerful operations are followed by proportionate

debility and inactivity. It is therefore possible in the order of

Nature, that the most powerful animals might have been the result of

an inconceivable exertion, to which Nature for millions of years

after might have been totally incompetent. Among the human species

there is evidently a great diversity of external appearance; the

white and the black man are as different in some other respects, as

they are in the colour of their skin; the long straight hair of the

one, and the curled wool of the other, is a verification of this

remark. Both races are intelligent, and it is presumed that the

intellectual powers are not in any essential degree dissimilar.

Improvement has made more difference than Nature, and the immoral

opinion, that the whites have a right to enslave the blacks, is a

complete abandonment of the principle of reciprocal justice, and a

violation of the fundamental laws of Nature. The only consideration

which induced the mention of this subject, was to show, that it is

probable that Nature has, at different times, made great exertion in

the work of creation or production, and that from man down to the

lowest insect, a graduated modification of physical energy has been

exhibited throughout a past eternity. It will be then inquired,

whether this conjecture can be analogized with the idea of new

productions in the planetary system? The answer to this inquiry must

be given unequivocally in the negative. The axiom, that from nothing,

nothing can be made, here applies with correct and indubitable force,

and unless comets or planets interfere and derange each other's

existence, there can be no new production; and even in such a case,

it would be form alone that was new, and not essence and matter. The

changes that are exhibited in Nature are infinitely diversified, and

the causes of these changes not clearly to be discovered. The mass of

existence must remain for ever the same; but its modifications will

vary throughout infinite space, and through all the successive

periods of the eternal duration of time, or, to speak more correctly,

through the progression of an interminable futurity. The whole mass

of material existence is to us infinite, or at least

incomprehensible. To its extent in the regions of space no limits can

be assigned, and to its duration, anterior or subsequent, we can fix

no period. The most probable conclusion resulting from the nature of

matter, and the stability of physical laws, is, that the universe has

existed from all eternity, and that its duration hereafter will be

endless. Upon the earth all the different kinds of animals and all

the individuals of each kind are seen in succession to die and

dissolve into Nature; it is from this inferred, that death is a

universal law so far as it relates to all the productions of earth.

But we cannot analogize these facts with the planetary system. We

have never seen a planet die or dissolve into the vast ocean of

space, we have therefore no good reason to believe that any such

event will ever take place. If such a fact had been discovered in one

single instance, it would be strong analogical evidence, that the

same fate would ultimately overtake all the vast orbs which fill the

unlimited regions of space, or that universal death is a universal

law of Nature. The constancy of existence, and the immutability of

physical laws, will, however, be a sufficient consolation to timid

minds, apprehensive of a final dissolution of the beautiful system of

the material world. Human nature may repose in these laws the utmost

confidence, they will probably operate with "divine" energy

throughout an endless futurity. 

CHAPTER VII.

UNIVERSAL DELUGE.

    The highest delight of theology is the destruction of the

beauty, order, and harmony of the universe. A world regularly

existing from all eternity, and continuing so to exist through an

endless futurity, would be, in the estimation of supernatural

theology, an object of disgust. To nourish the superstitious pride

and folly of man, it is necessary to derange, overturn, and destroy

the splendid beauties and majestic grandeur of the vast empire of

Nature. Not content with the scheme of prediction, whose fulfilment

including the ultimate dissolution of the earth, Superstition

conceived it was necessary to retrace and discover in the history of

past ages, an event equally distressing and terrific. For this

purpose the story of the universal deluge was contrived, in which all

the animals on the surface of the earth, a select number only

excepted, fell a sacrifice to the vindictive vengeance of the Jewish

God. The nature and details of this story are exposed to strong

objections, and by an examination of the Bible account, the

inconsistency and even impossibility of the case will be discovered.

It will also appear by recurrence to the law of nature, that such an

event is in no shape whatever deserving of human credence. The law of

fluids and the deficiency of water render it physically impossible

that the whole globe should be overflowed at one and the same time.

It is well known, that water always seeks its level; where the

equilibrium is destroyed, there will be instantly a powerful effort

to restore it. If, therefore, the water was elevated sufficiently

high to cover the highest mountains, the seas would become dry, a

vast cavity would be formed below, and the waters would be

precipitated with inconceivable fury and force to supply the cavities

below, and re-establish the consistent harmony of nature. The

mountains of Andes, in South America, by far the most exalted land

upon the surface of the earth, is, at the point of Chimberazo, 20,000

feet above the common surface of the ocean. There is, therefore, a

great deficiency of water to answer the purposes of a universal

deluge. For as by the law of fluids, water uniformly seeks its level,

it is necessary that all around the globe the water should be raised

20,000 feet, otherwise the American Andes would not have been

covered, and the deluge would not have been universal. Let any one

calculate what a vast quantity of water would have been necessary to

have covered the whole earth to such a height, and he will soon

discover the absurdity of this marvellous account, and still more

marvellous event, related in the book of Genesis. To say that God

created such a vast body of water for the sole purpose of drowning

the world and all the creatures which he made in it, and afterwards

annihilated it, is to assert, in the first place, that which is

impossible, and throw upon the moral character of God a sarcasm, at

which man ought to be ashamed, at which he ought to blush and be

confounded. The account which is given of the deluge, subjects itself

to strong suspicion of incorrectness and want of truth. It is

impossible that the ark or any other vessel that every was built,

could have contained all the animals which are said to have taken

refuge in it. This ark, according to the Bible description of it, was

in length about 525 feet, in breadth 87 1/2 feet, and in height 52

1/2 feet. It is easy to perceive, that a vessel of such dimensions

had not the capacity of containing the numbers, and all the various

kinds of animals which are said to have been rescued from the fatal

effects of this general deluge. It is in vain that the advocates of

this wonderful event fly to miracles, or the operations of

supernatural powers. Miracle on miracle must have been performed, the

nature of things perverted, her laws wholly changed, and the

immutability of the divine character completely annihilated, before

it could be possible for the human mind to accede to the truth of

this marvellous event. Some curious and philosophical observations

concerning the deluge, taken from Emmerson, a British writer, are

here subjoined: -

    "Concerning the cause of this flood, some suppose it brought

about by natural causes; and others, by nothing less than a divine

power. Those that are for natural causes, imagine a comet to have

passed near the earth at that time, and by its approach to have

raised a very strong tide, which would increase as the comet

approached earth. The effect of this would be, that this great tide

would lay all places under water, and would consequently drown all

the inhabitants so far as it reached. That such a cause as this is

capable of producing this dismal effect, is very evident. For if so

small a body as the moon, at the distance of sixty of the earth's

semi-diameters, be able to raise a strong tide in the ocean, of

twelve or fifteen feet high, a comet as big as the earth, and coming

very near it would raise a prodigious tide, capable of overflowing

all that side of the earth which is next to the comet, and also the

opposite side. But then this could not drown all places at once; for

at the quadratures, or in those places which have the comet in their

horizon, they would have as great an ebb, but then it would have this

effect, to overflow and drown all places successively. For this huge

spheroid of water, always pointing towards the comet, would by the

earth's rotation pass over all the countries of the world; and,

therefore, in the space of twenty-four hours, the whole earth would

be involved in water, and all animals as effectively destroyed as if

the water staid 150 days upon the earth, especially as the earth must

needs make several rotations after this manner, before it could get

clear of this disturbing force of the comet. The natural and

necessary effect of all this would be, that by such a prodigious and

rapid motion of this vast body of water round the earth in twenty-

four hours, all plants and trees must be torn up by the roots, and

carried along with the current; all buildings demolished; the rocks,

hills, and mountains dashed to pieces, and torn away; all the product

of the sea, as fishes, shells, teeth, bones, &c. carried along with

the flood, and thrown upon the earth, or even to the tops of

mountains, promiscuously with other bodies; hardly any thing could be

found strong enough to withstand its force. In such a case as this,

it would be impossible for any ark to live, or the strongest man-of-

war to exist upon the surface of the ocean."

    The arguments, physical and moral, against an event of this

kind, are strong and conclusive. Nature is incompetent to any such

exhibition, and the moral perfections of Deity forbid it. The flood

is therefore a chimera, and one of the theological errors contained

in the Bible system of religion. If no other errors of greater

magnitude or more pernicious consequences were to be found in this

"holy" book, it would be an object rather of pleasant amusement than

of severe remark and condemnation.

CHAPTER VIII.

CHRISTIAN WONDERS.

    The truth of a book is always to be suspected in proportion as

it deviates from consistency or the general laws of nature. The story

of the deluge, which was considered in the previous chapter, is

followed in the "Holy Bible" by a relation of other marvellous

circumstances, which necessarily create, in all candid minds, extreme

doubts of the validity or rectitude of such writings. The wonders

that are unfolded in the Old Testament, may, with propriety, be

denominated Christian, since it is by a union of the two books that

Christian doctors have constituted the essence and doctrines of

revealed religion. If this book, which is considered as divine, had

displayed with clearness, dignity, and solemnity, the character of

the Creator; if the principles of reciprocal justice, and genuine

morality, had been developed and marked with precision; if fact had

been substituted in the room of fable, it would not have been an

object of censure and condemnation, and the ridiculous and marvellous

accounts, which in the Old Testament make up a considerable part of

the book, would never have been presented to the human understanding

as objects of veneration, belief, and attachment.

    The destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by fire and

brimstone precipitated from Heaven in the form of rain; the blowing

down the walls of Jericho with rams' horns, by the triumphant march

of the priesthood round the city; the marvellous and frightful story

of the witch of Endor; the woeful condition of Daniel in the den of

lions; the hot sultry situation of Shadrach and his two companions in

the fiery furnace; together with the unnatural and hopeless abode of

poor Jonah in the belly of the whale; all these are specimens of that

miserable and disgusting extravagance with which this "Holy Bible" is

every where replete.

    These are a few out of the number of that long catalogue of

foolish detail for which the scriptures of the Old and New Testament

are so remarkable. If any man of the present day, who writes for the

instruction and benefit of mankind, were to interlard his works with

such idle, extravagant, and useless stories, he would be considered

in a state of insanity, and his writings would be contemned even by

Christian believers themselves. A rain of fire and brimstone is

impossible in the order of nature, and inconsistent with the moral

perfection of that Being who governs the world. In throwing down the

walls of Jericho, there is something in the detail of the story

which, in the first place, is calculated to excite in human nature

sentiments of humour and ridicule. The pompous and solemn parade of

the priesthood, marching with great dignity around this walled city,

with crooked rams' horns in their hands, and exhausting the whole

force of their lungs with an expectation, that by this puffing effort

they should be able to throw down the stony walls of a city, has

something in it of a laughable nature; but the conclusion of the

story, if it had any truth in it, would be to a correct mind

productive of distress, since indiscriminate and unrelenting murder

forms the painful picture. The story of the witch of Endor is too

contemptible for serious remark; but when coupled with Lot's wife and

with Sampson, the pillar of salt, and the wonderful strength in

Sampson's hair, it might serve to frighten children and amuse fools;

but to sedate minds, attached to nature and truth, such incoherent

stuff must become an object of the highest contempt; the bare mention

of such extravagant vagaries ought to be their open refutation. The

laws of nature are permanent. God is immutable and truth is immortal.

To these great objects the energy of intellect ought to be directed.

It is time, therefore, to proceed to the examination of arguments,

which the most respectable and enlightened believers in Christianity

have deemed sufficient to establish its divine origin. These

arguments shall be taken up and stated in their full force, that in

this respect Christians shall have no right to complain; the success

attending an effort to confute them, must be judged of by the result

and mode of execution. It is sufficient that a sincere desire to

discover truth will be a constant concomitant of those inquiries.

CHAPTER IX.

IS THE EVIDENCE DRAWN FROM MIRACLES SUFFICIENT TO PROVE THE DIVINE

ORIGIN OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION?

    The sun rises in the eastern horizon with all its resplendent

beauties and divine energies, and yet carries along with it no terror

or disorder, no trouble or uneasiness in the mind of man. Its motion

is known to be regulated by a constancy of impulse; by a cause, whose

nature and power are invariable and uniform; by a cause, in which man

reposes the utmost confidence. The stars glisten in the firmament,

unshaken in their position; the moon performs her wonted duty in the

planetary world; in other words, the solar system is guided by laws,

of which mathematical science has taken the most indubitable

cognizance. The productions of earth are subject to no supernatural

derangement; they are exhibited with a constancy and specific

similarity which discard every idea of perversion in physical law,

and present the material world as a theatre of certitude which the

efforts of superstition cannot destroy. The tides ebb and flow, and

all the relative operations of nature are preserved entire, in

despite of the malignity of superstition. This vast whole, this

extensive universe, thus subjected to the operation of immutable

laws, is, nevertheless, distorted and deranged by Christian theology;

its Author is insulted, and the scientific deductions of human

intellect perverted or destroyed. Religion, not content with the

consistency and harmony of Nature, has sought for redress in the

violation of her laws, and nothing short of miracles could satisfy

the extravagant desires of "pious and holy fanaticism". Pride and

vanity have tempted man to establish religion upon a supernatural

basis. The idea of associating with heaven, and holding an

intercourse with celestial powers, was a circumstance of extravagant

and delicious enjoyment, with a privileged order, and laid the

foundation of that terrifying severity of judgment contained in the

gospel declaration, "He that believeth not shall be damned."

    If supernatural religion were a thing founded in truth, it would

not seek for so many divers means of support, but would rest itself

upon the decisions of human judgments and the general science of the

world. A true system of ethics disclaims all foreign aid, all

violation of Nature's laws, and stands upon its own intrinsic merit.

Miracles make it neither better nor worse; if it be false, miracles

cannot make it true, and if it be true in its own nature, the working

of miracles cannot make it more true. There cannot, therefore, be any

use in miracles, since they do not alter the nature of things, or

destroy the force and extent of evidence.

    The evidence deduced from the supposed existence of miracles is

considered by Christian believers incontrovertible, in regard to the

sacred truths in their religion. It is astonishing, say they, that

any man can have the audacity to call in question the truth of this

system, whose divinity has been proved by the working of so many

miracles. Both under the Jewish and Christian dispensations, God

manifested his power, and displayed his eternal perfections in

support of the holy nature and celestial origin of revealed religion;

he stopped the course of the sun, parted the seas, and dried up the

rivers, that his chosen people might pass through with safety upon

dry land. He raised the dead in the presence of vast multitudes,

whose testimony has descended down to us, with undiminished weight

and convincing energy. "He has arrested in turn all the powerful laws

of nature, in consequence of which, he has established, in the face

of the world, the divine origin of the Christian religion. It is,

therefore, something worse than folly, it is blindness and madness,

mingled with the grossest effrontery to the majesty of Heaven, even

to suspect the holy truths of this holy and supernatural system." All

the "may" be true; but of its truth we shall be better able to judge

when we have thoroughly investigated the subject. Assertions cannot

be substituted for arguments, and we have yet to learn, whether the

weight of evidence drawn from miracles, be as great as Christian

believers represent. A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature,

by "supernatural power". In the act of such violation there must have

been some great object in view, which could not otherwise be

accomplished; the violation therefore must have been considered as

the least of two evils, and the result as productive, upon the whole,

of the greatest possible good. But this represents an omnipotent God,

surrounded with difficulties, and like imperfect creatures, disposed

to make the best of a bad situation.

    It will be necessary for those who advocate the doctrine of

miracles, to recur to the cause and primary establishment of the laws

of nature. God is infinite in all his perfections; the laws of nature

are an effect of the divine attributes, and must have been modified

in the best possible manner, and to answer the best and wisest

purposes. To alter, therefore, that which already had been done in

the best possible manner, would be to make it worse, for no

alteration or amendment could make that better which was already as

good as it could be. If the world and the laws by which the world was

governed, are the offspring of infinite wisdom, they must have been

right in the first place, for it is a necessary character of infinite

wisdom, to perform whatever it does perform in the best possible

manner. All alterations or violations in any system or set of laws,

argues imperfection and want of discernment; but such imperfection

and want of discernment cannot be the property of a perfect being. If

God, therefore, is perfect, such perfection would enable him to

conceive and execute with a masterly hand. The mechanic who builds a

machine, frequently alters his plan, and is under the necessity of

attending to amendments and repairs; but his ignorance was the ground

work of this, and a competent knowledge of the principles by which

the machine was constructed, would have precluded the necessity of

subsequent correction and amendment. The Creator of the world knew

perfectly well the force and effect of principle before it was

applied to the accomplishment of the variegated motions and

operations of existence; ignorance, therefore, could have no share in

modifying the vast powers of the universe, or the immutable

principles by which it is directed. Wisdom, power, and goodness,

combined in the management of the whole, and consequently the whole

is formed exactly in such a manner as these three leading perfections

of the divine character at first intended. To work a miracle,

therefore, would answer no very valuable purpose, and is derogatory

to the attributes of God, by which it is supposed to be wrought. To

establish a system of religion by evidence drawn from miracles, is to

establish it upon the ruin of the consistent harmony of the divine

perfections; upon the ruin of all principle and all confidence. When

the consistent character of the author of such religion is destroyed,

the religion itself is not worth much. Either God did things in the

first place as they ought to be done, or he did not; if he did them

as they ought be done, there could have been no need of alteration,

and consequently there could have been no such thing as a miracle; if

he did not, then he must have been either imperfect, or have acted

inconsistent with good principle; in either of which cases, his

character as God would be destroyed, and the perfection of his

existence sacrificed upon the alter of human folly. Fanaticism, which

attempts to exalt its God by making him work wonders, is as great an

enemy to true Theism, as the open and professed Atheist. A wonder-

working God, who violates his own laws, and acts inconsistently with

the principles which he himself has established, is no God at all. It

is an immoral phantom conjured up in the wild vagaries of

superstitious imagination. It is easy to perceive that if there be in

nature a perfect God, he cannot be the author of those marvellous and

even ridiculous violations of the laws of nature detailed in the Old

and New Testament. His character must be uniform, consistent and

perfect, just and equitable, and in perfect coincidence with the

immortal laws of the moral and physical world.

    All things, it is said, are possible with God. This is one of

the maxims of that religion which has perverted all the principles of

truth and justice; but this maxim is not true, it is not possible,

for instance, that God should destroy his own existence; it is not

possible that he should act inconsistently with the properties and

principles of his nature. This extravagant assertion, instead of

exalting the character of the Creator, would absolutely destroy it,

by causing him to act without rule and without justice. But

superstition can never do enough for her God, until she has done a

great deal too much. A consistent and immutable Deity, acting in

strict conformity to the essential properties of his existence, would

be, in the estimation of inconsistent superstition, an object far

inferior to those wild and unruly divinities, who overturn states and

empires, pervert the general order of nature, and occasionally, by

way of amusement, drown the whole world, with all the inhabitants and

animals therein existing. A man walking regularly upon the earth, and

performing with fidelity all his moral duties, "is by no means an

object of attachment", but one walking upon the water, without doing

any good, will draw forth the admiration of a gazing, foolish, and

superstitious world. The passion for the marvellous has carried man

from earth to heaven; and, in the ranting fury of his zeal, he has

supposed that his God would be pleased with all those moral

distortions which at such unhappy moments agitated his own delirious

mind. The idea of the existence of a miracle will be wholly destroyed

by a just recurrence to the counter-balancing evidence, drawn from

the experience of mankind. This experience bears testimony to the

uniform operation of Nature's laws; it teaches man to repose in them

unqualified confidence, and, in all the common concerns of life, this

confidence serves as the foundation of his courage, his activity, and

his consolation. Here are, then, two kinds of evidence opposed to

each other; the one human experience, and the other human testimony.

    Those who contend that miracles prove the divinity of the

Christian religion, appeal to the testimony of witnesses to support

the truth and existence of such miracles. Let this case be examined,

and the superior weight of evidence will appear with convincing

force. Believers declare that the miracles which were wrought to

prove the truth of the holy Scriptures, were numerous, and performed

before great numbers of people. That the credit and veracity of these

witnesses cannot be doubted; that they were honest and disinterested

men; that they did not wish to be deceived themselves, nor could they

possibly reap any advantage from deceiving others; that some of the

eye witnesses were inspired men, in whom there was no guile, and that

others were mere men of the world, whose feelings and interest would

have rejected, if possible, the splendour of such supernatural

evidence; that all these, however, yielded to the mighty energy of

the mighty God; that they pronounced him a wonder-working God, and

that such marvellous facts had never before been presented to a

wicked and apostate world. It is also declared and maintained, that

the result of these pure and incorruptible witnesses has been

transmitted down for more than two thousand years through the holy

and incorruptible channel of the Church of Christ; that the present

generation might as well doubt of the existence of Scipio or of

Caesar, as to doubt of the existence of Jesus Christ and his

apostles, and the miracles which by them were performed; that the

unbeliever at this time is working against all his own positions,

destroying the nature of evidence, and unhinging the moral world.

    Formidable as this statement may appear, it will perhaps vanish

when compared with the weight of evidence drawn from the almost

universal experience of the human race. The laws of nature are

uniform and immutable. This is declared to be a fact by the testimony

of all ages and all countries. Observation and experience are the

sources which must be resorted to in such cases, and these do not

warrant a conclusion that the laws of nature have ever been violated.

Through a long succession of ages, the same general facts and events

have been presented; the same causes appear to have been in a

constant state of action, productive of the same or similar effects,

and to the general order of the physical world, every living creature

now bears testimony. When, therefore, it is asserted, that in former

ages all this beauty and harmony of the world was destroyed, this

ought not to overbalance the convincing force of evidence drawn from

our own observations. If we say that we believe the former

extravagant accounts, we contradict the testimony of our own senses;

we abandon the instructive guide of our own experience, and affirm

that the testimony of a few men has more weight than our own positive

knowledge.

    The human mind is bound to decide according to the greatest

portion of evidence; in any given case, therefore, the nature and

portion of evidence ought to be fairly called up before the mind, and

perspicuity of statement, will probably induce the necessity of a

favourable and upright decision. Will any Christian believer say that

he has as much evidence that nature's laws have been violated, or

that miracles have been wrought, as he has that the laws of nature

have not been violated, and that no miracles have been wrought?

Certainly the testimony of a few men bears no proportion to the

universal experience and general observation of the human species.

All mankind, with a few exceptions, declare that the world is

governed by laws which do not change. A few men who lived many ages

ago, declared that these laws did change, and that they had been

witnesses to several astonishing facts of this kind. If we give

credit to those men, we give the lie to all the world beside; if we

repose confidence in the testimony of our own senses, and the general

experience of mankind, we shall have reason to believe, that those

few men, who relate prodigies and miracles, were either deceived

themselves, or that they had a design to deceive others. It is not

extraordinary for ignorant men, or even the most scientific, to be

frequently deceived; nor is it at all extraordinary, that either the

ignorant or the learned should form a settled plan for deceiving

their fellow creatures. Either of these cases is much more probable

than that God should violate his own laws, or act contrary to the

essential properties of his existence. Either of these cases is much

more probable, than that the experience and observation of all

mankind, in almost all ages, should have been incorrect or incapable

of judging upon so plain a case as the operation of the laws of

nature. Men are frequently interested in the practice of deception,

or at least they conceive that a temporary advantage would be the

result; they therefore yield to an impulse productive of misery in

the end, but calculated to gratify for the moment the extravagant and

vicious inclinations of the individual. Men are sometimes disposed to

tell lies, but nature speaks the language of solemn truth. To

controvert, therefore, this truth, and adhere to the stories of a few

fanatic and ignorant individuals, is the height of folly. In no other

case is man so unwise; in no other case does he so essentially depart

from the rules of evidence and the respect which he owes to the

dignity of his intellectual existence.

    Further considerations of corroborative weight and influence

will be found essentially connected with the nature of this subject,

by a recurrence to the history of intellectual existence, and the

state of improvement in society. It is extraordinary, that all

miracles have been wrought during the dark ages; and that a

cultivated state of human existence has always excluded and rejected

all such marvellous events. The smallest attention that has been paid

to the historical progress of science, will convince us that there

are most wonders where there is most ignorance. That knowledge has

been always unfriendly to the existence of miracles; that ghosts,

witches, and devils, with all their concomitant train of mischievous

and malignant phantoms, have generally existed amidst the darkness,

the ignorance, and the superstition of former ages; and that in

proportion as science advanced, miracle receded; in proportion as

knowledge was generally diffused, the marvellous stories of antiquity

became less respectable, and their supposed truth more universally

doubted. There was a time, and that not very far distant, in which

the foolish story of the witch of Endor was received with the

greatest respect; at this moment, enlightened Christians themselves

are ashamed of it. In proportion as man makes progress in physical

knowledge, he ceases to be the dupe of superstition, and what before

appeared marvellous, now becomes plain and intelligible. In natural

philosophy we may discover a hundred proofs of the truth of this

assertion; the rapid lightning of Heaven, which darts with

inconceivable velocity through the regions of space, was once

considered as a powerful weapon of destruction in the hands of God,

and that no human power could control it. This modification of

physical energy, among enlightened minds, has lost all its terror,

and in many places is completely subjected to the will of man. The

cause of earthquakes is known, and scientific presumption has gone so

far as to make even those that are artificial. The charms and

deceptions of legerdemain tricks have lost, in a high degree, their

influence, and strength of intellect is determined to oppose with

constancy and firmness such impositions upon the human race.

    If there were no other circumstance which operated against

miracles, the ignorance, with which believers applaud them, would, of

itself, be a sufficient condemnation and refutation of such idle and

foolish stories. The witches of antiquity have fled to the mountains;

the prophets are no longer credited, and the possibility of miracles

is not admitted by the mathematical and physical reasonor. If

miracles ever had any existence, why should they not have an

existence still? There is as much reason for them now as there ever

was, and the necessity is increased by the infidelity of the present

day. If miracles were necessary to establish Christianity in the

first instance, they are equally proper and necessary now; for proofs

ought to be equal to all, where equal credence is demanded. To make

the Christian religion consistent, it is necessary there should be a

constant string of miracles in every age and in all countries; but

this would destroy the very nature of miracles, by making them so

frequent, that it would be impossible to distinguish between these

events, and those which were produced by the common operations of

Nature. It is, therefore, impossible to give equal proof to all those

who are equally interested in the ultimate decision upon revealed

religion.

    Every supernatural system has pretended to miracles, to

something mysterious and marvellous, to something out of the order of

Nature, and which would be calculated to excite alarm amongst weak

and ignorant people. The truth is, there can be no such thing as a

miracle, and the religion that is built upon this foundation is

false, and cannot be permanent. The laws of Nature are immutable, and

God, their author, is free from every species of imperfection. Truth,

immortality, and eternal uniformity of action, are essential to his

character and existence. The evidence drawn from universal experience

is against the possibility of a miracle, and the history of mankind

corroborates the impressive opinion, that the moral and physical

world is governed by laws "inherent in the nature of things,

identified with their existence", and incapable of being altered by

the properties or exertion of any being whatever. Christian believers

assert that their system is the only one supported by miracles; but

they ought to know that Mahomet lays equal claim to the working of

miracles, have declared that he travelled through ninety heavens in

one night, and returned to Mecca, in Arabia, before the next morning.

That he saw God Almighty, and held with him a personal conversation,

together with many other strange things of a miraculous and

terrifying nature. There is as much reason to believe Mahomet as to

believe Moses and Jesus, and their apostles and followers.

    The fact is, there is no reason to believe any of them, unless

the stories which they relate are consistent with the nature of

things, and the character of God. All deviations from this divine

standard are to be suspected of error; and miracles most of all. It

is extraordinary that Jesus, who is said to have wrought so many

miracles, was afterwards put to death in the very place where they

were wrought, and by the very persons who had been eye witnesses of

such divine and supernatural power. "If the Jews demanded the death

of Jesus, his miracles are at once annihilated in the mind of every

rational man." It cannot be presumed, that a man clothed with

supernatural power, would be a proper object of execution, in the

estimation of those who really believed that he was in the possession

and exercise of such power, and that all his efforts were aided and

sanctioned by the Creator himself. If the proofs of this celestial

mission of Jesus had been clearly exhibited through the channel of

miraculous operations, the Jews and all the surrounding multitude

would have adored him as a God, and they would have been terrified at

the very idea of laying violent hands upon one whose omnipotence

could have instantly crushed them to atoms. The following remarks

upon this subject, taken from a powerful reasoner, deserve to be

inserted here:

    "To suppose that God can alter the settled laws of Nature, which

he himself formed, is to suppose his will and wisdom mutable, and

that they are not the best laws of the most perfect being; for if he

is the author of them, they must be immutable as he is; so that he

cannot alter them to make them better, and will not alter them to

make them worse. Neither of these can be agreeable to his attributes.

If the course of nature is not the best, the only best and fittest

that could be, it is not the offspring of perfect wisdom, nor was it

settled by divine will; and then God is not the author of nature, if

the laws thereof can be altered; for if the laws of nature are God's

laws, he cannot alter them in any degree, without being in some

degree changeable. If all nature is under the direction of an

immutable mind, what can make a change in that direction? God must be

allowed to be eternal, therefore he necessarily exists, and is

necessarily whatever he is; therefore it is not in his own power to

change himself; it is his perfection to be immutable; for if his

nature could possibly change, it might err; for whosoever is

changeable is not perfect. Beside, an eternal and a perfect nature

must necessarily be unchangeable; and as long as the first moving

cause is the same, all subsequent and second causes can never vary."

    This reasoning is energetic and conclusive against the doctrine

of miracles. If, then, there can be no such thing as a miracle,

Christianity, which is built upon this foundation, must also be

false. Man must therefore resort to a system of morality and religion

which coincides with the laws of nature, and which discards all

supernatural violation of its divine order and harmony.

CHAPTER X.

PROPHETIC EVIDENCE IN RELATION TO THE DIVINITY OF THE CHRISTIAN

RELIGION.

    The fulfilment of the prophecies is considered by Christian

believers, as strong proof of the sacred and celestial nature of

their religion. They speak in language positive, and in confidence

bold and firm, that the divinity of that holy system, which they

believe, is substantiated by many wonders, and that they have a

surplus of evidence in favour of its "holy truths". Miracles,

although sufficient of themselves to prove that revealed religion is

true, are corroborated by the convincing evidence drawn from

predictive declaration contained in the scriptures. Many centuries

ago, and even thousands of years, the favourites of heaven were

inspired with a clear and certain knowledge of important events,

which subsequent times should disclose to the human race. The

predictions of these men have been literally fulfilled, and this

circumstance of itself ought to be sufficient to destroy the

infidelity of the present age. This idea is considered by Christians

as founded in truth, and they challenge a confutation of its force

and effect. It is therefore necessary that we inquire whether this

species of evidence can have weight in the present case. Prophecy is

in some respects like miracles, they both partake of the marvellous,

they are both supernatural, they are both inconsistent with the order

of nature. There is, however, in man, a pride and vanity which

induces him to pretend to a knowledge of futurity, and that his

knowledge is the result of a secret and mysterious intercourse with

celestial powers. In all ages there have been prophets who imposed

upon the mass of mankind, and made others believe that the events of

future ages were opened to their view. It is not extraordinary that

such men should have existed, nor is it extraordinary that many of

the human race should have reposed a confidence in them. Ignorance is

the cause of credulity, and it is with ignorance that imposture

always works, but it is extraordinary that learned men have cited the

scripture prophecies in proof of their religion, as will appear more

fully when the objections to which these prophecies are exposed, are

fully disclosed and examined. The argument which goes to destroy the

nature of a miracle, equally destroys the possibility of man's

possessing from God a prophetic spirit; it is a violation of the laws

of nature, a derangement of its natural and regular course, an

infringement of the correct operation of the moral and mental

faculties of our existence. But there are two grand objections which

lie against scripture prophecies, and which must destroy all their

credit and authority. The first is, that they are so vague and

indefinite, that they cannot be applied to any specific object,

person, or event. The second is, that those which are the most clear

and explicit, have absolutely failed in their accomplishment, and

this of itself is sufficient to overturn the divinity of any book in

which such prophecies are to be found. A third consideration of

weight, is the deception and lying character of the Bible prophets,

and even God himself is blasphemously charged of having a hand in

this wicked business, by putting a lying spirit into the mouth of one

of his prophets. (See 2d Chron. chapter 18.)

    If the business of prophesying were admissible in any shape, it

is that only which includes the perspicuity and certainty of time,

place, person, object, and circumstance. There can be no use in

prophesying, if nobody can tell to what object it is directed, and

what is its real and true meaning. A prophecy that may be applied to

twenty different objects, is no prophecy at all; or at least there

would be no occasion for a divine spirit in such predictions. It

ought to be called conjecture or mere "guess work", for any man might

prophesy after this manner; if it did not suit one thing, it would

perhaps another, and in the multitude of events that are constantly

disclosed, it would be strange indeed if there was not some event to

which the prophecy would in some measure apply. Fanaticism would then

step in to aid the application, and a few councils, synods, and

presbyteries, by the force of zeal and authority, could easily place

the matter beyond the confutation of all the infidels of the world;

at any rate, they could declare that if any man did not believe that

the prophecy meant exactly what they said it meant, "he should be

damned". This, if it did not make the prediction clear, would at

least make the church strong, and in its authority henceforth

infallible.

    It is pretended that the coming and second coming of Jesus

Christ is clearly predicted in the "sacred books" of the Jews and

Christians; but those predictions in the Old Testament, which divines

so dexterously apply to the Advent of the Son of Mary, are as

applicable to any other person as they are to Jesus. It is sufficient

in this place, to notice two or three passages which have always been

prominent in the estimation of believers upon this subject. "The

sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his

feet, until Shiloh come." This, it is said, has an immediate

reference to the first appearance of the Saviour of the world; but

admitting that the prophecy was correct in point of time, it is

deficient in designation of person. It is impossible to tell who

"Shiloh" is, and it would apply as well to Mahomet as to Jesus. The

Christians assert that this prophecy was fulfilled; but the Jews, who

ought to understand their own sacred writings better than the

followers of Jesus, declare that it has not been fulfilled. If,

however, the passage really had reference to the coming of Christ,

why did it not express, in plain terms that could not have been

mistaken, its real meaning, together with the name of the person, the

place where he was born, and the time and place when and where he was

executed, and by whom. This would have put the matter beyond

controversy; the designation of Jesus by name, the name of his

mother, and the peculiar circumstance of his death, would have been

much better calculated to silence the objections of individuals, and

prophecy would have become much more respectable in the view of

reason. The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head, is

another prophecy which Christians declare relates immediately to

their Saviour. But it is impossible to discover any specific

application of such a vague and indefinite assertion as this. The

plainest explanation that can be given to the phrase is, that men,

being the offspring of women, should find in themselves a disposition

to bruise the heads of serpents, wherever they could find them; but

what has this to do with religion or the coming of Jesus Christ? If

the passage has any meaning of this latter kind, the words are not

calculated to disclose such meaning, and we are just as ignorant as

if it had never been spoken.

    In the 7th chapter of Isaiah, there is another famous prophecy

in the following words: "Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a

son, and shall call his name Emanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat,

that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good." This

prophecy declares that at some future time, some girl or other should

be with child, and that the child's name should be called Emanuel;

this is the whole amount of it, and it is easy to perceive that it is

remarkably deficient in all definite properties of perspicuous

prediction. The name of Mary is not mentioned, nor the name of Jesus;

nobody knows who this virgin was, or by whom she became pregnant; all

that is pointed and specific in this prophecy, is the name of the

child, and this is Emanuel, and not Jesus. The son of Mary,

therefore, whom the Christians have exalted to be the Saviour of a

wicked world, is not included within the meaning of this prophecy; or

at least, if they meant that the prophecy should apply to Christ, it

is a pity that they had not called him by name, and pointed out the

time and place of his birth. This would have prevented much doubt and

difficulty, and been more consistent with the perfections of that God

who is bound to instruct and not deceive his creatures. There is one

further observation upon the nature of this prophetic passage, which

is, that after declaring that Emanuel should eat butter and honey,

and the reason that is offered for this, is, that he might know how

to refuse the evil and choose the good; as if the way to discriminate

with correctness between moral and immoral principles, was to live

upon butter and honey. It is probably true that such a mode of living

rendered habitual would be favourable to the moral temperament of

man, and that the use of animal food makes him savage and ferocious.

It ought not, however, to have been mentioned as a principal cause of

distinguishing between good and evil. This is the work of the moral

and mental faculties of our existence, and some men might eat honey

during their whole lives, and die at last totally ignorant of moral

principle. This passage of holy writ, in its real nature and

character, does not deserve the least comment or observation; but

when Christian theology has made mole hills into mountains, it is a

duty which we owe to the cause of truth, to strip the film from off

the eye, that nature may appear correct and without distortion. When

prophecies are expressed in such a loose and unmeaning manner, they

lose all their character and credit, and can never be cited as proof

of the divinity of that religion in which they are found.

    Whoever wishes to be more fully convinced, that scripture

prophecies are destitute of all certitude, is referred to the perusal

of a work, entitled, "Christianity as old as the Creation", in which

numerous passages of this kind are called up to view, and the reader

is furnished with chapter and verse in various places of the Old and

New Testament. In the second place, that prophecies do not prove the

truth of the Christian religion, is evident from the consideration,

that some of those which are most clear and explicit, have absolutely

failed in their accomplishment. The twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew

is adduced to prove the present assertion; in that chapter Christ

foretelleth the destruction of Jerusalem, and the end of the world;

the inquiry being made, when shall these things be accomplished, the

answer is, that this generation shall not pass away till all these

things be fulfilled. But it is necessary to quote the whole passage,

to show that this prophecy, which is as clear and definite as any one

contained either in the Old or New Testament, has not been fulfilled;

that the time of its fulfilment expired long ago, even in that

generation in which it was spoken, and that this of itself ought to

destroy the validity of all Christian prophecies; because, when

detected in one positive and absolute falsehood, the veracity of

Testament writers is for ever afterwards to be suspected. (Ver. 29th)

"Immediately after the tribulation of those days, shall the sun be

darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall

fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And

then shall appear the sign of the son of man in heaven; and then

shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the son

of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; and

he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they

shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of

heaven to the other. Now learn the parable of the fig tree; when his

branches are yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that

summer is nigh; so likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things,

know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, this

generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven

and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away."

    The things predicted in this passage have not come to pass. The

sun has not been darkened, nor has the moon ceased to give her light;

the stars still shine in brilliant splendour, they glisten in the

expansive firmament, they still hold their stationary predicament in

the regions of space, and are expressive of the majestic grandeur and

resplendent glory of the Creator. There is no Christian that can

contend that this prophecy has been fulfilled; every thing contained

in it was to have taken place before that generation should pass

away; but not only that generation, but many others have passed away;

eighteen hundred years have elapsed, and the things spoken of are not

yet accomplished; there is a complete failure, the prophecy is false,

and this falsifies the book in which it is contained. A single

detection of this kind is enough to destroy the credit and authority,

the pretended divinity and celestial origin of the New Testament. If

God the Creator had inspired the men who wrote it, they would have

written nothing but truth, for it is impossible that he should have

inspired them with lies. There are many other places in the New

Testament which speak of the day of judgment, and the final

termination of the world, as if it were expected that those events

would actually have taken place during the life-time of the apostles

or immediate followers of Jesus. (See Cor. x. 11., Heb. ix. 21., I

John ii. 18.) If those men who pretended to be inspired, were

nevertheless so grossly deceived, what confidence can the human race

now repose in their writings? It is evident that the end of the world

was expected as an event that must shortly happen, and that the

apostles waited for it with trembling anxiety, frequently impressing

on each other the importance of being prepared for the opening of

such a terrific scene.

    Nature, which is constant, stable, and uniform, has given lie to

all these predictions, and taught man a lesson of impressive science,

that God is just, immutable, and eternal; that he regards with

parental benevolence the creation which he has made, and that he will

not wantonly destroy it to gratify the imaginary whims of a blind and

bigotted fanaticism. But there is still a more weighty charge, a more

important accusation lying against the Bible prophecies. They charge

the Creator of the world with a want of veracity; that one part of

his business has been to deceive his own prophets, and to infuse into

their minds falsehood and lies. The Bible represents him as copartner

in human guilt, and exhibiting on many occasions a departure from the

rules of moral excellence, which departure in itself would be

derogatory to the character of any individual of the human race. In

the 2d Chronicles, chapter xviii. we shall find matter to verify what

has been said. The passage is as follows: "And the Lord said, who

shall entice Ahab king of Israel, that he may go up and fall at

Ramoth Gilead? And one spake saying after this manner. Then there

came out a spirit and stood before the Lord, and said, I will entice

him, and the Lord said unto him, wherewith? And he said, I will go

out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And the

Lord said, thou shalt entice him, and thou shalt also prevail; go out

and do even so. Now, therefore, behold the Lord hath put a lying

spirit in the mouth of these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken

evil against thee." Here God is positively charged with having put a

lying spirit into the mouth of his prophet, and this, if true, would

completely destroy his moral character; if it be not true, the

assertion in the Bible is false, and of course destroys the divine

authenticity of the book. In either alternative, the believer is

involved in equal difficulty; the truth of the book or the character

of God must be sacrificed. Another example of this kind of

prophesying, is found in the 18th chapter of Deuteronomy. "When a

prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not,

nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken,

but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously, thou shalt not be

afraid of him." The prophet Jeremiah says, "O Lord, thou hast

deceived me, and I was deceived; thou are stronger than I, and hast

prevailed. Wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters

that fail?" And in another prophet, the Lord says, "the days are

prolonged and every vision fails;" and though the Lord adds, "thus

shall none of my words be prolonged any more, but the word which I

have spoken shall be done;" yet he afterwards says, if the prophet be

deceived when he hath spoken a thing, "I the Lord have deceived that

prophet." And if the prophet is deceived, must not the people who

rely on that prophet be deceived? And does not the prophet Jeremiah

say, "Ah! Lord God, surely thou hast greatly deceived this people!"

(See Tindal, page 220.)

    It is not the intention, nor is it necessary in a work of this

kind, to examine all the pages of the sacred writings of the

Christians, in proof of their falsehood or immorality; a few

specimens are sufficient to substantiate the principle which is

placed in opposition to the character and doctrine of revealed

religion. God cannot lie; he is incapable of deception, and a book

which charges him with these crimes is false upon the very face of

the record. This charge which has been exhibited in the quotations

which are made above, furnishes a strong ground of belief, that those

who wrote the scriptures were unacquainted with the nature of moral

principles, and that they had no correct idea of the nature of

Theism. Lying prophets, a lying book, and a God that coincides with

such detestable principles, are circumstances irreconcilable,

inconsistent, unjust, and destitute of all truth. A prophet who tells

lies himself, and then attributes these lies to the Creator of the

world, is a character which reason ought to abhor. This impious

connection between earth and heaven; this pretended combination for

the purposes of fraud and deception, is calculated only to disgust an

innocent mind, and produce an implacable hatred against all religion.

It would be more consistent with the true interest of man, that he

should be destitute of all theological ideas, than that he should

yield to the reception of such incoherent and unjust opinions of the

divine character. Atheism is far preferable to that theology which

includes folly, cruelty, and ferocious fanaticism. A God that

inspires people with lies is worse than no God at all, and such is

the character of the Bible God, if the passages of scripture cited

above are to be credited. Prophecy has nothing to do with the order

of nature, it is not in conformity to it, it is a wild and injurious

effect of the most extravagant superstition. It appears from the

preceding inquiry, that many of the scripture prophecies are vague

and indefinite, that they prove nothing in regard to the supernatural

origin of revealed religion; in other cases, the prophetic spirit has

not hit the mark, and the prophecy has completely failed of

accomplishment; in others, the lies and deception incorporated with

these celestial predictions, annihilate at once all the vestiges of

truth, and leave the moral world in a state of mental decrepitude,

ignorance, and superstition. To assert, therefore, that the evidence

drawn from prophecies is sufficient to substantiate the divinity of

the Christian religion is a complete abandonment of all the laws and

principles by which nature is governed. It is a surrender of

intellect to the capricious and extravagant operations of a cruel and

superstitious opinion. It is substituting conjecture for truth, and

making the imagination more correct and powerful than reason. It is

not possible that the intellectual powers of human nature can ever

reach an exalted state of improvement, till they rise above all the

degrading impressions of theological superstition, and rest with

confidence upon the basis of their own energy.

CHAPTER XI.

THAT THE IMMORALITY OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION PROVES THAT IT IS NOT

OF DIVINE ORIGIN.

    It is extraordinary, that among other sources of evidence to

which Christians have resorted, for the purpose of proving their

religion divine and supernatural, they have yielded to a belief, that

in point of moral excellence, the Bible is superior to all other

books. If all external evidence were swept away, it would,

nevertheless, appear by the internal purity of this system, that it

is divine. Its morality is declared to be pure, excellent, and

celestial; that it rises above the earth, and partakes of the nature

of heaven, that its maxims are sublime, its doctrines holy, its moral

precepts universally unexceptionable, and that the mind that does not

perceive in the Christian religion indubitable marks of its divinity,

must be blind to that blaze of internal evidence which shines with

refulgent splendour through this revealed system. Such in substance

is the opinion, such the sentiments and feelings of the Christian

believer. It is certainly of the highest importance, that every

system of religion should be immaculate in its moral principles; and

in deficiency of this, its pretended claim to divinity sinks into

nothing, and merits absolute contempt. All the miracles in the world

can never prove that religion to be true, whose internal maxims are

immoral and destructive. Purity of rules and principles, must be

fundamental in every ethical treatise; that nature of our existence

demands it, our powers bear a constant relation to the production of

moral effects, and our happiness cannot be secured by any other

means. A single departure from the pre-eminent principles of an

exalted virtue, is sufficient to condemn to everlasting infamy, any

pretended supernatural system, in which such departure is discovered.

It is expected, in mere human productions, that errors will

frequently appear; but in a work that is divine, there can be no

excuse for faults of any kind, not even in a single instance. If the

Christian religion be the work of a divine and Almighty mind, it

should have been presented free from blemish and moral impurity; it

should have been clear, intelligible, upright, and immaculate in all

its principles; it should have come clothed with innocence, and

untarnished by that debauchery and blood, which now constitute so

considerable a portion of this "holy" and "divine" system. It is

called a system, but in what respect it deserves this appellation, it

is impossible to say. It is in conformity to common phraseology that

we so frequently include it under this name. It is not systematic

either in its history, its doctrines, or its morality; it consists of

detached historical anecdotes, false or mutilated moral rules, and

unintelligible dogmas. They are bound up together in one book; but

they have as little connection with each other, as the history of

Greece and the accounts of the Salem witchcraft. In a genuine system

of ethics, it is expected, at least, that glaring immorality will be

excluded, and that the fundamental principles will coincide with the

nature and powers of man. But when we behold in a book the grossest

violation of theoretic moral excellence and practical purity, the

greatest indecency and the most disgusting indelicacy of sentiment,

there is good ground to suspect that such a book has been the

production or weak and vicious men, and the the work of infinite

wisdom. It is, however, denied by Christians, that their religion

contains maxims and principles of an immoral nature; it is therefore

necessary to furnish incontrovertible proofs of this position, and

show in what respects the Bible is at war with moral virtue, the

peace of society, and the best interests of man. It is necessary to

show that this book contains maxims and commands which are said to

have come from God, which would disgrace the character of any honest

man, and make him a candidate for a state prison or the gallows.

    When the chosen people of God were about to leave the land of

Egypt, he commanded them to borrow from the Egyptians, jewels of

silver, and jewels of gold, without any intention of ever returning

them to their proper owners, but to march off and appropriate them

exclusively to their own use. Here was deception, and a breach of

trust of so black a complexion, that it was very little better than

downright theft or open plunder. Of a similar nature is the conduct

of Jesus, when he sent his disciples to bring him a colt that was

none of his own. In case of a detection or attack, he ordered his

disciples to answer, that the Lord had need of him. Such a trifling

evasion at the present day would not be considered as a valid excuse

for feloniously taking and carrying away anther man's property. If it

was right at that time to steal in the name of the Lord, or get clear

of the crime, by saying that the Lord had need of the stolen goods,

it is right yet, and such a maxim once admitted would overturn the

empire of justice, and subvert the order and peace of society. There

are many heavy crimes and high handed misdemeanors, which lie very

strong against the chosen people of God; and if the accounts of

immorality detailed in the Old Testament, concerning the Jews, are

true, we should be led to conclude that God had not made a very wise

choice. The history of that barbarous people, is the history of

carnage and murder, of theft, robbery, and almost every species of

villany, that ever disgraced an ignorant and savage nation. It is to

be presumed, that if God would condescend to become partial to any of

the human race, and make them his chosen people, he would choose

those that were already strongly attached to the practice of an

exalted virtue, or that he would instantly instruct them in the

knowledge of useful, moral, and sublime principles. This, however, is

not the fact of the present case; the Jews knew nothing of morality

or science, before God made them his chosen people, and they knew

nothing of it afterward; so that their intimacy with their God was of

no advantage to "them", and still less to their "neighbours". To

their neighbours it was the sword of vengeance and slaughter; for

when they were impelled to the abominable crimes of unrelenting

murder and universal pillage, they charge it upon God, and said, for

so doing, they had his immediate command. In proof of this, various

passages might be cited; but a few are sufficient to destroy the

credit of the Bible, and free the divine character from such odious

imputations. In the 20th chapter of Deuteronomy, the following bloody

and exterminating commands are given, and these commands are

attributed to God himself, (Verse 13th) "And when the Lord thy God

hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male

thereof with the edge of the sword. But the women and little ones,

and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil

thereof shalt thou take unto thyself." (Verse 16th) "But of the

cities of these people, which the Lord thy God doth give thee for an

inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth. But thou

shalt utterly destroy them."  In the sixth chapter of Joshua, there

is another specimen of the immoral and murdering spirit of God's

chosen people. (Verse 21) "And they utterly destroyed all that was in

the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and

ass, with the edge of the sword." To charge the Creator of the world

with such a violation of all justice, with such a dereliction of

every humane sentiment, is to deprive him of all his moral

perfections, and to make him equal in villany to Moses and Joshua, or

any of the eminent murderers whose names have been recorded in the

bloody history of the human race. It is strange to observe, that in

reasoning upon theological subjects, men are disposed to abandon the

correct ground of moral decision, and contend that those actions

which would be unjust in man, would nevertheless be just when

performed by the Creator. This is a mode of reasoning that perverts

all the faculties of our existence, destroys the moral excellence of

Deity, and overturns the foundation of principle. In all beings that

are intelligent, moral principle is the same; and God has no more

right to violate it, than any other being. He is essentially bound by

the properties of his existence, and his character cannot be

sustained without an undeviating attention to the immutable principle

of justice.

    In the history of David and Solomon, there is such a flagrant

violation of justice and decency, that the character of these men is

most certainly incompatible with the idea of celestial association.

David, who is said to be a man after God's own heart, was,

nevertheless, a murderer and adulterer. Solomon, though declared by

Christians to be the wisest man, was, probably, one of the most

debauched characters that ever disgraced the annals of human history.

The chapters in which his love intrigues are celebrated, are an

extravagant specimen of the most sensual and lascivious enjoyment. It

is impossible to read at the head of some of the chapters, "Christ's

love to the Church", without smiling at theological stupidity, or

being disgusted with religious deception. There is not a word in all

the songs of Solomon, which has the least relation to religion; they

are descriptive of sensual love. In some places grossly, and in

others delicately touched off by the hand of a descriptive artist. If

the Church of Christ at the present day possessed moral sentiment

enough to produce a blush, its cheek would be crimsoned over at the

idea of incorporating with a system of divinity, this ludicrous and

lascivious poem. But fanaticism is blind to the errors and

imperfections of any book to which it is determined to be attached.

Zeal propels the faculties to discover in nature, debauched or

distorted, a real love between Christ and the Church, or a system of

morality far superior to every other ethical treatise. This wicked

system, which inculcates theft, murder, fornication, and lies, is

denominated "holy writ". If such be the character of holy writ, it is

far better to seek for moral consolation in productions of another

kind. It is a blasphemous application of the terms, and subverts all

human confidence in the purity and truth of natural religion. In this

religion there is certitude, consistency, and moral virtue. Of all

the books that ever were published, Volney's "Ruins" is pre-eminently

entitled to the appellation of "Holy Writ, and ought to be appointed

to be read in Churches"; not by his majesty's special command, but by

the universal consent and approbation of all those who love nature,

truth, and human happiness. 

    In the New Testament, many principles are advanced inconsistent

with moral truth, destructive of the peace of society, and subversive

of the best interests of the human race. Some of these ruinous and

immoral sentiments must be noticed, and made the subject of useful

comment. "The gospel of Jesus Christ" is announced to a wicked world,

as a great and important blessing; but an examination of this system

will show that it is calculated to annihilate every thing valuable in

human existence; to create endless wars among the nations of the

earth; to destroy peace and tranquillity; discourage industry, and

arrest the energetic progress of the human faculties in their career

of beneficial improvement. In proof of these assertions, the

following passages are quoted: (Luke chap. xiv. verse 26) "If any man

come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and

children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life, he cannot

be my disciple." In the gospel of St. Matthew we are commanded to

love our enemies. By what strange perversion of moral sentiment is

it, that we are commanded in one place to hate our nearest relations,

and in another to exercise a tender and affectionate regard to our

implacable enemies? Such a violation of consistency in a moral code,

annihilates at once all human confidence, destroys the finest

feelings of the heart, and renders it indubitably certain that such a

book cannot be divine or true.

    The above passage is also inconsistent with that part of the

decalogue which says, "Honour thy father and thy mother"; for surely

we cannot hate and honour them at the same time. It is also expressly

contradictory to the mild and benevolent temper so frequently

exhibited in the Epistles of John. "If any man say that he is in the

light and hateth his brother, he is in darkness, even until now." If

the above passage in Luke be true, the condition on which we are to

become the disciples of Christ, is that of hating our brother, and

all our relations; while in the writings of John, love is absolutely

necessary to the idea of true religion. How these opposite

declarations can stand together, it is difficult to conceive.

Christian fanaticism is able, perhaps, to reconcile them; but reason

sees in them nothing but inconsistency, and the heated zeal of an

incorrect and disordered imagination. Another passage of most

destructive immorality, is in Matthew's Gospel (chap. x. verse 35)

"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I come not to send

peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against

his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in

law against her mother in law, and a man's foes shall be of his own

household." If this was really the object of Christ's mission, no man

was ever sent upon a more bloody and baneful expedition. This is

carrying the sword of war into the hearts of nations, and sowing the

seeds of private animosity, in the bosom of domestic life. It is

inconsistent with the goodness of God, that he should have been the

author of a religion which has annihilated rational peace, and

subverted the foundation of social and domestic tranquillity. The

same dreadful idea is expressed in other parts of the New Testament,

and furnishes an immutable ground of decision against the moral

principle and divinity of this religion. But not content with

spreading far and wide the baleful effects of public and private

calamity, this revealed system has positively enjoined, what, if

reduced to practice, would bring upon the world universal starvation,

and cause the human race to become extinct. (See Matthew chap. vi.)

"Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye

shall eat or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body what ye shall

put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap,

nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye

not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought, can add

one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment?

Consider the lilies of the field how they grow; they toil not,

neither do they spin; And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all

his glory, was not arrayed like one of these. Therefore take no

thought saying, what shall we eat; or what shall we drink, or

wherewithal shall we be clothed?" If these directions were followed,

the corporeal and mental industry of man would be destroyed, and

famine, ignorance, and misery would be the necessary consequence. It

is in vain that we are told that these passages do not mean what they

express; if, when we are told that we ought to love our enemies, it

is meant that we should "not" love them; and when we are told that we

ought to hate our nearest relations, it is meant that we should "not"

hate them; if when we are told that we ought to take no thought for

the morrow, it is meant that we "should" take thought. If such be the

explanatory methods by which the injurious force of these passages is

to be done away, there is an end to all confidence in language, and

the religion of Jesus is better calculated for deception than

instruction. The writings of Paul, that heated and fanatic zealot in

the Christian faith, are equally noxious to the cause of moral

virtue, and are calculated to annihilate the most virtuous efforts of

every individual. "It is not of him that willeth nor of him that

runneth; not of works lest any man should boast; of ourselves we can

do nothing"; together with a hundred other passages of a similar

nature, which go directly to suppress all the elevated exertions of

the human faculties, and if literally followed, would turn man from

intelligent activity, to a state of brutal indolence. It is extremely

destructive to the moral happiness of mankind to teach them the want

of powers, or the inadequacy of those they possess; because the fact

is otherwise, because it is a solemn truth that the powers of man are

competent to provide for his happiness; they are equal to the

exigencies of his existence. It is superstition that has made him a

fool, it is religious tyranny that has enslaved his mind, perverted

his faculties, and tarnished the glory of his intellectual energies.

Christianity has taught him two awful and destructive lessons; first,

that he is incapacitated for the performance of moral actions; and

secondly in case he "should" perform them, they would add no merit or

superior excellence to his character; that his best righteousness is

like filthy rags which God would treat with marked abhorrence.

    The repetition of such discouraging impressions must necessarily

work an effect remarkably injurious to the virtuous activity of the

human race. It is in conformity to this immoral instruction, that we

see fanatic Christians every where boasting of their own inability,

and doing violence to that internal sentiment which would otherwise

constantly impel them to the performance of acts of justice,

benevolence, and universal charity. In addition to the pointed

declarations of the "holy scriptures" against the power and practice

of morality, the inventors and promoters of the Christian religion

have set up various kinds of doctrines, which diminish the motives to

good actions, and lead the uninstructed mind to repose confidence in

something foreign from its own exertions and merit, such as

atonement, baptism, faith, sacramental suppers, oblations, and

ablutions, together with many other idle ceremonies and wild vagaries

of a distempered and fanatic brain.

    The idea that Jesus the son of Mary died for the sins of the

world, and that henceforth moral virtue can have no saving efficacy,

is among the most destructive conceptions by which the moral world

has been insulted and perverted. The supernatural grace of God, which

Christians for so many ages have been in search of, has hitherto

eluded the grasp of all rational and philosophic men; and to those

who pretend to be acquainted with this celestial gift, it has been at

times more trouble than profit; since innumerable doubts have been

created concerning its reality and modes of operation in the human

heart.

    The cursory survey that has been taken of the immoral precepts

and principles contained "in the Old and New Testament", clearly

proves that these books are not of divine origin. The God of the Jews

and Christians, according to their own description, is a changeable,

passionate, angry, unjust, and revengeful being; infuriate in his

wrath, capricious in his conduct, and destitute, in many respects, of

those sublime and immutable properties which really belong to the

Preserver of the universe. The characters spoken of in the

scriptures, as the favourites of Heaven, such as Moses, Joshua,

David, Solomon, Jesus, and Paul, are none of them good moral

characters; it is not probable, therefore, that they were selected by

the Creator as the organs of celestial communication. In the "Old

Testament", national and individual justice is disregarded, and God

is made the accomplice of crimes which human nature abhors. The

maxims of the "New Testament" are a perversion of all correct

principles in a code of moral virtue. The whole system is calculated

to take man out of himself, to destroy his confidence in his own

energies, to debase his faculties, vitiate his social affections, and

brutalize the most useful qualities of human existence. The highest

dignity of the human race consists in the practice of an exalted

virtue, in the exercise of a fine sympathetic benevolence, in

reciprocating our feelings and affections, in promoting the justice

and order of society, in relieving the unfortunate and supporting the

cause of truth, in diminishing evil and augmenting good; in short, in

promoting universally the science, the virtue, and happiness of the

world. There is, however, no possibility of faithfully performing

these duties while under the shackles of Jewish and Christian

superstition. The remedy consists in a return to nature, and in

elevating our views and conceptions above those theological

absurdities which have degraded man to a level with the beast, and

taught him to respect his civil and ecclesiastical tyrants as beings

of a higher order, or celestial messengers from a vindictive and

revengeful God.

CHAPTER XII.

CHRISTIAN MARTYRS, THE CHURCH, OPINIONS OF LEARNED DIVINES.

    When all other arguments fail, we are called to contemplate the

wonderful fortitude of those martyrs who have suffered and died in

the cause of Christianity. Such religious heroism, it is said, could

proceed only from a conscious certainty of the existence of those

sublime and holy truths contained in the system which inspired such

preternatural courage. The slightest knowledge of the history of the

human passions would furnish a complete refutation of the argument in

favour of revelation. Extravagant zeal and unbounded enthusiasm are

frequently exhibited in many of the important concerns of human life;

there are martyrs in the worst of causes, and if martyrdom could

prove Christianity to be true, it would prove a hundred other things

to be true which are in pointed opposition to that system. The

Mahometan condemns the Christian, and the Christian condemns the

Mahometan; their creeds are different, and in many respects

contradictory; but they have both had martyrs without number; both

systems have sacrificed millions upon the alter of theological

fanaticism. Zeal among the Mahometans is not less infuriate nor less

sincere, than among the Christians; and Mahometanism might as well be

proved to be divine, from this kind of evidence, as the religion of

Jesus. The historical fact is the same of all religions, especially

of those which claim supernatural origin. Madmen and enthusiasts are

to be found every where, and celestial enthusiasm is generally the

most ranting and extravagant.

    But when recurrence is made to the universal conduct of mankind

in every age, and upon every important occasion, it is strange that

an argument drawn from the conduct of Christian martyrs, should have

been advanced in favour of the divine origin of this religion. The

spirit of fanaticism, which made Europe, during several centuries,

the slaughter-house of the world, will not, surely, be adduced in

favour of the mild and celestial nature of the religion of Jesus; yet

the crusades prove as much as individual martyrdom, and neither of

these proves more than that human nature is susceptible of strong and

rancorous passions, and that to the variety in the modification of

these passions there is no end. A heated and delirious imagination

always overturns the empire of reason, and subverts the throne of

justice. The extent of real attachment which individuals may show

towards any cause, in not conclusive evidence that such cause is

right. It is evidence only, that such persons are deeply interested

in it; but the interest which they take may be nourished by a

thousand other causes, than a clear and comprehensive view of truth.

The savage of America, has excelled in the patient fortitude of

suffering beyond all that can be boasted by all the Christian martyrs

of the world; yet this uncultivated man of the western world, holds

in contempt the doctrines and promises of the Christian religion. It

is directly in the face of all historical facts, to contend that the

conduct of Christian martyrs substantiates, in any degree, the

divinity of the Old or New Testament. From the banks of the

Mississippi, to the island of Japan, there is not a spot of earth,

but what has furnished martyrs in some cause or other; and if the

idea contended for by believers, were true, it is certain that more

than five hundred religious sectaries, all different in the tenets

which they hold, could instantly prove the sacredness of their

theological opinions, by reference to a spirit of fanatical

martyrdom; which spirit, instead of bearing the least relation to

truth, has served only to make man a miserable idiot, and deluge the

world in blood.

    The Church of Christ, in all ages, has come in for a share of

influence and authority, to prove that the scriptures are true. "The

Church has always believed in the Bible, and therefore the Bible is

true. The Bible declares the Church to be right, and therefore the

Church cannot be wrong; the Church proves the Bible, and the Bible

proves the Church; thus the divinity of the one, and the

infallibility of the other is rendered incontrovertible." If it were

admitted that the authority or opinion of the Church could prove any

thing, it would nevertheless be difficult to discover who are the

Church. The sectarian divisions are so numerous, that it is

impossible to determine which is the true Church. This would be a

much more difficult task than to determine which is the erroneous

Church. They continually dispute with each other concerning the truth

of their doctrine, they anathematize one another, and are liberal in

the charges of heresy; they are all heretics in the estimation of

each other, and they have no standard to determine with certitude

their theological differences. To bring the Church, therefore, to

prove the Christian religion, is to bring nothing at all, for nobody

can tell who, or what the Church is. It ought to be first settled

which Church is to be relied on, or rather which is to be considered

as the true Church, and then it would be time enough to decide

whether even that one had any just claim to settle for all mankind

the problematical points of truth and error. If, however, all the

Churches in the world, were agreed in their doctrines, this would not

prove them to be true; but amidst such ecclesiastical differences of

opinion, an honest enquirer of truth will find but little

consolation. These heterogeneous and contradictory ideas upon

supernatural theology necessarily destroy the validity and pretended

divinity of all these systems. The Church has carried every thing

with a high hand, and attempted to settle questions of truth by the

force of authority; but force has no relation to truth, and all

authority of all the Churches can never annihilate, in a single

instance, the necessary and essential connection between the truth of

a proposition, and the evidence by which it is supported. In former

ages they held many councils to decide upon ecclesiastical truths,

and at every successive council some alteration was made; truth was

never the same with them, and the final decisions were regulated by

the temperament, views, and interest of those learned and pious

clergymen, who composed those ecclesiastical associations. When the

power of the councils was not sufficient, the sword was resorted to,

and this constituted the "last reason" of the Church, as well as of

kings. To historize the conduct of the Church, from the third century

to the commencement of the sixteenth, would fill many volumes, and

after all it would be nothing more that a dark history of cruelty,

force, persecution, burning of heretics, and shedding, in the name of

heaven, the blood of the human race.

    If a corrupted Church and priesthood have believed in an error

for a thousand years, this does not change the nature of that error,

and cannot convert it into truth. "It is contended, that whoever

calls in question the divinity of revealed religion, is flying in the

face of the Church, and controverting its ancient and respectable

opinions; that these opinions have stood the test of ages; that they

have been believed by many pious and learned men, and cannot now be

overturned by a new and infidel philosophy." To all this it may be

answered, that a Church that has always been quarrelling with itself

concerning doctrines, is always to be suspected; it is absolutely

necessary for the Church, first to settle its own disputes, before it

calls others to account for unbelief. The bloody and ferocious

conduct; the cruelties, differences, and persecutions of the

Christian Church, in all ages, ought to destroy all its weight and

authority. Truth has not been its object, for sincere inquiries after

truth are disposed to mutual friendship and assistance; but this has

never been the case with those religious despots, whose opinions have

kept the world in an uproar for more than fifteen hundred years. It

was at one a "famous" dispute among the clergy in Europe, "whether

Jesus Christ was sitting, kneeling, or standing at the right hand of

the Father in Heaven." This foolish and despicable altercation

generated the most envenomed malice, and the most rancorous passions

were let loose upon this occasion, to the destruction of order,

peace, and human happiness. "But the Church is the repository of

power; the Church knows every thing; the Church is always right, and

woe be to that daring infidel who does not believe as the Church

believes." It is high time for that reason of man to rise in all its

energy, and sweep away such childish nonsense. "The opinions of the

Church have stood the test of ages." But how, in what manner have

they stood the test? as soon as the principles of science began to be

investigated; as soon as philosophy had thrown off the shackles of

authority, the opinions of the Church were called in question;

revealed religion began to be doubted, and every supernatural system

was subjected to a bold examination, which terminated against its

truth and utility. In proportion as science advanced, infidelity has

increased; in proportion as man has become acquainted with the nature

of physical and moral principle, his respect for unnatural theology

has constantly diminished. During fourteen hundred years of moral

darkness, in which Europe was involved, it was impossible that the

Christian religion should be brought to the test of a fair

examination, and upright decision; the learning of those ages was

almost exclusively confined to the clergy, and as they were

universally attached, either from pure or interested motives, to the

Christian religion, it was not possible that there should be any free

inquiry upon the subject. It is very easy for a thing to stand the

test where every body is in favour of it; this is exactly the case in

regard to revealed religion; it stood the test very well when nobody

had the sense or courage to oppose it. But when philosophy had opened

her treasures, and developed some of the most sublime and important

truths of nature; when reason had acquired strength, and taken the

resolution to act for itself, "the test of ages" was shaken to its

centre. It is only within the last two centuries, that the great

question concerning the truth of the Christian religion has been at

all agitated; during this period, the contest has been always vastly

unequal; the strength of civil and ecclesiastical despotism has been

malignantly opposed to a peaceful and contemplative philosophy.

    Notwithstanding all this, the progress has been great, error has

been attacked on every side, new truths unfolded, and a door of

consoling hope opened to the future generations of mankind; the

opinions of pious and learned men ought never to be adduced to prove

the celestial origin of the Christian religion. These same men,

celebrated for piety and learning, have believed in the grossest

absurdities, and the most childish errors. They have believed that

the earth was the centre of the planetary system, and that the sun

constantly performed its revolution round it; whereas the reverse is

the truth, the sun is the centre of the planetary system, and round

that resplendent luminary all the planets constantly revolve. They

have believed in witchcraft, dreams, apparitions, and all that

numerous train of ancient gentry, which have so much troubled the

repose of credulous fools. Since then, it is certain, that they have

submitted to the most childish and degrading credulity, their

opinions cannot be cited in proof of any system whatever; they have

been, however, honest, and in many instances, respectable men. Error

is a misfortune and not a crime; but truth can never be substantiated

by adducing, in support of it, the opinions of superstitious and

deluded men.

CHAPTER XIII.

ORIGIN OF MORAL EVIL, AND THE MEANS OF ITS ULTIMATE EXTIRPATION FROM

THE EARTH.

    The facts in the physical world are, many of them, difficult of

solution; those of the moral world have perplexed still more the

operations of the human understanding. The subtilty, the

abstruseness, the incognizable character of moral existence, place it

beyond the power of clear intellectual perception, and the mind loses

itself in those metaphysical combinations, whose successive

variations are incalculable. But the difficulties which nature has

thrown in the way of this inquiry are much less numerous than those

presented by superstition. A design has been formed, and carried into

effect, whose object it was to cover the moral world with a mantle of

mystery, and exclude it wholly from the view of vulgar eyes, and

common comprehension. It is only necessary to conceal the real nature

and character of a thing, and then deformities and distortions may be

made to pass for positive properties, or essential qualities inherent

in any specific mode of existence. If the subtilty of thought, and

the difficulty of moral discrimination, have in many cases presented

to human investigation a barrier to farther progress; the intentional

malignant descriptions of superstition have, in almost every age and

country, terrified the mind of man, and prevented the development of

substantial moral principle. Nature furnishes some difficulties, but

supernatural theology exhibits many more.

    In no one instance is this remark more substantially verified,

than in the inquiries which man has made concerning the source or

origin of moral evil. Reason and theology, philosophy and

superstition, are at war upon this subject. The believers in the

Christian religion, following the examples of their theological and

fanatic predecessors, have searched the universe in quest of a

satisfactory solution to that long altercated question - Whence came

moral evil? One religious sectary, willing to screen the divinity

from any just accusation relative to so nefarious a concern, have

descended into hell, and discovered there all the characters and

distorted machinery necessary to the production of such an effect;

but here metaphysical and fanatic invention indulged itself in all

the extravagance of delusion. It was necessary first to create this

"infernal" country, and then to create inhabitants suited to the

nature of the climate, and the unfortunate condition in which they

were to reside. The idea of a Devil was accordingly formed, and the

reality of his existence rendered an indubitable truth by the

reiterated assertions of superstition. Ignorance and fanaticism

greedily swallowed the foolish "infernal" dose which had been

administered.

    There is a remarkable disposition in the human mind to remove

the point of intellectual difficulty as far from the reality of the

case as possible, and then it triumphantly imagines that a solution

has been given. This is a fact particularly in theological inquiry,

in which a few retrogressive efforts of the mind have been considered

as an ample illustration of all the difficulties relative to the

subject of Theism, and the existence of the physical universe.

Similar to this idea is the doctrine concerning moral evil, and the

disposition which theologians have exhibited to remove the burden

from their own shoulders, and place it upon the devil's back. The

whole "infernal" machinery with which we are presented by

superstition, serves only to detach the mind from the true and real

source of moral evil. While reflection is directed to another world,

it is incompetent to a clear view of the facts existing in this, and

the habit of such reveries produces a fanatic delirium subversive of

all correctness of judgment. The existence of hell, and the beings

that dwell therein, being only supported by what is called divine

revelation, it follows, of course, that if this revelation is not

true, a belief in any thing that is a mere result of that system

cannot be substantially founded. Since then it is presumed, that in

these chapters a competent refutation is given to the doctrine

contained in the sacred books of the Jews and Christians, the idea of

descending into hell, or having recourse to a devil, in search of

moral evil, is futile and inconsistent.

    Another part of the Christian world, willing to avoid

difficulties which their antagonists had thrown in their way,

abandoned the "infernal" abodes, and ascended into the celestial

world, in quest of the origin of evil. They exhibited ingenious

metaphysical reasoning upon the subject, declaring that God was the

Creator of all things; that sin was something, and not nothing, and

therefore he must be the Creator of sin or moral evil. This puzzled

the advocates of the "hell scheme", and a clerical warfare was

engendered concerning two theological opinions, neither of which had

any kind of existence in the nature of things. After heaven and hell

had been searched through and through to find something which did not

belong to either of them, the terror-struck inquirer, as if fatigued

with his atmospheric journey, seated himself once more upon the

earth, and saw, or might have seen, in the very bosom of society, and

the perverted character of man, a clear and satisfactory solution of

that difficult question, which, for so long a time, had occupied his

attention in distant regions. It is in this manner, that the plainest

subject is rendered mysterious, when a superstitious religion is

industriously employed in subverting the independent power of

thought. It is neither in the upper nor lower regions; it is not in

heaven nor in hell, that the origin of moral evil will be discovered;

it is to be found only among those intelligent beings who exist upon

the earth. "Man has created it, and man must destroy it."

    But it is necessary to exhibit the proofs of this last

assertion, and convince Christian theology of the innumerable errors,

which for ages past have been imposed upon a credulous and deluded

world. What is it, then, that constitutes a moral evil? It is the

violation of a law of justice or utility, by any one of the human

species, competent to distinguish between right and wrong. We have no

other cognizable idea upon this subject. Facts and practice are

presented continually to the view of the human mind; the decision of

a correct mind is always according to the nature and character of the

case. The character of a human being is made either good or bad by

the actions he commits. If these actions are conformable to the

principles of justice and universal benevolence, they are with great

propriety denominated good; if they are unjust, cruel, and

destructive to sensitive and intellectual life, they are denominated

bad. There are certain fundamental laws, suitable for the government

of rational beings, and it is a departure from these laws that

vitiates the human character. It is proved in another part of this

work, that virtue and vice are personal qualities, and that they

result from personal adherence to, or personal infraction of moral law.

    It is only necessary in this place to call the attention once

more to the nature of human actions, and to the characteristic

difference between them, in order to establish the position

principally assumed in this inquiry; for it ought to be recollected,

that even if it "could" be proved, which by the way it cannot, that

even a deity or a devil had violated moral law, this would not effect

the decision upon the subject in regard to man; because that evil

could not be transferred from a different kind of beings in the other

world, to those who exist upon earth. As the moral properties of all

intelligent agents are personal; are essentially their own and not

another's; as there can be no justifiable transfer between man and

man, so it follows that there can be none between man and devil.

Every intellectual being must depend upon himself; must rest upon his

own energies and be responsible for himself. Man must, therefore,

relinquish that position, which has been assumed by Christian

theology, relative to the transferable nature of moral qualities.

Christianity presents us with two grand leading character, to whom we

are always referred in our inquiries upon the subject of moral evil.

Adam and Jesus are these persons, and in them is said to have been

concentrated the sin and righteousness of the human race. The new

Testament declares that, "as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall

all be made alive." This is a sweeping clause, in regard to the moral

existence of man, and flies in the face of universal experience.

Facts are at war with this scriptural declaration, and it is

impossible to reduce the sentiment to practice, without producing in

common life the grossest violations of justice. Admitting for a

moment the existence of such a man as Adam, which by the way is

extremely problematical, it will not follow, that there was in him

either a moral or physical death of the human race. Physically it is

impossible, and morally it is unjust.(1) If Christian theology has

made a recurrence to Adam, to aid the solution of difficulties,

relative to the origin of moral evil; if it has by this idea

perverted the eternal principles of discriminative justice, it has

also been equally unfortunate in calling in the righteous Jesus to

its assistance, in expectation of ultimately destroying the

immorality of the world. The scriptures invite us to behold the Lamb

of God, that taketh away the sins of the world. The Lamb is Jesus,

the only begotten of the Father; he is reputed to be divine and

uncontaminated with any kind of moral turpitude. His is made the

victim of Jehovah's wrath, and falls a sacrifice to the vindictive

fury of his benevolent father, and all this for the purpose of

removing crimes for which apostate man should have been scourged and

afflicted. Means more unsuitable or incompetent to the production of

such an effect, could never have been invented by the delirious brain

of fanaticism itself; but the absurd and incompetent methods which

Christian theology has invented for the destruction of moral evil,

are not so much the objects of the present investigation, as the

means which reason has in view to effectuate the moral renovation of

the species. It is a common complaint among theological doctors, that

the "world is growing worse and worse".

[1. See chapter on Death, or the disorganization of intelligent

beings.]

    Passing by any strictures upon the ill compliment which

theologists pay to themselves by indulging such a sentiment, the

truth of the opinion itself will become a more important matter of

discussion. The organic construction, the powers and the properties

of human existence, the aggregate amount of virtue and vice in the

present generation, these are objects subjected to the inspection of

the human mind; but the conduct and character of man, in former ages,

is to be drawn from history. Histories, however, are not always

faithful to the realities of the case, and description is sometimes

excessive and sometimes deficient. But judging from what we know, and

including in the ground of decision, similarity of organic structure,

cogent proofs will be exhibited against the admission of an opinion

hostile to the ultimate perfectibility of intelligent life. The

expansion of mind, the development of principles, and the cultivation

of the arts, in a degree far superior to all the specimens of high

antiquity, evince an incontrovertible amelioration in the present

race. The accommodations favourable to the comfort and happiness of

life, with which man has surrounded himself, demonstrate that there

exists in the constitution of his nature a strong and indestructible

impulse to progressive improvement; to the diminution of evil, and

the augmentation of good. The fine moral qualities of the heart,

which adorn cultivated life, give to it a splendid brilliancy, and

triumphant exaltation above the coarse, instinctive brutality of

former ages. If personal malignity and national warfare continue, the

first is diminished in the acrimony of its character, and the second

has regulated its movements, in some measure, upon the principles of

a reciprocal humanity, and a greater respect for the dignity of human

existence. These are facts with which we are every moment presented

in the history of modern times; those who controvert these assertions

must have forgotten, or never knew, the names of Alexander, of Nero,

and Caligula; of the numerous ecclesiastical despots and persecutors

with which the history of the Christian Church presents us, anterior

to the commencement of the sixteenth century; nay farther, they must

have neglected the reading of the "Holy Scripture", and have lost

sight of the character of Moses, that eminent murderer of antiquity.

The Mahometan arguments in favour of belief must also have escaped

their notice; in short, the advocates of pre-eminent virtue in former

ages have shut their eyes against the history of kings and priests;

against the knowledge of those dreadful effects, which the compound

despotism of the church and state has produced upon the human race.

    If the modern "Suwarrow" be brought as an example of refutation

of these remarks, it is admitted in its full force, and this eminent

murderer of modern times is consigned, by the sentiment of humanity,

to the grave of eternal infamy. But the cases of such savage

barbarity are growing less numerous in proportion as the knowledge of

principle advances, and the correspondent moral practice flowing from

such knowledge. Reason, or the intellectual powers of man, must

eventually become both the deposit and the guardian of the rights and

happiness of human existence. Reason has already acquired such

strength, and so far unfolded its powers, that it has already sealed

the future destiny of the human race. It is the peculiar office of

reason to look to the utter demolition of the ancient regimen of

church and state. These twin sisters of iniquity are the moral

giants, which have stalked with huge devastation over the face of the

whole globe. Political despotism and supernatural religion have done

more to render the human race vicious and depraved, than all other

causes conjointly combined. If the passions of man and the impulses

of his nature have frequently produced a moral eccentricity in his

conduct, it is certain that a corrupt government and a corrupt

religion have rendered him habitually wicked; have perverted all the

conceptions of the mind upon moral and political subjects, and

brutalized his intellectual existence.

    The most important step which can be taken for the extermination

of vice and misery, is to destroy the artificial causes by which such

evils are perpetrated. If other causes should be found to exist in

the constitution of nature, they will be progressively removed by the

light and power of science, and a more comprehensive view of the true

interest of the human species. But efforts tending to make the

individuals of a nation virtuous and happy, will never succeed

extensively till the civil and religious tyranny under which they

groan shall be completely annihilated. This will lead to the

application of force in the political revolutions of the world; an

expedient, however, the rectitude of which some benevolent

philosophers have called in question. An ample discussion of this

point, however, is reserved to occupy a place in a political work,

which the author is preparing for the press, and which will be

presented to the view of the public as soon as it is completed. 

    It is sufficient at this time to remark, that despotism gives no

encouragement to any kind of improvement, and the hope of human

amelioration from this quarter will ever prove to be fallacious.

Reason, righteousness and immortal reason, with the argument of the

printing types in one hand, and the keen argument of the sword in the

other, must attack the thrones and the hierarchies of the world, and

level them with the dust of the earth; then the emancipated slave

must be raised by the power of science into the character of an

enlightened citizen; thus possessing a knowledge of his rights, a

knowledge of his duties will consequently follow, and he will

discover the intimate and essential union between the highest

interests of existence, and the practice of an exalted virtue. If

civil and ecclesiastical despotism were destroyed, knowledge would

become universal, and its progress inconceivably accelerated. It

would be impossible, in such a case, that moral virtue should fail of

a correspondent acceleration, and the ultimate extirpation of vice

would become an inevitable consequence. Ages must elapse before the

accomplishment of an object so important to the elevated concerns of

intelligent life; but the causes are already in operation, and

nothing can arrest or destroy the benignant effects which they are

calculated to produce. The power of reason, the knowledge of

printing, the overthrow of political and ecclesiastical despotism,

the universal diffusion of the light of science, and the universal

enjoyment of republican liberty; these will become the harbingers and

procuring causes of real virtue in every individual, and universal

happiness will become the lot of man.

CHAPTER XIV.

INFIDEL PHILOSOPHY.

    The discovery of the art of printing was a deadly blow to

religious fanaticism, and to every species of error. The clergy

rejoiced in this discovery, but their rejoicing was an untimely

delusion of the heart; they were blind to the consequences of this

fortunate and consoling discovery. The consideration of exhibiting,

in a new form, the sublime and holy truths of the Christian religion,

was to them a matter of the most elevated satisfaction, and they

anticipated a result directly the reverse of what has taken place. It

was believed, that a religion sent from heaven to benefit only a

small part of the human race, would have been always confined within

the power and discretion of a privileged and ecclesiastical order. To

this sacred hand learning had been hitherto been confined, and it was

perceived that the art of printing was calculated to break the charm,

and diffuse among the nations of the earth a moral light, consoling

to the heart of ignorant and unfortunate man. Such, however, was the

result, and the human mind received and experienced a new and

powerful motive to energize its powers and provide for its happiness.

Many important causes combined at one and the same time to excite

fresh vigour, and increase the activity of intellectual strength. The

ecclesiastical dissensions in Europe; the discovery of the new world;

the discovery of the art of printing; the philosophical

investigations of French, English, and German philanthropists; all

these, and many other powerful circumstances, were concentred, and

produced a new era in the intellectual history of man.

    Newton, profiting by the errors of those great philosophers,

Descartes and Bacon; Newton, whose original genius and comprehensive

mind have immortalized his name and character, developed with

clearness the physical principles and order of the planetary system,

and struck with everlasting death and eternal silence the theological

pretension of all former ages. The ignorance and stupidity of Moses,

Joshua,, and Jesus, were exposed, and their opinions were sacrificed

upon the alter of philosophical truth and mathematical demonstration.

Newton's mind was honest and discerning, but partially obscured by

the moral darkness of the age in which he lived, and the theological

impressions of early life. He was reputed to be a Christian upon a

graduated scale; but the habit of mathematical precision had led him

to a rejection of the doctrine of the trinity, and some other

prominent absurdities in the theology of Christians. His discoveries,

however, in the physical world, were vastly important to the cause of

human science, and have been productive of a more accurate mode of

reasoning, than any that had been adopted in former ages. The

demonstrations of Newton were compared to the theological reveries of

Moses and Joshua. The consequences of which was, that the scientific

philosopher rejected the imaginary conceptions of fanaticism, and

bestowed on solid argument a due portion of respect and attachment.

    It was not the discovery of physical truths alone that bore

relation to the renovation of the human species; it was reserved for

Locke, and other powerful minds, to unfold the internal structure of

the intellectual world; explain the operations of the human

understanding; explore the sources of thought, and unite sensation

and intellect in the same subject, and in a manner cognizable by the

human faculties. Locke has, perhaps, done more than Newton, to

subvert the credit of "divine Revelation"; but neither of them

discovered the extent of the doctrines upon the moral interests of

man. Sensation being established as the source and cause of all human

ideas, a system of true and material philosophy necessarily followed.

Organization was, of course, considered essential to the production

of intellect, and disorganization bearing very hard against a

conscious reminiscence of identified existence, speculations upon the

doctrines concerning futurity became frequent, and the ultimate

decision rested upon the discoveries which had been made in human

sensation. In addition to these leading features of a sound

philosophy destined to emancipate the world from a religious bondage,

other collateral and subsequent aids were experienced, and had a

powerful effect in ameliorating the moral condition of society.

Mirabaud, Rousseau, Voltaire, Hume, and Bolingbroke, together with

twenty other philosophers of France and England, combined their

strength in the philanthropic cause of human improvement; they

destroyed error by wholesale, and swept away the rubbish of ancient

superstition, by the irresistible force of a keen and active

intelligence. Those moral luminaries were followed by those of more

modern times, and the present age is pre-eminently distinguished by a

numerous and respectable band of philanthropic philosophers, whose

labours are calculated to destroy error, and elevate truth upon the

ruins of every thing injurious to the peace and dignity of human

society.

    The writings of Paine bear the most striking relation to the

immediate improvement and moral felicity of the intelligent world. He

writes upon principle, and he always understands the principle on

which he writes; he reasons without logic, and convinces without

argumentation; he strangles error by his first grasp, and develops

truth with much simplicity, but with irresistible force. He is one of

the first and best of writers, and probably the most useful man that

ever existed upon the face of the earth. His moral and political

writings are equally excellent, and the beneficial influence of the

principles for which he has contended, will be felt through all

succeeding ages.

    Volney and Condorcet, Godwin and Barlow, are justly entitled to

the universal gratitude and applause of the human race. They have

attacked error in its strongest holds; they have pursued it with a

powerful and discriminating intellect. It has already lost half of

its force; and the philosophy that is denominated infidel, will, ere

long, chase it out of existence. It is this philosophy that has

developed the laws of the physical world, and exhibited the

principles on which its systematic order depends; it is this

philosophy that has unfolded the moral energies of human nature,

which has become an object of calumny in the estimation of a cruel

and persecuting superstition.

    All the opprobrious epithets in the English language have been

bestowed upon that mild and peaceful philosophy, whose object is the

discovery of truth, and whose first wish is to emancipate the world

from the double despotism of church and state. This philosophy has

already destroyed innumerable errors; it has disclosed all the

fundamental principles which have been employed in the construction

of machines, mathematical instruments, and the arrangement of those

moral and political systems which have softened the savage and

ferocious heart of man, and raised the ignorant slave from the dust,

into the elevated character of an enlightened citizen. Its only

weapons are thought, contemplation, argument, demonstration,

experiment, and probable conjecture; whilst, on the other hand, the

only weapons of despotism are "cold steel", or "leaden balls". This

despotism, however, whether it be political or ecclesiastical, is

malignantly employed in opposing and calumniating that philosophy,

which has sought with an ardent benevolence for the scientific

improvement of man, and the tranquillity of nations. The philosophy

of Europe armed itself with a spirit of truth and the sword of

justice; it humanely marched forth to conquer the errors and vices of

nations, and restore to man his lost dignity, which had long ago been

sacrificed upon the alter of theological fanaticism. This effort,

propelled by wisdom and humanity, was denounced by the thundering

voice of the church, and the resentful malice of monarchical tyranny.

    The "Illuminati" in Europe have been represented as a vicious

combination of persons, whose object was the destruction of all the

governments and religions of the world. If the enemies of philosophy,

in that part of the globe, mean by governments the corrupt monarchies

of the earth, and by religion, popular superstition, founded upon the

idea of a supposed mysterious intercourse between beings of the earth

and celestial powers, then they are right in this respect; for these

are the governments and religions against which reason and philosophy

ought to direct their energies; but if by government they mean a

system of genuine republicanism, founded upon the equal rights of

man, and by religion the idea of simple Theism, and the immortality

of moral virtue, then their assertions are false, and their

productions a calumny against reason and the rights of human nature.

The plain truth of the case is, that those who oppose philosophy, and

bestow upon it harsh and malignant epithets, are interested in

keeping up a privileged system of plunder and robbery, which make

nine-tenths of the human race absolute slaves, to support the other

tenth in indolence, extravagance, pride and luxury. The purest

systems of morals that could possibly be exhibited, and the

demonstrable axioms of the soundest philosophy, would become objects

of unbounded reproach, and their abettors marked as objects of the

bitterest censure, if the ancient regimen of church and state were to

be in any shape whatever injured by such development. The physical

force of nations would be drawn forth to suppress the independent

power of thought, destroy damnable heresy, and arrest, in the name of

heaven, those infidel philosophers, whose efforts had been directed

to the emancipation and moral felicity of these malicious and

tyrannical persecutors. The cry of vengeance and merciless punishment

against the benevolent philosophers of all countries of the present

day has not deterred them from the faithful discharge of their duty,

and the most unremitting attention to the best interest of individual

and national happiness. The strong arm of despotism can never reach

the subtle activity of thought, or subvert the dignified empire of

reason. It is now the object of despotism to stop the progress of

intellect, or prevent the universal diffusion of useful knowledge.

The substantial happiness of the human species depends upon the

activity of reason, and the liberty of the press; they have gained

too much strength to be crushed by all the civil and religious

tyranny of the world.

CHAPTER XV.

INQUIRY, ARE THE EVILS INCIDENT TO HUMAN LIFE THE RESULT OF THE

OPERATION OF THE LAWS OF NATURE; OR, ARE THEY SPECIAL JUDGMENTS FROM

GOD?

    Man will never cease to be erroneous in his reasonings, while he

departs from the simple and uniform ground of nature; the only solid

basis of all conclusive argumentation, the only true source of all

important science. It is in the physical constitution of existence in

its real relations, in its energies, in its effects, that he must

seek for principles by which to construct a useful and well cemented

fabric; by which to arrange and methodize thought, and apply it to

the diversified purposes of human life. The imperfection of his

faculties does not enable him to seize upon all these objects in such

a manner to preclude the possibility, and even probability of many

errors; but these errors are to be destroyed only by a constant

recurrence to the fundamental "data", from which correct conclusions

must ever be deduced.

    Man has lost himself in the wanderings of a fantastic

imagination, in the fleeting dreams of fanaticism, and the malignant

fury of a blind superstition; he has sought for truth where it is not

to be found, his mind has diverged from the line of reality, and he

has become the victim of innumerable prejudices. The most common

phenomena have been ascribed to causes which had no existence, and

effects have been attributed to those chimerical combinations which

were to be found only in the distorted brain of an enthusiastic

religious zealot. The simplicity, the uniformity, the grandeur of the

physical universe, have been abandoned, while the fictions and non-

entities of delirious mortals have been substituted as the ground of

evidence, and the principle of correct conclusion. It was not in the

organization of the material world, that man sought for truth, but in

the deceptive schemes of religion, which interested zeal imposed upon

him.

    The sensation, the intellect, the capacities of man, taught him

that he was subject to a variety of evils; but instead of searching

for the cause of these evils, where only they were to be found, he

suffered the operations of intellect to be subjugated by the pride

and arrogance of superstition, and he no longer discerned the true

connection between the miseries which he felt, and the active and

natural causes which produced them; he no longer beheld his true

condition in nature, but weakly imagined that he had become the

object of malevolent intention in some superior being, who took

delight in his torture, and wilfully subjected him to the diversified

misfortunes with which he was assailed. In this unfortunate

predicament, with too much weakness to abandon his errors, and too

much prejudice to discover the truth, he wandered over the face of

Nature, the devoted victim of that ignorance and superstition which

for so long a time had destroyed the tranquillity of his heart, and

suppressed the operation of his mind; he inquired with anxious

solicitude into the causes of his sufferings; he sought in a

vindictive theology for a solution of the difficulty, but his inquiry

ended in an accumulation of sorrow, and a repetition of the

misfortunes from which in vain he had endeavoured to escape. By dint

of investigation, by constancy of intellectual inquiry, he at length

was led to discover, that the evils which he suffered were to be

accounted for by a single comparison and application of the law of

power in surrounding objects, and the law of sensation, by which his

life was every moment modified; the development and explanation of

this solid truth will constitute the true ground of the present

inquiry.

    While physical existence continues what it now is, while its

powers, its modes of operation, its essential energies remain the

same, it will be impossible to modify a sensible being so as to

prevent his being necessarily subjected to a diversity of unpleasant

and painful sensations. Power and activity are essential to the

existence of matter, and capacity of sensation to every specific

modification of life; an undue proportion of this power, applied to

any sensitive agent, will necessarily damage, in some partial degree,

the natural organization of which he is possessed; it is the nature

of life to feel, to be sensible, to be capable of perception; it is

the nature of physical objects to make impressions, and if the

impressions from surrounding objects are not properly apportioned to

the capacity of sensation, the natural result will be pain, distress,

or complete misery, according to the nature and quantity of that

power which in any case may be applied; such consequences must

inevitably follow, while the law of power in physical objects, and

the law of sensation in modified life, maintain the same relation

which they now bear to each other. It will, therefore, be for ever

impossible wholly to prevent pain, unless you destroy the law of

power in material nature, or the law of sensation in animal life. The

relation and connection now subsisting between them, necessarily

includes the possibility, and even the absolute certainty of the

existence of pain, or some portion of real misery. It will be

perceived, in this method of reasoning, that every idea of suspension

or violation of the laws of nature is excluded, and that identity of

power and quality in specific portions of nature is presumed to be

perpetuated with undeviating uniformity.

    To show the correctness of this opinion, it is only necessary to

have recourse to a few familiar examples in the ordinary concerns of

human life; for instance, if a man were to thrust his hand into the

fire, or if by any other means fire should come in contact with any

part of a sensitive being, the feeling experienced must necessarily

be painful, because the law of power or activity in fire, and the law

of sensation in modified life, necessarily includes the impossibility

of preventing such consequence. Again, if any one were situated so

that a heavy body falling from above should come directly upon him,

it would be impossible to prevent disorganization or death, unless

the law of gravitation were suspended, or his own peculiar structure

of body instantaneously changed. In short, the whole application of

the power of physical existence to the condition of sensitive

creatures will ever prove, that such necessary consequences must be

experienced.

    Look through the whole order of nature, and this solemn truth is

clearly perceived, that every being possessed of feeling must

eternally be exposed to a vast variety of complicated evils, painful

sensation, and diversified misfortune, resulting from the

constitution of the universe, and the laws by which it is governed.

The same reasoning will apply to all the higher operations of nature,

and those astonishing phenomena that surprise and terrify the mind of

man! Earthquakes, volcanoes, lightning, inundations, are all the

result of the operation of physical laws, and it is impossible to

prevent the misery which they occasion, without a suspension or

violation of the laws by which they were produced.

    A similar mode of reasoning will partially apply in regard to

those evils that attack associated bodies of men, where

superabundance of population, with a variety of other causes, has

laid the foundation of inevitable disease, such as plagues, malignant

fevers, and many others to which large and populous cities are

subjected. But this part of the subject requires particular

examination, since it is here that superstition has raised a rampart

impregnable to the attacks of reason. The pride, the fanaticism, and

the intemperate zeal of man will never cease to mislead his judgment;

cause the energies of intellect to diverge from the line of truth,

and to subject him to the baneful influence of opinions, erroneous

and destructive in their consequences. Man is ignorant, and this

ignorance produces in him an attachment to the marvellous; he is both

delighted and terrified with strange and unnatural appearances, with

events out of the common order of things, with those phenomena which

approach or seem to approach the idea of a miraculous occurrence; he

seems to take a pride also in attributing these events to the special

interventions of Divine Providence, to the supernatural operations of

a vindictive God; to the cruel and arbitrary arrangements of an

omnipotent tyrant, to the malice and premeditated revenge of that

ferocious being, who exists only in his own distorted imagination,

and the admission of whose existence would be the sure presage of the

annihilation of the vast fabric of nature. The fanaticism and

intemperate zeal of all supernatural religion has ever desired to

represent the God of nature as partial in his operations, revengeful

in his intentions, and inconsiderably destructive in all those

arrangements of which he is supposed to be the author and contriver.

All the various religious parties and sectaries that have ever

existed on earth, have pretended that God was enlisted in their

service, and consequently, that he had proclaimed war, and the most

implacable resentment against every other man or set of men who had

not embraced the true and orthodox faith. 

    This terrible representation of the divinity, as destitute of

truth as it was pernicious in its consequences, was, at length,

diversified and decompounded, and afterwards recombined for purposes

of systematic terror; the partial distribution of favours, and the

dreadful torture of the human race under the name of divine

vengeance. The professors of different religious opinions having

armed their God in their own cause, became the merciless distributors

of those dreadful punishments and calamities which they expected

would result from the character of that barbarous divinity, which

their imaginations had described. The malice of the individual, the

savage cruelty of man, was transferred to this imaginary God, and he

appeared in turn the object of terror to every living mortal. Man

thus wishing to gratify his resentment against his neighbour, of an

opposite religious opinion, has never failed to engage his God in is

own quarrels; and if in the course of events, if any misfortune befel

his enemy, the doctrine of special providence was then verified in

his mind, and he triumphantly asserted that the Almighty had made

bare the arm of his justice, and brought ruin and destruction upon

the objects of his wrath. This doctrine, so humiliating to the

character of man, and so disgraceful to the intelligent preserver of

nature, has been fundamental in every religious system of

supernatural origin. It took its rise in the weakness and malevolence

of human nature, and its destructive consequences will have no end,

till reason shall enlighten and renovate the world.

    To expose the absurdity of this doctrine, it is only necessary

to have recourse to the plainest facts, and the incontestible

evidence resulting from a view of those events which are every where

presented to the contemplation of man. If in any of those cases which

include the admission of a special providence, recurrence were made

to the most obvious and striking truths, the error must inevitably be

corrected. If plagues, malignant fevers, or national calamities of

any kind be considered as the scourges of divine vengeance for the

punishment of sin, why do they fall indiscriminately upon the

virtuous and the vicious, upon the young and the old, upon the weak

and the strong, in fact, upon every class of intelligent beings,

whatever may be their character, their circumstances, and condition

in life? Why does not divine justice apportion these punishments to

the actual degree of criminality in each individual that is made the

object of is displeasure? Why does he not pour out his beneficence

upon the chosen children of his love, and mark with tokens of

displeasure those only who are his real enemies, those only who are

disobedient and incorrigibly wicked? But no! this is not the manner

of his operation; this arrangement of distributive justice is no

where to be discovered. The child of God, and the child of the devil,

are often involved in the same calamity; frequently subjected to the

same disease, and eventually fall a sacrifice to the same complaint.

This proves that the event has been produced by the uniform

operations of the laws of nature, and not by any special judgment

from God; this proves incontestibly, a want of moral discrimination,

and overturns every argument which Superstition has arranged for the

accomplishment of her wicked intentions.

    Whoever will deign to look at facts, will be necessitated to

yield to the truth of these operations; they stand verified by

observation, by the universal experience of all mankind. There is

not, perhaps, a single case in which man reasons so much in the face

of facts, as in the admission of a special providence in the

government of the world. These reflections, though they may at first

appear to operate against the cause of virtue, will, when attentively

examined, be found to produce an opposite effect, and present to the

human mind the strongest inducements to the practice of genuine

morality; for no one can with justice pretend that the discovery and

the disclosure of truth can injure the moral improvement of the

species; and although the world is governed by general laws, and

consequently every description of character is necessarily involved

in the result of their operation, yet it is also certain, that the

design and the practice of virtue are the surest grounds on which to

rest the expectation of moral felicity. It is true, indeed, that no

degree of virtue can effectually secure man against the effects of

physical evil; because whatever may be the excellence of his

character, this excellence will not prevent the uniformity of

operation in the material world, nor change the immutable laws by

which it is governed, nor can it destroy that universal relation

which every where exists between sensation and the law of power in

external objects. In vain shall we search for a solution of

difficulties in the mutable decrees of a capricious divinity: it will

ever be necessary to have a recourse to the fundamental laws by which

the material universe is regulated; it will ever be necessary to

abide faithfully by the universal principles of nature in all our

decisions on this important subject.

    No system can more effectually disgrace the moral character of

God, than that which includes the idea of partial arrangement in the

government of the world; and no system is more incontestibly proved

by facts, than that which admits universality of operation in the

whole of physical existence. The evils of which man complains, and

which he unphilosophically denominates the judgments of God, are

consequences resulting from the establishment of immutable laws; and

the want of moral discrimination relative to the suffering objects,

verifies this principle incontrovertibly.

    It is further to be considered what terrible consequences would

flow from the doctrine of special judgments. This doctrine

practically forbids benevolent intention, and would frequently

criminate the efforts of humanity in relieving distress, and

mitigating the circumstances of the unfortunate. If it be the will of

the Divinity to pour out his wrath upon a whole city, and to destroy

its inhabitants by malignant fevers, who shall dare to oppose his

determination? Who shall presume to exercise the healing art, when

Heaven decrees sickness and death? Who shall be found hardy enough to

enter the lists with the Creator, and attempt to avert his judgment?

In short, if this doctrine were admitted and reduced to practice, it

would destroy, in some of the most essential cases, all the friendly

and social virtues of man, and brutalize the human race. But,

fortunate for man, if in theory he hold this doctrine sacred, his

practical conduct humanely varies from the theory. The smallest

recurrence to facts in the single instance of malignant fevers, would

clearly substantiate this assertion. Superstition may darken the mind

and derange its theoretic speculation, but the benevolence of the

heart rises superior to these doleful illusions, and delights in the

performance of duty.

    In vain then do you speak of special judgments to that man whose

family is attacked with malignant disease: he practically denies the

truth of the doctrine, and humanely proceeds, as he ought, to

administer the proper and necessary relief; even those who pretend to

believe in this manifestation of divine vengeance, are often the

first to oppose the will of Heaven, and restore health to a

distracted family. Whence this difference between doctrine and

action, between theory and practice? Will man never learn to be

consistent, will he never forsake his errors and return to nature? It

is on this grand system alone that he can find consolation; it is

here only that the ardent desires of his heart can be satisfied, and

confidence restored to his soul. Every deviation from nature is the

establishment of a cause which must sooner or later work ruin to his

sensations, or essentially disturb the tranquillity of his mind; he

will find no happiness in error, and the most dreadful of all his

errors is to be found in the terrible descriptions of the Divinity

that he worships; he falsely attributes to this Divinity the

diversified evils which he himself has produced, and while he remains

under the impression of such an opinion, he will be for ever ignorant

of the true sources of those miseries to which he is continually

exposed.

    "How long will man importune the heavens with unjust complaints?

How long with vain clamours will he accuse fate as the author of his

calamities? Will he then never open his eyes to the light, and his

heart to the insinuations of truth and reason? This truth every where

presents itself in radiant brightness, and he does not see it! the

voice of reason strikes his ear; and he does not hear it! Unjust man!

If you can for a moment suspend the delusions which fascinates your

senses; if your heart be capable of comprehending the language of

argumentation, interrogate nature."

    "In what consists the maledictions of heaven against these

countries? Where is the divine curse that perpetuates this scene of

desolation? Monuments of past ages! say, have the heavens changed

their laws; and the earth its course? Has the sun extinguished his

fires in the regions of space? Do the seas no longer send forth

clouds? Are the rain and the dew fixed in the air? Do the mountains

retain their springs? Are the streams dried up? And do the plants no

more bear fruit and seed? Answer, race of falsehood and iniquity! Has

God troubled the primitive and invariable order, which he himself

assigned to nature? Has heaven denied to the earth, and the earth to

its inhabitants, the blessings that were formerly dispensed! If the

creation has remained the same, if its sources and its instruments

are exactly what they once were, wherefore should not the present

race have every thing within their reach that their ancestors

enjoyed? Falsely do you accuse fate and the divinity; injuriously

refer to God the cause of your evils."

    "Tell me, perverse and hypocritical race, if these places are

desolate, if powerful cities are reduced to solitude, is it he that

has occasioned the ruin? Is it his hand that has thrown down these

walls, sapped these temples, mutilated these pillars? Or is it the

hand of man? Is it the arm of God that has introduced the sword into

the city, and set fire to the country, murdered the people, burned

the harvests, rooted up the trees, and ravaged the pastures? Or is it

the arm of man? And when, after this devastation, famine has started

up, is it the vengeance of God that has sent it, or the mad fury of

mortals? When, during the famine, the people are fed with unwholesome

provisions, and pestilence ensues, is it inflicted by the anger of

heaven, or brought about by human imprudence? When war, famine, and

pestilence united, have swept away the inhabitants, and the land has

become a desert, is it God who has depopulated it? Is it his rapacity

that plunders the labourer, ravages the productive fields, and lays

waste the country; or the rapacity of those who govern? It is his

pride that creates murderous wars, or the pride of kings and their

ministers? Is it the venality of his decisions that overthrows the

fortune of families, or the venality of the organs of the law? Are

they his passions that; under a thousand forms, torment individuals

and nations, or the passions of human beings? And if in the anguish

of their misfortunes they perceive not the remedies, is it the

ignorance of God that is in fault, or their own ignorance? Cease,

then, to accuse the decrees of fate, or the judgments of heaven! If

God is good, will he be the author of your punishment? No, no; the

caprice of which man complains, is not the caprice of destiny; the

darkness that misleads his reason, is not the darkness of God; the

source of his calamities is not in the distant heavens, but near to

him upon the earth; it is not concealed in the bosom of the divinity;

it resides in himself, man bears it in his heart."

    "You murmur and say, Why have an unbelieving people enjoyed the

blessings of Heaven and of earth? Why is a holy and chosen race less

fortunate than impious generations? Deluded man! where is the

contradiction at which you take offence? Where is the inconsistency

in which you suppose the justice of God to be involved? Take the

balance of blessings and calamities, of causes and effects, and tell

me, when those infidels observed the laws of the earth and the

heavens, when they regulated their intelligent labours by the order

of the seasons, and the course of the stars, ought God to have

troubled the equilibrium of the world to defeat their prudence? When

they cultivated with care and toil the face of the country around

you, ought he to have turned aside the rain to have withheld the

fertilizing dews, and caused thorns to spring up?"

    "When to render this parched and barren soil productive, their

industry constructed aqueducts, dug canals, and brought the distant

waters across the deserts; ought he to have blighted the harvests

which art had created; to have desolated a country that had been

peopled in peace; to have demolished the towns which labour had

caused to flourish; in fine, to have deranged and confounded the

order established by the wisdom of man? And what is this

'infidelity', which founded empires by prudence, defended them by

courage, and strengthened them by justice; which raised magnificent

cities, formed vast ports, drained pestilential marshes, covered the

seas with ships, the earth with inhabitants, and, like the creative

spirit, diffused life and motion through the world? If such is

impiety, what is true belief?"(1)

[1. See Volney's "Ruins", page 23, et seq.]

    The correct and unprejudiced observer of nature, the genuine

moralist, will necessarily accede to the truth of the above remarks,

and in all his reasonings he will analyze facts, and attribute events

to the real causes which have produced them; he will be under the

necessity of rejecting those senseless opinions which have never

failed to involve human inquiries in the doleful predicament of

endless contradictions and absurdity. There can be no errors more

pernicious than those which destroy the uniformity of operation in

the physical world, and despoil the Creator of the honour of

governing the universe by immutable laws. So long as the belief of

special judgments shall obtain, man will for ever tremble before a

capricious tyrant, who deserves neither gratitude nor admiration; but

if the evils of life be attributed to their true sources, he will

learn to provide against them, and to found his happiness upon a

comprehensive view and knowledge of those principles by which the

conservation of all existence is rendered sure and certain to every

intelligent being. Prophecies, miracles, special judgments, and

divine vengeance, are phrases without meaning, and phantoms without

existence, calculated only to disgrace the character of God, and

derange the intellectual faculties of man. Philosophy teaches us to

seek in nature, and the knowledge of her laws, for the cause of every

event, and when this knowledge shall become universal, man will

relinquish with elevated satisfaction his attachment to those

supernatural schemes of a vindictive theology, which have served only

to destroy the harmony of nature, and demoralize the intelligent

world. O, man! return in thy inquiries to the basis of physical

existence, develope its principles, cultivate science, love truth,

practice justice, and thy life shall be rendered happy.

CHAPTER XVI.

CHRISTIAN DEVIL.

    In the examination of the Christian religion, it would be

improper to pass over, in silence, a character of so much power and

importance as that of the devil. If accounts are true, he has acted a

very conspicuous part upon the theatre of theological delusion. He

was the leader of a refractory band of insurgents in the celestial

world; a vast and tremendous conflict ensued, in which it became

necessary for Jehovah to draw forth all his forces to quell the

rioters. It was with difficulty that this grand object was

accomplished by the united exertions of the angelic hosts, under the

guidance of the most distinguished officers of the upper regions.

    Milton has described in a terrific manner, these heated and

resentful combats, and given to the most enthusiastic fictions the

character and effect of real existence. His poetic fancy, the extent

of his imagination, and brilliancy of conception, have been, and will

long continue to be, admired; but his Paradise Lost, in the

estimation of sound philosophy, and considered in its relation to

philosophical truth, is an object of censure and contempt. He has

done more to immortalize the marvellous character of a fictitious

being, than even the Bible itself. He has given to "airy phantoms, a

local habitation, and a name." The Christian devil is seen performing

very marvellous feats in several different places in the Bible. He

has vast powers of modifying his form and appearance, and can exhibit

himself in an infinite variety of shapes. He assumes the form of a

serpent, and very cunningly introduces himself to the original mother

of the human race. It is in this fanciful scene so dexterously played

off in the garden of Eden, that commenced the innumerable troubles,

and destructive evils, that have since overwhelmed the life of man,

and rendered miserable the fair creation of God. In almost all the

cases where the Devil has brought his powers into vigorous action, he

has succeeded, in despite and defiance even of Omnipotence itself.

God made the world for his own glory, for the purposes of virtue and

felicity, but the Devil overturned the scheme, before it had come

fairly into operation; and thus, in the very commencement of the

business, defeated the wisdom, and disordered the creation of the

"Most High". It is very extraordinary that a being of perfect wisdom

and goodness, whose object must have been to extend the empire of

happy and intelligent life, should have made such bad calculation,

and so soon have been deranged in the correctness and benevolence of

his designs.

    It is remarkable, that in the sentences of condemnation which

were passed upon the several offenders, there is a difficulty and

singularity in that which relates to the the serpent. "And the Lord

God said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art

cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy

belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thy eat all the days of thy

life." It is a question of magnitude, which ought to engage the

attention of theological doctors to inform us, in what manner the

serpent performed loco-motion, previous to his transgression, for

which he received the condemnatory sentence of going upon his belly.

Did he walk about erect like a man? if so, he must have cut a curious

figure, travelling about upon the point of his tail; and the

condemnation which brought him to a horizontal position, was rather

in his favour than against him. This story, in its nature, is too

childish and trifling for serious remark. It is, however, a story

which has found its way into other theological systems of great

antiquity. And the followers of Moses have to contend with many of

the eastern nations, such as Egyptians, Persians, and Indians, upon

the merit of originality. There is a similarity in almost all

supernatural systems of theology; they are all founded in a

disgusting distortion of nature; they are all interwoven with the

"marvellous"; they have all their serpents, their ghosts, and their

devils. It is not of importance who first invented these theological

wonders; they are not the less foolish and injurious, whether they

were first propagated by the followers of Moses, or the disciples of

Zoroaster; whether they are of Egyptian or Indian origin. They are

still the dreams of fanaticism, and have perverted all the pure ideas

of God and Nature, which man otherwise would have formed.

    Concerning the invention of the Devil, of good and bad spirits,

with which all ancient theology is replete, there is, in Volney's

"Ruins", a most striking passage, which throws much philosophic light

upon the subject. "In Persia, it was the serpent which, under the

name of Ahrimanes, formed the basis of the system of Zoroaster; and

it is the same, Christians and Jews, that is become your serpent of

Eve; (the celestial origin) and that of the cross in both cases, the

emblem of Satan, the great adversary of the ancient of days sung by

Daniel. In Syria, it was the hog, or wild boar, enemy of Adonis;

because in that country the office of the northern bear was made to

devolve upon the animal whose fondness for mire and dirt emblematical

of winter. And it is for this reason that you, children of Moses and

Mahomet, hold this animal in abhorrence, in imitation of the priests

of Memphis and Balbec, who detested him as the murderer of their god,

the sun. This is likewise. O Indians! the type of your Chiben, which

was once the Pluto of your brethren, the Greeks and Romans; your

Brama also, (God the creator) is only the Persian Ormuzd, and the

Osiris of Egypt, whose very name expresses a creative power, producer

of forms. And these gods are worshipped in a manner analogous to the

real or fictitious attributes; and the worship, on account of the

difference of its objects, was divided into two distinct branches; in

one, the benign God received a worship of joy and love, whence are

derived all religious acts of a gay nature, festivals, dances,

banquets, offerings of flowers, milk, honey, perfumes, in a word, of

every thing that delights the senses and the soul. In the other, the

malign, on the contrary, received a worship of fear and pain, whence

originated all religious acts of the sombre kind, tears, grief,

mourning, self-denial, blood-offerings, and cruel sacrifices. You now

understand," continued the orator, addressing himself to the Indians,

Persians, Jews, Christians, and Musselmen, "you now understand the

origin of those ideas of combats and rebellions, which equally

pervade your respective mythology."

    It is thus that this beautiful writer has developed the origin

of these religious ideas; and it is in this manner that the

disordered imagination has operated upon subjects that could not be

reduced to certitude. There is not, however, perhaps one malignant

character amongst all those which theology has created, who has acted

a more conspicuous part than the Christian Devil, or Satan. He comes

forth under this latter name in the book of Job, and there assumes to

himself the right of keeping the best of company, and carrying on

vast projects of ruin, mischief, and rascality. He introduces himself

among the sons of God, and holds a familiar and social conversation

with the Creator himself. God, according to the story, condescends to

indulge him in this kind of intimacy, and they unite in forming a

scheme to torment and ruin the unfortunate Job. The coalition and the

project so effectually disgrace the character of the Deity, that no

genuine Theist can read the story without emotions of disgust and

resentment against its foolish fabricators. Satan is here put upon a

par with God himself, and they mutually coalesce in a scheme to

torment and destroy an upright and honest man. Such representations

of God annihilate at once the validity of any book in which they are

found. Another extraordinary story concerning the Devil is told in

the New Testament, which describes him as having fallen into much

worse company than he had been accustomed to keep, according to the

accounts in the book of Job. There he was found among the sons of

God; but in the latter case, amongst a herd of swine. This passage

must be quoted, because it is worthy of comment; it shows how

miserably inconsistent is the Christian system of religion; it shows

the extent of fanatic credulity, and the impositions which

priestcraft has laid upon uninstructed man.

    "And there was a good way off from them an herd of many swine

feeding. So the devils besought him, saying, if thou cast us out,

suffer us to go away into the herd of swine. And he said unto them,

go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine;

and behold the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place,

and perished in the waters." (Matthew chap. viii.)

    It appears by this passage, that these devils had a desire to

change their residence, which was granted to them, and they forthwith

entered the swine, and took up their abode there; but it seems that

these brute animals, by some unknown impulse, probably of a devilish

kind, since it is clear that the Devil was in them, plunged into the

water, and were instantly drowned. Now the morality and utility of

the business must be settled by Christian theologists. Whether were

the devils in this case drowned with the hogs, or did they make their

escape the moment that they were immersed in water? If they really

made their escape, there could be no use in sending them into the

swine; and if they were actually drowned, then one might with truth

assert, that the Devil is dead. In the fifth chapter of Mark, this

same story is related, and it is said, that the swine, into which the

devils entered, were about 2,000 in number, and that they all ran

violently down a steep place, and were drowned in the sea. To have

given this impulse to the whole herd, it is necessary that each one

should have been possessed with a devil; it follows, therefore, that

2,000 devils must have been drowned, or, if they made their escape,

that 2,000 hogs must have perished for valuable purpose whatever.

    In any view of the story it is is marked with injustice and

inhumanity; injustice toward those who were the rightful owners of

these swine, and inhumanity or cruelty toward the swine themselves.

It is a tale of a childish nature; but it shows what strange

conceptions theology has formed concerning devils, and many other

airy phantoms. In another part of Matthew's gospel, the Devil is said

to have taken Jesus up into a high mountain, for the purpose of

tempting him, and offering him all the kingdoms of the earth for his

homage and worship. This same Jesus, Christians believe to be God

himself, or equal to God, and yet he condescends to be led about by

the Devil, and holds with him a conversation. A book that exhibits

such accounts, such dereliction of all dignity and correctness of

conduct in the Creator, could never be written by a spirit of truth.

The Devil is represented as being every where at the same time;

ubiquity is one of his leading attributes, and he goeth about like a

roaring lion seeking whom he may devour; he is omniscient as well as

omnipresent, he knows every thing that is going on in heaven, earth,

and hell, and is continually exerting his power to defeat the

projects of his celestial competitor. Such is the description which

Christian theology gives of that malignant Devil, which it has

created to answer the purposes of interest and terror. This being is

so essential to the clerical scheme and its advocates, that a certain

writer observes, that they could not do without him. But it will

perhaps be said, that the Devil has a powerful effect in restraining

men from vice; his existence, combined with the idea of hell, is

necessary to deter the multitude from the commission of enormous

crimes.

    In this point of view, the subject assumes a more serious

character, and merits attention. An appeal to the nature of the case,

and to facts, will furnish, in some measure, the satisfactory

solution of any supposed difficulty upon the present subject. It is a

well known truth, that an immediate and certain evil of a much less

severe nature, of much less weight and magnitude, has much greater

effect upon the human mind, than those that are distant and

uncertain, even when their size and terrific appearance become

extended in an infinite degree. Show to a man the certain and sudden

consequences of an action; let his mind be strongly impressed with an

idea that there is no escape from such fatal effect, and he will

recoil with horror from the perpetration of a deed, which would bring

along with it such a speedy ruin and excruciating misery. In the

apprehension which relates to distant punishment, there is a great

drawback upon its acuteness and severity, arising from the single

consideration that it may never happen, or that intervening causes

may diminish the malignity of its nature, or the fury of its

operation. When, for instance, a man is about to take feloniously his

neighbour's goods, he does not look behind him to see whether the

Devil is watching his motions; no, but he keeps a vigilant eye upon

the owner of the property, or the bystanders in general; if these can

be evaded, the Devil is set at defiance. The account can be settled

with him at a future day; but with the owner of the goods there can

be no postponement of the business.

    With the civil law, the settlement must be instant, and the

compensation adequate and complete; there is a corporal, moral, and

pecuniary punishment, which has a powerful effect in restraining man

from vice, and without these, all the hells of fanaticism would never

be able to hold him to the point of substantial virtue: he would fly

off in a moral tangent, from the great circle of human happiness, and

sow the seeds of disorder in the very bosom of society. Take away

from man these restraints, justly imposed by the civil law; take away

the love of reputation, which is a strong and active sentiment of the

human heart; take away that internal idea of discrimination in the

character of human actions; the idea that one class is useful and

amiable, and that another is injurious and detestable; take from the

constitution of man these powerful motives in the cause of virtue,

and you will strip him of the most influential considerations by

which he is bound to the faithful performance of his duty; let him

loose under these circumstances, and neither the Devil, nor the fear

of hell, would be sufficient to fasten his attention upon the

practice of an exalted morality.

    In support of this assertion, we may safely appeal to the

evidence of facts. For many hundred years past the Christian

religion, and its powerful advocates, the clergy, have combined to

restrain a wicked world from acts of degrading and destructive

criminality; they have pourtrayed the subject in all the frightful

and impressive points of view, of which it was susceptible; they have

represented hell with all its horrors, the Devil in all his

malignity, and, combined with these, an angry God, not less terrific

in his character; notwithstanding all this, these pious men are

continually crying out that the world is growing worse and worse;

that infidelity is increasing, and that we are treasuring up wrath

against the day of wrath, and the righteous display of the awful

vengeance of God. If such be the fact, these boasted restraints have

not answered the purpose; if such be the fact, they might as well

have been without a Devil, for he appears to have answered them no

purpose. Men who do not believe in this immoral monster, are

frequently more virtuous, and never more vicious, than many who

declare that they would not for all the world renounce the belief of

a Devil. Among those nations, where the reign of terror has been the

most complete, there has been the least virtue, the least morality,

the least attention to the rights and dignity of human nature. Spain,

Portugal, and Italy, have been eminent for their attachment to the

Christian religion; for their pious zeal and unshaken faith in the

gospel, and yet there is scarcely a spot upon the globe where moral

principle is less understood, or more universally abandoned in

practice, than it is in these wretched and superstitious countries.

    If the machinery of the Christian religion could have answered

the purpose of moral restraint, a fair opportunity has been given

among many Christian nations for proving, in this respect, the

efficacy of this religion. It has not, however, been proved, and the

fact is, that the most religious countries have been the most

immoral. The horrors of the inquisition, the cruelties of Spain and

other countries of Europe, upon the peaceable and unoffending

inhabitants of America, are not yet forgotten; they are still fresh

in the mind, and evince with indubitable certainty, that the spirit

of Christianity is ferocious cruelty, and not a generous and exalted

benevolence toward the human race. Facts are therefore in pointed

opposition to the opinion, that the terrific part of revealed

religion has aided the cause of moral virtue. The condition of man in

nature impels him to virtue; but superstition has perverted his

heart, and deranged the operations of his understanding. It is the

business and the duty of reason to restore him to intellectual

sanity, to exalt the feelings of his heart, and give to his energies

a new impulse productive of universal happiness.

CHAPTER XVII.

DEATH, OR THE DISORGANIZATION OF INTELLIGENT BEINGS.

    Painful sensations are often the consequences of surveying the

history of man. The means of ingenious torture are every where

discovered, and the imagination gives an accumulating impulse to the

development of their operations. The ingenuity and the fury of

fanaticism are continually busied in manufacturing misery for

unfortunate mortals. The natural and unavoidable evils which are

connected with the condition of human life are not sufficient; the

disordered fancy of man seeks in the distant heavens, or in futurity,

the causes calculated to produce by anticipation, a new modification

of distress; and, in this respect, enthusiasm has been extremely

successful. It has awakened all the fears of weak and ignorant

mortals, and taken special care to convert this to its own profit and

advantage. Death, which is as natural as life, has been converted

into a fruitful source of revenue, and clerical avarice has been

satiated through the channel of human frailty and destruction. It is

not sufficient that man is every where subjected to the natural and

unavoidable influence of the elementary world; to pain, sickness, and

inevitable calamities of every sort, without being alarmed by the

terrors which superstition has connected with his ultimate

dissolution. Must this final event of our temporary existence become

the cause of perpetual torture during our life? Must the mind of man

be for ever on the rack, in consequence of an anticipated evil, which

no prudence or foresight can possibly prevent? Must the unpleasant

sensations, which result from the capacity of our natures, be

increased by the artificial ingenuities of a blind and fanatic zeal?

Is there no source from whence to draw consolation and mental

tranquillity; no fundamental principles of repose and happiness; no

primary objects, of delight, calculated to dissipate the mist of

ignorance and general wretchedness? Yes, and they are to be found in

the established order of nature. My object, therefore, in this

chapter, is to reconcile man to his fate; to tranquillize his mind,

and raise it above the superstitious fears of death; to call into

action his fortitude and his reason, and by a justifiable exhibition

of the general and uniform operation of the laws of nature, to

increase the quantity of human happiness. To do this with success, it

is necessary to destroy the prejudices and the evils which are

connected with the belief of ancient systems.

    It is universally agreed and verified by the experience of all

past ages, that death is the inevitable fate of every sensitive and

intelligent agent: but it is denied by philosophy, that this death is

the consequence of any primary apostacy of the supposed first parents

of the human race. But since a contrary belief has obtained

throughout all the Christian world, it becomes our duty to make the

necessary inquiry respecting this strange and unnatural doctrine, and

develope the true causes of ultimate disorganization in the human

species. In doing this, we shall examine the threefold death of the

Christians.

    First, Spiritual Death.

    Secondly, Temporal Death.

    Thirdly, Eternal Death.

    These three kinds of death have been foolishly attributed to the

sin of Adam, when, in fact, the first and the last are not true, and

neither of them bears any relation to the supposed violation of moral

law. By spiritual death, Christians understand a total corruption and

debasement of the moral qualities of our nature, by which man is

rendered incapable of the performance of any virtuous action; and

this, they say, has been the fatal consequence of the primitive

defection of Adam, who violated the command of heaven, by eating of

the forbidden fruit. Let us examine this doctrine on the principle of

nature, reason, and justice.

    The moral qualities of our nature are capable of being drawn

into action, in perfect coincidence with the fundamental principles

of an exalted virtue; but it is also conceded, that they are capable

of being vitiated. In every intelligent agent, actions of the most

opposite nature will sometimes obtain; man is not wholly virtuous,

nor is he wholly vicious; but he consists of a compound of these two

different kinds of action; but whether virtuous or vicious, it is the

result of his own choice, and the use of the moral energies of his

nature; his virtue is always personal, and his vices are to be

attributed to a source which entitles them to a similar denomination.

He acts as an independent moral agent; he acts for himself, he is

accountable for himself, and "he" cannot be justifiably criminated by

the vices of another, neither can another be criminated by "his"

violation of moral rectitude. In this case, personal moral agency is

the correct ground of decision, and to this tribunal alone the whole

must be deferred.

    From this statement it ought to be perceived, that the partial

corruption of our natures and character is admitted through its

proper channel; but it ought also to be evident, that no concession

is made relative to a transfer of personal immorality. What, then,

can these spiritual doctors mean, when they speak of a spiritual

death referable to the primary apostacy of Adam? Do they mean that

these personal infractions of moral law are to be attributed to the

conduct of him who lived six thousand years ago? Do they mean to

exhibit the idea of a double crimination, in consequence of one

present and personal infraction? Do they mean to charge "Adam" with

the sins of the whole world, and afterward each individual with "his"

portion of the national debt of iniquity? Would they procure two

judgments, two payments, and then remain unsatisfied? Yes, "and after

all, the whole debt must be eventually cancelled by the death and

sufferings of Jesus Christ."

    Christians, can you examine seriously the nature of human

actions, and still contend for the propriety of such unnatural

doctrines? Will you never give to man his due degree of merit, and

reward him for his real virtue. Is there nothing tender, nothing

sympathetic, nothing moral in the heart of an intelligent being? Is

there no justice for the benefit of society, no benevolence to

brighten the character of man, no humanity for the relief of

distressed objects? Is the heart wholly corrupted, and the mental

qualities of our nature totally vitiated? Are there no principles

preserved in operation, honourable to the character of the human

species? It is in vain to attempt, at this enlightened day, to impose

a religion upon the world, which tortures all the social faculties of

our nature, and reduces man to the condition of a brute; it is in

vain to say there is no moral goodness, no elevated sentiments of

virtue, no beneficial operations of the heart, by which to preserve

the happiness of the human species. Society could never exist without

the influence of moral principles, and the practice of real virtue;

but since it both exists and proceeds in a manner mutually beneficial

to all its members, it is fair to conclude, that its preservation is

to be ascribed to the exercise of a social morality, and this

morality fundamentally connected with the nature and condition of man.

    But admitting for a moment that the world is as vicious as it

has been represented, it does not follow that this aggregate of

wickedness is to be attributed to the sin of Adam; but the contrary

is evident from the personal nature of moral actions, and the

responsibility connected with the character of intelligent beings.

Let fanaticism and superstition therefore exhibit their laboured

discourses on this supposed spiritual death; they speak of phantoms

and not of realities, they lose sight of the moral nature of man, and

the sources of human action; virtue and vice are confounded and their

transferable nature serves only to perplex the understanding, and

destroy the line of personal and discriminative justice. This

spiritual death may serve to augment the mysteries and follies of the

Christian religion; but I am confident it will never serve the cause

of virtue, or lead to the practice of genuine morality. I proceed to

the consideration of temporal death.

    This temporal death, which is the death that every man suffers

when he leaves the theatre of human action, seems to be less

mysterious and more cognizable by the human mind; we are taught the

knowledge of it by the experience of all ages and all countries; by

our own observation on the facts and events constantly presented to

our contemplation. Death is the inevitable portion of every living

creature; it is the certain fate of every organized being; it is the

counterpart of our original construction; it is a change in the mode

of existence; it is a dissolution of the combined modifications of

animal life; it is a physical property of every sensitive agent; it

is the eternal mutability of infinitely diversified modes of being;

it is established in the primary arrangements of Nature; it is a

property, and ever will be, of the parts of all existence. Death is

as natural and as necessary as life; the preservation of the latter

is an unavoidable effect of the former. Change or mutability is

essentially connected with the uniform harmony and preservation of

the great fabric of the universe; and no one can expect to be

excepted from the operation of this general law. Vice is not the

cause, though it may accelerate the event; the seeds of death are

contained in the original organizations of our natures; sensation and

reflection by their necessary operation lead to decay. Life is

naturally progressive to a certain point, which, having passed, it

necessarily retrogrades toward a state of dissolution. This is the

true condition, the just and eternal order of organized existence,

and the knowledge of this ought to be the highest consolation of a

reflecting mind. But here, Superstition, from her dismal and dark

recess, cries out heresy, and proclaims damnation to the man who

dares to reason on the ground of nature; we hear her awful voice

sounding hollow in her dark and gloomy abodes, and we regard it not.

Reason whispers in our ear and says, Pursue with indefatigable zeal

the cause of Nature, develope truth, and labour for the happiness of

the human race.

    But after all, how is it possible we can attribute temporal

death to the sin of Adam? Did this transgression change the physical

organization of man? Did it destroy any of his natural faculties, or

make an addition to those he was already possessed of? If so, what

was the construction of Adam previous to his supposed fall from a

state of innocence? If he was possessed of sensation, he must have

been exposed to pain; if he was exposed to pain, he was liable to

death, for death is often the consequence of severity of pain; if he

was not possessed of sensation, he must have been a being entirely

different from ourselves, and consequently could not have been the

parent of the human race. It follows, therefore, that there is no

point of view in which this subject can be considered, which will

warrant the conclusion, that death is to be attributed to the

primitive apostacy of Adam. It follows, both physically and morally,

it is unjust. Some other cause of corporeal dissolution should,

therefore, be discovered, and this, as we have seen, is to be found

in our natural texture and arrangement. The next principle of

discussion is what is called eternal death, or a state of endless

punishment.

    This kind of death cannot be the consequence either of Adam's

transgression, or the aggregate wickedness of the whole human race.

It is an idea which has been generated in the brain of fanaticism,

and supported by the enthusiastic zeal of persecuting superstition.

It was not sufficient to subject mankind to the terrible effects of

total moral turpitude, and temporal disorganization; but the fury of

religious malignity has been exerted to invent a new species of

torture to endure for endless ages. In the invention and

establishment of this doctrine, the nature of human actions and the

principles of justice have been entirely disregarded. To verify this

assertion, it is only necessary to examine the qualities of human

actions, and the crimes which are supposed to merit this terrible

infliction of punishment.

    Man is a being possessed of certain powers and faculties; of

certain passions and propensities to actions, and these, by a primary

law of nature, are subjected to control of reason, and are to be

directed by conscience, or an internal moral sense of right and

wrong. But what are these faculties, what these passions which are

essentially connected with the character and condition of intelligent

agents? Our existence and all the properties of it are of a limited

and finite nature; there is not one single quality of man that is not

imperfect; the parts of the aggregate of his life do not constitute

any thing like infinity. In all his movements, in all his energies,

in all the capacities of his being, he is regulated by finite and not

by infinite principles. He is incapable of any actions which do not

result essentially from the faculties which he is possessed of; all

his conduct must have a strict reference to the causes which have

produced it, and every effect must bear a proportion to its

productive cause. If the cause be limited and imperfect, the effect

must also be imperfect, for the effect can never rise superior to the

cause which has given it birth.

    Before we speak, therefore, of an infinite sin, or an infinite

evil, we should consider the capacity of those beings to whom this

evil is attributed; if the acting agents are infinite in their nature

and character, the effects of their operations may be so too, but if

they are finite, their actions can lay no claim to an infinite

effect. Sin is the consequence of the infraction of moral law; if

this infraction be made by an infinite being, the criminality would

be like the being who made it, that is of an infinite quality; but if

the infraction be made by an imperfect being, the criminality is

finite, and limited in its essential nature. It follows, of course,

as man is a finite and imperfect agent; if he cannot do an infinite

act, he is incapable of an infinite evil, and does not deserve an

infinite punishment; consequently, the idea of eternal death is

unjust and unreasonable.

    But further, if every sin were an infinite evil, which is the

Christian doctrine, it would merit an infinite punishment; but if one

sin deserves an infinite punishment, what must be the punishment of

him who is guilty of ten thousand sins? According to this doctrine he

must be liable to ten thousand infinite punishments, which is a

physical and moral absurdity. This doctrine of eternal death or

infinite punishment, disregards the nature of human actions, and

every principle of distributive justice. It inflicts on the smallest

offender as great extent and severity of punishment as on the most

abandoned criminal. It goes to the destruction of all moral virtue,

by inducing man to believe, that the commission of one vicious action

is as odious in the sight of God, and deserves as much punishment as

a thousand violations of moral rectitude. It destroys all relation

between the actions of men and the beneficial arrangements of

corrective improvement. It makes man infinite, and the Deity unjust;

both of which are inconsistent with the nature of things and the

principles of eternal truth.

    It is impossible that there should be more than one infinite

being in existence, and this being is the God of nature, the

intelligent organizer of the universe; possessed of all possible

perfection and excellence, and directing the vast concerns of nature

with the greatest harmony, and the most divine benevolence. This

being is incapable of any infraction of moral law, and this excludes

from the system of nature, the possibility of an infinite evil, and

consequently the justice of an infinite punishment is also excluded,

and with it the principle of eternal death. Thus the belief of an

eternal Hell is essentially erroneous, and can claim no justifiable

foundation in Nature or Nature's God. This doctrine of endless

punishment tortures the whole system of distributive justice; is

pernicious to the well-being of society; is virtually destructive of

the moral energies of man, and degrades the dignity and perfections

of the divine Creator of the universe.

    The Christian doctrine of death, spiritual, temporal, and

eternal, has now been considered, and the whole proved to bear no

relation to the sin of Adam, or the primitive apostacy of the reputed

parents of the human race. It has been shown that spiritual death is

nothing more than a partial corruption of the moral qualities of our

nature, and even this partial corruption has resulted from personal

violation of moral law. It has been shown also, that temporal death

is the physical property of our existence, and has been

unphilosophically attributed to the sin of Adam. It has also been

proved, that eternal death or endless punishment, is inconsistent

with the nature of human actions, and the qualities and properties of

finite agents. In short, the Christian idea of death is inconsistent

with reason, bears no affinity to truth or nature, and violates the

primitive order of the world established by God himself. Some

observations, therefore, deduced from the reason and nature of

things, shall conclude this chapter.

    In examining the vast machinery of the universe, presented for

our contemplation by the great Creator, the human mind is lost in a

labyrinth of reflection, and swallowed up in the most profound

meditations! We behold on every side the most ineffable beauties and

the most astonishing wonders; the most splendid exhibitions of

eternal wisdom, the most unbounded displays of infinite benevolence,

and the most perfect testimonies of an incomprehensible power. In

this vast system, there are many things inexplicable to man; many

events beyond the power of human solution, and many arrangements

incomprehensible by the most scrutinizing efforts of human wisdom.

But man should consider himself as a unit in the totality of

existence; as a part of a widely extended whole, bearing a relation

to every other part, and every other part bearing a relation to his

own modification of life. He should reflect that the world is

governed by general and immutable laws, and that the immutable

operation of these laws produces perpetual mutability in the

infinitely diversified parts and portions of the great fabric of

nature. He ought to learn that change is the eternal order in the

established arrangements of the world, and he ought not to expect to

be excluded from the general influence of fundamental laws

established by eternal wisdom. He should learn to be reconciled to

his fate, and consider death as a necessary and justifiable appendage

of the present modification of existence. He should be taught to love

and practice virtue, but not through the fear of an eternal hell; but

because it is useful to society, and contributes to his individual

happiness. He should be taught to revere the power which animates and

enlivens the great system of nature; but not to fear God on the one

hand, nor flatter him on the other, with an expectation of obtaining

his favour. He should disregard all ideas of ghosts, demons, and

malignant spirits, and reason on the cognizable properties of real

existence. The mind of man should be elevated above the practice of

vice, above the frowns of fortune, and the fears of death. He ought

to be the strong advocate of nature, "and have confidence in his own

energies;" his principles should be just and correct, his actions

strictly moral, and his sentiment in coincidence with the system of

benevolence and utility. No bugbears of superstition, no ghosts of

fanaticism, no demons of hell should be permitted to disturb his

brain; but, rising above all vice and all prejudice, he should

consider himself as an associated being, and live for the benefit of

himself and his fellow creatures.

CHAPTER XVIII.

PROPOSITION, THAT THE WANT OF UNIVERSALITY OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

DEMONSTRATES THAT IT IS NOT OF DIVINE ORIGIN.

    Every production must of necessity bear a strict relation to its

cause. If the cause be imperfect, it is to be expected that the

production will exhibit some strong feature of imperfection. If, on

the contrary, the cause be perfect, the effect will carry along with

it the unequivocal proofs of that perfection. If these assertions be

applied to a system of religion, it would not be difficult to

ascertain the source and origin of such religion. A religion,

therefore, claiming divine origin, ought, by the nature of its

doctrines and principles, to produce conviction in the mind, that it

is really supernatural and divine. It ought to exhibit the proof of

this celestial birth in so clear and striking a manner, as to be

capable of being embraced by every capacity interested in a knowledge

of its nature and consequences.

    It is unreasonable and unjust in the advocates of any system to

announce divinity of origin where the internal evidence derived from

the scheme itself is sufficient to demonstrate imperfection. A

supernatural code of theological principles should be incapable of

being charged with any of those defects which are unavoidably

connected with all human productions; contradictions,

inconsistencies, and immorality, can never be found in the mandates

of a being infinitely perfect; infinite perfection precludes the

possibility of such effect, and wherever the defect is discovered,

the evidence growing out of such defect is abundant against the

admission of divine origin. Keeping these principles constantly in

view, as marks by which to direct our inquiries, we shall be able to

ascertain what degree of respect we ought to bestow upon a system of

theology, which has heretofore demanded the unqualified credence of

every living creature to whom it has been presented; we shall be able

to ascertain whether ignorance, superstition, and a fanatic zeal,

have had any share of influence in producing the marvellous

attachment which the votaries of every unnatural religion have

inconsiderately bestowed upon the mysterious doctrines therein

contained. It is with difficulty, amidst the prejudices that assail

us, that the mind has recourse to the fundamental principles of

truth, and the immutable laws from which it results; but we should

learn to dismiss our unreasonable attachments, and exercise affection

toward those principles only which are sanctioned by the voice of

reason, and which bear a constant relation to the order of the

physical world. Man is essentially interested in the discovery of

truth, and the diversified application of its principles to all the

concerns of human life; he is equally interested in the practice of a

pure natural virtue; truth, however, will make but little progress,

where religious bigotry has seized upon the mental faculties, and

suppressed the elevated conception of the understanding; nor will

practical virtue share a better fate, where its beneficent effects

are opposed by similar causes; the hope, therefore, of constituting a

useful character, compounded of the love of truth, and the practice

of genuine morality, will become evanescent, unless man can be

persuaded that he is interested in a speedy return to nature, from

which, in all his inquiries, he has so long deviated. The plan of

revealed religion, in which man for so many ages has reposed the

confidence of his mind, should be re-examined under the impressions

inducing an invincible attachment to the development of solemn truth,

and the diffusion of general felicity; and it is with sentiments of

this kind that we proceed to the examination of the subject proposed.

If the Christian religion be true, we are essentially interested in a

knowledge of this truth; if it be false, our happiness must be

increased by a disclosure of those proofs which invalidate its

authenticity. It is presumed, that forcible evidence can be adduced

from the partiality of the scheme itself. This religion, destined to

enlighten mankind, and lead them to the possession of sublime

happiness, has, by its supposed author, been concealed from a

considerable part of those very beings who must all be equally

interested in the knowledge and the application of its doctrines. The

assertion will not be controverted by any Christian advocates, who

have any tolerable portion of geographical information.

    It is in strict conformity with truth to say, that two-thirds of

mankind, and perhaps three-fourths of them, are destitute of any

knowledge of the Christian religion; and to verify this assertion,

the learned geographer must indulge us while we take a short view of

the situation of the globe in this respect. In America, it is true,

that the Christian religion has been disseminated among all its

civilized inhabitants; but there is a large portion of an opposite

description, that have not been thus highly favoured by the Divinity.

Almost all the aborigines of this country are entirely destitute of

any knowledge of supernatural religion; they grovel in their native

darkness, abandoned in this respect "by the divine power that

produced them," and left to form a variety of conjectures relative to

a subject so essentially interesting to their present and their

future welfare. In travelling to the old world, and including the

aggregate of population, the feelings of the Christian heart will not

be better consoled. Europe, it is true, with some trifling

exceptions, may be considered as nominally Christian, but in going

eastward, and entering the vast regions of the Asiatic world, we

there behold 500,000,000 of inhabitants, which is more than half the

human race, totally deprived of every information concerning this

holy religion, deemed by its advocates essential to the felicity of

intelligent beings. The exceptions in this part of the globe are too

inconsiderable to engage our attention in this general calculation.

Here the number of proselytes might have been somewhat greater, had

not the conduct of the Christian missionaries laid the foundation of

their expulsion for ever. In Africa, the remaining quarter of the

globe, our inquiries will terminate in a discovery of the same

ignorance relative to revealed religion. The exceptions here are as

inconsiderable as those already noticed in regard to Asia. For the

truth of these assertions an appeal is made to the best information

of the civilized world.

    The application of these facts to the subject under

consideration, will operate essentially against the benevolence of

that being, who is said to be the author and promulgator of this

religion. It will be necessary, on the one hand, for the advocates of

revelation to abandon the idea of its universal necessity, and the

consideration that it is the sole cause of procuring felicity: or, on

the other, to acknowledge that the God they worship is a partial,

cruel, and vindictive parent, depriving his creatures of necessary

information, and consigning them to future destruction for

involuntary ignorance. It is a maxim of this celestial religion, that

he that believeth not shall be damned; but how is man to believe a

proposition of which he has no knowledge? How can he embrace a

religion which he has never heard of? And, above all, how can

criminality be attached by a just God to a want of belief, where no

opportunity has been afforded of bestowing an assent? Are not all the

human race equally the children of one common and benevolent parent?

Are they not all fed by his bounty, and supported by his universal

beneficence? Do they not all experience the benefits resulting from

that luminous body, which in turn enlightens and fructifies the

earth? Whence then this unjust discrimination, this partial

arrangement in the moral concerns of man? But the advocates of the

Christian religion will perhaps retort and say, "Do you believe that

God is the author of the system of nature?" Yes. "Do you contend that

he has been impartial, and that he has bestowed equal talents and

faculties on all?" No. "Why, then, if you admit partiality in one

case, do you complain of it in another?" The objection is plausible,

and deserves an answer.

    In doing this it is to be remarked, that there is an essential

difference in the nature of the two cases. In the case of the

Christian religion, man is subjected to damnation, either because he

is ignorant of the system, or because his mind cannot discern the

quantum of evidence necessary to establish its divine origin; but in

the system of nature, although there is a real difference in regard

to the possession of talents, yet the man weak in intellect cannot,

in justice, be subjected to punishment on this account. No Christian

will contend that great mental energy will entitle a man to

salvation, or, on the other hand, that a feeble understanding will,

in the mind of the Deity, be considered as a justifiable cause of

damnation. No; if God be just, he will require only the due and

proper exercise of those diversified talents which he had variously

bestowed upon his creatures. If one be weak and another strong, one

foolish and another discerning, the justice of God demands a mode of

treatment exactly adjusted to these different powers and faculties.

The Christian religion, therefore, in order to accord with the system

of nature, should have annexed no penalty to unbelief, whether that

belief resulted from total ignorance, or an honest dissent of mind,

after a due examination of the evidence. The evidence of any system

of religion ought to be equal to all, where equal credence is

demanded of all. By what rules of moral justice does the Deity demand

the unqualified belief of the present generation upon a less degree

of evidence than he is said to have formerly exhibited? If miracles

be necessary in one age to establish the truth of Christianity, they

are equally necessary in every age. If one country be favoured with

supernatural proofs, all other countries are equally entitled to the

same unequivocal, convincing, and demonstrative testimony. If

impartiality be considered as an attribute of God, this impartiality

should at all times and in all places be preserved with an

undeviating uniformity; but in every case where merit is attributed

to the human assent, on the ground of supernatural proof, and in

every other case where demerit is attached to unbelief, when the

evidence in quantity and quality is of an inferior nature, this

principle is notoriously abandoned.

    Again, if the Christian religion be true, the proofs ought not

only to be universally exhibited, but they ought also to be

universally convincing; and this results essentially from the nature

of that evidence which is employed to substantiate the system. It is

not strange that man should often doubt, where human testimony is the

only ground of conviction, but when the proof rises higher and claims

a divine origin, one would suppose that the mind must necessarily

yield to the force of such divine testimony, otherwise the means made

use of by divine power for the accomplishment of the end, are

inadequate and deficient; but as no such imbecility can justly be

attributed to a being possessing infinite wisdom, it is to be

presumed, that the exhibition of evidence in the present case ought

to be complete and satisfactory, universal and every where

convincing. If human projects miscarry, this failure is to be

ascribed to the imperfection of human nature; and the believer ought

to perceive that he does virtually ascribe to his God the same kind

of imperfection, whenever he acknowledges a defeat in the completion

of any object, the producing of which was deemed important in the

mind of the Supreme Being. It were less pernicious for man to believe

in no God, than to believe in one that is wicked and imperfect,

partial and vindictive, establishing his systems upon no principle of

distributive justice, and acting upon principles neither correct,

beneficial, nor universally understood. Those immoral monsters to

whom men in all ages have paid adoration, have served only to corrupt

the morality of the human heart, and exhibit examples destructive to

the cause of virtue. Such, however, is the character of all those

beings who have been made the authors of supernatural schemes of

religion. It is time that man should abandon his errors, and return

to nature; it is time that he should elevate his conceptions above

the prejudices resulting from a partial religion, and attribute to

the benevolent parent of universal existence, those attributes only

which can possibly adorn his character. The barbarous divinity of the

Christian religion has marked all his arrangements with a partiality

and vindictive cruelty, which strip him of every amiable property,

and subject the mind to the terrific impressions which naturally flow

from anger and revenge. When believers shall prove their God to be

just and impartial, they may solicit with confidence the gratitude of

the human heart; but the rational mind beholds in the arrangements of

supernatural religion the most unequivocal injustice, and the

abandonment of every principle by which the preserver of nature ought

ever to be influenced. Show us a religion universally promulgated and

universally proved, and man will soon discover both its truth and

utility, and that its revelation is worthy of the being whom he

adores. This religion is the religion of nature, it is the practice

of justice, it consists in acts of extensive beneficence, it is not

confined to any age or country, it is established over the face of

the whole earth, it is complete and universal, it is comprehensible

by every mind, it is useful to every creature, it is the

indestructible cement of intelligent nature in every part of the

universe.

CHAPTER XIX.

THAT MORAL PRINCIPLES ARE NOT FOUNDED UPON THEOLOGICAL IDEAS, NOR

UPON ANY SECTARIAN MODIFICATION OF THESE IDEAS, BUT UPON A BASIS AS

IMMORTAL AND INDESTRUCTIBLE AS HUMAN EXISTENCE ITSELF.

    The different religious sectaries, which have prevailed in the

world, have furnished innumerable proofs of the bigoted tenacity so

strikingly characteristic of supernatural theology. It is not only in

regard to their doctrines that this disposition has appeared, but

each sect has laid claim to a pre-eminent preservation of morals, and

to the power of rendering good and happy a wicked and apostate race

of men. The fulminating anathemas of the Church have been poured

forth in every direction, and the most petty sectary has raised

around itself a rampart for the alternate purpose of self-defence,

and attack upon heretics and unbelievers. They have universally

charged each other with holding doctrines of a demoralizing nature,

and subversive of the moral purity of rational existence. In such a

state of things reason owes to the happiness of man the faithful

discharge of an important duty, consisting of a candid and temperate

investigation concerning theological ideas, and the foundation of

moral principles. Reason has indulged an opinion that virtue rests

upon a more stable basis, than the sectarian theology of past ages,

and that the aggregate number of sectaries have been altercating

superficially the reciprocal relation which their respective

doctrines bear to each other; that they have abandoned the ground of

substantial support, which nature has given to the principles of a

pure and incorruptible morality, and that their acrimonious

strictures and recriminations have served only to perplex the mind

and vitiate the heart. The Jewish, the Christian, and the Mahometan

theology furnishes the most incontrovertible facts, and presents the

most convincing evidence respecting an ultimate decision of the

present subject. But the internal and essential character of the

inquiry first merits attention, before the collateral and subsequent

consideration of sectarianism can lay any just claim to a share of

influence in the final determination.

    The mind of man, in every age of the world, has given

diversified specimens of its ideas concerning supernatural powers.

The physical universe is a grand and impressive spectacle, whose

phenomena alarmed the terror-struck beholder, generating at one and

the same time a thousand hopes and fears in the agitated and

uninstructed intellect of man. The physical world was the grand

reservoir.

    It was the common source of Theological eductions, and every

species of fanaticism drew from this fountain beings of such form and

character as would best answer the various purposes for which they

were intended. The characteristic differences and the moral or

immoral shades of each deified object, were regulated by a thousand

different causes existing in the passions and properties of

intelligent life. The aggregate of nature was a terrible spectacle in

the view of ignorance, and the parts of this grand whole being

necessarily subjected to a more scrutinizing inspection of intellect,

were discovered to be capable of producing various conjectures

concerning spiritual substances and concealed agents of a benevolent

or malignant kind. Various moral effects will no doubt be produced by

the generation of so many spiritual monsters; but the effects

produced upon moral practices are one thing, and the substantial

basis of moral principle is another; they are quite different in

their essential characters.

    It is an old maxim, that evil communications corrupt good

manners; and although corrupt associations, even with the pretext

that one party is of celestial birth and character, will produce

pernicious consequences, yet these are considerations separate and

distinct from the true foundation of those immortal principles of

virtue, by which the life of man ought to be governed. If a thousand

Gods existed, or if nature existed independent of any, the moral

relation between man and man would remain exactly the same in either

case. Moral principle is the result of this relation, it is founded

in the properties of our nature, and it is as indestructible as the

basis on which it rests.

    If we could abandon, for a moment, every theistical idea, it

would nevertheless remain substantially true, that the happiness of

society must depend upon the exercise of equal and reciprocal

justice. It would also be true, that benevolence is an amiable trait

in the character of man; that the cultivation of his faculties is a

duty imposed on him, because the faithful performance of his duty

extends the circle of his real felicity; that vice is the bane of

individual and social existence; that truth is to be preferred to

falsehood, activity to indolence, temperance to debauchery, and,

generally, that science and virtue claim pre-eminently over ignorance

and vice, the universal attachment of the human race. All these, and

many other particulars of a like nature, would stand as immortal

monuments of the real nature of moral principles, even after

cultivated intellect shall have performed the last solemn act of duty

relative to the ancient regimen, and shall have recalled bewildered

man to the happy contemplation of the laws and immutable energies of

the physical universe.

    If this be true, in regard to the essential nature of

theological ideas, how much more powerfully will it hold upon every

sectarian modification of the subject. If pure theism be independent

of morality, and morality independent of that, because it rests upon

the relations and the properties of human life, then it will be easy

to conceive that the subordinate descriptions of sectarian theology

must be still more unconnected with the present subject. The

character, however, of all the gods of antiquity, is, of itself, a

sufficient consideration to exclude them from any participation in

the concerns of an exalted virtue. The Jewish God commands theft and

murder; he puts a lying spirit into the mouth of his prophets; he

repents and grieves for his past conduct; he is a God of fury, wrath,

and vengeance. These actions and qualities are all attributed to him

in the Old Testament! Is it possible that any man of common sense can

believe, that moral principles which are so important to the best

interests of human society, should be placed upon such an immoral and

vindictive foundation? Can any one imagine that a being, so destitute

of moral justice and benevolence himself, could serve as a solid

basis on which to rest these qualities in human nature? No, this

sectarian God, this malignant phantom of former ages, this compound

of weakness and wickedness, is calculated to subvert all moral

principle, both in theory and practice, and present the moral world

in the full exercise of the most detestable passions.

    The wrathful and unrelenting character of the Christian

divinity, is not less hostile to the immaculate principles of a sound

and excellent morality; imbittered in anger, and infuriate in his

vengeance, he lays his hand upon his innocent Son, and offers him up

a living sacrifice for the purposes which reason abhors, and justice

utterly disclaims. Under the modification, name, and character of the

Holy Ghost, this being introduces himself to a woman, and violates

those correct and delicate sentiments which ought to guide an

intelligent being in cases of this kind. Under the name and character

of Jesus Christ, he exhibits the most flagrant departures from the

purity of moral sentiment and moral practice. In proof of this, the

reader is referred to the 9th chapter of this work.

    The sectarian divinity, which Christianity presents to us, is

represented as a consuming fire, as a being possessing fiery

indignation and an uncontrollable vengeance; as a being who

disregards all just discrimination upon the subject of moral

principle. He declares in some parts of the New Testament, that every

thing shall be regulated by his arbitrary will without regard to the

nature or character of the case. "He will have mercy on whom he will

have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth." (See Rom. chap. ix. &c.)

Is it possible that even a Christian believer can suppose, for a

single moment, that the principles of genuine morality can rest upon

such an arbitrary basis? No; a divinity of immoral description is the

bane of moral virtue. The purest theism is independent of morality,

and morality is independent of that; much less then can the corrupt

and vitiated conceptions of barbarous ages be produced in support of

a principle which could, not exist without the intellectual faculties

of man and which cannot be destroyed while these faculties exist. The

principle and the practice of immortal virtue will long remain, after

the plundering and bloody theology of Moses, Jesus, and Mahomet, has

ceased to afflict the human race. The essential principles of

morality are founded in the nature of man, they cannot be

annihilated, they are as indestructible as human existence itself.

CHAPTER XX.

UNIVERSAL BENEVOLENCE.

    The sentiment which includes the whole sensitive and intelligent

world, within the sphere of its benignant operations, is justly

denominated universal benevolence. Every organized being, whether of

a high or low station in animal existence, is susceptible of pleasure

and pain; they are all alternately affected by the wishes, the

passions, and the conduct of each other, and this influence is

extended much further than at first view would strike the mind of the

most correct and accurate observer. The universe is a vast assemblage

of living creatures, whose relations are reciprocal and reciprocated

under a thousand different forms, and supported by a thousand

different ligaments of an imperceptible nature. The parts are

interested in the whole, and the whole is interested in the

preservation and diversified modification of the parts. Nothing is

foreign or irrelative in the vast fabric to which we belong. Union is

most intimate, and the intellectual destiny which awaits the human

race will ultimately disclose the consoling secret, that man's

highest happiness consists in perspicuously discovering his true

connection with nature, and the eternal duration of this connection.

The circumscribed condition of man's existence, his wants, his social

duties, his appetites, and his passions, constitute a considerable

drawback upon the comprehensive conceptions, which he would otherwise

have been capable of forming concerning his relationship with nature,

and the ultimate destination to which the powers of nature have

devoted the component and immortal parts of his existence. The

intellectual properties of man are, however, capable of being

expanded so far as to indulge an opinion subversive of those narrow

views, which have excited sentiments of hostility between individuals

and nations whose interests were the same, and whose duties ought to

have been universally reciprocated.

    It is, no doubt, extremely natural, and even absolutely

necessary, that each individual should feel an anxiety extremely

impulsive respecting the preservation of his own existence, and the

means by which it is to be rendered tranquil and comfortable; but

this sensation, the first which is experienced by a sensitive

creature, does not preclude that expansion of mind which would

benevolently extend the circle of man's moral affections and duties,

and which also prepares for himself an additional portion of exalted

enjoyment. Sensation alone, or, in other words, mere animal

existence, must be deprived in a high degree of the power and the

pleasure of reciprocating those sentiments of moral sympathy, to

which intelligent man is indebted for his highest happiness. The

gradual increase of the capacity of sensation constitutes a continual

approach toward the possession of those properties on which the

sublimity of thought depends, and by which human reason recognizes

the benefit of benevolent reciprocation. It is, however, denied by

some, that man possesses any other qualities than those which are

merely selfish or individual; that his sensual impulses repel every

sentiment of comprehensive kindness and affection; that in every

respect he is a being of insulated nature and character, and that the

powers and properties of his existence are necessarily in a high

degree hostile to the interest and well-being of others.

    Two points of prominent and conspicuous importance invite the

activity of mind in the solution of the present difficulty. The one

point is the physical relation of man to all existence: the other is

his moral relation to his own species and to all other inferior

animals. The component parts of which man is formed are all drawn

from the great fountain of existence; they are essentially material

in their nature, and destined to return to the source from which they

sprang. Organized matter cannot lay claim to a pre-eminent essence;

it is modification and refinement which produces visible exaltation,

and not the native properties contained in the substance of which man

is composed. The constant interchange of matter with matter, is a

primary and immutable law of nature, and should teach man through the

channel of observation the ultimate destiny that awaits him, it

should teach him that the pain which he inflicts upon sensitive

existence will return upon himself with interest, and will pave the

way for eternizing a system of misery, fatal to the sensations of the

whole animal world.

    Humanity has lessons of a different kind, pregnant with salutary

instructions, calculated to enforce conviction upon the intellectual

powers of man. The spiritualization of human existence has made man a

fool, it has taught him to spurn at matter, to contemn its power and

ridicule its essence; whereas, on the contrary, sound philosophy,

which unfolds the connection between man and nature, is calculated to

produce in the mind sentiments of respect and tranquillity; respect

for the aggregate of existence to which he belongs, and tranquillity

at the idea of an eternal interest in this indestructible mass. The

successive changes through which he is destined to pass, and the

impossibility of relinquishing his connection with nature, should

inspire him with feelings of universal sympathy, with sentiments of

universal benevolence. Human reason has an important duty to perform

in the institutions which it establishes; for these institutions will

effect in succession all the portions of matter destined to pass

through an organized predicament.

    It is, no doubt, difficult to convince the human understanding

of this physical or universal connection, or to make man see his true

interest in this respect. It is, nevertheless, a solemn and

philosophic truth that our sensations are, at this moment, suffering

under the cruel lash of ancient institutions; that the whole animal

world are reciprocating with each other a system of extensive and

perpetual wretchedness, resulting principally from the contempt which

has been thrown upon the capacity of material substance, and our

ignorance of an important and an indestructible connection with the

great body of nature. If man had a comprehensive view of the

successive changes of his existence, and a correct idea of the nature

of sensation continually resulting from the renovation of organic

forms, sympathy or universal benevolence would become irresistibly

impressive upon his moral powers, and form the basis of his

subsequent conduct.

    In the second place, man's moral relation to his own species,

and to all other inferior animals, furnishes cogent evidence in

favour of moral sympathy or universal benevolence. If the subject of

man's physical connection presents us with some philosophical

difficulties, the repeated and frequent necessity of performing his

moral duties will furnish a mass of instruction adequate to every

important decision. The single idea of establishing the doctrine of

perpetual reprisals, ought to constitute an ample refutation of those

selfish opinions which regard only the individual, to the exclusion

of all the other members of society. It is the interest as well as

the duty of every man to be just and benevolent; an opposite conduct

would become the signal of universal discord, and the selfish

principle, which at first had for its object the preservation of

self, would become the procuring cause of self destruction.

    The powers and the properties of human existence are of a

similar nature, and require a correspondent method of treatment;

beside, the intimate connection which subsists between us in this

respect, our enjoyments and our capacity of enjoying, are augmented

by every effort which the mind makes in a comprehensive system of

philanthropy. The narrow prejudice which makes one man the enemy of

another and one country the enemy of another, is not only

disgraceful, but subversive of the best interests of human society.

Political governments, and the prejudices which have been created and

nurtured by these governments, have set individuals and nations in

battle array against each other, without any good or substantial

reason whatever. What is there in the nature of the case which should

make a Frenchman and an Englishman hostile to each other? Are they

not both men, possessed of similar faculties, equally indebted to

nature for the resources of their felicity, and capable of being made

happy or miserable by the operation of the same causes? Yes, and it

is the iniquity of corrupt government which has perverted those

sentiments of the human heart, by which one human being is bound to

another in a general system of interest, sympathy, and universal

benevolence.

    This principle should also be extended to the whole animal

world, so as to exclude acts of cruelty, and annihilate every species

of injustice. The child that is permitted in early life to run a pin

through a fly, is already half prepared to run dagger through the

heart of his fellow creature! It is the duty of parents and the

business of instruction, to correct the ferocious errors of former

ages, and inspire society with sentiments of sympathy and universal

goodness. But to do this with effect, our political institutions must

be changed, and placed upon the broad basis of universal liberty and

universal justice. This would be a work of time, but it is as certain

in the ultimate issue of things, as the progress of the earth around

the sun, or the general revolution of the planetary system. The

individual that withholds his intellectual contribution in this

respect, is either grossly ignorant, or a wicked traitor in the great

cause of human existence.

CHAPTER XXI.

MOSES, JESUS, AND MAHOMET.

    The causes which have produced personal celebrity are numerous,

and diversified by a thousand indescribable shades in their modes of

operation. It also sometimes happens that the means of popular

exaltation and perpetual fame have been either of a passive or

uncontrollable nature. Such is the fact in the present case. Moses

and Mahomet were active villains, whose characters cannot be examined

without horror and detestation. They were both eminent murderers, and

their debaucheries have been signalized by acts of barbarous

brutality, of which the love-struck Solomon seems to be more

destitute. The military ferocities and immoral decrees of these two

"celestial" impostors, have placed upon their characters an indelible

stain, which the pretended sanctity of the priesthood can never wipe

away!

    Believers in Christianity, in reading the history and conduct of

Moses, ought to blush for his crimes, and spurn at his blasphemy in

attributing these crimes to the God whom he pretended to adore. He

issues orders for the indiscriminate massacre of men, women, and

children, in a defenceless condition, making an exception only of

that part of the captives whose sexual predicament invited the

passions of man to indulge in the gratification of criminal desires.

(See Numbers chap. xxxi. verse 18, &c.)

    But this is only a single specimen of the murdering temper of

this meek man of God! From the time that he murdered the Egyptian and

hid him in the sand, till the moment in which he expired, and was

buried without any man knowing where he was buried, he exhibited

examples of legerdemain tricks, pretended familiarities with God,

scenes of debauchery and malignant slaughter of the human race, which

would disgrace the most cruel despot of ancient or modern times. For

the truth of this remark an appeal is made to the historic details

contained in the books of Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

    To show fully the immoral character of Moses, it would be

necessary to quote almost every chapter in these "holy and inspired"

books. Believers in revealed religion, who still believe that Moses

was a pious and meek man, ought, once more, to pass in review the

conduct and transactions which the Bible has attributed to him:

especially those details which are contained in the books already

mentioned. If there be any member of the Christian church who can

believe that God and Moses ever united in the execution of those

barbarous decrees and immoral sentiments stated in these books, he

must be lost to all clear ideas of justice, and must have abandoned

every principle of humanity by which the life of man is to be

rendered comfortable and happy. The author of "The Age of Reason",

has placed these enormities in a striking point of light, and, with

his wonted acuteness of discernment, has presented, in the way of

Bishop Watson, difficulties which no Christian bishop will ever be

able to surmount. Murder and theft are crimes of so detestable a

nature, and so destructive to the best interests of society, that

they never can be sanctioned either by human or divine power. God and

Moses, in these books, are said to have sanctioned both; it follows,

therefore, that God and Moses are both bad characters, or else the

books are not true. The latter, however, is the fact, and the

character of the real God of Nature remains unimpeached.

    The character of Mahomet is of a savage, military, and

tyrannical cast; but he speaks in the name of heaven, and, like

Moses, pretends, that his murders, cruelties, and assassinations have

been sanctioned by the divinity which he adores. He frequently begins

his chapters in the name of the most merciful God; but, in the course

of the chapter, is sure to consign to damnation those who do not

accede to the system of revelation which he has received from God.

"The chosen people of the Most High", under the Jewish dispensation,

took the liberty of exercising a principle of indiscriminate

extirpation toward all heathen nations; the Mahometans pursued a

similar course in the destructive wars wherever they have been

engaged, and to which they have been conducted by their fanatic

leaders. The Christian world is not a whit behind either of these two

grand divisions in the exercise of a censorious and military spirit.

The crusades and the domestic quarrels of the Christian church will

furnish an abundant verification of this remark.

    The character of Jesus, considered in an individual and personal

point of view, is of a less frightful and destructive nature. The

first and the last of these three religious impostors were ferocious

men. It was necessary, therefore, to present them conjointly,

reserving the character and conduct of Jesus a matter of distinct

inquiry. It will not be necessary, however, to say much upon this

part of the subject; for while it is admitted that Jesus, in a public

and national point of view, has produced less misery than either

Moses, or Mahomet, yet it is believed that the New Testament presents

us with immoral deviations from principle in the personal conduct of

him whom the Christian world has declared to be the only begotten son

of God.

    The followers of Jesus, however, have made up for his personal

deficiency, and the Christian world has not been deficient in the

number of fanatic phlebotomists disposed to destroy the moral and

political plethora of the human race. Christians and Deists have

sometimes coincided in their opinion that Jesus was a good character.

This opinion, so far as it was acceded to by some of the first

unbelievers, was either the result of ignorance, or an effect of

fear. The Christian exalted this same Jesus into the character of a

God, and, by their doctrines, made him equal to the Creator; such a

circumstance struck terror into the human mind, and the idea of

associating crimes with the divinity prevented independent inquiry.

    The New Testament, so far as proof of this kind goes, furnishes

us with facts and circumstances which make strongly against the moral

character of Jesus. Beside the general duplicity which characterizes

his answers to the multitude, he is guilty also of sending his

disciples secretly to take and carry away a colt which did not belong

either to him or his disciples. The doing of such an act in modern

times would be denominated theft, even by pious Christians

themselves. He is guilty of sowing the seeds of domestic and national

warfare, and declaring that no man could be his disciple without

hating his father and his mother; and also that he came not to send

peace but a sword. If any man at the present day were to enter

society with actions and avowed intentions of this kind, he would be

considered as an enemy to moral virtue, and deserving of that

punishment which domestic justice and public tranquillity required.

It is in vain to applaud the conduct and opinions of Jesus, when the

same conduct and opinions applied to another being would be

considered as criminal, and hostile to the best interests of human

existence.

    In the first edition of this work, and in the chapter concerning

the immoralities of the scriptures, ideas and arguments were advanced

that supersede the necessity of prosecuting farther the present

subject. Moses, Mahomet, and Jesus, can lay as little claim to moral

merit, or to the character of the benefactors of mankind, as any

three men that ever lived upon the face of the earth. They were all

of them impostors; two of them notorious murderers in practice, and

the other a murderer in principle; and their existence united has,

perhaps, cost the human race more blood, and produced more

substantial misery, than all the other fanatics of the world.

CHAPTER XXII.

PREJUDICES.

    The discovery and the development of truth, as it really exists

in the system of nature, is of the highest importance to the true

interests of mankind; but how to present this truth to the view of

the mind in a manner calculated to attract its attention, is

difficult to say; for although the uncorrupted faculties of man

cannot be opposed to the attractive charms of truth, or the brilliant

beauties of her native appearance, yet so numerous are the causes,

and so powerful their operation which serve to mislead the mind and

produce injurious impressions upon it, that perspicuity and

regularity of thought are essentially deranged, and the clearness of

scientific deductions are swallowed up in the gulf of error and

deception. This process, prejudicial to our mental operations,

commences in the early stages of our existence, and proceeds with a

regularity of mischievous consequences, to the period when man

assumes the dignity of intellectual independence; and fortunate

indeed is that individual who arrives to this elevated predicament of

mental existence. The energy of thought when applied to the discovery

of truth, is naturally calculated to sweep away the rubbish of error,

and cut up those deep-rooted prejudices which have so long retarded

the useful improvement of our species. The grand object of

philosophic philanthropists should be, to extend the sphere of mental

energy, to enlarge the circle of its influence, and to oppose a

persevering activity of mind to the fallen rancour of superstition,

and the destroying fury of fanaticism. Religious enthusiasm, bigotry,

and superstition, conjoined with the strong arm of political

despotism, have rendered man in the past ages of the world the

degraded instrument of their own pernicious and destructive purposes;

it is here we must seek for the source of any human misfortunes, and

the perpetuation of those prejudices by which the body and mind are

both enslaved; it is true that the natural imbecility and

imperfection of our faculties, and the extensive nature and variety

of those moral and physical combinations, from which science is to be

deduced, evince the strong probability that man may frequently be

erroneous in the conclusions which he draws from certain premises,

because the force of his faculties is not adequate to a full and

complete investigation of the compounded and diversified relations of

existence; but these natural obstacles to the clear deductions of

science, are neither of a discouraging or an insurmountable nature.

    The energy of the human mind is prodigious in the disclosure of

natural principles, and its activity must be measured on a scale of

endless progression. Nature is correct and righteous in all her

operations; man is wrong only when he deviates from her laws. Our

errors, our prejudices, and our vices, are so many instances of a

departure from the beneficial laws of moral and physical existence,

and our education is calculated to favour this unfortunate

dereliction. The idle and foolish stories of nurses, and the still

more ruinous tales and doctrines of priests, are calculated only to

corrupt the heart, and bury the human mind in the gulf of the most

destructive prejudices. How is it possible that man should have any

clear conceptions of natural truth, when his understanding is

constantly insulted with a thousand incongruous and non-existent

relations, such as ghosts, witches, and devils, which perpetually

disturb the imagination, and draw the rational faculties into the

vortex of fancy and fanaticism? and this will ever be the case so

long as superstition, or, which is the same thing, a religion

claiming a supernatural birth, shall spread its bloody and baneful

influence among intelligent beings. The faculties of man ought to be

circumscribed only by that extensive circle which embraces the full

extent of their native and accumulated activity. When religious

prejudices are permitted to mingle their gloomy effects with the

exalted conceptions of enlightened reason, the important cause of

truth and the dearest interests of humanity become perceptibly

retrograde, and darkness instead of light pervades the moral world.

When Moses, by authority pretendedly divine, diffused light over the

world previous to the creation of the sun, Superstition greedily

swallowed the holy absurdity; but when Galileo asserted the

sphericity of the earth, they cried heresy, and armed against science

and philosophy, and yet the latter was an important truth in the

system of nature; the former, a stupid blunder of ignorance and

fanaticism. Such, O Superstition! are thy pious efforts to blind the

human mind, the better to subjugate its powers, and rob man of the

fruits of his industry.

    There is no system either of education, politics, or religion,

which ought to be excepted from the severest scrutiny of the human

mind, or the closest examination which the human faculties can bestow

upon it; yet habit and custom of long duration have so strongly

attached man to his errors, that he reluctantly relinquishes those

tenets which serve only to disturb his peace, and destroy his

happiness; while the privileged impostors of the world, or those who

feast upon the continuation or error and prejudice, unite their

strongest exertions to persuade man that his most important interests

in time and eternity depend upon the preservation of ancient and

unnatural establishments; which, in fact, are as destructive to human

felicity, as they are derogatory to the divine purity of supreme

intelligence. The influence of authority, the fear of incurring

clerical displeasure, and the dread of eternal torments, have

partially annihilated the energy of intellectual powers, and taught

man tremblingly to submit to the grossest imposition.

    If the disclosure of my thoughts and reflections resulting from

a constant habit of contemplating Nature in her diversified relations

and real modes of existence, can throw a single ray of light into the

darkened intellect of man, it will increase my hopes of future

progression, and essentially tranquillize the sensations of my heart.

It ought to be perceived by every enlightened mind, that long-

established prejudices are not to be suddenly eradicated; but by

protruding the activity of intellect into the field of actual

existence, some diminution of human misery may be reasonably

expected. Man sees not with clearness, that his sufferings are

frequently the consequences of his blind attachment to error and

superstition; he seeks for their origin in the distant heavens, or

the anger or resentment of supposed supernatural agents, while the

truth often is, that his own prepossessions are the causes of his

calamity.

    Nothing is more difficult, while the mind is under the influence

of prejudice, than to persuade it of the necessity of removing or

destroying that prejudice; prejudice destroys the discerning power of

the understanding, and conviction becomes impossible while the force

of evidence necessary to produce it is not discovered. The same idea

of right, the same ideas of truth, associate themselves with a

prejudiced mind, as are to be found in the clearest operation of the

most enlightened; and the fool is as confident in error, as the wise

man standing on the broad basis of moral and natural truth. No hopes

of reform can be entertained relative to such obstinate minds, until

you can render them susceptible of the impressions of doubt or

uncertainty; the man who never doubts, or calls in question the truth

of any deduction which he has made, is but badly calculated for the

development of real principle; there is no extension or perfection of

mind which excludes the possibility of error, and it is only by

repeated examination of our own opinions, that we can arrive through

the process of investigation to that elevated situation which unfolds

the sublime truths contained in the system of nature.

    If it were possible to conceive of a mind whose strength and

energy had elevated it above all the impressions of associated life,

and the deductions drawn from early combinations, and the primary

influence of scientific pursuits, we should then behold the intellect

of man exhibited in that point of view, which would promise a fair

discussion of all the diversified relations of existence, by which we

are enabled to deduce all those fundamental laws contained in the

physical, mental, and moral world. But in those cases where the human

mind attempts the discussion of any philosophic subject, under the

impression of a previous bias, every part and view of the subject is

subjected to the influence of associated habits, and the unreasonable

attachment of an unrestrained imagination, or a cruel and atrocious

fanaticism. This is remarkably verified by the conduct of every

religious sectary in the world, whose opinions, however variant from

the standard of truth, are ever considered by the individual advocate

as the only true means of obtaining divine favour. The Jew, the

Christian, the Mahometan, are all equally tenacious of those

doctrines and opinions in which they have been educated; they contend

with equal tenacity for the supposed truth of their respective

tenets, and the liberal bestowment of the most virulent anathemas

constitutes a prominent characteristic of each religion.

    The tenacity of prejudice and irritability of temper, are not

difficult to be accounted for. Every fanatic sect of religion speaks

in the name of heaven. It has enlisted Jehovah on its side, it keeps

up a familiar intercourse with celestial powers, and discerns, in all

the operations of those powers, the most decided partiality in favour

of the particular doctrines which its members have embraced. With

weak and fanatic minds, the confidence is prodigious which results

from a supposed alliance with heaven. A being armed in the name of a

ferocious God, slaughters with relentless cruelty every other being

who does not pay homage to the barbarous divinity, which his own

heated imagination has depicted. No prejudices are so deep rooted,

none so violent, as those of a religious nature, and their pernicious

effects are generally in proportion to the ignorance of the human

mind, and the barbarous condition of society. It is the light of

science alone that can destroy such causes of human wretchedness;

science opposes its own strength to the injurious effects of error

and prejudice, and in proportion as the former shall increase, the

latter will decrease; so that the hopes of the human race rest upon

the diffusion of knowledge, and the general cultivation of science.

Ignorance is a soil in which the rankest prejudices appear the most

flourishing, and promise the greatest portion of misery to mankind.

It is ignorance and interest united, which preserve the prejudices in

favour of those systems of religion so injurious to the operation of

intellectual power, and so destructive to the general felicity of man.

    It is to be remarked, that the prejudices existing between

different nations or individuals, are frequently destroyed by an

extension of acquaintance, and the farther knowledge of those facts,

from which righteous conclusions can be drawn; the same may be said

in regard to systems, subjects, or principles. A partial or imperfect

view leads to wrong attachments or erroneous deductions; while a

comprehensive examination may teach the mind to suspend, alter, or

rectify, its final determinations. The different religious sectaries

all reject each other's doctrines, and too frequently hate and detest

each other on account of difference in opinions; while the scientific

mind, rising above early prejudices, perceives the errors of all

parties, and pities the ignorance, which binds man to such stupid and

senseless doctrines. But it is more lamentable, that such ignorance

and error of mind should be found united with the grossest perversion

of moral principle; a difference of opinion is followed by a most

rancorous spirit of malevolence, and the exercise of the most glaring

and destructive vices. It is to be presumed, however, that there is

in nature a substantial foundation for moral principle; that the

source of this principle is to be sought for in the organic

construction of human existence; that doubts or differences upon this

subject will be, in a high degree, removed, when stripped of

theological delusion, and that the human mind is capable of being

inspired with a moral confidence, which will seldom be shaken by the

current of events, or the difficulty of new cases. 

CHAPTER XXIII.

MORAL PRINCIPLE.

    In the sacred writings of the Jews and Christians, in all

ancient and theological compositions, the idea of correct and moral

principle had been so frequently abandoned, and so grossly violated,

that the energy of thought, for many ages, was inadequate to an

upright and full investigation of the nature of human actions. This

subject is, no doubt, connected with considerable difficulties; but

these difficulties have been essentially augmented by the rubbish

with which superstition has covered the moral character of man. The

proofs of any inquiry, which relate to moral principle, adhere so

closely to the realities of physical and intellectual existence, that

the errors of an upright and intelligent mind can never assume a

frightful and destructive character. They will be continually

modified, and undergo frequent corrections by the new information of

which the mind is continually susceptible.

    Moral science cannot, perhaps, be reduced to absolute certitude,

or become susceptible of absolute perfection; it is in its nature

progressive, and the infinite diversity of sensations, which

constitute the essential basis of all our intellectual combinations

and deductions, will furnish, at least, a suspicion, that the

decisions of the mind upon this subject ought frequently to be re-

examined and subjected to a new and more accurate scrutiny. All the

theological systems that ever have been written, have never thrown a

particle of light upon this most interesting inquiry; they have

established precepts, some few of which are good, and others

extremely immoral; but no analysis of the physical or moral powers of

man has ever been exhibited; no development of the principle of

causation, or the nature of those effects, which have essentially

resulted from the constitution of animal or intellectual existence.

In all these cases, supernatural theology has prudently observed an

absolute silence, probably from a consciousness of the most profound

ignorance. This single truth, of itself, evinces the moral deficiency

of supernatural religion, and the necessity of returning to the basis

of nature for a correct development of principle. Every thing that is

discordant to this has been established by the force of authority,

and the reasonableness of such establishment has never been a ground

of serious inquiry.

    If it should be objected, that it is impossible, even upon the

basis of nature, to find a universal standard of morality, it will

nevertheless appear, that a continual approach toward such a standard

must be far preferable to those arbitrary decisions which theology

has made upon this subject. There can be no internal force or

excellence connected with a system established solely by external

power, without reference to the essence or character of the

principles which constitute the body of such a system. The internal

excellence of the principle itself, together with capacity of mental

discernment, is essential to the ultimate benefit which may be

expected from the natural operation of legal codes. But there is no

better method of rendering a principle intelligible than by showing

that it is consistent with nature, that it has resulted from her

laws, that it is useful in its effect, that it is capable of being

reduced to practice; in a word, that it is suited to the powers,

condition, and character of the human species.

    There is another previous consideration also, which ought to be

taken into the account before we shall be able to comprehend the

essence of moral principle, or to understand the nature of those

duties which result from our original constitutions. That

intellectual part of man, which supernatural theology has denominated

a soul, has been viewed separate and distinct from the body, as a

kind of spiritual and celestial inhabitant of a mean and material

tenement; that their union would be of short duration, and that their

final destination was extremely different. This led to reasonings and

conjectures that were erroneous; for as the corporeal sensations were

entirely excluded from a participation in the cause, by which moral

influence was produced, an accurate knowledge of the sources of

action was necessarily excluded, and spiritual mystery was

substituted for philosophic demonstration.

    The human mind is incapable of forming any conception of that

which is not material; man is a being whose composition is purely

physical, and moral properties or intellect are the necessary results

of organic construction. To ascertain, therefore, the foundation of

moral principle, it is necessary to revert to the physical

constitution of human nature, it is necessary to go to the source of

sensation, to the cause of impressions, and the diversity of these

impressions; to the universality of the fact, that all human nature

possesses the same or similar sensations, together with all the other

additional circumstances resulting from the subsequent intellectual

combinations of our existence. All human beings are susceptible of

pain, they are also all susceptible of pleasure; they are all

possessed of the same senses, subjected to the same wants, exhibit

the same desires, and are satisfied with the same enjoyments. These

positions cannot be controverted, they are true in the general

features of their character, and the inconsiderable deviations

resulting from the variations of animal structure, cannot, in any

eminent degree, shake the rectitude or universality of these

positions. The modification of the principle of animal structure in

intelligent existence, is, no doubt, diversified by a nice and

inscrutable gradation, but the aggregate amount of organic result

must be nearly the same, and though the animal sensation were to vary

in a still higher degree, yet it would, nevertheless, be

substantially true, that certain comprehensive axioms might be laid

down, which would necessarily include within the sphere of their

imperious effect, every possible diversification of the sensitive

faculties of human nature.

    That happiness is to be preferred to misery, pleasure to pain,

virtue to vice, truth to falsehood, science to ignorance, order to

confusion, universal good to universal evil, are positions which no

rational being can possibly controvert. They are positions to which

mankind, in all ages and countries, must yield assent. They are

positions, the truth of which is never denied, the essence of which

is never controverted; it is the form and application only which has

been the cause of social contention, and not the reality or

excellence of the axioms themselves.

    That universality of the principle of sensation generates

universal capacity of enjoying pleasure and suffering pain; this

circumstance modifies the character of human actions, and renders it

necessary that every man should regard every other man with an eye of

strict justice, with a tender and delicate sensibility, with a

constant reference to the preservation of his feelings, and the

extension of his happiness; in a word, that the exercise of eternal

justice should be constantly reciprocated by all the individuals of

the same species. If I assume to myself the pretended right of

injuring the sensations, the moral sentiments, or general happiness

of my neighbour, he has, undoubtedly, an equal right to commit the

same violence upon me; this would go to the destruction of all right,

to the total subversion of all justice; it would reduce society

instantly to a state of warfare, and introduce the reign of terror

and of misery.

    It is a contradiction in terms to assert that any man has a

right to do wrong; the exercise of such a pretended right is the

absolute destruction of all right, and the first human being who

commits violence, has already prepared for himself a hell of

retaliation, the justice of which his own mind can never deny. It is,

therefore, inconsistent with truth to say, that there is no such

thing as a general standard of moral principle; this standard has a

real existence in the construction of our nature; it is ascertained

and regulated by the rule of reciprocal justice. It is absolute in

the most important duties of human life; but in other cases of less

weight and magnitude, it is discovered by the calculations of

judgment, by the process of the understanding, and will sometimes

vibrate between the impressions of sense and the subtle combinations

which constitute an ultimate moral decision.

    If it be objected upon the suggestion of this idea, that the

system of natural morality is less perfect than that which has been

revealed, the true answer is, that revealed authority, in the most

intelligible cases, is incorrect and absurd; and in the more refined

cases of difficulty, a total ignorance is manifested; so that it is

evident, upon the very face of the record, that the subject of moral

principle, in its subtle discriminations, was never examined or

understood by theological writers. The boasted maxim of the Christian

religion, "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you,

do ye even so to them," is incorrect in point of phraseology, and in

point of principle does not exceed any of the moral writers of

antiquity, who lived many hundred years before Jesus Christ. If this

scriptual declaration means to establish the doctrine of reciprocal

justice, it is incontrovertibly right; but the idea of placing the

essence of virtue in the "wishes" of the human heart, is not very

correct. It is very possible that one human being may desire another

to do unto him many things which ought not to be done, and which are,

in their own nature, improper or immoral. To say, therefore, that our

desires should constitute the basis of moral decision, is a

declaration not consistent with truth, and which, in many cases,

would subvert the very essence of moral principle.

    There is a fitness or suitableness in the thing itself, united

with the consideration of the good or bad effect that would be

produced, which ought to become the ground of uniform and universal

judgment in the human mind. My neighbour may wish me to do unto him

an act of serious and substantial injury, which being performed,

ought to be returned to me in manner and form exactly the same; and

thus, by an adherence to this maxim as it is now stated, a double

injury would be produced, and the foundation of virtue shaken to the

centre. But waiving any criticism of this kind, and giving to this

scripture declaration the full extent of what is contended for, it

is, nevertheless, no more than a plain maxim of justice, which had

been know and practiced, in a greater or less degree, at all times

and in all countries. All the local and unjust institutions of

mankind in former ages have not destroyed the essential relation

which man bears to man, nor have they been able wholly to efface a

knowledge of those duties which result from these relations, and from

the powers and principles of human existence.

    The more the subject of moral principle is examined, the more it

will appear that there are certain general features in it which the

experience of man has partially recognized, and being fully developed

and reduced to practice, would constitute a solid foundation for

human felicity. The approach to such a standard of perfection will be

gradual and slow, but it must, nevertheless, from the very nature of

man, be constant and certain. "The following," says Volney, "is

conceived to be the primordial basis and physical origin of all

justice and right; whatever be the active power, the moving cause

that directs the universe, this power having given to all men the

same organs, the same sensations, and the same wants, has thereby

declared, that it has also given them the same rights to the use of

its benefits, and that in the order of nature all men are equal.

Secondly, inasmuch as this power has given to every man the ability

of preserving and maintaining his own existence, it clearly follows,

that all men are constituted independent of each other, that they are

created free, that no man can be subject, and no man sovereign, but

that all men are the unlimited proprietors of their own persons.

Equality, therefore, and liberty, are two essential attributes of

man, two laws of the Divinity, not less essential and immutable than

the physical properties of inanimate nature. Again, from the

principle that every man is the unlimited master of his own person,

it follows that one inseparable condition in every contract and

engagement is the free and voluntary consent of all the persons

therein bound; further, because every individual is equal to every

other individual, it follows that the balance of receipts and

payments in political society ought to be rigorously in equilibrium

with each other; so that from the idea of equality, immediately flows

that other idea, equity and justice."

    Again, the same author observes, that "there existed in the

order of the universe, and in the physical constitution of man,

eternal and immutable laws, which waited only his observance to

render him happy. O men of different climes! look to the heavens that

give you light, to the earth that nourishes you; since they present

to you all the same gifts; since the power that directs their motion

has bestowed on you the same life, the same organs, the same wants,

has it not also given you the same right to the use of its benefits?

Has it not hereby declared you to be all equal and free? What mortal

then shall dare refuse to his fellow-creature that which is granted

him by Nature? O nations, let us banish all tyranny and discord! Let

us form one society, one vast family; and since mankind are all

constituted alike, let there hencefore exist but one law, that of

nature; one code, that of reason; one throne, that of justice; one

altar, that of union."

    The foregoing impressive sentiments of this celebrated writer

disclose with clearness to the view of the human mind, the nature of

moral principle and the foundation of all right and of all virtue. It

is the reciprocation of sensation, the mutuality of condition, of

powers and wants, that constitute the immortal basis of justice, and

lead to the establishment of rules, whose operation must ever be in

strict coincidence with the happiness of the human species. The

exceptions to those fundamental principles are so few, and so

unimportant, as to form no strong objection against the general

assertion, that there exist in the constitution of human nature those

essential properties which confer upon man the character of moral

agent. To controvert, therefore, the existence of these moral

principles, or the idea of a general standard in the morality of

human actions, is to fly in the face of all experience, to oppose the

universal consciousness of the human understanding, and deny the most

conspicuous facts connected with the life of man.

CHAPTER XXIV.

MATTER AND POWER; ORIGIN OF MOTION; LIBERTY AND NECESSITY.

    The universe is composed of an infinite mass of matter;(1) or at

least, to the human mind, it is infinite, because to this mass no

assignable boundary can be affixed. Space is unlimited or infinite,

and in this vast expanse, innumerable bodies of matter, of different

magnitudes, are continually performing variegated revolutions. Upon

these bodies or higher spheres of existence, other smaller bodies are

discovered, of specific modification and powers, essentially

connected in their natures with the larger orbs to which they

respectively belong. In all these bodies, great and small, motion is

an essential and inherent property. The inactivity of matter is a

doctrine contradicted by the evidence of our senses, and the clear

deductions of a sound philosophy. It is impossible to conceive matter

without power, or of power without matter; they are essentially

connected; their existence is interwoven, and cannot be separated

even in thought. The ancient doctrine of matter and motion, so long

exploded, and so much calumniated by theological priests, will

probably, at some future day, be considered as bearing a very strong

relation to a pure and incorruptible philosophy. Supernatural

religion has blinded the human understanding, and prevented upon this

subject every clear and correct conception.

[1. The New York Reviewers, in the review which they took of the

first edition of this work, after quoting a number of detached

sentences from this chapter, make the following observation: "Those

who have read the most celebrated atheistical writers, will see that,

Mr. Palmer is as determined an Atheist as any of them." It is

presumed that these learned Reviewers mean to take the Bible and

Testament descriptions of God as the standard of theism. Let us then

examine the case upon this ground, and we shall soon discover what it

is to be an Atheist in the estimation of the New York Reviewers. "And

the Lord spake unto Moses, face to face, as a man speaketh unto his

friend," (See Exodus chap. xxxiii. 11.) "And I will take away mine

hand, and thou shalt see my back parts; but my face shall not be

seen." (See Exodus chap. xxxiii. 23.) From these passages it appears,

that God is represented in the form and shape of a man, and that such

were the ideas of the inspired and chosen people of God concerning

the Creator. But there is another passage in the New Testament, which

places this matter in a still stronger light. In Paul's Epistle to

the Hebrews, speaking of Jesus Christ, he says that he was the

brightness of his father's glory, and the express image of his

person. Now both believers and infidels agree, that Jesus was in the

shape and form of a man; and as he was like God, of course God must

be like him; therefore, the Christian God is like a man, perhaps like

one of the New York Reviewers. Now the fair deduction from all this

is, that whosoever doth not believe that God is like a New York

Reviewer, is a most profane and abominable Atheist. What a sublime

and majestic spectacle of theism do these "learned" men present to

the human mind! In another place they charge the author of this work

with "affectation, inordinate vanity, and the want of comprehensive

views." How wonderfully comprehensive must be the views of those who

can place the material universe upon the shoulders of a God,

resembling in his existence a New York Reviewer. Such "literary"

heroes ought triumphantly to exclaim, that they have excelled in

brilliancy of conception, and in comprehensive views, the story of

the Indian, which places the earth upon a turtle's back, and then

declares the turtle stands upon nothing! Permit "us" miserable

Atheists to bow with great humility before such "splendid" talents,

and such "comprehensive views". Go on, gentlemen Reviewers, and

console yourselves in the preservation of that Trinitarian or

polytheistical scheme of religion to which you are so much attached;

but remember, the moment will arrive in the succession of future

ages, when those very mental "energies" of the intelligent world,

which you sneer at so much, will sweep away the whole bundle of

theological nonsense, leaving only the mighty power by which the

universe is sustained; and of the shape or form of this power, the

New York Reviewers have as little idea as "the author of the

Principles of Nature", or any of the profane and abominable Atheists,

whom the advocates of Christianity long ago sent down to the dismal

abodes of the damned, to dwell for ever in hell fire.]

   A belief in spirits had nearly, at one time, overturned the

empire of real existence; the power and excellence of matter were

exploded to make room for a world of fictions; of phantoms and things

that had in nature no positive, no real, or substantial being. Filled

with this idea, the dreams of theology were substituted for

philosophic truth, and fanaticism usurped the domination of reason.

Philosophers joined in the race of spiritual or material glory, and

the united effect of their different opinions constituted the

annihilation of nature. The spiritualists contended against the

matter, and the materialists against spirits; thus sweeping away, by

their opposite systems, every species of existence. Matter, and its

diversified modes of operation, are the only things of which human

intelligence can take cognizance. It is this vast body of which

demands our most serious investigation; it is this in which we are

interested, and with which we are most closely connected. Much has

been said concerning dead or inactive matter; much concerning its

"vis inertia"; but an appeal may be safely made to the phenomena of

the physical world for a complete refutation of this opinion. Every

fact that strikes our eyes, or presents itself to the contemplation

of the understanding; every movement in nature furnishes are argument

against a doctrine so unphilosophic and erroneous. Every thing that

we behold; all the elements are in continual flux; agitation or

motion is a universal and eternal law of nature. The earth, the

ocean, and the atmosphere, are constantly in a high degree of action;

the evidence of these facts are presented to every living creature.

The raging element of fire is never wholly at rest; it is always

powerfully or more silently operating in every part of the world. If

these ideas are controverted, let man inquire into their truth by an

immediate recourse to the energetic movements of physical existence.

In regard to fluids, this opinion, perhaps, will not be controverted;

but it will be asked, whether it be equally true in regard to solids?

To this, the answer is unequivocally in the affirmative; at least so

far as it relates to the question, motion or not motion, action or

not action. Beside the general revolutionary motion which the earth

has round the sun, the parts of its solid materials are constantly

combining and dissolving, as may be proved by the smallest recurrence

to the organic structure of vegetable and animal life, and the

property of disorganization essential to each specific mode of

existence. It will, however, be contended, that if this be true in

regard to organic matter, or to vegetable and animal existence, it

will not hold equally in regard to other portions of the material

world. There is, undoubtedly, a difference in the activity of matter,

or in degrees of motion, of which the several parts are capable; but

there is no such thing as absolute incapacity of motion; no such

thing as absolute and entire rest. For the truth of this, an appeal

is made to the power, pressure, and dissolving operation of the most

inert and stupid portions of material substance. An appeal is made

also to the activity of the most stupid parts of matter, in the

composition of vegetable productions. What regular industry do the

solids and fluids exhibit in the formation of a common vegetable? The

march of each particle to its destined post is with firm and

philosophic step; with constancy and physical zeal. There is no such

thing as dead matter; all is alive, all is active and energetic. The

rays of the sun fructify the earth, and these are considered among

the portions of dead matter. These rays, however, are so active, as

to travel 95,000,000 of miles in the space of seven minutes and a

half; a celerity of motion which substantiates, beyond all

contradiction, their essential power and activity. Every fact, in the

physical world, forces conviction in the human mind, and proves the

energetic nature of the material system. An investigation of the

properties of matter, a full development of its modes of operation,

would lead to the most salutary consequences, by instructing man in

regard to his true predicament in nature, and reconciling him to his

fate. To corroborate the ideas which have already been suggested upon

this subject, the following strong and philosophic reflections are

taken from an anonymous pamphlet, entitled, An Essay on Matter. "All

matter is possessed of life, spirit, action, or motion. What is

called inanimate matter, owes its motion of life no more to the

elements, than what is acknowledged to be animate. This elementary

influence presupposes the animation of bodies; for as these cannot

move without that influence, so neither can that influence where

there is no life. To say that the elements alone give motion, is to

say that the elements give life, which is denying a universal agent,

or making him appear to act more by intermediate agents than

philosophy will allow. No one, I presume, will doubt the independent

motion of matter in that form which we name animal, at least, that it

is as independent as man; we allow animals to be a composition of

matter without soul, yet we allow them to be possessed of the

principle of motion. It is from this motion solely that we allow them

to be possessed of life; for there is nothing beside that can or does

influence the mind to make it assent to this truth, that animals have

life; and it is from the different combinations of motion and matter

that we form our ideas of the different kinds of animals. It is then

from motion, and nothing else, that we judge of, and allow matter of

a particular kind of composition to be possessed of the living

principle; the same evidence must have the same weight in every other

kind of composition. Wherever motion is discoverable in matter, be

the form of it what it may, we must acknowledge it to entertain the

living principle; but it may be said, that though motion be an

evidence of life in matter in certain forms, and where the motion is

of certain kinds, yet motion of every kind will not prove the

existence of life in matter of every form. This absurdity of

supposing a 'caput mortuum', must appear to every one who considers

the connection and dependence which exits in all bodies upon each

other, the motion which this connection supposes, and life which

motion evidences. There is a perpetual exchange of matter with matter

of every form. The animal creation, for instance, is constantly

exchanging parts with the earth and its atmosphere. If the matter

composing animals be animate, and that of the earth inanimate, how

can these be united? This would be to suppose that two opposites

could exist in one body, whereas it is the nature of opposites to

recede from each other, and nothing can be greater opposites than

life and death. The independent motion of matter in that form called

vegetable, can be as little doubted as in animals. Storms,

earthquakes, fires, floods, do not cause vegetation any more than

they do generation in animal. The natural or preternatural motion of

bodies, no more contributes to the motion of matter in vegetables,

than in animals; they, like us, receive only the natural and gentle

influence of the elements, and thereby mark a link in that chain

which connects all matter, and which is the harmony of creation. We

shall be more particular in speaking of motion in vegetables, when we

come to treat of the nicer operation of matter in that action which

we call thinking. We come now to speak of the motion of matter in

those forms where it is less observable upon a superficial view of

things; but where, upon a nearer view, it is not less evident than in

either of the other forms mentioned."

    "Whoever doubts the motion of matter in the form of a stone, let

him take the trouble to look upon the first rock in his way, and he

will see its surface mouldering. Whatever decays, must be

replenished; for matter cannot waste. Stones, then, give to, and

receive matter from other bodies. Circulation is a very perfect

motion. Will any one assert, that the motion of giving and receiving

of its substance, does not exist in the stone, with only that

assistance, which, in common with us and animals, it receives from

the elements? The motion of matter in the various forms of minerals

is more observable, as it is more lively. There is a constant

fluctuation of matter in all mineral bodies. When miners open a mine,

and do not find the ore they are in pursuit of, in the quantity which

they expected, they say the mine is not ripe, and close it up again,

that the metal may have time to grow. If matter have not the vital

principle, then I have the power of creating. The bulk of my form is

increased by the matter which in the action of eating, inspiration,

and absorption, I add to myself. If this matter have not the

principle of life, how can I make it partake of me, and thereby

partake of life? Can I unite dead and living things, or can they be

united in me? Chemists tell us that the union of bodies depends upon

the affinity, i.e. the likeness which matter in one form has to

matter in another form, and tell us no further. We have before

mentioned the different kinds of union produced by affinity, the

perfect and imperfect; but what gives the quality of union, and

preserves the existence of the compound? It is the living principle

in one body, inclining it to associate with the living principle in

another body. Without this living principle, that inclination which

supposes motion could not exist."

    The above observations exhibit, with philosophic clearness, the

nature and property of matter. It is by a constant recurrence to the

operations of the material world, that man will be able to discover

those solemn and important truths on which his happiness is founded.

Our bodies are composed of the elements, compounded and organized by

the skill and energy of nature; from this organization, certain

consequences necessarily result; composition, decomposition, and

recomposition, are established in the order, and supported by the

laws of physical existence. The materials which are employed in any

specific composition possess inherent and indestructible qualities,

but the result may be augmented and power increased by organic

construction. Thus, for instance, matter in its most simple form,

may, perhaps, be destitute of intelligence; but when combined and

modified in the form of a man, intellect is a uniform consequence. It

is impossible to say, how far the properties or qualities of matter

may extend in a simple and uncompounded state. It is impossible from

the want of communication, to affirm, or deny with absolute

certitude, relative to the internal essence of the particles of

material existence. There must be in the essence of matter a

capacity, when combined in certain forms, to produce specific

results. The principle of life must be essentially inherent in the

whole system and every particle thereof; but to attribute to each

particle a specific kind of life analogous to that which is

discovered in large compositions of matter, cannot, perhaps, be

warranted by the knowledge or experience of nature. In all the

specific modifications of life, disorganization, or death, is a

universal law; but the universality of this law among specific

combinations upon the earth, cannot, perhaps, be extended to the

earth itself. The analogy is broken, when we go from individuals or

particulars to generals or universals. But more of this hereafter.

    It is by the laws of motion that combinations are formed, it is

by the same laws they are dissolved. Motion is an essential property

of universal existence. The following paragraph upon this subject, is

taken from the System of Nature, a powerful work, translated from the

French of the celebrated and philosophic Mirabaud.

    "Every thing in the universe is in motion; the essence of nature

is to act, and if we consider attentively its parts, we shall see

that there is not a particle that enjoys absolute repose. Those which

appear to us to be deprived of motion, are, in fact, only in relative

or apparent rest; they experience such an imperceptible motion, and

so little marked, that we cannot perceive the changes they undergo.

All that appears to us to be at rest, does not remain, however, one

instant in the same state. All beings are continually breeding,

increasing, decreasing, or dispersing, with more or less dulness or

rapidity. The insect called 'Ephemeron' is produced and perishes the

same day; of consequence, it very rapidly experiences the

considerable changes of its being. The combinations formed by the

most solid bodies, and which appear to enjoy the most perfect repose,

are decomposed, are dissolved in the course of time. The hardest

stones are by degrees destroyed by the contact of air. A mass of

iron, which time has gnawed into rust, must have been in motion from

the moment of its formation in the bowels of the earth, until the

instant that we see it in this state of dissolution." Mirabaud's

System of Nature, Vol. I. page 42.

    A philosophic investigation into the laws of nature, would

probably furnish a pretty clear solution of all the phenomena of the

intellectual world. A certain portion of matter organized upon a

certain specific plan, produces, in the animal we denominate man, all

the energetic and astonishing effects of mind.

    A question has been stated among speculative metaphysicians,

whether it be not probable that the earth and all the higher spheres

of existence in the planetary world, are possessed of strong

intellectual powers? Indeed, this conjecture has been carried so far

as to combine the whole of material existence, and attribute to it

all the properties, qualities, and powers of intelligent life. Nature

is considered as possessing a central power, a brain, or cognitive

faculty, whose operations on a higher scale are supposed to be

analogous to the brain or thinking faculty of man. And this, perhaps,

would be the most philosophic method by which to arrive at the idea

of supreme intelligence, or the governing power of the universe. But

whether the planets in their individual capacity be considered as

intellectual beings, or whether nature in its aggregate combination

be thus considered, are questions of speculation, concerning which,

perhaps the human mind will never receive any adequate or

satisfactory information. Man, however, should not fear to extend his

contemplation to the whole of nature, and, if possible, subject the

whole to the powerful examination of his intellectual energies.

    From the ideas that have been disclosed in this chapter, it will

be easy to perceive, that if the inquiry were now made, "where is the

origin of motion?" the philosophic answer would be, that it is in

matter itself, co-essential and co-eternal with it, and cannot be

separated from any part thereof, not even in thought.

    A further question, in some measure connected with the present

subject, is that which relates to the principle of action in the mind

of man, or the opinions relative to Liberty and Necessity. Moralists

and metaphysicians have for a long time been in a state of

altercation on this subject, nor is the point of discussion between

them yet completely settled. Perhaps the preceding reflections may

furnish us with some information and aid in the solution of a problem

so difficult. The principle of motion and action must exist

essentially somewhere; if this principle be in matter itself, or in a

foreign agent whose existence is presumed to be wholly extraneous

from the body of nature, the same consequence will, however,

necessarily follow. Man is an organized being, possessing powers of

motion and action; if the motion of which man is susceptible be the

result of the essential nature of matter in specific organic

construction, the motion in this being must be as independent,

absolute, and self-existent, as in the body or any part of nature;

that is, it must belong to the thing itself, co-essential with its

being, and acting by the internal force of the principle itself. If

the principle of motion be sought for in any intellectual agent

foreign to the body of nature, it must be independent and absolute

there; it must be self-existent, and as man must have proceeded from

one or the other of these two sources, he must be like the source

itself from which he emanated, and possess, in a partial degree at

least, that independence of power and action, which are so justly to

be attributed to these two great sources of all existence. To suppose

an infinite series in the principle of causation, exhibits nothing

more than a feeble effort of the mind, to get clear of a metaphysical

difficulty. The last point that is discovered, includes in it an

equal necessity of discovering another point, on which the last may

depend for its existence. The links in this chain would become

innumerable, its length infinite, and, after all, the difficulty

remain as great as ever.

    This doctrine, concerning the origin of motion, and of giving a

solution to the subject by means of an infinite series in the

principle of causation, can never satisfy the mind that is seriously

in quest of a first point, or essential spring of every action; in

short, it is nothing better than the story of the Indian, who placed

the earth upon a turtle's back, and afterwards declared, that the

turtle stood upon nothing. The fact is, man is independent in his

mind; it is the essence of his nature to act, and he feels, or ought

to feel, that he is not the slave of any of the phantoms of

superstition, or the fine spun reasonings of metaphysical philosophers.

    In a moral point of view, the doctrine of necessity is still

more objectionable, and goes to the destruction of all human merit,

and with it the dignity of the human character. If man be a moral

slave, his actions in relation to himself are neither good nor bad;

he is impelled by an irresistible necessity, and can no more in

justice be punished for his conduct, than a cannonball, which is

propelled forward by the explosion of gunpowder, can be punished for

taking off a man's leg. The one upon the doctrine of necessity is as

much a moral agent as the other, and punishment, in both cases,

equally absurd. It is essential to the dignity of man that he be free

and independent, both morally and politically. Political slavery is

not more derogatory to the human character, and human energy, than

moral slavery. They both sink and brutalize mankind; they both have a

tendency to diminish his efforts, and destroy his active zeal in the

cause of virtue. It is essential to the true and elevated character

of an intellectual agent, that he realize the strength of his powers;

"that he be confident in his energies;" that he hold in suitable

contempt every species of moral and political despotism. This

sentiment will raise him from a degraded condition, and form him into

the stature of a perfect man in the glorious system of nature.

CHAPTER XXV.

COMMENCEMENT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY; CHRISTIANITY; DEISM; REASON;

SCIENCE; VIRTUE; HAPPINESS.

    The nineteenth century opens to the human race with prospects of

a most extraordinary and astonishing nature. It is impossible, at

this moment, for the human mind to contemplate the past, and

anticipate the future, without yielding to the mingled emotions of

regret and joy; without perceiving itself to be alternately agitated

with sentiments of misery and happiness. The commencement of a new

century necessarily revives the idea of a recursive view of those

great events which have had the most powerful influence, and produced

the most important changes in the condition of human society. The

history of mankind has, in general, consisted either of uninteresting

details, or a frightful picture of universal carnage and military

ferocity. During the last century, however, something more valuable

and important has been combined with a mass of historic matter, and

amidst the unjust and destructive wars which the poison of monarchy

is still generating in the very bosom of the community, there is to

be seen a splendid display of those philosophic principles which

sustained the universe, and of those moral axioms which are

essentially interwoven with intelligent life, and by which it is

rendered susceptible of universal amelioration; of those political

laws whose essence is at war with tyranny, and whose final effects

will shake to the centre the thrones of the earth.

    It has been during the last century that these things have been

accomplished; the force of intellectual powers has been applied to

the development of principle, and the combination of human labours

already constitutes a colossus, against which the storms of unequal

and aristocratic governments may dash in vain. The art of printing is

so universally known, or rather the knowledge of it is diffused in so

many countries, that it will henceforth be impossible to destroy it.

The present moment exhibits the most astonishing effects of this

powerful invention in the hands of nations, by that universal

diffusion of principle and collision of thought, which are the most

substantial guarantee of the future scientific progress of the human

race. An effectual stand has been made, and resuscitated nations at

this moment bid defiance to the double despotism of church and state.

    The nineteenth century opens with lessons awfully impressive

upon kings and tyrants; with lessons, the truth of which has already

penetrated into the sacred recesses of ecclesiastical wickedness and

spiritual domination in high places. America, France, Switzerland,

Italy, Holland, Germany, and England, are in a high state of

intellectual fermentation; if the government in some of these

countries acts in opposition to the spirit of improvement, this

circumstance will constitute only a partial drawback on the rapidity

of the progress; the general agitation is national, the power of

thought has become vastly impulsive in all these countries. The

printing-press is operating, and if it be in some measure restrained,

it will, nevertheless, gradually undermine, and eventually subvert

the thrones of civil despots, and teach the hierarchy of every

country, that the time is fast approaching in which, if they pretend

to speak in the name of Heaven, they must exhibit unequivocal proofs

of their celestial authority; it is this pretended intercourse with

Heaven that has subverted every thing rational upon earth. Upon this

subject, and in describing the fatal effects of fanaticism, the

following passage from an original and eccentric writer ought to be

quoted. The passage exhibits in strong colours the indiscriminate

folly and mad enthusiasm of which ignorant and uninstructed man is

susceptible.

    "It has been the constant practice for moral doctors or teachers

to pretend to a new faculty of mind, called inspiration, or

communication with supernatural power; this is practiced by priests

in all parts of the world, from the Lapland Magi to the civilized

Pope, and if it was not an insult to good sense, to attempt, with

argument, the refutation of such absurdity, I would observe, that

inspiration, in proportion as it approaches and identifies with

Deity, the common source, the diversity of its streams or opinion is

augmented; the inspired Catholic abhors the inspired Protestant, this

the inspired Jew, the Jew the inspired Mahometan, and when these

bedlamites break loose, their victims burn each other at opposite

piles, despising that inspiration in others which they rage with

themselves.

    I know but one remedy for this moral pestilence of superstition,

which is, to assemble the inspired idiots of all countries, that the

view of their contortions, convulsions, and delirious ravings, in the

presence of each other, might exhibit the portraiture of folly in so

strong a light, that Reason would burst her sides with laughter, and

Judgment must be restored." "Revelation of Nature".

    The meek and humble character of Christianity in its origin, the

fanatic zeal of its partizans, and the pretended renunciation of

worldly grandeur, led to a conclusion, that every attempt of uniting

with political tyranny would be pointedly discarded by the votaries

of this new and supernatural religion. The subsequent history of the

Church has, however, placed an indelible stamp of error upon this

opinion, and proved that the intimate associates of the celestial

Jesus were willing also to become the associates of terrestrial

lords, for the purposes of acquiring the support and strength of

tyrannical governments. Those who declared that their kingdom was not

of this world, were soon discovered to be willing to unite with the

kings of the earth, justly considering that earth and heaven united

would be competent to every object, even the universal subjection and

slavery of the human race. Such was, in a high degree, the effect,

when Christianity was embraced by the strong arm of the Roman

government. This holy religion at first sought for simple protection

from the mistress of the world: but no sooner was this accomplished,

than a new and more impulsive desire was perceived to be the ruling

sentiment of the Church, and it claimed from the civil power

toleration in all religious and ecclesiastical concerns. This new

success was followed with a new exhibition of ambitious views, and

the open disclosure of a bolder confidence in the ultimate triumph of

the then infant church of Christ. Spiritual domination, and the

ruling of nations with absolute despotism, which at first constituted

no part of the feeble hopes of Christian believers, was at length

attempted, and the success of the attempt was completely satisfactory

to the most ardent hopes of the new hierarchy.

    Thus it was that the meek, the humble, and the poverty-struck

followers of the meek and humble Jesus were transformed into what

sectarian secession has since denominated, "the scarlet whore seated

upon the throne of the Caesars." This event was followed by many

centuries of Christian barbarism, in which the spirit and principle

of the Gospel triumphed over and subverted every species of science,

and buried beneath its despotic weight the intellectual energies of

the intelligent world. This long period has been justly denominated

the night of ignorance, and may, with equal propriety, be denominated

the pure and uncontaminated reign of the Christian religion; because

it was at the period that the authority of the church was complete,

and the civil power was subjected to its absolute will; because at

that time the ecclesiastical dominion was believed to be essentially

incorporated with the purest directions of the founder of that holy

religion; and because every subsequent secession has, in the

estimation of the mother Church, been considered as a damnable

heresy, and an awful departure from the true faith.

    These secessions from the original Church have constituted a

cause which has been gradually operating for the amelioration of the

human species, and which must ultimately terminate in the triumph of

reason over the compound despotism of the world. The Church of Christ

received its death wound by the conduct of two bold and fanatic

leaders of the two grand sectaries which first protested against the

unqualified authority of the Roman Catholic Church. Luther, and

Calvin, with more fervent zeal and holy piety than those whom they

opposed, nevertheless, laid the foundation of subsequent events,

calculated to overturn every species of ecclesiastical dominion, and

bury in one common grave the various branches of celestial tyranny,

which for many ages had held the world in bondage.

    The spirit of sectarianism spread itself far and wide, dividing

and diversifying the opinions of the Church, and each new sectary

seemed to be endowed with a new portion of that rancorous malignity,

which has so universally marked the conduct of those whose pride and

folly have led them to conclude, that they spoke in the name of

heaven, and were the favourites of the Most High. Such sectarian

altercations, however, were destined eventually to destroy each

other. Men of contemplative minds began at length to suspect the

divine originality of a religion, which branched itself into so many

different species of doctrines, and generated amongst its professors

endless wars.

    Another consideration still more powerful, accelerated the

progress of moral improvement, and constantly diminished the force of

attachment toward the Christian system. Every new sect discarded some

of the absurdities of that from which it had separated, and passed a

general sentiment of condemnation upon all those who were in the rear

of this long and religious train. Luther and Calvin hurled their

religious thunderbolts against the power and absurd tenets of the

Church of Rome, and especially against the Pope, by whom this Church

was governed. The Armenians, the Arians, the Socinians, and the

Universalists, successively followed, with a purifying hand of

reason, pruning and lopping off the decayed branches of the old

theological tree, approaching still nearer to the source and

principles of nature, till at length, by regular progression, the

human mind discovered, that moral principle was placed upon a more

solid foundation than the reveries of sectarian fanaticism. It has

been in this manner that some portion of society has once more

obtained a true idea of the religion of nature, or of that which may

be denominated pure and simple Deism.

    It is this religion which, at the present period of the world,

creates, such frightful apprehensions in the household of faith, and

threatens to shake to the centre the chief corner stone on which the

Church is built. These apprehensions are daily disclosed by Christian

professors, and they depict in such strong colours the fatal effects

of Deism, that ignorant fanaticism believes it to be an immoral

monster, stalking with gigantic strides over the whole civilized

world, for the detestable purpose of producing universal disorder,

and subverting all the sound principles of social and intelligent

existence. Such are the horrid ideas which the enemies of this pure

and holy religion are every where propagating amongst their credulous

and deluded followers. This circumstance renders it necessary, that

the true idea of Deism be fairly stated, that it may be clearly

understood by those whose minds have hitherto been darkened by the

mysteries of faith.

    Deism declares to intelligent man the existence of one perfect

God, Creator and Preserver of the Universe; that the laws by which he

governs the world are like himself immutable, and, of course, that

violations of these laws, or miraculous interference in the movements

of nature, must be necessarily excluded from the grand system of

universal existence; that the Creator is justly entitled to the

adoration of every intellectual agent throughout the regions of

infinite space; and that he alone is entitled to it, having no co-

partners who have a right to share with him the homage of the

intelligent world. Deism also declares, that the practice of a pure,

natural, and uncorrupted virtue, is the essential duty, and

constitutes the highest dignity of man; that the powers of man are

competent to all the great purposes of human existence; that science,

virtue, and happiness, are the great objects which ought to awake the

mental energies, and draw forth the moral affections of the human race.

    These are some of the outlines of pure Deism, which Christian

superstition so dreadfully abhors, and whose votaries she would

willingly consign to endless tortue. But it is built upon a

substantial foundation, and will triumphantly diffuse happiness among

the nations of the earth, for ages after Christian superstition and

fanaticism have ceased to spread desolation and carnage through the

fair creation of God.

    In surveying the history of man, it is clearly discovered, that

the miseries and misfortunes of his existence are, in a high degree,

the result of his ignorance and his vices. Ignorance renders him

savage and ferocious; while science pours into his mind the benign

sentiments of humanity, and gives a new colouring to his moral

existence. Reason, which every kind of supernatural theology abhors;

reason, which is the glory of our nature, is destined eventually, in

the progress of future ages, to overturn the empire of superstition,

and erect upon its ruins a fabric, against which the storms of

despotism may beat in vain, against which superstition may reek her

vengeance without effect, from which she will be obliged to retire in

agonizing tortures.

    It has been the opinion of some honest and intelligent minds,

that the power of intellect is inadequate to the moral and political

emancipation of man. This opinion, though sometimes it is found to be

operative upon benevolent hearts, seems, however, to be at war with

the intellectual structure of our existence, and the facts furnished

by modern history. In the great question which relates to human

improvement, the cause which is productive of thought, cannot, in any

high degree, be included as influencing the final decision. It is

probable, however, that the opinion which refers intellect to organic

material combination would favour most an unlimited improvement of

the human species. If thought be an effect of matter finely

organized, and delicately constructed, the best method of augmenting

its power would be, to preserve the whole human system in the most

pure, regular, and natural mode of operation. Parents and

instructors, in this respect, are capable of doing great injury, or

of producing most important benefits to future ages.

    The science of the world has been, in some measure, diminished

by the propagation of an opinion, that there are only a few human

beings who are possessed of what is called genius, to the exclusion

of all the rest. This looks too much like mystery, and seems to

include in it the idea that man is sent from heaven, to occupy for a

short time a miserable and material tenement, and then return to its

native home. It ought to be recollected that earth is the abode of

man, and that of this the materials of his existence are composed,

all are confined to this place of residence, and to the amelioration

of sensitive and intelligent life all his labours ought to be

directed. He should learn to respect, and not despise his reason. He

should learn to consider moral virtue as the greatest good, as the

most substantial joy of his existence. In order, however, to be

eminently good, a full scope must be given to the operation of

intellectual powers, and man must feel an unqualified confidence in

his own energies.

    The double despotism of Church and state has borne so hard upon

human existence, that man is sunk beneath its dreadful weight; but

resuscitated nations are about to teach kings and tyrants a lesson

awfully impressive, in regard to the destiny which awaits the

aggregate injustice of the world. The period is at hand, in which

kings and thrones, and priests and hierarchies, and the long

catalogue of mischiefs which they have produced, shall be swept away

from the face of the earth, and buried in the grave of everlasting

destruction. Then will the era of human felicity, in which the heart

of unfortunate man shall be consoled; then will appear the moment of

national consolation, and universal freedom; then the empire of

reason, of science, and of virtue, will extend over the whole earth,

and man, emancipated from the barbarous despotism of antiquity, will

assume to himself his true predicament in nature, and become a

standing evidence of the divinity of thought and the unlimited power

of human reason.

CHAPTER XXVI.

PHILOSOPHICAL IMMORTALITY.

"See matter next, with various life endued,

Press to one centre still, the general good.

See dying vegetables life sustain,

See life dissolving vegetate again:

All forms that perish other forms supply,

By turns we catch the vital breath and die.

Like bubbles on the sea of matter borne,

They rise, they break, and to that sea return." -- Pope's Essay On Man

    The subject of a future life, has, in every age and country, in

a greater or less degree, engaged the attention of man. That strong

sentiment by which we are attached to life, has given to human

sensations a most powerful impulse, and induced us to overleap the

boundaries of the visible world, and seek in unknown or non-existent

countries, the continuation of that existence which experience taught

us it was necessary to abandon here.

    The diversity of opinion which has prevailed upon this subject

shows the difficulties which in some measure are essentially

connected with the nature of the inquiry. The strong and active

impulse which binds man to his personal identity has led to

extravagant conceptions concerning the means of his preservation, and

the new modes of existence, which, in the succession of ages, he

imagined hew was destined to experience. Religious fanaticism has

indulged itself in the most unguarded manner, and enlisted heaven,

earth, and hell, on its side, the better to accomplish its purposes;

while philosophy, disgusted with the wild vagaries which religious

imposture every where presented, seemed to incline to the opposite

extreme. A contest commenced which has not yet terminated, and which

presented alternately to the hopes and fears of man, the means of

satisfying the one, and of destroying the other. Real consolation,

however, was not furnished to the human mind by the virulence of

their diversified discussions. It was to be expected in a case

embarrassed with so many difficulties, that speculations would be

endless, and decisions extremely variant.

    As it commonly happens that people see more ghosts and spectres

in the dark than in the light; so in the present case, the eagle eye

of Superstition saw, or pretended to see, in the distant ages of

futurity, and in the strange countries to which every intelligent

being was hastening, all the peculiarities and local circumstances

which would hereafter encircle the life of man. Thrones were erected,

marble seats prepared, pomp and splendour in abundance, as the

portion of that select company, whose ardent and fanatic hopes gave

them a full assurance of a triumphant entry into the mansions of

eternal glory; while, on the other hand, the hot, sulphurous, and

infernal abodes, presented to the vicious and panic-struck mortal the

dreadful considerations which stand connected with the idea of

endless torture. Philosophy viewed the frantic ravings of religious

enthusiasm with a mixed sentiment, composed of compassion and

disgust. She sought in the constitution of nature for the discovery

of some solid truths on which intelligent man might repose his

existence, without fear and without trembling.

    The progress of thought upon this subject has excited in

superstitious minds the most rancorous sentiments of malignity;

opprobrious epithets have been let out in abundance, merely because

Reason laboured to discover, and declared that it had in some measure

discovered, the real connection between man and nature. The terrific

idea of annihilation still hovered around the dreaming abodes of

Fanaticism, and the most substantial and philosophic truth, which a

knowledge of nature presented to man, became the ground of a most

personal persecution and envenomed malice. Theology, however,

frequently exhibits her weakness by condemning in others what might

with great justice be charged to her own account.

    If we advert for a moment to the sacred writings of the Jews and

Christians, the folly of their high pretensions to a superior

immortality will become very visible. The Old Testament furnishes no

information relative to the subject of a future life. "Dust thou art,

and unto dust thou shalt return: man has no pre-eminence above a

beast, as the one dieth so dieth the other," are phrases contained in

the Old Testament; and are sweeping clauses against every hope of a

future life, so far as such hope is founded upon this part of

revealed religion; but it will be said, that the Gospel has brought

life and immortality to light, and on this account rises in its

claims to respect above the contemptible materialism of modern

philosophy. It is true that the New Testament speaks of a future

life; of Heaven and Hell; of the resurrection of the dead, &c. but it

is necessary first to prove the truth of this part of the system

before substantial deductions can be drawn in favour of any species

of immortality. It is very easy to make naked and unsupported

assertions, but unless the reason and evidence of the thing accompany

these assertions, they are good for nothing. Paul, speaking of the

human body, and of the resurrection of the dead, says, "It is sown a

natural body, and it is raised a spiritual body;" by what kind of

chemical process it is that matter is to become spirit, must be left

to Paul and other spiritual chemists to determine.

    The physical universe presents to the human understanding a

grand and important spectacle of contemplation, in which the whole

and the parts are essentially and indestructibly connected. There is

no such thing as flying off in a spiritual or metaphysical tangent;

every thing is bound by eternal laws to pass through the routine of

its successive modes of existence, through the processive changes to

which the laws of matter and motion have destined it.

    There are two species of philosophical immortality; first, the

immortality of matter, in its essential nature and character; and,

secondly, the immortality of sensation in the aggregate mass of

sensitive and intelligent life. These two perceptions must form the

basis of every thing comprehensible upon this subject. The first

needs no particular explanation, as the truth of the axiom, "that

something can never become nothing," is now generally admitted to be

true; but the second idea ought to be rendered more intelligible. The

opinions upon this subject have always supposed the existence of a

spiritual, immaterial, and indestructible soul, which was capable of

making its escape through the body, and passing in a light and airy

manner through the atmospherical regions, spending an unconfined and

uncontrollable existence in a manner inconceivable by our gross

senses in their present condition.

    The doctrine of transmigration is a branch of this system, and

supposes that the souls of men may pass into other animals of an

inferior kind, and reside there for a given time, by way of atonement

for past crimes. These ideas of intellectual transmission, of

solitary and distinct spirituality, are among those theological

departures from philosophic truth which reason has to deplore, and

which have retarded, in a very considerable degree, the progress of

knowledge. It is in vain for man to deceive himself; a knowledge of

his true condition in nature, and his relationship with all

existence, will furnish a consolation far superior to all the

theological reveries of antiquity. Matter is every where in motion;

it is matter and motion, or the laws of the material world, by which

innumerable sensitive and intelligent creatures are successively

modified and disorganized. The rotation is eternal, and all the parts

of nature may in time pass through the strictures of animal

existence, and partake of the capacity of enjoying pleasure or

suffering pain. In this warfare there is no discharge; an undying

succession, an immortal mutation awaits the existence of every living

creature. Nothing is durable in regard to modification or identity.

In short, nothing is immortal but matter, its combinations and

results; to wit, sensation and intellect. 

    But it is easy to perceive, that the continuation is specific

and not personal; that man is destined to pass through an infinite

diversity of predicaments, partaking at all times of the immortality

essential to matter, and the perpetuated immortality of sensation in

successive forms of animal existence. That this idea, so far from

terrifying his mind, should furnish it with instructive lessons of

sympathy, justice, and universal benevolence.

    If it should be objected here, that this is not the immortality

to which man is so strongly attached, the answer is obvious, he must

be reconciled to that kind of immortality, which nature prepares for

her children, and which diffuses through the intelligent world a

sentiment of equality, terrifying to every species of spiritual or

political aristocracy. It has frequently been said, that the ardent

wishes of the human mind, in regard to immortal existence, furnish

strong presumptive proof in favour of retrospect identity; but this

error is visible upon the very face of the record. Thousands of

individuals most ardently wish to continue their life here for ever;

but this furnishes no barrier against the certain approach of death

and final dissolution of the body. Human nature is accustomed to wish

for more than it can obtain; its wishes, therefore, can never be

brought as the standard of truth. It might as well be expected that

man should become immensely rich, because he wished to be so, as that

he should immortalize his personal existence by the extent of his

desires in this respect. It is true, however, that whatever does

exist must continue to exist for ever; this assertion regards

substance and not forms; forms continually perish, but the essence of

things is indestructible.

    The ancient and orthodox idea is, that the (1)universe, with all

its component parts, was made out of nothing; and if so, it must

remain nothing, for it must be of the essence of which it was

composed. It is a gross error to imagine that the eternal nature of

things can be changed or destroyed by the operation of any power

whatever. The great machinery of nature is governed by immutable

laws; its motions are the result of its own internal energy. Hence it

may be inferred, that it is at once the cause and effect; the mode

and the substance, the design and the execution, and active and never

ceasing operator.

[1. Some of the remarks herein contained are taken from the

manuscript of a philosophic friend.]

    The existence of man is essentially connected with this vast

whole, and it is impossible that he should ever detach any part of

himself from the immortal system of which he forms a component part.

The intervolutions of matter with matter, are universal and eternal;

the essence of which man is composed, will therefore eternize its

reciprocal relation with the vast fabric of material substance, which

is presented to intelligent beings throughout the regions of space. A

comprehensive view of the energies and relations of the material

world, would, no doubt, shake to the centre the theological

absurdities of antiquity; but it would leave to contemplative man the

high consolation of having discovered from what source he originated,

and to what destination the unalterable laws of nature have devoted

his existence.

    The highest intellectual joy consists in the discovery of truth;

a knowledge of this truth will constantly tend to the practice of an

exalted virtue; this virtue will serve as the stable foundation of

human happiness, the immortal guarantee of the felicity of the

intelligent world. Reason anticipates a progress, which all the

powers of superstition can never arrest. Let reason then perform her

faithful duty, and ignorance, fanaticism, and misery, will be

banished from the earth. A new age, the true millennium will then

commence; the standard of truth and of science will then be erected

among the nations of the world, and man, the unlimited proprietor of

his own person, may applaud himself in the result of his energies,

contemplate with indescribable satisfaction the universal improvement

and happiness of the human race.

THE END.