{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_40211/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_40211","id":"gutenberg_40211","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/40211","summary":null,"tags":["Bible -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.","Category: British Literature","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Politics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Church and state -- Church of England","Rationalism"],"text":"Produced by David Widger\n\n\n\n\n\nCHURCH REFORM:\n\nTHE ONLY MEANS TO THAT END, STATED IN A LETTER TO Sir ROBERT PEEL, Bart.\nFIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY, &c.\n\nBy Richard Carlile.\n\nTO WHICH IS PREFACED A CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE BISHOP OF LONDON ON THE\nSAME SUBJECT.\n\nLondon:\n\nPRINTED & PUBLISHED. By R. CARLILE, 62 FLEET STREET.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\nCORRESPONDENCE WITH THE BISHOP OF LONDON, IN 1833, ON THE SUBJECT OF A\nREFORM IN THE CHURCH.\n\n\"To the Right Reverend Father in God, the Lord Bishop of London.\n\n\"62, Fleet Street, November 18,1833.\n\n\"My Lord,\n\n\"I have long and deliberately thought, that the state of the Country,\nthe state of the Church, and the state of the Public Mind in relation\nto the Church, calls upon me to offer myself for an interview with your\nLordship, as my Diocesan, that your Lordship may hear from me what I\nhave to advance against the present state and condition of the Church,\nand what I have to propose as an immediately necessary and proper\nReform.\n\n\"I offer to wait on your Lordship, with your Lordship's consent;\nand promise, that my conversation shall be altogether courteous and\nreasonable.\n\n\"I am one of your Lordship's scattered sheep, wishing for the fold of a\ngood shepherd,--(which is Christ Jesus),--\n\n\"RICHARD CARLILE.\"\n\n\"P. S.--I may add, my Lord Bishop, that I am altogether a Christian; save\nthe mark at which superstition has been planted upon Christianity.\"\n\n\n*****\n\n\n\"Fulham, November 20,1833.\n\n\"Sir,\n\n\"I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, in which you propose\nan interview with me, for the purpose of making known to me your\nopinions respecting the present state of the Church.\n\n\"I beg to say, that I shall be ready to receive, and to give all due\nconsideration to any communication which you may think proper to make\nme in writing; as being, on many accounts, a more convenient method than\nthat of personal conference.\n\n\"I remain, Sir,\n\n\"Your obedient Servant,\n\n\"C. J. LONDON.\"\n\n\n*****\n\n\n\"To the Right Reverend Father in God, the Lord Bishop of London.\n\n\"62, Fleet Street, November 24,1833.\n\n\"My Lord Bishop,\n\n\"In answer to my proposal to meet your Lordship in conversation, on\nthe state of the Country, the state of the Church, and the state of the\nPublic Mind with relation to the Church, your Lordship has encouraged me\nto write what I have to say, and has promised to receive it and to give\nit due consideration. I write as early as my circumstances have afforded\nme the necessary leisure and composure of mind.\n\n\"The first point to which I beg leave to call your Lordship's attention\nis--that there is a very numerous degree of dissent from the Established\nChurch among the people of this country.\n\n\"The second point is, that this spirit of dissent has led to a very\nextended opposition to the support of the Church in its fiscal claims.\n\n\"The third point is, that there is a preparation of a public mind going\nforward for the putting of the present Established Church on the same\nfooting as the present Establishments of the Dissenters--the footing of\nvoluntary rather than legal support; and that the preparation of this\nstate of mind is accelerated by the embarrassed state of the country.\n\n\"The evidence of these three points in prospect is, that the present\nstate of the Church will be entirely overthrown in the course of two or\nthree Sessions of Parliament.\n\n\"On the principle of dissent from the Established Church, I have to\nobserve, that it is desirable there should be no dissent; but then the\nChurch should be invulnerable. There can be no popular dissent from any\nInstitution that can be defended as good and best; and though I am\ninstructed to allow that the general body of dissenters from the Church\nhave dissented on very frivolous, even on indefensible grounds,\n(inasmuch as the Dissenters have not corrected in themselves the errors\nof the Church), there still remains the proof that where the Church has\nbeen assailed or dissented from, it has not been in a condition to\ndefend and justify itself.\n\n\"This incapability of the Church to defend and justify itself, where\nassailed, must have arisen from a defective state of its doctrine and\ndiscipline.\n\n\"This doctrine and discipline is founded upon the literal reading of the\nSacred Scriptures, or the books of the Old and New Testament.\n\n\"I impugn the literal as an erroneous reading: it claims to be local\nand temporal history, and is not. Not one of its apparent historical\nsubjects can be verified. Every one of them can be falsified, upon the\nprinciple that other things were being done at the time, and that other\npeople dwelt in the places; and that nothing of contemporary character,\npurporting to be history, has corroborated the historical claims of the\nOld and New Testament.\n\n\"It is said of the writings of the Old and New Testament, that they are\nallegorical, and that they contain the moral of human salvation from\nevil. Under this view, they may be true, and may be important as a\nmatter of instruction. I so believe them to be true, and to be important\nas a matter of instruction; but as your Lordship may put me on the task\nof mentioning some particular facts and grounds on which I impugn the\nliteral reading of the Sacred Scriptures, and may properly suggest that\nit is necessary this ground should be first cleared before we try them\non the other ground, I submit, as two well-weighed and conclusive\npropositions:--\n\n\"1st. That the person of Jesus Christ, or the name, is not in mention by\nany author of the first century, if the passage in Josephus be excepted\nas an interpolation; and that this defect in the evidence is fatal to\nthe historical claim.\n\n\"2nd. That the people called Jews, or Israelites, neither formed colony\nnor nation in that part of the earth which is now called Judea, or Holy\nLand, before the time of Alexander of Macedon; consequently all that is\nsaid of their dwelling in and going out of Egypt, their sojourn in the\nWilderness, their warfare with the Canaanites and Philistines, their\noccupation of that country, their subsequent conquest, captivity, and\nrestoration, is entirely fiction or allegory.\n\n\"I read it as political and moral instruction veiled in allegory \\\nand as it is to be desired, that, in the removal of a system, all its\ndefects be made apparent, so it becomes a desideratum, that we account\nfor the origin of the sects named Jews and Christians.\n\n\"This may be done in two ways---one, that they were public philosophical\nsects; the other, that they were degrees of order in the ancient\nmysteries.\n\n\"The moral of the allegory belonging to each is throughout the same, and\nis an encouragement to the resistance and overthrow of the tyranny of\nman, when it appears in the open authority of a King, or in the covert\nauthority of a Priest; and the preparing of a people to do this, and\nthe doing it, is precisely what is meant by human salvation,--which is a\nsure and certain salvation from earthly evils.\n\n\"The absence of a proof of personal identity in the characters sketched\nin the Old and New Testament, is the presence of proof (if utility\nof any kind there be in the form of the allegory), that the persons\nmentioned are like what all the gods and goddesses of ancient religion\nwere--personifications of principles, either physical or moral, or both.\n\n\"In so receiving the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, I find\nthem pregnant with the most important political and moral instruction.\nIn receiving them according to the literal or historical reading, I find\ndifficulties insuperable, and such as justify all that Thomas Paine or\nany other straightforward critic has advanced on the subject, while the\nmoral and the allegory were concealed from their view.\n\n\"The point at which this personification of principles begins, is the\npoint at which superstition begins; for though knowledge may justify the\npoetic licence taken with language, ignorance mistakes and evil design\nmisrepresents, until the personification is extensively dwelt on as a\nreality.\n\n\"Here I trace the fundamental errors of the present doctrine and\ndiscipline of the Established Church; the errors upon which dissent has\nprogressed, upon which an outcry of infidelity has been raised, but upon\nwhich the Church could not defend itself and maintain its position.\n\n\"My remedy for the present difficulties, and my proposition \\ for\na Reform in the Church is, that no difficulties, mysteries, or\nsuperstition be allowed to remain attached to its doctrines and\ndiscipline; that the allegory of the Sacred Scriptures be avowed, the\npersonifications taught upon their principles as known principles of\nnature, and not as personified incomprehensibilities; that the Church,\nin short, be made a school for the people, than which, if it originally\nmeant any good thing, could mean no other thing, where from time to time\nall acquired or acquirable knowledge should be taught. On this ground,\nthe utility of the Institution is evident, the benefit to the people\ncertain, the idea of dissent inadmissible.\n\n\"In this first letter, I have thought it necessary only to give your\nLordship the leading points of objection to the present doctrine and\ndiscipline of the Church. With details in proof, I can proceed to a\nvoluminous length; and I now offer myself to submit to the catechism of\nyour Lordship, or to that of any person whom your Lordship shall appoint\nto see me, with the distinct promise, that I will not evade the giving\nof a direct answer to any distinct and intelligible question that can be\nput to me upon any part of this important subject.\n\n\"It may not be improper that I now declare to your Lordship, that, after\nhaving worn out the spirit of persecution by a large amount of personal\nand pecuniary suffering, I have never been acting upon any other motive\nthan a love of truth, and honesty, and public good; that it is under\nsuch a motive, and no other mixed motive, that I have now presented\nmyself to your Lordship, viewing your Lordship as a public functionary\nthat has inherited and not created the error of which I complain; and\nhoping that I shall be met with the disposition of a fair investigation,\nwhen so much good is at this moment the promised consequence,\n\n\"I am, My Lord,\n\n\"Your Lordship's most obedient humble servant,\n\n\"RICHARD CARLILE.\"\n\n\n\n\nLETTER TO SIR ROBERT PEEL\n\nSir,\n\nI write as a politician to a politician, with oblivion of the past,\nwithout any profession of respect for the present, waiting and watching\nyour future.\n\nI am stimulated to address you, and the country through your name,\non reading your Address to the Electors of Tamworth, after taking the\noffices of First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer.\n\nThe portion of your Address which I select as my subject, is that\nrelating to the Church--the first of all political subjects. Not to\nunderstand how to deal with this, is to be utterly deficient in every\nother political branch. Not to reform this, is to reform nothing. State\never did, and ever will, depend upon the Church.\n\nAs far as your individual promise is sufficient, it is, that Church\nRates shall be abolished. This is so far good. It has been a disgrace to\nall parties concerned, and an injury to every housekeeper, that a Church\nRate has existed. Such a rate has existed only because of the dishonest\napplication of that Church Property which was the legitimate supply for\nall Church Buildings and repairs. And should the rate be continued\nunder any other form of taxation, and not supplied from existing Church\nProperty, an injury and an injustice will still be inflicted upon the\npeople.\n\nYou seem willing to abate the religious ceremony of marriage, so far as\nto allow each couple to let it be to its liking. Pray go a step farther,\nand let the law cease to trammel that civil contract with religious\nceremony, while each couple will be at liberty of its own accord to go\nthrough whatever religious ceremony it may think proper. And while\non this subject, I pray you to give, or seek for the poor, justice in\nfacile divorce. The mystery of marriage is too sacred for constraint.\nIt should never be other than a spirit of pure and mutual liberty and\nconsent, subject to some legal recognition for the care of offspring.\nMuch of the morals of society must depend on the freedom of marriage and\nfacility of divorce. We have not hitherto been right on this subject.\nThat can be no good tie which opposes the will of an individual in\nso sacred and delicate an affair as that of marriage. The beginning,\nmiddle, and end of marriage should be the love of affection and\nfriendship. Marriage should cease when affection between the parties has\nceased. It may be truly added, that marriage has morally ceased, when\naffection has ceased. Then the legal tie becomes an abomination, a\nsource of vice and wrong; and, in nine cases out of ten, the religious\nceremony is treated as a burlesque, save the idea, that it is a\nfashionable distinction to have observed it as the chief criterion of\nlegal marriage.\n\nI entirely agree with you, that Church Property should not be alienated\nfrom strictly ecclesiastical purposes. I have changed my view, and see\nmore than formerly on this head.\n\nFor the same reason, I entirely disagree with you on any commutation of\ntithes. Let the original application be restored, and no one will find\nfault but he who loses by that just principle, that first and best of\nChurch Property and most important of popular rights.\n\nThe point, in your address, on which my letter is to be based, is the\nfollowing paragraph:--\n\n\"With regard to alterations in the laws which govern our ecclesiastical\nestablishment, I have had no recent opportunity of giving that grave\nconsideration to a subject of the deepest interest, which could alone\njustify me in making any public declaration of opinion. It is a subject\nwhich must undergo the fullest deliberation, and into that deliberation\nthe Government will enter with the sincerest desire to remove every\nabuse that can impair the efficiency of the Establishment, extend the\nsphere of its usefulness, and to strengthen and confirm its just claims\nupon the respect and affections of the people.\"\n\nThis is just what I wanted you to say. It is honest, if you will but act\nup to it. This is the sort of Church Reform that I propose. Here we have\nfrom you, as the Chief Minister, a promise that your Administration will\nenter into the fullest deliberation, with the sincerest desire to remove\nevery abuse that can impair the efficiency of the Church Establishment,\nextend the sphere of its usefulness, and strengthen and confirm its just\nclaims upon the respect and affections of the people. Had I been called\nto your situation, I could not have promised more; but I should have\nacted up to that promise, and I hope you will so act. In the performance\nof that promise, everlasting fame will be yours. So act--and greater\nthan the name of Lycurgus or Solon--greater than that of Cicero,\nConstantine, or Napoleon--greater than the name of any past man will\nbe that of Robert Peel. If the Duke of Wellington join you in this\nsentiment, and goes manly and honestly forward to its accomplishment,\nhis, too, will be an imperishable name. This would wreathe him an\nevergreen chaplet, that would survive the memory of all his physical\nvictories! This is the great moral victory to be obtained before any\nsociety can settle down into peace, welfare, and happiness:--_the best\nuse that can be made of the Church_. It is a subject of the deepest\ninterest; it requires grave consideration; I pray that it may have that\nconsideration. I pray that I may be heard by a Commission, in grave\nconsideration of that subject of the deepest interest, before any\nlegislative change be entered upon. I put myself forward in this letter.\nMany will be the schemes proposed to your consideration: let mine be\none, and then select and improve the best.\n\nThe first consideration is--What is now the Church? What are its\ndefects? What the cause of that dissent, which has made a revision\nnecessary?\n\nThe second consideration will be--What ought the Church to be, so as to\nleave no ground and reason of dissent? To some minds, the fickleness and\nfallibility of human nature will appear as an insurmountable obstacle\nto the construction of such a Church. I see farther and will propose in\norder.\n\nI flatter myself that I am writing this letter with very proper feelings\ntoward all institutions and all persons. I suspend, _pro tem_., all\nquarrels that I have with all men, to assist you in this common good,\nin which you deserve and will have, in the ratio of their goodness,\nthe assistance of all good men. If I can sink the past in oblivion for\ncommon good, who should say he cannot? To the altar and shrine of that\nReformed Church, which you contemplate, I have sacrificed property\nmuch--all I had, and years of liberty many. I am still worshipping,\nstill so sacrificing, both property and personal liberty, and will so\ncontinue to the end. I say it not boastfully; but in comparative claim\nto attention, and in encouragement and example of union to assist you in\nthe performance of your present promise.\n\nLet me be permitted to say, too, that the Church is a subject which I\nhave studied in its origin, its history, its first principle, all its\ndissent or variation from that first principle, down to its present\nstanding. I have so studied it, that I cannot now find author or\npreacher who can present me any thing new as to its general merits, past\nor present. This is the chief ground on which I solicit your and the\npublic attention to my view of this subject of Church Reform. I presume\nto know what the Church is, and what it ought to be.\n\nIt may be taken as a point to be yielded by all parties, that the desire\nwith regard to the Law Established Church is, the removal of all ground\nof dissent, so as not to leave it a mere sectarian Church, which any\nmere abatement of existing dissenting objections will do. No Dissenter\ncan complain, if the ground of his dissent be removed from the Church.\nAnd if there be no ground of future dissent left, there can be no\nfuture complaint, no new dissension arising. Without the absence of the\npossibility of dissent, there can be no just holding and application of\na public and common property for the business of the Church. With\nthat absence, the property is justly held and applied. Any law that\nrecognizes and tolerates the Dissenter, recognizes and tolerates the\njustness of his dissent, and calls for the primary justice of removing\nthe ground of dissent. No man can reasonably say, _let us not be of one\nChurch_; but every man can reasonably say, _let the Church be purified\nof its errors_; and while any man can show an error, it is his duty to\ncall for the purification, and the duty of authorities to attend to\nhis call and to purify. A permanent Church then must be an improving,\nself-purifying Church, and continue a true picture of the best state\nof the human mind, meeting every well-founded and majority-decided call\nupon its utility.\n\nAny idea of keeping up a Law Established Church with public property,\nsurrounded by Dissenting Churches, without a public property, can enter\nthe head of no man who understands the subject. There can be no peace\nor final settlement under such an arrangement. The effect to be\naccomplished is, not to break up the Church Property; but to break up\nthe Dissenters from the Church. This will startle the present state of\nmind and feeling. I propose no abridgement of equal liberty. Is not this\nthe grand _desideratum?_ Can it be accomplished?--I think it can, and so\nproceed to unfold the two-fold consideration.\n\nFirst.--What is now the Church? What are its defects? What the cause of\nthat dissent which has made a revision necessary?\n\nThis, in reality, is but one question, with a three-fold expression.\n\nThe Church is now the Theatre of the Drama of the Books of Common\nPrayer, the Thirty-nine Articles, and the Old and New Testament; to\nwhich is generally added a sermonic epilogue or exhortation, commonly\ncalled a Sermon.\n\nBe not offended at my use of the word _Theatre_ here: no other\nwould substitute. Its root is the Greek [------], God, and signified\noriginally, the house, place or stage, where the Drama of Theism or\nattributes of Deity were exhibited. The word is now much distorted\nfrom its root, in being made to describe the place of modern dramatic\nperformances.\n\nNor must the word _Drama_ be objected to; because the ceremony of the\nChurch was originally so constructed, so meant, and so practised, as I\nwill prove in the course of this letter.\n\nEven the word _Tragedy_ has its root in the Greek word [------], a goat,\nand signifies, in the dramatic exhibition of Theism, the death of the\nyear, under the form of a personification, in the twelfth or zodiacal\nmonth of the goat. So that the death sorrowed for and lamented, was,\ndramatically, the apparent death of the sun, the death of the year, in\nthe sign or month of the goat; and on St. Thomas's day, as we read in\nthe Prophet Ezekiel, chap. viii. v. 14--\"_and behold there sat women\nweeping for Tammuz;_\" and v. 16--\"_about five and twenty men, with their\nbacks toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east;\nand they worshipped the sun toward the east_,\" which is no other than\na representation of the performance of the tragedy, in which the\nperformers had lost the moral of the Lord's Temple: precisely the\npresent state and condition of the Church. All ancient mythology is\nin harmony with this conclusion; and the Christian tragedy is only a\ncontinued version, uniting the general drama of human morals with the\nannual tragedy of solar physics, and forming a two-fold or two-keyed\nallegory or mystery, physical and moral, as it was known even in the\nCeltic or Druid Church. Christianity was never new, or young, in this\ncountry, by existing records.\n\nThere are not many persons in this secret, perhaps, not even you, the\nfirst Minister of the country; so it will be deemed too abstruse and\nmystical on which to find a warrant for legislation or change of law:\nbut I strenuously maintain, that such was the origin of the Christian\nChurch, and such is now its generally lost meaning. The proof of the\nsolar part of the allegory is not so much to my present purpose as\nthe proof of the general drama of human morals being the basis of the\npresent mystery of the Christian Church.\n\nTo stay a growing difficulty, we must go to the root:--it will grow\nagain, if we do not go to the root. It will be so with the present\nChurch, and all attempts to reform it.\n\nIn plainer language, then, I will describe the existing Church, as\nhaving, in its ceremonies and business, the mystery of the Christian\nReligion, without its revelation; that all the defects and all the\ngrounds of dissent from it are the absence of the revelation, or want of\nknowing the meaning of the mystery. Whatever are called its doctrines,\nare all mysterious; its discipline is equally mysterious, and by its\npresent ministers, unaccountable. Dissenters have dissented without\nbeing able to assign a reason for their dissent, and have set up for\nthemselves something equally mysterious and unaccountable; and so the\nwhole principle and practice of Religion in the country is in confusion\nand conflict; and no measure can reconcile the dissentients, short\nof developing the first principles of the Church and the Christian\nReligion, the one language, the one course of reason, the one ground of\nhuman welfare, the one system of morals, which is now buried in a\nBabel of confused tongues, doctrines, idol-houses, and superstitious\nceremonies.\n\nThe ground, then, on which I proceed, is, that TO REFORM THE CHURCH, THE\nDISSENTERS MUST BE ANNIHILATED.\n\nNot annihilated by slaughter or physical force; but by superior\nknowledge, and consequent superior teaching, by openness, by honesty, by\nthrowing off the mask of hypocrisy, and leaving the Church of Christ to\nbe no longer a theatre of dramatic ceremony in mystery, with parts and\nactors as ignorant as automata of their subject, and who not knowing,\ncan value it not, beyond the salaries they receive for its performance\nin unrevealed mystery.\n\nCan that be a Reform of the Church, with \"just claims upon the respect\nand affections of the people,\" which shall leave a ground and excuse\nfor dissent by any one of the people? I say, NO. Can it be a Church of\nChrist? I say, NO. Do we know what a Church of Christ is in reality? For\nmyself, I say, YES. A Church, too, founded upon an understanding of the\n_Sacred_ Scriptures, of the Old and New Testament, upon the revelation\nof the mystery of those Scriptures, and upon all the first principles\nessential and conducive to general human and social welfare; that\nshall no more admit of dissent than the multiplication table, or the\naccurately placed sun-dial, than the elements of Euclid, and all the\nnever-failing tests of the science of chemistry. The Apostle that told\nus to \"_prove all things, and hold fast that which is good_,\" gave us\na definition of the exhortation of the Evangelist or the\nBaptist--\"_Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand_.\" A repenting\nand a proving people are necessary to make a Church of Christ.\nRepentance and enquiry are the pillars and foundations of that Church;\nwithout repentance and enquiry there can be no Church of Christ; and I\nask, confidently ask, with the assurance that a true answer must be in\nthe negative,--has anything calling itself a Christian Church in Europe,\nestablished by law, or dissenting from such an establishment, anything\nto do with the two principles of repentance and proving, the one meaning\nreflection by animadversion, the other a trial by outward tests of that\nreflection? There is not a congregation of people in Europe, calling\nitself a Church, that is founded upon an understanding of the Sacred\nScriptures, the understanding which shows that the \"letter killeth, but\nthe spirit giveth life.\"\n\nI impugn, as being in error,--I denounce, as that error is the cause of\nall dissent, of dissent uninstructed,--all the churches or congregations\ncalled churches in the British dominions; and I call for a reform that\nshall eradicate that dissent, and make all become one in efficiency,\nusefulness, and respect and affections of the people.\n\nThe present state of the Church is, that it is a theatre of mystery,\ngiving no solid satisfaction to the people, and for which, among the\nreceivers of salaries and benefits only, can there be a particle of real\nrespect and affection. Its defects are, that none understand, neither\npriests nor people understand what any part of its dramatic ceremonies\nmean. And this is the cause of that dissent which has made a revision\nnecessary.\n\nWhat, then, ought the Church to be, so as to have no ground and reason\nof dissent?\n\nIn two words, I answer, A SCHOOL.\n\nWhat kind of a school?\n\nA school for knowledge only; for revelation without mystery; and for\npractical use and benefit to every member, without parade or pomp, even\nwithout ceremony, beyond what order and good may require.\n\nAnd would such be a Church of Christ?\n\nSuch alone can be a Church of Christ. Christ the Logos, Jesus the\nSaviour of Man, is, in principle, nothing more in its dramatic or\nmystified and present church presentation, than a personification of the\nprinciple of reason, or of the knowledge of which the human being is a\nrecipient, and without which can have no salvation, has no relation to\nthe idea of a salvation, or any evil from which to be saved. Such is a\ntrue revelation of the mystery of Christ.\n\nAnd a Church of Christ has no other true meaning, than a convenient and\nsessional gathering of the people in districts, for purposes of mutual\nenquiry and mutual instruction; for catechism and intelligible and\nuseful exhortation; for revelation of knowledge, or mind, or reason;\nfor mental improvement; and not for mystery, nor dramatic ceremony, nor\nsuperstition, nor idolatry. It is in this sense only, that the Church\nof Christ is superior to all other Churches--the word Church meaning a\ngathering or association of the people for mental improvement.\n\nThis generation has no proof, nor has history a warrant, that any other\ngeneration of man has had a proof of the material existence of the being\ncalled Jesus Christ. The seeming narrative of such a purport is the\ncurrent mythology of the ancients, or people of two thousand years ago,\ntaken up by us in its literal sense, and so mistaken; so mistaken, as to\nwarrant a belief in the literality and fact of the material, temporal,\nand local existence of every one of the Gods of the Pantheon, or of\nhuman imagination, and then we shall have rivalry enough for the best.\nBut then, I should make a choice of Christ, as the only one that makes\ndue provision for the right cultivation of the human mind; the only one\nthat has laid the foundations of the kingdom of Heaven, in the peace and\ngood-will of mankind, dwelling upon a land flowing with milk and honey,\nand overflowing with knowledge.\n\nI challenge the Bishops and the whole priesthood, to produce me any\nknowledge that is intelligible to themselves or to any other person, as\nan interpretation of the narratives in the Old and New Testament, about\nJehovah or Christ, other than that which I am now unfolding. Mine has\na warrant in the spirit of the language of the books, in the roots of\nwords, and in all the principles of things that relate to man's welfare;\nand more particularly in that to man most important of all, MORAL\nSCIENCE.\n\nI am not insensible to the circumstance, that a man might have a\nknowledge of a thing, of a train of circumstances, of causes and\neffects, in his own mind, with a difficulty to find language in which\nto communicate it, that shall be equally and immediately clear to all\nother states of mind. A resemblance, nearness, or similarity of mind,\nalmost an equality of knowledge, is requisite to a clear understanding.\nIt is thus, that men, in different languages, understand each other,\nwhen other men, bystanders, do not understand them. And it so happens,\nin all first developments of science, the new discovery wants a new\nlanguage in which to be presented to others, and it often happens, that\nfirst words made or chosen are not the best and clearest.\n\nKnow you not, Sir, that knowledge is power? You must have read that\ncelebrated axiom of Bacon's; but have you considered it, have you\nreflected, have you repented and proved that axiom? I may add, by way\nof explanation, that knowledge is the only moral power. What seeks your\nChurch to be? Or what should it seek to be, other than a moral power? On\nwhat rock, then, must the Church of Christ be built, so that the gates\nof hell, or of evil design, or of dissent, may not prevail against it?\nOn what, but KNOWLEDGE? Is it now so built? Is not, rather, the present\nministry of the Church more afraid of knowledge than of the people's\nignorant dissent; more of \"Carlile and his crew,\" than of all the\ndissenters; more of free discussion, than of any kind of superstition?\nThe dissent of knowledge and the dissent of ignorance, though disunited,\nare becoming too powerful for your knowledgeless Church; and you, at\nlast, have consented to speak of its necessary reform! To which will you\nyield, or whom will you join? Those who dissent by knowledge, or those\nby ignorance? If you take the former, your work will be perfected at\nonce; if the latter, your work will never be done, and you will become\nweaker and weaker; for I know not one body of worshipping associated\ndissenters, whose ground of association and dissent is better than that\nof the Established Church. Find me the minister of one of them, who will\nstand up in discussion before a public audience with me, so as to have\nhis language reported. I have not yet found him in England or Scotland.\nThe pretences of the kind that have been made, have been so deficient\nin respectability of character and of good manners, that I do not think\nthem worth a recognition.\n\nI am not insensible to the circumstance, that you have a difficult task\nto perform, and I am not sure that you are equal to it: I hope you\nare; that is, I would have you so, or any other who may be the King's\nadviser, and the real head of the Church. Nothing is wanted for this\nreform but honesty and moral courage. Where the will and the power\nexist, the task is an easy one. _I desire to save the Church and its\nproperty, and to annihilate the Dissenters_. I would have the present\ndignities of the Church dignify themselves in a triumph over the\nDissenters. A collusion with the Dissenters will be a hugging of\npestilence and death to the bosom of the Church. There can be no\nco-existence: there was proof enough of that in the seventeenth century,\nand still in Scotland. A revolution in the affairs and manners of\nthe Church must take place, even by your own confession, in language\nadmitting of the inference; and I desire that good may be educed from\nthat revolution. I would make the Church triumph in the correction of\nevery mental error in the country, and noble would be that triumph!\n\nYou may ask, how is this to be done? I will tell you. Let the Church\nbecome the oracle of truth, the fountain of knowledge, the mistress\nand dispenser of all science. Let its ministers declare this great\ntruth:--_that, hitherto, the mystery of Christ has alone been taught in\nthe Church, without the revelation of that mystery; that the Church has\nbeen the depository of that sacred mystery, until the fulness of time,\nin which it is promised, that all people shall be prepared to partake of\nthe revelation; that the mystery has been kept up in outward form\nand without any spiritual grace; that the spiritual grace and all the\npro-mises are to be fulfilled in the understanding of the revelation;\nthat the spirit or revelation has been buried in a resting on the letter\nof the Sacred Scriptures; that Christ is only now risen or beginning to\nrise, after thousands of years, we may say three thousand years, rather\nthan three days of crucifixion, death and burial_. In me, he has risen\nindeed, as, in me, he has been last crucified; and I crave the pleasure\nof seeing his principles rise in the Church; for that craving is the\nnature of Christ. Let the Church declare _that the time is now come to\nreveal the mystery of Christ_. Exhibition has not been revelation.\n\nWhat, then, is the revelation of the mystery of Christ?\n\nIt is, that Christ is God and not man, that it is God in man; that it is\nknowledge, reason, or all its essences in moral principle; and that\nit is not an idol to be worshipped as a statue, but a principle to be\ntaught and inherited by the human race. The mystery sets forth Christ as\na statue or image to be worshipped after the fashion of the Pagan world.\nThe revelation teaches, that it is the principle of knowledge, to\nbe gained by labour, by asking, seeking and knocking, or prayer; by\nrepentance, that is, reflection; by enquiry, that is, proving all\nthings, and holding fast that which is good; by mutual instruction, by\nfree discussion, by whatever constitutes a school for useful knowledge,\nand that constitution is a Church of Christ: all the rest is mistake\nor imposture, whether it be established by law, or ignorantly dissented\nfrom; whether it have a King for its head, or be carried on in a garret\nor a cellar.\n\nI must go to the root of my subject, and leave no excuse for evasion.\nThe root of religion is the relation of God to man, and man to God.\n\nWhat does man know of God?\n\nBooks can teach him nothing, unless those books be written pictures of\nexisting things and things that have existed. Things that have existed\nhave no source of trial or test, but in the similarity of things that do\nexist.\n\nMan's knowledge of existence is of a twofold nature: the things that\ndo exist, and the power by which he has that knowledge. The first is\ndistinguished as material existence; the second, as spiritual existence.\nMaterial and spiritual existence are the only two positive existences\nof which man can speak or write, to which no inspiration can add; for\ninspiration is only knowledge; and the recognition of material and\nspiritual existence is the limitation of knowledge. The details of\nknowledge can be nothing more than definitions and descriptions of\nexisting things,--the plantings of art upon nature.\n\nAll knowledge is matter of art. Nature is the thing known--art the\nknowledge of the thing. This art can not only know nature, but can\ninvent descriptions of unreal things; can describe things by types, and\nprinciples by figurative allegories; can imitate nature by appearances,\nsuch as pictures, statues, &c.; and can, by mysterious constructions\nof language, make the appearance of a thing to represent a principle or\ndescribe qualities in the absence of the thing: this is spiritual power.\nNothing of the kind is seen beyond human life; certainly not beyond\nanimal life. We may, therefore, reasonably speak of spiritual power or\nspiritual existence as confined to the human race--speech and language\nbeing a primary necessity to its existence: the art of other animals\nextending not beyond their wants.\n\nMan, then, is the creator of spirit; and, beyond man, spirit is not\nknown. Man is not known to be the creature, but the creator of art; not\nthe creature, but the creator of spirit, soul, mind, reason, knowledge,\nor whatever other term relates to the mental phenomena.\n\nI maintain, because it is a truth of the deepest importance to the human\nrace, and without the knowledge of which nothing can work well in human\nsociety, that man is the creator of all spiritual existence; and in the\nsense in which God is a spirit, man is the creator of that God, and has\nbeen the creator of every description of existence that has been made of\nsuch a God.\n\nWe may also correctly speak of this two-fold existence as physical and\nmoral. The physical, its forms and compositions excepted, is eternal and\nimmutable--the moral is evanescent, mortal, and mutable in its personal\nexistence, but immutable and immortal as to principle. The root of God,\ntherefore, as of man, is in physical power, which is correctly described\nas almighty, immutable and omnipresent: it is only omniscient, as being\nthe fountain of knowledge--the all that can be known. Science is art;\ntherefore, there can be no science in an infinite or eternal sense, as\nwe can speak of the physical power of Deity; but science, as art, is\nlimited to human power,--the all that is known, and not the all that\nexists to be known.\n\nThis is evidence, that man has created not only all the descriptions\nthat have been made of spiritual existence, but that existence itself:\nand so it is true, that man has been the inventor of a spiritual God;\nthat religion and all its appurtenances have been the offspring of\nthe art of man; and that man alone is capable of correcting any of its\nerrors,--which is to be done in the same way by which I propose to put\ndown the Dissenters--the acquisition and communication of knowledge by\nthe Church.\n\nI pass by the Pagan mythology, which, in its understood personifications\nand allegories, is as beautiful a picture of physical and moral nature,\nas the Christian Religion itself; and I rest on the Christian, as,\nwhen understood, the only religion for human improvement that has been\npresented to the notice of the human race.\n\nAs man is the inventor of the Spiritual Deity, which is peculiarly the\nDeity of the Christian Religion, so I infer, by evidence to come, that\nthe Deity of the Christian Religion is no other, nothing more, than a\npersonification of the mental phenomena of the human race, which was\nthe work of the philosophers and scientific men of the Pagan world: and\nnoble was their task--important for man was their production. Not the\nthing called the Christian Religion now in existence, which is no other\nthan a religion mistaken, a corruption and Pagan superstition, the dregs\nand drivellings of the gross ignorance and superstition of the dark\nages; something two thousand times worse than the Paganism of the\nMillenium before the so-called Christian era. But a personification\nafter deifications of the mental phenomena, is a sounding, preaching,\nwriting, carving or painting God, as the perfection of knowledge;\nChrist, as the perfection of reason; and the Holy Spirit of\ncommunication, as the perfection of all attainable moral power by the\nhuman race: making those perfections to be things sought, the things\nworshipped, the best religion, as it undoubtedly is, for the whole human\nrace. It was the best plan of scholastic improvement, when acted upon,\nthat human wisdom could have devised, and to this I would have you bring\nour Church.\n\nThere is a two-fold way of reading the Bible, which I have before\ndescribed, as it is described in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians,\nchap. iii. v. 6, a reading or a ministration according to the letter,\nand another according to the spirit. The Apostle or author of that\nEpistle declares himself to have been a minister of the New Testament\naccording to the spirit, and complains, that the Jews, in his time, did\nnot know how to read the Old Testament. I declare that the Church now\nexisting ministers to nothing but the letter of the Bible, which is a\nministration not to life, but to death; and such is the evidence of the\nwhole era of such a ministration; such has been the cause of the dark\nages, on which no dissenting sect has yet thrown a ray of light; and the\nreform that is now required throughout the Church, that established by\nlaw and all others, is the understanding of the Sacred Scriptures, that\nshall cause them to be taught according to the spirit, the spirit of\nknowledge, reason and constant human improvement. I now see, that none\nof the people called Jews or Christians know how to read either Old or\nNew Testament according to the spirit.\n\nTo read the Bible according to the letter, is to make it a piece of\nhuman history; to make a creation of the world, and an attempt to\naccount for everything past, present and future. I proclaim this conduct\nto be the folly of ignorance, opposed by all real history of the human\nrace, and by all the developments of science, in relation to the earth's\nexistence, its qualities, and its relation to the general planetary\nsystem.\n\nI challenge the proof of any one apparent historical fact, in either Old\nor New Testament. I challenge the production of the existing mention\nof any one of the supposed facts about the personal or material Jesus\nChrist, within one hundred years of the time at which it is said to have\nhappened, putting the disputed passages of Josephus and Tacitus out of\nthe question.\n\nI challenge the proof of the existence of the Jews, in any country, as a\ndistinct nation, before the time of Alexander the Great.\n\nNo other contemporaneous history recognizes such an assumed history as\nthat which I challenge.\n\nAnd farther, I am prepared to prove that Christianity existed among\nRomans, Greeks, Persians, Hindoos, and Celtic Druids, or the northern\nnations, before the Christian era.\n\nThe present ministration of the Church entirely depends on the necessity\nof a clear historical proof of the literal contents of the Old and New\nTestaments.\n\nBut a spiritual reading of that volume solves every difficulty, and\nteaches us how to extract the truth, the system of religion that is\na necessary and sure salvation for the human race, when reduced to\npractice, and to see it as a part of the wisdom of all ancient men of\nall times and countries.\n\nIt is ten years and upwards since I sent a petition to you, Sir, to be\nlaid before the King, asking for a commission to examine my oppugnancy\nto the religion and administration of the existing Church. Will you now\ngrant that commission? If you will not, you, while you remain in power,\nwill blunder on in and through growing troubles and difficulties,\nuntil you, or some other person, be compelled to come to my school for\ninformation. It may be a galling pain, a conscience-smitten task to you\nto do so; but you have no alternative with honesty and wisdom. It is\nnot a little of this cry for Church Reform, that has sprung out of my\nlabours and sufferings. And here am I, though still in prison through\nthat Church's iniquity, in the proud and triumphant position, clearly\nseeing that you can reform nothing in the Church that will satisfy the\npeople without coming to my ground.\n\nYour pledge is so to reform the Church as to make it meet the respect\nand affection of the people. I rejoiced when I read that sentiment; for\nI saw and felt, that I alone had proposed a reform equal to that end;\nand mine, as well as others, by the glorious power of the printing\npress, must come into consideration. I assure you that the\ncorrespondence with the Bishop of London, which I shall append to this\nletter, has been sold to the extent of many thousands, and is in great\ndemand. This is but an enlargement of my second letter to the Bishop. So\nthat my lamp has been constantly trimmed for your advent as a Reformer\nof the Church. It is not what you and others call \"the rabble,\" \"the\ndestructives,\" \"the mob,\" that I seek. I seek you and the Bishops,\nall the learned men in the country, as in application of mind to mind,\nlearning to learning, and wisdom to wisdom.\n\nI will now proceed to explain the distinction between the mystery and\nthe revelation of Christ, between the letter and the spirit of the books\nof the Old and New Testament, between false and true religion, between\nsuperstition and idolatry on one side, and reason with growing knowledge\nin the Church on the other. I begin with the doctrine of the Holy\nTrinity.\n\nThe Church of the dark ages has taught the doctrine professedly founded\nupon the letter of the Sacred Scriptures: of God, as consisting of three\npersons in one person, coexistent, co-equal, and co-eternal, which, in\nexpression, has been abridged, under the name of Trinity, and described\nas the Holy Trinity; and, in definition or distinction, as Father,\nSon and Holy Ghost. This doctrine has always been dissented from while\ndissent has been tolerated. It is no more a physical absurdity than the\ndoctrine of the resurrection of the dead, or the changing of water to\nwine, or the feeding of five thousand with five small loaves and two\nfishes, or any other narrated miracle: still it has been dissented from,\nand when dissented from, no defence could be made of it. In every other\ncase of dissent, the Church could make no defence and no other apology\nthan ancientness of the doctrine in the Church. Truly this has been a\nverification of the blind leading the blind, until both fell into the\nditch together.\n\nWith a doctrine of personality in Deity, including the ideas of physical\nand moral power, this of the Trinity has been declared a mystery\nincomprehensible to the human mind; and I declare that a mystery\nincomprehensible to the human mind, pressed upon human attention, as\nof importance, is an absurdity, and must be an imposture; for who has\ncomprehended it so to state? This is the matter-of-fact view of the\nsubject.\n\nBut the subject being a declared mystery in the theological sense, there\nis a spiritual interpretation to be put upon the language of the letter;\nand that I take to be thus:--\n\nThat the Trinity is not to be considered as of persons, but of\nprinciples; and then we shall find it a philosophical doctrine, true to\nnature, and proved by science; true to physical and to moral science.\n\nAll the ideas that physical science can bring us of creation is the root\nof three in one. Whatever admits of analysis sets forth the truth and\ndoctrine of the Trinity. Water, the great parent of production on this\nplanet, is known to be composed of two gases--hydrogen and oxygen. They\nbecome water through contact and decomposition by electric action. Thus,\nin the order of a Trinity in Unity, we may describe it as of hydrogen,\noxygen, electric contact=water. I do not mention this as any thing new;\nbut it is new in application to a definition of the doctrine of the\nTrinity. Water had not been made but by the electric contact of hydrogen\nwith oxygen, by the power of a Trinity in Unity. Chemistry teaches us,\nthat this power of a Trinity in Unity is an all-creating power; and so\nfar it is man's comprehension of the creating power or Deity, and not\na thing or principle incomprehensible: it is a doctrine older than the\nChristian era; was a doctrine among the Pagan Philosophers, and is true\nas to principles or powers; but not true in our modern sense of persons,\nas identical and separate beings.\n\nA great mistake, too, has been made in the understanding of the word\n_person_, in relation to theology: it never was meant to express beings\nin the image of you and me; but the dramatic manner of presenting a\ndescription of the principles of nature in the theatre, _per sonantem_,\nby sound or song, by fiction, by disguise, by allegory, by mask or\nmystery, by representative action: the revelation of which would be to\nunderstand the principles of nature so personated on the stage, as I\nhave defined the Trinity. And it is in this, and no other sense, that\nI read the names of Deity in the Old or New Testament, as brought\napparently on the stage of human affairs, in person, by the authors;\nthat _personating_ meaning nothing more than a present picture or\nrepresentation of an absent or infinite power, by sounds or voice,\nand sometimes by masks, as was the earliest known practice in dramatic\nexhibition, which explains everything about gods and oracles, and makes\nthe Hymns of Orpheus as sacred as the Psalms of David; as they are as\ncertainly beautiful in poetic composition, and equally useful to human\nwelfare.\n\nYou, Sir, if you enter the House of Commons next month, may be said to\npersonate the Electors of Tamworth; a power in the abstract greater than\nyou, because many and supposed qualified to reject your personation\nand to elect another. Therefore, the personation is not the power\npersonated. As the King's chief Minister, you will also personate the\nKing's Government in the House of Commons; but you are not in reality\nthat governing power; because, it is something distinct from you, and\ngreater than can be concentrated in your person. You, as plain Robert\nPeel, and I, as Richard Carlile, are not persons; and though it is a\ncustom so to use the word and so to describe us, yet it is a mistake and\nmisuse of the word, unless the body may be said to personate the mind,\nsoul, &c. I hope you see that much of the error of our Church has turned\nupon this point; because a person was never the reality of the power,\nand consequently the persons of the Trinity are not to be considered\nthe reality of the Trinity: and hence the Unitarian Dissenter has\nno reasonable ground of dissent. The doctrine of the Trinity, as a\ndescription of Deity, is a valid theological and philosophical doctrine,\nadmitting of no rational dissent.\n\nI wish the Bishops to learn this before the Dissenters, so that the\nChurch may be taught how to call back her errant and ignorant children,\nthat her property may be held together for useful purposes, and not be\nwasted at the shrine of dissenting ignorance or bankrupt government.\n\nAnd now, Sir, can you yet see your way with me, \"to remove every abuse\nthat can impair the efficiency of the establishment; extend the sphere\nof its usefulness, and strengthen and confirm its just claims upon\nthe respect and affections of the people?\" If you cannot, I beg you to\nfollow me farther.\n\nIt is not only in physics that the doctrine of the Trinity is\ntheologically and scientifically correct, but in morals also; and this\nis the foundation of the Christian Religion.\n\nAs God, the Father, personates all science, under the attribute of\nomniscience; that is, personates all existence, both omnipotence and\nomnipresence, and is, in that reality, the fountain of knowledge--the\nall and every part that can be known; so God the Son, Christ or\nLogos, personates the human mind, as the existence or manifestation of\nknowledge and reason, as Jesus or the principle of salvation from evil,\nin possessing that knowledge, and as the true God, in us and with us, in\nand with whom we live, and move, and have our being.\n\nSo God the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Truth, the Comforter to come, to\ncomplete the happiness of the human race, personates that spirit of\nfree communication of knowledge which should be found in the Church,\nthe theatre, not of any superstition or dramatic ceremony, but of the\nfreedom of the human mind, and all its emanations of free enquiry, free\ndiscussion, mutual instruction, which are the necessary elements of\nbrotherly love and peace, in the proving of all things and holding fast\nthat which is good. And thus I prove the truth of the doctrine of the\nTrinity.\n\nThis, Sir, is a true picture or effigies of the moral Trinity of the\nChristian Church, which you will find to be a key to every mysterious\nsentence of the Bible; and I ask you seriously, as between man and man,\nis any thing of this kind known or practised in the present Church?\nAre not the ministers of that Church afraid of every new discovery in\nscience? Have they not, as far as they could, persecuted every man who\nhas attempted to publish any criticism, enquiry, or objection to their\nmysterious subjects? History says--Yes. And I say that they have known\nnothing of the subject for themselves, and that they have dreaded all\nknowledge of, all enquiry into, the subject. Will their pride let them\nlearn of me? Well may I say:--\"Come unto me, all that labour and are\nheavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn\nof me: for I am meek and lowly of heart: and ye shall find rest unto\nyour souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.\" That is the\nlanguage of the personated Logos, or Principle of Reason, addressed to\nthe present state of British mind, as it was formerly addressed to the\ngeneral state of the human mind.\n\nThe doctrine of the transubstantiation of bread and wine, as the\nelements of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, into the real body and\nblood of Christ, has been another stumbling-block in the Church. On this\nhead, our law-established Church has dissented from its former self,\nwhich when I mentioned on my last jury trial, the Judge, Sir Allan Park,\ncalled it a vilifying of the Church. I knew better; but saw that the\nJudge was not a man to be reasoned with, and so I did not press the\nsubject: but through this letter and your name, Sir, I desire to teach\nhim how it has been done. Transubstantiation is no stumbling-block to my\nmind.\n\nThe twenty-eighth article of the Church says on this\nsubject:--\"Transubstantiation (or the change of the substance of bread\nand wine) in the Supper of the Lord, cannot be proved by Holy Writ; but\nis repugnant to the plain words of Scripture, overthroweth the nature of\na Sacrament, and hath given occasion to many superstitions. The body of\nChrist is given, taken, and eaten in the Supper, only after an heavenly\nand spiritual manner; and the mean whereby the body of Christ is\nreceived and eaten in the Supper, is Faith.\"\n\nIt is very clear to me that the Bishops of that time, the sixteenth\ncentury, did not know how to read Holy Writ. I could defend the entire\ndoctrine of transubstantiation, in its fullest application, from the\nlanguage of the Gospel according to Saint John. This subject affords\nme another proof, that the doctrine of transubstantiation is much older\nthan any of the books of the New Testament: for, where understood,\nthere is nothing in theology more dear than this doctrine, or that comes\nnearer to a physical and moral truth.\n\nFirst, let us understand that the root of the word _Sacrament_ is a\nsecret in the mind; and _Transubstantiation_ is a change of substance\nfrom one to another thing. Now the secret in the mind is, where\nunderstood, and where not understood there is no Sacrament, that,\nlike the Trinity, all the appearances of God are in the principle\nof transubstantiation or change from one to another thing. All\nis motion.--Nature knows no rest. All is change, all is\ntransubstantiation. It is like the Trinity,--one of the attributes of\nDeity, one not to be doubted,--because everywhere visible. The present\nChurch of England calls it a damnable doctrine; but it is so called\nthrough ignorance. Like that of the Trinity, it is a doctrine much older\nthan the Christian era; and so also was that of the Lord's Supper, as a\npractised ceremony.\n\nWhen the name of Christ was set up to personate all the attributes of\nDeity, the various names of the Pagan gods were decried. It had become\na matter of wisdom thus to set up the name of Christ as a personation\nof all the gods and goddesses: it was a concentration of philosophy, to\nunite mankind in one form of religion and for one great purpose, that\nof progressive and perpetual improvement. The plan was good; but the\nprinciple has never been rightly developed. Teaching by mystery is a bad\nsystem. The mass of the people are not so to be taught. We must begin\nand teach by revelation. The Christian Religion, when revealed, will be\neternal, and realise all its real promises of peace on earth, good-will\namong men, and a land flowing with milk and honey.\n\nBefore the name of Christ was used, Bacchus was called a Saviour, as\nwere many other if not all the gods, as Jehovah is declared the only\nSaviour in the Old Testament. And this Bacchus had the name of Jesus,\nor Saviour, inscribed on his altar pieces, in the very letters now\ninscribed in our Churches, the three Greek letters Iota, Eta, Sigma,\nI.H.S., not Jesus Hominum Salvator, in initials, though so in meaning;\nbut Yes, which is the same as Jesus, and signifies Saviour. Isis is of\nthe same root, one of whose names was Ceres. Ceres personated corn or\nbread, and Bacchus personated wine. It was a Pagan custom, in religious\nceremonies, to break and eat bread in honour of Ceres, and to pour and\ndrink wine in honour of Bacchus, as the bread and wine or body and blood\nof salvation, of both physical and moral salvation.\n\nChrist being made all, both physical and moral Saviour, was intended to\nswallow up all the various Pagan honours and ceremonies, every one\nof which, in part or whole, is still retained in our law-established\nChurch; and so Christ personated both the elements, bread and wine, as\nhis body and blood, as before they had been called body of Ceres and\nblood of Bacchus.\n\nBe it remembered, that the Pagans had no other ideas of these matters,\nthan those of dramatic effect. The origin of the drama was in and with\nthe religion of the human race. And we must come back or come up to this\nfor a right understanding and use of the Christian Religion.\n\nAs food, bread and wine are the best elemental representatives of the\nbody and blood of the human being, and will sustain human life in health\nand vigour. As bread and wine, they are elements of the physical nature\nof God; and when taken into the human body, they transubstantiate in\nthat body, and, in making blood, become the blood which is necessary\nto sustain the moral god or reason in the godly man: so, through the\ntransubstantiation, they do not cease to be the body and blood of\nChrist. This is what is meant in the matter, and this solves the\nlanguage of Saint Augustine, cited in the twenty-ninth article, that\nthough the wicked eat the consecrated bread and drink the wine, they do\nnot eat the real body and blood of Christ, because in leading bad\nlives they do not improve themselves, and so eat and drink but for new\ncondemnation.\n\nThe revelation of the mysterious word sin, in the Sacred Scriptures,\nis generally applicable to the ignorance of the human race; and so of\noriginal sin, which is not to be otherwise reasonably understood. Man\nis born without knowledge, but may, by due care, be made a member of the\nChurch of Christ; that is, may be made a scholar, as the foundation of a\nwise and good man.\n\nI shrink not from a full and reasonable explanation of every part of\nthe mysterious doctrine of the Christian Church, in this way; and I am\nprepared to maintain, before all men, that this is the true revelation\nof the mystery, the true spirit of the letter, both of the Old and New\nTestament: \"the truth as it is in Jesus\"--in nature: the truth, by God.\n\nThis beautiful and deeply-woven allegory embraces, in its mystery,\nalmost every known process of nature; and must, in my opinion, have\nbeen the labour of the united science of many generations of the wisest\nmen---of truly inspired men. This very doctrine of transubstantiation\nin the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, is descriptive, and is in fact\nand principle, the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ in. man.\nThe bread and wine are swallowed, are buried in the human stomach, there\ndecomposed or transubstantiated, formed into chyle, rise again into\nblood, and form the spirit of the man: which is, in reality, a death of\nthe body and resurrection of the spirit: and the brain being the chief\nof the sentient principle, there becomes an ascension into that kingdom\nof heaven, which it is in a reasonable man, and than; which there can\nbe, by law of nature, no other. The same or similar explanation applies\nto the first and second birth; the birth of the physical body in its\noriginal sin, the second the birth of the spiritual mind or inward man,\nwhich is the Lord Christ Jesus. It is a divine riddle, and such is the\nsolution.\n\nThe riddle is of larger comprehension than the mere relations of God to\nman. It is an astronomical almanack, a written and dramatized picture\nof the celestial globe; and is, in truth, a most perfect allegory of all\nknown nature, both in physics and morals, in matter and spirit.\nThere are no such men in the Church now as the writers of the Sacred\nScriptures; none even with sufficient knowledge to understand them. We\nhave fallen; yes, we have fallen into the dark ages; and the revelation,\nwhen known, is to be the millennium. We have fallen by that Scarlet\nWhore, the Babylon of Mystery; and have to rise again, by getting a\nknowledge of Christ, which is not now in the Church, nor yet among any\nof the Dissenters so called. Nothing can be imagined more anti-Christian\nin spirit and character, than that which has been called the Christian\nChurch of the last fifteen hundred years.\n\nChrist, in his physical character, personates the sun and solar year,\nwhile his twelve disciples personate the twelve months, or the signs of\nthe zodiac; and; in this sense, we have a death, descent, resurrection\nand ascension, once a year. It is in that sense he performs the miracle\nof turning the water of the pot of Aquarius (January or Winter) into the\nwine of Autumn; the story, of course, is told, in the gospel, after the\nform of a personated narrative of a dramatic incident. So the product of\nthe corn-seed of five small loaves and two fishes, becomes sufficient,\nin the season, to feed five thousand. The knowledge and ingenuity of the\nstate of mind, that could so construct the allegory, as an harmonious\npicture of the works of nature, is absolutely wonderful, and has my\nadmiration, even my ejaculatory adoration; and I am not a little proud\nof my own ingenuity, in having penetrated thus far into so deep and\nmysterious a subject. It has brought me perfect peace of mind, as to the\ngeneral system of nature, and left me burning with the desire to acquire\nmore knowledge.\n\nIn the Church now existing, is there aught but mystery that can be\ncalled its religion? And in mystery unexplained, unrevealed, can\nthere be aught but impudent knavery in the ministration, with general\nhypocrisy or credulous folly in the reception? I have penetrated\nthe subject so deeply as not to shrink from saying, that the present\nministration of the Church is an impudent and mischievous imposture,\nsanctioned by the custom of antiquity, that neither instructs nor\nmoralizes the people; for, notwithstanding all the pretences to\nreligion, greater immorality than is here found cannot be supposed to\nexist among a people holding or held together as a community, in daily\ndanger of disruption, and utterly without a code of moral guidance or\nguides: and this not so much among the poor as among the rich. Even this\ncity is in danger, from its ill-assorted and ill-conditioned\npopulation, of all the disasters that befell Babylon, Jerusalem, Rome,\nConstantinople or Paris. And almost every village in the Island groans\nunder want, and courts even the desolation of contested revolution for a\nchange. And that very feeling and profession, which is now miscalled\nthe religion of peace, will, from its state of ignorant dissension,\nonly serve to whet the appetite for contention and slaughter, and make\nanother war in the name of God.\n\nI call upon you to repent, by which I mean reflection. I ask you to be\nhonest, and that, too, because the season of profitable dishonesty is\nexhausted, and you have wealth enough: save it. It is never too late\nto reform and do justly; but the later the reform is deferred, the more\nnecessity that the justice be rigid and prompt. I feel that if I had\nyour authority, I could save the Church and its property, not for a\nfarther career of its iniquity and error, but as a noble institution for\nthe good of the people, a sufficient school for all, and a hospital for\nthe infirm; to which, I add, that this, or nothing good, must have been\nthe purpose of its first institution. I believe, from what I now see\nof the foundation of the Christian Religion, that this was the first\npurpose of its institution. Banish the superstition of the Church, plant\nthe tree of knowledge there, and you will quickly overthrow the\nmorally pestilent Dissenters. I mean, of course, by moral means, by\nthe exhibition of more knowledge and wisdom and utility than they. This\nwould be salvation and reform to every good institution in the country;\nfor when knowledge becomes the nation's religion and moral pole-star,\neverything good is safe, everything evil will vanish before a discussion\nof its merits. This or blood-thirsty contention is your choice. You may\ndelay for a while; but you cannot otherwise reform. You, by delay, will\nmerely bid the people wait until they are strong enough to combat your\nauthority. Delay will be a challenge to them of physical combat.\n\nWhat can confer more dignity on the \"Dignitaries of the Church\" than\nfor the Legislature to say to them:--\"Feed the people with knowledge\nand no longer fill them with superstition?\" If I understand human nature\nrightly, it has more pleasure in honesty than in dishonesty.\n\nWould the experimental lectures of a Faraday, desecrate the building?\nOr a beautifully reflected picture of the heavens and its explanation\nlessen true devotion? Would moral; science profane the pulpit or injure\nthe congregation? Would the real catechism; and instruction, of children\nin matters of physical and moral science be of less importance than the\nparrotlike catechism of the language of the present mystery? There\nwould then be some ground for a bishop's or overseer's examination\nand confirmation; but what does confirmation now mean? All that I can\nremember of it is a learn-ing to repeat from memory a prayer and a\ncreed, perhaps a few commandments, which are studied to-day, to be gone\nthrough tomorrow, and neglected ever after. Give the people something\nwhich they can feel and know to be useful, which they can reduce to\npractice, and they will emulate each other in flocking to Church at\nthe appointed times. You will then have need of still more churches to\nreceive the increasing population. It will be an emulative pleasure\nto children, a new delight to parents, a mutual gratification to be at\nschool together in church.\n\nI can say from observation, comparison and experience, that among the\nmost moral of the working people in the metropolis, will be found\nthose who have attended scientific lectures on the Sunday, and who have\nthereby been taught, to contemn superstition. You find them not in the\nhouse of intoxication; but passing soberly in the evening from their\nhomes to the school; and gratifiedly after the lecture from the school\nto their homes. The greatest error that toryism and superstition have\nfallen into has been to suppose that knowledge will make a people\ndisorderly. Bacon's aphorism is true, that superstition is the _primum\nmobile_ of sedition, the great agitator; and ignorance the great\ndisorderer of States. Is it not so in Ireland? Is it not your greatest\ntrouble in this island? The wisest act of the life of the late Lord\nCastlereagh was to propose to send _Paine's Age of Reason_ among the\nRoman Catholics of Ireland. If it had been so thoroughly done, when he\nproposed it, they would have been all quiet enough by this time. Real\nknowledge is the water-cup of sobriety for a people: with that they\nwill seek to rid themselves of nothing but error and evil that cannot be\nmorally defended.\n\nMake the change that I propose in the business and ceremony of the\nChurch, and you instantly make a Christian Religion, eminently Catholic,\nthat will not only annihilate the Dissenters, but convert Jew, Mahometan\nand Pagan. It will be irresistible to all mankind. They cannot argue\nagainst science; but each argues against the superstition of the other.\nScience is the essence of Judaism, but the men called Jews understand it\nnot. It is the foundation of their name, the ground on which they have\nbeen considered a chosen people, it is the only sign of God in man, the\nonly proof of true religion. Science and morals are the whole duty and\nall needful to man; beyond which he can gain nothing but superstition,\nerror and evil. Science and morals, then, are the only proper business\nof the Church. Let us have our National Education in the Church. Let\nthe Church be the fountain of knowledge, and all be there baptized, as a\ntrue sign of mental birth and membership of Christ.\n\nGather together all the property that was ever ecclesiastical; get\nit back from whoever may hold it; take it out of the hands of the\npriesthood or the ministers of the Church, tithes and all; and give\nit into the hands of its true owners, the people, each parish with its\nseparate share, and let the majority of the parishioners make the best\nuse of it they can for ecclesiastical, that is scholastical purposes;\nand with it, also, provide for their infirm and accidentally poor. This\none act of public justice and public good would go far toward settling\nthe affairs of this distracted and unsettled nation, and do injury to no\none. Let the State Parliament be also the Church Convocation, which may\nbe well done when there are no superstitious disputes, all will go on\nsmoothly with due and sufficient authority and order, and Britain look\nforward to happy days. It would be the regeneration of the whole earth\nin a few years. This is what is meant by the promise of the knowledge of\nthe Lord covering the earth as the waters fill the ocean.\n\nSomebody must publicly break through the trammels of superstition, I\nhave done it as far as a private man can do it; but wo public man in\nEngland has yet dared to approach the subject. Be you the first. No\nother circumstance could bring you a more imperishable name and fame.\nOf wealth you have enough. I ask nothing more than that you fulfil the\npromise of your administration made to the Electors of Tamworth. If you\nsay, that you did not mean what I express, I shall answer you, that you\ncould have no other meaning. Were I in Parliament, I would carry the\nsubject in spite of prejudice; so strong is my faith in the power of\nknowledge. I would move, in such a clear and simple way, that a man\nshould not hold up his face to his fellow man after voting against me.\n\nGive us a commission, with power to enquire into this subject. I will be\ncontent to wait all the time that justice to all concerned may require.\nIf religion be any thing more than I make it--mental cultivation from\ninfancy to death, it must be the private business of every man's life\nand nothing national; like national sobriety, it must be made up of\nthe sobriety of each individual, and cannot rest on social forms and\nceremonies. Ceremonial sobriety would be but the mockery of a good\nprinciple. I care not how much repenting and proving we have, how much\ntrial, let us but have free, full, and fair enquiry and discussion, in\nParliament and out of Parliament. Giving a man knowledge cannot be a\ndisqualification for true religion. Feeding him with science can have no\ntendency to injure his morals. Occupying his time well can be no source\nof bad habits. Spurring him on to a moral emulation in the acquisition\nof equal or more knowledge than his neighbour, will not create ill will\ntoward that neighbour.\n\nThe best occupation of time is a question at the very root of individual\nhappiness and national prosperity: I find it everywhere sadly neglected;\nhere in prison, out in church, at the theatre, in public and private\nbusiness, in families, in pursuit of pleasure, in the army--everywhere.\nIt can be scarcely said, that there is anything solid in our actions;\nfrivolity prevails everywhere, and is mixed up with our most serious\nprofessions. I cannot look back to Pagan times without seeing that they\nwere a superior people to ourselves, and that we have fallen, through\nthe management of our religion and politics, from, rather than risen,\nabove them: we exceed them in nothing but hard and lengthy labour for\nsmall wages, insufficient for the necessaries of life. We have not\nlearnt from Seneca, \"that he lives longest who has made the best use of\nhis time.\"\n\nBe it your study to seek to give us some sound moral reforms, and sink\nparty politics in the moral of public good; withdraw all licences from\nhouses of intoxication and late hours; let there be no public resort,\nin Parliament or elsewhere, after ten at night; if it would be no\nabridgement of general liberty, confine shop business to limited\nhours, that the conductors and assistants may have due time for mental\nimprovement. Some of the young men and women in London shops, bitterly\nlament the want of more time for rational recreation, for health and\nimprovement. They are among the veriest of slaves in confinement. Let\nknowledge be once legislatively encouraged, remove all taxes from it,\nand then a hundred minor arrangements, by legislation, may be made\nconducive to public good, and a bar be set against injurious, offensive,\nand slavish competition. It is the Tory fear--and, in justice, I will\nadd, Whig fear too--of knowledge that has produced all the present\nwrongs and evils of the country; for if cunning men have legislated,\nit has not been done for the public good; because there has not been\nsufficient public responsibility.\n\nThis is all Church as well as State business that I am proposing. The\nclear distinction as to Church and State is--that the Church means the\npeople, congregated for mental improvement; and the State means the\nexercise of that mental improvement in their public business: so true it\nis, that Church must precede and give character to the State.\n\nTithes are a recognition of the original proprietorship of the\nwhole people in the land; a rent paid under that consideration,\nappropriate-able to the sustenance of the poor, and the mental\nimprovement of all.\n\nChurch Property is the property of the whole people who constitute the\nChurch; and not, as now, of the ministers, who profess to be, and ought\nto be, the servants of the Church. At present, the servants are set\nabove, defy, and tyrannize over the masters. All public officers in\nChurch and State, from the King to the Beadle, should be subject to the\nperiodical election of an intelligent people: without this, there can be\nno just and dignified authority--no proper public officers,--all will be\ntyranny, corruption, and inefficiency!\n\nIn thus stating my subject, I am not insensible to the state of mind\nand conflicting interests with which you have to deal: but you are in\na dilemma, from which nothing but wisdom and honesty can relieve you;\nevery false or inefficient step will weaken you; any attempt to patch\nthe holes made by Time in the mystery of the Church, will be like the\ntinker's work of mending one and making two: it is rusty and rotten,\nand must be knocked to pieces and burnt up, to produce the brilliant\nrevelation from its ashes! There can be no mixture of the mystery with\nthe revelation. The latter is a spirit that will explode the former;\nand, if you be a good Christian, let me tell you that the advent of the\nrevelation will be the fulfilment of the promise of the gospel. We have\nhad nothing but the mystery, nothing but the dark ages of ignorance and\nsuperstition: the mystery is not Christianity; the revelation alone,\nwhich we have not had, is Christianity. The mystery and the revelation\nare as unlike each other, as the grossest superstition is unlike reason.\n\nWhat a delightful state of society do I see before me, when the\nwatchword of all shall be--GET KNOWLEDGE! The Bible abounds with this\nexhortation; tells us all our disorders are lack of knowledge; and yet\nwe have been through centuries, almost through millenia, studiously and\ntyrannically keeping each other blind and ignorant. This has been the\nreign of the devil, Anti-Christianity, and not Christianity. When the\nportico of each Church-build-ing shall bear the inscription of--KNOW\nTHYSELF, AND ENTER HERE TO GET KNOWLEDGE, the communicant will see a\nfriend in his minister, and the minister will strive to raise up wisdom\nin his communicant.\n\nNow what do we see? Studied ignorance, and suppression of knowledge with\nboth: each ashamed to look in the face of the other. And wherever a\nman advances beyond the existing state of mind, and publishes his\nsentiments, he is persecuted as an outcast, and unrelentingly subjected\nto prison-discipline, since the law has ceased to make the \"offence\"\ncapital.\n\nThe unrevealed mystery of religion has been the curse and moral devil\nof the human race. A statesman cannot be wise and honest without\nsetting his face against it, and seeking to rid of it the minds of\nhis countrymen. With it, a state can have no permanent peace, nor can\nstatesmanship be an honour. If you are not master of this subject, I am;\nif you will not press it upon the attention of the country, I will;\nand I have not a doubt, but that, by its superior moral power, it will\nenable me to succeed you in office. I invite you to take the task in\nyour hands, and I will be content to be anything, to remain in prison,\nif this great reform be but put in motion while I live.\n\nIt is simply to begin to teach the people something useful in the\nChurch, to give them useful knowledge, as easy in practicability as it\nis for a ripe scholar to become a schoolmaster to uninstructed youth. We\nhave teachers all prepared for the purpose in the Clergy themselves. You\nhave now to deal with a suspected and not a respected clergy. Though the\ngreat mass of the people do not understand where the fault theologically\nlies, yet they have instinctive discernment enough to see, that the\nrelation of their condition to that of the Clergy is not founded in\nhonesty and social utility. As sure as I, who see through the whole\nsubject, the people feel that they are not fairly dealt with by the\nClergy; and thus feeling, with such a Clergy, there can be no social\npeace. The feeling will increase as they get knowledge on the subject,\nand I have thrown that knowledge into the market, in defiance of all the\npower you have possessed or can possess; and that knowledge you cannot\nwithdraw from the market of human intellect: the whole people will get\nat it in time.\n\nYour boast is now that of being chief or leader of the CONSERVATIVES.\nThis is not what the nation wants. It needs purgation of error,\nabuse and wrong, and a restoration of all the first principles of its\nInstitutions. It is a fair question to put to you and your party, if\nyou know the first principles of the Institutions of this country? You\ncertainly have seen none of them in practice; for your scholarship and\nadministration have been full of error and wickedness. As I told Sir\nAllan Park, that the Church had dissented from itself, so I now tell\nyou, that every Institution in this country that is a thousand years\nold in name, has dissented from itself, and has, in fact, been changed\ndiabolically--which means directly opposite, or from good to evil; and\nthere never was a country whose cup of iniquity was more filled.\n\nConservation means preservation, and there is nothing in the present\nInstitutions of this country but public wrongs and private abuses to\nbe preserved. The name of a Destructive is far more honourable, in\nthe present state of the country; the only name indeed that can be\nhonourable, if it be interpreted, an intended destruction of error and\nabuses, of which the country is brim-full, and the fermentation pouring\nover.\n\nI dislike all these names. They are all dishonestly used. They form no\nreal distinction between man and man. The word Radical has always been\nto me an offensive word; the more particularly so as I have seen some\nvery bad and ignorant men making a great noise under it and about it. We\nwant knowledge and honesty to make it practicable, and no names by which\nto be distinguished: such names spring from ignorance and dishonesty.\n\nThe origin of our ancient Institutions has its foundation laid in the\nmoral of law springing from the law of morals; and the restoration would\nbe easy, if existing authority would resign itself to the change, or\nif it could be overpowered and made so to do. One or the other of these\nchanges is necessary, before anything can be done, and the first the\nwisest and to be preferred. I believe there was a time when they existed\nwithout a mixture of any kind of deception practised upon the people,\nand that is just what I desire to see restored; and which, I am sure,\nfrom the growth of knowledge and criticism, is the one thing needful to\nkeep the country in a state of inward peace.\n\nKnowledge is the only spiritual interest of the people: it should be\nfostered, promoted and increased in the Church, so as to be equalized\nas far as possible among the mass or greater number. The ignorance of\nthe people has been an excuse for many an act of hypocrisy, deception\nand tyranny: its continuance is now the fault of the Church, and of\nthose who have its direction. Cunning cannot invent an assumption that\nany qualification can better serve the spiritual and temporal interests\nof the people than knowledge. Their degree of knowledge is the all that\nis spiritual or of good within them. It is an affair, too, where honest\nbrokerage is scarcely probable; because no check can be kept upon it.\nWhat, therefore, is not to be defended as knowledge is not of God but of\nthe devil. In that sense, I arraign the whole Church as now constituted,\nand challenge it to stand a trial. I fear it is now too corrupt even to\nbe militant.\n\nLet us suppose you about to attempt a reconciliation with the present\nDissenters, as to the doctrines and ceremonies of the Church. To please\nthe advocates of adult baptism, you must exchange the infant for adult\nbaptism, and then you will displease those who are not pleased with\nadult baptism. To please the Unitarians, you must give up the doctrine\nof the Trinity; and then you will displease all the Trinitarians. What\nis to be done to satisfy the Wesleyans or Methodists? They will have\nirregular prayers and preachings, which are contrary to the discipline\nof the Church. What is to be done with the Swedenborgians, the\nMuggletonians, and Southcotians? How can you furnish spirit and noise\nenough for the Unknown Tongues of the Irvingites? And what but the\nspirit of silence will conciliate the Quakers? All of them will require\nthe abolition of your bishopricks and other offices, while none of them\nwill object, and all will claim if a chance offer, to divide the Church\nProperty among them. The spirit of dissent, in matters of religion,\nprevailing in this country, is nothing more than an infectious mental\ndisease: with it, there is no reason mixed. The moment it becomes a\nprofit to lead such a congregation, men of comparative talent as to\ncapability will take it up and lead; and thus the thing has gone on\nto confusion and mental distraction, because the Church was not in a\ncondition to defend itself and set a better example. You cannot please\none sect of the Dissenters, without increasing the displeasure of the\nother: and thus your task is hopeless, on any other ground than\nthat which I propose, to beat them in the superior communication of\nknowledge.\n\nOn the other hand, let us suppose the Church of England to begin to\nreveal the mystery of Jesus Christ, which I define, and maintain, to\nconsist of a cultivation of the human mind, with all possible knowledge\nand reason; all other Churches must instantly bow to its superiority.\nThe effect among men throughout the earth would be wonderful and\nintellectually electric. It is the only system that can be imagined to\nbe a Catholic Christianity, and the very thing that is meant by the word\nCatholic, something alike suited to the welfare of every man, and which\npresents the principle of a moral equality, which is the only foundation\nfor true liberty, and the only guarantee for an improvement of public\nmorals; one that would make the Church an attraction to the wisest\nas well as to the most ignorant of men; those as teachers, these as\nlearners.\n\nWe may carry the idea farther; and as in the present state of\nmind, millions in Europe and America are attached to an idea of the\nsuperiority of the Church authorities at Rome, through ignorance and\ncustom I grant, but not less attached,--I would, to humour that conceit\nand turn it to good, consent to make the Pope of Rome the centre of\ncommunication from all parts of the earth for discovered knowledge, as\nit would be desirable to have such a central recipient and fountain to\ngive it forth again in the best possible manner. This would accelerate\nthe reconciliation of the dissenting race, without an idea of\ndishonourable submission on the part of an individual. Indeed, the\nperfection of my proposition is, that no man can feel injury or\ndegradation in the change. It is an overthrow of nothing, but simply\nthe development and better understanding of the mystery that has\nexisted since the world of human intellect began: the revelation of that\nmystery; and, consequently, the completion or carrying out of the true\nChristian scheme.\n\nIt is not to be expected, that, in a pamphlet letter, I can do more than\nbriefly notice a few leading points of this important subject; but I am\nquite prepared to extend it through volumes, and shall go on so to do. I\nam quite prepared to meet or be one of any commission on the subject.\nI would willingly put my life upon the hazard of verifying my present\nviews of original Christianity. It would have been done in former ages,\nhad the printing press existed. Its doing now is consequent on the\ngradual power of criticism which the Press has brought with it into\nexistence. It is the truth, and must prevail. It is the God in man.\nIt is the Church of Christ, against which the gates of Hell shall not\nprevail. They have certainly prevailed against every other existing\nChurch, and the whole of the past is a wreck.\n\nWhen speaking of the original Christian Religion, or of the revelation\nof the mystery, I wish to be understood, as not meaning that the\nrevelation was ever before preached or openly taught to the human race\non any part of the earth. We have no evidence of it beyond the reasoning\nand moral precepts of the philosophical world, which were not put forth\nas a scheme or system of religion. But when it is confessedly the fact,\nthat something called a Christian scheme has been talked about for\neighteen hundred years; and when we can trace the fac simile of that\nsomething, even in its whole nomenclature, principle and practice,\nthrough Greeks and Romans, Persians and Hindoos, up to the Celtic Druids\nand earliest known universal worship of Budha, the first personation of\nJesus Christ now on record;--I mean, that the mystery has been the only\ngeneral public part of it, and that the knowledge of the revelation was\nconfined to the learned class and ancient mysteries of all countries,\nwas the esoteric doctrine of the initiated into those mysteries; and\nthe breaking up of those mysteries, from the time of Alexander to the\nAugustan era, was the cause of the first publication in writing of the\nbooks or traditions handed down through the agency of those secret and\nsacred Associations, bearing the mystery only on its surface and by the\nletter; and that after the mystery was so published, the very ministers\nof it lost the revelation, which is what the Freemasons profess to be\nin search of, the lost word, the word that I have found and now declare,\nthat the salvation by Jesus Christ is only to be found in the increasing\ncultivation of the human mind with all attainable knowledge; that the\ntrue worship of God has no other meaning, the root of the word worship\nbeing to cultivate, and the field to be cultivated the human mind; that\nrepentance is reflection for improvement; the second birth is the birth\nof mind, as distinguished from physical birth or birth of body, the one\ndescribing the man Adam, the other the God Christ; and that the kingdom\nof Heaven is to be established upon a general knowledge and practice of\nthis revelation, is to be upon this earth, in successive generations\nof the human race, and not reasonably to be sought under any other\nspeculation, calculation or hope. These are not only possibilities but\nprobabilities, and immediate practicabilities, if the existing Devil\nwill be pleased to retire: if not, we must resist him, and, as we are\npromised, on that condition, he will flee.\n\nSuch is the foundation of a Catholic Church, from which there can be no\ndissent; for what is understood cannot be dissented from: the existing\ndissent is ignorance dissenting from ignorance. In the common use of the\nword, I am not a Dissenter; but a trier, prover, teacher, revealer of\nthat which is the true meaning of the mystery that has been through\nignorance the cause of the dissent. The personation of Deity in the\nwritten mystery has been nothing more than a drama prepared for stage\neffect, which, to the initiated only, would be matter of instruction or\nrefreshment of memory. The ancient mystery meant a play, a drama, in our\nmodern sense; but was first called a mystery, then a morality; was first\nprivate, and afterwards made common to the public, and is now for\nthe first time revealed to the general understanding, through the\ninstrumentality of the printing press.\n\nIn my lecturings and discussions, both in town and country, I find this\nrevelation has a great charm among all classes who have good temper and\ngood manners to hear patiently. It is pure reason, pure knowledge, pure\ntranslation of language; it clashes with no other man's knowledge, and\nI have not found the man who can raise an argument against it. Of its\nfinal and complete success in regenerating the world, I have not a\ndoubt; it is only a question of time. It is now a question, if you and\nthe Parliament will look at it. I know you well enough to know, that you\nwill not like its propounder; but who else has been ripe and bold enough\nto do it? Who else deserves the honour of being its propounder; but\nI, its honest martyr and zealous student, through a ten years'\nimprisonment? I call you to witness my fidelity in this matter. I was\nyour prisoner through four years; you sanctioned the two years I had\nsuffered before you came to the Home Department: you sanctioned my\nimprisonment by Lord Melbourne, through thirty-two months: and, by\nvirtue of your office, you are sanctioning my present imprisonment. I\ndo not say this in anger. I am retaliating upon you, as I would have you\nretaliate upon the Dissenters, by superior knowledge. If you do not\nnow or early take me by the hand, I shall drive you out of the field of\npolitics, and all who may succeed of your disposition.\n\nIt is not to be denied, that there are moral exhortations put forth in\nevery Church; the mystery would not pass on the people without them. But\nit is a truth, that, in all of them, morals are treated as a secondary\nconsideration; and in some of the madder dissenting Churches, are\ncounted as of no weight in the question of religion. The truth, as it is\nin Jesus, is, that morals are every thing as to practice, and knowledge\nwith succeeding reason, the principles of speculation, the WORD to be\nsought, or the prize to be gained, the crown of glory, the spiritual\nand immortal life, which is emphatically the language of Saint John's\nGospel; and this is the totality of the root and principle of the\nChristian Religion, the promotion of which is the only proper business\nof the ministration in the Church. No mystery: down with mystery. It\nis the folly of the human race, and worse than ignorance, or knowing, or\nconfessing to know, nothing. There is no Christ in the mystery. \"How can\nwe reason, but from what we know?\" The knowledge must be first. Nothing\nprecedes knowledge but the thing to be known. Nothing is required after;\nbut a dealing with the thing known by principle of reason. Unknown\nworlds, unknown spirits, unknown matter, is nothing to us, until the\nknowledge is obtained. Our knowledge is our all, in moral power, and we\ncan have nothing of a religious nature but our knowledge. Superstitious\nfears, we know to be the property or sensation of ignorance and\nmisconception. We are morally responsible for nothing but an improper\nuse of our knowledge. It is wickedness to teach ignorance any other\ndoctrine.\n\nMy Christian proposition for the Reform of the Church harmonizes with\nall science, and clashes with nothing but positive error and wicked\npolicy; and I venture to tell you, that you can find no other scheme to\nproduce the same effect, and to give satisfaction to the present and to\nall future generations of men, to make the Church \"meet the respect and\naffections of the people.\"\n\nEach paltry sect now considers its tenets as a Catholic Faith; but\nthe truth is, as Dr. Oeddes well observed, \"that what is Christian\nis Catholic, and what is Catholic must be Christian;\" but then, this\nfollows, that neither Christianity nor Catholicity will bear a union\nwith the word dissent, unless the dissenter be an intelligent corrector\nat the same time: they are adverse to every admissible idea of\nundiscussed dissent. All standing dissent is of the devil; while\nChristianity and Catholicity are of God and Heaven. The multiplication\ntable, the elements of Euclid, the doctrines of the Trinity and\nTransubstantiation, the proved analysis and composition of all known\nsubstances, are Catholic doctrines, from which nothing but ignorance can\ndissent. The whole of the present Church Ritual is a mass of words\nthat conceal a truth; but that truth is not known in the Church, cannot\ntherefore be used or worshipped, and the words can only be deemed the\nlumber of the memory: treating man as man treats a parrot, teaching him\nconstantly to exclaim \"pretty Poll,\" without giving him understanding\nwhom or what \"Poll\" personates.\n\nIf I were to sit in Church through a morning or evening service, I\nshould have a perfect understanding of all the words used, and,\nconsequently, should be worshipping according to the limit of THE WORD\nthere presented; because I have in me the spirit of revelation.\n\nBut this is not the case with those who now attend the Church, their\nattendance is upon form, ceremony, mystery, hypocrisy, which is the\nreal meaning of the whole present business of the Church: hypocrisy,\nor dramatical acting, set forth in a mystery, without a mixture or\naccompanying revelation; and like the flimsy gildings of a theatre,\nor the spangles of an actress' dress, gilded over with a little moral\nexhortation, that you may observe or not, as you please, so as you are\na cheerful payer of all dues, rates, and oblations. The first revision\nwanted in the Church is a translation of the revelation from the dead\nlanguage of its mystery, into language comprehensible by all. Consequent\nupon such a revision would be, that the parishioners would take the\nmanagement of their own Church Property into their own hands, and\nrecover and hold THEIR MOST SACRED RENT OF TITHE, on recovery of the\nknowledge that they are the first and inalienable proprietors of the\nland.\n\nMy subject is so far novel as to justify a little repetition. That twice\ntwo is four need not be repeated; but where the human being is enveloped\nin a cloud of verbose mystery, that cloud can only be dispelled by\ncontinued flashes of moral lightning. So I will return to methodical\nstatement.\n\nThe mystery of the existing Church, in all its grades of dissent, having\nset forth and caused the belief of a temporal and local existence of the\npersonated principles of Deity, as distinct and separate from ourselves,\nin imitation of the Pagan Mythology, and not as simulated beings; it\nis requisite, as matter of proof, sooth and truth, that a case of clear\nhuman history of the circumstances be first made out, the doing of which\nmy knowledge, after trial, challenges; and if that could be done,\nthe more difficult task would remain, to prove, that such beings, the\nauthors of such circumstances, as could be historically proved, were\nsuper-human. If the first cannot be done, the clumsy mystery falls to\nthe ground, as the Dagon of the day, before historical criticism: and\nif the first be done, and the second cannot bear the light of scientific\nand philosophical criticism, the mystery is still but a mummery, which\nbelief can no longer prop, nor physical power farther propagate; it is\nthrown into the crucible of moral criticism, and men will not longer\nconsent to believe that the same causes will demonstrate differing\neffects, nor that varying causes may be made to demonstrate the same\neffect.\n\nI have read in public prints of your creditable attendance at the Royal\nInstitution of Albemarle Street, on the demonstrative Lectures of Mr.\nFaraday in the Science of Chemistry. When there, were you asked to\nbelieve anything?\n\nWas not everything demonstrated, so that the words were verified by the\nacts of the Lecturer? If Mr. Faraday had played you _hocus pocus_ or\nlegerdemain tricks, as a pretence of chemistry, would you have been\nsatisfied? If he had told you of strange and incomprehensible things,\nwhich he could not demonstrate, would you have believed?--I think not:\nI give you credit for a better state of mind. Take a lesson from the\ninference, and grasp this truth, that the Royal Institution in Albemarle\nStreet is the best Church in the country, and is, in reality, the\nnearest existing approach to the Catholic Church of Christ. It would be\nrational, it would be wisdom, if all were spending their Church time at\nsuch lectures, who are old enough to receive such instruction.\n\nI hope it will not offend you, nor be an untruth, to say, that you\nlearnt something on every occasion of attending Mr. Faraday; that you,\na Secretary of State, there found you had something to learn; and that\na field was there opened to knowledge, which would, had it pleased you,\nbefore all other occupation, have wisely and usefully engaged the whole\ntime of your remaining life. On the other hand, in the spirit of truth\nand charity, but of free enquiry, allow me to ask, if you could ever\nsay the same, after an attendance at Church, on leaving, that you had\nlearned something that was, without pretence, matter of real learning,\nan acquisition in knowledge possessed, that was not previously known in\nyour school-hours and as a matter of school-business, or that might not\nhave been learned from a book at home?\n\nI extend the question, in asking, whether anything that may be taught\na boy at seven years of age, is improved on, by an attendance on the\npresent state of the Church to seventy or four score years of age?\nIf not, and I say--No, to what good purpose does this expensive\nestablishment exist? Or, may it not be put to a better purpose? and if\nit may, why not? To talk about Church Reform, without doing something\nthat shall tend to a full amount of practical and permanent good, is to\ninsult the Nation; because the existing state of the Church is really a\nburthen and a grievance, and of no general utility.\n\nNo Church was ever reformed by and with the consent of its Priesthood.\nI am of opinion that the Bishops and Clergy ought not to be consulted in\nthis affair:--they are not the Church; but the ministers or servants\nof the people, which form, or ought to form, the Church. A Royal or\nParliamentary Commission, with unlimited powers of enquiry, is the first\npower necessary with which to commence this subject of Reform in the\nChurch.\n\nIf we did not know human nature, history affords the warrant, that the\nBishops and Clergy generally will follow the profits of the Church:\nthose in the reign of the Tudors changed back and forward five times\nfrom Catholic to Protestant. But under this proposition of mine,\nwhat dignity is evident in the change! Instead of making the Bishops\noverseers and the Clergy generally actors of a drama, I purpose to put\nthe whole structure of the human mind under their superintendance and\nguidance: not to be dealt with as now, but really to be educated in all\nattainable knowledge. My purpose is as practicable as that any other\nperson can teach any kind of knowledge. Give the human being a better\noccupation of time, let the human mind expand where it may, and you\nguarantee perpetual peace and improvement, with dignity to every class\nof men, with injury to none.\n\nThe change which I propose will be tantamount to a national change from\ndiseased and crippled infancy to healthy adolescence. General man has\nnot yet had fair play. No Nation, the history of which is known, has\nmade a real effort to promote the happiness of all its members. Class\nhas preyed upon class; idleness has been claimed as a privilege on one\nside, and slavery, through force, been made an inevitable duty on the\nother. For the furtherance of such a state of society, superstition\nhas been encouraged, that a pompous class might be decorated to preach\nsubmission among the labourers to the Spirit of Tyranny and Imposture\nthat was riding riotously over them. There can be no liberty and solid\nhappiness among a superstitious people; and all attempts, at what is\ncalled political reform, that leave the people mentally rotting in\nsuperstition, will be abortive. I take credit for one fact--that there\nhas been no change made in the political spirit of this country through\nany other medium than warfare with superstition; for the baneful and\nblighting spirit of that superstition admitted not of the thought of any\nother change.\n\nThere is a glimpse of light latent to show that all the monastic\ninstitutions, the temples, the abbeys, priories, convents, nunneries,\nthe mysteries, the churches, synagogues, and oratories, were originally\ninstituted as schools of useful knowledge; and for what other good\npurpose could they have been instituted? The better part of the human\nmind is now making an effort to restore the purity of that state of\nthings. Nothing short of this can tend to harmonize the human race in\ntheir several nations, with this improvement upon the past, that all,\nand not a class only, be educated. It was this education of a class only\nthat has created all the mischief of superstitious society. The class\neducated has imposed untruths upon the uneducated class, until education\nitself to that class became swallowed up in imposture; and now both\npreacher and hearer may be truly said to be alike ignorant of all the\ngreat truths that are important to man, and necessary to social welfare.\nIn the way in which the Bible is now read, after being printed, no\npreachers or teachers are necessary: to have been taught to read\nis sufficient. Give every man his Bible from Church Property, after\nteaching him to read, and the present Church business is completed: but\nmuch otherwise is my view of the subject. There is not a man living\nthat has now a thorough understanding of the contents and meaning of the\nBible. Many are working for the restoration of its lost science; and it\nis a subject worthy of a Church.\n\nIt may startle a First Lord of the Treasury into new thought, to\nbe told, that neither of the Books of the Bible is a piece of human\nhistory, not a history of beings like you, me, or any one else. I have\ngiven up all idea of the kind as untenable and indefensible. It may\nstartle the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who is supposed to have the\ncounting or reckoning of millions of money yearly, and contemplating\nthat Giant of Despair--the Debt, to be told, that the Bible is\nfundamentally a mathematical book; and that he who does not so\nunderstand it, understands it not at all, or but in a very small degree,\nas to its moral bearing. The Duke of Sussex can give you an opinion on\nthis head, as to the Bible being a book of algebraical science; though,\nperhaps, he would not like to say it applied to astronomical motion,\nand was a record of time so calculated through myriads of ages. A Bishop\nshould understand this. It is a book of much more importance than has\nbeen made of it in the last thousand years in England. If the Bishops\nwere required to have studied this book before they took office, we\nshould find them generally as lean and as sallow as a lawyer who has to\nwade through the statutes at large, and law reports as large, for his\nsort of knowledge; a knowledge that I do not like, and will have none\nof, but what is forced upon me. No kind of knowledge is requisite to\nmake a modern Bishop. The very origin of the title of a Bishop is that\nof an astronomical seer, a looker-out or overseer of the subordinate\noffices of science. There is a plenty of work, so as to allow of no\nidleness in any office of the Church, if justice be done to the\npeople; and I will not grudge a thousand pounds a-year as a salary to a\ncompetent Bishop, or even more than that, if the Property of the Church\nwill afford it. Ignorant fools they must have been, to have allowed so\nimportant, so honourable and dignified an office to become corrupt, and\nto fall into disrepute among the people.\n\nThis algebraical reading of the Bible subdues all idea of contradiction\nto any science, geology for instance, chemistry or any other science,\nas well as of the apparent language of the book in letter to letter. For\ninstance, the letter-objecting Infidels have laid great stress on\nMoses being set forth as having seen God; when the author of the Gospel\naccording to Saint John says \"No man hath seen God at any time.\" This is\nignorantly set down as a clear contradiction. The explanation is, that\n_Moses was not a man_; and then there is no appearance of contradiction.\nOne is mythologically, and the other morally, true.\n\nThe Hebrew and Greek alphabets, being numerical as well as literal\nsigns, which was probably the case with all other ancient languages, and\nthese accumulating large numbers, by additional points, it is impossible\nthat we can have a clear understanding of the meaning of their\nmythological sacred books, without a full algebraical knowledge of the\nlanguage; and this explains how the letter killeth or stupifieth, while\nthe spirit or knowledge of the entire meaning alone giveth life or\nunderstanding. The deepest investigators of the Hebrew Bible of this\nday maintain that it should be algebraically understood as a book of\nastronomical science--as a record of time by astronomical motion, which,\nphysically speaking, can alone be the WORD OF THE WORKS OF GOD.\n\nThe only true religion must be founded in man's reasonable\ncomprehension; all other pretences to it are presumptions and nonsense\nto be condemned. We may as properly speak of religious horses and cows,\nas of men who are ignorant of the subject, substance and meaning, of\nwhat is religion. Saint Anthony's preaching to fishes is not without its\nsimile in the practical part of that which has been mistakenly called\nthe Christian Religion. That which is in practice, under the name of the\nChristian Religion, among many grades of Dissenters, is a disgrace to\nthe government of the country, and to the name of civilized society: it\ngrows worse and worse. Madness is beginning to be added to mystery; or\nis now produced by the mystery without the key of revelation. Through\nrevelation there can be healthy excitement and enthusiasm; but none\nthrough mystery.\n\nOur King is not now the head of a Church, nor the King of a People: he\ncan only be truly described as the head or King of Dissenters, which is\nan office much more troublesome and dangerous than honourable. To his\nMinisters, the present state of religious mind must be a prolific\nsource of trouble; and has, I believe, made them persecutors, where the\ninclination of their own hearts was not coincident with the act. The\nDissenters are now much less tolerant than the law-established Church;\nand if they are not undermined by my proposition, it will not take\nthem many years to undermine that Church, or to demand a share of\nits property. To be able to see this, it is only necessary that we\nbe acquainted with the workings of human nature, where not under the\ncontroul of knowledge.\n\nI am not content that the Established Church shall stand merely as one\namong Dissenting Churches; no Minister of State should be so content:\nthe King is thereby dishonoured, and the State in disorder. I would\nhave it a Church morally dominant and militant against all error, as\nit always should be, and as it was in the beginning. The meaning of the\nword militant has been entirely lost, in the growth of mystery and decay\nof revelation in the Church. There is a great talk now about revelation,\nor of something revealed in the Church; but there is no reality in the\nrevelation. There is a mystery pregnant with revelation; but not in\nitself the revelation. It is a fountain of knowledge, but the genius of\nman must draw it out. It is good for nothing, but has caused a world of\nmischief, where read and understood as merely by the letter, as we read\nan ordinary book of history. The Church now wants the revelation or\nspirit. Not one of those existing has a particle of spirit.\n\nMy proposition for a Reform will annihilate infidelity as well as\ndissent. There is no infidelity toward knowledge. It has been ignorance\nall through, on both sides, that has raised the cry of infidelity: each\nhas been unequal to teaching. The Infidel has rejected that literal\nreading which the professing believer could not defend; because he did\nnot understand its relation, as mystery to revelation. Both, in fact,\nhave been alike Infidels. If I have been the chief of Infidels, I will\natone for it in becoming the chief defender of revelation, and the\nfaith, as it is in Christ Jesus, and not as it is in any Dissenting\nChurch. Already the ignorant Infidels murmur at what they mistakenly\ncall my apostacy, while no member of any existing Church holds out a\nhand to my welcome.\n\nAs the Church goes now, it is not required that its Ministers be learned\nmen: they have nothing to do for which talent is requisite--it is a mere\nschool-boy's task; and even among the Dissenters, where the prayer and\npreaching is extemporaneous, it is not learning, but memory and habit,\nthat are required. In the Church, as I would have it reformed, not only\nlearning but talent to teach would be necessary; and the Ministers\nwould rise to Bishoprics, not through family or political interest, but\nthrough preparation and capability to fill the office; for it would be\nrequired of them to be first-rate scholars and practical men in display\nof science, that sort of science, too, of which they are now so much\nafraid--the unlimited knowledge of things, rather than of languages.\n\nIn what class of ages do we place the dark ages of man's history? To\nwhose account are they placed? To the Pagan, Jew, Mahometan, Infidel, or\nwhose? I blush for the Church when I consider it--to the account of that\n_misnomer_, the _Christian Church!_ So your pretended light to lighten\nthe Gentiles, made them all darker, did it? Yes, it did and does, as\nyour Church has mistaken it! And none of you are yet out of the\nfog created by the mystery. Not one of you has gained light of mind\nsufficient to dispel a particle of that fog of the dark ages. You are\nall, as Churchmen, as dark as any of those who lived in the tenth,\neleventh, twelfth, or any other century; talk about your Reformation,\nPrinting Press, Bible Societies, Dissenters, or what you please! The\nadmission which has been made, not by the adversary, but by the Church\nitself, that the dark ages are within its reign, is decisive of the\nquestion as between me and any who may oppose me. Let it not be said,\nthat the fault was in the Roman Catholic Church, and that it has been\nremoved. I deny the assumption; the fault is not removed, nor has any\nChurch made the least improvement on that called Roman Catholic. The\nfault lies in the remaining unrevealed mystery of the Church and the\nSacred Scriptures. As far as Church is in question, this Nation is as\ndark as ever it was, and such is the case throughout Europe. There\nis much thick darkness to be yet dispelled; before our gentility is\nenlightened. We are precisely in the same error as the Hindoos, to whom\nwe send Missionaries; and though we talk about civilization, we have it\nnot. Our general state of society would shock the moral feelings of\nan American Indian. There are, in reality, but two distinct states of\nsociety: the superstitious and the civilized, the dark and the light.\nCan any man reasonably say, that we have yet passed the superstitious\nstate? Are we not rather in the very depth of it; the light of a few\nindividuals, now and then visible, acting upon the whole like flashes of\nlightning on a dark night, are seen and spent quickly, lost or buried\nin the general darkness, though effects may be left? The liberty which I\nhave won in prison, to make the printing press bear upon this darkness,\nis the first unextinguished light that has been set up and kept burning.\nI now desire to light the seven candles of the English Church from\nmy lighted torch. I would not be presumptuous if I saw any other man\nputting himself forward to propose this necessary business. It is not in\nme conceit: it is a passionate desire to do good and to leave the world\nbetter than I found it. So many years of imprisonment (this being the\ntenth) must shorten the period of my life, so I grow the more anxious\nto do the more while I remain a bubble on the sea of matter borne. Not\nthat I despair of eternal life, but I learn from the Gospel that I must\nprovide it for myself.\n\nIn the present state of the Church, there is no sufficient and\nsatisfactory motive given for keeping holy the sabbath-day; there is\nno reason given for holding a sabbath. I state it as a necessary civil\ninstitution for the improvement of the human mind, since labour to live\nis the condition of life. While the honest labourer is following his\nsocial avocation through six days, I would have his children going\nthrough a course of education by the Ministers in the Church, their\nespecial office--\"suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid\nthem not; for of such is the kingdom of Heaven\"--and on the seventh, or\nsabbath day, I would have such discourses, such teaching in the Church,\nas should be suitable to the united presence of both old and young. This\nwould be a satisfactory motive to keep that day holy; and such, as\nfar as I can see, was the evident purpose of the Sabbath and of the\nChristian Church. No other use of the Church can be more hallowed; no\npurpose more sacred; no employment more dignified to the minister as\nwell as to the people. When Peter, in the Gospel, is called upon to feed\nthe lambs of Christ, what was meant?--to feed them with grass? No! to\nfeed the infants of the Church with true and useful knowledge; not to do\nwhich is treason to society and breach of trust in the Ministers of the\nChurch. Oh! here is a fine field open, in which the lambs may gambol and\ngrow up in spiritual stature, without living to be led like sheep to\nthe slaughter! Knowledge is the proper business of the Church, and\nthe people's only spiritual interest; and this is the foundation of a\nCatholic Church and of a Christian Religion, that is to bring peace\non earth and good-will among men, which have not yet been seen,\nnotwithstanding the supposed promise of the mistaken mystery for the\nlast seventeen hundred years, so many centuries of a sinking state of\nthings, of a fall of man from the light into dark ages! Let there be\nlight in the Church and the people shall be enlightened. The true Church\nis now eclipsed by the mystery, and is a dark body. The knowledge of\nthe revelation will be the extinction of the mystery, the light of the\nChurch, and the salvation of the people from war, pestilence and famine.\n\nThat revelation, according to the gospel itself, I take to be, that, as\nknowledge is the only distinction between man and any other animal, the\nmore can be accumulated for him in the Church, the more good will be\ndone, and the more he will be saved from evil. Existing things can alone\nbe the subject of man's knowledge, and it is of more importance to him\nto know their properties than their time or history. Now, nothing of the\nproperties of existing things is taught in the Church; but through the\nmedium of the mystery remaining unrevealed, unexplained, or untranslated\nin our language, every thing is falsified to man's credulous view and\nconsideration, by the ministers of the Church; nature appears to him\ndistorted, and he lives without certainty, and dies deceived as to the\nfuture. Knowledge is as infinite as existing things, and man's power of\nacquisition illimitable. It is, then, a proper labour and business, and\nmoral duty, of each generation of men, to leave behind them, for their\nsuccessors, the largest possible amount of knowledge. This is true\nwealth, and will increase the value of all other wealth: without\nknowledge, other wealth is mere animal gratification. The spirit of\nknowledge gives life and new properties to everything, as far as man's\nuse of it be in question. The Church is the proper fountain of this\nknowledge; should be the public library, the parish laboratory for\ninvestigations, the school for infants and adults, and everything that\nis auxiliary to the acquisition and extension of knowledge. From all I\ncan trace, I verily believe that such was the original purpose and\nconstruction of the Christian Church; and that back to this it may be\neasiest and best reformed.\n\nI am confirmed in the opinion, that putting knowledge under the form of\nan allegorical mystery, for the purpose of confining it to a class, has\nbeen the cause of the mistake and its declension, and of the scholar's\nfall from a former higher estate of knowledge. Decidedly do I conclude,\nthat our stock of knowledge is much below the quantity possessed some\ntwo or three thousand years ago, when the holders of the sacred books\nheld the revelation with the mystery. I am sure it may be recovered, if\nfairly and earnestly sought. I see an impulse gathering over both\nEurope and America for the recovery of that knowledge. The Church was\ninstituted to become the repository of knowledge; and all would have\ngone on well, but for the ancient system of deceiving what were and\nare called the vulgar--of having a double doctrine, the exoteric and\nesoteric, telling the people one thing and understanding quite another\namong themselves. Such were deceivers and not teachers of the people;\nand though the revelation has really been lost, lost I may say, as\na just punishment for the wickedness of so deceiving the people, the\nsuccessive Clergy has been ignorantly deceivers and not teachers of the\npeople. They have inherited the exoteric or mysterious doctrine, and\nhave not inherited the esoteric doctrine or the revelation of the\nmystery. This they have to learn, before they can reform their Church,\nor, before any one can reform it for them.\n\nI am confident enough to say, that you have no other ground on which to\nreform the Church, than that which I am proposing. Whatever other step\nyou take will only be an aggravation of the evil of which you have now\nto complain; or of which others complain. If the Bishops have one item\nof wisdom among them, they will take me by the hand, and put their\nhouses in order this way: if not, you and they may dissipate the\nexisting Church Property, which you say you will not do; and after,\nwe shall begin to form such a-new, and recover what we can of that\nproperty. I shall not despair of taking an active part in this thorough\nReform of the Church while life remains: the People can do it for\nthemselves, if Clergy, Ministers and King will not consent. It is what I\nbegan to do in my house in the year 1828, in critical and philosophical\nlectures and free discussion on the Sunday: an example which I am happy\nto see followed in many parts of this metropolis, and which will go on,\nif it be not cordially met, until it swallows up the Church and all the\nChurches.\n\nThe true meaning of Church, is STATE OF MIND. Church is the state of\nmind. It is not made up of building and clergy; but of the people,\nthe proper depositaries of mind. Property belonging to the Church\nis property belonging to the People, sacred to the preservation,\nstrengthening, and increase of mind or knowledge. It has been\nmonopolized dishonestly by the Clergy; and, in that sense, they have\nbeen robbers as well as deceivers of the people. This is the matter to\nbe reformed, and nothing short of this will be reform. In Tithes,\nthe people stand as the original proprietors of the land, the true\ninheritors of its tithes and first-fruits. Other rent is a minor\nconsideration of value in labour or capital bestowed on the land. We\nmust come back to this by some means or other.\n\nThe office of King, as head of the Church, is a clerical office--the\ncrown both of the Church and the State; and, for the sustentation of its\ntrue splendour and dignity, the man or woman filling the office should\nbe the first scholar and most wise and virtuous being of the Nation.\nWhether this is a principle to be conveyed by hereditary descent, I do\nnot stop to enquire; but the true hereditary principle of church office\nis talent and moral character; upon which, I doubt if any improvement\ncan be made for purposes of state. Originally, in this island, Church\nand State were but one. The branching into two has been the result of\nwars and evil passions, to distinguish between the instructive and the\ndestructive offices, hierarchy founded upon knowledge would be equal\nto all that society wants as government. State, as well as Church,\nsignifies the People. As the latter relates to their minds, knowledge,\nor spiritual affairs, so the former expresses their politics and civil\narrangements, their local and temporal affairs: they may be well united\nin one common interest, and under one common authority, in the reign of\na people devoted to the acquisition of knowledge.\n\nIt is matter of curious observation to see how the use of names among\npolitical parties is abused, and how they get reversed in applicable\nmeaning. The class that has lately taken the title of Conservatives, is\nthe class that, by the showing of this letter, has been destructive of\neverything valuable in our Institutions, so that we have the name only\nleft, without any virtuous principle that formerly existed in\nthose Institutions. We have the evidence of this in all the present\ndifficulties of the country, both in Church and State. The ancestors of\nthis class have not known how, or not cared to preserve those ancient\nInstitutions in their original purity; and the class now wanted is\nthe class of Restoratives, of men whose knowledge, wisdom, honesty\nand virtue, will enable them to purge out the accumulated errors of\ncenturies, and restore the Institutions of the country to their pristine\npurity. I grant that this class is not found among the men who are\ncommonly called or claim to be called Radical Reformers: there is as\nmuch ignorance in that class as in any other. But they certainly are\nnot likely to be more destructive than they who call themselves\nConservatives; for these have left nothing to be destroyed. The true\nand real aim of the men now called Radicals is to begin something\na-new. Their profession of respect for existing Institutions is hollow,\nhypocritical and deceitful. I have had acquaintance enough with them to\nknow that; and more than for the reminiscence of which I can now find\nrespect. Still they will supersede both Tory and Whig, if these do not\nsomething upon the principle of a true restoration of Institutions to\noriginal and best principles. I would have the Radicals treated as the\nDissenters: leave them no ground of complaint, and so annihilate them.\nA wise King or a wise Minister would see that the time is now come\nat which that step should be taken, and that further delays will be\ndangerous to every man in office. Necessary Institutions, if destroyed\nfor a time, will rise again. I fear no kind of change as to the prospect\nof future advantage.\n\nIs not the idea horrible, and of the worst description, that a Church\nand King, or Church and State, should exist and hold together on no\nbetter tenure than a military power; than that of an army constantly\nunder arms to keep the people from carrying their complaints to an\nextent disagreeable or alarming to the men in office? Yet such is all\nthat you can boast of in the present state of the Institutions of the\ncountry. These Institutions did not originate under the protection of an\narmy; nor did they, at their origination, require an army to protect\nand keep them in existence. An army is a disgraceful appendage, and\ndestructive of every good principle in the Church:--it is not an\nhonourable appendage to the office of King. To the people, it is a\nburthen and an immoral pest; less requisite in this island than in a\ncontinental nation. Give the people knowledge in their Churches, and\nthey will soon dispense with an army.\n\nEvils accumulate because there is error at the bottom. There is now\nno People's Church: it is, as now existing, a Church of the Clergy,\nengrossing and wasting a large property of the people's due to a most\nvaluable social purpose. The Dissenters have only made the matter worse,\nin new exactions for no new benefits. Not one tittle of good, not a\nparticle of utility, now proceeds from the Clergy toward the people.\nThey are obstacles to the people's welfare, and their use of means of\nprovision for a new and better Church.\n\nGod is the subject of man's adoration. But what is God? Man is but\nan idiot if he professes adoration beyond his understanding. Indeed,\nworship is but a synonymy of reason and its cultivation; and as we\nsay:--_how can we reason but from what we know?_ so we may as truly\nsay:--_how can we worship what we do not know?_ There is no\nworship without knowledge; all other pretence to it is idolatry and\nsuperstition. I have not space to enter upon this topic largely here;\nbut a voluminous treatise on the word GOD will be the subject of my next\nEssay. For the purpose of this illustration of what the Church is, and\nwhat it ought to be, I can say correctly, that God, as the aggregate of\nexistence, is known to be a physical and moral power. We have distinct\nideas of this two-fold power. The American Indians, who speak of God as\na Great Spirit, make the best general definition of the word that can be\nmade, and appear to me to have the clearest, purest and wisest idea\nof Deity, as far as the regulation of their actions by that word is in\nquestion,--the pursuit of knowledge, by the use of letters and figures\nexcepted. It corresponds with the emphatic declaration of the Gospel\naccording to Saint John, chap. iv., v. 24:--\"God is a Spirit, and they\nthat worship must worship in spirit and in truth\"--which means what I\nhave before stated, that they must know what they worship before they\ncan worship. There is evidence of physical as well as moral spirit. Both\nare seen in man, and constitute what may be termed the Spirit of Man.\nThe one in man is worshipped or cultivated by attention to health; the\nother by attention to mental improvement or increased acquisition of\nknowledge. Speaking of God, as the aggregate and source of physical\nand moral spirit, of which man is a part or unit, we experience that we\ncannot alter our physical construction, or physical spirit, other than\nby attention to rules of health in the law of nature; but we can, by\nstudy and labour, greatly alter the state of mind or moral spirit. It\nis here we draw from God as from a fountain; and this asking, seeking,\ndrawing from God, constitutes the whole principle of right prayer and\nworship, and the structure of the true Christian Church; other than\nwhich, I declare, is worship of the Devil and not of God. And I do not\nshrink from saying, that, as revelation is light and knowledge of God,\nand mystery is darkness and presence of the Devil, there has not through\nthe last fifteen hundred years, the dark ages, throughout Europe, been\ncarried on any other kind of worship than Devil-worship, and evil has\nbeen the fruit thereof. It was under this knowledge that I was moved to\nexhibit the effigy of the Devil arm in arm with the Bishop, in the\nfront of my house and in several prints, for which I am now suffering\nimprisonment, like all other martyrs to truth, punished for acting upon\nmy knowledge. My purpose was good, to open the eyes of my neighbours and\npassers by. It might have inconvenienced some of them; but such is the\neffect of every newly-published truth in eradication of error: your\nReform of the Church, be it what it may, will inconvenience the Bishops\nand some of the Clergy. There would be no Devil, if there were not\npleasure in Hell as well as in Heaven; as pardon can be had by asking\nfor it. If all evil were naturally punished, we should not want penal\nlaws.\n\nAs true worship is a getting of a knowledge of God, so it follows, that\nthe Ministry of the Church should consist of a teaching that knowledge,\nwhich is not now the case; for nothing as knowledge is in the Church\ntaught.\n\nThere can be nothing more clear in mathematical demonstration, than\nthat, as God is a Spirit, of which man may partake, the participation\nmust increase with that only which can increase in man--the amount of\nhis knowledge. The whole declaration of the Christian Creed, read by the\nspirit, is, that God is the Spirit of Knowledge, the thing known, the\nprinciple of omniscience; and that man approaches and lives with God, as\nhis mind expands in the accumulation of knowledge. A Bishop may write\nor preach spiritually or metaphysically by the year, and he can make no\nmore of the word God, of his Church, or of himself, than I have made.\nThe subject now wants a radical reform in the human mind.\n\nI have mentioned, in a former page, that the Jews can trace no\nnationality to the time of the Emperor Alexander of Macedon. The highest\nantiquity that can be given to them as a colony, is the time of Ptolomy\nLagus, who began to encourage science and literature in Alexandria; and,\nfrom that time, nothing but a colony could they have ever been. It\nis not in a nationality that the original character of a Jew is to be\nestimated, but in a philosophic character dispersed among the nations; a\npeople devoted to science; and so a chosen or select, because a learned\npeople. There is no resemblance in character between an ancient and a\nmodern Jew:--the name is an Asiatic name of God; and can only apply to\na race of men in the sense of having perfected human nature, which it is\nvery probable the ancient Jews had done, as far as it was then possible\nto do it, according to the system of initiation, through a series of\ndiscipline, into all the schools and mysteries of that time and country.\nThe first public reference to a stated existence of the Books of the Old\nTestament is the reign of Ptolomy Philadelphus. Egypt appears to have\nbeen the only country in which it can be said that a series of Kings\ngave encouragement to science, which appears, as far as history is\nwitness, to have brought in the Augustan era. It became, as far as\nwars and tumults would permit, fashionable so to do, until superstition\noverwhelmed it and usurped all its names, leading on to the dark ages of\nwhat has been since mis-called the Christian era. Cultivation of science\nis the restorative power, and the only public or private act that\nconfers true dignity on man. This is the only remedy for the disorder\nof the Church; and I have introduced this historical view of the Jewish\nname, to show how flimsy is that web of superstition which has been\nwoven in the existing Church on the foundation of a supposed national\nhistory and origin of the Jews. Truth nowhere finds opposition in fact,\ndate, or principle: error is opposed by endless proofs of the kind.\n\nIt remains now only that I give an outline of the historical defects of\nthe present received view of the mystery of the Christian Religion, and\nthen draw to a conclusion.\n\nNo record extant, or referred to, that, having been written in the first\ncentury, has mentioned the human existence of an individual of the name\nof Jesus Christ.\n\nA passage now in Josephus is a declared interpolation, inasmuch as it\nwas first known to the world in the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius,\nwritten in the fourth century, after Photius and Origen, of the third\ncentury, had written, that Josephus had not made mention of Jesus\nChrist.\n\nIn the writings of Philo Jud\u00e6us, an Alexandrian Jew of the first\ncentury, much is said about the Logos, in carrying out the philosophy of\nPlato; but not a word about Jesus Christ.\n\nPliny the younger, in his letter to the Emperor Trajan, written from\nBythinia between the years 106 and 112, is the first to mention the name\nof Christ. This mention is as of a God and not as of a man: no reference\nis made to Judea or to Jews; and the worshippers of this God he\ndescribes under the name of Christians, and as having long existed as a\nsect in that province. He writes as if he had heard nothing of the sect\nat Rome, and describes their worship as an excessive superstition.\n\nThe passage in Tacitus is rejected, as not noticed by Eusebius or\nany one before the fifteenth century; that it was found in a copy by\nJohannes de Spire at Venice.\n\nThis brings us to Justin Martyr, who can only be considered a Christian\nof the Platonic order, making no reference to Gospels or Epistles.\n\nThence we come to St. Iren\u00e6us, Bishop of Lyons, who has very much\nthe appearance of a Druidical Bishop rather than as a newly-appointed\nChristian Bishop. Iren\u00e6us mentions the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark,\nLuke and John, and gives the reason why there should be four; as because\nthere are four seasons in the year. He has many other allegorical\nextravagancies in his writings, and is not deemed the most respectable\nof the Fathers of the present Church.\n\nIn the third century, and toward the latter part of that century, near\nthree hundred years after the supposed birth of the man Jesus Christ, we\nhave a recognition of all the Books in the New Testament, which received\nthe stamp of the authority of a Council of Bishops, as a selection from\nmany similar and dissimilar books under similar titles, in the fourth\ncentury; but whether the revelation of the mystery was then understood\nby the Bishops does not appear.\n\nThe Epistles of the New Testament have no dates nor reference to any\npersons who were known to have lived at any particular time. They\nare not supported by, nor do they support, the Gospels. The idea of\nallegorism prevailed in the third century.\n\nThe Christian era was not reduced to chronology until the sixth century;\nand that chronology was very little used or referred to until the tenth,\nthat the era of the Hegira of Mahomet had come much into use. The real\nstruggle of the present Christian Church was not with the Pagan but with\nthe Mahometan Religion, and they are near a balance of numerical power\nto this day. A battle in France, in the reign of Charles Martel, checked\nthe progress of the Mahometans, and saved the entire overthrow of the\nmysterious Christian Church on the continent of Europe. There was a much\ngreater similarity between the Pagan and the Christian, than between the\nChristian and the Mahometan Religion.\n\nI have no objection to the religion of the Jew or the Christian, that is\nfounded on the spiritual reading of the Bible. Mahometanism is superior\nto both, while founded on the reading of the letter. The restoration of\nthe Jews to original character and the millennium of the Christians is\nonly to be brought about by the spiritual reading, which will lead to\na devotion to science. The future Temple of the New Jerusalem must be a\nTemple devoted to the promulgation of truth and all sciences, and such\nmust be the Church of Rome, and such our English Church, under any real\nstate of reformation.\n\nThe practical part of my proposition for a Reform in the Church, is,\nthat all indefensible superstition or mystery be banished or explained,\nthat it be made the best possible general school for the people, to\nwhich the knowledge of the time is equal; that the people being the\nChurch, and the Ministers not being the Church, the property of the\nChurch in each parish shall be managed by the parishioners as their\nproperty, and the best provision be made with that property, including\ntithes, that can be made for all the physical and moral necessities of\nthe people. The property must be put under some authority, cannot be\nallowed to remain as it is, cannot be well put under extra parochial\nauthority; but may be well and honestly left to parochial management, as\nthe property of the parish.\n\nAs our Institutions were all so first arranged for this purpose, so it\nwill be found, that every thing emanating will fall back easily into\nits natural, moral, and original use. I cannot see the least difficulty,\nbeyond the dishonesty and reluctance to yield of existing spirit. Such\nas are so weak in mind as to desire the present Church ceremony, may\nhave it as long as they like, so as they do not exclude more useful\nbusiness. I repeat, that, if the Bishops and Clergy be wise, they will\ntake this advice: if they do not, they will very soon be where their\npredecessors were in the seventeenth century, not to be restored again.\n\nI flatter myself, that, in this letter, I have produced a pamphlet that\nwill not be dead-born. As far as possible, or as clearness of purpose\nwould permit, I have endeavoured to avoid the use of offensive language.\nWhatever the world may think of me, I know nothing more of myself, than\nthat of having a passion to be useful, to my country and fellow-men\ngenerally, in and previous to the critical coming time of change. It is\nnot now to be mistaken as near. It is near, and very near. The present\nsystem may be dragged on through several years; but no one can insure it\na twelve months' existence. I know that all bad passions are allied\nto ignorance, and I desire to see all those passions softened down by\nknowledge. I am sure that the new man, the spiritual man, the good and\nmoral man, must be created by knowledge and independent individuality\nof action; and as I prefer (the Government having the choice) a moral to\nany other revolution, brought about by words rather than by harder and\nharsher weapons, I feel, that I have but performed a social, a civil,\nand a religious duty, in presenting this letter to your notice. That it\nmay be read, marked, learned and inwardly digested, is the prayer of\n\nYour humble Servant,\n\nAnd prisoner in the business of Church Reform,\n\nRICHARD CARLILE.\n\nGiltspur Street Compter,\n\nJanuary 29,1835.\n\nTENTH YEAR OF IMPRISONMENT.","title":"Church Reform: The Only Means to That End, Stated in a Letter to Sir Robert Peel, Bart., First Lord of the Treasury","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":24594}