{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_38375/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_38375","id":"gutenberg_38375","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38375","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Religious","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Religion","Religion -- Controversial literature"],"text":"Produced by David Widger\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRELIGION IN THE HEAVENS;\n\nOR, MYTHOLOGY UNVEILED\n\nIN A SERIES OF LECTURES,\n\nBy Logan Mitchell,\n\nA Follower Of Nature.\n\n\"Thus does it generally happen in human life, that when danger attends\nthe discovery of truth, and the profession thereof, the prudent are\nsilent, the multitude believe, and impostors triumph.\"--Mosheim's\n\"Ecclesiastical History.\"\n\n1881.\n\nLONDON:\n\nTHE SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC.\n\nAries. Libra. Taurus. Scorpio. Gemini. Sagittarius. Cancer. Capricoraus.\nLeo, Aquarius. Virgo. Pisces.\n\nIn nearly 26000 years the Sun passes through the whole circle of the\nZodiac. That is, he is in each sign at the Vernal Equinox 2,155 years.\n\nOne universal mythos, or fable wearing the garb of history, has been the\nbasis of all religions, ancient and modern. This mythos is rooted in, and\nhas secret allusion to the zodiac and the solar system, in which the\nsun and the rest of the \"Host of Heaven,\" were turned into imaginary\npersonages, under peculiar nomenclatures in each country; and fanciful\nnarratives concerning them, were invented by the astronomising priests,\nin order to stultify and subject the minds of the ignorant populace.\nThis deception continues to the present day, for the solar mythos wets\nthe true Christianity. \"When the French, under Napoleon, possessed\nItaly, they examined the chair of St. Peter, and found upon it the signs\nof the zodiac.\"\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\nACCORDING to the ignorant prejudices which priestcraft has interwoven\nthrough the human mind, the subjects treated of in the following\nLectures, are considered as sacred ground by the votaries of\nsuperstition; and therefore every attempt to examine them with freedom,\nor to expose them to the test of reason and free discussion, appears\nshocking to the blindly bigoted, and alarming to interested priests.\nBut as neither complaisance nor forbearance is due to either of these\nparties, the free inquirer, stimulated by the love of truth alone, will\nbe earnestly desirous of emancipating the minds of his fellows from the\nfears and delusions of a sanguinary and distracting superstition, which\nhas no foundation in reason, either as regards the past or the future;\nand from the gloomy grasp of its active, subtle, and vindictive\npriesthood, who want nothing but the _power_ to imprison and roast\nalive, as they did in former ages. Yet even in the present times of\nscience and reform, what has been the fate of the daring wight who\nhas ventured to expose the origin and shown the terrible effects of\nChristianity during fifteen hundred years? He has drawn upon himself the\nconcentrated essence of malice from all the hireling sacerdotal orders,\nabetted by their allies the aristocracy of every country, by whom he has\ncommonly been robbed and imprisoned, or otherwise ruined both in fortune\nand reputation.*\n\n     * \"Knowledge is called infidelity:\n     .... Hence the few who knew\n     Aught worth recording, and were fools enough\n     To vent their free opinions, what has been\n     Their recompense and their reward? The stake,\n     The fagot and the cross.\"\n     --Goethe's \"Faust.\"\n\n          Infidelity--we say; but to what?\n          To vulgar superstitions enforced.\n\nHow does he incur the implacable vengeance of the theologians? Because\nhis search after truth, in the paths of Nature, has a direct tendency\nto overturn that monstrous fabric of delusion, which enables so\nmany hundreds of thousands of them to live in ease and luxury, at a\nprodigious expense to human industry. Why do the aristocracy and the\nrich of the land persecute and pursue him to ruin? The aristocracy\nbeing, in point of fact, the national rulers, as such, have hitherto\nconsidered it necessary to support some kind of superstition (any sort\ndoes equally well for the ignorant and vulgar), perceiving that, by\nan iniquitous confederacy with its priesthood for mutual support, the\nstrongest arm of bad government is created. Moreover, the ranks of the\nhierarchy are recruited by scions from aristocratical stocks, who are\ncalled by the \"Holy Ghost,\" to receive revenues sufficient for \"_the\nattraction of gentlemen_\" and whether these be younger sons, brothers,\nblackguards, or blockheads, it is all the same--they are good enough\nfor Mother Church. This is a powerful--an almost irresistible scheme\nfor fostering ignorance and falsehood--for upholding the foul connexion\nbetween Church and State, and for perpetuating the mental slavery of the\npeople. The cause of truth and the welfare of society call loudly for\nthe exposure of these enormous corruptions; and the dangerous task will\nbe hailed and encouraged by every true friend to human improvement,\nas the surest means of banishing from amongst men the blasting and\ndemoralizing belief in supenaturalism, for that is the principal, if not\nthe sole source of all the moral evils on the face of the earth.\n\nIt was the strikingly eloquent saying of Mr. Paine, that \"prejudice is\nthe spider that spins its web on the mind.\" This entangling web is so\ninterwoven into the tender and plastic mind of youth by systematized\ndeception, that even the strongest intellect can hardly extricate itself\nduring life; and this spell holds equally good with Jew, Christian,\nMahommedan, or in any other of all the heaven-derived superstitions\nthat have afflicted the human race. These are the universal plagues--the\nfatal barriers which stand perpetually between man and the harmonious\nunion which he would ever maintain with nature. All religions have in\nsuccession sprung out of the superstitions which preceded them, and\nthere is no difficulty in proving that the Christian scheme is no\nexception to the rule; for, on its very front, it carries the most\nconclusive evidence of having been drawn out of the exhaustless ethnical\nmagazines of Paganism,* and metamorphosed there is not a vestige--not\nan iota of Christianity, whether Catholic or Protestant, that did not\nbelong to Paganism, thousands of years before the reign of Tiberius;\nand that all the \"religion\" practised in Europe is merely the exoteric\nquackery of the old universal solar mythos. In like manner, it was only\nthe initiated Jews of their cabbala, who knew the secret of the same\nmythos. This was called Gnosticism.\n\n     * Beyond the limits of the papal conclave of cardinals,\n     there is every reason to believe that very little true, or\n     esoteric Christianity is known; and that only among the\n     learned and most laborious in fearless research. In that\n     modern cabbala of the initiated, the secret is guarded with\n     the most solemn and profound vigilance; and the sacred trust\n     is, that into that unsightly and distorted texture of wild\n     and irrational superstition, which has deluded men by\n     teaching them to overlook the moral and physical realities\n     of nature--fixing their minds upon imaginary existence; and\n     by an intercourse which surpliced magicians have pretended\n     to, with a place called heaven, everything that is good and\n     congenial to man upon earth has been destroyed.\n\n          \"For the the craft of priesthood that hath shaped\n          A future world,--the kings of distant days\n          Have countenanced the fraud, that fools content,\n          Might look for blessings in another scene,\n          And bear the yoke more tranquilly in this.\"\n\nNone but bigoted and priest-subdued minds will deny that it has been\nChristian superstition, and its offspring, cherished ignorance, that\nhave distracted and made stages for theological gladiators, of Spain,\nPortugal, and Ireland, for a succession of ages. By its natural tendency\nto corrupt every kind of government, it has shed the blood of Erin's\npriest-ridden sons, to satisfy the rapacious hierarchy of a more favored\nsect! In England, at this moment, is it not a demonstrable fact that,\nas theology enters into, and taints everything, so it is the ready and\ninsuperable barrier against every salutary improvement; for, whenever a\nreform of bad laws and abuses is proposed, or any measure attempted\nthat would tend to the relief and benefit of the people at large, do not\nChurchcraft, Aristocracy and Co. put their veto upon it immediately? *\n\nIt is the essence of this pretended science of theology, particularly\nthat of triune-Christianity, to oppose, and in everything to combat\nthe light of Nature and reason--to degrade and crush the human mind in\nyouth, as the best security against its future expansion; and hence it\nis that, poor deluded man, in his abject and ludicrous terrors, has\nbeen rendered the most bewildered, piteous, and contemptible of all\nanimals,** wishing to live for ever _after death_, yet afraid to die!\nSuch being the nature of this dark pestilence, the terrible evils it has\nproduced in Europe for so many centuries, and is still producing even to\nthis day are precisely what might be expected from such a cause.\n\n     * The demon of Toryism, which pervades Europe throughout, is\n     the legitimate offspring of Priestcraft, Aristocracy and\n     Co.--that is, a confederacy of the great monopolisers of the\n     land and the church hierarchy, for the honest purpose of\n     subjugating and fleecing the industrious wealth-producers.\n\n     ** No man will ever write as a true philosopher who seeks\n     the approbation of more than one in every ten thousand of\n     men, as they are moulded at present by theology.\n\nTo any species of political tyranny that happened to be strong enough to\nbestow riches and power upon its priests, it has ever been ready to\nlink itself; and to form the mainstay and support of that flagitious and\nshameful policy which promotes ignorance, as the surest medium through\nwhich to deceive mankind into submission to bad government. Even now,\nin the nineteenth century, there are no legislative disputes and\ndissensions in which it is not the perpetual bone of contention--no\nnational interests discussed wherein it forms not the most inflaming\ningredient.* From a cause that is thus essentially and innately evil,\nsuch effects must emanate of necessity; and, therefore, there would be\nthe highest folly in expecting that this baleful superstition can ever\nchange, or be anything else than that which it hitherto has been--a\nburden and a scourge to every country _in the exact ratio of its\ninfluence_.\n\nThe reproachful canting cry of heretic, infidel, atheist, etc., will be\nraised against the author of these lectures, by every fiery intolerant\nbigot into whose hands they may fall. But he alone is the true infidel\nwho forsakes the laws of his Nature, and gives up his mind to a belief\nin fabulous and demoralising legends, which contradict all experience,\nand stand in opposition to the testimony of his own senses and reason.**\nIn regard to the term Atheist, which, of all others, is meant to be\nthe most opprobrious, let our angry zealot, in the first place, define\nprecisely what he means by the word:--if he explains it by saying \"it\nsignifies one who supposes that there is no God;\" we reply that it is\nimpossible to understand this definition until he declares in express\nand intelligible terms what he means by the word \"God.\" If it is used\nto designate that incomprehensible POWER by which the universe is ruled,\nthere cannot be such a thing as an Atheist in existence.\n\n     * It was formerly maintained by hangmen and funeral piles,\n     and now by clerical riches and power, hereditary lawgivers,\n     harsh judges, ignorant juries, fines and imprisonments.\n\n     ** Diderot, in illustrating the conflict of priests against\n     reason, says, \"Bewildered in an immense forest during the\n     night, and having only one small torch for my guide, a\n     stranger approaches, and thus addresses me,--'Friend, blow\n     out thy light if thou wouldst make sure of the right\n     path.'\"--This stranger was a priest.\n\nDo the Jews, Christians, and Mahommedans, by their wild and degrading\nanthropomorphism, or by forming their deity in the likeness of any\nentity that the human mind can conceive, evince a worthy, or anything\napproaching to an adequate, conception of the unknown,* all-ruling\n_Power_? Quite the contrary; for in absurdly imbodying it as a\nlocated Being, or by conferring personification in any shape or manner\nwhatsoever, they impiously create one of those idols which they pretend\nto abhor, and become themselves idolators. These alone are the real\nAtheists, as they not only endow their man-God with the worst of human\nfrailties and passions, but contemn and repudiate the true revelation of\nNature. The mean and grovelling notions which the half-inch mind of the\npriest-led fanatic has of his God (for instance the Jewish one), form a\nstriking contrast with the elevated and pure ideas which fill the mind\nof Nature's free votary, towards the one universal Power,--a veneration\ninfinitely too exalted to allow for a moment the puerile and ridiculous\nnotion of its being personified in the form or likeness of any existing\nthing.**\n\n     * What do theologues now know of that which they call Deity\n     more than was known to the philosophic Brahmin, Egyptian, or\n     Zoroastrian, ten thousand years ago? Absolutely nothing.\n     What does the pampered Oxonian professor of theology know\n     more of it than the meanest cow-boy in England? Absolutely\n     nothing.\n\n     ** The deist talks of \"Nature's God,\" that is, the powers of\n     Nature personified, for it is impossible it should mean\n     anything else. As a poetic figure, we have no objection to\n     this.\n\nBut the priests of all religions that have at any time plagued the\nearth, have agreed in the absolute necessity of inventing such imbodied\nGods or idols; and whether they be Jupiters or Jehovahs is no great\nmatter, as they answer equally well as mystic sources from whence to\nderive the usurped power of the sacerdotal orders; and as relentless\ntormentors, to keep the minds of their frenzied dupes in perpetual\nterror. Without these pre-requisities, their trade would soon come to\nan end. Hence arises their well-known malignity against all who are\nsceptical respecting the existence of such _supernatural personages_;\nfor those who have doubts about that which is indispensable to the\ntheologians, are denounced by them as abominable Atheists, which, being\nexplained, designates the few unfettered, ingenuous minds, who are\ncapable of perceiving the matchless absurdity of attempting, by\nany entity, or personified representation whatsoever, to convey the\nslightest rational idea of that incomprehensible Power, by which\ncountless millions of worlds are ruled.\n\n\n\n\nLECTURE FIRST. ON MIRACLES\n\n     \"Man is born in ignorance of everything around him; and this\n     ignorance of natural causes begat terror; terror,\n     superstition; superstition, priests and the priesthood:\n     whose interests and unbending efforts are exerted to\n     perpetuate the ignorance, the fear, and the superstition\n     that gave them birth\"\n\nTHE ignorance of the natural causes of the effects which man sees around\nhim, has ever been the foundation upon which the fabricators of all\nreligions have built the whole machinery of those delusions by which the\nhuman race in all ages has been duped.. These impostors have\ninvariably relied on their artful jugglery in the pretended science of\nsupenaturalism, for the success of their respective systems; and of all\nsuch means of deception, that of working miracles by legerdemain, or\ncollusive agency, has been the most successfully palmed off upon the\ncredulous multitude in all countries; whilst men of knowledge and\nreflection have in all times rejected the pretended infractions of the\nimmutable course of nature, as the inventions of knavery to delude\nand thereby prey upon ignorance. The faith reposed in these delusive\nprodigies was always in proportion to the degree of simplicity in the\ndeceived; they were not generally believed by those who saw, but most\nfirmly by those who did _not_ see, them performed; and though not true\nat first, that is but a trivial matter, as time has established the\nveracity of those of the Jews and primitive Christians; and now when\nthey are upheld by overwhelming clerical riches and power, backed by\npolitical corruption, they will continue to degrade, and be the grossest\noutrage upon common sense and experience, until the great and salutary\nmoral change shall take place, when the mind of youth shall no longer be\nmortgaged to the priest in education.\n\nThough a miracle, or pseudo violation of Nature's laws, be the most\ncertain method of exciting the admiration of the vulgar, it is contrary\nto reason that anything of the kind should be true; but it is by no\nmeans contrary to the testimony of experience, that impostors might have\nlived two or three thousand years ago, and propagated falsehood. This\nconclusion is fully corroborated by all modern experience, in which we\nfind that deception and falsehood form the medium through which knavery\nrules simple ignorance; and to such a degree do these ingredients\npervade the whole of society, that they in a great measure constitute\nthe religious and moral element in which man lives at the present\nday; and so besotted has the breathing of this atmosphere of error and\ndelusion rendered him, that the more outrageous a miracle, or other\ntheological fable, is against rational light and common sense, the more\ngreedily has it ever been received by the unthinking and priest-ridden\nmillion, who delight in the marvellous and the incredible--believing\neverything, and examining nothing:--hence the success of the ludicrous\nmedley that makes up our Christian _Polytheism_. Admitting, for a\nmoment, the possibility of such physical prodigies being true, what do\nwe gain by them,--do they either confer additional authority on moral\ntruth, or prove it false? Can they make right wrong, or wrong right?\nIt is a melancholy fallacy to attribute to them any such power or\ninfluence, and implies a lamentably low estimate of the dignity and\ngreatness of moral truth. All that we gain by pretended violations of\nNature's laws, is dogmatism, bigotry, spiritual fear, intolerance, and\nsuperstition; together with all the other curses which come in the train\nof religion, when backed by authority.\n\nA modern philosopher has given the quietus to miracles in the following\ndeath-blow:--\"A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature; and as a\nfirm and unalterable experience has established these laws, the proof\nagainst a miracle, from the very nature of the fact, is as entire as any\nargument from experience can possibly be imagined; and, therefore, no\ntestimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, _unless the testimony be\nof such a kind that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the\nfact which it endeavors to establish_\" This argument is absolutely\ninvincible. The boundless plenum of Nature--the revolution of hundreds\nof millions of globes round a million of suns, may be called miraculous,\nbut in all this, Nature, or the material universe in motion,* is still\ninvariable, and acting by _self-existing qualities or properties_, which\nare therefore inviolable and immutable. If it is asked, \"cannot a law\nthat is made by the Supreme Power be suspended by its author?\" we reply,\nthat the innate or essential properties of matter, being _principles_,\ncould have no author--no antecedent--no beginning:--they are co-eternal\nas matter and motion, or the immutable Power which we call Nature. This\nhypothesis is plain, simple, easy, and rational: but the theory of your\npersonified, localised artificer, is the reverse of all this; for he\nhimself would stand a thousand times more in need of an artificer\nor author than does the material universe. We _know that matter\nexists:**--_there can be only one infinite--ergo, matter _must_ be that\ninfinite.\n\n     * Lalande says that at the age of nineteen, he thought the\n     heavens proved a personified God (the anthropomorphism of\n     the Jews). but now, says he, I see in them nothing but\n     matter and motion. He said also that Materialism was beyond\n     the vulgar, to whom it would be neither agreeable nor\n     useful.\n\n     ** Begging my Lord of Cloyne's pardon.\n\nIn their secret doctrines, the philosophers and priests of antiquity\nadmitted no miraculous powers; and when they said that a certain thing\nwas done by a god, or \"the gods,\" they were merely using words suited to\nthe capacity of the multitude, while the mystic or esoteric meaning\nwas, that the thing arose from the concatenation of natural causes and\neffects, or the eternal order of necessity; and not, as the ignorant\nimagine, that the laws of nature were suspended by the interference of\nsome personified god. With the above two classes of the initiated, all\ntheir mysteries were rooted in, and had constant allusion to zodiacal\nobjects, and the physical powers of Nature; which objects and powers\nwere, by the prosopopoeia, converted into abstract existences, called\ngods and goddesses. This was done by all the priests of antiquity, as\ntheir varied schemes of superstition gained footing so as to foster\nignorance and mental blindness amongst their dupes; and herein they were\nimitated by their successors, the Christians, who likewise claimed a\npower in their gods, to suspend or make infractions in the unalterable\ncourse of Nature. Judaism was a barbarous version of some of the\nbeautiful and lively fables of the Pagans; and the present superstition\nof Europe is a rude polytheistical caricature of the whole.\n\nThe miracle-working Deity of the Jews appears to have been of Egyptian\nextraction; and had his prototype in the god _Jahouh_, who held a high\nrank in the polytheism of the Thebans. This Jahouh was a personification\nof that power which giveth forms to matter (viz., motion), and organises\nanimal and vegetable life, _alias_ soul of the world. Moses, who is said\nto have been a priest of Isis, or Nature, the secret of whose mysteries\nwas the unity of the supreme Power,* seems to have been wishful of\npreserving that unity in the Deity he had borrowed of the Thebans, as is\nstated by Strabo, in his Geography,** who informs us that Moses taught\nhis followers to worship the god Jahouh _without representing it by\nemblem_.\n\n     * Moses borrowed this of the Egyptians. Cudworth, in his\n     Intellectual System, and Hyde, in his treatise on the\n     religion of the Persians, acknowledge that the unity of God\n     was the foundation of the religion of the Egyptians,\n     Chaldeans, and Persians.\n\n     ** Strabo's account is corroborated by his contemporary,\n     Diodorus Siculus, and also by Plutarch. Diodorus's account\n     of Moses not being-agreeable to the Church, has been\n     suppressed.--See Translation of the Abbe Terrasson.\n\nThere can be no doubt as to the identity of this name and that of\nJehovah. That Moses adopted this deity, and that the name when first\nintroduced, was new to the Jews, appears from Exod. vi., 3. Neither\nPhilo nor Josephus deny that the Jews borrowed circumcision from the\nEgyptians; why, then, might they not borrow a god also?*\n\nAs every nation had its cosmogony to account for the origin of things,\nthe Jews must have theirs likewise; so the scribes, who compiled their\nlegends, imitated very closely the Zoroastrian fable, according to which\nthe gods made the world in six gahanbars, or periods; of which the story\nin Genesis, even to the detail of work done in each day, is a mere copy;\nbut the Jewish compiler mistook the matter so far as to put _days_ in\nplace of periods, or _gahanbars_; which word was significant of the six\nsummer months, when the sun, by his genial and all-powerful impulse,\nmakes a fresh creation every year. The learned have farther declared\nthat, in the Talmuds, the expression in the first verse of Genesis is in\nthe plural, viz. \"the Elohim\" (the gods) placed in order the heavens and\nthe earth that in the same verse, the word \"barah,\" which signifies to\narrange, to place in order, has been mistranslated \"created\" In like\nmanner the words \"ruh elohim,\" in the second verse, have been falsely\nrendered \"spirit of God,\" though their true meaning is, _the wind of the\ngods_.***\n\n     * Dr. Geddes, however, is of opinion that Moses learnt the\n     name of Jehovah in Midian, while he resided with his father-\n     in-law.\n\n     ** The Indians had their Vedas and Pouranas; the Egyptians,\n     the five books of Hermes; the Persians, the cosmogony of\n     Zoroaster; the Greeks, that of Hesiod; the Phoenicians, that\n     of Sanchoniatho. The Phoenician, though written in the style\n     of history, is made up of personifications of time, the sun,\n     the stars, earth, seasons, etc.\n\n     *** In St. John's Gospel iii, 5 and 6, the Greek word pneuma\n     (air or wind), is translated spirit; and in the 8th verse it\n     is translated, \"wind\" and \"spirit\" both. In Luke i, 85, is\n     not this word pneuma translated \"Ghost\"?\n\nThus, in the very first two verses of this pretended \"word of God,\" we\nhave no less than three instances of false translation. The learned Dr.\nParkhurst has translated and shown that this word elohim or gods means\nthe seven planetary bodies, as known to the ancients. He calls them _the\ndisposers of the affairs of men_; an influence still attributed to them\nby the astronomical quacks called astrologers. These seven planets were\nthe cabiri of the Egyptians and Phoenicians; of which Baal, \"the Lord,\"\nwas the chief, being added as the eighth. Baal (the Sun) was also one\nof the names of the Jewish god, Jehovah. See Hosea ii., 16. That the\nastro-theology of the eastern nations had exclusive allusion to physical\nobjects--the elements, seasons, etc., was well known to all the learned\nJews. Maimonides says: \"We must not, like the vulgar, understand\nliterally what is written in the book of the creation (Genesis);\notherwise our men of old would not have so earnestly recommended to\nconceal its meaning, _and refrain from raising the allegorical veil\nwhich covereth the truth under it. Understood literally, this work\npresenteth us with ideas of the deity which are most ridiculously\nabsurd. The true meaning of the six days' work ought never to be\ndivulged_\" The treatises of Philo Judaeus have hardly any other object\nthan the allegorical explanation of the Jewish scripture. The great\nOrigen himself treated all these stories as astronomical emblems. \"What\nman of sense,\" says he, \"can persuade himself that there was a first, a\nsecond, and a third day, and that each of those days had a night, when\nthere was yet neither sun,* moon, nor stars!!!\"\n\n     * Of all the glaring blunders committed by the compiler of\n     Genesis, the most unfortunate was the miraculous production\n     of three whole days before he thought of _making_ the sun.\n\nDupuis says, speaking of the astronomical origin of all religions: \"The\nfirst six signs of the zodiac may be considered as forming the empire of\nGod or Oromazdes; the remaining signs as that of the Devil or Ahrimanes\n(cold and darkness). After the evil principle has reigned during the six\nwinter months, from the autumnal to the vernal equinox, the sun resumes\nhis empire, bringing with him warmth and animation for a fresh creation;\nand causing the day to triumph over the night. The vernal equinox was\ntherefore universally considered to be the time: of creation. It is then\nthat the Persians, who call April the month of Paradise, celebrate their\nNeurouz or the new revolution. The Jesuit Petavius has remarked that\nthe Rabbis, when speaking of the creation, use the word _Bara_, which\nsignifies to arrange, or rather to renew.\"\n\nSyncellus, Cedremus, St. Cyril, and others, agree that the word\n_creation_ alludes to the vernal equinox; at which time they expect\nthe coming of their god, who, as Cedrenus tells us, will arrive at _the\nLord's Passover_; or the passage of the sun as he crosses the line of\nthe equator at the vernal equinox point. Formerly, when the sun was in\nTaurus or the Bull, that sign presided over the vernal equinox, and\nit was to the Bull that the Persians attributed those ideas of\n_regeneration_, which a more recent superstition (the Christian) has\nnaturally transferred to Aries, a sign called by the Persians 'the\nLamb.'\n\nBut if the vernal equinox point be now in Pisces or the fishes,\nChristians have nothing more to do with the Ram, as he is the \"_Lamb of\nGod_\" no longer; and therefore they should adopt, as of old, when the\nsun was in Pisces, the famous savior fish Oannes, which used to preach\nso prettily upon the banks of the Nile and the Euphrates. At that\nexceedingly remote period, say nearly 26,000 years ago, this fish must\nhave been a principal god amongst the Egyptians and Chaldeans; and\ncertainly, while the sun occupied the fishy sign in the zodiac at the\nvernal equinox, nothing could be more appropriate than that the\nemblem god should appear in the shape of a fish, to preach the annual\nsalvation.* Each sign in succession has, by the slow precession of\nequinoxes, enjoyed a similar honor.\n\n     * The first of the nine incarnations of the Indian Redeemer,\n     Vishnu, was in the form of a fish.\n\nThat the Jewish priests, from not having science within themselves, were\napt to be too late in borrowing their emblem gods from the more learned\nhierophants of Egypt, Chaldea, and Persia, appears in that _unhandy_\nmistake committed by Jeroboam (1 Kings xiii., 4), in sacrificing to the\ngolden calf, the old representative of the sign Taurus, which was then\nout of date, when he ought to have been paying his respects to the \"Lamb\nof God,\" the accredited envoy of the sign of the Ram, which had come\ninto play by the Sun's having entered it some time previously. By the\nmouth of his messenger, \"the Lord\" (the Sun) seems to reproach Jeroboam\nin terms something like the following: \"What ignorant ninnies you and\nyour priests are, not to know that, having left my bull-house in the\nzodiacal town,* and taken a two thousand one hundred and fifty years'\nlease at the _sign_ of the Ram, I have now nothing to do with calves:\ngo, ye shallow novices, and learn better of your masters, my older and\nmore scientific priests, the Magi and Chaldees, that the appropriate\nsymbol of my worship, is now a Lamb, called the Lamb of God.\"**\n\n     *The New Jerusalem.\n\n     **April-fools are no doubt of vast antiquity; but Jeroboam\n     is perhaps the first we met with in the Bible. This reproach\n     was incurred by those who, like him, persisted in calf\n     adoration, after its archetype the Bull, or sign Taurus, had\n     ceased to be the \"House of the Sun,\" at the-vernal equinox;\n     that is, after the Bull of April had given place to the Ram,\n     or Lamb of March; and, according to the Rev. Mr. Maurice,\n     that point could not have coincided with the first degree of\n     Aries, later than 1800 years before our era.\n\nWherever such digressions as the above are made in the course of these\nLectures, they are intended to show that, although we treat the Bible\naccording to its literal meaning, the respect we have for it, _so far as\nit is a book of hidden science_, induces us to give such explanations,\nas they alone do it justice according to knowledge. But since its\npriests and their ignorant dupes insist on adopting the outward, or\nsense nonsensical, the best way to expose their folly is to take them at\ntheir word..\n\nThe legend about the first man may have been taken from Apollodorus'\nfable of Prometheus, who made the first man and woman with clay, and\nafterwards animated them with fire which he had stolen from the chariot\nof the sun; or was the first creation in Genesis imitated from Plato's\nstory of the androgynae, or double _homo_, possessing both sexes? Such\nwas the hermaphrodite, or first creation in Genesis; the second was\npurely masculine, and only one of his ribs turned into the feminine. In\nthe ancient Persian traditions, there were two distinct fables about the\ncreation of man, from which those in Genesis appear to have been taken:\nbut the compiler of that book, knowing both of the stories, and being at\na loss which to prefer, has foolishly mingled them together, yet still\npreserving the two creations. Thus it seems pretty certain that the\nJewish fable about the first man and woman is of Persian origin. Henry\nLord, in a book written at Surat, on the cosmogonies of India and\nPersia, and dedicated to the Archbishop of Canterbury, says: \"In the\nPersian cosmogony, the name of the first man was _Adamoh_ and of the\nwoman _Hevah_. From hence come the Adam and Eve of the book of Genesis.\nHevah is the name given to the woman, in an English edition of the\nBible, printed in 1583.\"\n\nIn the Zoroastrian and Chaldean mysteries, the above supposed originals\nof the human race were personifications of the zodiacal signs, Bootes\nand Virgo; and their _fall_, or expulsion from the summer garden of\nfruits and flowers, was emblematical of the solar year, after the\nautumnal equinox. Anciently, in India and Chaldea, the phaenomenon of\nthe starry heavens was called Aden, or the Celestial Garden. In all\nprobability the Jews picked up these shreds of figurative astronomy when\nthey were slaves to the Babylonians, and, ignorantly taking them in\nthe literal sense, foisted them into their heterogeneous miscellany.\nSupported by the sound knowledge of Philo, and all the learned Jews,\nOrigen again shows his contempt for those who understood Genesis\nliterally, and cries out: \"What man can be stupid enough to believe that\nGod, acting the part of a gardener, had planted a garden in the east;\nthat the tree of life was a real tree, and that the fruit of it had the\nvirtue of making those who eat of it live for ever?\"* The first four\nchapters of that book contain parts of three, if not four distinct\nfables, all evidently derived from different sources. The rest of this\nextraordinary medley, called the Old Testament, is made up of some\ndramatic fragments of the Egyptians and Persians (as the plague,\nmiracles, and the book of Job), fabulous legends plagiarized by the\nJews, barbarous narrative, and the rhapsodies of vagrant minstrels, who\nsung of past events, seemingly in the future tense.\n\n     * St. Augustine, in his \"City of God,\" allows that in his\n     time, the whole story about Adam, Eve, the serpent, and the\n     garden of Eden, with its forbidden fruit, was considered as\n     allegorical. There was not one, but there were _two_\n     prohibited trees!\n\n     The Emperor Julian, with that wisdom which characterised\n     him, observed that, \"If there ever had been, or could be a\n     tree of knowledge, instead of God forbidding man to eat\n     thereof, it would be that of which he would order him to eat\n     the most.\" Reason is the real forbidden tree of priestcraft.\n\nFrom a mass of ill-strung fables, derived from such a variety of\nsources--a chaos of revolting prodigies, mixed up with a few probable\nfacts, such as the expulsion or flight from Egyptian slavery, the\nmurders and devastations in Southern Syria, etc., we cannot, in the\nbounds of a lecture, notice more than a few of the most prominent\nmiracles, all of which had Pagan prototypes.\n\nAs every oriental country had its cosmogony, accounting very clearly,\nthough contrarily to each other, for the origin of things, so all\nhad traditionary floods, which each nation quoted as proof of its\nantiquity.* Why should not the Jews have one also? The Chaldeans said\nthat theirs happened 25,000 years before the war of Troy, when the\nimmense surface now occupied by the Mediterranean Sea was inundated..\nThe Egyptians had their inundations; and hence their ark of Osiris (the\narchetype of the Noah's ark) the same as the constellation Argo. The\nGreeks had their floods of Ogyges and Deucalion; the latter of which,\nwas fully treated of by Berosus, and after him by Lucian, in his Syrian\ngoddess; but the Jews, who took everything from their masters, borrowed\nthe Chaldean pilot _Noe_, made him skipper of their ark, slightly\nchanging his name to _Noah_, and appropriated to themselves the flood\nof Deucalion,** with all its details, almost word for word as fabled\nby Berosus and Lucian.. That this tradition was not adopted by the Jews\nuntil long after the alleged time of Jehovah's flood, is proved by\nthe orders which he gave Noah respecting clean and unclean beasts, the\ndistinction whereof not being made until several hundred years after the\nassumed time of Noah. Nothing can be more probable than that, amongst\nthe initiated few, all these floods had secret reference to the supposed\ninfluence of the winter or watery constellations.\n\n     * Even the long lives of the antediluvians, according to the\n     Jews, are the exact copy of the Iogues of the Hindu\n     Indians.\n\n     ** The flood of Xisuthrus was almost the same as that of\n     Deucalion.\n\nThe Pentateuch, or first five books of the old Jewish \"_will of God_\"\nhave been attributed to Moses; though, from their internal evidence, it\nis altogether impossible that he could be the author, even if we allow\nhim to have been a real personage. These books were most likely compiled\nand got up in imitation of the _five books_ of the Egyptian Hermes, who\nwas at one time the personified genius of the constellation Sirius; at\nanother, of the planet Mercury. That the god Bacchus was the archetype\nof Moses, seems to have been the opinion of many learned men,\nparticularly the celebrated Bishop Huet, and I. Vossius, who agree that\nthe Arabian name of Bacchus is _Meses;_ and the identity is further\nproved, inasmuch as the etymon of the two words is the same, signifying\n_saved from the waters_. Justin, in his \"Historium Judaerum,\" seems also\nto favor the fact that Moses was a fabulous person, where he says that\nit was not he, but Abraham, who led the Jews out of Egypt; that their\nnumber was 6,000, not 600,000;* and that they were turned out of the\nland for uncleanness, being all lepers.\n\n     * On almost all occasions, the Jewish tales, in relation to\n     numbers, whether of men or other animals, are so\n     ridiculously exaggerated, that if we adopt the scale of\n     allowing them one for every hundred enumerated in their\n     books, we shall do them ample justice. This gives Solomon\n     ten in place of his thousand ladies: a harem still\n     abundantly numerous to produce \"vexation of spirit.\"\n\nA vast and sublime idea was attached to the attributes of _Jahouh_,\nwhilst he was at home in Egyptian Thebes; but, in accompanying Moses and\nhis barbarians into the Arabian desert, we find him completely shorn of\nall grandeur and dignity of character. He was there drilled and\nmoulded into a god, whose will and commands were precisely those of the\nrobber-in-chief and his priests, jointly and severally; by whom he was\nconverted into the Jewish Juggernaut, delighting in blood; and on\nall occasions standing forward to prompt and justify their villainous\nschemes of devastation and murder.* At a very early stage of his\nconnexion with Moses, he is degraded by being brought into contact with\nthe dramatic jugglers of lower Egypt; of whose legerdemain tricks we\nhave a sample in the stage representation of what are called the plague\nmiracles. As a priest, Moses was no doubt initiated into all the arts of\nthese sleight-of-hand impostors. In the trial of skill exhibited by the\ncontending operators in these conjurations, we have a tissue of the most\nabsurd and ridiculous fooleries imaginable,--the writer having taken\nleave of his senses, _we have the hyperbole run mad_. Much of this\njugglery was done by means of real or counterfeit serpents! After all\nthe water in Egypt, even the great river Nile itself, had been turned\ninto blood, the magicians do the same miracle, though Aaron had not left\nthem a drop of water in all Egypt! Then follow other romances, wherein\nthe \"God\" appears far more blameable than Pharaoh, whose sin of\nobstinacy is visited upon the innocent cattle; and in succeeding\nplagues, all the horses, asses, camels, oxen and sheep, having many\nlives, are killed over and over again. The story of the locusts is not\nmiraculous; but we have an outrageous prodigy in a darkness for three\n_days_; to say nothing of its substantial property of being felt or\nhandled. Why did not the Goshenites (who had their usual light) avail\nthemselves of so good an opportunity to run away? They were waiting\nuntil \"the Lord\" should issue his general order to commit the robbery\non the Egyptians. Though all Pharaoh's horses had been twice or thrice\nkilled during these plagues, he finds no difficulty in mustering a\nnumerous cavalry to pursue the fugitives. Moses being a mere copy of\nBacchus, all the above stage trickery--the dividing of the Red Sea\nand the Jordan, are rude imitations of the exploits of the latter,\nwho performed marvellous feats and gambols, _turning water into blood,\ndrying up rivers, converting water into wine_, etc., etc.\n\n     * Oh! what a mountain of faith and prejudice is required to\n     hide this glaring, this palpable truth!\n\n     ** See Lucian's \"Alexander.\"\n\nIt appears an awkward business that the omniscient Jehovah could not\nsafely undertake the midnight massacre of Egypt's firstborn, without\nsome sign to prevent the possibility of his committing a blunder, by\nfalling foul of his chosen Goshenites; and, therefore, another general\norder is issued, to smear their doorposts with blood as a mark of\nsecurity, while the butchery was going on. This shocking tale might have\narisen out of the historical fact, that the seventh Ptolemy caused\nall the young men of Alexandria to be murdered. This inference may be\nobjected to on account of the supposed anachronism, respecting which\nwe shall make a short digression. Precise historical dates have been\ncarefully avoided or obscured by the Bible-makers; and there is scarcely\nany allusion to _time_, that is supported by concurrent testimony; and,\ntherefore, it is only by a cross-examination of its internal evidence,\nthat we can judge of the various periods when the Old Testament was\ncompiled.*\n\n     * All the narrative writings of the Jews, which betrayed too\n     openly a recent composition, such as the Maccabees (which in\n     a historical point of view, are the most valuable parts of\n     the Bible), and many others were excluded, and declared\n     apocryphal by the Old Testament composers; yet numerous\n     tell-tale proofs escaped them; for instance, Nehemiah speaks\n     of \"Darius the Persian.\" Now, between Cyrus and that prince,\n     there reigned fourteen kings of Persia, during a period of\n     280 years. Therefore, not only were the Jew books written\n     after their Babylonian slavery, _but many centuries\n     afterwards_.\n\nThe Decalogue, Chronicles, and other narrative parts, may have\nbeen written under the order of Hilkiah and Ezra, shortly after the\nBabylonian slavery; yet there is great reason to believe that many\npoetical rants called prophecies, and even some parts of the Pentateuch,\nwere written after the Jews began to congregate at Alexandria, when\nthe events which the itinerant Jewish bards pretended to foretel, had\nalready taken place: for instance, Ezekiel makes the Lord say, \"And I\nwill make _Pathros_ desolate.\" Can the cunning alteration made in the\nfirst syllable of this word conceal the evident allusion to that \"wonder\nof the world,\" the famous light tower of Pharos, which was built by two\nof the Ptolemies! Daniel could not speak of the third being \"like unto\nthe Son of God,\" before the dogma was invented that god had a son.*\nMoreover, if it can be shown (as hath been affirmed) that the prophecies\nwere partly translated and modelled from Greek originals, at a period\nsubsequent to the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus, what becomes of their\nantiquity? We repeat that most of the books of this collection contain\nabundant proofs of their having been fabricated from materials as\naforesaid, at various periods between the Babylonian captivity and the\ndestruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, in the time of Vespasian.\n\nWe have seen that the passage of the Red Sea is drawn from the fable\nof the triumphal march of Bacchus, when from Egypt he went to conquer\nIndia. Josephus, though he often renders the romances of his countrymen\nstill more monstrous, was ashamed to make a miracle of this story, and\ncompares it to the passage of the Pamphylian Sea, by Alexander. In a\njovial mood Bacchus drew wine from a rock by a stroke of his rod; but\nherein the imitator deviates from the original, wisely preferring water\nto wine in an arid wilderness.\n\nThe manna miracle has long been detected and exposed. Josephus tells us\nthat, in his time, it was found in great quantities in Arabia; and the\nplant that produces it is now cultivated in Sicily and Southern Italy.\nBishop Talleyrand, in a letter which he is said to have written to\nthe Pope, after their quarrel, told his holiness that the real manna of\nMoses was the plunder he got in the desert by his robberies and murders;\nthese were counted so many godsends.\n\n     * The Talmud acknowledges that the forgeries of Daniel,\n     Esdras, and others, were prodigious.\n\n     ** Talleyrand tells the Pope also, that, of the numerous\n     blunders committed by Moses, not the least was his fixing\n     the time of the Creation at an epoch when the earth did not\n     only exist, but had an immense population, and actually\n     reckoned 50,000 years of civilisation: besides his\n     pretending to look upon the Hebrews as the most ancient\n     people on earth, forgetting or feigning to forget, that they\n     were a mere gang of slaves who had originally escaped from\n     Idumea, during the intestine wars which desolated that\n     country. After having passed into Egypt, where they were\n     again made slaves, it was after the lapse of many years, and\n     after having robbed their masters (as their forefathers had\n     robbed the Idumeans), that, induced by Moses, they crossed\n     the Red Sea in Ethiopian vessels; and having gained the wood\n     of Henon, in Arabia Deserta, they maintained themselves\n     there during forty years, living by the robberies they\n     committed on travellers and the people in the neighborhood.\n\nAs it is not necessary to notice these miracles in Bible order, it may\nhere be observed, that the fable about Lot's wife might have been taken\nfrom that of Euodia; but, more probably, from the ancient fiction of\nBaucis and Philemon, as the first and this are essentially the same.\nIrenaeus and Tertullian affirm that, in their times, _the statue of Lots\nwife regularly menstruated at the usual period of women!_ Reader, these\nmen were no unfair sample of the Christian fathers.\n\nIt was a part of military discipline amongst the Persians, and other\nnations of the East, when marching large armies through the deserts, to\ncarry in the van, during the _night_, fires, made with such combustible\nmatter as would make a great flame of fire, which was elevated so high\nas to be distinctly seen by all in the rear, appearing, in the distance,\nas \"a pillar of fire,\" and serving to point out the line of march. To\ndirect this line during the day, such combustibles were burnt as would\nproduce the greatest cloud or \"pillar of smoke.\" This military usage is\nmentioned both by Herodotus and Quintus Curtius; and Alexander\nhimself adopted it of the Persians. If Moses was so well provided in\na supernatural fire-and-smoke conductor, why was he so anxious and\npressing to get his brother-in-law Hobab (against his will) to guide the\nmarch, and to \"_be to them instead of eyes_\" in leading them to\nproper places for encampment?* Here we have a striking instance of the\nmatchless effrontery of the Jewish fabricators, in thus turning a common\nusage into a miracle.\n\n     * Numbers x., 29 to 32.\n\nIt was wise in Moses to retire to the top of a hill, when he played off\nhis fire and smoke thunder-cloud to the astonishment of the dupes below.\nHis Deity wrought a clever miracle in creating the universe in six days;\nbut what a falling off was there, when he required nearly seven times\nas long to engrave two tables of stone, which a man might \"take in his\nhand.\" As a proof that this job could not be done in less than forty\ndays, the same time precisely was taken to cut the second tables,\nafter Moses had (forgetting his meekness) smashed the first. His\nwell-dissembled rage about the affair of the golden calf* was, no doubt,\nthe result of a cunning scheme, concerted between him and brother Aaron,\nin order to possess themselves of the gold that had been swindled from\nthe Egyptians. To gull the fools, and save this gold for themselves, the\npriest had only to paint a wooden calf yellow, which was easily reduced\nto powder--gold could not, by burning: a little powdered charcoal would\ndo the people no harm. When the sun was in Taurus (the Bull), at the\nvernal equinox, the astronomising priests of Egypt turned bulls and\ncalves into gods, that were quite good enough for the vulgar; and when\nthe sun entered the sign of the ram, a lamb answered equally well for a\ngod, and does so to the present day.\n\n     * In the story about this calf, our translation very\n     modestly says, the people \"rose up to play,\" though it\n     acknowledges they \"were naked;\" but Dr. Clarke has had the\n     singular honesty to tell us that, in the Hebrew Bible, this\n     rising up to play was preparatory _to pairing for open\n     sexual intercourse_. Bruce tells us that this open\n     intercourse was common, and formed an essential part of\n     festive entertainments amongst the Abyssinians. There is\n     reason to believe that it was usual In many countries, both\n     in Africa and Asia.\n\nThe deity of Moses was rather extravagant in fitting out his tabernacle\nand ark. The latter was his travelling box, to afford him ease and\ncomfort when making long marches, and was composed of very costly\nmaterials; but, in point of room and convenience, we should think it\nmust have been inferior to some of Punch's portable palaces. However,\nthe God grew so fond of, and so \"jealous\" about, his box, that, on\none occasion, he perpetrated a tremendously bloody miracle, in killing\n50,070 of the \"glowrin' byke,\" for peeping into it. Putting aside the\nmonstrosity of this story, in relation to number, could this offence\narise from looking into an _empty_ box? Certainly not. Sir William\nDrummond, in his \"AEdipus Judaicus,\" asserts that, according to the\nHebrew, the Jews carried about their idol in this box,* as was customary\nwith the migrating hordes of the desert, all of whom, as well as the\nJews, kept an ark for that purpose! Sir William's assertion is justified\nby the Bible itself, where it says that the Philistines were afraid,\n_because the Jews brought their god into the battle_ when the ark was\ntaken, a misfortune which their deity, with all his omnipotence, could\nnot prevent; but he took terrible revenge on the captors by smiting\nthem with emerods: hence the story in Rabelais against a certain most\n_unholy_ and _unsanctified_ use of that book.\n\n     * The Christian translators of the Bible, no doubt, did all\n     in their power to suppress the fact, that a representation\n     of the Jewish idol was kept in this box. The Levites being\n     the constituted priests of this idol, Micah, when he had his\n     god made of the stolen silver, did not consider it by any\n     means sufficient to have one of his own sons as priest. Why?\n     Because his new idol represented the Jewish deity; and,\n     therefore, a Levite as his priest was indispensable; for\n     then, says he, \"I know the Lord will do me good.\" (See\n     Judges, xvii.) That this god was afterwards located at\n     Jerusalem, as the other district gods of the country were\n     stationed in their respective towns, we have many proofs in\n     the Bible. (See 1 Kings xii; Ezra i., 3; vii., 15, 19.)\n\n     ** Did not the priests of Jupiter Ammon carry the magnet\n     with, them, in a compass-box, as the _ark of the covenant of\n     their god_, which, it was death for the unsanctifled to look\n     into.\n\nThe stupendous prodigy performed by that free-booter and murderer,\nJoshua, in laying an embargo upon, the sun and moon, in order to get\ntime to kill a few thousands more of the Amorites, showed a ferocious\nthirst of blood, and was wholly uncalled for, victory being already\nsecured through the powerful aid of Jahouh, who, sitting astride on the\ncorner of a dark cloud was pelting the Amorites with great stones. Let\nus suppose that both the sun and the moon were in view at the same time,\nand that they stood still as commanded, would that make the massacre of\nthe Amorites one iota less cruel and ferocious? It would only prove that\nJoshua's god was neither just nor merciful. This tale is, no doubt,\na varied version of the fable of Jupiter's sending a shower of large\nhailstones upon the rebellious sons of Neptune. This may be coupled\nwith another enormous fiction, the dial of Ahaz, upon which, by a bolder\nmanoeuvre still, the sun is commanded to go backwards. Moses and Joshua\nappear to have had a sun and moon, as well as a Deity of their own. From\nall this does it not appear that the compilers of these fables, though\nunder heavenly inspiration, were so ignorant as to suppose that the\nsun's motion caused the day, and that this globe stood still? Is it not\nevident also, that they took the stars to be little bright spangles set\nin a solid firmament (which had windows), as jewellers set brilliants in\nmetal? The man who seriously believes in the literality of our version\nof these fables, is so stupidly and piteously credulous, as to be an\nobject of compassion rather than of contempt. The two last miracles\nhad more than one archetype in Pagan mythology:--the sun and moon were\narrested by Bacchus on his march to India. In one of the love intrigues\nof Jupiter, he stayed the sun in order to get a double night in the arms\nof the fair Alcmena, when she conceived of the great Hercules. In later\ntimes the Christian priests performed a similar miracle in favor of the\nEmperor Charles V.\n\nIf Amphion, by the music of his lyre, made the stones dance into\nbuilding order, so as to raise the walls of Thebes, why should not\nJoshua reverse the miracle, by tumbling down the walls of Jericho, to a\ntune played upon rams' horns by priests?\n\nIn the whole history of human cruelty and wickedness, there is nothing\nto equal, in cool and diabolical atrocity, the plunder and massacre\nof the Midianites. The horrible narrative partakes but little of the\nmiraculous; yet, as Jahouh was said to be without a material body, and\npurely spiritual, it has been matter of wonder what he was going to do\nwith the thirty-two young virgins who \"had not known a man by lying with\nhim,\" and who were awarded as his share of the spoil. This is a\nmystery which we must hold in silent reverence, as being altogether\nunaccountable, unless we surmise that his priests kindly intended to\nrelieve him of so numerous a seraglio.*\n\n     * Horror succeeds to wonder, when it is known that by the\n     original meaning of the word, everything _devoted_ to the\n     \"Lord,\" _was assuredly sacrificed_, unless redeemed.\n\nThe speech of Balaam's ass, of edifying and sacred, memory with our holy\nchurch, had many precedents in antiquity. The cows of Mount Olympus had\nbeen distinguished for supernaturally inspired orations; the doves, the\nfountains, and even the oaks of Dodona, had delivered heavenly oracles;\nXanthus, one of the horses of Achilles, predicted his master's death\nbefore the walls of Troy. Livy and Suetonius (we are sorry for them as\nthey ought to have known better) furnish other examples.\n\nAlmost the same exploits have been attributed by the Jews to Samson that\nwere related by the Phoenicians of their Hercules (according to Yarro,\nthere were forty-four Herculeses), and the imitation is palpably servile\nin the story of the gates of _Gaza_, and that of Hercules with the\npillars of _Gadez_. Lion-killing was imitated also. Hercules was one of\nthe numerous personifications or emblems of the power of the sun; and\nthe Arabian name _Shams-on_, or _Samson_, signifies the sun. Hercules\nis made prisoner by the Egyptians, who want to sacrifice him; but while\nthey are preparing to slay him, he breaks loose and kills them all.\nSamson, when tied with new ropes, is given up to the Philistines, who\nwant to kill him; he breaks the ropes, and kills a thousand of them with\nthe jaw-bone of an ass. The fables are identical. Even the story of the\nfox-tails is rooted in astronomy.* About the time when the corn is cut\ndown in Palestine and Lower Egypt, and shortly after the setting of the\nrainy constellation Hyades, the sign of the fox arose, _in whose tail or\ntrain came the fires or torches of the dog-days_.\n\n     * See \"New Researches.\"\n\nThe fable of Jephtha's sacrificing his daughter has some resemblance\nto the immolation of Iphigenia by her father, Agamemnon, in the famous\nexpedition against Troy, which must have been taken by the Greeks many\ncenturies before the Jews were _known_ to have writings, or even a name.\n\nThe legend about the tower of Babel seems to have originated thus: The\nwise men of Egypt were jealous of the Chaldean philosophers; the former\nsaid that the latter were so proud of their knowledge in astronomy that\nthey presumptuously endeavored to erect a column of science as high\nas the stars; but that their pride was humbled when all their efforts\nfailed to complete the work.\n\nThe hideously unjust dogma of original sin might have grown out of the\nPagan fable of Pandora's box, the occult meaning of which most probably\nwas the evils arising from theology and priestcraft. However, it is\nhigh time that our Christian priesthoods should invent for it some less\nridiculous origin than the apple story, for that is too absurd to serve\ntheir ends any longer.\n\nLudicrous as the whale fable of Jonah is, the copy is fairly outmatched\nby the original from which it is taken. It is a Jewish version of that\nof Hercules, who was enclosed for three days in the belly of a whale;\nbut, being more witty and adroit than Jonah, he contrived to live\nsumptuously all the while, by feasting on the liver of the monster,\nwhich, by some means or other, he contrived to broil! Here, for once,\nthe Jew is outdone at his own weapons--the romance run mad. It must\nsurely have been in ridicule of these and similar god-fables that Lucian\nwrote his \"True History.\"\n\nIsaiah says (xxxvii., 36), \"Then the angel of the Lord went forth and\nsmote, in the camp of the Assyrians, 185,000; and when _they_ arose in\nthe morning, behold, they were all 'dead corpses.'\" The Jonah of the Jew\nwas completely thrown into the shade by Hercules, but here he is himself\nagain. This miracle of miracles is altogether unmatched in heathen\nmythology; for we have 185,000 men, who were murdered in the night,\ngetting up in the morning merely to find _themselves_ \"dead corpses.\" A\ncommentator of the true impudent breed will easily explain all this by\naffirming that the prodigy was typical of the resurrection.\n\nThe three hours of an eclipse, which is said to have taken place on the\ndeath of one of our Christian gods, is a very modest imitation of the\nPagan original, from which it has every appearance of being taken.\nWe say modest, because on the death of the godling Phaeton, his father\nPhoebus withheld his light from the earth a whole day.\n\nAll the Jewish and Christian fictions about resurrections and ascensions\ninto what is called heaven, are also clumsily taken copies of originals\nin the ancient polytheism. The Egyptian Osiris died, returned again to\nlife, and afterwards obtained divine honors; he was designated \"_the\nholy word_\" The god Atys was called the \"_God our Savior_.\" Bacchus died,\nwas buried, descended into, and slept three nights in Tartarus* (the\nonly hell they had in those times), from whence he brought up his\nmother, with whom he ascended into heaven, and made her a goddess. His\nreturn to life was annually celebrated by the virgins and matrons of\nDelphi.\n\n     * All the tales about Tophet, Gehenna, Tartarus, or Hell,\n     had no foundation whatever \"but the practice of burning\n     mankind, either on the funeral pile, or as a sacrifice to\n     the gods. The Greek word, Ades, or Hades, occurs eleven\n     times in the New Testament, and is _falsely_ translated\n     _Hell_ in all except one, where it is rightly translated\n     'the grave,'  signifying the _invisible state_.\"\n\n     Ouranos, coelus, or heaven, merely signified the earth's\n     atmosphere in the summer months.\n\nThus the compilers of the Jew books had exemplars in, and drew their\nfables from, Paganism; and were themselves imitated in turn by the\nfabricators of the new Testament: the stories of the manna, and the\ntwenty loaves of Elisha, very naturally suggested the wonderful growth\nof Jesus' loaves and fishes; and the manner in which that prophet turned\nbrackish into pure water, would clearly point out how that element might\nbe turned into wine, at the feast of Cana. The above are only a few of\nthe numerous instances which might be quoted, wherein the ignorance\nof the Jewish scribes, disfigured the elegant and lively fables of\nPaganism; and it cannot escape observation that the rude recoinage in\ntheir barbarous mint has turned that which was pretty and amusing into\nthe deformed and hideous, in a manner quite characteristic of their own\nsemi-savage condition.\n\nHaving given a few specimens of the miracles attributed to the\ndeity adopted by Moses, and their Pagan prototypes, we will take a\nretrospective glance at his general conduct and character, as depicted\nin his _old Jewish Will_. Never were higher qualities and powers\nascribed to any god; and never were they so badly sustained; he is\nrepresented as omniscient, yet always taken by surprise; an omnipotent\nbeing, whose designs are commonly frustrated; immutable, yet ever\nchanging; sufficient to his own happiness, yet always \"jealous;\"\nperfection itself, yet continually making imperfections, and repenting\nof that which he had previously approved; finally, he makes an _eternal_\nBeing, about as powerful as himself, and for no other apparent purpose\nthan to be crossed and circumvented in all his projects. Sometimes\nMoses and he had sharp bickerings, such as that tavern squabble in Egypt\n(Exodus iv., 2--4), when the god lurked about the inn,* \"seeking to\nkill\" his protege.\n\n     * We do not mean to say that he frequented inns or taverns,\n     but it appears he was fond of a cheerful glass of wine. See\n     Judges ix. 13. Being composed of flesh and blood, Gen. vi.,\n     8.\n\nAt other times they were good friends, merry, and frolicksome, playing\nat bo-peep among the rocks (Exodus xxxiii., 22), the god showing his\n\"back parts\" only, for \"no man could see his face and live\"; yet on\nother occasions he talked \"face to face\" with his intimate friends.\nHe forfeited all pretensions to the attributes of omniscience and\nomnipresence, when he confessed that he must \"_go down now and see_\"\nwhat the men of Sodom had been doing (Gen. xviii., 21). Nor could he,\nfrom his villa beyond the clouds, discover the Tower of Babel, but was\nunder the necessity of coming \"down to see\" (Gen. xi.). That from his\nEgyptian greatness he was reduced, by Moses and his priests, to be\nmerely a provincial deity, appears in various texts, as in Deuteronomy\niv., 7, where it is said he was located near or living \"nigh to them\"\n(the Jews). A district god of this kind was fashionable all over Syria\nat that time, each petty state or tribe having one of its own; such as\nAstarte, _with the cross_, of the Phoenicians; Moloch, of the Ammonites;\nAstoroth and Dagon, of the Philistines; Tammuz, or Adonis, of the\nSidonians; Chemosh,* of the Moabites, etc., etc.; and why should not the\nJews be armed with a god as well as their neighbors? Well might\nJahouh exclaim, \"_save me from my friends_;\" for his historians have\nrepresented him as a passionate, blustering, vengeful changeling,\nextremely \"jealous\" of all the other petty gods around him, and exciting\nnothing but fear and dislike in his followers; hence the Theocrat and\nhis priesthood were continually struggling to keep the grist at their\nown mill, by preventing the people from \"whoring after\" the more amiable\nrites of Astarte and Adonis. In the seventeenth chapter of 1 Chronicles\nthis deity gives intimation that, owing to a change of habits, he was\nnot particularly desirous of living in a house;** that ever since he\nleft Egypt, he had accustomed himself to go about \"_from tent to tent,\nand from one tabernacle to another_\" There is something exceedingly\nludicrous in this; yet we trust that the \"long-ear'd rout,\" the _true\nbelievers_, will have no difficulty in preserving their gravity.\nIn short, of all the personified deities of antiquity, Moses has\ncaricatured his the most egregiously. All these local or provincial gods\nwere immeasurably inferior to the Jupiter of the Greeks, who, although\nhe \"liked the lasses,\" always sustained an awful dignity of character.\n\n     * See Judges xi., 24.\n\n     ** The deity set up by priests stands in no want of a house\n     whilst among wandering tribes, who build none for\n     themselves; but while he is amongst the stationary\n     cultivators of the soil he requires one, in which his\n     _immaterial presence_ is requested on stated days to hear\n     his own praise sung: men are fond of praise, therefore it\n     undoubtedly follows that the deity must be fond of it\n     likewise.\n\nIn additional proof that the Jew books have no just claim to antiquity,\nthere is not a vestige of authentic testimony to show that they were in\nexistence before the King of Babylon gave the Jews permission to settle\nin Palestine, after their slavery. The first thirteen of these appear\nto have been then fabricated from loose and unconnected traditions; of\nwhich the Pentateuch was in all probability compiled the last, as there\nis no mention of it either in Joshua, Judges, the two books of Samuel,\nPsalms, or in Kings or Chronicles, until the time of Josiah, that is,\nabout 900 years after the pretended time of Moses.* If a man, without\nslavish fear or prejudice, will impartially examine the stories in\n2 Kings xxii., and 2 Chron. xxxiv., xxxv., he will see palpably the\ncollusion between the high priest Hilkiah and his pupil, the young\nking Josiah, aided by the prophet Jeremiah, Shaphan the scribe, and the\nprophetess Huldah. These persons, some of whom must have learnt to\nwrite while at Babylon, acted in concert under the high priest, in\nmanufacturing the books of the law, which they pretended to have\nfound in an old chest, where, according to their story, they must have\nmouldered for upwards of 900 years; _yet Shaphan could read them as\nfluently as if he had written them himself_. The object of this fraud\nbeing to wean the Jews from the gods of the Chaldean priests, it is\nprobable that the books of the law only were forged on this occasion;\nfor we find that the compilation of a large portion of the Bible\ntraditions fell to the share of Esdras (who was identically Ezra the\nscribe), as he distinctly tells us in the fourteenth chapter of his\nsecond book, viz., that under the orders of the Lord (read, _the high\npriest_), he had a number of clerks engaged for forty days, during\nwhich time they completed amongst them 204 books or chapters.** As all\nthese men had been captives in Babylon, and could nowhere else be\ntaught to write, how could these books be composed in any other than the\nChaldee character? The third chapter of the book of Chronicles gives\na list of the Jewish kings from David to Zedekiah, and even to four\ngenerations after his time. Now, as Zedekiah was one of those who were\ncarried to Babylon, we have a strong, an irrefragable proof that those\nbooks were written after that captivity.\n\n     * The proof that Moses could not possibly be the author of\n     the Pentateuch did not escape the luminous mind of Mr.\n     Paine. In Genesis xiv., 14, it is said, \"And Abraham pursued\n     them to Dan.\" Now, there was no place called Dan until the\n     time of the Judges. See Judges xviii., 28 and 29.\n\n     In Genesis xxxvi., 31, it is said, \"And these are the kings\n     that reigned in the land of Edom _before the children of\n     Israel had any king_\" Therefore several kings, viz., Saul,\n     David, Solomon, etc., must have reigned before the first\n     book of the Pentateuch was written.\n\n     In the forty-ninth chapter the writer gives an account of\n     the ultimate fate of the tribes (forgetting the tribe of\n     Manasseh altogether). How could Moses know anything of this?\n     How could he speak of the sceptre of Judah? If it is said\n     that this was prophetic of Jesus, we reply that the sceptre\n     _was not_ in Judah when he (Jesus), was bora.\n\n     St. Jerome, said to be one of the most learned of the\n     Fathers, confesses he dare not affirm that Moses was the\n     author of the Pentateuch. He even adds that he has no\n     objection to allow that it was written by Esdras. His words\n     are: \"Sive Mosem dicere volueris auctorem Pentateuchi sive\n     Esdram ejusdem instauratorem operis, non recuso.\"\n\n     ** That Esdras composed these books is further proved in his\n     first book, chap. 8, where it is said that he \"had very\n     great skill, and omitted nothing of the law\" of the Lord,\n     i.e., the laws of the king, and high priest.\n\nMoreover, learned critics have shewn that the Bible names of angels,\nsuch as Gabriel, Uriel, Raphael, Michael, Satan, etc., are purely\nChaldean or Persian! And this is confirmed by the Talmud of Jerusalem,\nwhich says expressly that the Jews borrowed the names of the angels\nfrom the Babylonians. Even the name Israel is not a Hebrew but a Chaldee\nword, as was fully explained by Philo Judaeus, when on his embassy to the\nEmperor Caligula. This corroborates the opinion that, in the portions\nof the Pentateuch which existed only in tradition, previous to the\ncaptivity at Babylon, the angels had no names, and that they were\nafterwards added when these traditions were written. For instance, when\nAbraham entertained Jehovah and the two angels with roasted veal,* the\nparty gave themselves no names; and those heavenly messengers whose\nvirginity was so much endangered by the men of Sodom, when they honored\nLot with a visit, were anonymous also; as was likewise the one that\nappeared to Manoah. The legend contained in the book said to be written\nby Enoch, concerning the war in heaven, fall of the angels, etc., must\nhave travelled from India to Chaldea, where it was picked up by the\nJews. It arose from one of the astro-fables in that most ancient of\nall books, the Shastras of the Brahmins, wherein it is recorded that\nheavenly beatitude was disturbed by the pride and ambition of Mozazor\nand Raabon, two princes of the angelic bands, who stirred up sedition,\nand drew after them myriads of angels in rebellion against the\n_Eternal_, who sent against them his vicegerent Brahma, with his two\nlieutenants, Vishnu and Siva, armed with almighty power, who hurled\nthe rebels from heaven down to a place of darkness, called Ondera. This\nancient fable of the Brahmins was probably the groundwork also of the\nGrecian fable of the Titan war.\n\n     * This story is taken from an old fable related in the Fasti\n     of Ovid, how Jupiter, Neptune, and Mercury, having supped\n     with an old man named Hyriens, and finding that impotence\n     was the cause of his having no children, each of the three\n     urined upon the skin of the calf 'that had been killed for\n     supper, and this celestial water impregnated the skin,\n     which, after nine months' inhumation, produced a beautiful\n     child, which became the constellation Orion. The learned say\n     that the true translation of the words which the angels\n     addressed to Abraham, is thus:--A child shall be born of\n     your calf.\n\nA word more respecting Abraham. The planet Saturn was the Israel of the\nChaldees; and it was personified both by them and the Phoenicians\nunder the name of Abraham, which signifies the _Father of a people_\nfiguratively, the stars of heaven, which are called \"his seed for ever.\"\nSaturn was the son of _Terra_ (the earth); Abraham was the son of Terah;\nSaturn married his own sister Rhea, a star; Abraham married his\nown sister Sarai or Sarah, which signifies a star (Sirius, the ever\nbeautiful and young); Saturn had many sons, but only one whom he loved\nand protected as an _only_ son; Abraham had many sons, though he is said\nto have had an only son named Isaac, whom he loved. According to the\nfamous Sanchoniatho, Saturn offered up his beloved son Jeoud, as a\nholocaust, or burnt offering wholly consumed; Abraham was about to offer\nup his beloved son Isaac,* but a ram (zodiacal) was found as substitute.\nThe planet Saturn was called _Israel_ by the Phoenicians and Chaldees;\nthe patriarch Abraham is synonymous with the name Israel throughout\nthe Bible. Saturn, from his exceedingly remote situation in the solar\nsystem, and the long period taken to circle his immense orbit, was the\nemblem of time; hence the many Bible phrases about Abraham, as connected\nwith time, such as \"before Abraham was,\"--i.e., before time was.\nPriests! are these merely chance coincidences?\n\n     * In this horrible story, as understood literally, Abraham\n     receives quite coolly, and without either surprise or\n     remonstrance, the order to sacrifice Isaac; which shows,\n     even in allegory, that among the Jews the sacrifice of the\n     first-born son by the father was nothing uncommon.\n\nStupidity itself, if honest and free from prejudice, would at once see\nand acknowledge the perfect sameness, the absolute identity of these\nastro-fables; and that the personal existence of Abraham rests precisely\non the same ground as that of any other mythological or metaphysical\nexistence whatsoever. But what will our gospel-grace baby of fifty\nsay, when he has the mortification to see the truth of the above\ninterpretations antecedently confirmed and justified by the gospel\nitself? Paul, in his epistle to the Galatians says: \"For it is written\nthat Abraham had two sons, the one by a bond-maid, the other by a free\nwoman, _which things are an allegory_,\" that is, a fable. This story,\nthen, no more belongs to the Hebrews than it does to the Laplanders,\nbut is wholly Chaldaic, and was plagiarised by the Jews while slaves\nin Babylon; but the Chaldee priests would take special care that they\nshould see only the _veil_ that covered the allegory. Thus it is clear\nthat Abraham's personal existence was as fictitious as that of Saturn,\nJupiter, Orion, Mercury, Apollo, etc. He is also identified in the Hindu\nBrahma, with no other difference than a transposition of the letters of\nthe name. The god Jehovah of the Bible announces himself to Abraham\nand Moses in almost the same terms as does the supreme god of India to\nBrahma, as recorded in the Bhagavat Pourana, the _Holy Bible_ of the\nHindus, translated from the Sanscrit by Sir William Jones, who allows\nthe vastly higher antiquity of the Brahmin allegories.\n\nWe shall now touch slightly upon the curious question, whether the Jews\ndid ever in reality possess any territory not subject to a higher power.\nThe narrative of their colonisation by Cyrus is liable to much doubt and\nobjection. No authentic historian of ancient times, Josephus excepted,\nhas ever in any way mentioned them as an independent nation or state, or\nas being in possession of Palestine, or any part of Great Syria, before\nor in the time of Alexander. As a nation they appear to have been\nentirely unknown to Herodotus, and all other Greek historians. What had\nbecome of them when Xenophon wrote of the eastern nations, which was\nonly 150 years after their alleged return from Babylon? He mentions the\nSyrians of Palestine as under the Persian government, but not a word\nabout the Jews. Herodotus mentions two invasions of the Scythians,\nthrough Syria, even to the borders of Egypt; but acknowledges no Jews\nor Israelites. In the fragments that remain of Sanchoniatho, Ctesias,\nBerosus, and Manetho, they are not noticed even as a petty or subject\nstate, so that we have the fullest negative evidence that in the times\nof these historians, no part of Syria was a Jewish country. Diodorus,\nin detailing the events in that country, the siege of Tyre, etc., during\nAlexander's conquests, says not a word of the Jews as forming a state or\ncolony, or of their boasted city of Jerusalem: and he is equally silent\nas to their existence as a nation during the times of Alexander's\nimmediate successors; nor have we any historical account of them\ndeserving of credit until the time of Antiochus the 4th (Epiphanes),\nunder whom they lived, and he was subject to the Romans. If the\nterritory of Judea was given to them by the King of Babylon, only about\n200 years before the Macedonian conqueror went to the east, why did not\nhe and his historians find them there? The plain and simple truth is,\nthe Jews NEVER formed an independent state; and that part of Syria\ncalled Palestine, was, in all known ages, subject either to the\nEgyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks or Romans (according\nto the tide of conquest), as it now is to the Turks. In Bible times\nthe Jews were much more ignorant than they now are, and this is all the\ndifference in their condition; they were always the old-clothes'-men and\ngold clippers of the world. They were permitted by the King of Babylon\nto build a temple to their idol in the rocky district of Judea, which\nformed a nucleus--a Jewish Mecca--to which they congregated from all\nparts for worship. Josephus, while he speaks of his masters, the Romans,\nis tolerably correct; but when he treats of the \"antiquities\" of his\ncountrymen he is not for a moment to be trusted, because he was then\nmerely copying their legendary tales, and he frequently far exceeds the\nwild romance of the tales themselves. The pretended interview between\nAlexander and the high priest Jaddua, is evidently plagiarised from the\nwell-authenticated scene that took place between that prince and the\nhigh priest of Jupiter Ammon.\n\nFrom the times of Porphyry, Celsus, and Hierocles, to the present day,\nit has been the wonder of the rational philosopher, how a disjointed\ncollection of writings, made by an obscure and barbarous race of people,\ncame to have such mighty importance attached to them, more especially\nas their tendency has ever been inimical to, and subversive of, human\nhappiness; but this sad anomaly may be accounted for. All such tyrants\nas Constantine saw in these books examples of the most unqualified\ndespotism; and knew that, through the medium of carefully fostered\nignorance, man is an animal that can be made to believe and bear\nanything, however absurd and tyrannical. Conquerors and devastators of\ncountries found in them justifying precedents for all their enormities,\nand the rivers of blood which ambition and Christian fanaticism have\nshed in every part of the world. The Crusades, where millions upon\nmillions of fanatics perished, are never-dying witnesses of this. Would\nany unshackled mind believe that the Spaniards could have been guilty of\nsuch inhuman and monstrous cruelties towards the simple and unoffending\nnatives of America, if such horrid butcheries had not been sanctioned,\nnay, commanded, and pompously set forth, in the detailed massacres\nof the Bible? Here we have the exploits of some generals of\nbanditti--blood-thirsty robbers, who blasphemously declare that their\nunequalled cruelties were committed by command of the ruling power of\nthe universe! That the Spaniards thought themselves justified by the\nBible, appears by the book which Sepulvado wrote for the express purpose\nof vindicating them in the murder of twelve millions of Indians, \"_by\nthe example of the Israelites towards the people of Canaan_.\" Las Casas\nsays: \"I have seen in the Islands of St. Domingo and Jamaica, gibbets\nerected all over the country to hang thirteen Indians at a time, _in\nhonor of the thirteen apostles_.--I have seen,\" continues he, \"young\nchildren thrown to dogs* to be devoured alive.\" In charging the shocking\nbarbarities of the Bible upon the Jewish deity, the fanatic devoutly\naccuses him of crimes and acts of wicked injustice that are hardly ever\ncommitted, even by the worst of men, such as visiting the offences\nof the fathers upon the children, and requiring the sacrifice of the\ninnocent to expiate the crimes of the guilty. To what a state of mental\ndegradation, O man, have thy priests and thy superstition reduced thee!\n\nThus did kings, conquerors, and corrupt rulers of nations see the\njustifying precedents to be drawn from these books for all their\nenormities; and as for the fathers or heads of the Christian sect, and\nother religious impostors, they could be at no loss to find in them\njust whatever suited their respective schemes of deception. The learned\namongst the early fathers saw and acknowledged the astro-allegories\nabout Adam, Eve, the serpent, Garden of Eden, and fall of man; but their\nsuccessors, about the beginning of the 4th century, when they decided\nupon getting up a _new will and testament_ for Jehovah, in order to make\ntheir system hold together, thought it necessary to cause his departure\nfrom the usual practice of testators--that he should not be allowed to\nrevoke the old Jewish will, which for good reasons, was to be retained\nin full force. Without this document their most essential dogmas would\nhave had no foundation; and as it \"would have been too bare-faced\na fable to make Jesus die on account of an allegorical tree,\" the\nforbidden one of Genesis must be converted into a real tree; for then\nit would, together with its accompaniments, furnish mystical pegs upon\nwhich to hang the indispensable dogmas of original sin and redemption.\n\n     * In Hosea xiii., 16, we have a declaration \"That their\n     infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with\n     child shall be ripped up\"!!! This and the Midianitish\n     slaughter and extermination, together with that of the\n     Amalekites, will perhaps stand for ever unmatched in the\n     history of human cruelties.\n\nThese appear to have been the ruling motives of those who gradually\nmanufactured the Christian scheme (for it was done by piecemeal, by a\nnumber of hands, and in different centuries) and in adopting the Old\nTestament it was necessary, by this affiliation, to connect its list of\nfabulous prodigies with the new code,* or fresh series of miracles which\nhad been invented for, and are recorded in, the new will of the Jewish\ndeity:--**\n\n     \"Ay, and sound ones too,\n     Seen, heard, attested, every thing--but true\"\n\nIn forcing this connexion still closer, the fabricators had no\ndifficulty in finding that, in their series of wonders, the principal\nviolations of Nature's laws had been foretold in the Jewish prophets.***\nThis was a clincher which served to confirm the supernatural texture of\ntheir religion, quite as well as the cloud-conveyed Shastras did that of\nBrahma, the laws of Moses from the cloud-capped Sinai, or any other of\nthe numerous human laws which have originated beyond the clouds, and\nbeen palmed upon ignorance by impostors. Clouds, shadows, phantoms,\nghosts, etc., have ever been the favorite machinery of priests.\nAccording to the notoriously false prediction of St. Paul, Jesus, on\nhis second coming, was to be cloud-delivered; and this advent, it was\npositively asserted, would take place during his own (Paul's) lifetime.\n\n     * Matthew pretends that Jeremiah foretold that Christ should\n     be betrayed for thirty pieces of silver. Where is this to be\n     found in Jeremiah?\n\n     ** When the latent astronomical sense of these two\n     testaments is made manifest, a necessary connexion between\n     them is perceived; owing to their common foundation in Solar\n     adoration, and that of the other physical powers of Nature.\n\n     *** These prophets were in reality nothing but strolling\n     soothsayers, fortune-tellers, psalmists or palmists; and\n     being mob orators by education and profession, with a\n     capability of reading and writing, they were fitted to\n     deceive the ignorant in many ways. Dodwell, De Jure\n     Laicorum, asserts that they prepared themselves to prophecy\n     _by drinking wine_. They were also jugglers, musicians,\n     etc., etc.\n\nBut our church mystagogues will very easily reconcile this unfortunate\nfailure with \"_gospel truth_.\" As the Old Testament compilers had made\nup their collection chiefly of any traditionary or legendary shreds they\ncould gather,* so did their successors, the Christians, in their new\nmiscellany. The Therapeutae, or Egyptian monks, had supplied a large\nportion, as is confessed even by Eusebius himself (see Lecture Second),\nbut by a luckless anachronism, the spurious writings that were\nselected to form the new will of god, were not (according to the best\nauthorities) finally _voted_ to be such until the Council of Laodicea;**\nso that the present document had no existence till _three hundred and\nsixty-eight years after the death of the testator_, for it is quite\northodox to say that Jesus was \"God the Testator.\"\n\n     * The Pharisees of the second temple chose the books they\n     liked best among a multitude of forgeries. The Talmud\n     relates that this synagogue were about to reject by far the\n     best books of the Bible--viz., Proverbs, Job and\n     Ecclesiastes; not owing to their not being Jewish, but Pagan\n     writings, _but because they were contradictory to the law of\n     god_. It was not only the opinion of Ebenezra, but even of\n     Jerome himself, that Job is not a Hebrew book.\n\n     ** The deadly animosity and quarrelling for which the\n     Council of Nice was so famous, would prevent anything like\n     decision; and, therefore, it is much more probable that the\n     finishing hand in _voting_ what should form the New\n     Testament, was put at Laodicea, and not at Nice, especially\n     as we know that the book of Revelation was rejected at\n     Council of Laodicea; but again admitted long afterwards.\n\nFrom the discordant and immoral tendency of the greater portion of the\nold will of the Jewish god, there could arise but little hope that his\nnew one would benefit the human race; so according to the spirit of\nits own terrible denunciation (Matt, x., 34, 35, 36), we find that its\nvotaries, the religious fanatics both of early and modern times, have\nnot yielded in the slightest degree but been fully equal in _holy\ncruelty_ to the Jews, who were utterly inaccessible to every feeling\nof pity or humanity. These two superhuman Testaments now form a\nbook, which, from its ill-deserved conventional pre-eminence, and the\nhydra-priesthoods which it quarters upon industry, is the chief scourge\nof modern Europe. The contemptible ignorance, credulity, and fraud which\nsupport its tyrannous authority as a supernatural revelation; the futile\nattempt to enforce a belief in its literal meaning as indispensable to\nthe happiness of mankind; and the universal degradation and misery which\nit perpetuates, by the inbred hostility which all its priesthoods have\never evinced towards every improvement that would enlighten and\nelevate the human mind, have done more to disgust and misanthropize\nall ingenuous and rational minds, and to inspire them with a settled\naversion for the ways of man and his institutions, than all the other\nmoral and physical evils now experienced in Christendom. While these\nmaster curses are maintained in their pestiferous sway, it will be\nimpossible for their victim, man, to taste of happiness through the\nattainment of civil liberty to any beneficial extent, or to approach\ntruth and virtue by philosophical researches in the path of Nature; for\nthere is no arriving at these but by the utter extermination of all\nthe fraudulent and idolatrous religions pretending to supernatural\nrevelation.\n\nEND OF LECTURE FIRST.\n\n\n\n\nLECTURE SECOND. CHRISTIAN SUPERNATURALISM FURTHER CONSIDERED\n\n          \"Lest you start at these bold truths, and fly\n          These lines, as maxims of impiety,\n          Consider that Religion did, and will\n          CONTRIVE, PROMOTE, and ACT the greatest ill.\"\n          Lucretius.\n\nIN the foregoing Lecture, it has been shown that the Jewish deity of\nMoses, on his being adopted and continued in power by the early sect of\nChristians, who were themselves Jews, was induced by his new hierarchy,\nas soon as they were established, to make a new _Will_ (the old Jewish\none not being altogether sufficient for their ends), into which they\ngradually, as occasion required, foisted different codicils, by which\nthey multiplied the objects of worship, by introducing into partnership\nwith him two colleagues, who, being each no other than himself, the\nthree, quite arithmetically, made but \"one God.\" But by this cunning\nand masterly manoeuvre, he soon found himself fairly outwitted by his\npriests, who were the sole gainers by this poly-theistical stratagem;\nwhilst the supremacy which he held in the time of Moses dwindled into\ndivision, and he was obliged to share with the other two, and even with\nthe mother* of one of them, the worship of his new votaries. Even the\ngods themselves, when Juno, the sister and wife of Jupiter, had divine\nhonors paid to her; why then refuse the same to the mother of one of the\n\"Christian Gods?\"\n\n     * When the people of Ephesus were informed that the Fathers\n     of the Council had declared they might call the Virgin Mary\n     \"_The Mother of God_\" they were transported with joy; they\n     kissed the hands of the bishops--they embraced their knees,\n     and the whole city resounded with acclamations! St. Cyrils\n     Letter.\n\nWhen they get entangled in the meshes of priestcraft, are seldom able\nto burst the trammels; and so it has happened in the case before us. The\n\"New Will\" was a most ingenious invention on the part of the Fathers\nof Christianism, as it afforded them an opportunity not only of\nre-modelling their deity, in person and family, but of abrogating or\namending all such of his old laws as no longer suited the times or their\nviews; and of making every change that was necessary to establish the\nnew hierarchy in riches and power. The tithe of industry and settled\nmoney revenues must now be substituted for the bloody altars, and\ndelectable viands of Jehovah's former priests; and as he was precisely a\npersonification of the interests of these, so has he continued to be of\nthose of their successors, who, having that object alone in view, have\nbeen but little solicitous about rendering him either more consistent or\namiable; but on the contrary, they have sublimated his cruelty, by the\ninvention of eternal fire torments, an idea so enormously absurd and\nwicked, that it never entered his head while he was merely Theocrat of\nthe Jews.\n\nMatters being thus settled by the rejection of the numerous theogony of\nwhich Jupiter was the head, and the adoption of unity in the godhead,\nunder the Jehovah of the Jews, it was still considered necessary,\nin order to reconcile the polytheists, to preserve some vestiges of\npolytheism; and these were readily suggested by the waking dreams and\nspiritual speculations of Plato, whose \"three _hypostases_\" seemed\nwonderfully well adapted to form the basis of our triune mythology.\nHence the _divinity_ of Plato.\n\nAs the third part of that godhead which is now worshipped in modern\nEurope, was, as well as the other parts, borrowed from the heathen\ntrinity, and forms an important dogma in our superstition, a sketch of\nits history may not be unnecessary. Like the metaphysical invention\nof the soul's immortality, it is altogether unacknowledged in the Old\nTestament, as a personified deity; for the \"spirit of the Lord,\" if\nrightly translated, merely signifies _wind of the gods_, or wind that\nhas a genial and salutary influence, as that of summer. This addition\nmade to the Christian mythology by the Platonist writers of the New\nTestament, was eagerly embraced and improved upon by the Fathers, as the\ngrand source, or fountain head, from whence they could continually draw\ntheir infallible inspirations. In accordance with its occult sense in\nthe mysteries of the Gentile trinity, they very properly made their holy\nghost \"proceed from\" the other two \"persons,\" though he more immediately\nemanates from the \"son\" (i. e. the sun), and, by the apotheosis, they\narmed him with authority; but as a regularly constituted and personified\ngod, he did not come fairly into play until the beginning of the fifth\ncentury, when he came in for his third share of godhead thus:--From\ncouncil to council, new creeds and dogmas were hatched; and in that of\nChalcedon, in 401, _the first New Testament_ was set in the midst of\nthe assembly, as the great appeal. The ecclesiastics who composed this\ncouncil, found considerable difficulty in adding this third apotheosis\nto complete their trinity, until a priest, more cunning and more\ndeceitful than the others, suggested an expedient, which was nothing\nless than to add to the beginning of St. John's Gospel that passage from\nPlato which now forms its first verse.\n\nIn the occult sense in which this windy metaphor is used in the New\nTestament, it is allegorical of the first winds of summer, \"proceeding\nfrom\" the increased power of the sun, which have a vivifying and\nsalutary influence upon all animal and, vegetable life. The writer of\nthe Gospel attributed to St. John astro-nomises, perhaps, a little too\nopenly in chap. 7, v. 39, by declaring: \"For as yet there was no Holy\nGhost, because Jesus was not yet glorified.\"*\n\n     * This is the true translation from the Greek.\n\nHere is a plain and unequivocal admission that even the very existence\nof the Holy Ghost depended on the glorification of Christ, the solution\nof which enigma is, that _May_ was not then come, for it was not until\nabout the middle of that month that the Hely, or Holy wind of _Helios_,\nthat is, God the Sun, was said to commence; and this constituted, _and\nis the only Holy Ghost_. But before that period, as the sun is\nnot sufficiently elevated and clear, or in other words, clarified\n(glorified) from the denser clouds and contagious vapors of early\nspring, his personification, Christ, could not be said to be glorified.*\nHence the Holy Ghost is an annual visitor, and with his benign\ninfluence, comes with the festival of Whitsuntide or Pentecost; but\nnot till that is \"fully come.\"** It was then that, symbolised in the\nblessed, holy, sun-heated wind, he was said to descend on the apostles,\ngiving them \"the gift of tongues,\" which gifts seem to have been quite\nin character, and fleeting as the _wind_, for they soon evaporated,\nleaving the possessors \"unlearned and ignorant men.\"\n\nThat which is called the \"sin against the Holy Ghost,\" or sinning\nagainst the _clearest light_, cannot be rationally interpreted as\nmeaning anything else than the denial of, or refusal duly to appreciate,\nthe sun's almighty power upon this globe--the one glorious fountain\n\"on High,\" out of which springs the renovated creation, and the annual\nsalvation of man.\n\nIt was at the famous festival of Whitsuntide also, after the sun entered\nthe sign Gemini, or the Twin Children, that the personified sun, Christ,\nis very significantly made to say, \"suffer little children to come unto\nme, for of such is the kingdom of heaven\"--that is, such is my present\n\"house\" in the zodiac.\n\nWith respect to the second deity in the Christian plan of polytheism,***\nit may be justly asserted, that amongst the numerous _revealed_\nreligions that have from time to time plagued and enslaved the world,\nno set of theological dogmas, in any known age or country, has ever\nproduced a tenth part of the contention, devastation and bloodshed that\nhave arisen from those concerning Jesus Christ; and although Christendom\nhas been the scene of the fiercest wars for more than fourteen\ncenturies, for the absurd purpose of ascertaining his pedigree, rank and\nattributes, these preternatural problems are not only as far from being\nsettled as ever, but strong doubts remain whether the person in question\ndid ever exist in reality; many of the learned being of opinion that his\npositive existence rests on as visionary grounds as that of his Platonic\ncolleague.\n\n     * Wherever the phrase, \"The Glory of the Lord\" is used\n     throughout the Bible, it signifies nothing else than the\n     brightness of the sun.\n\n     ** Acts ii, 1, and iv. 18.\n\n     *** Jesus became God thus:--In the year 325, Constantine\n     having declared himself protector of the Church, convoked\n     the grand oecumenic council of Nice; and of all the Fathers\n     who composed that council, three hundred were of a contrary\n     opinion to that of Arius; _and these it was who determined\n     to acknowledge the_ \"Divinity of Jesus.\" They added to the\n     tenets and symbols the words _consubstantial with the\n     Father_; and concluded by anathematising the Arians.\n\nChrist, or Christos, is not a proper name, but like the word paraclete,\nis an epithet, and signifies a principle or quality that is good and\nuseful to man, and has been applied to the sun, as savior, and to\nhuman reason.* This nearly agrees with the hypothesis of the famous\nDr. Strauss--that \"the history of Christ, as related in the Gospels,\nis mythic--a kind of imaginative amplification of certain _vague and\nslender traditions_, formed with the design of developing an ideal\ncharacter of Jesus, and to harmonise with the Jewish notions of a\nMessiah.\" That some obscure person of the name of Jesus may have\nlived, and been put to death by the Jewish mob for ridiculing their\nsuperstition is very probable; but that the hero of the New Testament\nwas born, and lived, and died under all the circumstances, and attended\nby such violations of Nature's laws as are represented in that book,\nwithout the emphatic record of any historian, either Greek, Jewish, or\nRoman, seems quite impossible.\n\n     * Christ, the anointed, is physically significative of the\n     Sun, as being the sole source of all that man can rationally\n     call good; and in the moral sense it is expressive of reason\n     and knowledge. The etymology of the names of the ruling gods\n     in different ages and countries, such as Brahma, Osiris,\n     Chrishna, Budha, Foe, Oromazedes, Jupiter, Bacchus, Jehovah\n     and Jesus Christ, etc., will show that they were merely\n     allegorical personifications of the Sun. Dr. Lamb, of\n     Cambridge, has found the etymon even of the word sabbath to\n     signify \"Daughter of the Sun\"\n\n     Our O, as used in admiration, was symbolical of the\n     orbicular figure of the Sun, as in the exclamation, \"O Dens\n     Sol invicte Mithra!\" Celsus declares that such Mithriacs\n     were the first Christians.\n\nMattathias, the father of Josephus, must have been a witness to the\nmiracles which are said to have been performed by Jesus, and Josephus\nwas born within two years after the crucifixion, yet in all his works\nhe says nothing whatever about the life or death of Jesus Christ; as\nfor the interpolated passage it is now universally acknowledged to be a\nforgery. The arguments of the \"Christian Ajax,\"* even Lardner himself,\nagainst it are these:--\"It was never quoted by any of our Christian\nancestors _before Eusebius_. It disturbs the narrative. The language is\nquite Christian. It is not quoted by Chrysostom, though he often refers\nto Josephus, and could not have omitted quoting it _had it been then\nin the text_. It is not quoted by Photius, though he has three articles\nconcerning Josephus; and this: author expressly states that this\nhistorian has not taken the least notice of Christ.** Neither Justin\nMartyr, in his dialogue with Trypho the Jew; nor Clemens Alexandrinus,\nwho made so many extracts from ancient authors; nor Origen against\nCelsus, have ever mentioned this testimony. But, on the contrary, in\nchap. 35th of the first book of that work, Origen openly affirms that\nJosephus, who had mentioned John the Baptist, _did not acknowledge\nChrist_. That this passage is a false fabrication, is admitted also by\nIttigius, Blondel, Le Clerc, Vandale, Bishop Warburton, and Tanaquil\nFaber.\"*** Josephus was not friendly towards Herod, but rather at enmity\nwith him; he conceals none of his faults or cruelties, which makes it\nappear surpassing strange that he should silently pass over that most\nhorrible of all butcheries ever perpetrated by-man--the general massacre\nof the infants, to the amount, it has been said, of fourteen thousand.\n\n     * See Taylor's \"Diegesis.\"\n\n     ** How could Photius, in the 9th century, find that in\n     Josephus which Origen, in the 3rd century, had declared was\n     not in him?\n\n     *** Is it probable, is it even possible that Josephus, a Jew\n     extremely zealous and obstinate in his own religion, would\n     confess that to be true which every Jew most positively and\n     religiously denies; that is, acknowledge that Jesus was the\n     Christ? This is making Josephus talk like a Christian in\n     four or five lines only.\n\nHow is it that this event, so unparalleled that history cannot show\nits-equal in atrocity, should not only be unknown to three-of the\nevangelists, Mark, Luke, and John, but entirely escape the notice of the\nminute and circumstantial, historian of the Jews? Josephus is equally\nsilent respecting the miraculous darkness, the new star which appeared\nin the east, and the graves that opened of themselves to eject the dead,\nwho, being undisposed of afterwards, may still be walking the streets\nof Jerusalem.. The younger Seneca, a voluminous writer, was then about\nthirty-nine years of age, and must have been at Rome at the time; yet\nhe says nothing whatever of those shocking cruelties and violations of\nNature's laws. The elder* and the younger Pliny came into the highest\nrepute not many years afterwards, one of whom was a most valuable\nhistorian, and could not possibly have omitted to mention such\nextraordinary doings and prodigies if they had taken place in any part\nof the empire.\n\nIf anything could be more unaccountable than the silence of the above\nhistorians, it would be that of Philo-Judaeus, who was contemporary with\nCaligula? \"and in the folio edition of his works of 1552, he speaks of\nthe state of the Jews, and their afflictions under Augustus, Tiberius,\nand Caligula, the very period embracing the whole extent of Christ's\nlife; but he says not a word of Christ, Christians, or Christianity.\"\nThis silence of Philo, a man highly esteemed for his learning and\nveracity, a cotemporary historian, and a public functionary, being agent\nfor the Jews at the time, is so inexplicable, that interested priests\nalone can explain it away.\n\n     * The elder Pliny, about the year seventy-five, wrote the\n     \"History of His Own Time,\" in thirty-one books, and was the\n     most celebrated historian of that time, yet we find him as\n     ignorant as Josephus, or any of the other writers mentioned,\n     of the thing called Christianity, or sect of Christians;\n     though, as an historian, he was so minute and circumstantial\n     as to suffer nothing of importance to escape him. Why did\n     the Christians, in after times destroy the work above-\n     mentioned, and leave his \"Natural History?\" Because he did\n     not perform an impossibility; that is, he neither did nor\n     could take notice of their sect, which had no known\n     existence in his time.\n\nA question naturally presents itself--did the populace of Jerusalem and\nvillages adjacent, who were spectators and witnesses when the miracles\nin question were wrought, believe in them? No, they did not; to them\nthe operator, whoever he was, must have appeared an impostor, as\nfully appears by the catastrophe. That such extraordinary events and\nperformances should make no impression upon those who were witnesses to\nthem, is contrary to the natural feelings of mankind, particularly as\nregards the populace, for in all such cases where the bulk of the people\nbelieve in the truth of reputed miracles, they are more actuated by\nsentiments of reverential awe towards the performer, than a desire to\nput him to death.\n\nAfter a lapse of nearly two thousand years since the epoch of these\nmiraculous events, it must ever remain impossible to ascertain whether\nthe second person of this triune godhead had _bona fide_ an incarnate\nexistence; or was merely a metaphorical personification of some\nprinciple, as the epithet _Christ_ implies;* but it is certain that this\nappellative was assumed by a sect of superstitionists known in Egypt,\nfrom time immemorial, under the name of therapeutae, or monks, whose\ntenets the Judaizing Christians adopted; and from whose writings they\nmade selections in the compilation of their New Testament, as is proved\nby the testimony of Eusebius himself, who says in his history, book 2nd:\n\"Those ancient therapeutae were Christians, AND THEIR ANCIENT WRITINGS\nWERE OUR GOSPELS.\"\n\n     * \"Christos being strictly a Greek epithet, would the Jewish\n     populace give a Greek name to a Jew by birth?\"\n\nThus it is proved by the most zealous of all the Christian fathers,\nthat these gospels, though not brought upon the stage until nearly two\ncenturies after the reputed death of Jesus, existed among the Egyptian\nmonks long before the pretended origin of Christianity. As to the four\nwhich have been selected and fitted up by the Church to make part of\n\"the word of God,\" no man has ever been able to tell by whom, when, or\nwhere they were written; nor are they acknowledged by any person but\nas the learned Christian bishop, Faustus, declared the forgers of them\naffirmed, \"that what was written by themselves, was written 'according'\nto those persons to whom they ascribed them.\" It appears that these\nadopted gospels were first mentioned by Irenaeus, about the latter end\nof the second century; but as the writings of that saint must have come\nthrough the manufacturing hands of Eusebius, that early notice of them\nis rendered extremely suspicious; however, they were first known only as\nforming part of fifty-four gospels, all equally well authenticated; and\nsome writers have asserted that it was this Irenaeus who first selected\nthem out of the above spurious mass, and by his own fiat alone made them\ncanonical. Was it out of respect for the high authority of this saint\nthat the Holy Ghost confirmed his selection, at the Council of Nice,\nabout 175 years afterwards? It has been allowed, even by the most\nlearned Christian divines (as will be shown in a subsequent lecture)\nthat fraud, religious lying and forgery, were then the common practice\nin promoting the cause of public deception; and, therefore, we have no\ndifficulty in believing that Irenaeus had his full share in the fraudful\ntraffic.\n\nIf the word of a saint is good for anything, we might quote that of\nIrenaeus in corroboration of what we have elsewhere said respecting the\nbooks of the Old Testament; for does he not tell us that \"_they were\nfabricated' seventy years after the Babylonish captivity by Esdras_\"?\nThese are _revelations_ which Christians are extremely unwilling to\nmeet, but they are much better authenticated than any of the artificial\nones that claim a supernatural derivation.\n\nBesides the writings of the Egyptian Essenes or monks, it is known that\nAlexandria abounded with every sort of sectarian rubbish, in the various\nforms of acts, gospels, epistles, &c.; so that the compilers of the New\nTestament had an ample supply of matter, out of which to choose what\nshould be the new will of Jehovah. Such pieces as had been written by\nmonks, and by their plastic spirituality, could easily be moulded so as\nto represent the interests of the priests, and increase their power and\nimportance, very naturally slid in to form part of \"God's last Will;\"\nwhile those which exposed the tricks and knavery of priests, like the\nstory of Bel and the Dragon, in the Old Testament, were rejected as\napocryphal.* But as the chosen books were written by unknown or obscure\npersons of no notoriety, their names were erased, and those of reputed\napostles substituted, in order to confer respectability. And whenever\nit was found that this \"New Testament\" did not at all points suit the\ninterests of its priesthood, or the views of political rulers in league\nwith them, the necessary alterations were made, and all sorts of pious\nfrauds and forgeries were not only common, but justified by many of the\nfathers. This was a charge constantly brought against those trimmers by\ntheir opponents, whose writings they destroyed to the utmost of their\npower; but it is proved by a record in the Cronicon of Muis, an African\nbishop, and the same is also mentioned by Scaliger, that a general\nalteration of the four gospels took place in the sixth century, by order\nof the Emperor Anastasius, who decreed:--\"That the holy gospels, as\nwritten, Idiotis Evangelistis, _are to be corrected and amended_.\"**\n\n     * It may be said that the Christian compilers would be\n     willing to expose the tricks of the Pagan priests; but the\n     esprit du corps is sacred. Priests will not betray that\n     fundamental deceitfulness that is common to the whole\n     profession, and inseparable from all supernatural\n     pretensions.\n\n     ** Dr. Mill also vouches for the truth of this record, and\n     says that Messala was consul at the time.\n\n     The great father, Origen, in his commentary on Matthew's\n     gospel, speaking of the phrase, \"thou shalt love thy\n     neighbor as thyself,\" which some thought to be spurious, he\n     says: \"If, indeed, there was no disagreement in other\n     copies, it would be irreligious to suspect that expression\n     was interpolated and not pronounced by our Savior. But now,\n     alas! what with the blunders of transcribers--what with the\n     impious temerity of correcting the text--what with the\n     licentiousness of others, who interpolate or expunge just\n     what they please, it is plain the copies do strangely\n     disagree.\"\n\nIn forming the New Testament, selections were made at different\ncouncils; but from all we have been able to learn, it was principally at\nthat of Nice that the compilation was put into form, after it had been\ndecided upon _by vote_, what should be, and what should not be, the word\nof God! In order to get rid of the unpleasant truth, that this decision\nwas made by a majority of votes, it has been pretended that the\nselection was made under supernatural agency, thus:--the whole\ncollection of story, anecdote and fable, was placed upon a great table,\nand a prayer was addressed to the Holy Ghost, that he would be pleased\nto cause the apocryphal books to jump under the table, and they did so\nwith prompt obedience, whilst the genuine canonicals proudly kept their\nstations above. This mode of trial was fair enough, as the Holy Ghost\nwould surely know his own writings. This ridiculous story is recorded in\nthe appendix to the proceedings of the Council of Nice.\n\nA philosopher of the present day has compared the Christian Testament\nto Lord Chancellor Eldon's silk stocking, that was darned all over with\nworsted until there was no silk remaining; so, in like manner, it is now\nimpossible to say with certainty what this book was originally, or by\nwhom, where, or when, its component parts were written; and equally\nfutile would it be to attempt to ascertain the number of alterations,\nadditions, varying translations,* and forged interpolations which from\ntime to time it has undergone. Capellus informs us that he was engaged\nfor thirty-six years in writing the book in which he detects the\nnumerous errors and frauds of the Protestant Bible; and even the\nvenerable Calmet, that profound Bible critic, declares that the 7th and\n8th verses of the 5th chapter of John's 1st Epistle, \"_are not in any\nancient Bible_.\" This interpolation was a bold stroke to strengthen the\nTrinity. Thirty years' researches upon the New Testament alone, enabled\nthat most learned English divine, Dr. John Mill, to detect the enormous\nnumber of 80,000 different readings of that book, after a laborious\nexamination of all the manuscripts, translations, and the many languages\nin which it is to be found. Can anything match the stupidity and\nmonstrous credulity of calling such a book the word of God?\n\n     * A ludicrous instance of false translation appears in Mark\n     x., 25, where, according to the learned, the word in the\n     original means a cable-rope, not a camel. In the notion of a\n     cable going through the eye of a needle, an association of\n     ideas is preserved, but the other meaning is forced and\n     ridiculous.\n\nIt has been remarked that, besides the evident dissonance and glaring\ninconsistencies of these books, they contain numerous proofs that they\ncould not have been written at the time alleged, or by the persons whose\nnames are affixed to them; for instance, if Paul was an apostle, or\nlived in or near the same age with Jesus, how could he speak as he does\nin the epistle to the Colossians, about the Church of Laodicea, which\nwas not founded until the middle of the second century? Again, in\nthe book called Revelations, ascribed to John the evangelist, who was\ncontemporary with Jesus,* the writer not only speaks of this church of\nLaodicea, but mentions its sloth and great corruptions, arising from the\npossession of riches and power. Now, though of all human institutions\nwhatsoever, a church** has the most uniform and natural tendency to grow\ncorrupt and profligate, from the acquirement of riches and power, yet we\nmay allow one hundred years to have elapsed after the foundation of the\none in question, before it arrived at the shameless condition described\nin these revelations; and, therefore, it is no unfair inference to\nconclude that these allegorical rhapsodies were not written before the\nmiddle of the third century. Tertullion says it was Saturninus, and Luke\nsays it was Cyrenius who was governor of Syria, when a certain event\nhappened,*** and Augustus issued his decree taxing \"_all the world_\" but\nRoman history seems to deny both accounts, by not acknowledging any\nsuch decree of Augustus, even over the Roman empire. Numerous other\ndiscrepancies and contradictions might be adduced, which all the forcing\nand twisting of church chronologists have not been able to reconcile.\n\n     * Yet in Matthew xi., 12, Jesus is made to say, \"And from\n     the days of John the Baptist, _until now_,\" etc. Again,\n     xviii., 17, Jesus speaks of \"the church\"   though there was\n     no such thing in existence in the alleged time of his life.\n\n     ** Church--the shrine of credulity, where reason is weekly\n     sacrificed--a patent for hypocrisy--the refuge of fraud,\n     sloth, ignorance and superstition--the corner stone of\n     tyranny.\n\n     *** The birth of Jesus.\n\nThey tell us that Matthew wrote his gospel about the year thirty-five,\nand in that gospel the writer, whoever he was, makes Jesus tell the\nScribes and Pharisees that \"all the innocent blood that has been shed on\nearth, from that of Abel down to that of Zaccharias, son of Baruch, whom\nthey slew between the temple and the altar, shall be upon their heads.\"\nHere let it be remarked that, according to Josephus, book 4th (and the\nfact is nowhere else to be found) this event _did not take place_ until\nthe siege of Jerusalem by Titus. This affords proof positive that\nthe first of our gospels could not have been written before the year\nseventy, but that is no proof why it might not have been written after\nthe middle of the second century.\n\nRecurring to the miraculous parts of these books, we think it proper to\nobserve that the natural good sense of Mahomet prevented his making\nany pretensions to the power of working miracles; for those laid to his\ncharge by Christian opponents, were the inventions of his more ignorant\nand less judicious successors. It was no doubt in ridicule of the\nNew Testament fables about removing mountains by faith, and such like\nnonsense, that he told his disciples one day: \"To-morrow I will call\nyonder mountain to come to me.\" The morrow came, his hearers assembled\nto see the miracle. He called the mountain to come to him, but it\nsullenly kept its place. \"Well,\" says he, \"since the mountain will not\ncome to Mahomet, Mahomet must go the mountain.\" If he gave out that he\nreceived his Koran by piecemeal from heaven, his pretensions went no\nfarther than to be considered the humble agent of a higher power; and\nsuch it appears was the case with his brother prophet Jesus, who wrote\nnothing himself, but his followers, on rather the sect which assumed his\nname, bent upon the establishment of their new superstition on the\nruins of the old, had recourse to a series of falsehoods and deceptions\nunexampled in all the other pages of history. They ascribed to their\nreputed founder a train of miracles and unsightly prodigies, so\ndisgusting to reason and common sense, as to be sufficient of themselves\nto condemn any book at a single glance; and which could only be\npalmed upon extreme ignorance and credulity; while the inventors and\npropagators of these fictions agreed with each other in nothing but in\nthe common duty of religious lying, forging and fabricating to serve the\ninterests of the priesthood. The younger Scaliger expressly declares of\nthese falsifying compilers, that \"they put into their Gospels whatever\nthey thought would serve their purpose.\" Faustus says: \"We have\n_frequently proved_ that these things were neither written by himself\n(Jesus) nor by his apostles; and that they were fabricated long\nafter their decease, from vague stories and flying reports.\" As these\nmiraculous fables are beneath criticism, the particular notice of one\nor two of them will suffice as a sample of the rest. It appears that the\ndevils possessing the two demoniacs who lived among the tombs, could not\nbe dislodged without terms of capitulation; one article of which bore,\nthat they should be allowed to go into the swine. The treaty being\nconcluded with the spokesman of these devils, who had announced that\nhe was legion, or called legion (probably from being the chief of a\ndetachment consisting of that number) the devils took possession of\ntheir new subjects accordingly; but they, finding a devilish commotion\nwithin them, committed suicide immediately. This \"_rash act_\" was not\nsurprising when we consider that there were \"about two thousand swine;\"\nso that three devils would be crammed into each pig, reckoning a legion\nof devils to consist of the same number as a Roman legion. As nothing\nwould operate so much against the interests of theology as any\ndiminution of the number of devils, we may presume that the swine only\nwere drowned. Mark and Luke say that _one person_ possessed all these\ndevils; he must have been a man of great capacity to contain that which\ndrove two thousand swine mad. So numerous a herd of these animals in a\ncountry where swine and swine's flesh were held in abhorrence, is\nquite sufficient to stamp the tale as a fiction; but taking all the\ncircumstances into consideration, it is perhaps the most ridiculous\nromance that ever was invented. If this exploit had been laid to the\ncharge of Mahomet, would he not have been branded by all Christians as\na most wicked and abominable wizard, independently of the robbery\ncommitted on the owners of the swine, in causing this wholesale and\nruinous _Hoggicide?_\n\nIt is unfortunate for the foregoing miracle, that its allegorical\nbearings are not so apparent as to save it from being branded as a wild\nand vulgar romance, rather than an instructive parable. Such, however,\nis not the case in the fable about the resurrection of Lazarus, which is\nevidently a dramatic allegory of the demise of the old, and birth of the\nnew year; the former of which is personated in Lazarus, whilst Christ\nis, as usual, the personification of the Sun. This unsightly miracle, as\ntaken literally, is narrated by John only; a circumstance so suspicious\nthat it alone ought to shake the credulity of even the swallowers of\nprodigy. Our false and deceitful translation of this drama, foists in;\n\"Now a certain _man_ was sick, named Lazarus;\" but there is no _man_\nnamed in the original, which merely says--\"Now Lazarus was sick;\" that\nis, figuratively, the year was spent or expiring, as in December, which\nmonth is personated by Martha, as January is by Mary. These two sister\nmonths send to Christ (the Sun) to inform him of the dying state of\ntheir brother (the old year). Now mark the equivocating answers he gives\nthem regarding the real condition of their brother; that his \"sickness\nis not unto death;\" that he was dead in reality, and he was glad of it;\nthat he only slept, _and would revive or \"rise again_\" These enigmatical\nor equivocal answers, and the four days which Lazarus is said to have\nbeen dead in the sepulchre, have most pointed allusion to the four days\nbetween the twenty-first and twenty-fifth of December, during which time\nthe Sun seems to hang, as it were, in the solstitial balance; but at\nthe latter period he gains his first degree of altitude, and is said to\n\"rise from the dead,\" or to have been born again, that is he begins to\n_rise from the dead of winter._\n\nFor very good reasons, the drama being finished, we are not told what\nbecame of Lazarus. What was his fate afterwards? He continued to gain\nstrength till the summer solstice; but as he again became the _old\nyear_, he died the following December, in the same manner.\n\nThus the Sun, as personified in Christ, says Rev., i., 18, \"I am he that\nliveth, and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore, Amen.\"\nAgain, \"I am the resurrection and the life; _the day star on high, that\nredeemeth his people_; I come a light into the world.\" This word _Amen_\nis nothing else than the disguise in which the translators have thought\nit proper to put _Ammon*_. The Sun, in the sign Aries, was personified\nin Jupiter Ammon, as well as in Christ. Ammon signifies the secret\nor concealed one, and _sacred_ had originally no other meaning than\n_secret_. In Isaiah lxv., 16, is not the \"God Ammon\" mentioned in the\noriginal, and suppressed by the English translators?\n\nThe astro-drama of the Redeemer in the book of Job** is another sublime\nallegory of the sun and circle of the seasons.\n\n     * The difference between the words Aman, Amen, and Ammon,\n     says Sir William Drummond, \"is nothing.\"\n\n     ** For fuller explanation of the dramas of Job and Lasarus,\n     see the works of the Rev. Mr. Taylor.\n\nJob, who here personates the declining year in its last ungenial and\nevil months, is of course dejected, sick, and grievously afflicted; his\nwife (whom we may presume to be Anna, from Annus, the circle of' the\nyear) bids him curse God and die, that is, to cease putting his trust in\nthe sun, who had metaphorically forsaken him for the present. But Job,\nthough nearly worn out, as the year is in December, has still hopes of\nhis _revival_, and exclaims, \"I know that my Redeemer liveth,\" and at\nthe last day (the 21st December) \"_I shall rise up_\", etc. Yet in his\nexhausted state, and sore afflictions, he is so nigh to despair that\nhis God, the sun, reproaches him for his impatience under the immutable\nnecessities of faith, and seems to say in way of admonition, \"I cannot\nbe with you always; nor is it reasonable in you to expect the enjoyment\nof perpetual summer,\" and in illustration thereof, he most beautifully\ninstances the summer constellations, and asks, \"Canst thou bind the\nsweet influences of the Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Canst\nthou bring forth the twelve signs in the season?\" that is, canst thou\nhave summer throughout the twelve months. \"Canst thou guide Arcturus\nwith his sons?\" The seven summer months, from March to September\ninclusive, are personated in the seven sons of Job, who are killed by a\n\"great wind from the wilderness,\" (winter) that is, they are killed by\nthe five winter months commencing in October,* but as this is only an\nallegorical death, the drama represents them as being all alive again\nin the succeeding summer; and Job, the year, is fully restored to health\nand happiness.\n\nWith regard to the whole of that miscellaneous and discordant mass of\nanecdote, narrative, prophecy, allegory, gospel, epistle, revelation,\netc., which compose what is called the Bible (to say nothing at present\nof its immoral tendency), we cannot make anything rational out of the\ngreater portion, unless we seek the true meaning under type or\nallegory; but when we turn aside that veil, the nonsense of the exoteric\ndisappears, and we perceive that the allusions are exclusively made to\nphysical or moral principles, under typical personifications.** This is\nparticularly the case in all those books or fragments of books which are\nknown not to be Jewish (the book of Job, for instance), but picked up\nby that people among the Chaldeans and Persians, who concealed from the\nvulgar all the higher branches of science under the veil of allegory;\nand when Levi's ignorant but privileged sons adopted these books, in\nmaking their compilation, they contented themselves with the literal,\nknowing nothing of the occult sense.\n\n     * These five winter months, beginning in October, when the\n     Sun is in the sign Scorpio, are metaphorically alluded to as\n     Scorpions, by St. John in Revelations ix., where it is said\n     they shall have power \"to hurt men for five months.\" The\n     stings in their tails were figurative of the sharpness of\n     the four months that succeed October, which, though they\n     \"should not kill,\" are nevertheless so stingingly cold as to\n     \"hurt men.\"--See Revelations.\n\n     ** Those parts of this collection in which we perceive that\n     the astronomical Chronology is veiled in the allegorical\n     picture, under the appearance of history, may be called _the\n     word of science_. Most of the psalms are evidently hymns to\n     the Sun, as they apply to nothing else.\n\n     ***In dedicating one of their tribes for the priesthood\n     alone, the Jews imitated the oriental nations: their tribe\n     of Levi played the same part amongst them, that the\n     Chaldeans played amongst the Assyrians and Babylonians; the\n     Magi amongst the Modes and Persians; the Druids amongst the\n     Celtae; the Brahmins amongst the Indians; the Lamas amongst\n     the Thibetians; and the Christian priesthoods now in Europe;\n     in all it has been the game of deception.\n\nEven the trinity in unity, as we have already observed, was one of\nthe secrets revealed to the initiated in the Pagan polytheism; and was\ntaught in the mysteries long before the sect Christians adopted\nthe ascetic habits of the Essenes and Egyptian Therapeutae. In these\nmysteries this trinity had a twofold allusion--under one meaning it was\na personification of physical, and under the other of moral, principles;\nin the physical sense, those natural principles were personified, which,\nby their inherent properties, viz., motion, attraction, repulsion, etc.,\nproduce these changes which we perceive in matter. But of all these\nprinciples, the _Sun_ was looked up to as the grand omnipotent nucleus,\nwhose all-vivifying power is the vital and sole source of animative and\nvegetative existence upon this globe--the glorious fountain out of which\nsprings all that man ever has, or ever can call good, and as such, the\nonly proper object of the homage and adoration of mankind. Hence the\nSun, as we are informed by Pausanius, was worshipped at Eleusis under\nthe name of \"The Savior.\" If it is urged that the Sun cannot properly be\nregarded as a principle in Nature, the objection is good with respect\nto the universal systems which \"_circle other Suns_;\" but of our Solar\nsystem, he is _the_ principal.\n\nOf the thousand Pagan personifications of the Sun, which appear absurd\nand ridiculous when taken in the literal sense, but which are rational\nand highly scientific when the veil of allegory is withdrawn, one of\nthe most beautiful is that of the solar Deity under the name of Adonai,*\nTammuz, or the Adonis of the Syrians. This allegory represents him,\nafter being glorified as \"The most High God,\" in his _exalted_ reign of\nsummer, as resigning his place in the heavens to the zodiacal animals\nof the winter signs; and is figured as being slain or mutilated by them,\nmore especially by the wild boar, under whose malefic ascendancy the sun\nseems annually to expire.\n\n     * Adonai is synonymous with Jahouh, or Jehovah. Throughout\n     the Psalms, the _Sun_ is \"the Lord God,\" and Zion means the\n     zodiac.\n\nAnd, as personated in the beautiful Adonis, he is fabled as being\nmutilated in his genital parts by the boar; that is, by similitude, he\nis deprived of his genial or generative power over Nature during the\nwinter. But when the annual rains of summer had swelled the river Adonis\n(so called from the god), its waters became tinged red by some mineral,\nand were fabled to be the blood of the beauteous Adonis, annually\nmutilated as aforesaid:--\n\n          \"While smooth Adonis from his native rock\n          Ran purple to the sea,--supposed with blood\n          Of Tammuz, yearly wounded.\"\n\nIn lamentation over this most shocking outrage against genial\nNature,--or rather to celebrate the yearly victory over it, the Sidonian\ndamsels, _not wholly without significance_, assembled to hail the\nrenovation of the prolific powers of Tammuz, or Adonis, as manifested in\ntheir God of summer.\n\nThat the Old Testament, as well as the New, is almost wholly allegorical\nof the sun, the year, and the seasons, is further proved in that\napparently heart-felt complaint of St. Paul, 2 Corinthians iii., 15,\n\"But even until this day, _when Moses is read, the veil is upon their\nheart_.\"\n\nThe moral principles allegorised in the Christian trinity, under the\nnames of Father, the Word, and the Spirit, were metaphorical of human\n_knowledge, reason_ and the _spirit of truth_. Similar to these are\nthe interpretations lately given of the moral principles of the ancient\ntrinity, by a philosopher of deep research;* and as they make out a\nreasonable meaning for the Christian trinity, which is otherwise a\njumble of irrational mummeries, they are so far satisfactory. The\nancient trinity of physical principles, of which the Sun was second\nto, and the most eximious representative of, the great All-in-All, was\nprobably of Indian origin: and found its way west into Persia, Chaldea\nand Greece, where it was remodelled and spiritualised by Plato; but on\nits being pressed into the service of the Christian fathers, the sublime\nknowledge which it conveyed under emblems or symbols, was soon lost\nin ignorance, or abused and set aside by priestcraft; for even the\napostolic fathers seemed to have had little or no knowledge of it, with\nthe exception perhaps of St. Hermas, who most likely alluded to the\nshare he had in falsifying those allegories (by adopting the literal in\nplace of the occult meaning), when he declares that he \"never spoke a\ntrue word in his life, but always lived in dissimulation, and affirmed\na lie for truth to all men; and no man contradicted him, but all gave\ncredit to his words\" (\"Pastor,\" Book iii., mandat. 3rd). The Pagan\npriesthood were too wise to apply the word _revelation_ to anything else\nthan the development of the secret meaning of the mysteries, which they\nmade to the initiated; but that only true revelation has been entirely\nlost to all the successors of St. Hermas in the church called Christian\nfor the last seventeen centuries.\n\n     * The modern Diagoras, who has done more towards\n     establishing; free discussion than any other man that ever\n     lived.\n\nOne word more respecting this ancient trinity, the gross and ludicrous\nperversion of which now forms so prominent a dogma in our superstition.*\nThose fathers who adopted and interwove it into the Christian system,\ndid either ignorantly or wilfully distort the sense of the allegory\n(whether astronomical or moral) by turning it into three distinct\npersonages, with human qualities, parts, and passions; but having gone\nthus far, they found themselves in a dilemma; inasmuch that, though\ntheir new polytheism was in a great measure intended as a salvo to\nreconcile the Pagans, yet it was inconsistent with the Mosaic unity of\nGod, which they were desirous of preserving also; so they bundled up\ntheir three distinct personages into one identical person.\n\n     * Though the Christian scheme of fitting up a triune Deity\n     is in defiance of arithmetical demonstration, yet it is so\n     far an exemplification of all the Pagan mythologies--each of\n     them had a triad of principal gods; the Hindus had their\n     Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva; the Egyptians, their Osiris,\n     Horus, and Isis; the Persians, their Oromazdes, Mithras, and\n     Ahrimanes; the Syrians, their Monimus, Aziz, and Ares; the\n     Canaanites, their self-triplicated Baal; and the Peruvians\n     had their Father Sun, Brother Sun, and Son Sun. The Hindu\n     trinity were personifications of three principles, viz., the\n     Producer, the Preserver, and the Destroyer.\n\nBeing now knee-deep, and knowing well that the credulity of ignorant\nman is equal to the most monstrous deceptions, those fabricators thought\nthey might as well plunge over head and ears into absurdity, by settling\nthe pedigree and relationship between these _triune_ parties; and this\nthey did by mingling together a chaos of downright nonsense. Here is\na child born, said to be begotten by two supernatural fathers--these\nfathers are _two_ infinite beings, equal and co-existent from all\neternity; and yet this son, begotten by them upon a woman, is as old\nas either of them! And although thus produced, and to all appearance a\nchild of humanity, he instantly becomes the _eternal_ son of the father,\nmaking the _third infinite_! Such stuff has turned the church called\nChristian into a domicilium insanorum.\n\nIf we may believe our senses, there is indeed a trinity in unity that\nproves its own existence--is eternal, and comprehends within itself\neverything which the human intellect can possibly conceive--that is,\n_Time, Matter, and Motion_.*\n\n     * Motion is the measure of Time: it is essential to, the\n     executive of, and may be said to be identical with, Matter.\n\nIn regard to the true history of our church during the three first\ncenturies, we know nothing whatever, except that which comes through the\nmost polluted channels; for the traditions and fabulous writings of the\nfathers who lived in those periods, are not deserving of the slightest\ncredit; these men being notorious for nothing but pious frauds and\nforgeries; yet even in these professional arts they were far excelled\nin the following century, by the famous Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, who\nhad no equal in fitting up and trimming off a \"word of God,\" to suit\nthe general interests of the church. He says of himself \"I have related\nwhatever might redound to the glory, and I have _suppressed _all that\ncould tend to the disgrace of our religion.\" Baronius, who was a sincere\nadvocate of the Christian faith, branded him as \"the great falsifier\nof ecclesiastical history--a wily sycophant--a consummate hypocrite*--a\ntime-serving persecutor, who had nothing in his known life or writings,\nto support the belief _that he himself believed in the Christian\nreligion_.\" So much for the character of this main pillar of the church.\nAnother father of the fourth century, St. Gregory Nazianzen, was of\nopinion that \"_words are sufficient to deceive the vulgar, who admire\nthe more, the less they understand._\" Again, he says, \"Our fathers\nand teachers have often said, _not what they thought_, but what\ncircumstances required.\" To show that the saints of the fourth century\nhad not only improved upon their predecessors in the arts of deception,\nbut had grown bold enough in some instances to avow them, we quote\nSt. Chrysostom, who declares that \"miracles are proper only to excite\nsluggish and vulgar minds; that men of sense have no occasion for them;\nand that they frequently carry _some untoward suspicion with them_\"\nMosheim, than whom a higher authority cannot be quoted, speaking of\nthose times and of such men, says: \"The simplicity and ignorance of the\ngenerality in those times, furnished the most favorable occasion for the\nexercise of fraud; and the impudence of impostors in contriving false\nmiracles, was artfully proportioned to the credulity of the vulgar:\nwhilst the sagacity of the wise, who perceived these cheats, were\noverawed into silence by the dangers that threatened their lives and\nfortunes, if they should expose the artifice. Thus does it generally\nhappen in human life, that, when danger attends the discovery of truth,\nand the profession thereof, the prudent are _silent_--the multitude\n_believe_, and impostors _triumph_\"--(Eccles. Hist.)\n\n     * In the title of the 81st chapter of the 12th book of his\n     Evangelical Preparation, Eusebius tells \"how it may be\n     lawful and fitting to use falsehood as a medicine, for the\n     benefit of those who want to be deceived.\" In this chapter,\n     says Gibbon, he adduces a passage of Plato, which approves\n     the occasional practice of pious and salutary frauds; and he\n     justifies this sentiment of Plato, by the example of the\n     sacred writers of the Old Testament. So much for the\n     theological pharmacopaeia of Eusebius.\n\nIn the fifth century, the church being backed by the strong arm of\nimperial power, the hierarchy converted their successful institution\ninto a channel overflowing with riches; whilst their doctrines and\ndogmas, continually changing, got rid of any vestiges of reason and\ncommon sense which they had originally had amongst the Therapeutae and\nEssenes. The ignorance of the laity was a secure protection for the\nclergy in all their tyrannical usurpations, and they in their turn\nbecame fierce persecutors.* Nature and her laws were overlooked as\nobjects of no consideration, or rather, proscribed as the deadly\nenemies, of the theologian, and poor credulous man sunk into slavery and\nmisery. In the following centuries, the infatuated belief in miracles\nof all sorts and sizes became the order of the day, and the heads of the\nchurch, no doubt, founded their regularly organised system of deception\nupon the authority of St. Paul, who, in his second letter to the\nThessalonians, fairly avows that, \"for this cause God shall send them\nstrong delusion,** that they should believe a lie, _that they all might\nbe damned who believe not the truth_\"\n\n     * Not at all scrupulous about appropriating to themselves\n     the property of others, they have been accused of expelling\n     the Druids or Culdees, from their temples and monasteries,\n     and substituting their own orders; and this they called\n     founding monasteries. This was the fox taking possession of\n     the hole that had been dug by the badger.\n\n     ** In this epistle to the Thessalonians, Paul seemed to have\n     attained the acme of falsehood and delusion. He assures his\n     dupes that the resurrection of the dead, and the ascension\n     of the living, will take place in his and their days. \"Then\n     we (says he, chap iv., 17), which are alive and remain,\n     shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet\n     the Lord in the air,\" etc. Paul vouches for this being \"the\n     word of the Lord.\" \"The whole passage is in the first person\n     and present tense.\" By way of clinching this most notorious\n     falsehood, it is elsewhere affirmed that \"this generation\n     shall not pass away till all these things be accomplished.\"\n     Priests, have these things taken place?\n\nFrom this high authority, and from that of the Jew books, proceeded\nthose lying miracles and stupendous prodigies which excited the idiot\nwonderment of mankind; hence the forged letters of Christ to Abgarus,\nking of Edessa, and the Apostle Peter; hence the letters of the Virgin\nMary to St. Ignatius and the Sicilians, all dated in heaven; hence the\n11,000 virgin martyrs of Cologne; hence wood enough of the _true cross_\nto build a first-rate man-of-war; hence the two or three heads of St.\nUrsula; hence the girdle of the Virgin Mary shown in eleven places at\nthe same time; hence the remains of the ass, or asses, which carried\nJesus to Jerusalem; hence the head of the Volto Santo, miraculously sent\nfrom heaven, and carried in a ship from Joppa to Lucca, without the aid\nof any human being on board; hence the annually liquefied blood of St.\nJanuarus, imitated from the annual wound of the god Adonis,* in mount\nLibanus; and hence the flight of the Virgin Mary's cottage, which winged\nits way from Nazareth to Dalmatia, and thence to Loretto, where it still\nforms the headquarters of her ladyship.\n\n     * The Tammuz of Ezekiel:--\n\n          \"Whose annual wound in Libanus allur'd\n          The Syrian damsels to lament his fate\n          In am'ous ditties all a summer's day.\"\n          --Milton.\n\nYou object to the above legends on account of their being the invention\nof the scarlet prostitute, as you call the Church of Rome, observing\nthat the reformed church has given up all such fooleries. Be not\ndeceived, the priesthoods of all religions are essentially and\n_necessarily_ the same, inasmuch as fraud and delusion, skilfully played\noff upon ignorance, form the apparatus of all; and were it not that\nscience is now beginning everywhere to grapple with the demon of\nartificial theology, miracles would be as abundant as ever amongst both\nCatholics and protestants. The increasing knowledge of the laity curbs\nand puts to shame all such pretentions in the present day; but do we not\nsee how strenuously all the priests of Christendom uphold the prodigies\nwhich they say were performed nearly two thousand years ago? They do\nthis, because, without the delusion of supernatural agency, immediate or\nremote, their trade could not stand.\n\nAny attempt to rouse the ignorant, uncultivated mind to free inquiry, is\nalmost a hopeless task, and it is altogether so when besotted religious\nprejudice stands in the way; but we ask the man who has got a vestige of\nmind he can call his own, whether his evidence is as satisfactory that\nNature has been put out of her course by the working of miracles, as\nit is, on the contrary, that such violations of her laws have never in\ntruth taken place! Has any such thing happened in his own, his father's,\nhis grandfather's, or his great grandfather's time? He must answer in\nthe negative, and thus far he has evidence from experience, we shall\nsay, for 150 years, giving a succession of proof, which rests on the\nimmutable order of things; and will he abandon that invariable director\nfor the worthless and self-convicted testimony of a few strolling\nvagabonds, known only as the lawless disturbers of the peace in the\ncountries where they were vagrants, and who lived nearly two thousand\nyears ago? When legends and traditions are found inconsistent with\nnature, common sense, and experience, does their antiquity alone prove\ntheir truth against all these guides? On the contrary, antiquity can\nnever be divested of the mantle of fable. We know that besides the marks\nof falsehood which the stories alluded to bore at the time of their\nfabrication, the true characters of the propagators were so well known\nto men of sense and education among the Pagans, that their impostures\nwere utterly despised; and as the Jew books called the \"Testaments,\"\nabundantly show that they were compiled throughout by men of similar\ncharacter, to credit them is to give up all confidence in our senses,\nand to give the lie to natural light and reason.\n\nWhence comes the anomaly that it is in supenaturals alone we find man\ndeparting totally from the common rules of evidence, and the respect\nwhich he owes to himself? In this case, denying as he does the authority\nof his own senses, and the reason which arises from them, he has\nrendered himself inferior to all other animals, and this is evidently\nowing to his not being allowed the exercise of his intellectual powers,\npriestcraft having decoyed him into the regions of non-reality and\ndelusion, where everything congenial to his nature, where all entities,\nor things comprehensible, can have no admittance: there theological\ndeception holds her dominion under the dark mask of mystery;* and out of\nthe fears of ignorance forges mental chains for the human race, as they\ncome into existence, the child succeeding to the woful inheritance of\nthe father.\n\nMen, says a modern philosopher, blindly follow the paths their fathers\ntrode; they believe, because in infancy they were told they _must_\nbelieve; they hope, because their progenitors hoped; and they tremble,\nbecause they trembled. If by chance a young man examines his religion,\nhe does it with partiality, or without perseverance; he is often\ndisgusted with a single glance of the eye, on contemplating an object\nso revolting. In old age, the faculties are blunted; habits become\nincorporated with the machine, the senses are debilitated by time and\ninfirmity, and we are no longer able to penetrate back to the source of\nour opinions; besides, the fear of death then renders an examination,\nover which terror commonly presides, very liable to suspicion. Civil\nauthority also flies to the support of the prejudices of mankind;\ncompels them to ignorance by forbidding inquiry; and holds itself in\ncontinual readiness to punish all who attempt to undeceive them.**\n\n     * Originally, the word mystery signified the veil (mistos)\n     which covered knowledge: but amongst Christian priests, it\n     has been made the veil by which the most wicked deceptions\n     are covered.\n\n          ** For, blind and superstitious man is bred,\n          \"And custom is his nurse!\n          Woe then to them\n          Who lay irreverent hands upon his old\n          House furniture, the dear inheritance\n          From his forefathers!\n          For time consecrates;\n          And what is grey with age becomes religion.\"\n\nThe morality which is derived from the religion of nature, and the\nsocial intercourse of man, is everywhere the same, and unchangeable;\nwhereas that which is built upon priest-created theology is variable,\nimpure, and always pernicious, inasmuch as it is made to square with the\ninterests and power of the sacerdotal orders. This theology, from its\nbeing linked with political governments, has been enabled to insinuate\nits usurpations into every institution of society, where it has been\nthe fruitful source of endless contention and sorrow. The innocent\nand necessary liberties of mankind are, by conventional laws of its\nprocuring, converted into crimes; the freedom of the moral energies is\ncrushed, and almost every pursuit that is conducive to, or connected\nwith human happiness, is discouraged and blasted, through the influence\nand intrigues of this cunping and demoralising pest*--_the natural enemy\nof everything that is natural_.\n\n     * We know no other correct way to judge of any system, than\n     to look at the practical effects it has produced in the\n     world since it was promulgated. What then does the record of\n     the past discover to have been the effects of Christianity\n     upon men and nations? What has it done for the enlightenment\n     and progress of the mind--for man's elevation, improvement,\n     and happiness--his proper rank and station as a moral,\n     intellectual, rational being? Let those who have impartially\n     considered this melancholy subject, answer this question: do\n     we not know what it has done for the suppression, or rather\n     annihilation, of them all?\n\nAre we told that the fires of the inquisition, with all its accompanying\nabominations, have been swept away by the reformation; and that the\nspirit of our religion is changed from that of the raging wolf, to the\nmildness of the lamb? We positively deny that its _spirit_ is either\nchanged or capable of change: the light of science, and a partial\nexercise of reason is at present keeping it in check; but it anxiously\nawaits and looks forward to the return of that congenial element--the\nintellectual darkness and ignorance which prevailed in the eleventh\ncentury. This blessed consummation would effectually restore its power;\nand thus armed, the demon would quickly show, in the strongest sect,\nwhether Catholic or Protestant, its immutable spirit of tyranny and\npersecution,--the human mind would again be prostrated, and all the\nhorrors of those times would again cover the face of Christendom.\n\nWe shall conclude this lecture by asking a few questions.\n\nWhat is it that has, for the last fifteen centuries, obscured the light\nof Nature, put human reason out of her chair, and, as much as possible,\nprevented the development of all scientific truths?\n\nWhat was it that first occasioned the shedding of human blood, on\naccount of supernatural speculations, and imaginary existence?\n\nWhat was it that spread war, devastation, and bloodshed over Europe,\n(agreeably to the New Testament denunciation,)* for more than thirteen\nhundred years?\n\nWhat is it that still divides Europe into opposing sects; and keeps\nalive those deadly animosities about chimeras, for which men formerly\ncut each other's throats?\n\nWhat is it that most generally sets the father's heart against the son,\nand makes the son abhor the presence of his father?\n\nWhat is the thing which, cherished by ignorance, and sheltered by\ntyranny, has usurped one-tenth of the proceeds of man's industry; and in\nwringing this from starving poverty, is supported by cannon, bayonets,\nand sabres?\n\nWhat is it that has, to serve its own ends, and wholly unsupported\nby New Testament authority, appropriated to itself one-seventh of the\nlaboring man's time; compelling him to spend that time, either in houses\nof idolatry, or in idleness and vice at the ale-house, to the utter ruin\nof his family?\n\nWhat is it that has poisoned love amongst the human species, and\nrendered the simple union of the sexes an unnatural bond of tyranny\nand slavery,** which, in nine cases in every ten, entails life-lasting\nmisery upon the victims of the indissoluble marriages of Christian\nsuperstition!\n\n     * Vide Matt x., 84.\n\n     ** In the headlong inexperience of youth, the sexes, under\n     an innocent impulse of Nature, enter into the perpetual\n     snare of marriage, with tempers and dispositions as\n     different as are their sexes; and in a state of penury\n     scarcely able to subsist themselves, they engage to give\n     subsistence to a numerous family. Here is the beginning of\n     that unhappy state of matrimonial life which exhibits the\n     darkest portraiture of human existence--a procreative nest\n     of nuptial misery. But as that abject condition of toilworn\n     bondage mainly entails and fosters ignorance, by allowing\n     the laborer no leisure for the cultivation of his mind, it\n     has ever been cherished as the safeguard of \"Church and\n     State\" despotism.\n\nAll these questions are answered in five words:--_the artificial\nreligion of priestcraft_.\n\nSo shall the priest-ridden world go on, till\n\n          \"From the lips of truth one mighty breath,\n          Shall, like a whirlwind, scatter in its breeze\n          The whole dark pile of human mockeries.\"\n\n[Publishers' Note.]--Since this was written vast changes have been made\nin England in the laws relating to marriage and divorce, and if Logan\nMitchell could rewrite this he would probably be satisfied with\nsuch increased facilities for divorce as exist now in the State of\nMassachusetts, coupled with more complete recognition by the law of the\nparental rights of the mother.\n\nEND OF LECTURE SECOND.\n\n\n\n\nLECTURE THIRD. THE CHRISTIAN FATHERS, AND THEIR DOGMAS\n\n     On the back-ground appeared the Christian fathers, rearing a\n     form of superstition the most sanguinary and destructive of\n     human happiness that has ever afflicted the world. Her limbs\n     bestrode the prostrate nations to the extremities of the\n     earth; her head lowered to the clouds, whilst the right hand\n     of the gigantic monster brandished a burning torch.\n\n     Beware of a bull before, a horse behind, _and a priest all round_.\n     Old Proverb.\n\nIt has constantly been assumed by church chronologists that the Jewish\nsect of Galileans, who afterwards took the old Pagan appellation of\nChristian, had writings of their own as early as the first century; but\nthis is mere gratuitous assumption, and rests only on the authority\nof men entirely undeserving of credit. As for this _new Christian\nTheogony_, and how it came to receive the first stitches of its\npatchwork during the second and third centuries, we know nothing about\nthe matter, except what we have on the authority of Eusebius (see\npreceding lecture), Bishop of Caesarea, a man who was confessedly the\nmost notorious of all the Church historians for forgery and every other\nspecies of pious falsehood.* In getting up his history, he confesses\nthat he entered upon \"a solitary and untrodden way\" that he could nowhere\nfind as much as the bare steps of those who had passed the same path\nbefore him; that he had \"not found any ecclesiastical writer which unto\nthis day hath in this behalf employed any diligence.\"\n\n     * Vide Baronius.\n\nThese confessions from such a man are ample proof that he had no\nauthentic matter to found his \"history\" upon; but he could call to his\naid, legends, fables, and traditions, all very plastic and convertible\nmaterials, and in the use of them he has certainly shown himself a\nconsummate workman. The rest of that class of men who are generally\ndenominated the \"Fathers of the Church,\" some of whom lived before, and\nothers after the time of Eusebius, were persons equally addicted to holy\nfrauds and forgeries (with perhaps one or two exceptions), but most of\nthem were much inferior to him in zeal and industry. As habitual lying\nand deception were charged upon most of them by the learned of their\nPagan contemporaries, and also by the candid and impartial amongst their\nmodern successors in the church, it is proper to notice what some of the\nlatter have written of them. In this delineation of character we find\nthat a large majority of the vices and crimes which are found among the\nworst of mankind, have been fixed upon, them; viz., avarice, faction,\nignorance, sedition, persecution of each other, lying, perjury,\n_Clogherism_* (the crime of the Church in all ages), cruelty, and\nmurder. And some writers have gone so far as to declare that early\necclesiastical history is nothing but a compendium of their evil deeds.\n\n     * We learn from \"Barnet's Exposition,\" that the practice of\n     unnatural lusts had been so common among the dignitaries of\n     the Church, that St. Bernard, in a sermon preached to the\n     clergy of France, affirmed sodomy to be so common in his\n     time, _that bishops with bishops lived in it_\n\nIn times still earlier, the grossest vices are acknowledged to have been\ncommon, if not habitual, among the \"faithful;\" for Paul, in his epistle\nto the Roman Christians, chapter first, charges, his friends and\nfollowers, and even the women amongst them, as guilty of the unnatural\ncrime. In chapter vi., 19, he evidently alludes to it again. St.\nBarnabas, indeed, calls the first Christians, \"the most wicked of all\nthe wicked.\" Some of the fathers of the second century, such as Papias,\nand his admirer, Irenaeus, were actuated by follies so absurd, that they\nseem rather to have deserved the name of madmen; witness the romances\nabout the grape vines, and others of a similar nature, which are not\nexceeded by the wildest fictions of ancient or modern times. Such being\nthe soil, Christians, out of which your religion sprung from old roots,\nwe need not wonder that the fruit it has borne has been rather bitter.\nThe historians of the Popes confess that many of them were condemned by\ntheir own general councils for adultery, dogherasty, simony, sorcery,\nand Atheism.\n\nIn the third and fourth centuries, the fathers had arrived at higher\ntact and skill, and became adepts in trimming up all kinds of pious\ndeceptions and falsifications, and some of them were avowed forgers\non principle and by profession. But it frequently happened that as\nhostilities grew up between the leaders of contending sects, they were\nuseful in exposing the nefarious inventions of each other, which led\nto deadly animosities amongst their followers. It was, probably, a late\nknowledge of the utter fallaciousness of his newly adopted religion,\nand the perpetual contentions which he saw to be inseparable from such\na system, that eventually disgusted Origen, and caused him, as is well\nknown, to abandon Christianity, recur to Paganism, and sacrifice to\nidols, publicly denying his lord and master, Jesus Christ. This appears\nin his own writings, but more fully in his life, written in Greek by\nSuidas.\n\nEpiscopius says of the Council of Nice, and others of that early period,\n\"that they were led on by fury, faction, and madness;\" and this is\ncorroborated by another author, who relates, that at the second Synod of\nEphesus, Dioscorus, Bishop of Alexandria, \"knocked and kicked Flavianus,\nPatriarch of Constantinople, with such fury, that within three days\nafter he died.\" The philosopher Ammianus Marcellinus, complains that\n\"no beasts were such deadly enemies to men as the more savage Christians\nwere to each other.\" What better could be expected, when the example\nwas shown by the leaders of sects, the fathers themselves, who were\nconstantly quarrelling about the smallest as well as the greatest\npoints, and for the smallest as well as the greatest they damned one\nanother.*\n\nIn a former lecture, it has been observed that the famous passage which\nwe find in Josephus about Jesus Christ, was never mentioned nor alluded\nto in any way whatever by any of the fathers of the first, second, or\nthird centuries; nor until the time of Eusebius, \"_when it was first\nquoted by himself_.\" The truth is, none of these fathers could quote or\nallude to a passage which did not exist in their times, but was, to\nall points short of absolute certainty, forged and interpolated by\nEusebius, as suggested by Gibbon and others. Even the redoubtable\nLardner has pronounced this passage to be a forgery.\n\nThat most ingenuous and fair dealing son of the Church, Mosheim, whose\nauthority and unimpeachable veracity have never been questioned, even by\ndivines, certifies as follows:--\"The Platonists and Pythagoreans\nheld it as a maxim, that it was not only lawful, but praiseworthy to\n_deceive_, and even to make use of the expedient of a _lie_ in order\nto advance the cause of truth and piety.** The Jews, who had lived in\nEgypt, had learned and received this maxim from them (the Pythagoreans\nand Platonists) before the coming of Christ, as appears incontestably\nfrom a multitude of ancient records; and the Christians were infected\nfrom both these sources with the same pernicious error, as appears from\nthe number of books _attributed falsely_ to great and venerable names.\"\nThe above extract refers to the second century only, when numerous\ngospels, epistles, etc., were fabricated and falsely fathered in the\nmanner stated by Mosheim; but in the fourth century there were few\nexceptions to the standard maxim, that it was an act of the highest\nmerit to deceive and lie, whenever the interests of the priesthood might\nbe promoted thereby.\n\n     * In the inexhaustible arsenal of St. Paul's conundrums,\n     ambiguous oracles, and common-sense-defying quibbles, they\n     got arms, which answered equally well to combat each other,\n     and to confound all experience and reason.\n\n     ** Upon this principle exactly, every priest, before he can\n     become a member of the English established church, is\n     obliged to perjure himself on his adoption by the bishop, in\n     swearing two tremendous, palpable, glaring lies; namely,\n     _that he does not seek the living or office for the sake of\n     lucre; but that he is impelled thereto by the Holy Ghost!_\n     Hear, hear, stall-fed John Bull.\n\nThe writings of the most virtuous and meritorious authors among the\nPagans, if they inculcated good morals alone, and condemned all vulgar\nsuperstitions, were reckoned superlatively dangerous by these fathers;\nfor even the amiable Plutarch did not escape their wasteful malice,\nthere being upwards of a hundred of his opuscula, or moral treatises\ndestroyed. But while they indulged in this _prudent_ destruction, they\ntook care to preserve such extracts from the writings of Porphyry,\nCelsus, Hierocles, and others, as they could fit up by contortion, and\npress into the service of their new superstition, inserting, at the same\ntime, concessions which were never made by these philosophers, whose\nworks were exceedingly obnoxious, on account of the reason and good\nsense which they contained. Nay, it has even been known that some of\nthe finest of these literary productions have, in certain parts, been\nentirely obliterated by these, falsifying priests, and their own knavish\njargon substituted on the same parchment.\n\nDaille freely avers, \"that the writings of the fathers are in great part\nforged, either anciently or in latter times, full of frauds, both pious\nand malicious, against Pagan learning, mutually witnesses against each\nother, _and are absolutely not to be believed_. They would forge whole\nbooks to serve the ends of the priesthood.\"\n\nThese examples were too interesting and praiseworthy not to be followed,\nas far as possible, by the English clergy. They falsified, again and\nagain, says Hume, the rolls of Parliament to serve their own dominion,\ntaking care to publish only the articles that were favorable to\nthemselves. And they were guilty of another imposture in adding one to\nthe number--(See the first edition of Hume).\n\nJortin, in his remarks on ecclesiastical history, charges the fathers\nwith _perverting, misquoting_, defaming, defacing and destroying the\nworks of their adversaries, and even those of each other.\n\nBlondel, when speaking of the second century, says, \"whether you\nconsider the immediate impudence of impostors, or the deplorable\ncredulity of believers, it was a most miserable period, and exceeded\nall others in pious frauds; _there was more aversion to lying, and more\nfidelity among profane, than among Christian, authors_.\"\n\nBishop Fell confesses, that \"in the first ages of the Church, so\nextensive was the license of forging, so credulous were the people in\nbelieving, that the evidence of transactions was grievously obscured.\"\nCasaubon complains as follows:--\"I am much grieved to observe, in\nthe early ages of the Church, that there were very many who deemed it\npraiseworthy to assist the divine word with their own fictions; that\ntheir new doctrine might find a readier admittance among the wise men\nof the Gentiles.\" This is confirmed by Scaliger, who declares that, so\ninefficacious did they deem their \"word of God,\" that they distrusted\nthe success of Christ's kingdom, \"_without the aid of lying._\"*\n\n     * Their \"New Jerusalem\" was heaven-constructed, and formed a\n     cube of five hundred leagues; it descended through the air\n     for forty nights successively. Tertullian saw it himself--\n     Bravo.\n\n     This \"New Jerusalem\" was figurative of the \"Houses of the\n     sun,\" or the signs of the zodiac.\n\nBishop Burnet has _shown_ that the Athanasian creed was a forgery of the\neighth century.\n\nTo the testimony and authority of the above seven highly respectable\ndivines, we might add that of a host of other theologians, which shows\nthat it has generally been the sons of the Church themselves who have\nmost fully exposed the utterly worthless and deceitful characters of the\nfabricators of our religion: but for the present we shall only cite\nthe \"Free Inquiry\" of the ingenuous and learned Dr. Middleton, who, in\nquoting the authority of St. Cyprian as to the frauds of the\nChristians in the third century, observes as follows:--\"From all these\nconsiderations taken together, it must, I think, be allowed that the\nforged miracles of the fourth century give us just reason to suspect the\npretensions of _every other age, both before and after it._ My argument\nwould be much the same if it were grounded on the allowed forgeries of\nany later age.\" Again, he says; \"So far I agree with them both (Drs.\nChapman and Berriman) and own their defence to be true, that the earlier\nmiracles rest on no better foundation, nor are supported by any better\nevidence than the latter.\" It is true that elsewhere Dr. Middleton seems\nto concede the truth of the New Testament and apostolic miracles, but\nwho does not see that this was a shift to ward off persecution and ruin?\n\nIt has elsewhere been observed, that according to the confessions of\nthe apostolic father, St. Hermas, which we have in his book called \"The\nPastor,\" he was a liar upon principle and avowed profession. Beausobre\nsays of, him: \"His principle was, that faith was only fit for the\nrabblement.\"\n\n\"Saint Augustine, one of the most veracious, and the least given to\nlying of all the Fathers, declares in his 33rd sermon, and stakes his\neternal salvation to the truth of the fact, which he said was as true\nas the Gospel, that while he was bishop of Hippo Regiup, he preached the\ngospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to a whole nation of men and\nwomen, _who had no heads_, but had their eyes in their bosoms; and in\ncountries still more southerly, he preached to a nation amongst whom\neach individual had but one eye, and that situate in the middle of the\nforehead!\" What a glorious field this affords the \"_long-eared rout_\"\nfor the exercise of their faith!\n\nThat falsehood was quite the order of the day amongst the Fathers,\nwitness the maxim of Tertullian, \"_Credo quia impossibile est_;\" upon\nwhich unerring rule he founded his implicit belief in the resurrection\nand other such miracles, that is, he believed them true, _because they\nwere utterly impossible_. Saint Jerome accuses not only St. Paul, but\nJesus Christ, of frauds.\n\nJustin Martyr speaks of the fable of the Phoenix as an incontrovertible\ntruth. Tertullian affirms, in his usual manner, that when the Christians\ncast out devils, they (the devils) acknowledged themselves to be the\nheathen deities, Mars, Bacchus, Apollo, etc., etc. These, and such as\nthese, are our Christian authorities!\n\nAt the head of all these _Fathers of the Church_, in point of rank and\npre-eminence in wickedness, stands the imperial assassin, the Emperor\nConstantine. As a forger and falsifier, it was not in his line to equal\nhis protege Eusebius; but in all the arts of dissimulation he seems not\nto have been his inferior. As a cool family murderer, Nero and Caligula\nmay hide their diminished heads in his presence. He drowned his wife in\nboiling water; put to death his son Crispus; murdered the two\nhusbands of his sisters, Constantia and Anastasia; murdered his own\nfather-in-law, Maximiam Hercules; murdered his nephew, his sister\nConstantia's son, only twelve years of age; with some others, not so\nnearly related, amongst whom was Sapator, a pagan priest, who refused\nabsolution for the crimes of the royal assassin.\n\nThere is nothing easier to conceive than the eagerness with which\nsuch tyrants as Constantine, and his son Constantins, would embrace\nso _convenient_ a religion as the one newly vamped. The Pagan priest,\nSapator, was put to death for expressing horror at the crimes of the\nformer, which were readily absolved by the Christian priests; and when\nthe latter wanted to commit similar murders, he found a ready assistant\nin the Bishop of Nicomedia, a _holy father_ of the fourth century,\nwho forged a fatal deed, which he affirmed to be the testament of the\ndeceased emperor; in which his son Constantius was enjoined and conjured\nto murder his two uncles (one of whom was his father-in-law), Optatus,\nthe husband of his aunt, and seven cousins german, one of whom was his\nbrother-in-law. These were the first imperial patrons of Christianity!\nThe good bishop no doubt justified Constantine in the bloody injunction\nlaid in his forged will, by the example of David, who, with his last\nbreath, enjoined his son Solomon to murder his faithful general, Joab,\nand Shimei, though he had sworn not to harm the latter; in like manner\nConstantius had pledged his solemn oath for the security of his kinsmen.\n\nWhen the foregoing sketches and opinions are considered as proof\nspecimen of the true characters and conduct of a few of the men called\n\"the Fathers,\" an estimate of the general worthlessness and fraudulent\nmotives of the whole may easily be formed; yet such were the men who\n_systematized_ Christianism, headed by St. Paul, who afforded them a\nnotable example in all the arts of mystery or fraud, these two terms\nbeing synonymous. His justification of lying is as follows:--\"For if the\ntruth of God hath more abounded _through my lie unto his glory_, why yet\nam I also judged as a sinner?\" Rom. iii., 7. It ought not, therefore,\nto excite any surprise, that from so foul a source should emanate those\nunsightly and revolting dogmas, which, sooner or later, must bring this\nsuperstition into utter contempt, before the tribunal of reason and\nscience. The root of all these dogmas is distinctly traceable to the\nastro-theology of the ancient Pagans; but the whole has been hideously\nperverted by the fabricator of our religion, either by knavishly\nteaching the exoteric, or literal sense, though they knew the esoteric,\nor hidden meaning; or by adopting the former through ignorance of the\nmythological mysteries. The fable of the fall of man, the garden of\nEden, the serpent and Eve, etc., are clearly astronomical allegories;*\nand the most learned of the early fathers held them to be so; but they\nwere abused by others, and taken in the literal sense, in order that\nthey might serve as tenterhooks, upon which to stretch the New Testament\ndogmas of original sin and redemption.\n\n     * \"At the autumnal equinox, when the celestial sign, Virgo\n     (Eye) is setting heliacally, she seems to be followed by the\n     constellation Bootes (Adam, or a personification of solar\n     heat) and by seeming to hold out to him a branch with\n     beautiful fruit upon it, was said to tempt or seduce Adam,\n     whom she appears to draw after her; and when the two link\n     below the western horizon, they are said to fall; and to\n     resign the heavens to the dominion of the serpent, and other\n     wintry signs, i.e. cold and darkness, figuratively, evil.\n     While the man and woman are retiring from the summer garden\n     of fruits and flowers, the sign Perseus is seen rising in\n     the east, and with his flaming sword is said to drive the\n     happy pair from the reign of summer. As Virgo sinks first in\n     the west, she is said to be first in transgression.\"\n\nThat these fables have allusion to the signs of the zodiac, the solar\nsystem, the elements and seasons, has been shown by Volney, Dupuis, and\nothers. Many of the apparently gross absurdities of the Bible are easily\nexplained by the key of ancient astronomy. Indeed, all the principal\npersonages of that book, as well as those of remote pagan antiquity,\nwhether, ranking as deities or men, were either personifications of\nconstellations, planets, seasons, or other natural objects, or their\naffects; and whenever miraculous powers were ascribed to those fanciful\ncreations, all men who understood the mysteries, such as Herodotus,\nPhilo, Origen, etc., knew that the literal sense could not be true; and\nthat the right interpretation was allegorical. The ancient languages of\nthe East having no neuter gender, the host of celestial existences were\ndenominated in the masculine or feminine. Amongst these, their grand\nimmaculate chieftain, the sun, in all the eastern theogonies, and\nunder a thousand different names, was always adored as the omnipotent\n_Creator_ and _Regulator_. \"O Sun,\" cried the great prophet of Persia,\n\"thou art powerful in thy blaze! glorious in thy lustre! the burster of\ndarkness! head of the world! king of stars! mightiest of beings above!\"\n\nThat those polytheisms of the East, from which emanated Judaism and\nChristianity, had their root in astronomy, is proved from the most\nauthentic sources. \"The Egyptians,\" says Plutarch, \"inserted nothing\ninto their worship without a reason, nothing merely fabulous, nothing\nsuperstitious, as many suppose; but their institutions have either a\nreference to morals, or to something useful in life; and many of them\nbear a beautiful resemblance of some appearance in nature.\" Chaeremon,\nthe Egyptian philosopher, says: \"What is said of Osiris and Isis,*\nand all the sacred fables, may be resolved into the stars--their\noccultations and risings--into the course of the Sun through the zodiac;\nor the nocturnal and diurnal hemispheres.\"\n\n     * According to Eratosthenes, the celestial Virgin was\n     supposed to be Isis, that is, the symbol of the returning\n     year. It was in honor of this goddess that the Egyptians\n     celebrated the famous festival of light, which was imitated\n     by the Christians in their feast of Candlemas. From the\n     Egyptians, the Romans took their Solar festivals, in honor\n     of the birth of the god of light, celebrated on the 25th\n     December, at which time, says Sexvius, the Sun may, properly\n     speaking, be said to be new, or to have a new birth. Hence\n     the Christmas of the Christians, which had also been,\n     previously, a Druidical festival, in honor of the solar\n     God's birth; hence the evergreen emblems--the holly, the\n     mistletoe, etc., all sacred among the Druids thousands of\n     years before Christ.\n\nPorphyry corroborates the above thus:--\"The learned Egyptians admit the\nexistence of no other gods except what are called the planets, the gods\nwhich give completion to the zodiac; and such as rise together with\nthese; and likewise the sections of the zodiac into decans.\" Such\nwere the Egyptian and Chaldeans roots of Christianity; and such was\nChristianity itself, until it became abused and falsified by the\nintroduction of Platonic visions, and a belief in the reality of\nsupernatural personifications, which by degrees supplanted the sublime\nnatural and moral principles of the Pagan stock.\n\nThe metaphysical phantasma called soul (revived by Plato from the\ndivine philosophy of the Pagans), and its future state of rewards and\npunishments, is one of the most pernicious and fatal of those dogmas.\nWithout this notion priests would be comparatively harmless, as it forms\nthe basis of their secret influence, by working upon the hopes and fears\nof ignorance, and thereby becomes the chief source of riches and power.\nBy this mischievous invention they have turned this fair world into\nan abode of gloomy despair, terrifying their weak-minded victims into\nslavish obedience, by keeping them in perpetual dread of imaginary\npunishments, in the infliction of which they paint their god as a\ncapricious and malevolent tyrant. This story of the soul's immortality\nmust have been unknown, or at least not fashionable at the time in\nwhich it is said Moses lived, since no allusion whatever is made to it\nthroughout the books attributed to him;* and David, Solomon, and Job\ndeny it in the most positive manner. Even the testator of the Jewish\nwill seems at that time to have had no such idea. The fact is, the Jews\nhad heard nothing of the matter until they learnt it of the Platonist\nGreeks, as is proved by many parts of the Bible; for instance, Moses\nmakes the Jewish god threaten to \"visit the sins of the fathers upon the\nchildren unto the third and fourth generation.\" The rewards were also\npurely temporal, such as \"their corn their wine shall abound.\" These\nwere all the ideas that Moses had of future rewards and punishments;\nand the Pharisees did not publicly maintain the dogma of the soul's\nimmortality, etc., until about the time of Herod.\n\n     * The great Warburton has shown that the Jews in the time of\n     Moses, entertained no such opinion as the immortality of the\n     soul.  \"This is admitted (says Ensor) although unwillingly,\n     by Tillotson and Wilkins, and candidly by Le Clereq and\n     Geddes.\" This platonic notion is flatly denied in Psalms\n     cxlvi., 4; and in Eccles. iii, 19, 20.\n\nPythagoras and Plato seemed to have been the mere revivers of this\nancient doctrine, which, as the learned, say, sprang from the Brahminism\nof India, the most ancient of all the mythologies, the priests of which\nare said to have been the first who corrupted human society, by the\ninvention of souls, and other spiritual or celestial existences; but,\nunlike their imitators of' the west, they neither persecuted nor shed\na drop of blood for religion's sake; nor the blood of animals for food.\nChristians! we know ye can very ill bear to be told, that from India\nthrough Persia ye have your cosmogony, fall of man, immortality of the\nsoul, redemption, incarnation, future rewards and punishments, heaven\nand hell, desolation of all things, universal restoration, trinity\nin unity, eternity, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, and\nomnibenevolence of God;* all are derived from the Vedas and Shastras, or\nBible of the Brahmins, and the Sadder of the Zoroastrians. Out of these\noriental materials, all the successive religions that have sprung up in\nthe west have been fabricated, with such variations in the machinery as\nsuited the civil and clerical despotism in the different countries, and\nthe degree of ignorance in the people.\n\nOne of the insidious and baneful arts of theology, has ever been to make\nman believe that he is something else than that which nature has made\nhim in reality; and this delusive flattery has moulded him into that\nself-important and credulous animal, which best suits the interests of\nhis deceivers;** hence his proudly assumed knowledge of his personified\ndeity. If this be true his boasted spiritual knowledge seems to have the\neffect of making him more wicked and vicious than any other animal, for\nhe is not only the scourge of all the rest, but will, to gratify the\npride and ambition of lay and spiritual tyrants (leagured together\nfor his oppression), cut the throats of his own species; though, by so\ndoing, he the more closely rivets the chains of his own subjection, and\nmaintains those very delusions which enslave his mind, poison society,\nand distract the world.\n\n     * And this God was no other than the Sun!\n\n     ** In commencing this nefarious process no time is lost man\n     is seized upon the moment he is born, and the first\n     sacerdotal spell is the water incantation; after which his\n     mind is gradually mortgaged to the priest by more potent\n     charms; he is carefully shorn of his natural liberties, and\n     thus donkified, all his motions are regulated until death,\n     when the last priestly spell is performed. But this is not\n     all--clerical rapacity holds property even in the corpse\n     which cannot be interred until this last grasping charge is\n     satisfied.\n\nThe spiritual arsenal of Plato having thus supplied the human animal\nwith what is called an \"immortal soul,\"* our Christian priests have ever\nsince found it an excellent foundation for their scheme, and a secure\nmedium through which to make permanent their riches and power.\n\n     * As the word soul, heaven, spirit, hell, metaphysio, ghost,\n     immaterial, etc., are not representatives of things which\n     exist in reality, why are they suffered to confound common\n     sense? Because, in serving that purpose, they are the most\n     useful auxiliaries of priest-mare delusion. The Theologian's\n     definition of them is his best refutation.\n\nPlato would not at this day know his foster-child, disfigured as it now\nis by a train of hideous inventions, the theory of which is, that death\nis the only way to a new and eternal life; that all who believe in this\nparadoxical speculation of the priest shall be rewarded, and that all\nwho believe him _not_ shall be tortured by an eternal roasting in that\nlife. Considering the weak and credulous nature of the human mind in\na state of ignorance, we must acknowledge the bold ingenuity which\ninvented this tremendous dogma; it is calculated to confound even the\nstrongest intellect; for the terrors of death, under so frightful a\npredicament, utterly debase and enslave the prostrate mind, making it a\nprey to all the combined efforts of sacerdotal fraud. By this pernicious\nfiction, the morality of nations has been destroyed, the blackest crimes\nthat man can commit have been pardoned,* and the priest has filled his\ncoffers to the glory of the three divinities! Theology, in its vain\nattempts to raise man above that sphere in which nature has placed him,\nas a link in her animated chain, hath thus created for him an imaginary\nfuturity; but, in so doing, by a strange incongruity, the creature so\nexalted above himself, and made the exclusive object of divine clemency,\nhas against him, nevertheless, 999 chances in the 1,000 that he is\npredestined to everlasting torments, (yet even this inexorably forlorn\nhope flatters his pride) whilst the remaining unit only shall enjoy the\nbeatitude of celestial bliss:--\n\n          No matter,\n          Better to be in hell, it seems, than\n          Not to be at all. We say negatur.\n\n          * Oh, Plato! Plato! you have paved the way\n          With your confounded fantasies, to more\n          Immoral conduct, by the fancied sway.\n          Your systems feign o'er the controlless core\n          Of human hearts, than all the long array\n          Of poets and romances; you're a bore,\n          A charlatan, a coxcomb, and have been,\n          At best, no better than a go-between.--Byron.\n\nTo create that essential difference between man and the other animals\nwhich is necessary to the ends of priestcraft, the spiritualist\nconjures up his chimerical invention called soul; which, for certain\nconsiderations to him well and truly paid, he bestows exclusively\nupon man; and as the other animals have no money, he declares, in the\nnot-to-be-questioned tone, that not one of them has a rag of any such\nappendage. There is no necessity for proving this in the usual manner,\nnor even to demonstrate that the article in question has a real\nexistence, as these are points of _faith_ imposed by dint of infallible\ndogmas, the truth of which is sufficiently proved by the power which\nnine millions a-year confers upon our spiritual guides; and by the\nignorance which that power and influence fosters.\n\nThe bee, the beaver, the ant, and many more of those called \"inferior\nanimals,\" have shown in community, equal, if not superior wisdom, in\nall their customs and social institutions, to that displayed by man in\nsociety; yet priests will not allow them a scrap of _soul_. But this\ndeficiency will be remedied whenever spiritual impostors, pretending\nto heavenly inspiration, shall spring up amongst themselves; for then\nsupernatural religions, with their accompaniments of priesthoods,\nwill be simultaneous blessings, as the latter will not only supply in\nabundance the little \"immortal\" articles in question, but save and cure\nthem for the voyage to heaven, for the trifling remuneration of being\nallowed the means of living in luxury and ease for life, at the expense\nof the wealth producers. These conditions are so customary and moderate,\nthat a priesthood, even amongst ants, could not be expected both to\ncreate and save souls on more reasonable terms. Before these tiny\nexamples of industry give way to the introduction of supernaturalism,\nand its hierarchical plagues, let them well weigh whether the possession\nof souls (subject to the terrible risks above stated), and a postmortem\n_life_ will compensate for the corruption of government, the debasement\nof character, the immoralities, the vices, and shocking crimes which\nwill most assuredly pervade their communities for ever in this life,\nwhenever they adopt spiritualism, and its train of locusts to prey upon\ntheir industry. We have been more particular in regard to ants, owing to\nits having been ascertained that in many of their republics, a military\nforce, or \"standing army,\" in peace as well as in war, has been\nestablished; and as that scourge has never been known among men, but\nas part of a grand enslaving scheme, which embraced, as a vital\ncorrelative, some system of superstition and its priesthood, it is\ngreatly to be feared that the ants are verging towards the sacerdotal\nmania, which is the hand and glove concomitant of the former evil.\n\nThe indisputable fact that man, taking him as the Christian superstition\nhas moulded him, has more vices, than any other animal whatsoever, and\nnot a single virtue that may not be found in most of them, is rather a\nlame proof of his exclusive possession of the immortal item to which he\npretends.\n\nThat which was called \"soul\" in Platonism and Christianity, was\nprecisely the _Pneuma_ of the Greeks, and the _Anima_ of the Latins, to\nwhich they attached no other meaning than simply the breath of life*\nin all animals; and as that is composed of elements which are eternal,\nimmortality may, in this sense, be justly ascribed to it.| But mind or\nsoul is not a thing of itself (res sui), but a consequence resulting\nfrom, and depending upon, animal organisation. In regard to the \"_innate\nideas_\" which it has pleased our theological doctors to bestow upon the\nhuman mind, the better to adapt it for their own purpose, it would be\nquite as philosophical and true, to assert that a violin had innate\nmusic. This physical property called mind, the result of organisation,\nand, in degree, common to everything that has life, is, at birth, a\ntabula rasa, but acquires ideas as it grows to maturity, from the senses\nbeing acted upon by external objects, much in the same manner that the\nmechanically organised violin produces music, from the external action\nof the bow.\n\n     * Its supposed existence after death is merely a fresh\n     version of the ancient Metempsychosis.\n\n     ** Aristotle maintained the eternity of matter, and did not\n     believe that the governing power of the universe extended\n     any particular providence to sublunary things. As for the\n     immortality of the soul, or even the existence of any such\n     thing, as taught in modern theology, it was quite\n     inconsistent with his principles; yet he was, at one and the\n     same tune, the master of theologians, and the chief of the\n     Atheists.\n\nThe next dogma we shall notice is that of Savior, or Mediator. This is\nevidently derived from the Christna of the Hindu trinity, who, as the\n_Redeemer_ of the human race, was the most important of the three. This\npersonification of the sun seems to have been adopted by the Persian\nlawgiver, Zoroaster, under the name of Mithra (which still meant\nMediator), when he founded the religion of the Mithriacs, or worshippers\nof the sun. According to Plutarch, Zoroaster taught that there existed\ntwo principles, one good, and the other evil; the first was called\nOromazes, \"_the ancient of days_,\" being the principle of good or light;\nthe other, Ahrimanes, was the principle of evil, or cold and darkness.\nBetween these personified principles, he placed his Mithra, who, as the\nsource of genial heat and life, annually redeems the human race from the\npower of evil or cold and darkness.* From this beautiful allegory of\nthe sun, is derived the Christian dogma of Savior, of which proof maybe\nfound even amongst the fathers. (See Tertullian, Adv. Qentes.) Celsus\nasserts that the early Christians were merely a sect of adorers of the\nsun, and such a sect were the Manicheans. The principles of what man\ncalls _good_ and _evil_, have also been personified** in the Osiris\nand Typhon of the Egyptians, the Jupiter and Pandora of the Greeks,\nthe Jehovah and Satan of the Jews, and the present God and devil of the\nChristians.\n\n     *  This Indian and Persian Trinity was symbolical of the\n     three-fold, power of the Sun, or God Mithra: in spring and\n     summer, he is the Producer; in autumn, the Preserver; and by\n     his absence in winter, the Destroyer.\n\n     ** The fraud of personifying principles, and the physical\n     powers of Nature has always been easy and indispensable with\n     priests in all ages. During the French revolution, Gobet,\n     Bishop of Paris, acknowledged that up to that time, himself\n     and his clergy had taught the people nothing but a mass of\n     falsehood, for which he apologised; disowned the god he had\n     taught the people to worship, and promised to devote himself\n     to the worship of reason, morality, liberty and virtue. But\n     the stupid and credulous mob soon personified these\n     qualities, and worshipped, them as deities and real\n     entities. At Rome, in like manner, the compliments of the\n     new year, Perpetua Felicitas, were turned into two\n     goddesses, and receive divine honors to this day.\n\nDiogenes Laertius says expressly that the Jews adopted the doctrine of\nthe two principles from the Magi; and St. Augustine assures us that it\nwas the foundation of the religion of the Assyrians, who were so often\nthe masters of the little miserable Jewish horde. Manicheism (so called\nfrom Manes, the founder) was one of the first branches of Christianism;\nbut adhered more than any other of the heresies, to the original\nZoroastrian stock, though it lay as a stage between that religion and\nthe recent version of Christianity, which, as well as Judaism, is a mere\nheresy from the religion of the Persians. Since the Persian cosmogony\nand religion, as well as all others of the East, were purely and\nconfessedly allegorical, is it rational to suppose that anything of\nthe kind got up by the Jews, could be other than a rough and ignorant\nversion of that of their masters?\n\nIt has been admitted by most of the learned that the Shastras and Vedas,\nor scriptures of the Hindus, were in existence 1,400 years before the\nalleged time of Moses; and, in all probability, the Zendavesta, or\nPersian Bible, was long anterior also. Sir William Jones, of pious\nand orthodox memory, confesses that, \"the name of Chrishna,* and the\ngeneral outline of his story, _was long anterior to the birth of our\nSavior_, and, to the time of Homer, _we know very certainly_. I am\npersuaded also (continues he), that a connexion existed between the old\nidolatrous nations of Egypt, India, Greece, and Italy, _long before\nthe time of Moses_. In the Sanscrit Dictionary, compiled more than two\nthousand years ago, we have the whole story of the incarnate Deity, BORN\nOF A VIRGIN, and miraculously escaping in his infancy from the reigning\ntyrant of his country.\"\n\n     * Sir William Jones says, in his \"Asiatic Researches,\" that\n     he was assured by Colonel Valency, that Chrishna in Irish\n     means the sun. The Baal-fire feast, or meeting, was a great\n     festival in Ireland, on the 25th of December, and midsummer\n     eye. Baal, or Bel, was a name of the sun all over the east.\n\n     ** This probably alludes to the great period of nearly\n     26,000 years, in which time the sun passes through the whole\n     circle of the zodiac. That is, he is in each sign, at the\n     venial equinox, for the space of 2,155 years.\n\nThis tyrant, alarmed at some prophecy, sought the infant's life; and, to\nmake sure work, he ordered all the male children under two years of age\nto be put to death. Here is the true origin of the horrid story about\nHerod, of which no Greek or Roman historian says a single word. That\nthe Christian story was taken from the Indian allegory, is traceable in\nevery circumstance--the reputed father of Chrishna was a\ncarpenter--a new star appeared at the child's birth--he was laid in a\nmanger--(celestial)--he underwent many incarnations! to redeem the world\nfrom sin and mental darkness, (ignorance and winter) and was, therefore,\ncalled _Savior_;--he was put to death between two thieves--he arose\nfrom the dead, and returned to his heavenly seat in Vaicontha. In\ncorroboration of this, Albert the Great admits as follows \"We know that\nthe sign of the celestial Virgin did come to the horizon at the\nmoment where we have fixed the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. All\nthe mysteries of the incarnation of our Savior Christ: and all the\ncircumstances of his marvellous life, from his conception to his\nascension, _are to be traced out in the constellations, and are figured\nin the stars_.\" Volney, Dupuis, and others, have shown that these, and\nmany more of our Scripture stories, which are absurd and revolting, if\ntaken literally, were originally, in the learning of the east, pregnant\nwith truth as astronomical allegories; having primary allusion to the\nsun, the elements and seasons, and to the progress of that luminary\nthrough the different signs of the zodiac; but more particularly, as he\nis the sole and glorious source from which flows all and everything that\nman can rationally call good. We repeat the melancholy truth, that all\nthese beautiful astro-allegories have been lost in the ignorance or\nroguery of priestcraft.\n\nMiraculous conceptions.--All antiquity is full of such conceptions\nand births, springing from the fabulous amours of gods with _virgins_,\nwhereby \"_sons of God_\" were engendered. These fables also had their\norigin in physical and moral allegories; but they were subsequently\nfound to be extremely convenient to cover the real fruits of sacerdotal\nintrigues and seductions, which the priests could always saddle upon\nsome good-natured god. In all probability the virgin votaries of Vesta\nwere instituted for no other purpose than the private _devotions_ of the\npriesthood* and when it happened that they were unable to conceal the\nnatural effects of these amours, the paternity was charged upon some\neasy accommodating god; by which means the girl remained in spotless\nvirginity. This opinion is the more valid from their being allowed to\nmarry at thirty, when the priests no longer wanted _their_ services,\nbut those of the younger girls: if they chose to remain, in the temple,\nhowever, they were\n\n          \"Doomed to deck the bed they once enjoyed.\"\n\n     * In the highest apartment of the Temple of Belas, in\n     Babylon, a woman was kept for the _private devotion_ of the\n     priest whose turn it was to make astronomical observations.\n     This was done under the pretence that the lady was visited\n     once a year by the god Bel. History dees not inform us in\n     regard to Bel's progeny, by these housekeepers.\n\nBy such artful intrigues, the Hindu virgin, Rohini, conceived and\nbrought forth a \"son of God,\" one of the Brahmin trinity. A Chinese\n_virgin_, impregnated by a ray of the _Sun_, became the mother of the\ngod Foe, who always acted as the _mediator_ between his followers and\nanother god of still greater power. Mademoiselle Creusa, in all her\nvirgin purity, was safely delivered of another \"_son of God_\" as was also\nthe virgin mother of Somonocodom, who, according to the scriptures of\nthe Talapoins of Siam, was the god expected to _save_ the universe.\nJupiter himself was fabled to have given birth to children from all\nparts of his body, from forehead to leg: thus Minerva sprang from his\nhead.* The followers of Plato, two hundred and fifty years after his\ndeath, and one hundred before the Christian era, raised the story that\nhe was born of a virgin:--Aristo, his father, was on his marriage,\nwarned in a _dream_ by Apollo, not to have any commerce with his wife,\nbecause she was with child by him (Apollo); Aristo obeyed; and Plato\nwas born as another \"_son of God_\" It was no doubt owing to the holy\npaternity of some priest, that Sylva Rhea, under cover of a love affair\nwith the god Mars, had the honor to lay the foundation of the Roman\nreligion, by producing another \"_son of God_.\"\n\n     *  The severe study, or brain-labor necessary in acquiring\n     sound knowledge, is here prettily allegorized in the birth,\n     of Minerva, who was the personification of wisdom.\n\nThe writers of the most ancient chronicles of Alexandria, after\nattesting the universal prevalence of our _gospel religion_ in Egypt for\nages before the date of its alleged origin, in the reign of Tiberius,\ntestify as follows:--\n\n\"To this day, Egypt has consecrated the pregnancy of a virgin, and the\nnativity of her son, whom they annually present in a cradle, to the\nadoration of the people; and when king Ptolemy, three hundred and fifty\nyears before our Christian era, demanded of the priests the significancy\nof this religions ceremony, they told him it was a mystery.\"*\n\nAll the above conceptions and incarnations are merely the poetical and\nallegorical fictions of Paganism. We have already seen that the first\nfabricators and compilers of our religion were men of the greatest\nhonesty and veraciousness of character: and as they had just received\nthe divine light of \"the only true revelation,\" we are \"bound to\nbelieve\" that their story of a miraculous conception is the only true\none, confirmed as it is by _ghosts, dreams, angels, and shadows_. It\nis true that it cannot boast of such remote antiquity as the foregoing\nprodigies; but it is ancient enough to constitute truth in the orthodox\neye of _Faith_; and we must not give way to the impiety of supposing\nthat it is an imitatio of any one of the heathen fables enumerated;**\nor the \"blasphemy\" of surmising that God's sending \"his message to a\ncarpenter's wife,\" is a varied version of Jupiter's loving message to\nAlcmena, by Mercury.\n\n     * According to Macrobius, this was the solar god Bacchus,\n     who appears at the winter solstice, as an infant. Plutarch\n     says that at the winter solstice, Isis (Nature) brought\n     forth a son, a weak and feeble infant. On the inscription at\n     Sais, Isis says, \"The fruit which I have produced, was, and\n     will become a Sun.\"\n\n     ** The whole story about the conception and birth, was told\n     in precisely the same manner as it is now, in India, Persia,\n     Egypt, and Greece, for more than 1,600 years before its\n     alleged occurrence in Palestine.\n\nNeither must we entertain the shocking idea that the conception of\nMary was occasioned by any carnal agency; or that either the _shadow or\nsubstance_ of any priest was at all concerned in the holy mystery. Yet\nheresy will tell untoward tales; for her pregnancy has been accounted\nfor in the most natural way imaginable, thus:--\"According to the\napocryphal gospel of the nativity of Mary which Father Jerome Xavier\nentirely adopts, Mary, when a child, was consecrated to the Lord (that\nis, to the priests), by the usual vow; and was brought up in the temple,\nwhich she did not leave until she was sixteen years of age. This created\na suspicion that her pregnancy was the effect of some intrigue with the\npriests, who made her believe, or say, that it was the Holy Ghost who\nhad begotten a child upon her.\"*--(Codex. Apox. N. T.) Some profane\npersons have said that the high priest was himself the chief actor in\nthis sacerdotal amour; for he anxiously, pitched upon old Joseph to\nbe the husband of Mary. St. Epiphanjus assures us in his book \"Adv.\nHeresies,\" that Joseph was very old at the time of his marriage with the\n_virgin_; and adds that he was the father of six children by his first\nwife. Moreover, the gospel ascribed to St. James the younger affirms\nthat the good old man espoused Mary with much reluctance, owing to the\ndisparity of their ages; but the high priest prevailed on him at last;\nand it further informs us of the very ill-humor of Joseph, when he\nfound that his wife had been with child before their marriage, and\nthe reproaches with which he loaded her, on account of her lewdness,\nunworthy, as he thought, _of a virgin reared under the eyes of priests_.\nMary excused herself with tears and protestations, and swore by the\nliving God that she did not know who begot the child. In her distress,\nthe best excuse would have been her adventure with the archangel\nGabriel; but it appears she forgot that. [It is indeed passing\nstrange that Mary, according to Matthew, is wholly ignorant of her\njustification, according, to Luke.]\n\nThe fathers of our Church have disputed and quarreled in the most\nobscene terms, about this mystic impregnation by the Holy Ghost. St.\nAmbrose says:--\"Non enim, secreta reseravit, sed immaculatum semen\ninviolabili utero spiritus sanctus infudit!\"**\n\n     * The followers of Loatze say, that his mother became\n     pregnant of him, by a junction of heaven and earth. This is\n     a sublime and bold _conception_; and far excels the puerile\n     prating about _ghosts, angels, dreams, and shadows_.\n\n     ** Of the miraculous impregnation, St. Ambrose says, \"Maria\n     per aurem impregnata est.\"\n\nIn one of the Church hymns it was sung, \"Non ex virili, sed mystico\nspiramine.\" Justin Martyr, in his apology, justifies these dogmas as\nmodified by the Christians, _not because they were true_, but from the\nexample of the heathen; he says:--\"By declaring the Logos, the first\nbegotten of God, our Master Jesus Christ, to be born of a virgin,\nwithout any human mixture, and to be crucified and dead, and to have\nrisen again, and ascended into heaven,--_we say no more in this, than\nwhat you say of those whom you style the sons of Jove_.\" This was\nhonestly lugging in one fable to apologise for another. The logic of\nTertullian on this subject was decisive, and peculiar to himself--it\nmight be called an axiomatic, or self-evident mode of reasoning; for\ninstance, he says, \"I am not ashamed of maintaining that the son of God\nwas born, _because it is itself a shameful thing_. I maintain that he\ndied and rose again, _because it is absurd_\" When preachers use such\nconvincing arguments, there is no excuse for the incredulity of hearers.\nThis great Father contended also, that souls were material--that they\nhad sexes, and were as much begotten by each other; as our bodies are by\nthe bodies of our immediate parents. He asserted also, that \"_God is a\nbody_.\"\n\n\"The word _begotten_ necessarily infers and associates the ideas of\nthree distinct and separate Beings--the begetters, the begotten, and the\nperson on whom he was begotten; and the term _begotten_, alluding as it\ndoes to the performance of a particular action, must imply a particular\ntime when that action was performed and of course that there was a time\nwhen that action was performed; now as the very, definition of the word\neternity is that which is _without beginning_ as well as _without end_,\nto talk of a person _begotten_ from eternity, is to compose a sentence\nof words the most contradictory to each other, or downright nonsense; it\nis to tell us of an action that was _begun without any beginning; of a\nfinite infinite, or an immortal mortal!_\" But the mystic conceptions,\nbirths, and incarnations of Paganism, being rooted in, and having\nexclusive allusion either to physical or moral principles, there were no\nsuch absurdities, terms, or monstrous perversions of them, as the early\nChristiana fell into, by converting mere words into _beings_, in forming\ntheir mythology.\n\nThat the Christian dogma of the immaculate conception and birth of\nChrist, was originally an astronomical allegory of the Sun, \"the\nday-spring from on high,\" can be proved by a hundred corroborating\nfacts, which, are irresistibly convincing, except where interest, or\nthe most inveterate prejudice, stands in the way. These facts have been\nelucidated by Albert, Alphonso, Volney, Boulanger, Dupuis, Taylor, and\nby all astronomers, who have not been deterred from speaking the truth\nby their interests, their fears, or their prejudices. On the 19th of\nAugust, the constellation of the Virgin disappears in the sun's rays;\nand hence the figurative expression in Luke i., 35, \"The Holy Ghost\nshall come upon thee, _and the power of the Highest shall OVERSHADOW\nthee_.\" On the same day the ancients celebrated the assumption of\nAstrea,* (another name of the Virgin,) and about the same time, the\nChristians celebrate the assumption of the blessed Virgin. On the 9th\nof September, this constellation emerges out of the Sun's rays, at which\ntime the Catholics celebrate the nativity of the mother of the Sun, or\nChrist.\n\n     * That is, the starry goddess. She was also the Miriam (the\n     same as Mary, Eve, Ac.,) of Numbers xii., 14, and the seven\n     days' leprosy of her face was allegorical of the same number\n     of days exactly, when the brightness of the zodiacal virgin\n     is wholly absorbed, or obscured, by the effulgence of the\n     solar rays.\n\nThe \"star in the east,\" (a sign containing more than a hundred stars,)\nmentioned in Matthew, was no other than this zodiacal sign of the\ncelestial Virgin, which arose on the eastern horizon precisely at\nthe time at which we fix the birth of Jesus Christ, viz., the 25th of\nDecember, when the sun has risen one degree above the solstitial point:\nwhich answers to a moment to the births of the Egyptian Osiris, the\nGrecian Bacchus, and the Mithra of the Persians. These mystic births are\nmanifestly identical, being metaphorical of the Sun's annual birth\nat the winter solstice, after which he gradually becomes, not only\nfiguratively, but positively, the Savior of the world. The resemblance,\nor rather the sameness of every circumstance relating to Mithras,\nthe Mediator of the Persians, and those connected with the Savior, or\nMediator of the Christians, is so apparent, that no rational man\ncan doubt, or hesitate a moment, in pronouncing the latter to be a\ncounterpart of the former.\n\nZoroaster taught the Magi that this celestial birth would be announced\nby the rising of this star, or constellation of Virgo, in the middle\nof which would appear the figure of a young woman, suckling an infant\nchild, called Jesus by some nations, and Christ, or Christos,* in Greek.\nThis was the goddess of the _year_ nursing the god of _day_. Under this\nbeautiful symbol, the new born child is said to be feeble, weak, and\nobscure, which is metaphoric of the Sun below the horizon in winter;\nthat he was brought forth in a stable, and laid in a manger, alluding to\nthe \"stabulum jovium,\" one of the winter constellations. At the vernal\nequinox, when the Sun entered the sign Aries, or the Bam, the emblem was\na lamb, (the lamb of God,) and as he gained strength towards the summer\nsolstice, he became the conqueror of the powers of darkness and evil,\nthat is, the constellations of winter; and was figuratively said\nto bruise the serpent's head, that constellation being, as it were,\ndepressed below the horizon. By a like metonymy of language, the\n\"_Ascension_\" of Christ has also allusion to the Sun at the summer\nsolstice.\n\n     * In the ancient zodiacs of India and Egypt, there is seen\n     this virgin nursing a male child with sun rays around his\n     head, (frown not, ye priests!) which is emblematical of the\n     infant sun at the winter solstice, and of his being then in\n     the sign Virgo. When he was in that sign in summer, the\n     virgin was represented with a bunch of fruit; and when in\n     harvest, she appropriately held out an ear of corn. These\n     zodiacs were devised at various periods of antiquity, as the\n     sun passed through the different signs, in the phenomena of\n     which the learned priests always found plenty of gods and\n     goddesses for the worship of the vulgar, as is still done in\n     Christianism.\n\nUpon the sun's annual progression through the twelve signs of the zodiac\nwas founded the mythological or allegorical astronomy of the ancients,\n(Christianity has no other foundation); and in this zodiacal picture,\nthe allegory supposes that sign to have rule, through which the sun is\npassing; the knowledge of which science was conveyed in a striking and\nsublime manner, under the disguise of miraculous narrative: of this sort\nis the story of the three children, in the book of Daniel, a relic of\nChaldean astronomy. The \"burning fiery furnace\" was nothing else than\nan emblem of that region of the great circle which the sun enters at\nmidsummer, or the sign Cancer. Each of the twelve signs of the zodiac\nhad a presiding genius, or imaginary personification, and these were\nthe twelve greater gods of Paganism. Each of these signs was again\nsubdivided into three parts, called Decans, who were also personified;\nand, consequently, there were three of these geniuses in each of the\nsigns: therefore, when the sun enters Cancer, there must be three of\nthese Decans, or personifications, in the burning fiery furnace. Here\nthe astronomer in Daniel,* concealing his science under the veil of\nallegory, exclaims: \"Did we not reckon three children in the burning\nfiery furnace? Behold, I see four, and the form of the fourth is\nlike the Son of God!\" No person but a Christian, under his strongest\nprejudices, is capable of denying the manifest meaning of this metaphor,\nthat being evidently the _sun itself_; which, with three personified\nDecans, Shadrach, Mesach, and Abednego, in the sign Cancer, makes the\nfourth. It is almost needless to point out that Nebuchadnezzar, the\nking, is a personification of the constellation Sirius, or the dog-star,\nwhich is always supposed to heat \"the burning fiery furnace,\" in a\nsevenfold degree, while the sun is in its vicinity, that is, from the\n3rd of July till about the 11th of August.\n\n     * The zodiacal sign of the lion being below the horizon, and\n     the sun appearing to set in the direction of that\n     constellation, \"Dom-el, Daniel, or Daniel, that is, the Sun\"\n     was said to be cast into the Lion's Den.\n\n     ** The author is much indebted to the Rev. Mr. Taylor for\n     the satisfactory manner in which he proves many of these\n     astronomical allegories.\n\nWhat is the signification of the many Bible allusions to the \"_Horse_\nand his _Rider_,\" the \"triumphant\" breaking of the arrows and his bow,\nhe being always denoted as essentially opposed to what is good, and\nforming part of, or belonging to, that which is evil? This allegory\nevidently points to the Centaur sign, Sagittarius, half horse and half\nman, armed with bow and arrows. This is the zodiacal sign of November;\nand the sun being in that adverse constellation in that dark and gloomy\nmonth, it is naturally spoken against, as being emblematical of his\nweak, low, and depressed influence; and, consequently, its inseparable\nconnexion with _evil_, or cold and darkness. But when the sun rises\n\"triumphantly\" in the heavens, and is most truly \"the day star on high,\"\nas he ascends towards the summer solstice, and becomes the \"Lion\nof Juda,\" in July, he has victoriously thrown the zodiacal archer,\nSagittarius, as it were, \"_into the sea_\" that is, below where the\nsea bounds the horizon. Then have we Miriam's sublime song of\nvictory:--\"Sing ye to the Lord (the sun), for he hath triumphed\ngloriously; the _Horse_ and his _Rider_ hath he thrown into the sea.\"\nAs this victory is achieved annually, the song is equally applicable at\nevery midsummer. Thus, though a large portion of the miscellany called\nthe Bible appears in the guise of immoral or absurd narrative, much of\nit is really and truly the allegorised astronomy of the Chaldees and\nPersian Magi, and therefore rooted in science.\n\nLike everything else relating to Christ, or Christos, the dogma of\nthe ascension has no doubt its allegorical root in the Sun's apparent\nexaltation in the heavens, from the vernal equinox to the summer\nsolstice. This miraculous story, as we have seen it in the New\nTestament, is more replete with inconsistency than even any of the\nothers of that book. The Fathers have attributed the anonymous book\ncalled the \"Acts\" to Luke; but his gospel contradicts the Acts: the\nlatter makes Jesus remain on earth forty days after his crucifixion;\nwhereas Luke makes him ascend into heaven the very same day he arose\nfrom the dead. Those who are stated to have been eye-witnesses of the\nascension, being present as disciples at the time, viz., Matthew, John,\nPeter, James, and Jude, have not, in the epistles ascribed to them, left\neven an allusion to that most wonderful phaenomenon. Matthew and John\nwere said to be present--how came they to omit even the slightest notice\nof this vital root of Christianity? Mark and Luke were _not_ present;\nyet they alone notice it, in rather a vague and abrupt manner. In short,\nno person whatever _says he saw it_. Mark says that Jesus ascended at\nJerusalem; Luke says it was at Bethany, places two miles distant from\neach other. Matthew says the last seen with the disciples was on a\nmountain in Galilee; Luke, that it was at Bethany, which is at least\nseventy-five miles from Galilee.\n\nThe dogma of the redemption of man by Jesus Christ, appears not to\nhave been thought of by the New Testament fabricators; and is clearly\na subsequent invention of the Church of Rome. Paul, In Corinthians xv.,\ngives us abundant assertions about the resurrection of the same body,\nwhich is his chief doctrine, but there is not a word about redemption.\nThis dogma, then, is the lucrative forgery of priestcraft, after the\ncouncils of Nice and Laodicea had _decided by vote_ that the spurious\nmiscellany called the New Testament should be the new Will of God.\nThe amount of moral evil done by this fable, is enormous beyond all\nexpression. When men are taught that their wicked deeds and vices are to\nbe rubbed off by a device so unjust and iniquitous as the sacrifice of\nthe innocent, to atone for the crimes of the guilty, we cannot wonder at\nthe horrid depravity of society.\n\nHaving already shown that Christianism is merely a compound emanating\nfrom the Egyptian, Brahmin, and Zoroastrian systems, or a new version\nof the fables of Prometheus, Christna, Mithras, Adonis, Bacchus,** etc.,\nengrafted with some variations upon the Jewish scriptures; and that the\nabove names, with hundreds of others, are so many personified emblems of\nthe Sun, which, together with the planetary system and the fixed stars\n(in Bible phrase, \"the host of heaven\") formed the occult basis of all\nthe religions of Paganism,*** the important question will be asked--has\n\"may penetrate into the signification of all oriental mysteries; but the\nVulgar can only see the exterior symbol, or the bark which covers them.\"\nAgain, he says, \"It is allowed by all who have any knowledge of the\nscriptures, that everything is mentioned enigmatically.\"\n\n     * That man should be redeemed from the sin of eating an\n     apple, by the murder of an innocent person called Jesus, is\n     certainly by far the strangest system of religion that ever\n     was palmed upon the world. Never was there so great an\n     outrage on common-sense!\n\n     ** Even the word _Divine_, pluralised in Dii Vini, deities\n     of wine, or priests of Bacchus, is taken from heathenism,\n     and pressed into the service of a very different order of\n     priests, save that wine-loving has ever been common to both.\n\n     *** Origen tells Celsus that the Egyptian philosophers\n     veiled their knowledge of things in fables and allegories.\n     \"The learned,\" he adds,\n\nChristianity has no tangible or anthentic historical foundation, _to be\nunderstood according to the literal sense of the New Testament?_ If\nsuch events or incidents in any way similar to those detailed in the New\nTestament, had in reality taken place at the times and places stated,\nthey could not possibly have failed to excite the intense attention\nof the public authorities amongst the Romans, even if denuded of their\nmiraculous accompaniments the infant butchery of Herod would alone have\ncaused this attention. But as no one of all the historians or noted\nwriters, Roman, Jewish, or Greek, who lived in the period of the alleged\nprodigies, nor those who came upon the public stage immediately after\nthem, though there were upwards of twenty such distinguished authors,\nwho wrote between the years 20 and 140 A.D., have taken the slightest\nnotice of the life or crucifixion of a person called Christ--(the\npassage in Josephus is universally given up as forgery)--the\ninadmissible violations of Nature's laws, said to have accompanied that\nevent, as narrated in the Gospels, which contradict each other in almost\nevery important circumstance, we are forced to the conclusion that\nindependently of everything miraculous, the story is totally unsupported\nby any concurrent testimony;* but when the miracles are taken into\nconsideration in the literal sense, reason and all experience at\nonce decide the whole to be grossly fabulous; and seems to be a\ncircumstantial imitation of the crucifixion of Prometheus, as we have it\nin the tragedy of AEschylus, which is a dramatic allegory of the sun, and\nthe planetary system.\n\n     * Bishop Talleyrand, in a letter which, he is said to have\n     written to the Pope, after their quarrel, states that after\n     Christianity had made some noise in the Empire, the entire\n     absence of all testimony in regard to its pretended origin,\n     excited the curiosity of the Roman Senate, to know what\n     really was the foundation of the story; so they \"ordered\n     affidavits to be procured in the very centre of Palestine,\n     in places fixed by them, which affidavits were sent to Rome,\n     with the most conclusive evidence of the correctness of the\n     report. These proved that Mary, who was of the tribe of\n     Levi, and wife of the carpenter Joseph, who was of the tribe\n     of Juda, had had an illicit intercourse with a Roman\n     soldier, named Panther, who served in the 14th legion,\n     stationed in Egypt, whence he was detached into Palestine.\n     From this criminal intercourse a child was born, whom they\n     called Arenias; and who was adopted by Joseph, according to\n     the Roman practice, though it was contrary to the Jewish\n     customs. With Joseph he learned the carpenter's trade; but\n     after the death of his putative father, he abandoned his\n     home and mother, and became a vagrant. Having met a few\n     vagrants like himself, they all took the road to Galilee,\n     where they lived for some time by begging. Having at last\n     become the leader of a band of freebooters, he was arrested\n     by the police of Jerusalem, and finally condemned to death\n     by the general acclamation of the people.\" By thus\n     instituting inquiries in the country in which he was born,\n     the Roman Senate became acquainted with the origin of Mary's\n     son, which, in regard to paternity, differs from the\n     apocryphal gospel of the nativity of Mary.\n\nThis new version of the old mythology was gradually constructed by\npriestcraft during the second, third, and fourth centuries, of materials\ntaken from all the oriental polytheisms; and is a similar sort of\nfraudful quackery upon these allegorical religions, that astrology is\nupon legitimate astronomy. Thus, (let us repeat the melancholy truth)\nout of the comparatively harmless astro-fables of antiquity hath sprung\na foul collusion of religious and political tyranny, that has been\ndreadful in its effects; and every successive invention to strengthen\nthis accursed coalition of an aristocracy of nobles and priests,\nlinked together with royalty,* has tended more and more to depress the\ninterests of the laboring population, or wealth producers of Europe, and\nserved to crush them under the most merciless of all despotisms. And as\nit is utterly hopeless that our English _hereditary lawgivers_, who are\nvirtually our feudal rulers, and whose interests are entirely exclusive,\nwill ever pass any laws but such as support and perpetuate these\ninterests, it is much to be feared that, as in France before the\nrevolution, nothing but a sanguinary reaction on the part of the people,\nwill reestablish their right to just representation in Parliament, equal\nlaws, and a dissolution of that baneful state-confederacy between our\naristocratic rulers and the reigning superstition; the support of which,\nwe are tempted to conclude, _is more the object of government than the\ninterests of the common weal_.\n\n     * In 1822, the clergy of Austria persuaded the monarch of\n     over forty millions of people to declare, \"I want no men of\n     science; I want only obedient subjects. I want no education\n     among my subjects, but what is given by the priesthood.\"\n\n\nEND OF LECTURE THIRD.\n\n\n\n\nLECTURE FOURTH. PAGAN ALLEGORIES MADE CHRISTIAN DOGMAS (Continued.)\n\n     All these fragments of crack-brained opiniatry and silly\n     solaces, played off, in the sweetness of song, by deceitful\n     poets, have, by you too credulous creatures, been shamefully\n     reformed and made over to your own God. MINUTIUS FELIX.\n\nDOES not the New Testament speak very distinctly of two crucifixions,\nviz., one as having taken place upon Mount Calvary, and another at,\nor in a Garden? There is even a third mentioned, as having occurred\nin Egypt, \"where also our Lord was crucified,\" Rev. xi., 8; which is\na plain recognition of the astro-religion, and solar worship of the\nEgyptian priests. The crucifixion upon Mount* Calvary was allegorical\nof the sun's _passing over, or crossing_ the equator in March; of which\nmonth the Ram, or Lamb of God, was the zodiacal emblem, God, the sun,\nbeing in that sign at the spring equinox. This was also the origin of\nthe Pascal Lamb, and the _Passover_ of the Jews, which they borrowed of\ntheir masters, the Egyptians.\n\n     * The word mount, as here used, is figurative of the sun's\n     being in the state of elevation in the horizon, at the\n     spring equinox.\n\nThis _crossing_ of the sun, while in the Ram of March, was likewise\nmetonymised into the phrase about \"The Lamb that was slain from the\nbeginning of the world,\" that is, the Lamb that was figuratively crucified\nat every vernal equinox, while the sun was in the sign Aries or the\nLamb. The Evangelist John, in describing God, declares that the hair of\nhis head _was like wool_; (O, John, you are too apt to tell tales ont of\nschool!) which setting aside the ludicrous simile, is a sublime symbol\nof God, the sun, in the sign of the Bam, in March. Why is the second\ncrucifixion, as narrated by this tell-tale, John, said to have happened,\nnot upon a mount, but in or near a garden? Because this crucifixion has\nallusion to the autumnal equinox, when the sun _crosses_ the line of\nthe equator, in September; and nothing can be a prettier, or more\nappropriate emblem of that month than a fruit garden, or vineyard.\nWhy is the mother of Jesus said to be standing by, or near him, at the\ngarden crucifixion, as stated by John, though her presence is not at all\nacknowledged by any of the other evangelists? His mother could no more\nbe near him at his Calvary crucifixion, than August can be near March;\nbut as she, as the sign Virgo, or the Virgin, is also the genius of\nAugust, she was, of course, near, or standing \"by the cross,\" when\nher son Jesus Christ, that is, the sun, was crossified, or crossed the\nequator in September, that month being next door neighbor to August.\nThe Christ, or Savior of the vernal equinox ascends into the Heaven of\nsummer, and saves, or recreates the organised existences of this globe,\nby his genial and animative power; whereas the Christ of the autumnal\n_Cross_ descends gradually to the winter solstice, and is said,\ntherefore, to descend into _Hell_, that is, to enter the signs and\nconstellations of winter, which, being antagonistic to those of summer,\nare emblematical of evil. In the September crucifixion, Christ, as the\nsun, is called \"the Just One,\" because he is then in the zodiacal sign,\nLibra, or the Balance.\n\nThe Egyptian deity, Bacchus, or the wine-producing god, being also a\npersonification of the sun, is the same as Christ, and of course, like\nhim, visited the \"lowest regions\" after being unjustly put to death.\nThese being only the Egyptian and Indian names for the same divinity, it\nwas quite in analogy to preserve a symbolical allusion to the vine and\nblood of the grape, in the crucifixion of Christ. But it requires little\npenetration to perceive that all we find there said about the \"agony,\"*\nin the garden, and sweating \"great drops of blood,\" has a very plain\nallusion to the wine-press and the compression of the grapes;** and\nhere the secret meaning is as near the surface as it possibly can be in\nallegory. The rich, sweet juice is at first expressed in \"great drops,\"\nor copiously, and is called \"the blood of the grape;\" by a second\npressure, the thin lees, or \"vinegar,\" is compressed, which they are\nallegorically said to have given him to drink; and after this last\nprocess the business is truly said to be \"finished.\" After this manner,\nand in every age and country of the world, down to the present day,\nhave the allegories invented by priests, and cunningly drawn from\nthe astronomical phaenomena of nature, passed for religion amongst the\nunthinking million.*** If the cruel usage given to John Barleycorn, in\nthe process of turning him into beer, had been allegorised to us in our\npresent ignorance, and priest-nursed stupidity, it would have\nanswered equally as well as the fable of Christ and the \"blood of the\nwine-press.\"\n\n     * \"An Agony literally is a wine-press.\"--Taylor.\n\n     ** \"And the wine-press was trodden without the city, and\n     blood came out of the wine-press\" (Rey. xiv., 20).\n\n     *** The Crucifixion of Christ is so manifestly a new version\n     of that of Prometheus (another name of the sun), that in our\n     translations of that tragedy of AEschylus, the crucifixion of\n     the original is never, acknowledged; but he is always\n     fraudulently said to be bound. \"The object of this impudent\n     fraud,\" says Mr. Higgins, \"need not be pointed out.\"\n\nThe name of Chrishna, Christna, or Christ, was common to Egypt as\nwell as to India, in the remotest known antiquity. In the Sanscrit\nDictionary, the name of the Nile is Christna; which is further proof of\nwhat Sir William Jones says about the exceedingly ancient intercourse\nwhich subsisted between India and Egypt \"before the time of Homer.\"\nAnd although this pious author, and several other writers on eastern\naffairs, seem carefully to have avoided saying a word about the\ncrucifixion of the Hindu Savior, and many Christians have exulted in the\nsimilarity of the legends being entirely broken off by this pretended\ndiscrepancy, yet the fact is incontrovertible, that not only was Christ,\nor Christna, crucified in India, but in Egypt \"also,\" as we have already\nshown on Scripture authority. Mr. Higgins asserts that the Brahmin\n\"crucifixion was well known in the time of St. Jerome,\" who, like the\nEvangelist John, _was rather apt to tell astronomical secrets_.\n\nMons. Guigniant says--\"The death of Chrishna is variously related: one\naverred tradition very remarkably represents him to have perished on a\nfatal tree, or _cross_ where he was pinned, or nailed with an arrow.\"\nMr. Moor, in the \"Hindu Pantheon,\" states, that many of the plates and\npictures of India, of undoubted antiquity, represent the god Christna,\nwith cicatrix, or scars in his hands and feet, the very points of the\nnails by which he was suspended on that fatal tree. Plate 98, in the\n\"Hindu Pantheon,\" shows the figure of a man suspended on a cross; and it\nappears, that when the Romish artists imitated this Indian crucifixion,\nin their carvings and paintings, _they omitted the cross itself_; their\nreason for this is very obvious. The figure appears hanging in the sky,\nwith arms distended, and the feet overlapping each other, so that one\nnail might perforate both at once. Now it is not a little extraordinary,\n_that some of the earlier Christian sects maintained, that Christ was\ncrucified in the sky_. Here is a direct demonstration, that the Brahmin\ncrucifixion is, wholly and radically, an astronomical allegory of\nthe equatorial _crossings_ of the sun at the Equinoxes; and that the\nChristian fable is identically the same, but the scientific meaning is\nlost, through the fraud of priestcraft, and the ignorance it fosters.\n\nMr. Moor further observes, that having some apprehension of giving\noffence to the bigoted and prejudiced on these points, he showed the\nplates and paintings above-mentioned to a friend, who suggested the\npropriety of omitting plate 98.\n\n\"I very much suspect,\" says Mr. Higgins, in his Anacalypsis, \"that it is\nfrom some story, now unknown, _or kept out of sight_, relating to this\nAvata, that the ancient heretics alluded to, obtained their tradition of\nJesus being crucified in the clouds.\" He says again, \"That nothing\nmore is known respecting this Avata, I cannot help suspecting, may be\nattributed to the same kind of feeling, which induced Mr. Moor's friend\nto wish him to remove print 98 from his book. The innumerable pious\nfrauds of which Christian priests stand convicted, and the principle\nof the expediency of fraud, admitted to have existed by Mosheim, are a\nperfect justification of my suspicions respecting the concealment of\nthe history of this Avata. I repeat, I cannot help suspecting that it\nis from this Avata,\" (_incarnation_) \"of Chrishna, that the sect of\nChristian heretics got their Christ crucified in the clouds.\"\n\nIn regard to the Buddhists of India, who claim an antiquity of fifteen\nthousand years, Sir William Jones, though he appears to have been\nhorrified at the idea of following truth beyond the limits of bible\nchronology, is constrained to assign the period of Buddha, or the ninth\nincarnation of Vishnu, in the year 1400 before Christ, though according\nto Volney and others, it was 600 years earlier. Christna and Buddha are\nidentical* in principle; both are incarnations of Vishnu, the second\nperson in the Hindu Trinity, and were born of virgin mothers, and each\nwas the son of a carpenter; both suffer death by crucifixion. Christna\nraised the dead, by descending for that purpose to the _lowest regions_.\nBoth names signify Shepherd and Savior. The crucified Christna is\nrepresented in the aforesaid plate 98, with rays of glory surrounding\nthe head, as is also the head of Buddha, which may be seen in the\nmuseum of the India House. To the rational mind, this glory will appear\nemblematical only of the sun himself in his radiant summer brightness,\nbecause it is manifestly so of no other object in nature.\n\n     * The Negro, Mannon now in the British Museum, corroborates\n     the opinion, that the sciences were once in the hands of the\n     Blacks. Mr. Higgins says, that though both Buddha and\n     Chrishna of the India House museum, are black, the latter is\n     easily distinguishable from the former, because he is not a\n     Negro.\n\nMr. Higgins goes on to show \"the idle pretensions that the Brahmins,\nsome way or other, have got copies of the apocryphal gospels, from\nwhich they have taken the history of the birth, life, and adventures\nof Chrishna. How wonderfully absurd,\" says he, \"to suppose that all\nthe ancient emblems and idols of Christna, in the temples and caves\nscattered over every part of India, _and absolutely identified with them\nin point of antiquity,_ can have been copied from the gospels written\nafter the time of Jesus! How wonderfully absurd, that the Brahmins, and\npeople of this widely extended empire, should condescend to copy from\nthe real or cast-away spurious gospels of a sect, at that time almost\nunknown in their own country; and many thousand miles distant from these\nBrahmins!\"\n\nThe deified Hercules, the personified power of the sun, was known in\nvery remote antiquity; yet according to Arrian, he was fifteen centuries\nlater than Bacchus, who was the same as the Hindu deity Siva. The\ntriplicate godhead of India, says Arrian, consisted of Brahma,\nChrishna, and Seeva, _three in one, and one in three_ viz., the Creator,\nPreserver, or Savior, and the Destroyer.* Now, Arrian wrote in the\nsecond century, in the time of the Emperor Adrian, when the New\nTestament of the Christians was not yet got up; and as for their\nTrinity, they did not fully imitate the Hindu in that triune point,\nuntil about the close of the fourth century.\n\n     * According to a passage of Arrian, quoted in the Edinburgh\n     Review, Chrishna was worshipped in the time of Alexander, at\n     what still remains one of the most famous temples of India,\n     that of Mathura, on the Jumna, the Matura Deorum of Ptolemy.\n\nAll the garbled statements, and mean subterfuges that could be invented\nby powerful priesthoods, in league with corrupt Rulers, have been\nbrought into play to oppose and stifle the above incontrovertible\nfacts. This unblushing effrontery is quite \"in trade\" with parties\nwhose interest it undoubtedly is that these things should be known\nonly amongst themselves, lest the \"simple-minded\" should be induced\nto suspect that they had been most egregiously duped by men whose very\nliving depends upon deception. The wonderful resemblance,--the apparent\nsameness or identity--of the Indian and Christian mythics, must have\nshaken the well-settled faith of Sir William Jones; and so far, his love\nof truth got the better of his piety; otherwise, he would no doubt\nhave been willing to suppress the alarming truth of the vastly higher\nantiquity of the Hindu allegory.* Why did he conceal the crucifixion\npart of the fable, _and the fact of its being represented as taking\nplace in the sky?_ It was in vain he expected that other writers on\nIndia, many of whom were equally well-informed, would be as disingenuous\nas himself.\n\nThe ancient hieroglyph of the cross itself is, beyond all contradiction,\nof the most remote antiquity in the different countries of India; and\nit is found on most of the Egyptian obelisks--all the three monograms of\nOsiris, and those of Jupiter Ammon,--the staffs of Isis and Osiris, etc.\nThe pious and orthodox Mr. Skelton, in his \"Appeal to common sense,\"\nconfesses as follows:--\"How it came to pass that the Egyptians,\nArabians, and Indians, _long before Christ came among us_, paid such\na remarkable veneration to the cross, is to me unknown; _but the fact\nitself is known_.\" In Dr. Clarke's \"Travels,\" there is an engraved copy\nof a Phoenician medal, found in the ruins of Citium, and proved by him\nto be Phoenician, on which are inscribed, not only the cross, but the\nrosary or string of beads, attached to it, _together with the figure of\na Lamb_. The Rev. Mr. Maurice, in his \"Indian Antiquities,\" informs\nus that the two principal Pagodas of India, Benares and Mathura, are\nerected in the form of _vast crosses_.\n\nThe famous crux ansata, says Mr. Higgins, is to be seen on all the\nancient buildings of Egypt; and is the mark alluded to by Ezekiel ix.,\n4. It is as common in India as in Egypt and Europe. Mr. Moor, in his\n\"Oriental Fragments,\" tells us that, placed in a circle, it was an\nemblem of eternity, having equally neither beginning nor end. The\nsigning of the cross** on the forehead of individuals, as a token of\nsecurity for life, is of great antiquity. Cain, it seems, wore this mark\nof security.\n\n     * Mr. Barrow, the great astronomer, says that \"The Hindu\n     religion spread over the whole earth; that Stonehenge is one\n     of the temples of Boodh; and that astronomy, astrology,\n     arithmetic, holy days, games, etc., may be referred to the\n     same original.\"\n\n     ** St Jerome has observed that this mark, or letter, in the\n     true ancient Hebrew alphabet, _was a cross_. With the\n     exception of the sun himself the hieroglyph of the cross has\n     been more generally adored than any other object in nature.\n     Why? Because it is symbolic of two annual periods which\n     mainly affect the condition of man upon this globe--the two\n     equinoctial crossings by the sun.\n\nJablonski was of opinion that this figure, the _crux ansata_, was also\nan emblem of generation,--\"nihil aliud esse quam phallum,\" etc. However,\nwe have historical facts stating that the women of ancient Egypt wore\nornaments of a character or form so very unequivocal, as to leave no\ndoubt about the allusion. The proofs of the vast antiquity of the cross\nmight be carried much farther, acknowledged and confirmed as they are in\nmany instances even by divines themselves, who have deeply investigated\nthe subject, and could see no way to elude the unpalatable truth, that\nthe cross was an object of superlative sanctity and veneration amongst\nthe eastern nations, not only long anterior to the time of the Emperor\nTiberius, but in the most remote of the known ages of antiquity. Thus\nthis mystical figure was emblematical of at least four things, viz.,\neternity, generation, the _crossing_ of the equator by the sun at the\nvernal and autumnal equinoxes, besides its allusion, in Egypt, to the\nrising and falling of the Nile.\n\nThe Spaniards, in their murderous invasion of Mexico and Peru, were\nastonished to find there the whole machinery of Christianity; but the\npriests and the court of Spain smothered the fact as much as lay in\ntheir power. The immaculate conception was in full force, by a _Virgin_\nof Peru becoming pregnant by the _Sun_; the cross was the principal\nemblem, and had been sacred from time immemorial: one of their Trinity\nwas crucified upon a mountain, _between two thieves_; and also in the\nsky or heavens, where the serpent (not the boar, as in the case of\nAdonis, see Lecture II.) is depriving him of the organs of generation.*\nHere is an astro-fable, known positively to have existed in Syria,\nand even among the Jews, long anterior to the present version of\nChristianity; and, therefore, when the early Christians carried over\ntheir religion to America, they must have been wicked enough to carry\nover also the whole of the heathen mythoses of Africa and Asia. The\nSpaniards had likewise the mortification to find the resurrection of the\ncrucified _Savior_, after three days; the ascension through the clouds,\nand that his return was expected, to save the human race.\n\n     * The serpent being an adverse, or winter constellation, it\n     is almost needless to observe that this allegory points to\n     the sun's being deprived of his generative powers, while the\n     winter constellations are in the ascendant.\n\nThere is no accounting for these astronomical fables, being found in the\nnew world, and their indisputable identity with those of the old, but\nin the one clear solution, of there being, in remote antiquity, one\nuniversal solar mythos, or fabled history of the planetary system, in\nwhich the sun, under a thousand different appellatives, as redeemer or\nsavior, and as the grand ruling principle of the whole, was the chief\nobject of adoration. This mythos is still prevalent, though abused for\nthe most atrocious purposes.\n\nWith respect to the color of gods in the most ancient times of Paganism,\nthere is ample proof remaining that it varied according to the color of\nthe people who cultivate the sciences for the time being. That men with\ncomplexions perfectly black, such as the Hindus, the southern Arabians,\nand the Ethiopians,* were formerly the depositaries of the sciences,\nperhaps exclusively, is proved by monuments found throughout.\n\n     * In very ancient maps, Ethiopia extended east of the Red\n     Sea, to the banks of the Euphrates, including all southern\n     Arabia; and if the Ethiopians originally advanced from India\n     into Africa, and founded Egyptian Thebes, we may well\n     suppose that their empire reached to the Indus. This opinion\n     is corroborated by that of Sir William Jones, who says that\n     in very remote times, a nation of people who were blacks,\n     the seat of whose empire was in or near ancient Sidon, ruled\n     ever Egypt and all Asia. If this was the nation spoken of by\n     Sir William Drummond (on zodiacs), according to him, the\n     science of astronomy was at least as well known amongst\n     them, as it is in modern times.\n\nNear the city of Benares, in India, are astronomical instruments cut\nout of the solid rock of a mountain, and formerly used for making\nobservations; but these are so exceedingly ancient, that it is said,\n_the Brahmins of the present day do not understand the use of them_.\n\nIndia and Egypt. The knowledge of the great truths of astronomy seems to\nhave been as full and perfect in those times as it is now; and as that\nscience, in the hands of skilful god-makers, has supplied emblem gods\nfor the adoration of the ignorant, _in all religions whatever_, we\ncannot wonder that these personifications of natural objects should take\nthe sable color of the priests who invented and deified them. The great\nSphinx, supposed to be one of the oldest as well as most wonderful of\nthese Egyptian monuments, _is a Nubian Black_.* At the time the new\nversion of Hindu superstition spread itself in western Asia and Europe,\nunder the name of Christianity, its machinery was kept out of sight\nin the archives of the priests; and, as its derivation was known to\nthemselves alone, they did not then deem it indispensably necessary to\nchange the color of their eastern deities; but adopted both Chrishna and\nhis mother, in their sable Gentoo complexions; and, in after times,\nit was found no easy matter to get them whitewashed. But as these\ndisagreeable facts will raise the angry bristles of the Christian\nfanatic, it is necessary to support them by the most profoundly learned\nauthorities on the subject.\n\nMr. Higgins says:--\"On the color of the gods of the ancients, and of the\nidentity of them all with the god Sol,** and with the Chrishna of India,\nnothing more need be said.\" The reader has already seen the striking\nmarks of similarity in the history of Chrishna, and the stories related\nof Jesus in the Romish and heretical books. He probably will not think\nthat their effect is destroyed, as Mr. Maurice flatters himself, by the\nword Chrishna, in the Indian language, signifying black, and the\ngod being of that color, when he is informed of what Mr. Maurice was\nprobably ignorant, that in all Romish countries of Europe, in France,\nItaly, Germany, etc., the god Christ, as well as his mother, are\ndescribed in their old pictures and statues to be black. The infant god\nin the arms of his black mother, his eyes and drapery white, is himself\nperfectly black.\n\n     * This accounts for the oracle at Dodona being, according to\n     Mr. Potter, a black dove.\n\n     ** The complete identity of the ancient religions of the\n     Brahmins, the Magi and the Druids (solar adoration), \"has\n     been satisfactorily established by Vallency, Wilford, Davis,\n     and Maurice.\" Pliny, alluding to the Druidical religion of\n     Britain, in his time, says:--\"Britain at this day celebrates\n     the magic rites with so many similar ceremonies, that you\n     might suppose them to have been given them by the\n     Persians.\"--Nat. Hist.\n\nIf the reader doubts my word, he may go to the cathedral at Moulins;\nto the famous chapel of the virgin at Loretto; to the church of the\nAnnunciata; to the church of St. Lazaro; or the church of St. Stephen at\nGenoa; to St. Francisco, at Pisa; to the church at Brixen, in the Tyrol;\nand to that at Padua; to the church of St. Theodore, at Munich; in the\ntwo last of which the whiteness of the eyes and teeth, and the studied\nredness of the lips are very observable; to the church and to the\ncathedral of Augsburg, where are a black virgin and child as large as\nlife; to Rome, to the Borghese chapel Maria Maggiore; to the Pantheon;\nto a small chapel of St. Peters, on the right hand side on entering\nnear the door, and in fact, to almost innumerable other churches, in the\ncountries professing the Romish religion.\n\n\"There is scarcely an old church in Italy where some remains of the\n_black virgin and black child_ are not to be met with. Very often the\nblack figures have given way to white ones, and in these cases, the\nblack ones, as being held sacred, _were put into retired place\" in the\nchurches_; they were not destroyed, but are yet to be found there. In\nmany instances, these images are painted all over, and look like bronze,\noften with colored aprons or napkins round the loins and other parts.\nNo doubt, in many places, when the priests have new painted the images,\nthey have colored the eyes and teeth, in order that they might not shock\nthe feelings of devotees, _by a too sudden change from black to white_;\nand in order, at the same time, that they might furnish a devout\npretence for their blackness, namely, that they are in imitation of\nbronze; but the number left with white teeth, let out the secret: their\nblackness is not to be questioned for a moment.\" Mr. Higgins concludes\nfrom the knowledge of the foregoing facts, that, \"the Romish Chrishna\nis black in India, black in Europe, and black he must remain. But, after\nall, what was he but their Jupiter, the second person of their Trinurti,\nor trinity, the Logos of Parmenides and Plato, an incarnation or\nemanation of the solar power\" (Anacalypsis).\n\nOf these Trinities it is not requisite to say much here, as ample proof\nhas been adduced in the course of these lectures to show that, from\nJapan in the east to Egypt in the west, every country had, in the\nremotest antiquity, a triad of gods for the vulgar, which, in the\nmystical or hidden sense, had allusion to physical principles. But as we\nhave a partiality for the authority of theologians on these subjects, we\nbeg to quote that of the Rev. Mr. Maurice, who traces the principles of\n_Tritheism_ among the most ancient nations of the earth, before as well\nas in the times of the Greeks and Romans. He says that the Indian Temple\nof Elephanta, \"is of exquisite workmanship and of stupendous antiquity;\nantiquity to which neither the page of history or human traditions can\nascend. That magnificent piece of sculpture so often alluded to in the\ncavern of Elephanta, _decidedly establishes the solemn fact, that from\nthe remotest eras, the Indian nations have adored a triune Deity_. There\nthe traveller, with awe and astonishment, beholds, carved out of\nthe solid rock, in the most conspicuous part of the most ancient and\nvenerable temple of the world, a bust expanding in breadth near twenty\nfeet, and no less than eighteen feet in altitude, by which amazing\nproportions, as well as by its gorgeous decorations, it is known to be\nthe image of the grand, presiding Deity of that hallowed retreat: he\nbeholds, I say, _a bust composed of three heads united to one body_,\nadorned with the oldest symbols of Indian theology; and thus expressly\nfabricated according to the unanimous confession of the sacred\nsacerdotal tribe of India, to indicate the _Creator, the Preserver,\nand the Destroyer, or Regentrator_, of mankind.\" Notwithstanding the\nabsolute conclusiveness of the evidence adduced by Mr. Maurice,\nproving the infinitely higher antiquity of the Hindu Trinity, he still\nrecollects his obligation to support the Christian priesthood, and\nargues that the Indians must have derived their notions of a triune\nDeity from the Hebrews, though that people had no known existence in\nthe time he refers to, and their books (the Old Testament) if rightly\ntranslated, do not, even by the slightest allusion, acknowledge anything\nof the kind. By such subterfuges theology is not ashamed to deny the\nclearest light.\n\nThe sacrament of Baptism, like all the other dogmas of Christianism, is\ndrawn from the ancient religious observances of India and Egypt; and is\nalso one of the sacred rites of solar worship, the mysteries of which\nrequired that the neophyte should be pure in body as well as in mind. It\nexisted among the Pythagoreans and Druids. In an Arabic work, translated\nby Mr. Hammer, it is stated that in ancient Egypt, when a child was\nborn, the mother took it to a priest of the temple, and laid it down\nwithout speaking a word. The priest then came, with a golden cup full\nof water in his hand, accompanied by six other priests. He then said\nprayers, and sprinkled the water over the child. The dead were also\nbaptised, though by proxy. St. Paul establishes this point in his\nfirst epistle to the Corinthians, chap. xv., 29; and he is so far from\ncondemning the custom, that he adduces it as an argument in proof of the\nresurrection.\n\nMr. Higgins says: \"John the Baptist was nothing but one of the followers\nof _Mithra_, with whom the deserts of Syria and the Thebais of Eyypt\nabounded, under the name of Essenes. He was a Nazarite; and it is\na striking circumstance that the fountain (Enon, or Enon), where he\nbaptised, _was sacred to the sun_.\" Even the name signifies the sun, or\nMithra. If this was the (Enon of Locris, in ancient Greece (we know of\nno other), John must have taken wide excursions in his baptism. In the\nNew Testament allegories there are many coincidents which point out that\nJohn (the Janus of the Latins) is the personified genius of January, the\nzodiacal sign of which month is Aquarius with his pitcher, the water of\nwhich is generally poured out plentifully. Aquarius being the mansion\nof the sun in John's month, or January, his pitcher is figuratively\nthe fountain of OEnon, that was sacred to the sun, and where, as\nthe Evangelist tells us there was \"much water.\" During this month and\nFebruary the \"kingdom of heaven,\" or Christ (the sun), was said to be\ncoming, or at hand; but he was not considered as _come_ until after the\nvernal equinox, in March, when, by entering the sign Aries, or the Ram,\nhe became the Lamb, at which time John exclaims--\"Behold the Lamb of\nGod; he cometh after me, but is preferred before me.\" \"I baptise with\nwater--he with the Holy Ghost.\" That is to say, March comes after\nJanuary, and the genial sun of spring and summer will always be\npreferred to that of January. The wilderness in which John was said to\nsojourn was metaphorical of the sterile and bleak face of nature during\nthat month. In Matthew it is said--\"He shall baptise you with the Holy\nGhost and with fire.\"* The Holy Ghost was metaphoric of the salubrious\nsummer winds in May, as the fire was of the scorching heat of the\ndog-days.\n\nIt has often been observed that the learned, or the initiated in\nreligious mysteries, had language peculiar to themselves, and unknown to\nthe rabble, whereby they concealed science under tropes and allegories;\nso that, aided by the vivacity of the imagination, the most ordinary\nphaenomena of nature were embodied as mystical existences, and there\nwas hardly anything spoken of without being personified. Philo Judaeus\ninforms us that, amongst the arts and mysteries which Moses learnt\nfrom his masters the Egyptians, was that of philosophy by symbols,\nhieroglyphics, and marks of animals. Clemens Alexandrinus states, that\n\"all who have treated of divine matters, the barbarous nations as well\nas the Greeks, have hid the _principles of things_, and delivered down\nthe truth _enigmatically_, by _signs_, and _symbols_, and _allegories_,\nand _metaphors_.\"** Similar confessions were made by all the learned\nfathers of Christianism, many of whom allowed that their own religion\nwas veiled in exactly the same manner; and for this they might claim\neven St. Paul as sufficient authority.\n\n     * The priests of ancient Egypt baptised with air as well as\n     with water and fire. This was done by one \"whose fan is in\n     his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor.\" The use\n     of the fan was an artificial way of creating the Holy Wind,\n     or Ghost.\n\n     ** Yet, upon a system which is thus admitted to be fabulous,\n     or false, Are founded doctrines which are said to be true.\n\nBut in the present day, amongst an ignorant and interested clergy,\nalthough their superstition is directly derived from, and is only a\nvaried version of the solar adoration of Paganism, the \"principles of\nthings\" are lost and unknown, or if known to a very few of the\nlearned, the little lamp of truth is extinguished by the roguery of\nself-interest, which will ever be sufficient to secure its suppression.\nThus, from ignorance or interest, or both together, the allegories\nand metaphors of speech which we find in the Bible, are monstrously\ninculcated and palmed upon simplicity as matters of fact and history.\nWhilst committing these outrages upon the highest branches of science,\nthe theologians have absurdly attempted to blend the eternal religion\nof Nature* with the evanescent revelations which man has, in successive\nages, invented to be the greatest curse of his brother.\n\n     * The \"Religion of Nature\" may be defined thus:--The\n     admiration, the love, and the veneration which we feel for\n     that incomprehensible power which produces the beauties and\n     bounties of the world. Beyond, this, all pretended\n     revelation is foul imposture.\n\nHaving, in this and the foregoing lectures, noticed most of the leading\ndogmas of Christianity, and the Pagan astro-fables, from which they are\nderived, that exposure alone renders it unnecessary to enter upon\nthe endless task of commenting on the unsightly mass of heterogeneous\ndoctrines, to which the ignorant abuse of these fables has given rise.\nWhere the foundation is fallacious, the superstructure cannot stand.\n\nThe overwhelming master-curse, springing out of these mythological\nfictions, in past and present times, is their perversion from a\nscientific purport, that was radically and wholly physical and\n_sub_-natural, to a sense that is chimerically called spiritual and\n_super_-natural. In thus fraudulently putting the latter of these words\nin place of the former, (which we maintain is contrary to the original\nmeaning of the Bible itself,) does the whole science and essence of\npriestcraft consist. By this departure from everything tangible--from\nall that is to the human mind conceivable, the theologians have\ncunningly decoyed their dupes into imaginary regions, peopled, as in the\nold mythology, with existences of fabled creation, where phantasy takes\nall the hues of the chamelion; and where the intangibility of their\nwhole apparatus eludes the grasp of reason, and secures their wild\nassertions against demonstration. When the minds of men are thus lured\ninto the fictitious empire of theology, the good things of this world\nare over with them, and fall to the share of the priests, who live in\nluxury, while they preach to their deluded votaries the _unspeakable\nblessings_ of poverty; and that through the _unsearchable mysteries of\nGod's love to man_, want and misery in this world are by far the best\npreparatives for \"their exceeding great reward,\" in _kingdom come_. This\nis what is called \"religious instruction,\" which, being interpreted,\nsignifies the diffusion of that abject ignorance which shuts out the\nlight of experience and reason--puts blind faith* in its place,\nand thereby fits both mind and body for slavery. In this element of\nignorance, so congenial to the profession, from its being of their own\ncreation, the priesthoods of Europe, aided by the corruption of civil\nrulers, have been allowed to embody themselves into vast and well\norganised phalanxes, regularly trained to wage perpetual war against the\nlight of nature and common sense.\n\n     * The only true definition of religious faith, is an\n     implicit submission of the judgment--a belief in what we\n     neither see, hear, feel, taste, or smell.\n\n     The veracious translators of our \"Word of God,\" have made\n     Paul, on most occasions, use the word _faith_, in place of\n     _truth_; for instance, in Rom. iv., 9, they make him affirm,\n     \"For we say that _faith_ was reckoned to Abraham for\n     righteousness.\" Now, the true translation from the Greek\n     is,--\"For we affirm that the truth became to Abraham\n     justice\"\n\nIt is particularly observable in the esprit du corps of theologians,\nthat in order to epitomise and mould the mind of man into a total\nsubjection to their interest and power, and to establish the absolute\nnecessity of their mediatorial office, it is indispensable that he\nshould, through what they call original sin, be degraded below the scale\nof his true position in the order of nature, in exact proportion to the\nelevation above that scale, which they confer upon him on the score of\nhis soul's immortality. In this final destination which they assign\nhim, his fate must either be eternal blessedness, through their official\ninterference in his favor, in wiping off his imputed transgressions,\ncommitted six thousand years before he was born, or everlasting\nperdition and misery, should that intercession be wanting.*\n\n     * Though the commissioned attornies of the immaterial being\n     pretend a deep interest in having his edicts obeyed, yet\n     their real views and interests can only be served by the\n     multiplication of offences, which is their harvest. When\n     their sway was at its zenith, crime created the lucrative\n     season of repentance; and the posthumous terrors with which\n     they debase the minds of their dupes are the best of all\n     preparatives for their dominion; for when these horrors are\n     raised to a certain height, the fatal machinery for mental\n     subjugation is irresistible, and almost as perfect as it is\n     among the Brahmin priests of India. In England, the statute\n     of mortmain is a lasting attestation of the height to which\n     death-bed expiations and commutations were actually carried;\n     and it is not extravagant to affirm, that if no change in\n     public opinion had taken place, in regard to the selfish\n     intrigues and frauds of the clergy, \"and no interposition on\n     the part of the legislature to put a stop to them, nearly\n     all the land in that kingdom would have become the property\n     of the church.\"\n\nBetween these two extremes of heaven and hell they keep him suspended,\nthemselves holding the haulyards rope in their own hands, ready to\npull him up to the one or lower him down to the other, according as\nhe believes, in and supports, or rejects and condemns their craft and\ntraffic. In the political and religious drama of enslaving the great\nmajority of the people, the above parts of the play are, of course, the\npeculiar province of the priesthood, who to the fabled guilt of original\nsin, have charged upon the gloomy minds of their wretched votaries, an\nendless catalogue of sins, by thought, word, and deed; to every one of\nwhich the punishment of eternal flames has been awarded. The kingly and\naristocratic part of this drama is to make laws to suit themselves and\ntheir priesthood--to bind down reason, so as to prevent it rebelling\nagainst the most shocking absurdities--compel it to acquiesce in the\nimperative mandates of a vile superstition; and _demonstrate_, through\nthe powerful arguments of imprisonment and ruin, that all investigation\nof the plot or proof of falsehood adduced against the actors, is\nwickedness.*\n\n     * Every rancorous feeling and motive among religious\n     fanatics, conspire to create and provoke antipathy, and to\n     swell it to the utmost pitch of intensity against the\n     materialist, who holds them all in contempt. These are the\n     only feelings in which the deluded votaries of supernatural\n     revelations coincide, in directing their common enmity\n     against that philosophy which, they know, treats them with\n     derision. This enmity is inexorable and eternal, though\n     restrained, at present, from gratifying its natural\n     ferocity.\n\nThis species of delusion, which passes under the name of supernatural\nrevelation, upon which impostors in every age have founded their\nschemes, is too gross and palpable in many of its dogmas, to maintain\na footing even among ignorant men, but for the protection of corrupt\ngovernments, that seek aid in fraud. Its ministers have ever said\nto civil rulers--\"take us into partnership--give us riches and\nhonors--support our pretensions when we gull the millions, and in\nreturn, with our adherence and connivance, you may safely carry\noppression to any lengths you please.\" Thus between a governing\naristocracy, (as in England) and their adopted hierarchy, there is an\ninborn affinity and coincidence of views and interests, which not only\nexclude, but are incurably opposed to the natural happiness of the mass\nof mankind; and as for the means of compassing their ends, each wields\nthat sort of power which serves to uphold the other; and when united,\nresistance is unavailing, unless it is backed by the unanimous will of\na nation. But this national unanimity in eradicating these collusive and\ndeep rooted frauds, is not to be expected, until natural humanity and\nsound morality shall take place of supernaturalism, and \"_religious\ninstruction_\" make way for practical virtue and useful knowledge, in the\neducation of youth. Then, and not till then, will every individual be\nable to perceive, that the man who contributes to the support of any\npriesthood, subsidizes a standing army, for the perpetual subversion of\nhis dearest rights and liberties.\n\nWe shall now make a digression from the opening subjects of this\nlecture, with the view of adducing additional facts which tend to prove,\nthat the chief moral and political evils which pervade Christendom,\nsprang from laws and institutions derived from, or sanctioned by, the\nbooks of Jewish theocracy, all of which have been uniformly calculated\nto uphold the injustice of the idle few, against the industrious many.\nAmongst these, the feudal curse of primogeniture, as \"part and parcel of\nthe law,\" stands prominent in bad eminence. Yet this law, even among\nthe Jews, was not so outrageously cruel as it now is among many European\nnations; for, with them, the first-born son, though consecrated to the\nHebrew god, was not, it seems, entitled to more than a double portion\nof the inheritance. In regard to the entailing of land, for the most\niniquitous purpose of securing it against sale for the payment of just\ndebts, the Jews and their deity, barbarous as they were, would probably\nhave been ashamed of such rank injustice. In early ages, land was\nconsidered merely as the means of subsistence; but in the darkest times\nof ignorance and feudal oppression, it became the overbearing means\nof obtaining political power, and was monopolised by the aristocratic\norders;* whilst their class-law of primogeniture, and its execrable\nconcomitant of entail upon land, were unrighteously resorted to, as the\nonly means of eternising the domineering sway of feudal tyranny, and\nto perpetuate possession, in defiance of all the just debts which might\nhave been incurred by the possessor. The absurdity of these laws is no\nless glaring than the injustice of their original object, \"when they\npresume that each successive generation of men have not an equal right\nto the earth--that the property of the present generation should be\nrestrained and regulated to the fancy of those who lived many centuries\nago.\"\n\n     * At least nine-tenths of all the land in Great Britain and\n     Ireland, have got into the hands of the aristocracy, lay and\n     clerical, and almost wholly through the means of their\n     selfish legislation. But this is not the worst--they say to\n     the mass of the people: \"You shall pay us whatever price we\n     please for the produce of these lands,\" and they enforce this\n     by corn-laws, and other food monopolies, which they have made\n     for their own advantage. These laws are \"a curse equal to\n     the barrenness of the earth, and the inclemency of the\n     heavens.\"\n\nThe Roman jurisprudence adhered to the equality of nature, by an equal\ndivision of property among the children, whether that consisted of land\nor other goods, and the cruel prerogatives of primogeniture and entail\nwere unknown.\n\nThe universal degradation, poverty and misery, caused by these\naristocratic scourges of society, destitute as they are of a single\nredeeming advantage to lessen the enormity of the evil, sufficiently\nbetray the nefarious views and selfish ends of the feudal legislators\nby whom they were enacted. But these are best shown in the mischievous\neffects which it is impossible for them not to produce, forming, as they\ndo, a source which diffuses fraternal jealousy, animosity, and hatred,\nthrough a thousand channels over the land: and all to perpetuate the\ninsolent pride of family distinction, by arming an arrogant individual\nwith unjust power to lord it over the rest of the family, and that too\nby means of the same wealth which ought to render the whole independent.\nIn these cases, when the younger brothers escape penury or beggary, it\nis only by dint of doubling the injustice of these laws, by quartering\nthem, as so many locusts, upon the industry of the public, under shelter\nof that mass of aristocratic corruption, whence issue our stall-fed\nhierarchy, and the thousands of other privileged idlers, whose places\nare created for the adherents and supporters of profligate governments.\nThus the younger sons and brothers are provided for whilst the poor\nfemales, if not palmed upon the pension list, are hopelessly consigned\nto the most abject dependence; their only inheritance being a perverted\neducation, by which they are moulded into mere creatures of unnatural\nhabits and customs, and of mental impressions that are utterly false in\neverything.\n\nThese laws, thus infamously contrived for the exclusive benefit and\naggrandisement of the makers, in perpetuating the feudal line of\nsuccession by entails upon immense tracts of land, again double the evil\nin a national point of view, by preventing the creation of that wealth,\nwhich never fails to arise from the proper division and subdivision of\nover-grown estates, the parcelling out of which is sure to be followed\nby a superior cultivation of the land. It is impossible to suppose that\nthe people generally, of any country, were ever so grossly and stupidly\nignorant, as to have a hand in forming such iniquitous institutions,\n_and those who tolerate them are not worthy of better_.*\n\n     * Napoleon observed that, \"The people of a nation were not\n     deserving of better laws than those they submitted to.\"\n\n     \"Nature's social union;\" or that universal harmony which is\n     chiefly disturbed by the wanton, unfeeling dominion of man,\n     and thus fallaciously sanctioned by the \"science of God.\"\n\nThese are samples of the grievances which may be expected to spring up,\nwhen aristocracies usurp and engross the legislation of countries; and\nwhen the contaminating arts of theology are allied to these, it is then\nthat political evils of the first magnitude are engendered.\n\nIn the palmy days of our superstition, when a much denser cloud of\nignorance, than even the present, had totally eclipsed the intellectual\nfaculties of men, they were doomed through life by their tyrants, the\nmagicians of supernaturalism, to endure an aggregate of mental and\nbodily misery far exceeding that of any other class of animals; and\nthis is still the case in exact proportion to the prevalence of that\ndelusion. But lest rebellious reason should induce people to be restive\nunder these earthly sufferings, a mode of remuneration which costs\nthese magicians nothing, was invented, not alone by the preternatural\nelevation to everlasting inheritance in the celestial regions, after\ndeath, but, in addition, all terrestrial animals were made over in\nfee-simple, as the absolute property of man, nothing else being in\nview when they were created, but the use and accommodation of the\nheaven-bound favorite, to kill, eat, and destroy; or if such be his\ninterest or caprice, to hold them in that merciless state of oppression\nwhich soon leads to a cruel and lingering death. This is the usual\nway in which he shows his mighty superiority over them, as \"inferior\nanimals.\" The arrogant assumption of this absurd dogma is not only\nfalse in philosophy and analogy, but cruelly injurious in morals, and\ndestructive.\n\nThese pernicious hatchings of theology are wholly unsanctioned by\nNature, who, in her perfect impartiality towards every creature which\nher purely physical process organises into life, makes an even balance\nof all her grants and denials throughout the animated world: and though\nit may appear to the cursory observer that she has, upon the whole,\nfavored some animals more than others, yet all these seeming advantages\nare counterbalanced or neutralised by other mental or physical qualities\nof an opposite or defective tendency which, in the most comprehensive\nsense, reduce the lives of all, as regards the amount' of pleasurable\nsensations through life, to nearly an equality.** On examining this\nmatter still more closely, we shall find that the greatest proportion of\nevil or misery invariably falls to the share of those animals who depart\nthe farthest from the laws or conditions of their nature. Of this fatal\nestrangement, man exhibits an instance that is almost solitary on this\nglobe; for all other creatures obey the conditions of their existence,\nexcepting such as have been compelled to deviate from them, in\nconsequence of being subjected to his usurped dominion. His right to\nhold a horse or a dog in slavery, is precisely the same as that of\nholding a negro in bondage; and as for his carnivorous habit of using\nalmost every animal as food, it is justified by his superstition alone,\nand utterly condemned by his nature. His right to kill and eat a sheep\nor a deer, is exactly the same in point of moral justice, as that of\na shark or a tiger, when they subdue and eat their prey; in which they\nfeel no compunctious visitations about including their pretended lord\nand master, man, himself. In all these cases, the rule of right is alone\nestablished by possession of the art or strength to conquer.\n\n     * Burns.\n\n     ** Vide Eccles. iii., 19, 20,21.\n\nMan's dominion over the other animals, is a pure usurpation: and though\nhe differs from them in the structure of his body, he is superior to\nthem only in some qualities, which have been greatly improved by the\nrecorded experience of his species, handed down to him through a course\nof some thousands of years; and from which springs that combination\nin society which renders him formidable to his \"fellow worms.\" This is\nproved beyond contradiction by comparing him, as the educated and armed\nproduction of society, with what he is in the wild or natural state for\nin the latter condition, he is so far from being \"superior,\" that he\nbecomes the prey of animals much smaller than himself, which look upon\nhim as destined by nature for their subsistence, and use him as food\naccordingly. These facts are so well borne out by experience, that they\nwill be denied only by that false pride which theology instils to answer\nits own ends.\n\n     * Man, like every other animal, is born without the quality\n     called reason; and like them, must gain it as the fruit of\n     experience, by which all acquire it to a certain degree; and\n     in some of them it is much more perfect than it is in man;\n     but his excessive pride and love of dominion, blinds him\n     against this great truth. That which he is taught to call\n     reason in himself, must, forsooth, be only instinct, when\n     applied to the mental faculties of those he calls brutes.\n     Here the difference is in distinction of terms:--\n\n          \"Reason and instinct, how can ye divide?\n          'Tis the fool's folly, and the churchman's pride.\"\n\nBut if the cunning and ingenuity consequent upon man's extra allowance\nof brain has enabled him, by dint of combination in society, to subdue\nmany animals for his use, has he by this means, and what he calls\ncivilisation, really and truly improved his condition for the brief term\nof life which nature has allotted him? Are not the evils generated by\neducation, in which hypocrisy and fraud are the chief ingredients--the\nvices--the crimes--the immoral and distracting systems of religion,\nwhich induce a general depravity of character, and the unnatural\nand iniquitous laws emanating from such a corrupt state of society,\ninfinitely greater than the alleged advantages arising from this boasted\ncivilisation? If we take the aggregate of morality in man, as he is at\npresent produced and educated in the great manufactory of society, in\nwhich Christian theology with its concomitant evils, are the principal\napparatus, we shall have difficulty in finding on the face of the earth,\na more vicious, treacherous, and cruel animal. This is always denied\nin theory; but the conduct of every man recognises its woeful truth\npractically. Let the man of observation and true candor of mind lay his\nhand upon his heart, and honestly declare whether his fellow men, and in\ninstances, even those he calls his friends, are not the sole source\nof all his inquietudes and miseries--whether this demi-god is not the\nanimal that he is obliged to be more incessantly on his guard against\nthan any other! This universal prevalence of vice and moral depravity\nis primarily accounted for by the priest and superstitionist, by the\nequally flagitious and absurd dogma about what they call original sin;\nbut the true cause is very far from lurking in anything innately vicious\nin human nature, but on the contrary, is wholly engendered by their\nown unearthly delusions--the contagion of supernaturalism, and its\ndistracting train of theological inventions. These are the fatal lures\nwhich have estranged and drawn man to apostatise from the wholesome\nprinciples of his nature--surrounded him with artificial circumstances\nwholly adverse to these principles, and as degrading to his position as\nan intelligent being, as they are inimical to his peace and happiness.\n\nWhilst the elements of society shall continue to be thus contaminated,\nlife will be a gift scarce worth receiving and though the ingenuous\ntruth-loving mind may, on the approach of dissolution, feel dismayed at\nthe idea of ceasing to contemplate the beautiful of nature--the sun, the\ngreen fields, the woods, the streams, and the mountains, in which alone\nit finds prayers and sermons; yet no reluctance can be experienced\nin quitting intercourse with fellow men, whose religion imposes the\nnecessity of shunning truth in almost anything, affords an example of\nhabitual deception,* and by placing the _unnatural_, in the chair of the\n_natural_, turns man into a pitiful caricature of what he ought to be,\nin the nobler destinies of humanity.\n\n     * The mask being indispensable in theology, it is not\n     wonderful that its votaries should appear everywhere in\n     disguise.\n\n\nEND OF LECTURE FOURTH.\n\n\n\n\nLECTURE FIFTH. ON THE EARLY EFFECTS OF THE CHRISTIAN SUPERSTITION\n\n                     \"Tis only thou,\n          Accursed superstition, cans't accord\n          Thy aids to tyranny, for which alone\n          She guards thee with the penalty of \"Laws\".\n          Endows thee, pampers thee ; and seems to bend\n          (Mocking herself) in reverence to thy nod.\n          For this imperial rapine shares with thee\n          Her gaudy spoil.\"\n\nIn a former lecture, when speaking of the compilation of the New\nTestament, we promised to show that the first idea of forming that book\nwas drawn from a Pagan prototype; and therefore we resume the subject,\nin order also to adduce farther proof that the very vitals of our\nreligion originated in heathen polytheism.\n\nHere, it is of the highest importance to draw particular attention to\nthe sacred and mysterious testament of the Athenians, on which they\nbelieved the salvation not only of their city, but of all Greece\ndepended. There is now so little said about this famous testament, that\nit has nearly passed into oblivion; but this is easily accounted for, as\nthe fabricators of the Christian New Testament would, as usual in such\ncases, do all in their power to suppress the remembrance of a volume\nwhich suggested the scheme of their own book of mysteries, in the\nformation of which St. Paul was not only the principal contributor,\nbut, in point of fact, the real founder of our religion.* We ought not,\ntherefore, to pass without distinct notice, the remarkable deference\nand respect which he pretended to have for this book of imposture, when\nwishing to recommend himself to any Grecian state.\n\n     * The famous Longinus mentions Paul of Tarsus, whom \"he\n     considered to be the first setter-forth of an unproved\n     doctrine.\"\n\nThis Testament had a profound influence over those states, which,\nas well as the Athenians, were kept in reverential awe by its divine\nauthority; and Paul having acquired a knowledge of this in his\nvagrancies,* shows his dexterity by availing himself of it in his 2nd\nEpistle to the Corinthians iii., 6, wherein he says, \"God hath made us\nable ministers of the (New) Testament, not of the letter, but of the\nspirit\" Now, we defy all our divines and commentators put together,\nto show that the present New Testament of the Christians was _then_ in\nexistence, that is to say, before the end of the first century, and it\nis on all hands agreed by church chronologists, that Paul wrote before\nthat period; and, therefore, in writing the above epistle, it was not\npossible that he could be speaking in reference to any other book than\nthat which the Greeks called \"_the unspeakably holy Testament_.\" How\nwas it possible for him to speak of a book which we can prove was not\ncompiled into its present form until centuries had elapsed after his\ntime--viz., until the councils of Nice and Laodicea? That this book\nexisted not in all the first century we have the authority of the most\nlearned and orthodox God-well,** who, in his dissertation upon Irenaeus,\nconfesses as follows:--\"We have at this day certain most authentic\necclesiastical writers of the times, as Clemens, Romanus, Barnabas,\nHermas, Ignatius, and Polycarp, who wrote in the same order in which I\nhave named them, and after all the writers of the New Testament. But\nin Hermas you will not find one passage, or any mention of the New\nTestament, nor in all the rest is any one of the evangelists named.\"\nWhat! our four evangelists entirely unknown to all the five apostolic\nfathers! Could this have been possible if these gospels had been written\nwhen these \"authentic\" writers lived?\n\n     * When Tonstal, Bishop of Durham, burnt the New Testament,\n     declaring it to be doctrinam peregrinam, he probably meant\n     that it was-only the doctrine of Paul the rambler.--Vide\n     Tyndale.\n\n     ** Dodwell says that it \"was not until the reign of Trajan\n     or Adrian that a collection of the books of the New\n     Testament was publicly made, the priests having previous to\n     that time concealed them in the archives, of their\n     churches.\" It was then that they made anything that suited\n     them the \"word of God.\"\n\nHaving shown the absurdity of supposing that Paul could speak of a\nTestament that did not exist in his time, we repeat, that from his\nvagrant habits he had, in all probability, come to the knowledge that\nthe sacred Testament of the Athenians was, like all priestly writings\nof the East, figurative, mystical, and would bear either the literal or\nmetaphorical meaning, according to the views of those who used it for\nthe purpose of deception; so he tells the Corinthians of his being aware\nthat \"the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.\" He knew also\nthat this book of superlative authority was carefully concealed from\nthe vulgar eye; and, therefore, he has not the presumption to say he had\nseen it, as that would have given offence; but merely professes to be an\nhumble minister of its spirit, of which he might have learned something,\nas aforesaid; and forming his texts on the common rumor respecting it,\nhe comments upon them in such a manner as to please his followers\nin those states, professing a profound awe and reverence towards the\nspotless sanctity of the original.\n\nChristian bigots! We well know the angry, fiery glance with which you\nreceive truths shocking to your prejudices; but it is time you should be\ntold in plain terms, that this divine Testament upon which Paul comments\nwith so much respect and veneration, and of the spirit whereof he\ndeclares himself an able minister, was no other than the FAMOUS ATHENIAN\nTESTAMENT, the archetype of the sibyline books of the Romans, and which\nwas older than the time of Solon. After the abolition of the Athenian\nsuperstition, this testament was found to be a legitimate child of\ntheology, being filled with the grossest impostures. Paul tells us\nthat he had the happy knack of being \"all things to all men;\" but\nhis pretended veneration for this sacred volume of the Greeks, was a\nmasterly stroke of policy, and extremely well calculated to secure\nhis good reception amongst them. The word new, as we find it in the\nconundrums of Paul, and prefixed to the modern Testament, is easily\naccounted for by any person who is at all acquainted with the shameless\nfalsifications and interpolations of those who fabricated our religion.\nThus did the famous Athenian Testament become not only the prototype of\nthe sibyline* books, but that of the new will of the Jewish deity also;\nwhereof the writings attributed to this Paul formed a large portion, at\nthat subsequent period when the approved collection was _voted to be the\n\"Word of God_.\"\n\n     * The sibyline verses of the Romans are known to have\n     existed as far back as the time of Tarquinius Priscus, 717\n     years b.c.; they are quoted by the fathers from Tertullian,\n     in the second, to the Christian writer, Lactantius, in the\n     fourth century. They relate the whole story of Christ's\n     incarnation, miracles, death, and resurrection, in almost\n     the same words as the gospels.\n\nIn regard to this miscellany, the Manicheans say that it was formed from\nscraps of legends and traditions which the itinerant fathers happened\nto pick up in their journeyings in the eastern countries, in search of\n\"gospel truth.\" \"Thus some parts would be, as we find them, Indian, some\nPersian, some Egyptian, etc., etc., all jumbled together, and forming,\nafter undergoing the required fittings and alterations, the mass which\nwe now possess. Thus from India came the murder of the Innocents; from\nall quarters of the heathen world came the Trinity, the crucifixion\nof Christ, the Lord Sol, and Iao, born at the winter solstice, and\ntriumphing over the powers of hell, or cold and darkness, and rising\ninto light or glory, as the Regenerator and Savior, at the vernal\nequinox: from the Egyptian--perhaps the Eleusinian mysteries, came the\nworship of the virgin and child; and from all the countries of the east,\nthe miraculous conception.\"\n\nOn a careful examination of the quirks and quibbles of St. Paul, it\nplainly appears that he had some smattering of the Pagan mysteries;\nand just as it suited his interest for the time being, or the degree of\nknowledge in his auditors, he used the exoteric or esoteric doctrines;\nthe former was adapted for street-preaching, and bamboozling the\nlong-eared multitude; and the latter was used only when he was\naddressing the initiated few, some of whom were, in all probability,\nplaying the same game as himself.* He designates these mysteries as\nbeing \"_shadows of heavenly things_;\" and \"_patterns of things in the\nheavens_\" (Hebrews viii., 5, and ix., 23), meaning, unquestionably,\nastronomical truths concealed from the million, under the veil of\nallegory; for that word is used by him, and he frequently makes use of\nthe term veil. St. Barnabas, in his Gospel, denies the truth of Paul's\nexoteric doctrine, declaring that no person called Christ did actually\nand _bona fide_ die upon the cross: hence the quarrel between the two;\nand from this cause was Barnabas' Gospel rejected. In further proof that\nthere were two doctrines in use, the ostensible and the hidden, Jesus\nis made to say, Matthew xiii., 11, \"To you it is given to know the\nmysteries of the kingdom of heaven.\" This compliment could be addressed\nto none but such as were initiated in the symbolical worship of the sun,\nand other celestial bodies; whilst to the rabble multitude the secret\nwas concealed under metaphor or parable, in order that, \"hearing ye\nshall hear and shall not understand; and seeing, ye shall see and not\nperceive.\" (Acts xxviii., 26.) Paul, in his epistle to the Ephesians\n(iii., 4), boasts of a knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which he says\nin the 5th verse, \"was not in other ages made known to the sons of men.\"\nNow, this could not possibly allude to Jesus of the New Testament, with\nwhom, as some of the fathers have assumed, Paul was contemporary; and\ntherefore, in speaking of \"other ages\" it inevitably follows that he was\nalluding to a Gentile divinity, a Christ ** whose name had belonged\nto the heathen mysteries, in \"ages\" long prior to the reputed time of\nJesus. In the 16th chapter of the Romans, Paul again lets out the secret\nin the 25th and 26th verses, where he speaks of \"his gospel,\" and the\npreaching of Jesus Christ, \"according to the revelation of the mystery,\nwhich was kept secret since the world began.\" What mystery of Christ can\nhe mean, that was thus _kept secret since the world began?_ He assuredly\nalludes to the esoteric doctrines of the Egyptian priests of Osiris;\nthe Eleusinian mysteries; the Bacchanal orgies; and to all the ancient\nmythoses in which the sun, under many different names, was the secret\nobject of adoration in all the countries of the east, as the glorious\n_savior_ who annually _redeems_ the world from the reign of cold\nand darkness; and of whose mysterious worship Paul had gained some\nknowledge.\n\n     * He makes a plain confession of having two gospels, in his\n     Epistle to the Galatians, ii., 2. The \"cloven tongues\" so\n     much spoken of, designated those who were capable of holding\n     forth the exoteric, or esotoric doctrine, as occasion might\n     require. Paul's tongue appears to have been cloven into more\n     than two parts.\n\n     ** Did not Cicero, when he travelled in Greece, find\n     inscriptions on monuments to many Christs?\n\nIn the reign of Adrian, the Egyptian priests of the idol Priapus, were\ncalled the bishops of Christ. Priapus was a symbol of the generative\npower of the sun. Socrates and Sozomen say, that when the temple of\nthis god was destroyed, the monogram of Christ was found beneath the\nfoundation.\n\n\"We speak wisdom,\" says he, \"to them that are perfect, yet not the\nwisdom of this world.\" Certainly not; for his secret doctrine was the\ncelestial theosophy, or astronomy in disguise; but as these mysteries\nwere known only to the initiated few, they were wisdom to them alone.\nBut when these truth-conveying allegories were spoken to the uninitiated\nrabble, they were received in the exoteric, or literal sense, which Paul\nelsewhere calls \"foolishness;\" yet nothing is so common in the present\nday as that same foolishness. None but minds who not only choose, but\nare determined to be deceived, can resist the obvious meaning conveyed\nin his Epistle to the Philippians, iii., 20. \"For our conversation is\nin heaven, from whence also we look for the _Savior_, the Lord Jesus\nChrist.\" That is, the return of the Lord the Sun to the zodiacal signs\nof spring and summer, when he alone is truly the savior.* That even the\nfable of the flood is an astronomical allegory, is proven in 1st Peter\niii., where the writer, speaking of the ark, wherein the \"eight souls\nwere saved by water,\" concludes the parables thus,--\"_the like FIGURE\nhereunto even baptism doth now save us_.\"\n\n     * As the sun is the only true physical savior of everything\n     that has life upon this globe, so is a free printing press\n     the true moral and intellectual savior of the human race.\n\nThus it is an astronomical key that lays open the secret arcanum of all\nthat Paul, or any other of the New Testament writers say about \"Christ\nand heavenly things;\" for these, when the veil of allegory is withdrawn,\nstand confessed in the Sun,* (the Mithras, or Mediator) moon, stars,\nthe elements and seasons, the deification of which formed the occult\nastro-theology which was the basis of all the religions of the east; and\nfrom which Christianism is only a distorted emanation.\n\n     * Neither Origen nor Tertullian attempts to prove the\n     existence of Jesus Christ on historical documents, and to\n     establish his birth and death on unquestionable authority.\n\nFrom the works of Plutarch, which are now lost, Eusebius quoted a\nfragment in which that wise Grecian says: \"It clearly results from the\nverses of Orpheus, and the sacred books of the Egyptians and Phrygians,\nthat the ancient theology, not only of the Greeks, but of all nations,\nwas nothing more than a system of physics--a picture of the operations\nof Nature, wrapped up in mysteries, allegories, enigmatical symbols, in\na manner that the ignorant multitude attended rather to their apparent\nthan to their hidden meaning: and even what they understood of the\nlatter, led them to suppose there was still something more than they\nperceived.\" When the lost works of Plutarch contained such disclosures,\ntheir destruction by Christian priests is anything but wonderful.\n\nWhen all these circumstances are duly weighed in the mind that dares to\nlook truth in the face, the conviction flashes upon it instantly, that\nall our gospels, and everything else that is said about Jesus Christ in\nthe New Testament, has no reference whatever to any event that ever did\nin reality take place upon this globe; or to any personages that ever\nin truth existed: and that the whole is an astronomical allegory, or\nparable, having invariably a primary and sacred allusion to the sun, and\nhis passage through the signs of the zodiac: or a verbal representation\nof the phaenomena of the solar year and seasons. A belief in the literal\nor ostensible meaning of these parables, shows the sottish credulity\ninto which man sinks after his reason has been mortgaged in youth to\nthe priest, who keeps him in the ignorance that is suitable for mental\nslavery.\n\nThis view of these matters unveils and draws forth good sense and\nscience out of both Testaments; and all our wonder at once ceases\nin regard to the total absence of even the slightest corroborating\nhistorical trace of the miraculous narratives of these books. This\nrevelation of these enigmas also reconciles with truth that apparently\nfalse prediction of Jesus, wherein, he tells his auditors that some of\nthem would live to see the coming of the Christ he alluded to; and to\ndo this it was only requisite that they should live until the following\nyear, when the true Christ, the sun would again be \"triumphant in the\nclouds,\" as he approached the summer solstice. Moreover, we may here\nnotice another similar New Testament prediction, which from the stubborn\npreciseness of the terms in which it is expressed, can neither be\ntwisted by the priest nor rationally solved without the allegorical\ninterpretation;--it declares--\"Ye shall not taste of death\" till all\nthese things are accomplished. If Christian priests are not willing that\nPaul should pass for a notorious cheat and impostor, let them explicate,\nin any other way than the above, his \"_Heavenly_\" enigmas and literally\nfalse predictions:--we challenge them to this; and if they cannot or\nwill not do it satisfactorily, to whom will the epithets of cheats and\nimpostors properly belong? The above solution of these astro-allegories\nforces so irresistible a conviction upon the ingenuous and unprejudiced\nmind as leaves no room to suppose a possibility of its being\notherwise:--it is the physical truths of nature and scientific\ndemonstration, against that which is false in physics, false in analogy,\nand, consequently, contrary to all experience and reason.\n\nThe Jewish sects of Essenes and Therapeutae,* out of which the Galileans\nand Christians more immediately sprang, had thus their superstition\ncomposed of a mixture of the Egyptian and Persian mysteries,\nconsequently sun worship was common to many of the subsequent branches\nof Christianity, such as the Mani-chees and others. Tertullian, in the\napologetics, makes a broad confession of this, as follows:--\"Many think,\nwith more probability, _that our god is the Sun_;** and they trace our\nreligion to that of the Persians.\" If this is not an admission, it is\nthe next thing to it, that about the beginning of the third century, the\nsecret object of Christian worship _was the Sun_; and it would have\nbeen well if they had continued in that rational adoration, instead of\nadopting those midnight rites which were held in horror and detestation\nby their Gentile neighbors, as being cruel, wicked, and blasphemous;***\nand which caused the votaries of the new religion to be branded as\natheists. Arnobius who turned Christian, (most probably in view of a\nbishopric), complains of the Gentiles thus:--\"We (the Christians) are\ncalled by you ill-omened men, and atheists; you call us impious and\nirreligious atheists. You are in the habit of exciting the hatred of the\nmob against us, by calling us atheists.\"****\n\n     * We are told by Philo, that these pious enthusiasts\n     abandoned father, mother, wife, children, and property, and\n     devoted themselves to a contemplative life; which are\n     exactly the injunctions attributed to Christ.\n\n     ** In another treatise Tertullian alludes to the strong\n     similarity between the religion of Christ, and that of\n     Mithra, or the Sun. \"The priests of the Persian god had\n     sacraments. Their baptism procured the remission of sins to\n     the believers and the faithful.\"\n\n     \"Saint Justin also alludes to the mystical consecrations of\n     these two religions; and to the similarity of the birth of\n     Christ, and his Persian rival, the Sun.\"\n\n     *** The Agapae, or love feasts of the early Christians, were\n     close imitations of the bacchanal orgies; at the latter, it\n     was a vital principle, that no action whatsoever constituted\n     a crime, if committed by any of the initiated during their\n     meetings. It appears that the spirit of this horrible\n     license was fully entered into by the Christians.--Vide\n     Gibbon's \"Decline and Fall,\" vol. ii, p. 894.\n\n     **** Adv. Gentes.\n\nSome of the learned, however, have been of opinion that the present\nversion of Christianism is more immediately founded on the writings of\nPhilo Judaeus, who speaks much of the \"Logos,\" which in Greek signifies\nthe principle of reason; having the same figurative moral sense as the\nepithet Christos. The epistle to the Hebrews, and St. John's Gospel, are\nadduced as complete imitations of Philo's manner and style. The epithet\n\"_Logos_\" is often used by him, but in John's Gospel it is falsely\ntranslated, being rendered \"the word.\"* Philo also speaks at large of\nthe Therapeutae and Essenes, from whom the Christians borrowed so freely\nin making their collection; and though in his time they existed not as\na sect, they might be mainly indebted to his writings for the groundwork\nof their fabric. This opinion is greatly strengthened, inasmuch as the\nheads of our church have always kept Philo, as much as possible, in\nthe back ground. He was a much more learned man than Josephus--a better\nwriter; and had arrived at the years of maturity before the period\nassigned for the birth of Christ.\n\n     * The first verse in John's Gospel is literally copied from\n     Plato. As a play upon words, it is almost worthy of St.\n     Paul.\n\nThe restless and prying zeal of Paul having gained him this knowledge in\nthe Pagan mysteries, which he boasts of, he perceived that the spirit of\nthe mythos in all the polytheisms of the east was essentially the\nsame, that is, the emblematical personification of physical and moral\nprinciples; and that the removal of this veil of allegory developed\nall the mysteries, and was indeed the only rational meaning of the word\nrevelation. He knew, like the Pagan priests, that in order to deceive\nthe multitude, and make their industry maintain idleness and imposture,\nmiracle and mystery were indispensable; and while he dealt largely in\nthe latter article, he showed a peculiar aptitude for rendering\nmystery doubly mysterious, whereby he became the grand exemplar of all\ntheological quacks, and founder of that school of quibble which has\nbeen so eminently useful to his successors in the Christian church: for\nwhenever they cannot escape from contradictions and absurdities of their\nown raising, they transfer the solving of their enigmas to the regions\nof Paul's \"third heaven,\" where all are lost in his mysteries and awful\n\"unspeakables;\" fooleries which will always captivate the wonder-struck\nmillion; while common sense, with persecution before his eyes, dares to\nventure only a shrug of the shoulders.\n\nLet us now attend to the moral and political effects produced by this\nnew version of the old mythology, to which, with regard to its absurd\nand unnatural dogmas, St Paul is the principal contributor. After it had\ngrown strong under the protection of the cruel, kin-killing Constantine,\nand his parasite Eusebius, it soon turned persecutor in its turn, and\nbegan to engender legions of other moral and physical evils, which\ngradually overwhelmed the Roman empire, in proportion as the human mind\nbecame debased and emasculated by abject slavery, under an intolerant\nsuperstition--the gorgeous demon of Catholic despotism, erected on\nthe ruins of the less degrading and less expensive Paganism.* Each\nsucceeding year and age was marked by the onward degeneracy and baseness\nof the Roman spirit. The new modelled mystery of a triune godhead,\nwith its accompanying train of chimeras,** sunk all classes into mental\nimbecility, and such was the infatuation that nothing but the grossest\nsupernatural follies excited their attention; and as these were made\nup of insignificant mummeries--theological cant and jargon altogether\nunintelligible, they caused the bitterest disputes and animosities in\nboth the empires; and glorious high-minded Pagan Italy became the land\nof pious frauds, clerical knavery, and lies,*** in which absurdities the\neffeminate and contemptible emperors joined, with their trains of monks\nand eunuchs.\n\n     * In the mythology of the Pagans, their Theogony consisted\n     of full thirty thousand bearded and unbearded divinities. We\n     have reduced that establishment to three only; yet\n     nevertheless, (unaccountable as it may appear) it has been\n     so contrived by our modern hierophants, that the service of\n     this triune deity, with their hosts of privileged deputies,\n     holy days, etc., and taxing the people in one-seventh of\n     their time, and one-tenth of their substance, has entailed\n     on human industry, a tax of one hundred times the amount of\n     that which was contributed to regale the nasal senses of the\n     whole celestial army of antiquity!\n\n     ** In imitation of the Pagans, the crafty Christian priests\n     soon perceived the advantages of polytheism, and that it\n     would tend greatly to their interest to associate some other\n     subaltern gods along with the deity of Moses; for, by thus\n     introducing a plurality of gods, they would not only more\n     effectually embarrass and perplex the minds of the credulous\n     people; but by multiplying the objects of worship, and\n     constituting themselves the acting attornies for these\n     deities, they would increase their stipends and other\n     exactions, in proportion to the various rites and ceremonies\n     they invented for each.\n\n          *** Where Cicero and Antoninus lived,\n          A cowled and hypocritical monk\n          Prays, curses, and deceives.--Shelley.\n\nWhere then, O Rome, were your Brutus', your Cincinnatus', your Catos,\nyour Marcus Aurelius', your Julians? The fact was, so far from being\nable to produce such examples of heroic virtue, your sons had nearly\nceased to deserve the name of men; and as Machiavel truly observes,\nthe doctrines of your new religion, teaching only passive courage and\nsuffering, had subdued the Roman spirit, and fitted you for subjection\nand slavery. All manly dignity, all strength of mind, and all the\nvirtues had forsaken your sons, and you had become the nucleus of\ntheological absurdity--of all that is worthless, vicious, and unnatural.\nYour handling of arms to prevent barbarian invasion had ceased, and\nthey were used alone to cut each others throats about the supernatural\nphantoms of your fraudful priests; witness your Emperor Honorius, who\nwas most holily employed at Ravenna \"in punishing Manicheans, Donatists,\nPriscillianists, and heretics of every denomination, _whilst the Goths\nmarched without opposition to Rome_.\" Again, when the Heruli, the Goths,\nthe Vandals, and the Huns, invaded the empire, what steps were taken by\nthe two emperors to withstand their attack, and resist the torrent of\ninvasion? None at all; these superstitious fools in purple, aided by\ntheir priests and monks, were settling the difference between _Omoosis_\nand _Omousis_; and, probably, the different degrees of efficacy in\nconcomitant, versatile, and sufficient grace. With these heavenly\nmatters upon their hands, how could these holy men find time to resist\nthe invasion of their country? Suppose for a moment, that by one of the\nChristian miracles, the great Caius Julius had started up amongst these\ndegenerate reptiles, and witnessed their ridiculous fooleries, would he\nhave believed that he was among Romans? What would he have said of Saint\nAnthony's preaching to the fishes with such \"spiritual efficacy,\" that\na huge cod looks at the preacher with a face of sanctified beatitude;\nwhilst a beautiful salmon turns up his eyes to heaven, imploring divine\nlight and grace?\n\nWhen such shameful and degrading absurdities had thus sunk the Romans,\nand the contagion of the new superstition had so thoroughly and\nincurably vitiated the minds of all ranks, that all firmness and\nnobility of character were extinct amongst them; and the change was\nrapidly leading to the downfall of that vast empire,--dastards and\nmental recreants in nature, they were marked by the northern nations\nas an easy prey to the first invader. Little or no symptom of such a\ndecline had appeared until after the gods of the Christians had gained\nthe countenance of the Emperor Constantine, who did not destroy, but\nmade a change in the worship of the Gentile gods, under whom, it was\nsupposed, the empire had attained the highest pitch of glory and power.\nYet even this Constantine, so far as regarded himself, was ever as ready\nto pay his respect to Jupiter, Apollo, and Venus, as to Jehovah, Christ,\nand the Virgin Mary,* having wit enough to perceive that the latter were\nmere copies of the former.\n\n     * He died more a Pagan than a Christian; and all the change\n     that he in reality effected was to amalgamate, or unite the\n     two superstitions. This is proved in the fact that, under a\n     change of names and forms, nearly the whole of the heathen\n     mythos was adopted and continued.\n\nIn order to conceal as much as possible the fact, that the adoption of\nthe Christian superstition was the principal cause of the downfall of\nRoman greatness, it has been assumed by church historians and others,\nthat a very considerable decline had visibly taken place during the\nhundred and seventy years that elapsed between the reign of Adrian and\nthat of Constantine; but this assumption appears to be fallacious. It\nis true that the integrity of the empire was sometimes endangered during\nthat period, from the despotism falling into unworthy and profligate\nhands; but at the time when Constantine possessed himself of it, the\nextent of territory seems to have been undiminished at any point; for it\nstill included the provinces east of the Euphrates (lost by the sons of\nthis emperor), and towards the west, northern Africa, Gaul, Spain,\nand Britain; so that the real \"decline and fall,\" commenced with the\nadoption of Christianity.* If the subversion of this immense empire\nhad been the only political effect of this freshly compounded system\nof theology, the cause of humanity might not have suffered; but it is\na most lamentable truth that all the ancient learning of the east was\ninvolved in that destruction; for we know from historic facts which are\nindisputable, that the priests, and tyrants acting in league with them,\ntook special care, as far as it lay in their power, to destroy every\nroot and branch of natural science; but more particularly the writings\nof those philosophers who exposed the immoral and wicked rites and\nsecrets of the new sect, and its origin amongst the lowest and vilest\nof the populace.** As one proof amongst a hundred of the persecution of\nsuch learned Gentiles as exposed the profligacy of the first Christians,\nwe quote part of the decree of the Emperor Theodosius, as follows:--\"We\ndecree that all writings whatever, which Porphyry, or anyone else, hath\nwritten against the Christian religion, in the possession of whomsoever\nthey may be found, _shall be committed to the fire_.\" (See the original\nLatin, quoted by Lardner.) Thus the Emperors soon found that, with the\nconnivance and subserviency of the priests, the new superstition was\nmuch better calculated than the old for the purposes of tyranny; and\nthat the one thing needful was to suppress all Pagan learning--to foster\nand diffuse the gloom of ignorance, as the only element in which their\nnefarious schemes for the subjugation of the human mind could prosper.\n\n     * The tide of prosperity and greatness followed the Romans,\n     so long as they were reared under the moral and heroic\n     virtues of the old religion, until the new superstition\n     arose like a blighting meteor, shedding its baleful\n     influence over the empire; and by its pernicious dogmas and\n     emasculating tendency, gradually reduced the most warlike\n     nation in the world to contempt and vassalage.\n\n     ** The Emperor Julian, in a discourse to the Christians,\n     told them that \"It was enough for you at first to seduce a\n     few servants--a few beggars, such as Cornelius and Sergius.\n     But let me be regarded as the most impudent of impostors, if\n     among those who embraced your feet under Tiberius and\n     Claudius, there was a single man of birth or merit.\" Julian\n     here alludes to the Jewish sect of Galileans, who had not\n     assumed the name of Christians under Tiberius and Claudius.\n\nIn latter times history vouches for the horrible persecutions and bloody\nwars, which this fresh version of Christianity occasioned throughout\nEurope and part of Asia, for more than thirteen hundred years, viz.,\nfrom the reign of Constantine till towards the latter end of the\nsixteenth century, when some glimmerings of science began to dispel\nthe gloom of ignorance, and to weaken that priestly and aristocratic\ndespotism, which even to this day has not been entirely shaken off by\nany European nation.\n\nA celebrated philosopher,* when speaking of the above period, makes the\nfollowing observations:--If, says he, God deigned to make himself a man,\nand a Jew, and to die in Palestine by an infamous punishment, to expiate\nthe crimes of mankind, and to banish sin from the earth, there ought\nto have been no longer any sin or crime amongst men, whereas religious\ncrimes seem only to have commenced since the time when that event is\nsaid to have happened: and the Christians, by their holy massacres and\nburnings, have shown themselves more abominable monsters than all the\nsectaries of the other religions put together.**\n\n     * Freret.\n\n     ** The Jews may be regarded as an exception; for their\n     history displays the most memorable examples of the evils\n     arising from superstition and fanaticism; from these arose\n     the numerous revolutions, the horrid and bloody wars; and at\n     last their total destruction as a petty dependent nation,\n     owing to their submission to priests, and their unbounded\n     credulity. From the roguish deceptions of their tribe of\n     priests alone, they became, beyond all contradiction, the\n     most despicable people that ever existed. Their barbarous\n     ignorance was easily played upon by Levitical commissions\n     from heaven.\n\nIn proof of this, witness the gibbets, the wheels, the massacres, and\nthe horrible burnings at the stake of nearly a hundred thousand human\nbeings in a single province--the massacres and devastations of nine\nmad crusades of Christians against unoffending Turks, during nearly\ntwo hundred years; in which many millions of human beings perished--the\nmassacres of the Anabaptists--the massacres of the Lutherans and\nPapists, from the Rhine to the extremities of the north--the massacres,\nin Ireland, England, and Scotland, in the time of Charles I., who was\nhimself massacred--the massacres ordered by Henry VIII. and his daughter\nMary--the massacres of St. Bartholomew in France; and forty years more\nof other massacres between the time of Francis I. and the entry of\nHenry IV. into Paris;--the massacres of the inquisition, which are more\nexecrable still, as being judicially committed;--to say nothing of the\ninnumerable schisms and twenty wars of popes against popes--bishops\nagainst bishops--the poisonings, assassinations--the cruel rapines of\nmore than a dozen of popes, who far exceeded a Nero or a Caligula in\nevery species of crime and wickedness;--the massacre of twelve millions\nof the inhabitants of the new world, executed CRUCIFIX IN HAND and\nall for the honor and glory of the Jewish deity and his son!! This\nis without reckoning all the massacres committed in the same names,\nprecedently to any of the above. Finding no end to this dismal catalogue\nof theological enormities, this philosopher shortly observes, that such\na hideous and almost uninterrupted chain of religious wars, for fourteen\ncenturies, never subsisted but among Christians; and that none of all\nthe numerous nations called heathen ever spilt a drop of human blood on\nthe score of theological arguments.\n\n     * Under the banners and sanction of the exterminating god of\n     Moses and of Joshua, \"the Spaniards did not treat the\n     inhabitants of the New World as human beings, because they\n     were not Christians. All sense of remorse was stifled; and\n     those unfeeling men, whom Europe had disgorged from her\n     bosom, were abandoned without control to their insatiable\n     thirst for gold and for blood.\"\n\nWe are obliged to grant that all this is true; and to this may be\nadded, that in these shocking devastations, the blind ferocity of the\nChristians was everywhere written in blood, whereas the behavior of\ntheir opponents was frequently marked by clemency. As an instance let us\ncompare the conduct of Saladin with that of Godfrey of Bouillon, and\nhis followers, though shame and detestation would draw a veil over the\ncontrast: when the latter took Jerusalem, an indiscriminate butchery\ntook place; neither age nor sex was spared; and _after the surrender_,\nthe streets streamed with the blood of at least seven thousand\nvictims. When Saladin retook the place, no lives were taken _after\nthe surrender_; and he showed the greatest kindness to the Christian\ncaptives; _giving those who were poor their liberty without ransom_. The\nmassacres of Antioch and Thessalonica, by the Emperor Theodosius, may\nbe regarded as other instances of sectarian ferocity, partaking, as they\ncertainly did, of religious animosity. Did the Emperor Julian punish\nthese Antiochians in any way whatever, when they heaped upon him every\nkind of abuse and indignity?*\n\n     *  Did he not also spare the ten or more Christian soldiers\n     of his own army, who were proved to have conspired against\n     his life?\n\nDescending from the great and general calamities which the Christian\nsuperstition has entailed upon nations, let us notice a very few of its\nmalignant persecutions of individuals whose only crimes were superior\ngenius, learning, and science; and this persecution has ever been marked\nby a deadly rancor, which plainly shows that the study and knowledge of\nNature is incompatible with, and a decided enemy to, this theological\nfabrication. Before the time of Copernicus, and the famous Galileo,\nChristians were taught by their priests, that the sun revolved round the\nearth; that the latter was flat like a table, (it is quite clear that\nthe Bible-makers knew no better) and one-third longer than it was\nbroad, hence our terms of latitude and longitude. Copernicus showed the\nabsurdity of these notions, and taught that the sun is the centre of his\nown, or the solar, system, in which this globe of ours is comparatively\nbut a mole-hill. But knowing of the hosts of priests who were ready to\npounce upon him if he discovered these truths openly, he declined to\npublish his works till near the time of his death, and he lived just\nlong enough to receive a corrected copy of them.\n\nGalileo, at the distance of more than a hundred years after the former,\noffended the church by defending the system of Copernicus, but still\nmore in proving that the earth had a double motion, in revolving on its\nown centre in twenty-four hours, and also in its orbit round the sun;\nthe former being the cause of day and night, and the latter measuring\nthe solar year. The discovery, or rather the revival, of these and many\nother grand and sublime truths, drew down upon the head of this great\nman the implacable vengeance of an interested priesthood; and he was\ncondemned by a wicked conclave, which calls itself holy, for daring to\nknow and to propagate truths that are now known to every schoolboy. All\nthat could be done for him by the wise and learned of the age was merely\nto save him from being burnt by the priests. He was confined for life,\nand died a prisoner of the Inquisition. As the sentence against him\nis hardly credible in the present day, we cite the following part of\nit:--\"To assert that the earth is not immoveable in the centre of the\nworld, is an absurd proposition, false in philosophy, heretical in\nreligion, and contrary to the testimony of Scripture.\" As an instance of\nthe malicious and inexorable nature of priestcraft, we note the curious\nfact, that Galileo's sentence was, in spite of the clearest light,\n_renewed at Rome in 1819!_\n\nVirgilius, Bishop of Saltzberg, was condemned by the church\nfor maintaining that the figure of the earth is spherical; and,\nconsequently, the existence of antipodes.\n\nThe learned Stephen Dolet was burnt by the Inquisition for exposing\npriestcraft, and asserting the unity of God.\n\nJulius Vanini was burnt by the clergy for saying that \"God is both the\nbeginning and the end, without being in need of either--in no one place,\nyet present everywhere; his power is his will.\" For these tenets did the\ntheologians burn the innocent Vanini.\n\nThe blameless life and manners of William Tyndale could not save him\nfrom the stake and fagot; his great learning enabled him to expose the\nfrauds of the priests, and the false translations of their Scriptures:\nso he fell their victim, through the aid and authority of his tyrannical\nand blood-thirsty king.\n\nThe great Descartes died in a foreign land from church persecution.\n\nThat persecution is necessarily ingrained in priests of every\ndenomination, and that they will have recourse to it whenever they have\nthe power, we have a memorable instance in the much vaunted reformer,\nJohn Calvin, who, when armed with authority by the magistrates of\nGeneva, wrote to the high Chamberlain of the King of Navarre, (of date\nthe 30th Sept., 1561) as follows:--\"Honor, glory, and riches, shall be\nthe reward of your pains; but, above all, do not fail to rid the country\nof those zealous scoundrels who stir up the people to revolt against\n_us_. Such monsters should be exterminated, as I have exterminated\nMichael Servetus, the Spaniard.\" Now the fact is well known, that\nwhen Calvin found himself unable to cope in argument with this learned\nSpaniard, he took the true orthodox way of getting a riddance, by\nroasting him alive at a slow fire, _inhumanly made on purpose, of green\nwood._\n\nThe intrepid Bruno resolutely suffered at the stake for condemning that\nbaleful source of distraction to the human race--the spirituality of\npriests.\n\nIn latter times matters are not much mended. A considerable portion\nof the 19th century has now elapsed, and has been deemed a period of\nscience; yet free discussion, and the exercise of reason on all subjects\nhave made but small progress; and it is melancholy to reflect that plain\ntruth is still at the bottom of her well, where she is stifled by the\ndemon of supernatural theology and its political colleagues, from whence\nshe has been suffered to emit only partial glimmerings of light; whilst,\nfrom base interest, she is shunned or unacknowledged by those very\nmen of science by whom alone she can be rescued from this detestable\nthraldom of the mind. By corrupt judges and packed juries she is\njealously excluded from courts of pretended justice, lest she should\nexpose, in her odious colors, the reigning hag of superstition, with her\nBibyline books of mystery and fraud; hence the fines, the robberies, and\nthe incarcerations of a great number of the most virtuous, enlightened,\nand most talented advocates of free discussion and mental liberty, for\nthe last thirty years. Thus has the peace of countries been incessantly\ndisturbed and outraged, for nearly two thousand years, by this strange\nfabrication of artificial theology; thus has it been perpetually in\nexercise as an instrument in the persecution of great and good men,\nand raised up the most inextinguishable flames of hatred, wars,\nand devastations amongst nations. Such will ever be its effects,\nparticularly where it is iniquitously upheld as a device to strangle\nmental liberty, through the hopes and fears of ignorance; and as an\nengine of state to sustain corrupt government.\n\nOn a retrospective view of this direful superstition, we cannot\nascertain from any certain authority at what time the Galileans took the\nname of Christians, as there is not the slightest historical trace\nof their using the latter term throughout the first century of their\nassumed existence. There appears to have been no sect of that name in\nJerusalem when it was taken and destroyed by Titus in the year seventy,\nand it was not until full thirty years afterwards that it was mentioned\nby the younger Pliny (governor of Bithynia) in a letter to the Emperor\nTrajan. This letter was written about the beginning of the second\ncentury, and it shows that Pliny had heard nothing of Christians until\nhe went to that province, as he speaks of them as a novelty with which\nhe did not know how to deal, and represents them to the Emperor as a set\nof vile and vicious fanatics. However, it appears that the animosities\nand dissensions amongst the propagators of the new sect had produced\neffects destructive of the peace and welfare of society, at a very early\nperiod. Numerous party-gospels, and forged writings under the names of\napostles, were in circulation at the latter end of the second and third\ncenturies; all hostile to each other, and generating nothing but fraud\nand contention. These writings being exclusively in the hands of the\nleading impostors, they could alter them at pleasure, and make any\ninvention the \"word of God.\" Our four adopted gospels are as spurious as\nthe others.*\n\n     * The earliest Christians, viz., the Ebionites, Nasarenes,\n     Corinthians, etc., denied that any of our four gospels were\n     genuine, except that of Matthew; but they excluded as\n     forgeries the two first chapters, containing the miraculous\n     conception and birth, declaring them to be spurious, and not\n     to be found in the genuine copies of Matthew. Both St.\n     Jerome and Epiphanius allow that this is true.\n\nNothing is more certain than that no man can rationally predict of the\nfuture, otherwise than by deduction drawn from the past; and, therefore,\nthere is reason to believe that the writers of Matthew and Luke, who\nmost probably wrote after the middle of the second century, spoke by\ninference drawn from their own experience, when they uttered that\nplain, bold, and bloody declaration regarding the future fruits of\nChristianity. \"Suppose ye that I came to send peace on earth? I tell you\nnay; _I came not to send peace, but a sword._ For I am come to set a man\nat variance with his father, and the daughter against her mother. And\na man's foes shall be those of his own household.\" This terrible\ndenunciation has proved true to a tittle. Where is there another of all\nthe New Testament predictions that has been so literally fulfilled? If\nsuch effects began to show themselves while it was yet in its infancy,\nand even crying out for tolerance amongst the Pagans, can we wonder that\nin subsequent times, after gaining the patronage of tyranny, riches, and\npower, it should engender a greater mass of human misery than was ever\ncaused by all the other systems of religious plagues put together.\n\nThe artificers of this scheme saw well that the power and influence of\nthe priest and despot, were ever in exact proportion to the debasement\nof man; and, therefore, they laid their foundation in that hideous sink\nof vice and depravity, the Jewish superstition; for there they found\nthe examples of a numerous and rapacious priesthood, the enforcement of\ntithes, and a perfect specimen of the iniquitous league between civil\nand theological tyranny; a combination which makes an easy conquest of\nthe human mind in a state of ignorance and renders it incapable of one\nliberal, manly or independent sentiment. When man is thus shorn of his\nnative energy, and all virtuous dignity, by the surrender of his reason,\nthese confederate powers erect their common throne on the ruins of his\nfreedom, welfare and happiness. The ferocious character ascribed to\ndeity in the barbarous books of the Jews, was no stumbling-block against\ntheir adoption, when contrasted with the mighty advantages to be derived\nfrom the precedents already noticed, and which have so eminently served\nthe successors of the adopters in the way of trade. They were utterly\nreckless that the writers of these books, in the delirium of blasphemy\n(to use a cant word) have depicted the ruling power of the universe as\na contemptible and wicked personation, with the worst of human passions,\nand as sanctioning or commanding the perpetration of the blackest crimes\nthat ever disgraced human nature. By quoting these bloody examples as\nlaudable and worthy of imitation, have not priests caused half the earth\nto be ravaged, and debauched the minds of princes (who would otherwise\nhave been humane and virtuous) and made them devastators and infamous\npersecutors?\n\nSome philosophers have been of opinion that the history of past ages is\na true picture of what the fate of man ever must be; that he is destined\nfor ever to-be the slave of a succession of superstitions--to be the\ntool and puppet of tyrants in the shape of priests and aristocratic\nrulers. This is a melancholy representation, which implies inherent\nviciousness in his nature; and that there will never be a want of\nrogues to prey upon ignorance. In the coalition of the priest and the\nlaw-giver, we invariably find the unchangeable enemy of the human race;\nfor, besides the mental slavery thereby maintained, anything like good\ncivil government is necessarily precluded, that being found impossible\nwhile it is leagued with the pernicious inventions of supernaturalism.\nHave the majority of mankind, who are thus victimised, no remedy against\nthis horrid order of things? * They are not entitled to any, while they\nfind it easier to be cheated than to think for themselves, a case which\nwill always be theirs until they become self-regenerated, by the removal\nof ignorance; a reform that must be effected by themselves alone, since\nit is evidently and energetically opposed by their oppressors.\nIgnorance being the only element in which priestcraft can thrive, or its\nconcomitant, bad government be tolerated; so is it the primary source of\nthat degradation and baseness which rears up the mind-subduing altars,\nof superstition, whose foster-mother it is; and without whose aid no\nkind of secular despotism could have plunged man into the abject and\ncontemptible condition he is in at present throughout Europe.**\n\n          * \"Small hopes have the nations!\n          While reason is brought\n          Every hour to be laid on credulity's shrine,\n          Till the truth-seeking spirit submission is taught,\n          And the dreams of a dotard seem doctrines divine!\"\n\n     **  When the humane and enlightened Cortes of Spain would\n     have abolished the Inquisition, the priests told the\n     populace that it would be an infringement of their\n     liberties; and the priests were bettered!' So true is the\n     Spanish proverb, that \"Man is an ass that kicks those? who\n     take off his panniers.\"\n\nWe repeat, that a better order of things cannot result until man shall,\nby education and a virtuous reform of his moral habits assert his own\ndignity and thereby emancipate himself from being the devoted grovelling\nvictim of this theologico-aristocratic conspiracy, and the unjust laws\nand institutions which ever must of necessity spring from it; whereby he\nis at all points robbed of the enjoyment of his nature, and vegetates as\nthe regularly trained slave of the most abominable artifice.\n\nA truly wise and equitable government, so far from coalescing with the\npriesthood of any religion or superstition for mutual support against\nthe justice of equal rights, would not allow itself to know anything\nwhatever about theology and its train of distracting, misery-creating\ndelusions. It would leave these wholly to the incurable ignorant dupes\nwho _will_ maintain impostors in idleness, eschewing with contempt\nall such nefarious alliance, and recognising alone the infinitely more\ndignified principle and functions of civil policy, i.e., the protection\nof person and property, the equality of rights, and the sacred freedom\nwhich is every man's birthright. Where is such a government to be\nfound? To the shame of a degraded and abused world, such a government\nis nowhere to be found but in the United States of America; for although\nthe populace there are exceedingly bigoted, and grievously preyed upon\nby the locusts of superstition, still the supreme authority has, with a\nwise jealousy, preserved itself uncontaminated by any connexion with,\nor preference given to, anyone of the religious factions, while giving\nequal protection to all. Nevertheless, every enlightened American will\nremember, with the most lively gratitude, that but for the philosophic\ncaution and foresight of Thomas Jefferson, and two or three other\npatriots, the probability is that the new and glorious state would\nhave closed with the foul embrace of some one of the contending sects\n(glorious then no longer), as the most importunate efforts were made by\nthe sectarian, leaders to effect that object; though nearly all of them\nhad studiously and sneakingly stood aloof from the patriotic cause,\nwhile the issue of that noble struggle was doubtful.\n\nIn the proud rank of national greatness which the United States have\nso deservedly attained in the present day, and with the example of\npriest-governed Europe continually before their eyes, nothing more than\nthe prudent vigilance of common patriotism is required in the supreme\ncouncils, to guard against the co-partnership, or admission of anyone\nof all the pernicious systems of churchcraft, to the slightest connexion\nwith the government. But in the unsettled infancy of the republic,\nafter the declaration of independence, when those insidious clerical\nhypocrites, who had kept aloof, as aforesaid, ready to join whichever\nparty might be victorious, and, backed by ignorance and fanaticism,\nbeset the framers of the constitution with their spiritual claims and\nconflicting pretensions--by incessant solicitations and intrigues, to\ngain their execrable ends, it required the incorruptible virtues of a\nWashington, a Jefferson, a Paine, a Franklin, and a Barlow, to prevent\ntheir effecting a similar \"adulterous connexion\" with the state to that\nwhich is now the bane and disgrace of the mother country.\n\nWhenever the government of these great and powerful States shall become\nso mentally imbecile as to favor, by an exclusive state establishment,\nany form of superstition,* or system of religion pretending to\nsupernatural revelation, the fatal time of their division, weakness, and\nfinal decline and fall, will follow at a very short distance.\n\n     * Let the priest be ever kept on the same footing as the\n     merchant--that is, maintained at the expense of the\n     consumer. He who has no priest, and consumes none of the\n     commodity he deals in, should not be compelled to pay any\n     part of his hire.\n\nEND OF LECTURE FIFTH.\n\n\n\n\nLECTURE SIXTH. EFFECTS OF THE CHRISTIAN SUPERSTITION (Continued)\n\n          Let those weak minds that live in doubt and fear,\n          To juggling priests--fair Nature's foes, repair;\n          These soul-savers,--truth's blackest enemies,\n          I ne'er consult, and heartily despise.\n\n     Its foul leagues with tyranny, persecutions, cruelty;\n     society poisoned by its all-pervading influence; what is\n     good in gospel morals borrowed from the ancients; its\n     usurpation of one-seventh of man's time, and one-tenth of\n     the proceeds of his industry; other evils which it occasions\n     generally.\n\nIn extending our view of the immoral, degrading, and malign effects of\nthe Christian superstition, it is but just and fair to observe, that\nall other systems of religion which have successively plagued the world,\nfounded on the pretensions of impostors to supernatural revelations,\nhave also been destructive of human welfare, though in a degree much\nless subversive of natural rights. The scanty remains of ancient history\nand science, which Christian and Mahommedan priests and tyrants have\nsuffered to reach us, show clearly that in all ages and countries, the\nignorance of the bulk of mankind hath constantly rendered them the\ndupes of some sort of priests, by whom that ignorance has been uniformly\ncherished and promoted, as the most congenial soil for the growth of\nchurch and state corruptions. There never has been, and there never can\nbe, any very bad government without the confederate aid of that master\nevil,* the imaginary science of theology (for all is illusion that\nis said to be beyond the physical powers of Nature** the poetical\npersonification of which is called \"Nature's God\"); and a wicked and\ntyrannical government, whether kingly or aristocratic, can no more do\nwithout a sympathetic priesthood, than the latter can do without their\ndevil; hence it follows that all state authority has been pernicious in\nthe exact ratio of its connexion with these priesthoods. This may partly\nbe proved by the superiority of the government of the United States,\n(where the alloy of ecclesiastical union is strictly guarded against)\nover that of any European nation, not excepting England, where both\nhouses of Parliament are sadly tainted, and one of them almost governed\nby the wizard influence of the church; yet, owing to the decayed, and\nrapidly decaying, power of this incubus, these dominions enjoy more\nliberty than Spain,*** which for many centuries has had no other\nexecutive rule than the most oppressive and irksome superstition that\never degraded and enslaved the human race; and whose sons are at this\nmoment pouring out their blood in the endeavor to pull out the teeth,\nand curtail the claws, if they cannot kill, the monster.\n\n     * Plato states that religious pretences have always formed\n     one of the most powerful frauds of political despotism; and\n     Aristotle calls the profession of religion not only the\n     surest auxiliary of tyrants, but an enslaving tyranny in\n     itself.\n\n     ** Divines say that Nature is wholly inexplicable without a\n     god; that is, to explain what they know very little of, they\n     have recourse to a cause which they know not at all.\n\n     *** For many centuries past, the finest countries in Europe,\n     via., Spain, Portugal, and Ireland, have been nothing but\n     theological beargardens, and so they are to this day.\n\nThe history of all religions, we repeat, is but a catalogue of follies,\nknavery, cruelty, and crime; the whole forming a continued libel upon\nmankind, and proving their ignorance and unbounded credulity; the\ntyrant, confederate with the priest, assists him to impose upon you his\ncreed, on the strength of which he demands your faith, on the strength\nof which he \"_demands your money_\"--not at the point of the bayonet, in\nthe first instance, but if you refuse to _deliver_, he calls in the aid\nof his political partner, whom he has ever taught you \"to obey in all\nthings;\" so that, between the priest and \"the powers that be,\"\nyour money is extorted, though not by a highwayman. The iniquity of\ncompelling a man to support an idle and rapacious order of theologians,\nwhom he wishes to have nothing to do with, is an act of injustice too\nshameful to be committed by any wise and good government.\n\nSince we can distinctly trace priestcraft so far back as the times\nof Hesiod and Homer, to talk of its origin would be as futile and\nunprofitable, as it would be to speak of the first evil amongst men; if\nthe two are not necessarily coeval, certainly the cup of the latter\nwas not full until the former filled up the measure. And, as \"things\nnaturally bad make strong themselves by ill,\" tyrannical governments\nhave been enabled, through collusion with this baleful pest, to carry\ntheir oppressions to the highest pitch of profligacy and wickedness; and\nfor a quiet submission to the degradation and miseries thus occasioned\nin real life, the dupes are promised a blissful remuneration, in an\nimaginary _post mortem life_, created for this express purpose. But\nevery endeavor to open the eyes of the deceived, or to remove the evils\narising from this mischievous confederacy, is threatened with a life of\neverlasting burning after death.*\n\n     * \"The object of the first legislators was to govern the\n     people; and the easiest method to effect it was through the\n     priesthood, to terrify their minds, and prevent the exercise\n     of reason. They led them through winding by-paths, lest they\n     might perceive the designs of their guides; they forced them\n     to fix their eyes in the air lest they should look at their\n     feet; they amused them on the way with idle stories; in a\n     word, they treated them as nurses do children.\"\n\nBy thus playing upon the unlimited credulity of man, in a state of\nignorance, through the delusive medium of supernatural existences, he is\ntrained from childhood to submit to mental and bodily oppressions, which\nmanhood would make him shake off, and spurn with indignation, were it\nnot for these paralyzing deceptions, which, while they degrade, form the\nprincipal tower of strength against him in the hands of his oppressors.\nHis belief in the traditionary tales of the Jewish compilation, is\nanxiously instilled into his mind in childhood, as the word of the\nSupreme Power of the Universe; and this false impression subsequently\nbecomes so rooted and strong, that he neither can nor dares to see the\nimmoral and destructive tendency of these tales; and, that from them\nhave been drawn precedents to justify the most atrocious and murderous\ninvasions of peaceful countries. From these mischievous legends have\nalso been drawn, as a common fountain of evil, all those conflicting\ndoctrines, dogmas, and creeds, which the militant priests of Christendom\nhave made convertible at will, and turned into a channel overflowing\nwith the good things of a world which they affect to despise. This\nis the polluted source from which has sprung what is falsely called\ncivilisation, which has created around man an unnatural atmosphere,\nwherein vice and dissimulation are the chief ingredients, rendering\ncivilised man in many respects, the vilest of animals; and more\ncontemptible, because less virtuous, than the uncorrupted child of\nNature.\n\nThese pernicious dogmas and creeds did not begin to show their deadly\neffects nationally, until the imperial apostate Constantine gave\npatronage and strength to one of the belligerent sects; and by\ninterposing his authority, prevented, for a short time, their cutting\neach other's throats; but as for attempting to assimilate their wild and\ndiscordant schemes, he might as well have commanded the winds to blow\ncontinually from one point; for as the heterogeneous mass of theological\nmachinery arose out of the fabulous or allegorical legends of various\ncountries, a system drawn from such chaotic materials, must be always\nat war in its parts; hence the fierce and virulent animosities--the\nremorseless and exterminating devastations, which these maniacal notions\nand creeds engendered all over Europe. Such of the contending sects who,\nfrom their number or their violence, were considered most suitable\nfor the purposes of political tyranny, were taken into league with\nsuccessive governments, which gave them the power of exercising over\nall their opponents, the utmost cruelty and oppression. From these\ntimes till about the close of the sixteenth century, when the science of\nNature began to check the mischievous demon of theology, we repeat that\nmillions upon millions of men, women and children were tortured and\nmurdered in religious persecutions* and wars; whilst a sum not less than\nL400,000,000,000 in money, besides other property, was wrung from the\nlaboring man, not to instruct him in a particle of useful knowledge, but\nto keep him in that state of abject ignorance which alone fits him for\nslavery.\n\n     * All religions pretending to revelation, are necessarily of\n     the persecuting kind; and it is these alone that show an\n     extraordinary zeal for-dissemination in other countries:\n     but the religion of Nature being perfectly tolerant, leaves\n     its own propagation to self-evidence.\n\nAll this has been done to maintain various denominations of aristocratic\ntyranny, combined with rapacious priests, in whose minds were seated the\ndeepest hypocrisy and the blackest vices--who carried humanity on\ntheir lips, and robbery and murder in their hearts. The victims of\nChristianity far exceed in number the whole that have fallen by all the\nother idolatrous superstitions which at any time have plagued the world;\nand most truly did it announce that it \"came not to send peace on earth,\nbut a sword;\" a sword that never has, and never will find a scabbard,\nuntil the whole baseless fabric of delusion shall sink into merited\noblivion; we would say a thousand times over--look at Spain--look at\nIreland--look at any country in Europe before the 17th century, and you\nwill see the priests reeking with gore. And if you are not utterly\nlost in ignorance and prejudice, you will see the effects of corrupt\ngovernments striving to force favored superstitions upon the dupes of\nother religions. No intellectual blindness but that which will not see,\ncould prevent your seeing palpably, that all religion, except that of\nNature, is the accursed thing which occasions and perpetuates the deadly\nfeuds between man and man; and creates those insane animosities which\nembitter and poison all the natural sweets of this fair world. Such\nfatal results must be inevitable whilst man has the credulous folly to\nmaintain in idleness and luxury, myriads of his own species whom his\nlabor educates, as it were, for the express purpose of deceiving him.\nThese are the professors of the pretended science of supernaturals,\n_alias_, nonentities, or at all events of unproved existences, of which\nthe most illiterate hind knows just as much as the proudest hierarch.\n\nThe _principle_ of priestcraft being unchangeable, the countries where\nthis freshly modified superstition first gained a footing had been kept\nin deep ignorance by the old mythology,* so that the hierarchy of the\nnew were safe in going any lengths in multiplying absurdities; for\nnothing can ever be monstrous enough to shake the credulity of the\nvulgar populace;** so prodigies of all dimensions grew common, and\nevery cunning impostor, who found himself able to deceive others, had\ninspirations from heaven--turned priest, and dealt in supematurals;\nknowing well that where mental imbecility has been successfully fostered\nby the craft, it is sheer silliness to be scrupulous about the means of\ndeception, however monstrous.***\n\n          \"Be joggled mob! you are the tools\n          That priests do work with, called fools.\"\n\n     * One universal mythos, or fable wearing the garb of\n     history, has been the basis of all religions, ancient and\n     modern. This mythos is rooted in, and has secret allusion to\n     the zodiac and the solar system, in which the sun and the\n     rest of the \"Host of Heaven\" were turned into imaginary\n     personages, under peculiar nomenclatures in each country;\n     and fanciful narratives concerning them, were invented by\n     the astronomising priests, in order to stultify and subject\n     the minds of the ignorant populace. This deception continues\n     to the present day, for the solar mythos was the true\n     Christianity. When the French, under Napoleon, possessed\n     Italy, they examined the chair of St. Peter, and found upon\n     it the signs of the zodiac.\n\n     ** Nothing, says the Cardinal de Retz, convinces fools so\n     much as that which they cannot comprehend.--Lucian\n     Redivivus.\n\n     *** As the ignorance of nations grows darker, priests of all\n     religions see their way the more clearly.\n\nIn regard to the theogony upon which these conjurors founded their\nvarious systems, it appears never to have been of the slightest\nimportance whether it consisted of one, two, three, or thirty thousand\ndivinities; though it must be confessed that the triune mythology of\nChristianity has answered, better than any other, the aristocratic\npurpose of general ignorance and oppression. Like their predecessors,\nits priests have governed solely in the names of their gods, whom on\nall occasions they cause to speak whatever is fitting and agreeable to\nsacerdotal interests and power; and all this passes as the commands of\nGod, which, they declare, must take precedence of all civil affairs.\nFrom this usurpation is formed the almost insurmountable barrier against\nhuman liberty, \"the _imperium in imperio_,\" or the visionary empire of\nsupernaturalism within, and either confederate with, or independent of,\nthe secular empire. All belief in anything supernatural is a pitiable\nand deplorable hallucination of mind, everything pretending to be such\nbeing the offspring of sheer imposture; and until the age of reason\nand science shall have succeeded those ages of delusion and ignorance\nthrough which the world has hitherto rolled, the paramount power upon\nits surface will be priestcraft.\n\nThis craft is twin sister to witchcraft; and the former cherished and\nsupported the latter as long as her head could be kept above water; but\nwhen the sun of science (the mortal foe of these two crafts) began to\nbeam upon the imaginary hag, she sank to rise no more;* and men are now\nastonished at the credit she had gained in the world, and still more at\nthe brutal ignorance which allowed her to shed so much innocent blood.**\n\n\n     * Science having thus as it were suffocated the weird hag of\n     witchcraft, a most useful auxiliary is gone of that religion\n     which, more than all others, has been\n\n          \"Blood-nursed, and watered by the widow's tears.\"\n\n     ** The Stat. 1 James 1st, c. 12, enacts, \"That all persons\n     invoking any evil spirit, or consulting, covenanting with,\n     entertaining, employing, feeding, or rewarding any evil\n     spirit, etc., etc., etc., shall be guilty of felony, without\n     benefit of clergy, and suffer death.\" Oh the height, the\n     profound depth of the \"wisdom of our ancestors!\"\n\nIt is computed that about 30,000 miserable victims were tortured and\nburnt for this supposed offence; yet, if this blood be compared with the\nquantity shed by the still surviving sister, it would appear but as a\ndrop in the ocean. But the same sun of science, in exact ratio as it is\nnow dispelling the mists of ignorance and superstition which the mother,\ntheology, has raised, is hastening the remaining twin's downfall.\nWitchcraft was one of the thousand dismal evils arising from the belief\nin preternatural existences, but quite conducive to the views in trade\nof all church mystagogues, who never failed to sanction and abet the\nhorrid executions of the poor defenceless culprits. The priests drew\ntheir justifying precedent from that book in which the vindication\nof every crime may be found: in Exod. xxii., 18, the inhuman order\nis given, \"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.\" Here we have a\npoint-blank justification of all those atrocious immolations which\ndisgraced humanity for so many centuries, and laid the foundation of\ndetestable laws, in the countries of America. At Salem, where so\nmany murders were committed for the fanciful crime of witchcraft, the\naccusations originated in the house of a priest were chiefly carried\non by priests, who blew the terrible flame of fanaticism against\nthe helpless accused, whose lives were acknowledged to be moral and\nblameless. Nineteen of these innocent victims were executed,* one was\npressed to death because he would not plead to the indictment, and eight\nmore were condemned. This hideous business ended by a declaration of\nthe priests that, in the whole the devil got just nothing; but God got\npraises, Christ got subjects, the holy spirit got temples, the church\ngot addition, and the souls of men got everlasting benefits! With\nsimilar views, and in such a laudable spirit, John Wesley exclaimed,\n\"_While I live I will bear the most public testimony I can to the\nreality of witchcraft_.\" At a torturing and burning which took place at\nIrvine in 1613, in the affair of Margaret Barclay and others, there were\npresent the Earl of Eglinton, the ministers of Ayr, Kilmarnock, Dairy,\nand Irvine, when three innocent people were sacrificed.** these wretched\n\n     * It is said that several of these victims were persuaded by\n     the priests to believe, and even to confess that they had\n     been guilty of this imaginary crime. This affords a\n     melancholy proof that, in a state of ignorance, the\n     credulity of man is absolutely boundless.\n\n     ** See Scott's \"Demonology,\" and Murphy's \"Essay.\"\n\nWhat! Were not these holy ministers prompted by their superior learning\nand humanity, to endeavor to save people? Quite the contrary, they\nappear to have been there rather to countenance and approve, if not to\nenjoy, the shocking spectacle. Such as these were the heavenly teachers,\nwho, for more than a thousand years, asserted, preached, and practised,\n_that the rack was the fittest engine of conviction_, and the stake\nthe most effectual cure for unbelief.* As conservators and upholders of\nevery invention in the delusive machinery of supernaturalism, upon which\ntheir trade wholly depends, anything in the shape of human interference\nin favor of the victims, or any compunctious feelings for the\nbarbarities which these men of peace and love sanctioned, were\naltogether out of the question on such occasions. No animal has ever\nbeen more cruel and remorseless than priests of all religions have been,\nin supporting those delusions which support them, _whenever they had\nthe power._*** The Jew books being now nullified as authorities for\nthe existence of witchcraft, what sustains their validity in all other\nmatters?\n\n     * What terrific outrages does superstitious ignorance\n     perpetrate. Thousands have been burnt for witchcraft.\n     Millions have been murdered for being what bad government\n     and Christianity have made them. And hundreds of millions\n     are threatened with eternal tortures for having beliefs\n     which it is impossible for them not to have.\n\n     ** Belief or disbelief (being the work of the judgment, and\n     not of the will) is involuntary; and there is neither merit\n     nor demerit in either. You believe only that which seems to\n     you to be true, and, in spite of your hypocrisy, I defy you\n     to believe more. What does the Atheist less? And that which\n     appears to you to be a lie, you necessarily reject, and what\n     does the Atheist more.\n\n     *** Superstition is to be feared only when the authority of\n     iniquitous laws rallies round her standard, for then her\n     cruel and sanguinary nature is gratified.\n\nSuch has been Jewish and Christian immorality and wickedness, in\npunishing the guiltless for the fanciful crime of witchcraft; and in\nother respects we may find in these books innumerable instances of\nsanctioned cruelty and injustice, both in example and precept:--take\nthe following malevolent sentiment, said to have been uttered by the\nall-ruling power of the universe; \"let his children be fatherless; let\nthem be vagabonds continually, and beg; let them also seek their bread\nout of their desolate places. Let the extortioner catch all that he\nhath; and let the stranger spoil his labor, let there be none to extend\nmercy to him, neither let there be any to favor his fatherless children;\nlet his posterity be cut off,\" etc., etc. Again, in Exod. xxiii., 3.\n\n\"_Neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his own cause_.\"\nThese are specimens of Bible morality! He alone is the blasphemer who\nattributes such vicious and malevolent orders to the supreme power.\n\nThe Christian, in their presumptuous and unwarrantable assertions,\nassume that the science of ethics is comparatively of modern date, and\nthat the personage called Jesus Christ was the first who taught\nthat pure morality and virtue constituted the summum bonum of human\nhappiness; and that all morality owes its existence to their gospels;\nand that all ethical goodness to be found out of Christendom, is\nentirely attributable to their Scriptures. But nothing can be farther\nfrom the truth than this evangelical detraction, with its inexorable\ndisregard to facts. Fortunately for the calumniated cause of Paganism,\nwe have data, chronological and historical, to show that the science of\nethics was not only perfectly known to the ancients, but that the few\nreally good things which are to be found in the New Testament, were\nborrowed from what is called \"the divine philosophy of the ancients;\"\nor the moral maxims of Pythagoras, Thales, Solon, Bias, Pittacus, Chilo,\nCleobulus, Periander, and many others, who lived full 500 years before\nthe Christian era. This is so demonstrably true, that the sayings of\nthese men are in some instances copied into the New Testament almost\nword for word; but for the maxims of that book which are either bad\nor questionable (and these are not a few), there is no authority to be\nfound in the ancients cited.\n\nThe compilers of the above book have also drawn literally from the moral\nmaxims of Confucius,* who, according to some writers, has been held in\ngreat esteem in China for about 4,000 years, but all agree that he lived\nat least 550 before our era.\n\n     * As names in eastern languages are expressive of some\n     attribute or quality adherent to the possessor; so Confucius\n     signifies a speaker of wisdom.\n\nHis 24th moral is the most precious standard maxim in ethics: \"Do to\nanother what you would he should do to you, and do not unto another what\nyou would should not be done unto you.\" To impress this indelibly upon\nthe mind, as the concentrated essence of morality, he adds, \"_thou\nneedest this law alone, it is the foundation and principle of all the\nrest_.\" In his 53rd moral, he says, \"Acknowledge thy benefits by return\nof other benefits, but never revenge injuries.\" This is a noble maxim\nwhen compared with that abject and slavish one of the \"new will of God,\"\nwhich enjoins the holding up of the cheek to receive a second blow. The\ndisciples of Confucius are yet numerous, though many thousands of years\nhave elapsed since he lived. He instructed as well by example as by\nhis precepts; and it would be well if his morals were taught in all\nthe schools of Christendom, instead of dogmas and creeds which are\nunintelligible, inasmuch as they relate to things which have no proven\nexistence, The German writer Boll, very justly observes that, \"if\nChristianity be got rid of, which seems likely, men must labor not to\nlet such absurd ideas get into the new religion of morals, which will\nbe established on the ruins of superstition.\" He was alluding to the\neternal tortures of those priestly indispensables called souls, and\nother unsightly dogmas.\n\n     * To the shame of credulous and priest-degraded mankind, the\n     present superstition of Europe hath been established, as it\n     were, in defiance of the light of Nature, reason, common\n     sense, and all experience; and what is still more strange\n     and revolting, by those very means and agencies which men\n     ought to hold most in contempt and detestation; viz., fraud,\n     forgery, pretended miracles and prophecies, hypocrisy,\n     avarice, tyranny, cruelty, massacres, and wars which have\n     deluged the earth with blood, and sacrificed hundreds of\n     millions of human beings to its frenzied demon.\n\nIn no age of the world was morality ever found more pure and virtuous\nthan amongst the Epicureans of old; and no ancient sect has been so much\ntraduced and vilified by Christian priests of all denominations, who, in\nlauding the most revolting system that ever insulted the understanding\nof man,* have been utterly regardless of truth in their foul aspersions\nof Paganism; and have represented these amiable rationalists as reckless\nsensualists--profligate voluptuaries; which is just the reverse of\ntheir true characters. With them the preservation of health was the\nfundamental principle, since there can be no enjoyment of life without\nthat pre-requisite; and the means they used to secure its permanence\nwas the strict observance of temperance in everything, according to the\ndictates of Nature; all excess of any kind whatsoever was avoided as\ninjurious, and the full and proper exercise of the body was enjoined as\nindispensable. Free from the restlessness of ambition, the utility\nof their maxims was evinced in their lives, and they were generally\nesteemed as the most exemplary and virtuous of all the ancients, and the\nmost noted for the value of their moral actions. We may gather from\nthe writings of Cicero and Diogenes Laertius, that they did more\nscrupulously observe the laws, piety, and fidelity among men, than any\nother sect whatsoever, not excepting even the Stoics themselves. Like\nthe philanthropist, Owen, they held that a man was either good or bad\naccording to education and custom. Being, above all others, strict\nobservers of truth and honesty, they were often chosen to manage\nthe inheritances of orphans, and it was common with them to rear and\neducate, at their own expense, the children of deceased friends; their\nknown integrity frequently procured for them offers from the Roman\nconsuls and emperors, to fill high places of employment and trust; but\nthese offers were often declined, from the strong desire they had to\nlead private lives, free from care and anxiety. They had no desire\nfor posthumous renown, and denied that there was any future state of\nexistence for man, more than for any other animal; and teaching that\nmind or soul is wholly dependent on animal organisation*--the mere\ncreature of the brain, without which it has no existence; and that the\nmatter composing the bodies of men and other animals, is alone eternal,\nthough subject to thousands of millions of different forms, modes, or\nstates of being.\n\n     * Intelligence is the result of the animal organisation of\n     matter, and cannot be separated from, or have existence\n     without it. \"Animated matter is not the result of\n     intelligence.\" Thought, mind, soul, or breath, call it\n     which you will, is as much the offspring or effect of\n     organisation as music is of the instrument that produces it.\n\n     One of the great luminaries of the church, even the Bishop\n     of Llandaff, has given us his own creed respecting what is\n     called soul, which savors of something more than mere\n     scepticism. Speaking of its supposed flight into\n     immortality, after death, he says,--\"This notion was,\n     without doubt, the offspring of prejudice and ignorance; I\n     must own that my knowledge of the nature of the soul is much\n     the same now that it was then\" (in childhood). \"I have read\n     volumes on the subject, but I have no scruple in saying that\n     I know nothing about it\"--Anecdotes of his own life,\n     written by himself.\n\nBut in modern times, under the triune mythology (or the three-god\nfable), society is in a great measure destitute of such pure morality,\nand sound philosophy; all being mixed up with the deleterious alloy of\ntheology, and its ever-changing inventions in its own peculiar element\nof unproved existences. This supernaturalism is the only delusion that\ndeserves the name of atheism, because it beguiles man to set at nought\nthe immutable revelations of Nature; and its very essence being to\nprevent all correct views of that Power, the pretension to look beyond\nit nullifies or vitiates everything good on earth. Whilst mankind shall\nnot only continue to be advocates for those impositions which destroy\ntheir own pleasure and happiness, but pay for their degradation by\nsupporting a mischievous canker-worm priesthood, they deprive themselves\nof a fair trial to see what a state of affluence and ease they might\nattain by very moderate labor; and by repudiating all doctrines and\ndogmas founded on spiritualism, immaterialism, or any other nothingism,\nbecause they are words absolutely without meaning, as they represent\nnothing that has a real existence; and therefore, until some immaterial\nentity can be made palpable to the senses, they will remain downright\ncontradictions in terms, though they have hitherto served as the\nprinciple machinery of theologie deception.* Contemning all such\nvisionary mummeries, our divines of the present day are at no loss\nto find you a vast difference between a spiritual body, and a bodily\nspirit!\n\n     * The learned amongst the Fathers were materialists.\n     Tertullian says, \"Nihil incorporale nisi quod non est.\"\n     Saint Hilary, in the fourth century, affirmed that, \"there\n     is nothing but what is corporeal\" Yet and attending to the\n     principles of their own nature, together with the physical\n     realities that surround them, and upon which alone depends\n     every atom of their welfare and happiness, mankind will be\n     able by perseverance to remove the overwhelming evils of\n     their present condition; but in vain will they expect such\n     results, while they continue mere automata, to be played at\n     pleasure by superstition and despotism.\n\nAmongst the many immoral corruptions which the present superstition of\nEurope has entailed on the laboring man, few have a worse tendency than\nthe compulsory exaction of one seventh of his time, which its priests\nhave procured to be dedicated to their purposes alone; whereby he is\ncompelled either to be idle, or to swell their vain pageant train to\nthat shrine of hypocrisy called church. The observance of Sunday is,\nlike everything else in Christianism, borrowed from the heathens; and is\nmerely a continuation of the Pagan festival that was held in the temples\nof the Sun, in adoration of that luminary, as the name attests beyond\nall contradiction; with this difference alone, that the Fathers, as\nif it were to make the thing more expensive and intolerable in their\nScripture traffic, changed it into a weekly festival, substituting\nthe triune machinery of the church for that of the temple. But as\nthe present observance of this day throughout Christendom is nowhere\nenjoined in the New Testament, it was customary with Christians, even\nin the fourth century, to perform their usual work on that day; and,\naccording to Mosheim, many of them held Thursdays and Fridays to be as\nsacred as Sunday. The entailing upon human industry this weekly curse of\nidleness was reserved for, and was worthy of, the Emperor Constantine, a\nman who had the guilt of seven family murders upon his head: and as\nthe priests of Paganism refused to expiate those crimes (so Zosimus\nand others say), he abandoned their religion, and adopted that\nof Christianity, whose less scrupulous priests absolved him, and\nwhite-washed his crimes to the purity of snow. In return for this\nscouring, the imperial murderer felt himself prompted by gratitude to do\nall in his power to establish a new hierarchy, who could make themselves\nso subservient to the purposes of tyranny; so he began by paving the way\nfor finally depriving the industrious man of one seventh of his time,\nwhich was to be appropriated in promoting the importance, the riches,\nand the power of his newly adopted priesthood.\n\nBut even this pious man of blood (who to the very last, kept two strings\nto his bow, but was rather more willing to pay his respects to Jupiter\nthan to Jehovah), wedded as he was to that priesthood, which had so\nkindly effaced the stains of so many inhuman murders, durst not gratify\nthem all at once, lest he should bring a famine upon the empire; and\ntherefore by his edict issued on the subject, the observance of Sunday\nwas compulsory only upon magistrates, and the inhabitants of cities\ngenerally; but in regard to the people in the country, and all\nagriculturists, he says:--\"_On the venerable day of the Sun, let those\nwho are situated in the country, freely and at full liberty, attend\nto the business of agriculture_.\" After the death of this emperor, the\nchurch which he had planted soon grew strong in wealth and power; and\nthe consequent influence of the hierarchy enabled them, gradually to\nextend the forced respect for their own harvest-day, over both town and\ncountry.\n\nThis clerical usurpation is so far from being sanctioned by any\nauthority, that the New Testament suffers no man to \"judge another in\nrespect to the Sabbath day, or of any holy days\" (see Coloss, ii.,\n16). It asserts the right to esteem every day alike, \"agreeably to the\npersuasions of a man's own mind\" (Romans, xiv., 5). It binds no man \"to\nthe observance of days, and months, and times, and years\" (Gal. iv., 10)\nJesus did not enjoin respect for the Sabbath, but justified the contrary\n(Matt, xii., 5). There being no gospel authority requiring this waste\nof time for the benefit and gratification of priests alone, it was\nnot until some time in the fourth century that they fully succeeded\nin palming upon industry this weekly inlet to every vice; nor was\nit legally enforced, we believe, until a considerable time after\nthe Council of Nice, that foulest combination of fraud, knavery, and\npriestcraft that ever degraded the human race, Let us now attend a\nlittle to the glaring immoralities and crimes which are the inevitable\neffects of compulsory idleness on this day, that was originally the\nheathen festival of the glorious solar deity.\n\nThere are few exceptions to the general rule, that the industrious man\nis the virtuous. \"By the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,\" is\nthe universal decree of Nature; and every violator of this law of health\nshall be unhappy in the precise ratio of its violation. Hence it follows\nthat when men are compelled either to be idle vagrants, or give up their\nminds mechanically to a worship which appears to them at once useless\nand irrational, they cannot do otherwise than prefer the former;\nand being thus compelled to be idle, they are virtually forced to be\nvicious, which leads to the reverse of happiness. The profligacy and\ncrime arising from this weekly idleness, is amply set forth in those\nscenes of drunkenness, debauchery, gaming, and quarrelling, which are\nof constant Sunday occurrence in our beer and gin palaces: but as\nthe various poisons vended in these sinks of ruin pay high duties\nto government, and are, next to its oppressive ally, a rapacious\npriesthood, the surest means of keeping the multitude in poverty and\nignorance, that virtuous and salutary legislation which would suppress\nor regulate them according to public health and good morals, is not to\nbe expected from our present lawgivers, aristocratical and clerical,\nwho feel a deep interest in the ignorance and debasement of the\nlaboring classes. The orthodox Paley, who \"_could not afford to keep a\nconscience_\" alludes to such places of public resort, when he says,\n\"the laboring classes\" (being doomed to idleness) \"consume their time\nin rude, if not criminal pleasures--in stupid sloth or brutish\nintemperance.\" He might have added, that vast numbers of young men\nwho have ended their career by an ignominious death, have dated the\ncommencement of their vicious courses from what the pampered harpies\nin black are pleased to call \"sabbath breaking,\" or \"profanation of\nthe Lord's day.\" And who is to blame for all this? Verily none but\nthat powerful phalanx of hypocritical delusionists, who pretend to be\ndelegated from the immaterial, invisible \"Persons,\" who rule the upper\nregions; and who, in confederacy with hereditary lawgivers on earth,\nhave, amongst other conventional impositions, not only deprived the\nwealth producers of their right to spend the seventh part of their time\nin the way most suitable to their circumstances, but enforced idleness\nduring that time, which, coupled with that lurid ignorance called\nreligious instruction, most commonly leads to vice and debasement. With\na dissimulation and effrontery that is matchless out of the sacerdotal\norder, they pretend an interest in the laboring man's ease and welfare;\nthat he requires the seventh as a day of rest, which day should be\ndedicated to the \"Lord\" but as their Levitical authorities are derived\nfrom the rankest species of priestcraft that ever degraded man, they\nwill no longer pass in the present age; for those must be mentally blind\nwho do not see, that in all times, whatever was ostensibly dedicated as\n\"God's share,\" was appropriated solely for the benefit of the priests.\nIt is most true that the working man wants rest; but is not he the best\njudge when recreation or rest becomes necessary? The simple fact is,\nhe never can have either peace or rest, or live under equitable and\nsalutary laws, nor enjoy the fruits of his labor, whilst his mind is\nkept in darkness by the delusions of supernaturalism, and his industry\npreyed upon by its priests. To perpetuate the stultifying influence\nof this wizard power, whose nature it is to be adverse to the natural\nenlightenment of the bulk of mankind,* every corner of the country is\nassiduously studded with expensive temples, devoted to the exercise\nof its Sunday spells; but particularly for the nursing of popular\nignorance. Against such an overwhelming antagonist, abetted by the\ngovernment and riches of the country, all in deep array to frustrate\nhis intellectual improvement, the laboring man has nothing to oppose but\nself-cultivation alone, which will lead him to the knowledge that it\nis better to think for himself than to be cheated; and that all\nthe miseries he suffers are in reality rooted in unearthly\nchimeras--nonentities which, in all ages and religions, have been\ninvented for similar purposes of deception and slavery. Until he so\nrelieves himself from this bondage (no other power will do it for him),\nhis condition must continue to be more abject and pitiable than that\nof the sturdy savage, who stalks in the pride of his mental and bodily\nindependence; or even that of the beast of the field.\n\n     * Hobbes calls the pretended science of theology the kingdom\n     of darkness. It is indeed a perpetual insult to human\n     reason, debasing and debauching the mind.\n\nThus it appears that amongst the Christians, the coercive observance\nof Sunday originated in a combination of the two crafts, kingly and\nclerical, as a potential auxiliary for the permanent inthralment of the\nhuman mind; for which it is indeed extremely well calculated, owing\nto its unceasing recurrence as the weekly stifler of reason, and the\nsoporific of folly and ignorance; its frequency allows no breathing\ntime for common-sense. If men will contemn the light of Nature and the\nevidence of their senses, to maintain a degrading superstition, let\nthem not suffer their political rulers to form co-partnership alliance,\noffensive and defensive, with its priests. There can be no surer\nproof of the corruption of a government than its confederacy with the\nprofessors of any religion whatsoever. Mahommed was so sensible of the\ndanger of priesthoods in political states, and of their corrupting all\ngovernment, that he disapproved the allowance of any such institution,\nand wished every Moslem to keep a copy of the Koran, and be his own\npriest. But exactly as in the case of Christianism, his political and\ntheological followers soon established \"the accursed thing.\" The Quakers\nare too wise and too moral to allow this locust race to spring up\namongst them.\n\nIn the leading dogmas invented by theologians, it seems essential\nthat spiritual or divine justice should reverse the simplest rules of\nmorality and virtue; and that Nature's immutable law of death should be\nheld in terror as the greatest evil, though in reality it is merely a\nnecessary and happy transition of organised matter into another form,\nthroughout the animated creation; and as such, an absolute good.*\nThe ancients did not represent death as Christians do, with meagre\ncountenance, and a hideous structure of bones; but pleasant and\ncomposed, as the image of the profoundest sleep; and such it struck no\nterror. As the stronghold of priests, however, it has been clothed in\nevery imaginary horror that fraud can conceive, to render their spells\nindispensable for death-bed or gallows repentance, where a belief\nin their conjurations expiates all the crimes that may have outraged\nsociety.\n\nAmongst the Gentiles, Pliny spoke the fullest and plainest on this\nsubject, thus: \"After the interment of our bodies, there is a great\ndiversity of opinions concerning the future state of our souls, or\nghosts; but the most general is this, that they return to the same state\nin which they were before they were born. However, such is the folly and\nvanity of men, that they extend this existence even to future ages; and\nsome crown it with immortality; others pretend a transfiguration, and\nothers render unto the soul of the departed honor and worship, making\na God of him that was not so much as a man; as if the manner of men's\nbreathing differed from that of other living creatures; or as if there\nwere not to be found in the world many animals that live much longer\nthan man. Now these are surely but fantastical, foolish, and childish\ntoys, devised by men who would fain live always; the like foolery is\nthere in preserving the bodies. But what a folly of follies is it to\nthink that Death should be the way to a second life! Certainly this\nfoolish credulity, and easiness of belief, destroy the benefit of\nthe best gift of Nature--death;\" (which is as necessary, nay, even\nas natural to every animal as life itself.) \"How much more easy, and\ngreater security, were it, for each man to ground his reasons and\nresolutions upon an assurance, that he should be in no worse a condition\nthan he was before he was born.\"--Nat. Hist.\n\n     * The fear of death, which Christian dogmas create, has\n     effects the most baleful and pernicious imaginable; and has\n     contributed more to stock the Bedlam of Christendom, than\n     any other cause whatever. All animals avoid and fear bodily\n     pain, as the greatest evil--man alone fears death. Why?\n     Because he alone has priests and a hell. Epicurus says:\n     \"Death, which some suppose to be the most terrible of evils,\n     is nothing to us; seeing that while we are in being, death\n     is not present; and when it is present, then we are not\"\n     Hesiod, in alluding to those who, in the golden age (when it\n     may be presumed, there were neither priests, hells, nor\n     supernaturals) died without superstitions fears, sung thus:--\n\n          \"They sunk to death, as opiate slumber stole\n          Soft o'er the sense, and whelm'd the willing soul.\"\n          _The Works and Days._\n\nAmong the Republican Romans, the deed that was accounted the most\nvirtuous and heroic, was that of dying on the field of battle, in\ndefence of liberty; and the next was the act of suicide, resorted to\nas the means of avoiding subjection or dishonor. And so indulgent was\ncustom in this case, that those who were proscribed in after times, were\ncommonly permitted to retire from life in any way they thought proper,\nto elude the disgrace of being public spectacles. This was humane, as\nfar as it is possible to extend lenience under such a predicament; and\nas for the act itself, there was neither impiety nor the slightest odium\nattached to it, but the contrary. It is curious to observe that,\namongst the host of evils introduced with, or generated by, the modern\nsuperstition of Europe, a total change of law and sentiment regarding\nthis action has been effected by its priests, who, as they engrossed\nall learning when in the zenith of their sway, were enabled to brand\neverything as heinous wickedness that militated against, or seemed to\nevince contempt for, their avocations. And as the act of suicide\naffords no harvest for the priest--shuts the door against fees and\nconfessions--punishes him in his purse, and overlooks the importance\nof his conjurations, it comprises every other offence; and, therefore,\nevery ignominy and abuse is heaped upon the memories, and even the\ndead bodies of the self-victims, though their only crime was ridding\nthemselves of those unbearable miseries, which are chiefly caused by\ntheology, and the laws which it has occasioned.*\n\n     * The person who commits suicide, is no more criminally\n     guilty, and in all probability, much less insane than he who\n     dies of fever,--they are exactly on a footing, both had\n     supported life so long as it was supportable.\n\nThough reason and science have now cooled the roasting-alive spirit down\nto the moderate temperature of modern times, yet the essential property\nof priestcraft to augment, and in no rational manner ever to alleviate,\nhuman suffering will never fail to show itself, wherever its views\nand interests are concerned. By laws and customs procured in its\nall-powerful days, the mental and bodily tortures of condemned criminals\nare most unmercifully prolonged between sentence and execution, and\ntheir situation rendered as horrid as possible. Under pretence of the\nsoul-saving anxiety, the dreadful anguish of their minds is, by a\ncruel delay, increased in a ten-fold degree, whilst they are inexorably\nguarded lest they should anticipate their doom by relieving themselves,\nand give the priest the go-by, which they are told is the acme of sin\nand wickedness; but if they drag out their agonising misery quietly,\nand give him due opportunity to play off his incantations, and above\nall--believe, or pretend to believe in the efficacy of his dogmas, then\na heavenly pardon is secured, even at the gallows. If, in the endeavor\nto avoid this catastrophe, the unhappy victim of the ignorance and\ncrimes of society--overwhelmed as he is with misery and despair, is\ndriven to seek relief in the quiet sleep of death, he is seized and\naccused by the \"authorities\" of a \"_felonious intention_\" to escape\nfrom the evils with which bad laws and abominable superstitions\nhave surrounded him; and is, therefore, absurdly required to \"_find\nsecurity_\" that he will not again attempt to elude his wretchedness, but\nwill quietly linger out the remainder of life in hunger, rags and cold;\nall entailed upon him by existing society, every element of which is\npregnant with corruption.\n\nThus the action which, amongst the Romans and others of the ancients,\nwas deemed virtuous heroism, has, by the selfish inventions of modern\ntheology, been condemned as a deadly crime, and even stigmatised as\ncowardice, than which nothing can be more false and contemptible. But in\nevery attempt to depict, in their true colors and direful effects, the\nevils generated by that canker, there must ever be a want of words\nto convey adequate force of execration. Such diabolical mockeries of\nhumanity may be authorised by modern godism, but they were not approved\nby that of antiquity.\n\nIn a state of society so vitiated by falsehood and crime (created by an\nabandonment of Nature) as to be almost wholly made up of moral evil,\nis it at all wonderful that a vast portion of mankind should pursue the\nmost criminal courses to obtain a bare and wretched existence? Can we\nthen imagine any lengths to which a hireling clergy would not go in\ntheir routine of deception to secure for life riches, honors, ease and\nluxury? The knowledge of this truth alone ought to be sufficient to\nrouse men from their sottish lethargy, for it requires nothing but\ninquiry to make it appear that error and falsehood reduced to a system\nforms the groundwork of that overwhelming scheme of delusion which\nprocures the above blessings for all priesthoods, who are hired and\nprostituted to defend deceptions which enrich them and impoverish\nindustry. Could you, without an aberration of mind, expect truth from\nmen who, in order to secure all the good things the world affords, make\nyou their victims by forcing false notions upon your weak and pliant\nunderstandings in childhood? Well may they cry out, \"Train up a child in\nthe way he should walk, and when he is old he will not depart from it.\"*\nThis is a correct aphorism, and is equally true whether applied to good\nor bad training, for if the mind be as it were mortgaged, or sacrificed\nto the priest in childhood,**--\n\n     * The spirit of priestianity may be, and is, repressed by\n     science and philosophy; but it is utterly unchangeable. The\n     children educated by the Druids to recruit their own ranks\n     were secluded in woods and caverns, and denied all\n     intercourse with their parents till after they had attained\n     fourteen years of age. By this mental monopoly it was\n     evidently meant that the esprit du corps, its secret ways\n     and interests, should be so indelibly fixed upon the mind as\n     to be ever afterwards proof against every natural affection.\n\n     ** The more outrageous against Nature and reason the false\n     notions instilled in childhood are the more difficult it\n     seems to be to eradicate them. \"It was said of an Arab, who\n     was a man of sense, an arithmetician, a chemist, and, what\n     is still more strange, a skilful astronomer, that nothing\n     could induce him to give up the belief that Mahommed put\n     half of the moon in his sleeve. The reformers of England had\n     more difficulty in giving up the 'Real Presence' in the\n     Sacrament, than in parting with any other dogma in Popery.\"\n     The impossible and the absurd are indispensable pre-\n     requisites with all religionists.\n\n          \"Ere yet their minds, through tender age, can choose\n          What's for their good, or for their harm refuse.\n\n          Before their natures, and their wills are strong,\n          Justly to think, or judge of right and wrong;\n          Or how th' affections with the body grow,\n          The self-denying doom they undergo.\n\n          In blooming youth and innocence betrayed\n          To cursed altars, thus are victims made.\"\n\nHardly one in ten thousand of such victims will escape mental slavery\nfor life. Moreover, men dedicated to sacerdotal delusion, are bound by\nstrong necessity to maintain their deceptions, or else give up not\nonly their ease and luxury, but their very means of subsistence. Once\nenlisted in the cause, they must defend it; for should anyone of them,\nprompted by convictions from impartial research and rational experience,\nhonestly avow opinions hostile to the national superstition, or decline\nto administer in the usual manner to your nursery-conceived prejudices\nand errors, would you not abandon him to obloquy and starvation? These\nthings duly considered, you may ask yourselves whether you are not more\nlikely to meet with truth from men who neither seek your money nor court\nyour favor--who are actuated by no other motive or interest than that\nwhich the love of the principle of truth excites--who are unprostituted\nby hire--who, under the armour of reason, can resist and despise the\nvenomous calumny which is cast upon every exposure of priestcraft;\nand who, having discharged a duty, feel it as a matter of indifference\nwhether you shall be pleased or offended by the truth. You complain that\nthe contemner of your religious opinions, at once tortures your feelings\nand arraigns your judgment; but has any judgment proceeding from your\nimpartial investigation of that subject, ever had anything to do in\nthe matter? Did you not fall heir to those absurd whims which you are\npleased to call religious opinions, in right of your mother and other\nrelations; and if these had happened to be followers of Mahommed, would\nnot your blind zeal for the prophet of Mecca, have been as great as it\nnow is for his alleged predecessor of Palestine?* Your answering\nthis question in the negative would be the highest proof of folly and\nstupidity. Having sadly experienced for more than half a century the\nobstinate and angry nature of superstition, we are prepared to expect\nanything but your approbation when we repeat to you, that your faith has\nno other basis than traditional fables, legends, and allegories--that\nyour attempt to prove their literal truth by prodigies and violations of\nNature's laws, is far more inadmissible than the fables themselves; and\nthat your understanding is so obscured by the pestilential fogs raised\nby these theological absurdities, that the rational truths of Nature can\nfind no admittance.\n\nThe usual reply to such arguments and reasoning as the foregoing, is the\nhue and cry of infidel, atheist, etc.; but is it atheism to prefer the\nknown to the unknown, and to consult experience and the evidence of\nour senses, in preference to dogmas drawn from books of unauthenticated\nlegends, which are remarkable for nothing so much as the numerous libels\nthey contain against the ruling power of the universe?** When the laws\nand institutions of a country become so corrupted by the usurpations of\nreligion, and the political tyranny which it engenders, as are those of\nGreat Britain,*** where the most grievous abuses in church and state are\ncherished and perpetuated to serve the ends of the aristocracy and\nthe hierarchy, and where even the sciences are allowed to be seen only\nthrough the spectacles of superstition, are the men Atheists who seek a\nradical reform of them all?\n\n     * The minds of the great mass of mankind may be compared to\n     the glasses in a tavern, which bear about whatever may be\n     put into them. If the tavern be in Turkey, the sensual\n     potations of Mahommed's heaven will fly about; if at Rome,\n     the sparkling froth of Catholicism: if in any one of the\n     Protestant countries of Europe, your features will be\n     distorted by the acetous draughts of Calvin.\n\n     ** By one Act of Henry VIII., it was high treason to have\n     the Bible in possession; by another it was permitted to\n     noblemen and gentlemen; and next, to countesses, ladies,\n     etc.; and lastly to grown people, but not to apprentices and\n     children. It was wise to allow the reading of such a book to\n     those alone who were interested in upholding it. Reason,\n     philosophy and science will ultimately bring it into\n     contempt.\n\n     *** All the ecclesiastical, and most of the other laws of\n     Great Britain, are in opposition to everything that is\n     salutary to man, or protective of his natural rights. To the\n     former class, every man of sound morality and virtue, ought\n     to make a point of denying jurisdiction and obedience. All\n     the laws and usages, without exception, that have relation\n     to the intercourse of the sexes, are so unnatural, cruel and\n     absurd, that they seem calculated to make them mutual snares\n     for each other.\n\nIf there be indeed any such thing as a _post mortem_ judgment seat,\nto try the wicked and unrighteous for their immoralities and crimes,\npriests will have much to answer for at that tribunal, on the score of\nthe complicated chain of calamities which their trade hath entailed on\ntheir brother man; for they alone\n\n          \"Have dared to babble of a God of peace,\n          Even while their hands were red with guiltless blood--\n          Murdering the while--uprooting every germ\n          Of truth--exterminating--spoiling all--\n          Making the earth a slaughter-house.\"\n\nAs sanctioning precedents for the commission of almost every crime may\nbe conveniently found in the Jew books, in like manner they hold forth\nexamples of the coarsest obscenities, though false translation has\nhidden many of them. Where shall we find vices so lewd and unnatural\nas those which were practised, and seem to have been of ordinary\noccurrence, amongst the chosen people? Would the law relating to asses\nand he-goats have been made if the unnatural crime which it was intended\nto prevent had not been in practice? See in Judges xix. the infamous\ndoings of the men of Gibeah and Benjamin, the descendants of the chosen\nson of Jacob. Would any man of ordinary decency read to the females of\nhis household passages so outrageously--nay, so matchlessly obscene, as\nthose we frequently meet with in the Bible? For instance, Ezekiel iv.,\n12, and nearly the whole of the chapters xix. and xxiii. of the same\nbook. See also Hosea i., 2 and 3, and chapter iii. to the end. The\nSong of Solomon is evidently the lascivious* effusion of some devoted\ndebauchee; yet such is the transcendent impudence of our priests, that\nthese superlatively lecherous imaginings have been, by forged headings,\ncalled \"Christ's love** to the church.\" The instances above cited\nare trivial when compared with the number which might be adduced, of\nobscenities altogether unequalled in any other book; and we would ask\nany Bible advocate, \"Whether any young woman who should be detected in\nreading a book (not labelled The Holy Bible) which contained a fiftieth\npart of the foul and rank immodesties that pervade this 'Will of God,'\nwould not lose her good reputation for ever?\"\n\n     * In chapter v., 4, it is very significantly said, \"my\n     beloved put his finger, etc.;\" but to damp this plainly\n     libidinous expression, the inspired translators foisted in\n     \"of the door\". No forgery can be more barefaced. The words\n     are \"Dilectus meus demittebat manum suam a for ami ne, cum\n     visceribus meis frementibus in me.\" There is no mention\n     whatever of a door.--Lucian Redivivus.\n\n     ** If they would call them typical of the Duke of York's\n     love for Mrs. Clarke, they would be much nearer the truth.\n\n     *** At a trial in London, for the imaginary crime of\n     blasphemy, the judge very ingenuously acknowledged the\n     revolting obscenities of the Jew books, by ordering the\n     women and boys to leave the court while the defendant, in an\n     able defence, was reading the Bible.\n\nBut these obscenities are of little ethical importance, compared with\nthe mass of moral evil which in all ages of Christianity has arisen\nfrom, and been justified by precedents drawn from the conduct of those\nmen called \"Bible worthies,\" though they appear decidedly to have been\nthe very worst characters portrayed even in that book. This is\nnot surprising, when we know that the Jewish god was an abstract\npersonification of the will and interests of the robber-in-chief,\ncombined with the priesthood; and the interests of all priests being\nessentially different, or opposed to those of the industrious producers\nof wealth, the men who oppressed and plundered them, and stuck at no\ncrime in serving the sacerdotal order, were of course the favorites\nof \"the Lord.\" David afforded a full and prominent proof of this.\nHickeringill, a learned Hebraist and clergyman of the English church,\nhas let out the secret, that \"David was a man after God's own heart,\"\nnot in holiness, that is not meant, and would be unaccountable after his\nadultery, murders, his many other sins, and cursing his enemies to the\nlowest pit of hell; but, \"after God's heart,\" is a Hebraism,* and in\nEnglish signifies as much as, \"_a man for my turn_\" (or he is the\nman for my money), \"_he will kill and slay as the priest commands and\ndirects_.\"\n\n     * One of the most learned Hebraists of England, has declared\n     that, no two translators would agree in rendering any verb\n     from the Hebrew. Godfrey Higgins says:--\"I am quite certain\n     that I shall be able to show--to prove--that every letter of\n     the Hebrew has four, and probably five meanings.\" What an\n     accommodating language for the priests, when their interests\n     require an alteration in their \"Word of God!\"\n\nHere we have an exceedingly important confession from a learned\nchurchman! That a person so profligate, wicked, and cruel, as the whole\nlife of David shows him to have been, should acquire the above title,\nhas no doubt astonished many people; but the exposition shows clearly\nthat the priests bestowed it upon him, for his pre-eminence in the\ncommission of every crime that promoted their interest and power. Many\nothers of these \"worthies\" appear to have been the peculiar favorites of\nJehovah, from possessing similar qualities (saints in subsequent times\nwere always made out of the same sort of material), whilst with the good\nand virtuous few he was generally at enmity. This appears in contrasting\nthe bloody and revengeful character of priest Samuel, with that of\nthe plain, honest, and brave soldier, Saul; that of the cunning and\ndeceitful Jacob, with his generous and amiable brother Esau. Amongst\nthe numerous atrocious murders of David, do we not find that of\nMephibosheth, the lame son, or brother of his peculiar friend and\ngenerous protector, Jonathan? The wholesale murders ordered by\nMoses, Joshua, David, and some others, are, if true, the most horrid\nimaginable. Blood was the order of the day among the Jews, so it\nflowed on all occasions. Exod. xiii., 2, shows that by their laws the\nfirst-born children were dedicated as sacrifices to the Jewish Moloch,\nas well as the first-born of other animals; but it is probable that the\nhorror which this shocking barbarity excited in surrounding countries,\nat last induced the priests to accept of a lamb, or other victim that\nwas equally good to eat, in redemption of the devoted child. The poor\ndonkey, being rather a tough morsel for \"the Lord\" and his priests, was\nto be put to death, if not redeemed by something more tender and savory;\nmark the malignity of the priests! That the Jews offered such human\nsacrifices, is proved in Solomon's having built a temple to Moloch,\nwhich he would not have done with the intention of observing any\nother rites than those of the Ammonitish god. The Jew books have also\nfurnished Christianity with examples of private assassination, which are\nnowhere else matched in cool atrocity: to give two instances only, see\nthe base cowardly treachery by which those of Sisera, and of Eglon, king\nof Moab, were perpetrated.\n\nWe cannot conclude this lecture without making the important\nobservation, that, while the instruction of youth continues to be\nfounded upon these Jew books, which hold forth such barbarous and\nvicious men as patterns of humanity, virtue, and sound morality, no\nmaterial improvement can ever be made in the moral condition of society.\nThese books are imposed upon the mind as the one thing needful in\neducation, because they divert from the study of the useful and salutary\ntruths of Nature (the knowledge of which is the bane of the priest),\nwhich stand in direct opposition to the fabulous absurdities of Jewish\ntheology;* and, therefore, our hireling priests, who dread nothing so\nmuch as the development of these truths, use their utmost energies in\nsuppressing all such investigation; whilst they instil such reveries\nonly as promote ignorance, and keep the mind in childhood through life.\nWhen the fogs of religious stupidity have thus mentally moulded\nthe audience, the pulpit becomes a fountain of the most unqualified\nnonsense, which is safely showered down in torrents without any danger\nof detection, on the part of \"the long-ear'd rout,\" who, being taught to\nspurn the evidence of their senses, when put in competition with faith,\nare prepared to swallow the grossest impossibilities:--\n\n          \"For zeal, fanatic zeal, once wedded fast\n          To some dear falsehood, hugs it to the last.\"\n\n     * The caricatures (they do not deserve a better name) which\n     the Jews followed by the Christians have drawn of the\n     Supreme Power, are extremely disgusting to rational piety;\n     they make their deity command theft and murder: he avowedly\n     breaks his promise (Numb, xiv., 34). He grieves and repents\n     of his past conduct (Gen. vi., 6). He prompts his prophets\n     to lying (1 Kings xxii., 22).\n\n     The theology of the present day, says D'Holbach, is a\n     subtile venom, calculated, through the importance attached\n     to it, to infect everyone. By dint of metaphysics, modern\n     theologians have become systematically absurd and wicked, in\n     teaching the odious ideas they entertain of the deity.\n\nThe imagination of the bewildered bigot fears a mysterious phantom which\nacts on none of his senses; and he fears nothing so much as to have\nnothing to fear. If his religion was clear to human intellect, it\nwould have no attractions for his ignorance; there must be obscurity,\nincredible prodigies, fables, sorceries, and terrors, to keep his\nperverted brain in perpetual dread and agitation. By such chimerical\napparatus, the priest can reduce the mental faculties of man almost to\nannihilation, and hence it is that the great herd of human beings have\nhitherto been mere congregated masses of variously compounded folly,\nknavery, and credulity; where ignorance is prized and cherished as the\nsole medium through which clerical and secular oppressors can ride over\nthe necks of the multitude;* while the spider's web of superstition\nconfines their intellects as it were within the bounds of a nutshell.\nIn this way are the whole nations of human beings educated under\ntraditional and legendary lies and fables; yet so firmly does the\nfalse impressions instilled in childhood rivet them upon the mind, that\nmyriads have died for them, as the highest service to their \"God!\" _This\nis a species of devotion which the theologues most willingly perform by\ndeputy_.\n\n     * \"In every age, and in every country of the world, the\n     religions that have been invented by impostors and priests,\n     and sanctioned by rulers, have been put forth with no other\n     intention than that of deceiving the people; whilst the\n     distinguishing characteristic of all religious professors\n     has been to profess one thing and mean another.\"\n\nUnder such abject and debasing circumstances have the intellectual\npowers of the bulk of mankind been crushed and smothered throughout\nEurope by the juggle of church and state collusion, until about the\nmiddle of last century, when a ray of mental light burst forth from\na constellation of exalted minds, headed by that most enlightened of\nphilosophers, Voltaire, who shook to its very foundation the whole\nfabric of Christian priestcraft. In the present century, that light,\nguarded by the true emancipating Savior of the human race, the printing\npress,* is now becoming more widely diffused and clear, through the\nerudite minds of a Brougham, an Owen, a Hume, and many other advocates\nof education; but still the truths of Nature are so obscured by the\ndense fogs of priest-fostered ignorance, that no efficient political\nrelief need be expected for Christendom, until the people reform\nthemselves by abandoning the evils which cause their physical and\nmental intoxication; these are inebriating liquors, and grovelling\nsuperstition.\n\n     * Though the art of printing, so as to multiply the copies\n     of a document to any extent, was known in Europe in the year\n     1444, yet the control and fear of priestly vengeance,\n     prevented its being extensively useful for two centuries\n     afterwards. This art, nevertheless, had been known and\n     practised from time immemorial by the priests of Buddha,\n     throughout the immense empire of Thibet, though confined by\n     them exclusively to the purposes which promoted the\n     interests of their religion. Oh, how rejoiced the priests of\n     Christianity would be at this day, were it in their power to\n     establish a similar monopoly of the printing press!--See\n     Higgins' Anacalypsis.\n\nWhen our present ultra-Reformers, who call themselves Chartists, prate\nof church-going, and offering up prayers and religious hymns, previous\nto their vain consultations, our political rulers pass the wink to their\nclerical confederates, conveying as much as to say, this is all very\nwell; for while these men continue under the thumb of any sect of\ntheologians, or suffer their minds to be deluded and debauched by any\nscheme of supematuralism whatsoever, real knowledge and sound judgment\nmust be strangers to their meetings; whilst the animosities of sectarism\nmust ever prevent unanimity, without which they never can be formidable\nto the powers that be, however corrupt. When the education of mankind\nshall be so salutary as to teach them what they are in reality, the\nreform necessarily springing from it would quickly dissipate ignorance,\nconquer superstition and its priests; and, in place of pretending\nto look beyond Nature, whose surface alone man is hardly capable of\nperceiving, he would, through the evidence of his senses, follow that\nunerring power as the only polestar of his happiness. For the great\nmajority of human beings thus to reform themselves, \"they have but to\nwill it;\" if they will not, they deserve to continue what they ever have\nbeen--degraded outcasts and aliens from their nature.\n\n          Thus with strong speech I tore the veil that hid\n          NATURE, and TRUTH, and LIBERTY.--Shelley.\n\nEND OF LECTURE SIXTH.\n\n\n\n\nDIALOGUE. PHYSIOLOGICAL AND THEOLOGICAL\n\n     Thou, Nature, art my goddess: to thy law my services are bound.\n     --Shakspere.\n\n     \"Philosophy teaches us to seek in Nature, and the knowledge\n     of her laws, for the cause of every event; when this\n     knowledge shall become universal, man will relinquish, with\n     elevated satisfaction, his attachment to supernatural and\n     vindictive theology.\" It is this theology that has destroyed\n     the harmony of Nature, and demoralised the intelligent\n     world.\n\n\nLUCIAN AND MODERATUS.\n\nMODERATUS.--In all ages of the world, the tide of human affairs hath\nshown that reigning opinion, however ill-founded and absurd, is always\nqueen of the nations; and, since a man's interest and general good\nfooting in society, are, to a great extent, involved in his acquiescence\nin these opinions, it is strange that you, Lucian, should venture to\nentertain heresies so much at variance with everything that is called\northodox. But as it is only upon hearsay that I judge of your opinions,\npray let me know from yourself your notions respecting the deity?\n\nLUCIAN.--You must first define precisely and intelligibly, what you mean\nby the terms deity or god: do you mean by either of them to designate a\nfanciful personification of the physical powers of universal matter or\nnature?\n\nMod.--No; I mean that infinite, eternal, incorporeal body in the human\nform*--the creator of the universe out of nothing, that is, out of\nhimself, he being nothing, according to Christian orthodoxy.\n\n     * Zenophanes observed, that if the ox or the elephant\n     understood sculpture or painting, they would not fail to\n     represent the Deity under their own peculiar figure. In this\n     they would have as much reason at the Jews and Christians,\n     who gave him the human form.\n\n          \"And 'twere an innocent dream, but that a faith\n          Nurs'd by fear's dew of poison, grows thereon.\"\n\nLUCIAN.--I can form no conception of such a being as you describe; but\nsuch a phantasm may be very suitable for, as it is quite of a piece\nwith, a religion that is made up of chimeras. If your term nothing has\nany meaning, it is the negation of matter, which is nonsense, because\nthe mind can form no conception of immaterial existence. By the same\nrule, reason and common sense reject the word spiritual, because it is\na term absolutely without meaning, and represents no existing thing of\nwhich the mind can possibly form any idea.* All these words have been\ncoined in the mint of theology for the purpose of deception; and,\ntogether with the principal tool of priestcraft, called soul, make up\nthe machinery of delusion. Everything rational is foresworn by a set of\nmystagogues, when they declare that their God was engendered before his\nmother, and is of the same age as his father!\n\nMOD.--But laying aside these foolish inventions, which could only be\nimposed upon ignorance; and allowing that, to the question, \"what is\ngod,\" no proper answer can be given, but that \"we do not know;\" still,\nif all, or universal matter was created, it must have had a creator;\nand there being no materials to work with, this creator, being himself\nimmaterial, must of necessity have created matter out of himself, that\nis, out of nothing.\n\n          \"These were Jehovah's words:\n          From an eternity of idleness,\n          I, God, awoke; in seven days' toil made earth\n          From nothing; rested, and created man;\n          I placed him in a paradise, there\n          Planted the tree of evil; so that he\n          Might eat and perish.\"\n          And so says the church.\n\n     * Spirit is literally air, and air is matter in a gaseous or\n     fluid form; but this is not the sense in which the word is\n     used by the theologian.\n\nLUCIAN.--That is going still deeper into theological absurdity. No axiom\ncan be clearer than this,--\"out of nothing cometh nothing.\" There could\nbe no creation of that which necessarily and eternally exists in and\nof itself There can be but one infinite being, one nature, i.e. the\nboundless universe, (call it god, or by any other name you please) and\nthis all-in-all self-existent being, produces in itself, by an internal\nor innate action, whatever changes matter undergoes by this essential\naction or motion; whether in the production of living creatures,\nor inanimate forms: thus universal matter is at once both agent and\npatient--efficient cause and subject; it produces nothing but what\nis its own modification. Spiritualism is supported only by fraud, and\nignorance of materialism.\n\nMOD.--Are not the words creator and creation used in the Bible? what do\nthey mean?\n\nLUCIAN.--The learned confess that we have a very false translation\nof that book. In the Talmud of Jerusalem, creator and creation merely\nsignify the giver, and the act of giving forms to matter* There is\nnot one word in the Bible about a creation from nothing; this notion,\naccording to Mosheim,** was the invention of the Christians. All\nidentities of matter arise from motion alone; and as no portion of it\ncan ever cease to be in motion, that motion is perpetually destroying\nexisting forms, and out of these producing fresh identities of\nmatter; but this is change of form alone, and chemistry has proved the\nself-existence of the material principle, in the demonstration that no\nparticle of it can be annihilated.\n\n     * The word Tsour has been adopted in Genesis, where it is,\n     say the learned, falsely translated creator, though it\n     merely signifies, \"the giver of forms.\" According to Volney,\n     that name is also one of the definitions of Osiris.\n\n     ** Appendix to Cudworth.\n\nMOD.--In our Bible account of the creation, there are certainly some\napparent contradictions, or incongruities, such as the getting up of\nthree whole days before the sun was \"made and set in the firmament;\" now\nit appears to us that, as the sun is the sole source of day, they were a\nlittle preposterous in forgetting to make him first.\n\nLUCIAN.--It must appear plain to every one not blinded by his slavish\nfears and prejudices, that the writer of Genesis (the cosmographical\npart) was entirely ignorant even of the rudiments of natural science.\nThe god he set up, and the handiwork he makes him perform, are proofs of\nthis. The Jupiter of the pretty and lively mythology of the Pagans, was\nfrequently engaged in ludicrous amours;* but in general he preserved an\nawful dignity, and was never represented in the discharge of those mean\nand servile offices, which the Jews depict their Jehovah as performing;\nthough these were nothing to the ferocious, cruel, and disgusting\ncaricatures which are everywhere drawn of him in their books. Allowing\nfor a moment the possibility that poor deluded man can be guilty of\nimpiety towards the all-ruling Power, certainly his mind could not\ndevise anything more blasphemous than to personify that power into such\na deity as that set up by Moses. Ignorance of the operations of matter\nor Nature, has made man invent deities as causes of the effects he sees\nproduced; these deities were so many chimeras, and these chimeras have\nbeen the basis of all religions.\n\n     * When Diagoras of Melos declared that there were no such\n     beings in existence as Jupiter, Neptune, Apollo, etc., their\n     priests offered a talent for his head, or two talents if\n     taken alive. In the latter case, the higher sum was probably\n     offered, that they might have the pleasure of torturing him.\n     In the 15th century what would Christian priests have done\n     to the \"blasphemer,\" who would haye been so impiously wicked\n     as to assert, that the above gods did still exist in full\n     power? Priests are ever the same; but gods change names and\n     wills, going in and out of power, like Whigs and Tories.\n\nMOD.--I confess that in the all-important matters of morality, the Bible\npresents exceeding great difficulties. Truth, justice, and mercy are\nimmutable principles, and must not be subverted to uphold any system of\nreligion whatsoever. That which is cruel and wicked in a man, cannot be\nadmitted or defended in a god; and every moral feeling of the virtuous\nmind must be discarded ere we cease to doubt the truth of a religion\nbased upon the desecration of these principles. Besides, it is\nrepugnant, if not impossible to reconcile the god of Moses with the\nreverential and sublime idea, which superior minds are capable of\nforming of the almighty power.\n\nLUCIAN.--As the man who takes a priest for his guide will be led astray;\nso, if the Bible has been his sole instructor, he is likely ever to\nremain in ignorance; the first will not teach him anything useful--the\nlatter cannot. Previous to the time when it is said the Bible lawgiver\nentered upon his murderous invasion of the Canaanitish countries, each\nof them had its local god or goddess, some of whom we have elsewhere\nmentioned; these were so many personifications of the sun, moon, stars,\nelements, and seasons, and served as objects of adoration amongst the\nignorant. As a priest of Heliopolis, Moses must have known all this, and\nwishing to be like his new neighbors, he set up his barbarous deity in\nimitation, changing his Theban name of Jahouh into Jehovah (see Strabo's\nGeography), charging his followers not to represent it by any emblem, as\nhe was in vain wishful of preserving the Egyptian unity of the Supreme\nPower. But as the sun was then in Taurus, or the Bull, the Egyptian\npriests had taught the illiterate Israelites to worship a calf; and as\nthey were desirous of clinging to their calf adoration, Aaron, as every\nother priest would have done, took advantage of this religious folly, to\ndespoil them of the gold ornaments, which, by Jahouh's command, they had\nswindled from the Egyptians. In this affair Moses and his brother, no\ndoubt, understood each other well. To rob upon religious pretences, is\nnot altogether a modern invention.\n\nMOD.--In the supposed time of Moses, the religion of Egypt being\npolytheistic, Jahouh must have been one amongst many deities that were\nworshipped by the Egyptians; so that if Moses borrowed that deity of the\nThebans, he could not at the same time borrow his doctrine of the unity\nof god.\n\nLUCIAN.--The learned Egyptian priests appear to have been decidedly\nMaterialists. Infinitely above the minor deities which they invented for\nthe ignorant populace, they believed in the great material principle,*\nacting by self-existing energies and properties; infinite, therefore\ncauseless; and constituting the unity of the Supreme Power. They\nrepresent this power by no emblem, conceiving that to be impossible; but\nthe Greeks personified it in the god Pan. Thus the unity of the Supreme\nPower was the basis of the hierarchical religion of Egypt, as is\nacknowledged by the learned Hyde, and also by Cudworth. As an Egyptian\npriest, Moses (admitting his existence) must have known this, and was\ntherefore wishful of preserving this unity in his Theban deity; though\nthat availed nothing when neutralised by the discordant and inconsistent\nqualities attributed to him. In order to be justified as an invader\nand plunderer of peaceful countries, Moses was under the necessity\nof endowing his god with fierce and barbarous passions, which on\nmost occasions led him to be cruel and unjust; as when he issued his\nferocious and bloody mandate to his priests, the sons of Levi, (Exod.\nxxxii., 27) to sacrifice about three thousand \"_Brothers, companions,\nand neighbors_,\" in cold blood,* You say, \"materiality cannot think--do\nyou know of any thinking without it? Pray how does immateriality think?\"\n\n     * See also the inhuman mandate issued in Deut. xiii., 6th\n     to 10th. This has justified every refinement in the cruelty\n     of persecution throughout Christendom for more than fifteen\n     hundred years.\n\nMOD.--That massacre was caused by the idolatry of the people, in setting\nup and worshipping the golden calf.\n\nLUCIAN.--Priest Aaron was herein the principal actor; yet he and his\ntribe not only go unpunished, but are employed to commit the shocking\nmurders.\n\nMOD.--But theologists assure us that what is justice with god is\ninjustice with man. Christians have ever drawn a line of distinction\nbetween divine and human justice: proving that what appears to man\ncruel, partial, and unjust, in the works of god, are, in reality,\njustice, impartiality, and mercy towards man.\n\nLUCIAN.--Robbery and murder are strange ways of showing mercy. It is\nby the hideous and pernicious dogmas you mention, that pretended\nsupernatural revelations have poisoned the pure stream of morality; they\nutterly confound every idea or perception we can have of the natural\nprinciples of right and wrong; and have sanctioned or justified the\nfoulest enormities throughout Christendom. The principles of truth,\njustice, and morality, are ever the same, and immutable from whatever\nsource they emanate.\n\nMOD.--It is true that the Supreme Being is, upon the whole, not much\nbeholden to the Jewish priests for the sketches of character in which\nhe is portrayed in the Bible. But this is speaking according to human\nreason.\n\nLUCIAN.--The capricious and cruel character of this theological\ncreation, as set forth in the Jew books, is generally so demoralising\nas to be altogether unworthy of imitation in human conduct, The cruelty\nascribed to it, is the shield behind which priestcraft has sheltered\nitself in all its bloody persecutions. In other respects the various\nmenial, or bad offices and functions which it is made to perform, are\ntruly ludicrous when said to be executed by the all-ruling power; such\nas, a god-midwife (a), a nightly assassin (b), a butcher (c), a barber\n(d) a slave-dealer (e), a murderer (f), a fool (g), a deceiver (h), a\npromise breaker (i),* a deluder (j ), a tailor (k), a shoemaker (l).\nSuch was the deity who the Jewish priests impiously and blasphemously\ncalled the Supreme Power of the universe, though guised by them in the\nform and likeness, having all the appendages and members physical,\nof the human body; and possessing many, if not all the worst passions\nincident to human nature. And such is the deity adopted by Christianity,\nafter undergoing such modifications, and receiving into partnership such\ncolleagues as suited the interests of his priests. These things, in a\nmental point of view, have degraded man below the more rational animals\nof the field.\n\n     * The Jewish god never gave his chosen people anything\n     better than promises.--Vide Acts vii., 5; and Heb. xi., 39.\n\n     In the reign of Ahab, a lying angel, or spirit, offers his\n     services as a deceiver, which services were very acceptable\n     to the \"Lord.\" Here we have a lying angel, and the supreme\n     being endeavoring to deceive by prompting to a falsehood.\n     The belief of such impious absurdities shows that the\n     unbounded credulity of man is the safety of the priest.\n\nMOD.--You have evinced a strong partiality for what you call the pretty\nand lively mythology of the Gentiles, consisting of the numerous fabled\ngods and goddesses of antiquity, which, you say, the lower orders of the\npeople were taught to consider as so many real personages, though,\nin the esoteric doctrines of the initiated, they were merely so many\nemblems of the \"host of heaven,\" the elements and seasons.\n\nLUCIAN.--Precisely so; and such is the origin of the Christian scheme\nalso, springing as it does out of the Egyptian and Zoroastrian systems;\nfor as the epithet Christ physically signifies the sun, so, in like\nmanner, has it been made to represent a fabled personage; whilst the\ntrue revelation of this prosopopoeia (the figure by which things are\nmade persons) is now suppressed or lost through priestcraft, or its\nfoster-child, ignorance.\n\nMOD.--In modelling his deity it was evidently the intention of Moses to\npreserve his unity; but his followers being the most barbarous of human\nbeings, he was under the necessity of adapting his god to their ignorant\nand rude notions of things; and, therefore, not blameable for the tricks\nand deceptions he used, since these were the only means of governing\nthem. Why, then, should not similar means be used in the nineteenth\ncentury to answer the same purpose? The ignorance and credulity of the\nmass of mankind are at all times the sufficient warrant of theological\nfrauds. It is not at all necessary that men of learning, and the rulers\nof nations, should believe in the irrational fictions of any scheme of\nsupematuralism; but experience seems to point out the utility of their\nyielding them _a pretended belief, and a real support, for the sake of\ngoverning the multitude_.\n\nLUCIAN.--As an initiated Pagan priest, the conduct of Moses towards his\nfollowers was quite in character; and the religion which he manufactured\nwas, no doubt, well suited to the extreme savageness of the Jews.*\nBut it is wonderful that this religion, blasphemous and absurd in the\nhighest degree, and contrived solely for the purpose of over-awing\nand governing a horde of plundering banditti, should maintain a sacred\ninfluence over nations where history and science abound. The grovelling\ncredulity of uninstructed man is such, that all despotic rulers, aided\nby their iniquitous connexion with subservient priesthoods, have during\ncenturies of darkness, shackled the necks of mankind with great success\nin the way you mention. But the wicked stratagem of keeping men in\nignorance, in order that they may be misgoverned by theological fables,\nis now meeting a stumbling-block in the increasing light of reason and\nuseful knowledge among the people. This wretched policy has already\nproduced revolutions; and others of yet brighter aspect seem rising\non the political horizon, still farther to weaken, and ultimately to\noverthrow, the church-contaminated governments of Europe. Superstition,\nthough still leagued with political rule, is utterly unable to be its\nmainstay any longer, because of the reasonable hostility of the\npeople whose eyes begin to be opened to the evil tendency in regard to\nmorality, as well as to the prodigious expense entailed upon industry,\nin support of the voracious hydra of superstition.\n\n          \"An inhuman and uncultured race, who\n          Howl'd hideous praises to their 'jealous God'.\"\n\n     * To establish a religion upon the wild reveries of an\n     ignorant people, whose legends are in all cases filled with\n     miraculous events against the order of Nature, and bearing\n     on their very front the most glaring marks of imposture, is\n     the very acme of human folly--the pestilent mania which has\n     convulsed nations, and deluged the world with blood.\n\nMOD.--That all rational and unprejudiced minds find an insuperable\nrepugnance at the idea of reconciling, or identifying the Supreme power,\nwith the deity of Moses, as depicted in the Bible, is a point which\nI readily concede. When the man of free reflection meditates on a\nboundless universe, governed in the most consummate order and harmony,\nnothing appears to him so shocking as the impious comparison of the\nincomprehensible Being, the creator and ruler of millions of worlds,\nwith the impotent, puerile, and inconsistent deity of the Jews--the\ncontrast is, beyond all expression, revolting and abhorrent. This\nimmutable order of all things (we are forced to the conclusion) could\nnot exist without the guidance of an infinite Being who is not only\nindependent of matter, or Nature, but regulates that principle.\n\nLUCIAN.--Matter and motion alone constitute what we call Nature, which,\nyou allow, is the essential principle, therefore, there is no room\nleft for supposing any anterior existence; because, as the essential\nprinciple, it could have no antecedent--no cause; and must in\nconsequence be self-existent and eternal. If invariable order and\nharmony evince the design of an artificer, surely the transcendent\nintellect of your supreme artificer (the demiourgos) evinces still more\nthe necessity of a greater designer, in his production. We know that\nharmony and adaptation exist in the energies of matter, from which\nspring all animal organization; is it not then quite as satisfactory,\nand far more easy, to suppose that Nature--her harmony and\nintelligence--have existed eternally, than it is to suppose a time when\nboundless matter was not in being; and that it derived its existence\nfrom an immaterial personage, of whom the mind cannot form the slightest\nconception? As material Nature is the infinite Being, it cannot be an\neffect; it is the principle of principles, whose innate energies\nproduce within itself the eternal routine of cause and effect.* Of this\nnecessitated process ad infinitum, man cannot know or describe even\nthe surface; yet has the folly to pretend to look beyond the boundless\nplenum!\n\n     * To become a Materialist under existing modes of education,\n     is no easy attainment; it is the fruit of much impartial\n     research and knowledge, arising from independent and\n     fearless thought.\n\nMOD.--But may not such an infinite spiritual power as the Platonists,\nand after them the Christians, figured to themselves, exist and rule the\nuniverse, although the mind of man can form no definite idea of this\nBeing?\n\nLUCIAN.--Man has nothing to do with that which he can neither know nor\ncomprehend;* and it is impossible for him to believe in that which is\nbeyond his comprehension. Materialists maintain the existence of an\nall-ruling POWER; but every attempt to personify that Power,--and all\npretensions to any knowledge of it beyond that which is gathered\nfrom the process of Nature, in her works, they hold as deceitful\nand pernicious; regarding all pretended revelations said to be\nsupernaturally made to man, as the work of the most dangerous and wicked\nimpostors: and their revelations as the direst curses that were ever\nentailed upon mankind. It would be a perversion of terms to speak\nof more than one infinite Being: whether then is it most rational to\nsuppose it to be that which we know to exist, or that which we do\nnot know** to exist? So far is it from being difficult to suppose the\neternity of matter, it is hardly possible to imagine anything but its\neternity. Previous to what you call its creation by your immaterial\nartificer, was he a vacuum living in a vacuum?*** As the Christian's\ndefinition of his deity confounds all language, it is its own best\nrefutation. With a face of gravity, he talks of his body spiritual that\nhas no body; an incorporeal something that is essentially nothing; an\nimmaterial substance that is non-substantial; and though this body is\nimmaterial, it possesses the form and likeness, together with the bodily\nmembers, of a man! These are the pestilent offspring of theology--your\ndistracting chimeras, which\n\n          \"Turns them to a shape, and gives to airy nothing\n          A local habitation and a name.\"\n\n     * Man neither can nor ought to have anything to do with that\n     which is confessedly inconceivable; if he pretends to know\n     or say anything of such a being, he immediately falls into\n     contradictions. When did a theologian understand himself\n     when speaking of his deity or deities?--Never.\n\n     ** We have five witnesses in favor of the existence of\n     matter, viz., seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, and\n     tasting; but where is the proof of the existence of anything\n     that is immaterial? It is fancy alone that creates such a\n     chimera.\n\n     *** The old fact that nature abhors a vacuum is still\n     unrefuted; we may indeed go farther and say that she will\n     not allow it, for the art of man has never produced a space\n     where there was nothing.\n\n          \"Your imagination bodies forth\n          In forms of things unknown;--\"\n\nAmongst the initiated in the mysteries of antiquity, the term God was\nused only as being expressive of an effect, whose cause is Nature.\n\nMOD.--Men are so accustomed to trace and find the origin of artificial\nobjects, that a supposed analogy readily presents itself, that matter\nmust have had an origin also; and, backed by superstition, they will not\ngive up their \"Great First Cause.\"\n\nLUCIAN.--Forgetting that their \"Great First Cause\" stands equally in\nneed of a cause. None of the phaenomena of Nature prove, but all disclaim\na first cause. Causes and effects have ever moved in an eternal circle;\nand that which is an effect at one time becomes a cause at another, and\nvice versa. Theology has taught man to reject that which is easy and\nrational, and blinded him to the thousand-fold difficulty of supposing\na time when neither time* nor matter existed, contrasted with the simple\ntruth that matter is self-existent. This is a proposition too plain and\nreasonable to answer the deceptive ends of the traders in that pseudo\nscience.\n\nMOD.--If, as you say, no power ever did, or can create matter, there are\nat least an endless series of changes--of new modes or forms of beings\nwhich it unceasingly assumes, having the appearance of creation. All\nthis seems to require intelligence and a directing hand.\n\nLUCIAN.--Why may not this directing hand be the essential energies of\nmatter alone, of which motion is the chief; for without it no change\nwhatever can take place? The word creation has no proper meaning except\nwhen applied to these new combinations, and ever-varying forms. The\nuniverse consists of infinitely-derived, and dependent modes of beings;\neach of which owes its existence to the power and efficacy of the one\nthat immediately preceded it, in an infinite series of successions,\nwithout a beginning, or original.**\n\n     * The theologist makes god say, \"before time was, I was.\"\n\n     **  According to Hobbes, \"God is almighty matter.\"\n\n          Existence still maintains existences,\n          And nought begins where no existence is.\n\nMOD.--The intercirculation* of the parts of matter, and its unceasing\nchanges into new states of being, in form and substance, seem to reveal\nthe mystery of transubstantiation, which, if I mistake not, was one of\nthe attributes ascribed to deity, long before it was adopted as a dogma\nof Christianity.\n\nLUCIAN.--Like everything else in our Christian fabrication,\ntransubstantiation was taken from the esoteric doctrines of the\nGentiles, where it was allegorised in the person of Proteus, who,\naccording to the poets, was Neptune's herdsman; and whose name properly\nsignifies primary, or oldest, meaning that he represented the eternal\nnature of matter; and his changeableness was expressive of the endless\noperations, new modes and combinations thereof, wrought chiefly in a\nfluid state by the perpetual motion** of the sea (Neptune), and the\nother elements. He was said to take all kinds of shapes and disguises,\nturning himself into monstrous animals, fire, water, etc., denoting that\nin him were personified the continually varying forms of matter.*** He\nwas called the servant of Neptune, and said to reside in a cave, meaning\nthe apparent concavity of the heavens. Time, matter and motion form the\nonly eternal Trinity and Unity.\n\n     * The perpetual change of form produced by this\n     intercirculation in the elements of matter, was called by\n     the Greeks Omoosia or Omousia. This mutual action is\n     universal; and is proved even in \"the interchange of the\n     material of light between globe and globe in the solar\n     system; and from the fixed stars, through the medium of some\n     gaseous principle of matter, in the highest state of\n     rarefaction.\" All is matter, and matter is all.\n\n     ** It is only by motion that we exist, or even known that we\n     exist. A dead animal begets motion of itself.\n\n     *** Empedocles says:--\"Those are infants or short-sighted\n     persons with very contracted understandings, who imagine\n     that anything is born which did not exist before; or that\n     anything can be totally annihilated.\"\n\nMOD.--The learned amongst the Christian priesthood, against their\nprivate convictions, are under the necessity of supporting the dogma\nof creation; because the giving up of that point would destroy the\nfoundation of their system; but many of them have no objection to allow\nthe eternity of time.\n\nLUCIAN.--During which time, as has already been observed, their god,\nbeing immaterial, was the vacuum inhabitant of a vacuum! Another plunge\ninto absurdity. The pretended creations and false revelations inculcated\nby theology, have invariably operated to suppress or cripple the\nsciences; particularly those of astronomy and geology. Sacerdotal\ndeception un-blushingly tells us that, something less than six thousand\nyears ago, there was no sun, no moon, no stars, no earth, no matter of\nany kind! By the invention of this tremendous absurdity, priestcraft\nhas had the audacity to circumscribe within the comparative period of\na moment, the existence of even Nature herself; and as nothing is too\ngross for unthinking ignorance, even this greatest of all monstrosities\ngoes down with the credulous herd of mankind, who dare to look at\nnothing but through the spectacles of this \"science of god.\"\n\nMOD.--What proof have we that this globe has been in being longer than\nthe period assigned for it by the Jewish and Christian priesthoods?\n\nLUCIAN.--There are innumerable astronomical and geological facts which\nprove the existence of this earth for millions of years.* By a change so\nwonderfully slow as to require perhaps thousands of centuries to bring\nit round, the surface of this globe is so completely altered towards\nthe sun, that the frigid zones become the torrid, and _vice versa_,\nin succession. The remains of tropical animals have been found at the\nestuaries of the Oby and Lena, and even in more northern latitudes.\nPetrified crocodiles have been found in Derbyshire, at the depth of\neighty-five fathoms; which proves that the land called England enjoyed a\ntropical sun, in antiquity so remote as to show in a striking light, the\nmoment sand-glass--or, if you please, the perfect nothingness--of all\nhuman chronology.\n\nMOD.--It must be allowed that the Bible cosmogony and its stories\nabout deity, origin of man, etc., appear puerile, contradictory, and\nirrational, unless they can be resolved into planetary allegories. But\nin regard to the creation of matter, these Jew books are not so absurd\nas to affirm that it was done out of nothing; that was a discovery made\nby Christianity. The Jewish creation is a mere copy of cosmogonies of\neastern countries, all of whom, China excepted, pretend to account for\nthe origin of things.\n\nLUCIAN.--We had everything from the east.* The Bible makers compiled out\nof any oriental legends, or shreds of Pagan writings they could find;\nand from ignorance, turned the sublime allegories having allusion to\nthe planets, into vague unmeaning narrative and anecdote. Even Druidism,\nwhich, like primitive Christianity, was concealed sun worship,**\ntravelled to us from the east; and there is abundant reason to believe\nthat priestcraft had reached the highest perfection in India, some fifty\nthousand years before the Jewish superstition existed. In western\nAsia and Europe, the usual combination of crafts had robbed man of\nhis natural liberty, enslaved his mind, and eaten up the fruits of his\nindustry; but in Hindustan, the consummate subtlety, and all-subduing\nart of the priest, has, by an utter annihilation of mind, reduced\ncertain castes of the Hindus far below the condition of the vilest\nanimal on earth, and with a fiendish influence, the most astonishing, it\nstimulates other castes to actions at which Nature stands horrified.\n\n     * Christianism stole its materials in the east--deceived the\n     west, and now, in its purloined robes and oriental missions,\n     \"it would retrace its steps, and deceive the world.\"\n\n     ** \"In Druidism, as in the most ancient religions, the\n     mythos in all being perfectly the same, it was required of\n     the votaries, that all prayers for good, as well as\n     invocations of curses, should be addressed to the sun, under\n     the name of Jupiter. In praying for blessings, they went\n     round the stone, or other object, according to the course of\n     the sun; and vice versa in the invocation of curses. These\n     imprecations are very numerous in those solar hymns, called\n     the psalms of David.\"\n\nThe Christian priestcraft, even in the eleventh century, when ignorance\nand tyranny had raised it to its zenith of power and glory, was but a\nnovice compared with the subtle perfection of that of India. And it was\nno doubt the complete success of this mind-enslaving delusion in the\neast, which recommended and caused its adoption in the west; for with a\nvariation in names, it is identically the same astro-fable everywhere.*\n\n     * Most of the old churches on the continent, as has\n     elsewhere been observed, show that both the virgin and her\n     son were introduced into Europe, as black Gentoos.\n\nMOD.--The absolute sway which Brahminism has over the mind of the\nHindus, is perhaps attributable to its being the oldest of all known\nreligions? its priests have the advantage of a prodigious antiquity,\nthrough which they have matured it to serve their own ends, and\nestablished a despotic power over their debased votaries.\n\nLUCIAN.--No conceivable power over the mind can exceed that refined\ndelusion which causes millions of human beings voluntarily to throw\nthemselves under the wheels of the Juggernaut car, to be crushed to\ndeath on earth, in order to attain some one of those heavens which their\nvillainous priests have invented. This astonishing power is perhaps\nshown still more in the effects of that religious rite, which makes\nit incumbent on widows to burn themselves alive on the death of their\nhusbands. The horrible wickedness of this sacerdotal injunction requires\nthat these victims must sacrifice themselves by this excruciating death,\ndressed out in all the jewels and precious stones they are possessed of;\nand after the dreadful immolation, these valuables become the perquisite\nof the priests, whose emissaries carefully sift the ashes of the funeral\npile where all the gold and gems are found, with little or no injury\ndone them by the fire. This is either the usage now, or was so in former\ntimes, and seems to be the acme of priestcraft.\n\nMOD.--Whether the belief in supernatural powers, which, in all ages and\ncountries, a certain order of men has been maintained to inculcate and\nenforce, has contributed most to human happiness or misery, is not for\nme to decide; but while a vast majority of mankind are unfitted to\nthink for themselves, advantage will be taken of that ignorance, and\ncombinations formed between the rulers of states and churches for the\nmore effectual government of the many, who, if oppressed on earth by\nsupporting these institutions, will be remunerated by a supernatural\npromotion in heaven.\n\nLUCIAN,--Just so; under such governments, man is a mere puppet moved\nat the pleasures of his oppressors, who keep him ignorant, and work\nhim thoroughly: promising him a post mortem happiness in another life,\nprovided he bears the yoke of misery quietly in this:--\n\n          \"Then the mind's independence insensibly sinks\n          The taint of one portion enfeebling the whole,\n          Till oppression, preparing the doubled-twined links,\n          King and priests draw their victim down--body and soul.\"\n\nBut you forget the immensely different degrees of evil occasioned by\nthe inventions of theology; in England, Ireland, and Wales,* alone, the\nenormous sum of nine millions nine hundred and twenty thousand pounds\nis annually squandered in pampering and enriching the dignitaries, and\nmaintaining the rest of a body of ecclesiastics, about thirty thousand\nin number. This sum is considerably more than half of all the clerical\nrevenues of Christendom; and cannot possibly have any other source\nthan the industry of the people, who, in return for their toil and\nstarvation, are robbed of their senses, their judgments, and their\nliberties. That religion which attempts, through the aid of civil\ntyranny, to enforce the belief or acquiescence in the truth of its\ndogmas, virtually gives a premium to falsehood--renders truth injurious\nin society, and, by these very actions, proves itself false.\n\nMOD.--The religions of antiquity must have been a down-draught upon\nindustry also, and were used wholly for the purpose of deception. The\ndominant superstition of a country will always be taken into partnership\nby the political rulers; not because they think it true,** but as an\nauxiliary and pillar of government, which confers upon the professors\nthereof many privileges and immunities, in return for their support.\n\n     * To these countries nothing has been more burdensome and\n     ruinous than the expense of worshipping their gods.\n\n     ** Wherever truth is compelled to hide her head, there is\n     necessarily a vicious order of things, both political and\n     moral. If instructors and governors were themselves\n     possessed of knowledge and virtue they would govern men more\n     easily, and much better, by realities than by fables.\n\nLUCIAN.--The Athenians never had an established priesthood, that\noverwhelming master-curse of modern times; and as for that of the Romans,\nit did not, from the Pontifex Maximus, down to the lowest priest, exceed\nfrom fifty to sixty persons; and as the dignitaries at the head of\nthese were always amongst the first men of the state, their offices were\npurely honorary. Under these circumstances it was quite impossible\nthat the whole institution could be either oppressive upon industry or\ndangerous to liberty. As the Roman superstition was supported by the\nstate for no other purpose than that of deception, to serve the ends\nof political jugglery, or as a means of enabling generals of armies\nto restrain the rashness of their troops, or excite them to fight\nwith enthusiasm when required; so, in like manner, are the more\nrecently-invented deceptions of theology supported, and from the same\nmotive, by the different nations of Europe, but in a degree, and\nwith effects infinitely more degrading and oppressive to all the real\nwealth-producers. _Of all deceivers who have plagued the worlds none\nare so deeply ruinous to human happiness, or so deserving of universal\nexecration, as those impostors who pretend to lead men by a light above\nNature_.\n\nMOD.--The ignorant fears and inquisitiveness of mankind seems to require\nsuch leaders; they cannot account for the phaenomena of Nature, and\ntherefore they keep a class of men in pay who pretend to explain to\nthem certain personified existences superior to Nature, who work the\nmachinery behind the scenes; and in whom is inherent, they say, the\nsole power to cause and control all such phaenomena. But if the hopes and\nfears of an ignorant populace impel them to keep such teachers, it is\ntrue that those alone who require their services should contribute to\ntheir support; yet as riches is power, confederate political rulers make\ntheir adopted priesthoods wealthy, by the exaction of tithes and other\nimposts upon industry; in all of which they are borne out and justified\nby god's old will.\n\nLUCIAN.--That was one of the reasons why Jahouh, when he ceased to be a\nJew, was not made to revoke his old will, which, like his new one, was\nthe word and will of his priests, who were not likely to permit him to\nforget tithes. The present condition of the English and Irish churches\nshows that the legal robbery of this exaction has been sadly aggravated\nsince its first introduction into Christianity. For the first eight\nhundred years of our era tithes were given as alms. We are informed\nby Sts. Jerome, Bernard, Chrysostom, Wickliffe, Huss, and many other\nwriters who uniformly agree, that tithes were purely voluntary. St.\nAugustine says: \"If we (the priests) do possess anything privately which\ndoth suffice us, the tithes, or alms, are not ours, but the goods of\nthe poor, whose stewards we are; _except we do challenge to ourselves\na property by some damnable usurpation_.\" Blackstone says that at first\ntithes were distributed in a fourfold division; one for the share of the\nBishop, another for maintaining the fabric of the church, a third for\nthe poor, and a fourth to provide for the incumbent. When the sees of\nthe bishops became otherwise amply endowed, they were prohibited\nfrom demanding their usual share; so that the poor became entitled to\none-third. As the clergy now eat up the whole, the \"usurpation\" of St,\nAugustine has grown more and more \"damnable.\" St. Jerome asserted that,\naccording to St. Paul, it was \"_by the instigation of the devil_\" that\ndistinctions of rank in religion were made, by the creation of bishops\nand other dignitaries.\n\nMOD.--All this serves only to show that human beings, so far as we know\ntheir history, have always paid priests to lead or mislead them, through\nthe medium of supematurals, whether these be real or fanciful. In\ndenying any first cause, or creation of matter, I suppose you must allow\nthat man cannot be a spontaneous production of the earth, and therefore\nthe admission of his origin is unavoidable.\n\nLUCIAN.--It is in vain that we see the human species propagated exactly\nas are all the mammalia classes:--theology prevents a correct view\nof everything; and it is its business to trample upon analogy and\nexperience, and to feed man with fables about his first production. You\nask, how came man into existence? But it would be quite as philosophical\nto ask how the first tree, worm, or oyster, came into being.* All\norganised life arises from some energy in the affinities and motions\nof matter, that is altogether unknown to us, and which gives rise to\nvegetable and animal life; so that the production of man is nothing more\nwonderful than that of any shell fish. All generation is motion. But the\nrational probability is, that the various species of homo found on this\nglobe, were always upon it; Nature propagating each upon that part of\nits surface that is congenial to the particular species; and that in the\nalmost inconceivably slow process of the change, by which portions of\nthe globe's surface become alternately sea and land, they migrated\nin succession, as old lands were wasted by the sea, and as new lands\nafforded asylums.\n\n     * \"Let us view man when within the shell, and when out of\n     it; let us take a microscope and examine the youngest\n     embryos, those of the growth of four, six, eight, or fifteen\n     days; after this age we may discover them with our naked\n     eyes. Then we can perceive the head only, a round egg with\n     two blackish specks, which represent the eyes. Before this\n     time, all being unformed, we can see nothing but a pulp of\n     marrow, which is the brain, where the original of the nerves\n     is first formed, where the principle of feeling is first\n     seated, and the heart, which begins already to beat in this\n     soft pulp; this is the punctum saliens of Malpighi, part of\n     the liveliness of which does, perhaps, already proceed from\n     the influence of the nerves. Then we see the head by degree\n     stretch for the neck, which being widened, first forms the\n     thorax, where the heart immediately descends, and takes up\n     its situation. The belly is framed next, which is divided\n     into two parts by a partition, called by anatomists the\n     diaphragm. These parts being expanded, furnish the arms, the\n     hands, the fingers, the nails, and the hair; the other gives\n     the thighs, the legs, the feet, etc., which form the support\n     and balance of the body. All this is surprising, but not\n     more so in man than in any other animal, or even in\n     vegetation; the same luxury of Nature shines throughout.\"\n\nMOD.--Divines have long settled the question against you, that there is\nno specific difference in the human race, though they allow a great many\n_accidental_ varieties; but they declare upon Bible authority, that\nall these varieties sprung from a single pair--one original stock of\nmankind.\n\nLUCIAN.--The absurd side of a question is the indisputable right of\ntheology.* Wilful blindness or ignorant prejudice alone can raise a\ndoubt, that the Whites, the Negroes, the Albinos, the Hottentots, the\nChinese, and the native Americans, are altogether different species,\nunder the genus homo. The white-skinned, bearded native of Northern Asia,\ncould no more beget the copper-colored, beardless native of America,\nthan a bull-dog could beget a f ox; the Negro of Africa, the Laplander;\nthe leopard, the lion; the European, the Ethiopian; the ass, the horse;\nor an Esquimaux, & Hottentot. Therefore, when theology asserts that\nAmerica must have been peopled from Asia, it is quite consistent with\nitself, that is, a tissue of glaring contradictions. When divines can\nshow us how the oak and the ash got to America, and who carried over\nthe dogs, cats, and hogs, the difficulty as to how man got there will\nbe easily solved. Nature did there, as she has done everywhere else, in\nproducing that species of the genus that is proper for the climate. But\ntheology, in its disinterested cares for man, whose folly supports it,\nshows no kind regard about the migration of other animals, but is,\non the contrary, their most deadly enemy; inasmuch as the abominable\ndoctrine that all of them were created solely for his use, has\nauthorised those atrocious cruelties which we daily see exercised upon\nthem.\n\n     * The only proper definition of this word is--the science of\n     priest-craft.\n\nMOD.--Your argument is, that in America, as everywhere else, Nature\nalways produced the animals and plants that were proper for the climate\nand soil; but according to your theory the surface of this globe is\neverlastingly undergoing changes, from the motion of the sea and other\nelements, which unceasing action is alternately making and reducing\nland; so that the sea becomes the true creator or parent of the land.\nNow, if this be the case, the best criterion of the age of the child\nwill be its height above the parent; consequently, as Asia has higher\nland than America, it must be older in its formation by the sea, and\nmight, therefore, furnish the more recent continent with man and other\nanimals.\n\nLUCIAN.--That the sea, by its restless, mighty, and irresistible\nworkings and creations, is the parent of all land, is a fact so\ndemonstrable, from the proofs it has everywhere left behind it, that\nit is undisputed except by theology; and though it may require many\nmillions of years completely to alternate the surface of our globe, or\nto make those portions of it sea, which had been land, and vice versa;\nyet that process and routine, though almost inconceivably slow, is\nnevertheless sure in endless succession. Man has no doubt migrated from\nland to land in the way you state; but this would not affect the natural\ndistinction of species, which, however much they may be crossed and\nmixed for a time, will assert and recur to their primitive distinction\nultimately; for Nature positively refuses to perpetuate, within\nthemselves, any of the varieties. This is conclusive proof of the\nspecific difference under the genus homo. Allowing that the height of\nland is the best criterion of its antiquity, America may by this rule\ndispute the palm with Asia, as the mountains of the former are nearly as\nhigh as those of the latter; and, therefore, the theologian's assertion\nthat the western hemisphere was peopled from Asia, may, with as\nmuch truth, be reversed. Whatever may be the respective age of these\ncontinents, it seems highly probable, if not certain, that the Andes of\nSouth America will be reduced to the fluid state, by the action of\nthe sea and other elements, many hundred thousands of years before the\nHimmalaya mountains of Asia are levelled by these unsleeping powers;\nfor the former have now the great Pacific Ocean undermining their very\nfoundations, whereas, the latter are still two thousand miles from the\nsea.\n\nMOD.--The time required to bring about these and other changes which\nhave relation to the celestial globes is so prodigious, that in\ngiving it admittance we virtually set at nought not only all scripture\nauthority, but turn the extent of human chronology into something\ninconceivably less than a moment sand-glass. Yet it is quite agreeable\nto the opinion of a great authority among the ancients;--Ocellus Lucanus\nsays:\n\nThe universe admitteth neither creation nor annihilation, for it ever\nwas, and ever shall be; if any man should conceive it to have been made,\nhe would not be able to know from what material it was made. Now, I call\nuniversal matter by the name of universe, which appellation it obtaineth\nin that it comprehendeth all things, being an absolute and perfect\ncollection of all natures; and besides the universe there is nothing.\nWherefore, there can be nothing without, or external to that which\ncomprehends all things. After men and other animals finish the progress\nof their nature, and have passed their several ages, they die, and are\ndissolved, becoming in the same state they were; quo non nati jacent.\nThere is no such thing as _quies in natura_, all things being in a\nperpetual circular motion. Nor hath man any original production from the\nearth, or elsewhere, as some have believed; but hath always been, as\nhe now is, co-existent with the world, whereof he is a part. \"Nature and\ngeneration govern all things.\"\n\nLUCIAN.--Such were the opinions of nearly all the wise men of antiquity.\nTheology, in its ridiculous pretensions to knowledge about the origin of\ntime, has utterly infatuated the minds of its dupes, by instilling false\nnotions concerning it; and limiting, comparatively within the duration\nof a moment, the existence of the material universe! All discoveries in\ntheology--every appearance in Nature, unite in exposing the absurdity\nof what is called the Mosaic account of time and creation. So exceeding\nslow is the resistless innovating progress of the sea, in changing the\nface of the globe, that millions of years must elapse before a total\nalternation of land and water takes place on its surface; but as the\nquantity of water can never immerse the whole, a certain portion of the\nsurface must ever be land, in succession.* This alternate succession of\nland and water is sure as fate, though imperceptible in the ephemeral\nlife of man.\n\n     * Succession no more implies a beginning, than it predicates\n     an end.\n\nMOD.--This watery theory of yours seems not very objectionable; but I\ncan neither agree in the Mosaic account of the first man, nor in the\nopinion of Ocellus, who says, \"he had no original production from the\nearth,\" but was always upon it, his power of propagation existing\nin himself. Man is an animal so transcendent above all others in his\nintellectual organisation, and reasoning powers, as to warrant our\ninference that the supreme ruler of the world had some particular design\nin his production, such as giving him dominion over all others, none\nof whom are possessed of immortal souls, that distinguishing proof of\nexcellence which is found in man alone.\n\nLUCIAN.--You may perhaps be able to tell me in what part of him it is to\nbe \"found\" and what it consists of; but until that is done demonstrably,\nNature, experience, reason, and all analogy, will flatly deny that man\nis possessed of any immortal part that is not common to every other\nanimal. Man is immortal and universal in his materiality alone; as the\nmatter which composes his body belongs to the immortal whole called\nNature, or the infinite all-in-all; and he is annihilable in his\npersonal identity only. That which you call design in the production of\nman, the Materialists, we repeat, ascribe to the energies, adaptations,\nand affinities in matter, whereby all organic structure in Nature is\neffected. _We cannot trace the effects which these and other motions\nof matter produce, to anything above its own powers_; and therefore\nthe deceptive arrogance of the theologian, in pretending to look beyond\nthese powers, has been pernicious in the highest degree, in preventing\na more full development of Nature's secret arcanum. The non-existence\nof the abstract immaterial something, which priests have set up as the\nsupernatural ruler of the universe, is best demonstrated by all they\nhave yet said of it--that all being downright contradiction.\n\nThe physical organisation of man is by no means superior to that of many\nother animals, except in his extraordinary allowance of brain, which,\nif cultivated for his advantage and happiness, would certainly set him\nabove most of the others, in intellectual qualities; but hitherto these\nhave been developed only to be perverted by a total departure from the\nlaws of his nature, in everything wherein that happiness is concerned.\nCompletely estranged at all points from the salutary paths which the\nmother of all things intended for his walks, he beggars himself\nin keeping hireling priests, who conjure up before his bewildered\nmind's-eye those chimerical nonentities which decoy him, like an ignis\nfatuus, madly to dance after them through life.\n\nMOD.--With all your hostility to priests, you cannot do without them, as\nour laws and society are at present constructed: from your birth to the\nday of your death, the church has got something to do or say in every\nstep you take of importance.\n\nLUCIAN.--That is the chief evil afflicting society. There is hardly\na bad law, custom, or institution amongst men, that has not been\npriest-procured in some age ancient or modern. They have not left even\na vestige of the natural rights of women, and very few of those of\nmen; from the water sorcery called baptism, in infancy, to the funeral\nincantation of the priest, they are misled, abused, and cheated\nsystematically, by the lawgiver and the theologian; whilst every\nnatural right is sacrificed on their altar of oppression. In room of\nthe birthright liberties, of which man is thus robbed from childhood,\nsupernatural excellencies (such as soul), and peculiar favors from a\nplace called heaven, are falsely bestowed upon him, without which he\ncannot be sufficiently donkified to answer the purposes of priestcraft;\nand the selfish and contemptible falsehood is palmed upon him, that the\nruler of this ideal region ycleped heaven, created everything for his\nparticular use and service. This stupid arrogance would be matchable\nonly in the vegetables declaring that all animals were made for their\nsustenance.\n\nMOD.--The pride of man will for ever prevent your convincing him that\nhe is not the most favored creature of the Supreme Being, who has fitted\nhim out with a soul, and given him such other qualities of mind and\nbody, as show indisputably his vast superiority over the brute creation,\nto whom souls have been refused. Your appeal to the miseries of his\nlife, which are greater than those of any other animal, or even the\nfrightful number of chances recorded by his priests against him, on the\nscore of damnation, will not shake his belief in these preternatural\ndistinctions in his favor. You complain that soul-saving in England and\nIreland is too expensive; but by a late Transatlantic calculation,\nthe average per head for saving heathen souls, in the Australian\nArchipelago, by the missionaries of the United States, costs the old\nwomen of both sexes, children, and fools of these States, the sum of\nL82 sterling. Now, reckoning the population of China and India at\n450,000,000, which is nearly the half of all the human species on this\nglobe, without including the ourang outang species of homo, in whom\nsouls have not yet been detected (probably owing to their keeping no\npriests), the total expense of saving the whole, at the rate of L82 per\nsoul, would cost the above description of persons among the Christian\ngodly, the enormous sum of L36,900,000,000. We cannot for a moment\nsuppose that these holy disinterested missionaries would charge a\nfarthing; above the prime cost in pursuing their \"glorious work.\"\n\nLUCIAN.--The grand support of missionaries abroad and of established\npriesthoods at home, is the female sex of Christendom, without whose\nsustaining zeal no one of all the great stocks of superstition which now\ninfest the world would stand for another century. Whatever may be the\norigin or absurdity of any system of theology, set up in any country,\nthe timidity of the female sex stimulates them generally to cling to\nit with fervor and devotedness, without the slightest examination.\nAnd while the priest \"harrows up their souls\" through the fears of his\nmysterious futurity, a subtle influence is exercised by them over the\nweaker and more uninformed portion of the male sex, whose apathy gives\na tacit assent to the endless string of inconceiveables, for the sake\nof domestic quiet. Here the double battery of the wife and priest is\nirresistible. A learned clergyman, in writing to a female friend, makes\nthis remark:--\"if, indeed, your sex should enter into the irreligious\nnotions, which now prevail too much among men, the next generation would\nbe irrecoverably lost.\" This amounts to a plain confession that, should\nthe priest lose his deep-rooted impulsive power over the female mind,\nhis trade would be \"irrecoverably lost.\" Women have been, in all ages\nand countries, the upholders of superstition, owing, in the first place,\nto their nature, which, according to Hippocrates, \"is more weak and\nfearful than the nature and disposition of men\"; secondly, to the\ndelusive and mischievous theological dogma about the superintendence of\nwhat are called spiritual powers; to which may be added, the gaudy\nand imposing pomp of ceremonies; all of which, taken together, readily\noperate upon the female mind, it being, as it were, a softer and more\npliant wax than that of man, to receive the unnatural impression of the\npriest. Before Christianity was known, Strabo made the following strong\nremark:--\"It is a thing universally taken for granted, that women are\nthe ringleaders of superstition; they tease their husbands into all\nsorts of worship of the gods, into the observation of feasts and fasts;\nbut it is a rare thing that any man, leading a single life, is found to\nbe such a person.\" I shall close my authorities on this subject, with\na quotation from Selden. \"When priests come into a family, they do as a\nman that would set fire to a house,--he does not put fire to the brick\nwall, but puts it into the thatch; _they work upon the women, and let\nthe men alone_.\"\n\nTHE END.","title":"Religion in the Heavens; Or, Mythology Unveiled in a Series of Lectures","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":75231}