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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/15696.txt b/15696.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9d91afe --- /dev/null +++ b/15696.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2597 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Superstition Unveiled, by Charles Southwell + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Superstition Unveiled + +Author: Charles Southwell + +Release Date: April 24, 2005 [EBook #15696] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SUPERSTITION UNVEILED *** + + + + +Produced by Freethought Archives, www.freethought.vze.com + + + + + + + + + + + + + +SUPERSTITION UNVEILED. + +BY + +CHARLES SOUTHWELL, +AUTHOR OF "SUPERNATURALISM EXPLODED;" "IMPOSSIBILITY OF ATHEISM +DEMONSTRATED," ETC. + + +Abridged by the Author from his +"APOLOGY FOR ATHEISM." + + + + "Not one of you reflects that you ought to + know your Gods before you worship them." + + + +LONDON: +EDWARD TRUELOVE, 240, STRAND, +THREE DOORS FROM TEMPLE BAR, +AND ALL BOOKSELLERS + +1854. + + + + + +SUPERSTITION UNVEILED. + + +Religion has an important bearing on all the relations and conditions of +life. The connexion between religious faith and political practice is, +in truth, far closer than is generally thought. Public opinion has not +yet ripened into a knowledge that religious error is the intangible but +real substratum of all political injustice. Though the 'Schoolmaster' +has done much, there still remain among us, many honest and energetic +assertors of 'the rights of man,' who have to learn that a people in the +fetters of superstition cannot, secure political freedom. These +reformers admit the vast influence of Mohammedanism on the politics of +Constantinople, and yet persist in acting as if Christianity had little +or nothing to do with the politics of England. + +At a recent meeting of the Anti-State Church Association it was remarked +that _throw what we would into the political cauldron, out it came in an +ecclesiastical shape_. If the newspaper report may be relied on, there +was much laughing among the hearers of those words, the deep meaning of +which, it may safely be affirmed, only a select few of them could +fathom. + +Hostility to state churches by no means implies a knowledge of the close +and important connection between ecclesiastical and political questions. +Men may appreciate the justice of voluntaryism in religion, and yet have +rather cloudy conceptions with respect to the influence of opinions and +things ecclesiastical on the condition of nations. They may clearly see +that he who needs the priest, should disdain to saddle others with the +cost of him, while blind to the fact that no people having faith in the +supernatural ever failed to mix up such faith with political affairs. +Even leading members of the 'Fourth Estate' are constantly declaring +their disinclination for religious criticism, and express particular +anxiety to keep their journals free of everything 'strictly +theological.' Their notion is, that newspaper writers should endeavour +to keep clear of so 'awful' a topic. And yet seldom does a day pass in +which this self-imposed editorial rule is not violated--a fact +significant, as any fact can be of _connection_ between religion and +politics. + +It is quite possible the editors of newspapers have weighty reasons for +their repugnance to agitate the much vexed question of religion; but it +seems they cannot help doing so. In a leading article of this days' +_Post_, [Endnote 4:1] we are told--_The stain and reproach of Romanism +in Ireland is, that it is a political system, and a wicked political +system, for it regards only the exercise of power_, and neglects utterly +the duty of improvement. In journals supported by Romanists, and of +course devoted to the interests of their church, the very same charge is +made against English Protestantism. To denounce each other's 'holy +apostolic religion' may be incompatible with the taste of 'gentlemen of +the press,' but certainly they do it with a brisk and hearty vehemence +that inclines one to think it a 'labour of love.' What men do _con +amore_ they usually do well, and no one can deny the wonderful talent +for denunciation exhibited by journalists when writing down each other's +'true Christianity.' The unsparing invective quoted above from the +_Post_ is a good specimen. If just, Irish Romanism _ought_ to be +destroyed, and newspaper writers cannot be better employed than in +helping on the work of its destruction, or the destruction of any other +religion to which the same 'stain and reproach' may be fairly attached. + +I have no spite or ill-will towards Roman Catholics though opposed to +their religion, and a willing subscriber to the opinion of Romanism in +Ireland expressed by the _Post_. The past and present condition of that +country is a deep disgrace to its priests, the bulk of whom, Protestant +as well as Romanist, can justly be charged with 'regarding only the +exercise of power, while neglecting utterly the duty of improvement.' + +The intriguing and essentially political character of Romanism it would +be idle to deny. No one at all acquainted with its cunningly contrived +'system' will hesitate to characterise it as 'wickedly political,' +productive of nothing but mischief--a system through whose accursed +instrumentality millions are cheated of their sanity as well as +substance, and trained dog-like to lick the hand that smites them. So +perfect is their degradation that literally they 'take no thought for +to-morrow,' it being their practice to wait 'till starvation stares them +in the face,' [4:2] and _then_ make an effort against it. + +The _Globe_ of Thursday, October 30th, 1845, contains an article on the +damage sustained by the potatoe crop here and in Ireland, full of matter +calculated to enlighten our first-rate reformers who seem profoundly +ignorant that superstition is the bane of intellect, and most formidable +of all the obstacles which stand between the people and their rights. +One paragraph is so peculiarly significant of the miserable condition to +which Romanism _and_ Protestantism have reduced a peasantry said to be +'the finest in the world,' that I here subjoin it. + +_The best means to arrest the progress of the pestilence in the people's +food have occupied the attention of scientific men. The commission +appointed by government, consisting of three of the must celebrated +practical chemists, has published a preliminary report, in which several +suggestions, rather than ascertained results, are communicated, by which +the sound portions of the root may, it is hoped, be preserved from the +epidemic, and possibly, the tainted be rendered innoxious, and even +partially nutritious. Followed implicitly, their directions might +mitigate the calamity. But the care, the diligence, the persevering +industry which the various forms of process require, in order to +effecting the purpose which might result if they were promptly adopted +and properly carried out, are the very qualities in which the Irish +peasantry are most deficient. In the present crisis, the people are more +disposed to regard the extensive destruction of their crops in the light +of an extraordinary visitation of Heaven, with which it is vain for +human efforts to contend, than to employ counteracting, or remedial +applications. "Sure the Almighty sent the potatoe-plague and we must +bear it as wall us we can," is the remark of many; while, in other +places, the copious sprinklings of holy water on the potatoe gardens, +and on the produce, as it lies upon the surface, are more depended on +for disinfecting the potatoes than those suggestions of science which +require the application of patient industry._ + +Daniel O'Connell boasted about Irish morale and Irish intellect--the +handsome women, and stalwart men of his 'beloved country,' but no +sensible persons paid the least attention to him. It is, at all events, +too late in the day for we 'Saxons' to be either cajoled or amused by +such nonsense. An overwhelming majority of the Irish people have been +proved indolent beyond all parallel, and not much more provident than +those unhappy savages who sell their beds in the morning, not being able +to foresee they shall again require them at night. A want of forethought +so remarkable and indolence so abominable, are results of superstitious +education. Does any one suppose the religion of the Irish has little, if +anything, to do with their political condition? Or can it be believed +they will be fit for, much less achieve, political emancipation, while +priests and priests alone, are their instructors? We may rely upon it +that intellectual freedom is the natural and necessary precursor of +political freedom. _Education_, said Lord Brougham, _makes men easy to +lead but difficult to drive; easy to govern but impossible to enslave_. +The Irish peasantry clamoured for 'Repeal,' never considering that did +they get it, no essential change would be made in their social, moral, +or, to say all in one word, _political_ condition. They would still be +the tool of unprincipled political mountebanks--themselves the tool of +priests. + +Great was the outcry raised against the 'godless colleges' that Sir +Robert Peel had the courageous good sense to _inflict_ on Ireland. +Protestant, as well as Romanist priests, were terribly alarmed lest +these colleges should spoil the craft by which they live. Sagacious +enough to perceive that whatever influence they possess must vanish with +the ignorance on which it rests, they moved heaven and earth to disgust +the Irish people with an educational measure of which superstition +formed no part. Their fury, like 'empty space,' is boundless. They +cannot endure the thought that our minister should so far play the game +of 'infidelity' as to take from them the delightful task of teaching +Ireland's young idea 'how to shoot.' Sir Robert Inglis _christened_ this +odious measure, a 'gigantic scheme of godless education,' and a large +majority of Irish Roman Catholic Prelates have solemnly pronounced it +'dangerous to faith and morals.' Neither ministerial allurements, nor +ministerial threats can subdue the cantankerous spirit of these bigots. +They are all but frantic and certainly not without reason, for the Irish +Colleges' Bill is the fine point of that wedge which, driven home, will +shiver to pieces their 'wicked political system.' Whatever improves +Irish intellect will play the mischief with its 'faith,' though not at +all likely to deteriorate its 'morals.' Let the people of Ireland be +well employed as a preliminary to being well educated, and speedily they +may _deserve_ to be singled out as 'the most moral people on the face of +the earth.' + +An educated nation will never tamely submit to be priest-ridden, and +well do Ireland's enslavers know it. The most stupid of her priests, +equally with the shrewdest of her 'patriots,' are quite alive to the +expediency of teaching as fact the fraudulent fables of the 'dark ages.' +To keep the people ignorant, or what is worse, to teach them only what +is false, is the great end of _their_ training; and if a British +ministry propose anything better than the merest mockery of education, +they call it 'dangerous to faith and morals.' + +Superstition is the curse of Ireland. To the rival churches of that +country may be traced ALL the oppressions suffered by its people who +never can be materially improved till purged of their faith in priests. +When that salutary work shall be accomplished, Ireland will indeed be 'a +nation' in the secure enjoyment of political liberty. The priest-ridden +may talk of freedom, but can never secure it. + +What then can be thought of the first-rate reformers, before alluded to, +who are going to emancipate every body without the least offence to any +body's superstition? It should be borne in memory that other people are +superstitious as well as the Irish, and that the churches of all +countries are as much parts of 'a wicked political system' as are the +churches of Ireland. + +The judges of _our_ country frequently remind us that its laws have a +religious sanction; nay, they assure us Christianity is part and parcel +of those laws. Do we not know that orthodox Christianity means +Christianity as by law established? And can any one fail to perceive +that such a religion must needs be political? The cunning few, who +esteem nothing apart from their own aggrandisement, are quite aware that +the civil and criminal law of England is intimately associated with +Christianity--they publicly proclaim their separation impossible, except +at the cost of destruction to both. They are sagacious enough to +perceive that a people totally untrammelled by the fears, the +prejudices, and the wickedness of superstition would never consent to +remain in bondage. + +Hence the pains taken by priests to perpetuate the dominion of that +ignorance which proverbially is 'the mother of devotion.' What care they +for universal emancipation? Free themselves, their grand object is to +rivet the chains of others. So that those they defraud of their hard +earned substance be kept down, they are not over scrupulous with respect +to means. Among the most potent of their helps in the 'good work' are +churches, various in name and character but in principle the very same. +All are pronounced true by priests who profit by them, and false by +priests who do not. Every thing connected with them bears the stamp of +despotism. Whether we look at churches foreign or domestic, Popish or +Protestant, 'that mark of the beast' appears in characters as legible +as, it is fabled, the handwriting on the wall did to a tyrant of old. In +connection with each is a hierarchy of intellect stultifiers, who +explain doctrines without understanding them, or intending they should +be understood by others; and true to their 'sacred trust,' throw every +available impediment in the way of improvement. Knowledge is their +accuser. To diffuse the 'truth' that 'will set men free' is no part of +their 'wicked political system.' On the contrary, they labour to excite +a general disgust of truth, and in defence of bad governments preach +fine sermons from some one of the many congenial texts to be gathered in +their 'Holy Scripture.' Non-established priesthoods are but little more +disposed to emancipate 'mind' and oil the wheels of political +progression than those kept in state pay. The air of conventicles is not +of the freest or most bracing description. The Methodist preacher, who +has the foolish effrontery to tell his congregation 'the flush lusteth +always contrary to the spirit, and, _therefore_, every person born into +the world deserveth God's wrath and damnation,' may be a liberal +politician, one well fitted to pilot his flock into the haven of true +republicanism; but I am extremely suspicious of such, and would not on +any account place my liberty in their keeping. + +I possess little faith in political fanaticism, especially when in +alliance with the frightful doctrines enunciated from conventicle +pulpits, and have no hesitation in saying that Anti-State Church +Associations do not touch the root of political evils. Their usefulness +is great, because they give currency to a sound principle, but that +principle though important, is not all-important--though powerful, is +not all-powerful. If universally adopted, it is questionable that any +useful change of a lasting character would be worked in the economy of +politics. + +Wise men put no trust in doctrine which involves or assumes supernatural +existence. Believing that supernaturalism reduced to 'system' cannot be +other than 'wickedly political,' they see no hope for 'slave classes,' +apart from a general diffusion of anti-superstitious ideas. They cannot +reconcile the wisdom of theologians with undoubted facts, and though +willing to admit that some 'modes of faith' are less absurd than others, +are convinced they are all essentially alike, because all fundamentally +erroneous. + +Speculative thinkers of so radical a temper are not numerous. If +esteemed, as happens to certain commodities, in proportion to their +scarcity they would enjoy a large share of public respect. Indeed, they +are so few and far between, or at least so seldom make their presence +visible, that William Gillespie is convinced they are an anomalous +species of animal produced by our common parent 'in a moment of +madness.' Other grave Christian writers, though horrified at +Universal--nicknamed Athe-ism--though persuaded its professors, 'of all +earth's madmen, most deserve a chain;' and, though constantly abusing +them, are still unable to believe in the reality of such persons. These, +among all the opponents of Sense and Wisdom may fairly claim to be +considered most mysterious; for, while lavishing on deniers of their +idols every kind of sharp invective and opprobrious epithet, they cannot +assure themselves the 'monsters' did, or do, actually exist. With +characteristic humour David Hume observed, 'There are not a greater +number of philosophical reasonings displayed upon any subject than those +which prove the existence of Deity, and refute the fallacies of +Atheists, and yet the most religious philosophers still dispute whether +any man can be so blinded as to be a speculative Atheist;' 'how +(continues he) shall we reconcile these contradictions? The +Knight-errants who wandered about to clear the world of dragons and of +giants, never entertained the least doubt with regard to the existence +of these monsters.' [8:1] + +The same Hume who thus pleasantly rebuked 'most religious philosophers,' +was himself a true Universalist. That he lacked faith in the +supernatural must be apparent to every student of his writings, which +abound with reflections far from flattering to the self-love of +superstitionists, and little calculated to advance their cause. Hume +astonished religious fanatics by declaring that _while we argue from the +course of nature and infer a particular intelligent cause, which first +bestowed, and still preserves order in the universe, we embrace a +principle which is both uncertain and useless. It is uncertain, because +the subject lies entirely beyond the reach of human experience. It is +useless, because our knowledge of this cause being derived entirely from +the course of nature, we can never, according to the rules of just +reasoning, return back from the cause with any new inference, or making +additions to the common and experienced course of nature, establish any +principles of conduct and behaviour_. [9:1] + +Nor did Hume affect to consider popular Christianity less repugnant to +reason than any other theory or system of supernaturalism. Though +confessedly fast in friendship, generous in disposition, and blameless +in all the relations of life, few sincere Divines can forgive his +hostility to their faith. And, without doubt, it was hostility eminently +calculated to exhaust their stock of patience, because eminently +calculated to damage their superstition, which has nothing to fear from +the assaults of ignorant and immoral opponents; but when assailed by men +of unblemished reputation, who know well how to wield the weapons of +wit, sarcasm, and solid argumentation, its priests are not without +reason alarmed lest their house should be set _out_ of order. + +It would be difficult to name a philosopher at once so subtle, so +profound, so bold, and so _good_ as Hume. Notwithstanding his heterodox +reputation, many learned and excellent Christians openly enjoyed his +friendship. A contemporary critic recently presented the public with 'a +curious instance of contrast and of parallel,' between Robertson and +Hume. 'Flourishing (says he) in the same walk of literature, living in +the same society at the same time; similar in their habits and generous +dispositions; equally pure in their morals, and blameless in all the +relations of private life: the one was a devout believer, the other a +most absolute Atheist, and both from deep conviction, founded upon +inquiries, carefully and anxiously conducted. The close and warm +friendship which subsisted between these two men, may, after what we +have said, be a matter of surprise to some; but Robertson's Christianity +was enlarged and tolerant, and David Hume's principles were liberal and +philosophical in a remarkable degree.' [9:2] + +This testimony needs no comment. It clearly tells its own tale, and +ought to have the effect of throwing discredit upon the vulgar notion +that disgust of superstition is incompatible with talents and virtues of +the highest order; for, in the person of David Hume, the world saw +absolute Universalism co-existent with genius, learning, and moral +excellence, rarely, if ever, surpassed. + +The unpopularity of that grand conception it would be vain to deny. A +vast majority of mankind associate with the idea of disbelief in their +Gods, everything stupid, monstrous, absurd and atrocious. Absolute +Universalism is thought by them the inseparable ally of most shocking +wickedness, involving 'blasphemy against the Holy Ghost,' which we are +assured shall not be forgiven unto men 'neither in this world nor in +that which is to come.' Educated to consider it 'an inhuman, bloody, +ferocious system, equally hostile to every restraint and to every +virtuous affection,' the majority of all countries detest and shun its +apostles. Their horror of them may be likened to that it is presumed the +horse feels towards the camel, upon whom (so travellers tell us) he +cannot look without _shuddering_. + +To keep alive and make the most of this superstitious feeling has ever +been the object of Christian priests, who rarely hesitate to make +charges of Atheism, not only against opponents, but each other; not only +against disbelievers but believers. The Jesuit Lafiteau, in a Preface to +his 'Histoire des Sauvages Americanes,' [10:1] endeavours to prove that +only Atheists will dare assert that God created the Americans. Not a +metaphysical writer of eminence has escaped the 'imputation' of Atheism. +The great Clarke and his antagonist the greater Leibnitz were called +Atheists. Even Newton was put in the same category. No sooner did +sharp-sighted Divines catch a glimpse of an 'Essay on the Human +Understanding' than they loudly proclaimed the Atheism of its author. +Julian Hibbert, in his learned account 'Of Persons Falsely Entitled +Atheists,' says, 'the existence of some sort of a Deity has usually been +considered undeniable, so the imputation of Atheism and the title of +Atheist have usually been considered as insulting.' This author, after +giving no fewer than thirty and two names of 'individuals among the +Pagans who (with more or less injustice) have been accused of Atheism,' +says, 'the list shews, I think, that almost all the most celebrated +Grecian metaphysicians have been, either in their own or in following +ages, considered, with more or less reason, to be Atheistically +inclined. For though the word Atheist was probably not often used till +about a hundred years before Christ, yet the imputation of _impiety_ was +no doubt as easily and commonly bestowed, before that period, as it has +been since.' [11:1] + +Voltaire relates, in the eighteenth chapter of his 'Philosophie de +L'Histoire,' [11:2] that a Frenchman named Maigrot, Bishop of Conon, who +knew not a word of Chinese, was deputed by the then Pope to go and pass +judgment on the opinions of certain Chinese philosophers; _he treated +Confucius as Atheist, because that sage had said, 'the sky has given me +virtue, and man can do me no hurt.'_ + +On grounds no more solid than this, charges of Atheism are often erected +by 'surpliced sophists.' Rather ridiculous have been the mistakes +committed by some of them in their hurry to affix on objects of their +hate the brand of Impiety. Those persons, no doubt, supposed themselves +privileged to write or talk any amount of nonsense and contradiction. +Men who fancy themselves commissioned by Deity to interpret his +'mysteries,' or announce his 'will,' are apt to make blunders without +being sensible of it; as did those worthy Jesuits who declared, in +opposition to Bayle, that a society of Atheists was impossible, and at +the same time assured the world that the government of China was a +society of Atheists. So difficult it is for men inflamed by prejudices, +interests, and animosities, to keep clear of sophisms, which can impose +on none but themselves. + +Many Universalists conceal their sentiments on account of the odium +which would certainly be their reward did they avow them. But the +unpopularity of those sentiments cannot, by persons of sense and +candour, be allowed, in itself, a sufficient reason for their rejection. +The fact of an opinion being unpopular is no proof it is false. The +argument from general consent is at best a suspicious one for the truth +of any opinion or the validity of any practice. History proves that the +generality of men are the slaves of prejudice, the sport of custom, and +foes most bigoted to such opinions concerning religion as have not been +drawn in from their sucking-bottles, or 'hatched within the narrow +fences of their own conceit.' + +Every day experience demonstrates the fallibility of majorities. It +palpably exhibits, too, the danger as well as folly of presuming the +unpopularity of certain speculative opinions an evidence of their +untruth. A public intellect, untainted by gross superstition, can +nowhere be appealed to. Even in this favoured country, 'the envy of +surrounding nations and admiration of the world,' the multitude are +anything but patterns of moral purity and intellectual excellence. They +who assure us _vox populi_ 'is the voice of God,' are fairly open to the +charge of ascribing to Him what orthodox pietists inform us exclusively +belongs to the Father of Evil. If by 'voice of God' is meant something +different from noisy ebullitions of anger, intemperance, and fanaticism, +they who would have us regulate our opinions in conformity therewith are +respectfully requested to reconcile mob philosophy with the sober +dictates of experience, and mob law with the law of reason. + +A writer in the _Edinburgh Review_ [12:1] assures us _the majority of +every nation consists of rude uneducated masses, ignorant, intolerant, +suspicious, unjust, and uncandid, without the sagacity which discovers +what is right, or the intelligence which comprehends it when pointed +out, or the morality which requires it to be done._ And yet religious +philosophers are fond of quoting the all but universal horror of +Universalism as a formidable argument against that much misunderstood +creed! + +The least reflection will suffice to satisfy any reasonable man that the +speculative notions of rude, uneducated masses, so faithfully described +by the Scotch Reviewer, are, for the most part, grossly absurd and +consequently the reverse of true. If the masses of all nations are +ignorant, intolerant, suspicious, unjust, and uncandid, without the +sagacity which discovers what is right, or the intelligence which +comprehends it when pointed out, or the morality which requires it to be +done, who with the least shadow of claim to be accounted _reasonable_ +will assert that a speculative heresy is the worse for being unpopular, +or that an opinion is false, and _must_ be demoralising in its +influence, because the majority of mankind declare it so. + +I would not have it inferred from the foregoing remarks that horror of +Universalism, and detestation of its apostles, is _confined_ to the low, +the vulgar, the base, or the illiterate. Any such inference would be +wrong, for it is certainly true that learned, benevolent, and very able +Christian writers, have signalised themselves in the work of obstructing +the progress of Universalism by denouncing its principles, and imputing +all manner of wickedness to its defenders. It must, indeed, be admitted +that their conduct in this particular amply justifies pious Matthew +Henry's confession that 'of all the Christian graces, zeal is most apt +to turn sour.' + +One John Ryland, A.M., of Northampton, published a 'Preceptor, or +General Repository of useful information, very necessary for the various +ages and departments of life,' in which 'pride and lust, a corrupt pride +of heart, and a furious filthy lust of body,' are announced as the +Atheist's 'springs of action,' 'desire to act the beast without control, +and live like a devil without a check of conscience,' his only 'reasons +for opposing the existence of God,' in which he is told 'a world of +creatures are up in arms against him to kill him as they would a +venomous mad dog,' in which, among other hard names, he is called +'absurd fool,' 'beast,' 'dirty monster,' 'brute,' 'gloomy dark animal,' +'enemy of mankind,' 'wolf to civil society,' 'butcher and murderer of +the human race,' in which, moreover, he is _cursed_ in the following +hearty terms;--'Let the glorious mass of fire burn him, let the moon +light him to the gallows, let the stars in their courses fight against +the Atheist, let the force of the comets dash him to pieces, let the +roar of thunders strike him deaf, let red lightnings blast his guilty +soul, let the sea lift up her mighty waves to bury him, let the lion +tear him to pieces, let dogs devour him, let the air poison him, let the +next crumb of bread choke him, nay, let the dull ass spurn him to +death.' + +This is a notable specimen of zeal turned sour. + +Bishop Hall was a Divine of solid learning and unquestionable piety, +whose memory is reverenced by a large and most respectable part of the +Christian world. He ranked amongst the best of his class, and, generally +speaking, was so little disposed to persecute his opponents because of +their heterodox opinions, that he wrote and published a "Treatise on +Moderation," in the course of which he eloquently condemns the practice +of regulating, or, rather, attempting to regulate opinion by act of +parliament; yet, incredible as it may appear, in that very Treatise he +applauds Calvin on account of his conduct towards Servetus. Our +authority for this statement is not 'Infidel' but Christian--the +authority of Evans, who, after noticing the Treatise in question, says, +'he (Bishop Hall) has discussed the subject with that ability which is +peculiar to all his writings. But this great and good man, towards the +close of the same Treatise, forgetting the principles which he had been +inculcating, devotes one solitary page to the cause of intolerance: this +page he concludes with these remarkable expressions: "Master Calvin did +well approve himself to God's Church in bringing Servetus to the stake +in Geneva." + +Remarkable, indeed! and what is the moral that they point? To me they +are indicative of the startling truth, that neither eloquence nor +learning, nor faith in God and his Scripture, nor all three combined, +are incompatible with the cruelest spirit of persecution. The Treatise +on Moderation will stand an everlasting memorial against its author, +whose fine intellect, spoiled by superstitious education, urged him to +approve a deed, the bare remembrance of which ought to excite in every +breast, feelings of horror and indignation. That such a man should +declare the aim of Universalists is 'to dethrone God and destroy man,' +is not surprising. From genuine bigots they have no right to expect +mercy. He who applauded the bringing of Servetus to the stake must have +deemed their utter extermination a religious duty. + +That our street and field preaching Christians, with very few +exceptions, heartily sympathise with the fire and faggot sentiments of +Bishop Hall, is well known, but happily, their absurd ravings are +attended to by none save eminently pious people, whose brains are +_unclogged_ by any conceivable quantity of useful knowledge. In point of +intellect they are utterly contemptible. Their ignorance, however, is +fully matched by their impudence, which never forsake, them. They claim +to be considered God's right-hand men, and of course duly qualified +preachers of his 'word,' though unable to speak five minutes without +taking the same number of liberties with the Queen's English. Swift was +provoked by the prototypes of these pestiferous people, to declare that, +'formerly the apostles received the gift of speaking several languages, +a knowledge so remote from our dealers in the art of enthusiasm, that +they neither understand propriety of speech nor phrases of their own, +much less the gift of tongues.' + +The millions of Christian people who have been trained up in the way +they should _not_ go, by this active class of fanatics, are naturally +either opposed to reason or impervious to it. They are convinced not +only that the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God, but that +wisdom with God is foolishness with the world; nor will any one affirm +their 'moderation' in respect to unbelievers one tittle more moderate +than Bishop Hall's; or that they are one tittle less disposed than 'that +good and great man,' to think those who bring heretics to the stake at +Geneva or elsewhere, 'do well approve themselves to God's Church.' +Educated, that is to say _duped_ as they are, they cannot but think +disbelief highly criminal, and when practicable, or convenient, deal +with it as such. + +It is, nevertheless, true, that Universalists have been helped to some +of their best arguments by adversaries. Bishop Watson, to wit, has +suggested objections to belief in the Christian's Deity, which they who +hold no such belief consider unanswerable. In his famous 'Apology' he +desired to know what Paine thought 'of an uncaused cause of everything, +and a Being who has no relation to time, not being older to day than he +was yesterday, nor younger to day than he will be to-morrow--who has no +relation to space, not being a part here and a part there, or a whole +anywhere? of an omniscient Being who cannot know the future actions of +man, or if his omniscience enables him to know them, of the contingency +of human actions? of the distinction between vice and virtue, crime and +innocence, sin and duty? of the infinite goodness of a Being who existed +through eternity without any emanation of his goodness manifested in the +creation of sensitive beings? or, if it be contended that there was an +eternal creation, of an effect coeval with its cause, of matter not +posterior to its maker? of the existence of evil, moral and natural, in +the work of an Infinite Being, powerful, wise, and good? finally, of the +gift of freedom of will, when the abuse of freedom becomes the cause of +general misery?' [15:1] + +These questions imply much. That they flowed from the pen of a Bishop, +is one of many extraordinary facts which have grown out of theological +controversy. They are questions strongly suggestive of another. Is it +possible to have experience of, or even to imagine, a Being with +attributes so strange, anomalous, and contradictory? It is plain that +Bishop Watson was convinced 'no man by searching can find out God.' The +case is, that he, in the hope of converting Deists, ventured to +insinuate arguments highly favourable to Atheism, whose professors +consider an admission of utter ignorance of God, tantamount to a denial +of His existence. Many Christians, with more candour, perhaps, than +prudence, have avowed the same opinion. Minutius Felix, for example, +said to the Heathen, 'Not one of you reflects that you ought to know +your Gods before you worship them.' [15:2] As if he felt the absurdity +of pretending to love and honour an unknown 'Perhaps.' That he did +himself what he ridiculed in them proves nothing but his own +inconsistency. + +The Christian, equally with the Heathen, is open to the reproach of +worshipping HE KNOWS NOT WHAT. Yes, to idol-hating 'enlightened +Christians,' may be fairly applied the severe sarcasm Minutius Felix so +triumphantly levelled against idol-loving 'benighted Heathens.' Will any +one say the Christian absolutely knows more about Jehovah than the +Heathen did about Jupiter? I believe that few, if any, who have +attentively considered Bishop Watson's queries, will say the 'dim +Unknown,' they so darkly shadow forth, is conceivable by any effort +either of sense or imagination. + +Under cover, then, of what reason can Christians escape the imputation +of pretending to adore what they have no conception of? The very 'book +of books,' to which they so boldly appeal, is conclusive _against_ them. +In its pages they stand convicted of idolatry. Without doubt a God is +revealed by Revelation; but not _their_ God, not a supernatural Being, +infinite in power, in wisdom, and in goodness. The Bible Deity is +superhuman in nothing; all that His adorers have ascribed to Him being +mere amplification of human powers, human ideas, and human passions. The +Bible Deity 'has mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he +hardeneth;' is 'jealous,' especially of other Gods; changeful, +vindictive, partial, cruel, unjust, 'angry with the wicked every day;' +and altogether a Being far from respectable, or worthy to be considered +infinite in wisdom, power, and goodness. Is it credible that a Being +supernaturally wise and good, proclaimed the murderous adulterer David, +a man after his own heart, and commanded the wholesale butchery of +Canaanites? Or that a God of boundless power, 'whose tender mercies are +over all his works,' decreed the extermination of entire nations for +being what he made them? Jehovah did all three. Confessedly a God of +Armies and Lord of Hosts; confessedly, too, a hardener of men's, hearts +that he might destroy them, he authorised acts at which human nature +shudders, and of which it is ashamed: yet to _reverence_ Him we are +commanded by the self-styled 'stewards of his mysteries,' on peril of +our 'immortal souls.' Verily, these pious anathematisers task our +credulity a little too much. In their zeal for the God of Israel, they +are apt to forget that only Himself can compass impossibilities, and +altogether lose sight of the fact that where, who, or what Jehovah is, +no man knoweth. Revelation (so-called) reveals nothing about 'the +creator of heaven and earth,' on which a cultivated intellect can repose +with satisfaction. Men naturally desire positive information concerning +the superhuman Deity, belief in whom is the _sine qua non_ of all +superstition. But the Bible furnishes no such information concerning +Jehovah. On the contrary, He is there pronounced 'past finding out,' +incomprehensible, and the like. 'Canst thou by searching find out God? +Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection?' are questions put by an +'inspired writer,' who felt the cloudy and unsatisfactory nature of all +human conceit concerning Deity. + +Now, a Revelation from God might reasonably be expected to make the mode +and nature of His existence manifest. But the Christian Bible falls +infinitely short in this particular. It teaches there is a God; but +throws no light on the dark question _What is God?_ Numerous and various +as are Scripture texts, none can be cited in explanation of a Deity no +older to-day than he was yesterday, nor younger to-day than he will be +to-morrow; of a Deity who has no relation to space, not being a part +here and a part there, or a whole any where: in short, of that Deity +written about by Bishop Watson, who, like every other sincere Christian, +made the mistake of resting his religious faith on 'words without +knowledge.' + +It is to this description of faith Universalists object. They think it +the root of superstition, that greatest of all the plagues by which poor +humanity is afflicted. Are they to blame for thus thinking? The +Christian has no mercy on the superstition of the Heathen, and should +scorn to complain when the bitter chalice is returned to his own lips. +Universalists believe the God of Bishop Watson a supernatural chimera, +and to its worshippers have a perfect right to say, _Not one of you +reflects that you ought to know your Gods before you worship them_. +These remarkable words, originally addressed to the Heathen, lose none +of their force when directed against the Christian. + +No one can conceive a supernatural Being, and what none can conceive +none ought to worship, or even assert the existence of. Who worships a +something of which he knows nothing is an idolater. To talk of, or bow +down to it, is nonsensical; to pretend affection for it, is worse than +nonsensical. Such conduct, however pious, involves the rankest +hypocrisy; the meanest and most odious species of idolatry; for +labouring to destroy which the Universalist is called 'murderer of the +human soul,' 'blasphemer,' and other foolish names, too numerous to +mention. + +It would be well for all parties, if those who raise against us the cry +of 'blasphemy,' were made to perceive that 'godless' unbelievers cannot +be blasphemers; for, as contended by Lord Brougham in his Life of +Voltaire, blasphemy implies belief; and, therefore, Universalists cannot +logically or justly be said to blaspheme him. The blasphemer, properly +so called, is he who imagines Deity, an ascribes to the idol of his own +brain all manner of folly, contradiction, inconsistency, and wickedness. + +Superstition is universally abhorred, but no one believes _himself_ +superstitious. There never was a religionist who believed his own +religion mere superstition. All shrink indignantly from the charge of +being superstitious; while all raise temples to, and bow down, before +'thingless names.' The 'masses' of every nation erect chimera into +substantial reality, and woe to these who follow not the insane example. +The consequences--the fatal consequences--are everywhere apparent. In +our own country we see social disunion on the grandest possible scale. +Society is split up into an almost infinite variety of sects whose +members imagine themselves patented to think truth and never to be wrong +in the enunciation of it. + +_Sanders' News Letter and Daily Advertiser_ of Feb. 18, 1845, among +other curiosities, contains an 'Address of the Dublin Protestant +Operative Association, and Reformation Society,' one sentence of which +is--_We have raised our voices against the spirit of compromise, which +is the opprobrium of the age; we have unfurled the banner of Protestant +truth, and placed ourselves beneath it; we have insisted upon Protestant +ascendancy as just and equitable, because Protestant principles are true +and undeniable_. + +Puseyite Protestants tell a tale the very reverse of that so modestly +told by their nominal brethren of the Dublin Operative Association. +They, as may be seen in Palmer's Letter to Golightly, _utterly reject +and anathematise the principle of Protestantism, as a heresy with all +its forms, sects, or denominations_. Nor is that all our 'Romeward +Divines' do, for in addition to rejecting utterly and cursing bitterly, +as well the name as the principle of Protestantism, they eulogise the +Church of Rome, because forsooth _she yields_, says Newman in his letter +to Jelf, _free scope to feelings of awe, mystery, tenderness, reverence, +and devotedness_; while we have it on the authority of Tract 90, that +the Church of England is _in bondage; working in chains, and _(tell it +not in Dublin)_ teaching with the stammering lips of ambiguous +formularies_. Fierce and burning is the hatred of Dublin Operative +Association Christians to Popery, but exactly that style of hatred to +Protestantism is avowed by Puseyites. Both sets of Christians are quite +sure they are right: but (alas! for infallibility) a third set of +Christians insist that they are both wrong. There are Papists, or Roman +Catholics, who consider Protestant principles the very reverse of true +and undeniable, and treat with derisive scorn the 'fictitious +Catholicism' of Puseyite Divines. + +Count de Montalambert, in his recently published 'Letter to the Rev. Mr. +Neale on the Architectural, Artistical, and Archaeological Movements of +the Puseyites,' enters his 'protest' against the most unwarranted and +unjustifiable assumption of the name of Catholic by people and things +belonging to the actual Church of England. _'It is easy,'_ he observes, +_'to take up a name, but it is not so easy to get it recognised by the +world and by competent authority. Any man for example, may come out to +Madeira and call himself a Montmorency, or a Howard, and even enjoy the +honour and consideration belonging to such a name till the real +Montmorencys or Howards hear something about it, and denounce him, and +then such a man would be justly scouted from society, and fall down much +lower than the lowness from which he attempted to rise. The attempt to +steal away from us and appropriate to the use of a fraction of the +Church of England that glorious title of Catholic is proved to be an +usurpation by every monument of the past and present--by the coronation +oath of your sovereigns--by all the laws which have established your +Church--even by the recent answer of your University of Oxford to the +lay address against Dr. Pusey, &c., where the Church of England is +justly styled the Reformed Protestant Church. The question then is, have +you, the Church of England, got the picture for your frame? have you got +the truth, the one truth; the same truth as the men of the middle ages. +The Camden Society says yes; but the whole Christian world, both +Protestant and Catholic, says no; and the Catholic world adds that there +is no truth but in unity, and this unity you most certainly have not. +One more; every Catholic will repeat to you the words of Manzoni, as +quoted by M. Faber: 'The greatest deviations are none if the main point +be recognised; the smallest are damnable heresies, if it be denied. That +main point is the infallibility of the Church, or rather of the Pope.'_ + +No one desires to be eternally punished; and, therefore, if any one +embrace a false faith, it is because he makes the mistake of supposing +it the true one. The three sets of Christians, just adverted to, may all +be equally sincere, but cannot all have the true faith. Protestant +principles, as taught by the Dublin Operative Association, may be true. +Anglo-Catholic principles, as taught by the Oxford Tractmen, may be +true. Roman Catholic principles, as taught by the Count de Montalembert, +may be true; but they cannot ALL be true. It is impossible to reconcile +that orthodox Papists' 'main point,' _i.e._ the infallibility of the +(Romish) Church, or rather of the Pope, with the 'main point' of +orthodox Protestants, who denounce 'the great harlot of Babylon,' that +'scarlet lady who sitteth upon the seven hills,' in the most unmeasured +and virulent terms. Anti-Christ is the name they 'blasphemously' apply +to the actual 'old chimera of a Pope.' Puseyite Divines treat his +Holiness with more tenderness, but even _they_ boggle at his +infallibility, and seem to occupy a position between the rival churches +of Rome and England analogous to that of Captain Macheath when singing +between two favourite doxies-- + + How happy could I be with either, + Were t'other dear charmer away; + But while you thus teaze me together, + The devil a word will I say. + +Infallibility of Popes is the doctrine insisted upon by Count De +Montalembert as essential--as doctrine the smallest deviation from which +is damnable heresy. Believe and admit Antichrist is _not_ Antichrist, +but God's accredited viceregent upon earth, infinite is the mercy in +store for you; but woe to those who either cannot or will not believe +and admit anything of the kind. On them every sincere Roman Catholic is +sure that God will empty the vials of his wrath. + +Priests ascribe to Deity the low, grovelling, vindictive, feelings which +agitate and disgrace themselves. If Roman Catholic principles are true +and undeniable, none but Roman Catholics will be saved from the wrath to +come. If Anglo-Catholic principles are true and undeniable, none but +Anglo-Catholics will be saved from the wrath to come. If orthodox +Protestant principles are true and undeniable, none but orthodox +Protestants will be saved from the wrath to come. + +Thus superstitionists + + Grunt and groan, + Cursing all systems but their own. + +Agreeing in little else save disagreement, the 'main point' of this +class of believers is a matter of little consequence to that class of +believers, and no matter at all to a third class of believers. Look at +the thousand-and-one sects into which the Christian world is divided. +'Some reject Scripture; others admit no other writings but Scripture. +Some say the Devils shall be saved, others that they shall be damned; +others that there are no Devils at all. Some hold that it is lawful to +dissemble in religion, others the contrary. Some say that Antichrist is +come, some say not; others that he is a particular man, others that he +is not a man, but the Devil; and others that by Antichrist is meant a +succession of men. Some will have him to be Nero, some Caligula, some +Mohammed, some the Pope, some Luther, some the Turk, some of the Tribe +of Dan; and so each man according to his fancy will make an Antichrist. +Some only will observe the Lord's day, some only the Sabbath; some both, +and some neither. Some will have all things in common, some not. Some +will have Christ's body only in Heaven, some everywhere; some in the +bread, others with the bread, others about the bread, others under the +bread, and others that Christ's body is the bread, or the bread his +body. And others that his body is transformed into his divinity. Some +will have the Eucharist administered in both kinds, some in one, some +not at all. Some will have Christ descend to hell in respect of his +soul, some only in his power, some in his divinity, some in his body, +some not at all. Some by hell understand the place of the damned, some +_limbus patrum_, others the wrath of God, others the grave. Some will +make Christ two persons, some give him but one nature and one will; some +affirming him to be only God, some only man, some made up of both, some +altogether deny him. Some will have his body come from Heaven, some from +the Virgin, some from the elements. Some will have our souls mortal, +some immortal; some bring them into the body by Infusion, some by +traduction. Some will have souls created before the world, some after; +some will have them created altogether, others severally; some will have +them corporeal, some incorporeal; some of the substance of God, some of +the substance of the body. So infinitely are men's conceits distracted +with a variety of opinions, whereas _there is but one Truth_, which +every man aims at, but few attain it; every man thinks he hath it, and +yet few enjoy it.' [20:1] + +Chiefs of these sects are, for the most part, ridiculously intolerant; +so many small Popes, who fancy that whomsoever they bind on earth shall +be bound in Heaven; and whomsoever they loose on earth shall be loosed +in Heaven. They remorselessly cobble the true faith, without which, to +their 'sole exclusive Heaven,' none can be admitted. + + As if religion were intended, + For nothing else but to be mended. + +And never seem so happy as when promising eternal misery to those who +reject their chimeras. + +But wisdom, we read, is justified by her children; and to the wise of +every nation the Universalist confidently appeals. He rejects popular +religion, because such religion is based on principles of imaginative +ignorance. Bailly defines it as 'the worship of the unknown, piety, +godliness, humility, before the _unknown_.' Lavater as 'Faith in the +supernatural, invisible, _unknown_'. Vauvenargus as 'the duties of men +towards the _unknown_.' Dr. Johnson as 'Virtue founded upon reverence of +the _unknown_, and expectation of future rewards and punishments.' +Rivarol as 'the science of serving the _unknown_.' La Bruyere as 'the +respectful fear of the _unknown_.' Du Marsais, as 'the worship of the +_unknown_, and the practice of all the virtues.' Walker as 'Virtue +founded upon reverence of the _unknown_, and expectation of rewards or +punishments; a system of divine faith and worship as opposed to other +systems.' De Bonald as 'social intercourse between man and the +_unknown_.' Rees as 'the worship or homage that is due to the _unknown_ +as creator, preserver, and, with Christians, as redeemer of the world,' +Lord Brougham as 'the subject of the science called Theology:' a science +he defines as 'the knowledge and attributes of the _unknown_' which +definitions agree in making the essential principle of religion a +principle of ignorance. That they are sufficiently correct definitions +will not be disputed, and upon them the Universalist is satisfied to +rest his case. To him the worship or adoration of what is confessedly +unknown is mere superstition; and to him professors of theology are +'artists in words,' who pretend to teach what nobody has any conception +of. Now, such persons may be well-intentioned; but their wisdom is by no +means apparent. They must be wonderfully deficient of the invaluable +sense so falsely called 'common.' Idolizers of 'thingless names,' they +set at naught the admirable dictum of Locke that it is 'unphilosophic to +suppose names in books signify real entities in nature, unless we can +frame clear and distinct ideas of those entities.' + +Theists of every class would do well to calmly and fully consider this +rule of philosophising, for it involves nothing less than the +destruction of belief in the supernatural. The Jupiter of Mythologic +History, the Allah of Alkoran, and the Jehovah of 'Holy Scripture,' if +entities at all, are assuredly entities that baffle human conception. To +'frame clear and distinct ideas of them' is impossible. In respect to +the attribute of _unknown ability_ all Gods are alike. + +Books have been written to exhibit the difficulties of (what priests +choose to call) Infidelity, and without doubt unbelief has its +difficulties. But, according to a universally recognised rule of +philosophising, of two difficulties we are in all cases to choose the +least. From a rule so palpably just no one can reasonably depart, and +the Universalist, while freely admitting a great difficulty on his own +side, is satisfied there can be demonstrated an infinitely greater +difficulty on the side of his opponents. The Universalist labours to +convince mankind they are not warranted by the general course of Nature +in assigning to it a Cause; inasmuch as it is more in accordance with +experience to suppose Nature the uncaused cause, than to imagine, as +errorists do, that there is an uncaused cause of Nature. + +Theologians ask, who created Nature? without adducing satisfactory +evidence that Nature _was_ created, and without reflecting that if it is +difficult to believe Nature self-existent, it is much more difficult to +believe some self-existent Super-nature, capable of producing it. In +their anxiety to get rid of a natural difficulty, they invent a +supernatural one, and accuse Universalists of 'wilful blindness,' and +'obstinate deafness,' for not choosing so unphilosophic a mode of +explaining universal mystery. + +The rule of philosophising just adverted to--that rule which forbids us, +in any case, to chose the greater of two difficulties--is of immense +importance, and should be carefully considered by every one anxious to +arrive at correct conclusions with respect to theology. For if believers +in God do depart from that rule--if their belief necessarily involve its +violation--to persist in such belief is to persist in what is clearly +opposed to pure reason. Now, it has been demonstrated, so far as words +can demonstrate any truth whatever, that the difficulty of him who +believes Nature never had an author, is infinitely less than the +difficulty of him who believes it had a cause itself uncaused. + +In the 'Elements of Materialism,' an unequal, but still admirable work +by Dr. Knowlton, a well-known American writer, this question of +comparative difficulty is well handled. + +'The sentiment,' says the Doctor, 'that a being exists which never +commenced existence, or what is the same thing, that a being exists +which has existed from all eternity, appears to us to favour Atheism, +for if one Being exist which never commenced existence--why not +another--why not the universe? It weighs nothing, says the Atheist, in +the eye of reason, to say the universe appears to man as though it were +organised by an Almighty Designer, for the maker of a thing must be +superior to the thing made; and if there be a maker of the universe +there can be no doubt, but that if such maker were minutely examined by +man, man would discover such indications of wisdom and design that it +would be more difficult for him to admit that such maker was not caused +or constructed by a pre-existing Designer, than to admit that the +universe was not caused or constructed by a Designer. But no one will +contend for an infinite series of Makers; and if, continues the Atheist, +what would, if viewed, be indications of design, are no proofs of a +designer in the one case, they are not in the other; and as such +indications are the only evidence we have of the existence of a Designer +of the universe, we, as rational beings, contend there is no God. We do +not suppose the existence of any being, of which there is no evidence, +when such supposition, it admitted, so far from diminishing would only +increase a difficulty, which, at best, is sufficiently great. Surely, if +a superior being may have existed from all eternity, an inferior may +have existed from all eternity; if a great God sufficiently mighty to +make a world may have existed from all eternity, of course without +beginning and without cause, such world may have existed from all +eternity, without beginning, and without cause.' [23:1] + +These are 'strong reasons' for Universalism. They prove that Theists set +at nought the rule of philosophising which forbids us to choose the +greater of two difficulties. Their system compels them to do so; for +having no other groundwork than the strange hypotheses that time was +when there was no time--something existed when there was nothing, which +something created everything; its advocates would be tongue-tied and +lost if reduced to the hard necessity of appealing to facts, or rigidly +regarding rules of philosophising which have only their reasonableness +to recommend them. They profess ability to account for Nature, and are +of course exceeding eager to justify a profession so presumptuous. This +eagerness betrays them into courses, of which no one bent on rejecting +whatever is either opposed to, or unsanctioned by, experience, can +possibly approve. It is plain that of the God they tell us to believe +'created the worlds,' no man has any experience. This granted, it +follows that worship of such fancied Being is mere superstition. Until +it be shown by reference to the general course of things, that things +had an author, Himself uncreated or unauthorized, religious philosophers +have no right to expect Universalists to abandon their Universalism. The +duty of priests is to reconcile religion with reason, _if they can_, and +admit their inability to do so, _if they cannot_. + +Romanists will have nothing to do with reason whenever it appears at +issue with their faith. All sects, as sects, play fast and loose with +reason. Many members of all sects are forward enough to boast about +being able to give a reason for the faith that is in them; but an +overwhelming majority love to exalt faith above reason. Philosophy they +call 'vain,' and some have been found so filled with contempt for it, as +to openly maintain that what is theologically true, is philosophically +false; or, in other terms, that the truths of religion and the truths of +philosophy have nothing in common. According to them, religious truths +are independent of, and superior to, all other truths. Our faith, say +they, if not agreeable to _mere_ reason is infinitely superior to it. +Priests are 'at one' on the point. Dissenting and Protestant, as well as +Romanising priests, find it convenient to abuse reason and extol faith. +As priests, they can scarcely be expected to do otherwise; for reason is +a stern and upright judge whose decrees have hitherto been unfavourable +to superstition. Its professors, who appeal to that judge, play a part +most inconsistent and dangerous, as is evident in the case of Origen +Bachelor, who more zealous and candid than prudent, declared the real +and only question between Atheism and Theism a question of fact; +reducing it to these terms--'Is there reason, all things considered, for +believing that there is a God, an intelligent cause of things, infinite +and perfect in all his attributes and moral qualities?' [24:1] + +Now, the reader has seen that the hypothesis of 'an intelligent cause of +things' involves difficulties, greater, infinitely greater than the one +difficulty involved in the hypothesis that things always existed. He has +seen the folly of explaining natural, by the invention of supernatural +mystery, because it manifestly violates a rule of philosophising, the +justness of which it would be ridiculous to dispute. Having clearly +perceived thus much, he will perhaps think it rather 'too bad' as well +as absurd, to call Universalists 'madmen' for lacking faith in the +monstrous dogma that Nature was caused by 'something amounting to +nothing' itself uncaused. + +There is something. That truth admits not of being evidenced. It is, +nevertheless, accepted. It is accepted by men of all religious opinions, +equally with men of no religious opinions. If any truth be self-evident +and eternal, here is that truth. To call it in question would be worse +than idle. We may doubt the reality of an external world, we may be +sceptical as to the reality of our own bodies, but we cannot doubt that +there is something. The proposition falls not within the domain of +scepticism. It must be true. To suppose it false is literally +impossible. Its falsehood would involve contradiction, and all +contradiction involves Impossibility. But, if proof of this were needed, +we have it in the fact that no man, sage or simple, ever pretended to +deny there is something. Whatever men could doubt or deny they have +doubted or denied, but in no country of the world, in no age, has the +dogma--there is something--been denied or even treated as doubtful. Here +then Universalists, Theists, and Polytheists agree. They agree of +necessity. There is no escape from the conclusion that something is, +except we adopt the unintelligible dogma--there is nothing--which no +human being can, as nothing amounts to nothing, and of what amounts to +nothing no one can have an idea. To define the word something by any +other word would be labour in vain. There is no other word in any +language whoso meaning is better understood, and they who do not +understand what it means, if such persons there be, are not likely to +understand the meaning of any word or words whatever. Ideas of nothing +none have. That there is something, we repeat, must be true, all dogmas +or propositions being necessarily true whose denial involves an +impossibility. What the nature of that something may be is a secondary +question, and however determined cannot affect the primary dogma--things +are things whatever may be their individual or their aggregate nature. +Nor is it of the least consequence what name or names we may see fit to +give things, so that each word has its fixed and true meaning. Whether, +for example, we use for the sign of that something which is, the word +Universe, or God, or Substance, or Spirit, or Matter, or the letter X, +is of no importance, if we understand the word or letter used to be +merely the sign of that something. Words are seldom useful except when +they are the sign of true ideas; evidently therefore, their legitimate +function is to convey such ideas; and words which convey no ideas at +all, or what is worse, only those which are false, should at once be +expunged from the vocabularies of nations. Something is. The +Universalist calls it matter. Other persons may choose to call it other +names: let them. He chooses to call it this one--and no other. + +There ever has been something. Here, again, is a point of unity. All are +equally assured there ever has been something. Something is, something +must always have been, cry the religious, and the cry is echoed by the +irreligious. This last dogma, like the first, admits not of being +evidenced. As nothing is inconceivable, we cannot even imagine a time +when there was nothing. Universalists say, something ever was, which +something is matter. Theists say, something has been from all eternity, +which something is not matter but God. They boldly affirm that matter +began to be. They affirm its creation from nothing, by a something, +which was before the universe. Indeed, the notion of universal creation +involves first, that of universal annihilation, and secondly, that of +something prior to everything. What creates everything must be before +everything, in the same way that he who manufactures a watch must exist +before the watch. As already remarked, Universalists agree with Theists, +that something ever has been, but the point of difference lies here. The +Universalist says, matter is the eternal something, and asks proof of +its beginning to be. The Theist insists that matter is not the eternal +something, but that God is; and when pushed for an account of what he +means by God, he coolly answers, a Being, having nothing in common with +anything, who nevertheless, by his Almighty will, created everything. It +may without injustice be affirmed, that the sincerest and strongest +believers in this mysterious Deity are often tormented by doubts, and, +if candid, must own they believe in the existence of many things with a +feeling much closer allied to certainty than they do in the reality of +their 'Great First Cause, least understood.' No man's faith in the +inconceivable is ever half so strong as his belief in the visible and +tangible. + +But few among professional mystifiers will admit this, obviously true as +it is. Some have done so. Baxter, of pious memory, to wit, who said, _I +am not so foolish as to pretend my certainty be greater than it is, +because it is dishonour to be less certain; nor will I by shame be kept +from confessing those infirmities which those have as much as I, who +hypocritically reproach with them._ MY CERTAINTY THAT I AM A MAN IS +BEFORE MY CERTAINTY THAT THERE IS A GOD. + +So candid was Richard Baxter, and so candid are _not_ the most part of +our priests, who would fain have us think them altogether _un_sceptical. +Nevertheless, they write abundance of books to convince us 'God is,' +though they never penned a line in order to convince us, we actually +are, and that to disbelieve we are is a 'deadly sin.' + +Could God be known, could his existence be made 'palpable to feeling as +to sight,' as unquestionably is the existence of matter, there would be +no need of 'Demonstrations of the existence of God', no need of +arguments _a priori_ or _a posteriori_ to establish that existence. +Saint John was right; 'No man hath seen God at any time', to which 'open +confession' he might truly have added, 'none ever will,' for the unreal +is alway unseeable. Yet have 'mystery men' with shameless and most +insolent pertinacity asserted the existence of God while denying the +existence of matter. + +_The incomprehensible is not to be defined._ It is difficult to give +_intelligible_ account of an Immense Being confessedly mysterious and +about whom his worshippers admit they only know, they know nothing, +except that + + 'He is good, + And that themselves are blind.' + +Spinoza said, _of things which have nothing in common, one cannot be the +cause of the other_; and to me it seems eminently unphilosophic to +believe a Being having nothing in common with anything, capable of +creating or causing everything. 'Only matter can be touched or touch;' +and as the Christian's God is not material, his adorers are fairly open +to the charge of superstition. An unknown Deity, without body, parts or +passions, is of all idols the least tangible; and they who pretend to +know and reverence him, are deceived or deceivers. + +In this Christian country, where men are expected to believe and called +'Infidel' if they _cannot_ believe in a 'crucified Saviour,' it seems +strange so much fuss should be made about his immateriality. All but +Unitarian Christians hold as an essential article of faith, that in him +dwelt the fulness of the Godhead bodily; in other words, that our +Redeemer and our Creator, though two persons, are but one God. It is +true that Divines of our 'Reformed Protestant Church,' call everything +but gentlemen those who lay claim to the equivocal privilege of feasting +periodically upon the body and blood of Omnipotence. The pains taken by +Protestants to show from Scripture, Reason and Nature, that Priests +cannot change lumps of dough into the body, and bumpers of wine into the +blood, of their God, are well known and appreciated. But the Roman +Catholics are neither to be argued nor laughed out of their 'awful +doctrine' of the real presence, to which they cling with desperate +earnestness. + +Locke wrote rather disparagingly of 'many among us,' who will be found +upon Inquiry, to fancy God in the shape of a man fitting in heaven, and +have other absurd and unfit conceptions of him.' As though it were +possible to think of shapeless Being, or as though it were criminal in +the superstitious to believe 'God made man after his own image.' + +That Christians as well as Turks 'really have had whole sects earnestly +contending that the Deity was corporeal and of human shape', is a fact, +so firmly established as to defy contradiction. And though every sincere +subscriber to the Thirty Nine Articles must believe, or at least must +believe he believes in Deity without body, parts, or passions, it is +well known that 'whole sects' of Christians do even now 'fancy God in +the shape of a man sitting in heaven, and entertain other absurd and +unfit conceptions of him.' + +Mr. Collibeer, who is considered by Christian writers 'a most ingenious +gentleman', has told the world in his Treatise entitled 'The Knowledge +of God,' that Deity must have some form, and intimates it may probably +be the spherical; an intimation which has grievously offended many +learned Theists who considered going so far an abuse of reason, and warn +us that 'its extension beyond the assigned boundaries, has proved an +ample source of error.' But what the 'assigned boundaries' of reason +are, they don't state, nor by whom 'assigned.' That if there is a God he +must have _some_ form is self-evident and why Mr. Collibeer should be +ostracized by his less daringly imaginative brethren, for preferring a +spherical to a square or otherwise shaped Deity, is to my understanding +what God's grace is to their's. + +But admitting the unfitness, and absurdity, and 'blasphemy' of such +conceptions, it is by no means clear that any other conceptions of the +'inconceiveable' would be an improvement upon them. Undoubtedly, the +matter-God-system has its difficulties, but they are trifles in +comparison with those by which the spirit-God system is encompassed; +for, one obvious consequence of faith in bodiless Divinity is an utter +confusion of ideas in those who preach it, as regards possibilities and +impossibilities. + +The universe is an uncaused existence, or it was caused by something +before it. By universe we mean matter, the sum total of things, whence +all proceeds, and whither all returns. No truth is more obviously true +than the truth that matter, or something not matter, exists of itself, +and consequently is not an effect, but an uncaused cause of all effects. + +From such conviction, repugnant though it be to vulgar ideas, there is +no rational way of escape; for however much we may desire, however much +we may struggle to believe there was a time when there was nothing, we +cannot so believe. Human nature is constituted intuitively or +instinctively to feel the eternity of something. To rid oneself of that +feeling is impossible. Nature or something not Nature must ever have +been, is a conclusion to which what poets call Fate-- + + Leads the willing and drags the unwilling. + +But does this undeniable truth make against Universalism? Far from +it--so far, indeed, as to make for it. The reason is no mystery. Of +matter we have ideas clear, precise, and indispensable, whereas of +something not matter we cannot have any idea whatever, good, bad, or +indifferent. The Universe is extraordinary, no doubt, but so much of it +as acts upon us is perfectly conceivable, whereas, any thing within, +without, or apart from the Universe, is perfectly inconceivably. + +The notion of necessarily existing matter seems fatal to belief in God; +that is, if by the word God be understood something not matter, for 'tis +precisely because priests were unable to reconcile such belief with the +idea of matter's self-existence or eternity, that they took to imagining +a 'First cause.' + +In the 'forlorn hope' of vanquishing the difficulty of necessarily +existing _Matter_, they assent to a necessarily existing _Spirit_, and +when the nature of spirit is demanded from these assertors of its +existence, they are constrained to avow that it is material or nothing. + +Yes, they are constrained to make directly or indirectly one or other of +these admissions; for, as between truth and falsehood, there is no +middle passage; so between something and nothing, there is no +intermediate existence. Hence the serious dilemma of Spiritualists, who +gravely tell us their God is a spirit, and that a spirit is not any +thing, which not any thing or nothing (for the life of us we cannot +distinguish between them) 'framed the worlds' nay, _created_ as well as +framed them. + +If it be granted, for the mere purpose of explanation, that spirit is an +entity, we can frame 'clear distinct ideas of'--a real though not +material existence, surely no man will pretend to say an uncreated +Spirit, is less inexplicable than uncreated Matter. All could not have +been caused or created unless nothing can be a Cause, the very notion of +which involves the grossest of absurdities. + +_Whatever is produced, without any cause, is produced by nothing; or, in +other words, has nothing for its cause. But nothing never can be a cause +no more than it can be something or equal to two right angles. By the +same intuition that we perceive nothing not to be equal to two right +angles, or not to be something, we perceive that it can never be a +cause, and consequently must perceive that every object has a real cause +of its existence. When we exclude all causes we really do exclude them, +and neither suppose nothing nor the object itself to be the causes of +the existence, and consequently can draw no argument from the absurdity +of these suppositions except to prove the absurdity of that exclusion. +If everything must have a cause, it follows that upon the exclusion of +other causes, we must accept of the object itself or nothing as causes. +But it is the very point in question whether everything must have a +cause or not, and therefore, according to all just reasoning ought not +to be taken for granted_. [29:1] + +This reasoning amounts to logical demonstration (if logical +demonstration there can be) of a most essential truth, which in all ages +has been obstinately set at nought by dabblers in the supernatural. It +demonstrates that something never was, never can be, caused by nothing, +which can no more be a cause, properly so called, than it can be +something, or equal to two right angles; and therefore that everything +could not have had a cause, which, the reader has seen, is the very +point assumed by Theists--the very point on which as a pivot they so +merrily and successfully turn their fine metaphysical theories and +immaterial systems. + +The universe, quoth they, must have had a cause, and that cause must +have been First Cause, or cause number one, because nothing can exist of +itself. Oh, most lame and impotent conclusion! How, in consistency, can +they declare nothing can exist without a cause in the teeth of their oft +repeated dogma that God is uncaused. If God never commenced to be, _He_ +is an uncaused existence, that is to say, exists without a cause. [29:2] +The difference on this point between Theists and Universalists is very +palpable. The former say, Spirit can exist without a cause, the latter +say Matter can exist without a cause. Whole libraries of theologic dogma +would be dearly purchased by Hume's profound remark--_if everything must +have a cause, it follows that upon the exclusion of other causes we must +accept of the object itself or of nothing as causes._ + +Saint Augustine, more candid than modern theologians, said 'God is a +being whom we speak of but whom we cannot describe and who is superior +to all definitions.' Universalists, on the other hand, as candidly deny +there is any such being. To them it seems that the name God stands for +nothing, is the archetype of nothing, explains nothing, and contributes +to nothing but the perpetuation of human imbecility, ignorance and +error. To them it represents neither shadow nor substance, neither +phenomenon nor thing, neither what is ideal nor what is real; yet is it +the name without senseless faith in which there could be no +superstition. + +If Nature is all, and all is Nature, nothing but itself could ever have +existed, and of course nothing but itself can be supposed ever to have +been capable of causing. To cause is to act, and though body without +notion is conceivable, action without body is not. Neither can two +Infinites be supposed to tenant one Universe. Only 'most religious +philosophers' can pretend to acknowledge the being of an infinite God +co-existent with an infinite Universe. + +Universalists are frequently asked--What moves matter? to which question +_nothing_ is the true and sufficient answer. Matter moves matter. If +asked how we know it does, our answer is, because we see it do so, which +is more than mind imaginers can say of their 'prime mover.' They tell us +mind moves matter; but none save the _third sighted_ among them ever saw +mind, and if they never saw mind, they never could have seen matter +pushed about by it. They babble about mind, but nowhere does mind exist +save in their mind; that is to say, nowhere but nowhere. Ask these +broad-day dreamers where mind is _minus_ body? and very cutely they +answer, body is the mind, and mind is the body. + +That this is neither joke nor slander, we will show by reference to No. +25 of 'The Shepherd,' a clever and well known periodical, whose editor, +[30:1] in reply to a correspondent of the 'chaotic' tribe, said 'As to +the question--where is magnetism without the magnet? We answer, +magnetism is the magnet, and the magnet is magnetism.' If so, body is +the mind and the mind is body; and our Shepherd, if asked, 'Where is +mind without the body?' to be consistent, should answer, body is the +mind and the mind is the body. Both these answers are true, or both are +false; and it must be allowed-- + + Each lends to each a borrowed charm, + Like pearls upon an Ethiop's arm. + +Ask the 'Shepherd' where is mind without the body? and, if not at issue +with himself, he _must_ reply, mind is the man and man is the mind. + +If this be so,--if the mind is the man and the man is the mind, which +none can deny who say magnetism is the magnet and the magnet +magnetism--how, in Reason's name, can they be different, or how can the +'Shepherd' consistently pretend to distinguish between them; yet he does +so. He writes about the spiritual part of man as though he really +believed there is such a part. Not satisfied, it would seem, with body, +like Nonentitarians of vulgar mould, he tenants it with Soul or Spirit, +or Mind, which Soul, or Spirit, or Mind, according to his own showing, +is nothing but body in action; in other terms, organised matter +performing vital functions. Idle declamation against 'facts mongers' +well becomes such self-stultifying dealers in fiction. Abuse of +'experimentarians' is quite in keeping with the philosophy of those who +maintain the reality of mind in face of their own strange statement, +that magnetism is the magnet and the magnet magnetism. + +But we deny that magnetism is the magnet. These words magnetism and +magnet do not, it is true, stand for two things, but one thing: that one +and only thing called matter. The magnet is an existence, _i.e._, that +which moves. Magnetism is not an existence, but phenomenon, or, if you +please, phenomena. It is the effect of which magnetic body is the +immediate and obvious cause. + +To evade the charge of Materialism, said Dr. Engledue, we +(Phrenologists) content ourselves with stating that the immaterial makes +use of the material to show forth its powers. What is the result of +this? We have the man of theory and believer in supernaturalism +quarrelling with the man of fact and supporter of Materialism. We have +two parties; the one asserting that man possesses a _spirit_ superadded +to, but not inherent in, the brain--added to it, yet having no necessary +connection with it--producing material changes, yet +immaterial--destitute of any of the known properties of matter--in fact +an _immaterial something_ which in one word means _nothing_, producing +all the cerebral functions of man, yet not localised-not susceptible of +proof; the other party contending that the belief in spiritualism +fetters and ties down physiological investigation--that man's intellect +is prostrated by the domination of metaphysical speculation--that we +have no evidence of the existence of an _essence_, and that organised +mutter is all that is requisite to produce the multitudinous +manifestations of human and brute cerebration. + +We rank ourselves with the second party, and conceive that we must cease +speaking of 'the mind,' and discontinue enlisting in our investigations +a spiritual essence, the existence of which cannot be proved, but which +tends to mystify and perplex a question sufficiently clear if we confine +ourselves to the consideration of organised matter--its forms--its +changes--and its aberrations from normal structure. [31:1] + +The eccentric Count de Caylus, when on his death-bed, was visited by +some near relation and a pious Bishop, who hoped that under such trying +circumstance he would manifest some concern respecting those 'spiritual' +blessings which, while in health, he had uniformly treated with +contempt. After a long pause he broke silence by saying, _'Ah, my +friends, I see you are anxious about my soul;'_ whereupon they pricked +up their ears with delight; before, however, any reply could be made the +Count added, _'but the fact is I have not got one, and really my good +friends you must allow me to know best.'_ + +If people in general had one tenth the good sense of this _impious_ +Count, the fooleries of Spiritualism would at once give place to the +philosophy of Materialism, and none would waste time in talking or +writing about non-entities. All would know that what theologians call +sometimes spirit, sometimes soul, and sometimes mind, is an imaginary +existence. All would know that the terms _immaterial something_ do in +very truth mean _nothing_. Count de Caylus died as became a man +convinced that soul is not an entity, and that upon the dissolution of +our 'earthly tabernacle', the particles composing it cease to perform +vital functions, and return to the shoreless ocean of Eternal Being. +Pietists may be shocked by such _nonchalance_ in the face of their 'grim +monster;' but philosophers will admire an indifference to inevitable +consequences resulting from profoundest love of truth and contempt of +superstition. Count de Caylus was a Materialist, and no Materialist can +consistently feel the least alarm at the approach of what +superstitionists have every reason to consider the 'king of terrors.' +Believers in the reality of immaterial existence cannot be 'proper' +Materialists. Obviously, therefore, no believers in the reality of God +can be _bona fide_ Materialists; for 'God' is a name signifying +something or nothing; in other terms matter or that which is not matter. +If the latter, to Materialists the name is meaningless--sound without +sense. If the former, they at once pronounce it a name too many; because +it expresses nothing that their word MATTER does not express better. + +Dr. Young held in horror the Materialist's 'universe of dust.' But there +is nothing either bad or contemptible in dust--man is dust--all will be +dust. A _dusty_ universe, however, _shocked_ the poetic Doctor, whose +writings analogise with-- + + Rich windows that exclude the light, + And passages that lead to nothing. + +A universe of nothing was more to his taste than a universe of dust, and +he accordingly amused himself with the 'spiritual' work of imagining +one, and called its builder 'God.' + +The somewhat ungentle 'Shepherd' cordially sympathises with Dr. Young in +his detestation of the Materialist's universe of dust, and is sorely +puzzled to know how mere dust contrives to move without the assistance +of 'an immaterial power between the particles;' as if he supposed +anything could be between everything--or nothing be able to move +something. Verily this gentleman is as clever a hand at 'darkening +counsel by words without knowledge' as the cleverest of those he rates +so soundly. + +The names of Newton and Clarke are held in great esteem by all who are +familiar with the history of mechanical and metaphysical philosophy. As +a man of science, there is no individual, ancient, or modern, who would +not suffer by comparison with Sir Isaac Newton; while common consent has +assigned to Dr. Samuel Clarke the first place among religious +metaphysicians. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to cite any +other Theists of better approved reputation than these two, and +therefore we introduce them to the reader's notice in this place; for as +they ranked among the most philosophic of Theists, it might be expected +that their conceptions of Deity, would be clear, satisfactory, and +definite.--Let us see, then, _in their own writings_, what those +conceptions were. + +Newton conceived God to be one and the same for ever, and everywhere, +not only by his own virtue or energy, but also in virtue of his +substance.--Again, 'All things are contained in him and move in him, but +without reciprocal action' (_sed sine muta passione_) God feels nothing +from the movements of bodies; nor do they experience any resistance from +his universal presence. [33:1] + +Pause, reader, and demand of yourself whether such a conception of Deity +is either clear, satisfactory, or definite,--God is _one_. Very +good--but one _what?_ From the information, 'He is the same for ever and +everywhere,' we conclude that Newton thought him a Being. Here, however, +matter stops the way; for the idea of Being is in all of us inseparably +associated with the idea of substance. When told that God is an 'Immense +Being,' without parts, and consequently unsubstantial, we try to think +of such a Being; but in vain. Reason puts itself in a _quandary_, the +moment it labours to realise an idea of absolute nothingness; yet +marvellous to relate, Newton did distinctly declare his Deity 'totally +destitute of body,' and urged that _fact_ as a _reason_ why He cannot be +either seen, touched, or understood, and also as a _reason_ why he ought +not to be adored under any corporeal figure! + +The proper function of 'Supernaturality or Wonder,' according to +Phrenologists, is to create belief in the reality of supernatural +beings, and begets fondness for news, particularly if extravagant. Most +likely then, such readers of this book as have that organ 'large' will +be delighted with Newton's rhodomontade about a God who resists nothing, +feels nothing, and yet with condescension truly divine, not only +contains all things, but permits them to move in His motionless and +'universal presence;' for 'news' more extravagant, never fell from the +lips of an idiot, or adorned the pages of a prayer-book. + +By the same great _savan_ we are taught that God governs all, not as the +soul of the world, but as the Lord and sovereign of all things: that it +is in consequence of His sovereignty He is called the Lord God, the +Universal Emperor--that the word God is relative, and relates itself +with slaves--and that the Deity is the dominion or the sovereignty of +God, not over his own body, as those think who look upon God as the soul +of the world, but over slaves--from all which _slavish_ reasoning, a +plain man who had not been informed it was concocted by Europe's pet +philosopher, would infallibly conclude some unfortunate lunatic had +given birth to it. That there is no creature now tenanting Bedlam who +would or could scribble purer nonsense about God than this of Newton's, +we are well convinced--for how could the most frenzied of brains imagine +anything more repugnant to every principle of good sense than a +self-existent, eternal, omnipotent, omnipresent Being, creator of all +the worlds, who acts the part of 'universal emperor,' and plays upon an +infinitely larger scale, the same sort of game as Nicholas of Russia, or +Mohammed of Egypt, plays upon a small scale. There cannot be slavery +where there is no tyranny, and to say, as Newton did, that we stand in +the name relation to a universal God, as a slave does to his earthly +master, is practically to accuse such God, at reason's bar of _tyranny_. +If the word God is relative, and relate itself with slaves, it +incontestably follows that all human beings are slaves, and Deity is by +such reasoners degraded into the character of universal slave-driver. +Really, theologians and others who declaim so bitterly against +'blasphemers,' and take such very stringent measures to punish +'infidels', who speaks or write of their God, should seriously consider +whether the worst, that is, the least superstitious of infidel writers, +ever penned a paragraph so disparaging to the character of that God they +effect to adore, as the last quoted paragraph of Newton's. + +If even it could be demonstrated that there is a super-human Being, it +cannot be proper to clothe Him in the noblest human attributes--still +less can it be justifiable in pigmies, such as we are, to invest Him +with odious attributes belonging only to despots ruling over slaves. +Besides, how can we imagine a God, who is 'totally destitute of body and +of corporeal figure,' to have any kind of substance? Earthly emperors we +know to be substantial and common-place sort of beings enough, but is it +not sheer abuse of reason to argue as though the character of God were +at all analogous to theirs; or rather, is it not shocking abuse of our +reasoning facilities to employ them at all about a Being whose +existence, if we really have an existence, is perfectly enigmatical, and +allowed to be so by those very men who pretend to explain its character +and attributes? We find no less a sage than Newton explicitly declaring +as incontestible truth, that God exists necessarily--that the same +necessity obliges him to exist always and everywhere--that he is all +eyes, all ears, all brains, all arms, all feeling, all intelligence, all +action--that he exists in a mode by no means corporeal, an yet this same +sage, in the self-same paragraph, acknowledges God is _totally unknown +to us_. + +Now, we should like to be informed by what _reasonable_ right Newton +could pen a long string of 'incontestible truths,' such as are here +selected from his writings, with respect to a Being of whom, by his own +confession, he had not a particle of knowledge. Surely it is not the +part of a wise man to write about that which is 'totally unknown' to +him, and yet that is precisely what Newton did, when he wrote concerning +God. + +So much for the Theism of Europe's chief religious philosopher. Turn we +now to the Theism of Dr. Samuel Clarke. + +He wrote a book about the being and attributes of God, in which he +endeavoured to establish, first, that 'something has existed from all +eternity;' second, that 'there has existed from eternity some one +unchangeable and independent Being;' third, that 'such unchangeable and +independent Being, which has existed from all eternity, without any +external cause of its existence, must be necessarily existent;' fourth, +that 'what is the substance or essence of that Being, which is +necessarily existing, or self-existent, we have no idea--neither is it +possible for us to comprehend it;' fifth, that 'the self-existent Being +must of necessity be eternal as well as infinite and omnipresent;' +sixth, that 'He must be one, and as he is the self-existent and original +cause of all things, must be intelligent;' seventh, that 'God is not a +necessary agent, but a Being endowed with liberty and choice;' eighth, +that 'God is infinite in power, infinite in wisdom, and, as He is +supreme cause of all things, must of necessity be a Being infinitely +just, truthful, and good--thus comprising within himself all such moral +perfections as becomes the supreme governor and judge of the world.' + +These are the leading dogma contained in Clarke's book--and as they are +deemed invincible by a respectable, though not very numerous, section of +Theists, we will briefly examine the more important important of them. + +The dogma that _something has existed from all eternity_, as already +shown, is perfectly intelligible, and may defy contradiction--but the +real difficulty is to satisfactorily determine _what that something is_. +Matter exists, and as no one can even imagine its non-existence or +annihilation, the Materialist infers _that_ must be the eternal +something. Newton as well as Clark thought the everlasting Being +destitute of body, and consequently without parts, figure, motion, +divisibility, or any other such properties as we find in matter--_ergo_, +they did not believe matter to be the eternal something; but if not +matter, again we ask, what can it be? Of bodilessness or incorporiety no +one, even among those who say their God is incorporeal, pretend to have +an idea. Abady insisted that _the question is not what incorporiety is, +but whether it be?_ Well, we have no objection to parties taking that +position, because there is nothing more easy than to dislodge those who +think fit to do so--for this reason: the advocates of nothing, or +incorporiety, can no more establish by arguments drawn from unquestioned +facts, that incorporiety _is_ than they can clearly show _what_ it is. +It has always struck the author as remarkable that men should so +obstinately refuse to admit the possibility of matter's necessary +existence, while they readily embrace, not only as possibly, but +certainly, true, the paradoxical proposition that a something, having +nothing in common with anything, is necessarily existent. Matter is +everywhere around and about us. We ourselves are matter--all our ideas +are derived _from_ matter--and yet such is the singularly perverse +character of human intellect that, while resolutely denying the +possibility of matter's eternity, an immense number of our race embrace +the incredible proposition that matter was created in time by a +necessarily existing Being, who is without body, parts, passions, or +positive nature! + +The second dogma informs us that this always-existing Being is +unchangeable and independent. One unavoidable inference from which is +that Deity is itself immoveable, as well as unconnected with the +universe--for a moveable Being must be a changeable Being, by the very +fact of its motion; while an independent Being must be motiveless, as it +is evident all motives result from our relationship to things eternal; +but an independent Being can have no relations, and consequently must +act without motives. Now, as no intelligent _human_ action can be +imagined without necessary precursors in the shape of motives, reasoning +from analogy, it seems impossible that the unchangeable and independent +Being, Clarke was so sure must ever have existed, could have created the +universe, seeing he could have had no _motive_ or _inducement_ to create +it. + +The third dogma may be rated a truism--it being evidently true that a +thing or Being, which has existed from eternity without any eternal +cause of its existence, must be self-existent: but of course that dogma +leaves the disputed question, namely, whether matter, or something _not_ +matter, is self-existent, just where it found it. + +The fourth dogma is not questioned by Universalists, as they are quite +convinced that it is not possible for us to comprehend the substance or +essence of an immaterial Being. + +The other dogmas we need not enlarge upon, as they are little more than +repetition or expansion of the preceding one. Indeed, much of the +foregoing would be superfluous, were it not that it serves to +illustrate, so completely and clearly theistical absurdities. The only +dogma worth overturning, of the eight here noticed, is the _first_, for +if that fall, the rest must fall with it. If, for example, the reader is +convinced that it is more probable matter is mutable as regards _form_ +but eternal as regards _essence_, than that it was willed into existence +by a Being said to be eternal and immutable, he at once becomes a +Universalist--for if matter always was, no Being could have been before +it, nor can any exist after it. It is because men in general are shocked +at the idea of matter without beginning and without end, that they do +readily embrace the idea of a God, forgetting that if the idea of +eternal matter shock our sense of the _probable_, the idea of an eternal +Being who existed _before_ matter, _if well considered_, is sufficient +to shock all sense of the _possible_. + +The man who is contented with the universe, who stops at _that_ has at +least the satisfaction of dealing with something tangible--but he who +don't find the universe large enough for him to expatiate in, and whirls +his brains into a belief that there is a necessarily existing something +beyond the limits of a world _unlimited_, is in a mental condition no +reasonable man need envy. + +Of the universe, or at least so much of it as our senses have been +operated upon by, we have conceptions clear, vivid, and distinct; but +when Dr. Clarke tell us of an intelligent Being, not _part_ but +_creator_ of that universe, we can form no clear, vivid, distinct, or, +in point of fact, _any_ conception of such Being. When he explains that +it is infinite and omnipresent, like poor Paddy's famed ale, the +explanation 'thickens as it clears;' for being ourselves _finite_, and +necessarily present on one small spot of our very small planet, the +words _infinite_ and _omnipresent_ do not suggest to us either positive +or practical ideas--of course, therefore, we have neither positive nor +practical ideas of an infinite and omnipresent Being. + +We can as easily understand that the universe ever did exist, as we now +understand that it does exist--but we cannot conceive its absence for +the millionth part of an instant--and really it puzzles one to conceive +what those people can be dreaming of who talk as familiarly about the +extinction of a universe as the chemist does of extinguishing the flame +of his spirit-lamp. The unsatisfactory character of all speculations +having for their object 'nonentities with formidable names,' should long +ere this have opened men's eyes to the folly of _multiplying causes +without necessity_--another rule of philosophising, for which we are +indebted to Newton, but to which no superstitious philosophiser pays due +attention. Newton himself in his theistical character, wrote and talked +as though most blissfully ignorant of that rule. + +The passages given above from his 'Principia' palpably violate it. But +Theists, however learned, pay little regard to any rules of +philosophising, which put in peril their fundamental crotchet. + +A distinguished modern Fabulist [38:1] has introduced to us a +philosophical mouse who praised beneficent Deity because of his great +regard for mice: for one half of us, quoth he, received the gift of +wings, so that if they who have none, should by cats happen to be +exterminated, how easily could our 'Heavenly Father,' out of the bats +re-establish our exterminated species. + +Voltaire had no objection to fable if it were symbolic of truth; and +here is fable, which, according to its author, is symbolic of the little +regarded truth, that our pride rests mainly on our ignorance, for, as he +sagely says, 'the good mouse knew not that there are also winged cats.' +If she had her speculations concerning the beneficence of Deity would +have been less orthodox, mayhap, but decidedly more rational. The wisdom +of this pious mouse is very similar to that of the Theologian who knew +not how sufficiently to admire God's goodness in causing large rivers +almost always to flow in the neighbourhood of large towns. + +To jump at conclusions on no other authority than their own ignorant +assumption, and to Deify errors on no other authority than their own +heated imagination, has in all ages been the practice of Theologians. Of +that practice they are proud, as was the mouse of our Fabulist. Clothed +in no other panoply than their own conceits they deem themselves +invulnerable. While uttering the wildest incoherencies their +self-complacency remains undisturbed. They remind one of that ambitious +crow who, thinking more highly of himself than was quite proper, +strutted so proudly about with the Peacock's feathers in which he had +bedecked himself.--Like him, they plume themselves upon their own +egregious folly, and like him should get well _plucked_ for their pains. + +Let any one patiently examine their much talked of argument from design, +and he will be satisfied that these are no idle charges. That argument +has for its ground-work beggarly assumption, and for its main pillar, +reasoning no less beggarly. Nature must have had a cause, because it +evidently is an effect. The cause of Nature must have been one God, +because two Gods, or two million Gods, could not have agreed to cause +it. That cause must be omnipotent, wise, and good, because all things +are double one against another, and He has left nothing imperfect. Men +make watches, build ships or houses, out of pre-existing metals, wood, +hemp, bricks, mortar, and other materials, therefore God made nature out +of no material at all. Unassisted nature cannot produce the phenomena we +behold, therefore such phenomena clearly prove there is something +unnatural. Not to believe in a God who designed Nature, is to close both +ears and eyes against evidence, therefore Universalists are wilfully +deaf and obstinately blind. + +These are samples of the flimsy stuff, our teachers of what nobody +knows, would palm upon us as demonstration of the Being and Attributes +of God. + +By artfully taking for granted what no Universalist can admit, and +assuming cases altogether dissimilar to be perfectly analogous, our +natural theologians find no difficulty in proving that God is, was, and +ever will be; that after contemplating His own perfections, a period +sufficiently long for 'eternity to begin and end in,' He said, let there +be matter, and there was matter; that with Him all things are possible, +and He, of course, might easily have kept, as well as made, man upright +and happy, but could not consistently with his own wisdom, or with due +regard to his own glorification. Wise in their generation, these 'blind +leaders of the blind' ascribe to this Deity of their own invention +powers impossible, acts inconceivable, and qualities incompatible; thus +erecting doctrinal systems on no sounder basis than their own ignorance; +deifying their own monstrous errors, and filling the earth with misery, +madness, and crime. + +The writer who declared theology _ignorance of natural causes reduced to +system_, did not strike wide of the true mark. It is plain that the +argument from design, so vastly favoured by theologians, amounts to +neither more nor less than ignorance of natural causes reduced to +system. An argument to be sound must be soundly premised. But here is an +argument whose primary premise is a false premise--a mere begging of the +very question in dispute. Did Universalists _admit_ the universe was +contrived, designed, or adapted, they could not _deny_ there must have +been at least one Being to contrive, design, or adapt; but they see no +analogy between a watch made with hands out of something, and a universe +made without hands out of nothing. Universalists are unable to perceive +the least resemblance between the circumstance of one intelligent body +re-forming or changing the condition of some other body, intelligent or +non-intelligent, and the circumstance of a bodiless Being creating all +bodies; of a partless Being acting upon all parts; and of a passionless +Being generating and regulating all passions. Universalists consider the +general course of nature, though strangely unheeded, does proclaim with +'most miraculous organ,' that dogmatisers about any such 'figment of +imagination' would, in a rational community, be viewed with the same +feelings of compassion, which, even in these irrational days, are +exhibited towards confirmed lunatics. + +The author, while passing an evening with some pleasant people in +Ashton-under-Lyne, heard one of them relate that before the schoolmaster +had made much progress in that _devil-dusted_ neighbourhood, a labouring +man walking out one fine night, saw on the ground a watch, whose ticking +was distinctly audible; but never before having seen anything of the +kind, he thought it a living creature, and full of fear ran back among +his neighbours, exclaiming that he had seen a most marvellous thing, for +which he could conceive of no better name than CLICKMITOAD. After +recovering from their surprise and terror, this 'bold peasant' and his +neighbours, all armed with pokers and other formidable weapons, crept up +to the ill-starred ticker, and smashed it to pieces. + +The moral of this anecdote is no mystery. Our clickmitoadist had never +seen watches, knew nothing about watches, and hearing as well as seeing +one for the first time, naturally judged it must be an animal. Readers +who may feel inclined to laugh at his simplicity, should ask themselves +whether, if accustomed to see watches growing upon watch trees, they +would feel more astonished than they usually do when observing crystals +in process of formation, or cocoa-nuts growing upon cocoa-nut trees; and +if as inexperienced with respect to watches, or works of art, more or +less analogous to watches, they would not under his circumstances have +acted very much as he did. + +Supposing, however, that theologians were to succeed in establishing an +analogy between 'the contrivances of human art and the various +existences of the universe,' is it not evident that Spinoza's axiom--of +things which having nothing in common one cannot be the cause of the +others--is incompatible with belief in the Deity of our Thirty-Nine +Articles, or, indeed, belief in _any_ unnatural Designer or Causer of +Material Nature. Only existence can have anything in common with +existence. + +Now, an existence, properly so called, must have at least two +attributes, and whatever exhibits two or more attributes is matter. The +two attributes necessary to existence are solidity and extension. Take +from matter these attributes and matter itself vanishes. That fact was +specially testified to by Priestley, who acknowledged the primary truths +of Materialism though averse to the legitimate consequences flowing from +their recognition. + +According to this argument, nothing exists which has not solidity and +extension, and nothing is extended and solid but matter, which in one +state forms a crystal, in another a blade of grass, in a third a +butterfly, and in other states other forms. The _essence_ of grass, or +the _essence_ of crystal, in other words, those native energies of their +several forms constituting and keeping them what they are, can no more +be explained than can the _essentiality_ of _human_ nature. + +But the Universalist, because he finds it impossible to explain the +action of matter, because unable to state why it exhibits such vast and +various energies as it is seen to exhibit, is none the less assured it +_naturally_ and therefore _necessarily_ acts thus energetically. No +Universalist pretends to understand how bread nourishes his frame, but +of the _fact_ that bread does nourish it he is well assured. He +understands not how or why two beings should, by conjunction, give +vitality to a third being more or less analogous to themselves, but the +_fact_ stares him in the face. + +Our 'sophists in surplices,' who can no otherwise bolster up their +supernatural system than by outraging all such rules of philosophising +as forbid us to choose the greater of two difficulties, or to multiply +causes without necessity, are precisely the men to explain everything. +But unfortunately their explanations do, for the most part, stand more +in need of explanation than the thing explained. Thus, they explain the +origin of matter by reference to an occult, immense, and immensely +mysterious phantasm without body, parts or passions, who sees though not +to be seen, hears though not to be heard, feels though not to be felt, +moves though not to be moved, knows though not to be known, and, in +short, does everything, though not to be _done_ by anything. Well might +Godwin say _the rage of accounting for what is obviously unaccountable, +so common among philosophers of this stamp, has brought philosophy +itself into discredit_. + +There is an argument against the notion of a Supernatural Causer which +the author does not remember to have met with, but which he considers an +argument of great force--it is this. Cause means change, and as there +manifestly could not be change before there was anything to change, to +conceive the universe caused is impossible. + +That the sense here attached to the word cause is not a novel one every +reader knows who has seen an elaborate and ably written article by Mr. +G.H. Lewes, on 'Spinoza's Life and Works,' where effect is defined as +cause realised; the _natura naturans_ conceived as _natura naturata_; +and cause or causation is define as simply change. When, says Mr. Lewes, +the change is completed, we name the result effect. It is only a matter +of naming. + +These definitions conceded accurate, the conclusion that neither cause +nor effect _exist_, seems inevitable, for change of being is not being +itself any more than attraction is the thing attracted. One might as +philosophically erect attraction into reality and fall down and worship +_it_ as change which is in very truth a mere "matter of naming." Not so +the things changing or changed; _they_ are real, the prolific parent of +all appearance we behold, of all sensation we experience, of all ideas +we receive, in short, of all causes and of all effects, which causes and +effects, as shown by Mr. Lewis, are merely notional, for "we call the +antecedent cause, and the sequent effect; but these are merely relative +conceptions; the sequence itself is antecedent to some subsequent +change, and the former antecedent was once only a sequent to its cause, +and so on." + +Ancient Simonides, when asked by Dionysius to explain the nature of +Deity, demanded a day to "see about it," then an additional two days, +and then four days more, thus wisely intimating to his silly pupil, that +the more men think about Gods, the less competent they are to give any +rational account of them. + +Cicero was sensible and candid enough to acknowledge that he found it +much easier to say what God was not, than what he was. Like Simonides, +he was _mere_ Pagan, and like him, arguing from the known course of +nature, was unable, with all his mastery of talk, to convey positive +ideas of Deity. But how should he convey to others what he did not, +could not, himself possess? To him no revolution had been vouchsafed, +and though my Lord Brougham is quite sure, without the proof of natural +Theology, revelation has no other basis than mere tradition; we have +even better authority than his Lordship's for the staggering fact that +natural Theology, without the prop of revelation, is a 'rhapsody of +words,' mere jargon, analogous to the tale told by an idiot, so happily +described by our great poet as 'full of sound and fury, signifying +nothing.' We have a Rev. Hugh M'Neil 'convinced that, from external +creation, no right conclusion can be drawn concerning the _moral_ +character of God,' and that 'creation is too deeply and disastrously +blotted in consequence of man's sin, to admit of any satisfactory result +from an adequate contemplation of nature.' [42:1] We have a Gillespie +setting aside the Design Argument, on the ground that the reasonings by +which it is supported are 'inapt' to show such attributes as infinity, +omnipresence, free agency, omnipotency, eternality, or unity,' belong in +any way to God. On this latter attribute he specially enlarges, and +after allowing the contrivances we observe in nature, may establish a +unity of _counsel_, desires to be told how they can establish a unity of +_substance_. [42:2] We have Dr. Chalmors and Bishop Watson, whose +capacities were not the meanest, contending that there is no natural +proof of a God, and that we must trust solely to revelation. [42:3] We +have the Rev. Mr. Faber in his 'Difficulties of Infidelity' boldly +affirming that no one ever did, or ever will 'prove without the aid of +revelation, that the universe was designed by a _single_ designer.' +Obviously, then, there is a division in the religious camp with respect +to the sufficiency of natural Theology, unhelped by revelation. By three +of the four Christian authors just quoted, the design argument is +treated with contempt. Faber says, 'evident design must needs imply a +designer,' and that 'evident design shines out in every part of the +universe.' But he also tells us 'we reason exclusively, if with the +Deist we thence infer the existence of one and only one Supreme +Designer.' By Gillespie and M'Neil, the same truth is told in other +words. By Chalmers and Watson we are assured that, natural proof of a +God there is none, and our trust must be placed solely in revelation; +while Brougham, another Immense Being worshipper, declares that +revelation derives its chief support from natural Theology, without +which it has 'no other basis than vague tradition.' + +Now, Universalists agree with Lord Brougham as to the traditionary basis +of Scripture; and as they also agree with Chalmers and Watson with +respect to there being no natural proof of a God, they stand acquitted +to their own consciences of 'wilful deafness' and 'obstinate blindness,' +in rejecting as inadequate the evidence that 'God is,' drawn either from +Nature, Revelation, or both. + +It was long a Protestant custom to taunt Roman Catholics with being +divided among themselves as regards topics vitally important, and to +draw from the fact of such division an argument for making Scripture the +only 'rule of faith and manners.' Chillingworth said, _there are Popes +against Popes, councils against councils, some fathers against others, +the same fathers against themselves--a consent of fathers of one age +against a consent of fathers of another age, the church of one age +against the church of another age. Traditive interpretations of +Scripture are pretended, but there are few or none to be found. No +tradition but only of Scripture can derive itself from the fountain, but +may be plainly proved, either to have been brought in in such an age +after Christ, or that in such an age it was not in. In a word, there is +no sufficient certainty but of Scripture only for any considering man to +build on_. [43:1] And after reading this should 'any considering man' +be anxious to know something about the Scripture on which alone he is to +build, he cannot do better than dip into Dr. Watt's book on the right +use of Reason, where we are told _every learned (Scripture) critic has +his own hypothesis, and if the common text be not favourable to his +views a various lection shall be made authentic. The text must be +supposed to be defective or redundant, and the sense of it shall be +literal or metaphorical according as it best supports his own scheme. +Whole chapters or books shall be added or left out of the sacred canon, +or be turned into parables by this influence. Luther knew not well how +to reconcile the epistle of St. James to the doctrine of justification +by faith alone, and so he could not allow it to be divine. The Papists +bring all their Apocrypha into their Bible, and stamp divinity upon it, +for they can fancy purgatory is there, and they find prayers for the +dead. But they leave out the second commandment because it forbids the +worship of images. Others suppose the Mosaic history of the creation, +and the full of man, to be oriental ornaments, or a mere allegory, +because the literal sense of those three chapters of Genesis do not +agree with their theories._ + +These remarks are certainly not calculated to make 'considering men' put +their trust in Scripture. Coming from a Protestant Divine of such high +talent and learning, they may rather be expected to breed in +'considering men' very unorthodox opinions as well of the authenticity +as the genuineness of _both_ Testaments, and a strong suspicion that +Chillingworth was joking when he talked about their "sufficient +certainty." The author has searched Scripture in vain for 'sufficient +certainty,' with respect to the long catalogue of religious beliefs +which agitate and distract society. Laying claim to the character of a +'considering man,' he requires that Scripture to be proved the word of a +God before appealed to, as His Revelation; a feat no man has yet +accomplished. Priests, the cleverest, most industrious, and least +scrupulous, have tried their hands at the pious work, but all have +failed. Notwithstanding the mighty labours of our Lardner's and +Tillemont's and Mosheim's, no case is made out for the divinity of +either the Old or New Testament. 'Infidels' have shown the monstrous +absurdity of supposing that any one book has an atom more divinity about +it than any other book. These 'brutes' have completely succeeded in +proving that Christianity is a superstition no less absurd than +Mohammedanism, and to the full as mischievous. + +Christian practice is after all, the best answer to Christian theory. +Men who think wisely, do not, it is true, always act wisely; but +generally speaking, the moral, like the physical tree, is known by its +fruit, and bitter, most bitter, is the fruit of that moral tree, the +followers of Jesus planted. Notwithstanding their talk about the pure +and benign influence of their religion, an opinion is fast gaining +ground, that Bishop Kidder was right, when he said, _were a wise man to +judge of religion by the lives of its professors, perhaps, Christianity +is the last he would choose_. + +He who agrees with Milton that + + To know what every day before us lies + Is the prime wisdom, + +will in all likelihood not object to cast his eyes around and about him, +where proofs of modern priestly selfishness are in wonderful abundance. +By way of example may be cited the cases of those right reverend Fathers +in God the Bishops of London and Chester, prelates high in the church; +disposers of enormous wealth with influence almost incalculable; the +former more especially. And how stand they affected towards the poor? By +reference to the _Times_ newspaper of September 27th, 1845, it will be +seen that those very influential and wealthy Bishops are supporters _en +chef_ of a Reformed Poor Law,' the virtual principle of which is 'to +reduce the condition of those whose necessities oblige them to apply for +relief, below that of the labourer of the _lowest class_.' A Reformed +Poor Law, having for its 'object,' yes reader, its object, the +restoration of the pauper to a position below that of the independent +labourer.' This is their 'standard' of reference, by rigid attention to +which they hope to fully carry out their 'vital principle,' and thus +bring to a satisfactory conclusion the great work of placing 'the pauper +in a worse condition than the 'independent labourer.' It appears, from +the same journal, that in reply to complaints against their dietary, the +Commissioners appointed to work the Reformed Poor Law, consider that +twenty-one ounces of food daily 'is more than the hard working labourer +with a family could accomplish for himself by his own exertions.' This, +observes a writer in the _Times_, being the Commissioners' reading of +their own 'standard,' it may be considered superfluous to refer to any +other authority; but, as the Royal Agricultural Society of England have +clubbed their general information on this subject in a compilation from +a selection of essays submitted to them, we are bound to refer to such +witnesses who give the most precise information on the actual condition +of the _independent labourer_, with minute instructions for his general +guidance, and the economical expenditure of his income. 'He should,' +they say, 'toil early and late' to make himself 'perfect' in his +calling. 'He should _pinch and screw_ the family, even in the _commonest +necessaries_,' until he gets 'a week's wages to the fore.' He should +drink in his work 'water mixed with some powdered ginger,' which warms +the stomach, and is 'extremely cheap.' He should remember that 'from +three to four pounds of potatoes are equal in point of nourishment to a +pound of the best wheaten bread, besides having the great advantage of +_filling_ the stomach. He is told that 'a lot of bones may always be got +from the butchers for 2d., and they are never scraped so clean as not to +have some scraps of meat adhering to them.' He is instructed to boil +these two penny worth of bones, for the first day's family dinner, until +the liquor 'tastes something like broth.' For the _second_ day, the +bones are to be again boiled in the same manner, but for a _longer_ +time. Nor is this all, they say 'that the bones, if again boiled for a +_still longer_ time, will _once more_ yield a nourishing broth, which +may be made into pea soup.' + +This is the system and this is the schoolmastership expressly sanctioned +by the Bishops of London and Chester. In piety nevertheless those +prelates are not found wanting. They may starve the bodies but no one +can charge them with neglecting the souls of our 'independent +labourers.' Nothing can exceed their anxiety to feed and clothe the +spiritually destitute. They raise their mitred fronts, even in palaces, +to proclaim and lament over the spiritual destitution which so +extensively prevails--but they seldom condescend to notice _physical_ +destitution. When the cry of famine rings throughout the land they +coolly recommend rapid church extension, thus literally offering stones +to those who ask them for bread. To got the substantial and give the +spiritual is their practical Christianity. To spiritualise the poor into +contentment with the 'nourishing broth' from thrice boiled bones, and to +die of hunger rather than demand relief, are their darling objects. + +Did Universalists thus act, did they perpetrate, connive at, or tolerate +such atrocities as were brought to light during the Andover inquiry, +such cold blooded heartlessness would at once be laid to the account of +their principles. Oh yes, Christians are forward to judge of every tree +by its fruit, except the tree called Christianity. + +The vices of the universalist they ascribe to his creed. The vices of +the Christian to anything but his creed. Let professors of Christianity +be convicted of gross criminality, and lo its apologists say such +professors are not Christian. Let fanatical Christians commit excesses +which admit not of open justification, and the apologist of Christianity +coolly assures us such conduct is _mere rust on the body of his +religion--moss which grows on the stock of his piety._ + +From age to age the wisest among men have abhorred and denounced +superstition. It is true that only a small section of them treated +religion as if _necessarily_ superstition, or went quite as far as John +Adams, who said, _this would be the best of all possible worlds if there +were no religion in it_. But an attentive reading of ancient and modern +philosophical books has satisfied the author that through all recorded +time, religion has been _tolerated_ rather than _loved_ by great +thinkers, who had _will_, but not _power_ to wage successful war upon +it. Gibbon speaks of Pagan priests who, 'under sacerdotal robes, +concealed the heart of an Atheist.' Now, these priests were also the +philosophers of Rome, and it is not impossible that some modern +philosophical priests, like their Pagan prototypes, secretly despise the +religion they openly profess. Avarice, and lust of power, are potent +underminers of human virtue. The mighty genius of Bacon was not proof +against then, and he who deserves to occupy a place among 'the wisest +and greatest' has been 'damned to eternal fame' as the 'meanest of +mankind.' + +Nor are avarice and lust of power the only base passions under the +influence of which men, great in intellect, have given the lie to their +own convictions, by calling that religion which they knew to be rank +superstition. Fear of punishment for writing truth is the grand cause +why their books contain so little of it. If Bacon had openly treated +Christianity as mere superstition, will any one say that his life would +have been worth twenty-four hours' purchase? + +There is an old story about a certain lady who said to her physician, +'Doctor, what is your religion?' My religion, madame, replied the +Doctor, 'is the religion of all sensible men.' 'What kind of religion is +that?' said the lady. 'The religion, madame,' quoth the Doctor, 'that no +sensible man will tell.' + +This doctor may be given as a type of the class of shrewd people who +despise superstition, but will say nothing about it, lest by so doing +they give a shock to prejudice, and thus put in peril certain +professional or other emoluments. Too sensible to be pious, and too +cautious to be honest, they must be extremely well paid ere they will +incur the risk attendant upon a confession of anti-superstitious faith. + +Animated by a vile spirit of accommodation, their whole sum of practical +wisdom can be told in four words--BE SILENT AND SAFE. They are amazed at +the 'folly' of these who make sacrifices at the shrine of sincerity; and +while sagacious enough to perceive that superstition is a clumsy +political contrivance, are not wanting in the prudence which dictates at +least a _seeming_ conformity to prevailing prejudices. + +None have done more to perpetrate error than these time-serving 'men of +the world,' for instead of boldly attacking it, they preserve a prudent +silence which bigots do not fail to interpret as consent. Mosheim says, +[47:1] 'The simplicity and ignorance of the generality in those times +(fifth century) furnished the most favourable occasion for the exercise +of fraud; and the impudence of impostors, in contriving false miracles, +was artfully proportioned to the credulity of the vulgar, while the +sagacious and the wise, who perceived these cheats, were overawed into +silence by the dangers that threatened their lives and fortunes, if they +should expose the artifice. Thus,' continues this author, 'does it +generally happen, when danger attends the discovery and the profession +of truth, the prudent are _silent_, the multitude _believe_, and +impostors _triumph_.' + +Beausobre, too, in his learned account of Manicheism reads a severe +lesson to those who, under the influence of such passions as _fear_ and +_avarice_, will do nothing to check the march of superstition, or +relieve their less 'sensible,' but more honest, fellow-creatures from +the weight of its fetters. After alluding to an epistle written by that +'demi-philosopher,' Synesius, when offered by the Patriarch the +Bishopric of Ptolemais, [48:1] Beausobre says, 'We see in the history +that I have related a kind of hypocrisy, which, perhaps, has been far +too common in all times. It is that of ecclesiastics, who not only do +not say what they think, but the reverse of what they think. +Philosophers in their closet, when out of them they are content with +fables, though they know well they are fables. They do more; they +deliver to the executioner the excellent men who have said it. How many +Atheists and profane persons have brought holy men to the stake under +the pretext of heresy? Every day, hypocrites consecrate the host and +cause it to be adored, although firmly convinced as I am that it is +nothing more than a piece of bread.' + +Whatever may be urged in defence of such execrable duplicity, there can +be no question as to its anti-progressive tendency. The majority of men +are fools, and if such 'sensible' politicians as our Doctor and the +double doctrinising ecclesiastics, for whose portraits we are indebted +to Mosheim and Beausobre, shall have the teaching of them, fools they +are sure to remain. Men who dare not be 'mentally faithful' to +themselves may obstruct, but cannot advance, the interests of truth. In +legislation, in law, in all the relations of life, we want honesty _not_ +piety. There is plenty of piety, and to spare, but of honesty--sterling, +bold, uncompromising honesty--even the best regulated societies can +boast a very small stock. The men best qualified to raise the veil under +which truth lies concealed from vulgar gaze, are precisely the men who +fear to do it. Oh, shame upon ye self-styled philosophers, who in your +closets laugh at 'our holy religion,' and in your churches do it +reverence. Were your bosoms warmed by one spark of generous wisdom, +_silence_ on the question of religion would be broken, the multitude +cease to _believe_, and imposters to _triumph_. + + + + + + London: Printed by Edward Truelove, 240, Strand. + + + + + +[ENDNOTES] + + +[4:1] 25th November, 1845. + +[4:2] Vide 'Times' Commissioner's Letter on the Condition of Ireland, +November 28, 1845. + +[8:1] 'Essay on Providence and a Future State.' + +[9:1] Essay of the Academical or Sceptical Philosophy. [9:2] Critical +remarks on Lord Brougham's 'Lives of Men of Letters and Science, who +flourished in the time of George III.'--The _Times_, Wednesday, October +1, 1845. + +[10:1] History of American Savages. + +[11:1] Appendix the Second to 'Plutarchus and Theophrastus on +Superstition.' + +[11:2] Philosophy of History. + +[12:1] See a Notice of Lord Brougham's Political Philosophy, in the +number for April, 1845. + +[15:1] 'Apology for the Bible,' page 133. + +[15:2] Unusquisque vestrum non cogitat prius se debere Deos nosse quam +colere. + +[20:1] See a curious 'Essay on Nature,' Printed for Badcock and Co., 2, +Queen's Head Passage, Paternoster Row. 1807. + +[23:1] Elements of Materialism, chapter 1. + +[24:1] Discussion on the Existence of God, between Origen Bachelor and +Robert Dale Owen. + +[29:1] Hume's Treastise on Human Nature. + +[29:2] This sexing is a stock receipt for mystification.--_Colonel +Thompson._ + +[30:1] The Rev. J.K. Smith. + +[31:1] 'An Address on Cerebral Physiology and Materialism,' delivered to +the Phrenological Association In London, June 20, 1842. + +[33:1] Principia Mathematica, p. 528, Lond. edit., 1720. + +[38:1] Lessing. + +[42:1] Lecture by the Rev. Hugh M'Neil, Minister of St. Jude's Church, +Liverpool, delivered about seven years since, in presence of some 400 of +the Irish Protestant Clergy. + +[42:2] The necessary existence of Deity, by William Gillespie. + +[42:3] Page 106 of a Discussion on the Existence of God, between Origen +Batchelor and R.D. Owen. + +[43:1] Quoted by Dr. Samuel Clarke, in his introduction to the Scripture +Doctrine of the Trinity. + +[47:1] Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii, page 11. + +[48:1] Manicheisme, tome ii, p. 568. + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Superstition Unveiled, by Charles Southwell + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SUPERSTITION UNVEILED *** + +***** This file should be named 15696.txt or 15696.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/6/9/15696/ + +Produced by Freethought Archives, www.freethought.vze.com + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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