EXTRACT FROM A PORT-FOLIO.

ON THE EVILS OF PRIESTCRAFT.

NOLAND, Voltaire, Rousseau, and all the Deistical writers put toge

many

Christian religion would, if unshackled by fear. Good God! if mankind were to make a fair calculation of their various ills in life, assigning to each cause its particular evil consequence, sure there would be none found such ruinous enemies to human happiness and greatness as priests; they have not only shackled and tormented the bodies, and drained the purses, of their fellow creatures; but have humiliated the mind of man, and lowered him beneath the standard of his nature. For sixteen hundred years and more genius has hid its head abashed, and even kingly power dropped its enfeebled arm before the talismanic folly and fraud of churchmen; while not content with smothering the efforts of genius, resisting the struggles of manhood, draining the whole treasures of the earth, and drawing princes, potentates, states, and empires, into their all devouring vortex, they have saturated their idols with blood--with human blood. See a Bacon, mistakenly denominated by Mr. Pope, the wisest of mankind--see him brandishing the scourge of intolerance with as great rigour as the most stupid and cruel priest of the Holy Inquisition, and boast, if you can, of the pride of intellect! Had we not such strong proofs of it, on which soever side we look, would it be possible to believe that any being endowed with faculties above the brute creation could be so blind? That any one acquainted with even the instinctive feelings of animal life could think it acceptable to an all good and all merciful God, that man should wage war against his fellow creatures, and deliberately shed their blood, merely on account of a doctrinal point (the barren speculation of idle, artful, disputatious priests) propounded to cover imposition? Yet under these pretexts has more blood been shed--more gross enormities committed-more mean frauds practised--more tyranny exercised-more innocents barbarously massacred-and more tears shed-in short, more general devastation spread over the face of the earth, than for all other real causes or false pretexts that have, since the beginning of creation, armed the hand of man against his fellow creature, and deluged the world with blood.--Look to Goa--see bigotry there striding like a remorseless giant overthat once happy island, and sweeping by fire and sword its innocent inhabitants-all for the love of Christ!--Look to South America--and see a holy father of the church, armed with the cross in one hand, and the less devouring sword in the other, followed by a clan of Christian bloodhounds, stalking with desolation in his train through a nation of the most unoffending and amiable of existing beings, letting loose havock among them.Look here, under your very eyes, see the most damnable inquisition, like a merciless tiger-its eyes flashing flames of fire--and its jaws reeking with human blood, lashing itself with sanguinary fury, and roaring for more victims! See the fruits of the earth, produced by the labour of millions, who are themselves, and their families, pining the while in want, and languishing in wretchedness, devoured by a swarm of human locusts--unproductive burdens in their nature, unproductive even by system-a horde of sensual and voluptuous divines of various sects, who to conceal their views, preach hatred among men, and set them in conflict with each other, that, while employed in mutual annoyance, they them selves may plunder the earth. Ah! barbarous, cold blooded, sinful ruffians! who have for centuries cursed your fellow creatures, and abused your God! the time draws near when reason will tear down the curtain--the grand machinery with which you have deceived the world will be laid open to the public view, and your grand pantomime only serve to excite among men disgust and abhorrence for you, and wonder and contempt for their own credulity.-The Castle of Inchvalley.

No. 21.]

MAGAZINE.

SEPTEMBER, 1812. [VOL. 2.

ON THE BELIEF OF THE NORTHERN NATIONS AS TO THE NATURE OF THE DEITY, AND THEIR EXPECTATIONS OF A FUTURE STATE OF EXISTENCE : IN REPLY TO THE ASSERTIONS OF A DEIST," ON THOSE SUBJECTS.

"The idea of one God, the governing mind of the universe, was unknown to the Pagan world."--MURPHY, Notes on "The Manners of the Germans" by Tacitus.

To the Editor of the Freethinking Christians' Magazine.

SIR,

THE man who, breaking through the barriers of fair argu

ment, and sinning against the laws of free discussion, attempts to impose upon the ignorance, or avail himself of the negligence of his fellow-creatures, by means of unfair statements, or of artful and delusive misrepresentations, must be surely deemed guilty of a heinous crime against the dictates equally of reason and of truth, and becomes, in fact, a traitor to the true interests of the human race. The abstract justice of this statute law of the courts of discussion will, I think, be denied by none; and it is upon the force of its provisions, that I have come forward to arraign the communications of your correspondent, "A Deist." He has himself appeared before your bar to defend the right of private judgment, and claim the exercise of free discussion; let us see whether in his own person he has not attempted to pervert the one, and actually sullied the purity of the other.

Having already examined his assertions with regard to the religion of the northen nations, I shall now principally confine myself to the following passage, which will be found to contain more real misrepresentation, than, from the smallness of its extent, could well be expected, or imagined. We first are told, that the ancient Germans were polytheists, then that the Scandinavians acknowledged one supreme deity, and believed in a future state of existence, and immediately afterwards occurs the following sentence- We learn also, from unquestionable authority, that the temples of ancient Egypt had in them neither image nor representation of any thing; and the Greeks were certainly not idolators, till the time of Cecrops, the founder of their

VOL. II.

3 E

principal city, who, according to Eusebius, was contemporary with Moses.'

Now what is the impression here left, or meant to be left, on the mind of the reader? Why evidently, from the combination of the sentences, and the apparent continuation of the argument, no other than this, viz. that the earlier inhabitants, of Egypt and of Greece, as well the Germans, and the Scandinavians, in fact acknowledged, unlike their descendants in later times, but" One Supreme Divinity, eternal, omniscient, omnipotent, and just." Such is undoubtedly the sense of the passage as it is framed and introduced by your correspondent: let us see its meaning in the words of its original author-I say original author, because the passage is in fact copied from Potter, and might indeed be called an extract from that writer, if it had not been mangled and altered by your correspondent, in order to adapt it to the imposition, which I think he evi dently intended to pass on your readers. "As (says Potter) in discussing the temples, images, and various other appendages of the religion of ancient Greece), among the most ancient Egyp tians, the temples were without statutes, if Lucian may be credited, so also the Greeks worshipped their Gods without any visible representation, till the time of Cecrops, who, according to Eusebius's account, lived about the time of Moses-the most ancient representations of the Gods, were rude and agreeable to the ignorance of those ages."

Here we may observe, that "a Deist" has made two most material alterations in the wording of the passage, as well as wholly omitted the latter part of it, which, although necessary to compleat the sense, would have at once shewn the fallacy of his assertions. First, he affirms that we learn a fact "from unquestionable authority," which his author only casually says is such, "if Lucian may be credited ;"* and, secondly by substituting the phrase "not idolators," in the place of worshipping their Gods without visible representation," he impresses it on the mind of the reader that the ancient Greeks were not even polytheists, whereas in fact, all that either his authority, or the reason of the thing, will bear him out in asserting is, that the rude barbarians who inhabited the Peninsula of Greece, previously to its being colonized by Cecrops and others, and consequently previous to the formation of the empire, which alone

As the Deist has himself called the authority of Lucian "unquestionable," he will of course be willing to abide by the decision of that author. The passage is as follows--from the Egyptians the Assyrians received "their traditions concerning the Gods, and in like manner erected temples, wherein they also placed images, and set up statues; whereas in former times, the temples, even among the Egyptians, were without any images. -Lucian on the Gods of Syria.

we are accustomed to acknowledge under that title, were incapable of giving form to the probably hideous and terrific beings, which, possessed of the attributes of demons, they worshipped under the name of Gods.

So much for the original misrepresentations of "a Deist;" we will now turn to one which he has either borrowed without examination, or, what is worse, adapted after it, from the writ ings of others. The task is an ungrateful one indeed, but the circumstance of your having given his communications to the public renders it in some degree a necessary one. The assertion I refer to is this, viz. that the ancient Germans "worshipped one Supreme God, master of the universe, to whom all things were submissive, and obedient ;" and this he says we learn from Tacitus. Now we learn it, indeed from the Deist, who himself learns it from Mr. Mallet; but whether, on the face of the thing, it be probable, that that gentleman should have derived it from the Latin historian, let your readers decide, after perusing the motto prefixed to this, and my former letter, which is actually extracted from Murphy's notes on the very work (the Manners of the Germans), from which this very singular and remarkable assertion is said to be derived. The words indeed, or words of a somewhat similar import to those adduced, do actually occur in the writings of the histo rian; but, even if it were right to take them in their unconnected sense, they certainly are not applicable, as they have here been erroneously applied, to the ancient Germans gene rally, being merely asserted of one of the almost countless series of savage tribes, which are characterised under that common title. The historian represents them, generally, as gross and barbarous polytheists and idolators, asserting, says Potter (though I have not been able exactly to hit upon the passage) that their gods consisted of rude trunks, and unpolished oaks. It is in support of this assertion, that the historian, in the context of the passage under consideration, makes the various tribes severally pass in review before the reader, characterizing each by their peculiar modes of faith, and the most prominent features of their superstitious observances-among the number that thus present themselves, occur the Semnones, a tribe that, for ought: we know, were as gross polytheists and idolators, as any of the others; but who are distinguished to the mind of the reader by the circumstance of their paying visits, at stated periods, to a certain grove, which, it is said, was supposed by them to be "the sacred mansion of the all-seeing God of the universe, who held every thing in a chain of dependance on his will and plea

sure."

Now the extent of a universe, imagined and called into being amid the morasses of Germany, and the notions as to an all-see

ing Deity which would naturally be entertained by the inhabitants of such a country, might, of themselves, be easily surmised, without the further assistance of the historian-that assistance, however, happily is not wanting; for Tacitus goes on to tell us, that this very tribe, Deists as they were, and dauntless sticklers no doubt for the stability of the laws of nature-commenced their operations, when arrived at the wood in question, by the slaughter of a man! The grove, too, inhabited by this benevolent Deity, was, we are also told, beheld (as well indeed it might be) with superstitious terror. No one entered it without being bound by a chain, and should he happen to fall, he must not presume to rise, but in that grovelling state was compelled to make his way out of the wood! Exalted and sublime religion! enlightened and praise-worthy principles ! what pity is it that opinions such as these should be forgotten, that practices like these should be abrogated! Methinks I hear "a Deist" sighing for the rude bogs and morasses of these philosophers-exclaiming against the vile impostors, who have copied their doctrines, without confessing from whom they borrowed them-and lamenting that mankind are not still wandering in the wilds of uninspired Deism, bound by the chains of superstition, and compelled, when the unaided weakness of their nature betrays them to a fall, to grovel like their fellow brutes upon the earth, or extricate themselves from the consequences of their errors and their wanderings as they may best be able. How dreadful indeed is it, that such such a state of things should have been superseded-that so great a revolu tion should have taken place in the frame of society-that, in short, to sum up all in one small sentence, the laws of nature should not here also have been stable!

To the consideration of yourself, and your readers, I submit the remarks and observations contained in this, and my former letter on the subject. If deemed well founded, they may not only serve to confute the particular assertions of" a Deist," but, what is of infinitely more consequence, also tend generally to shew, that, as the probability of a revelation from the Deity may be demonstrated from the phenomena of nature, so its absolute necessity is approved by the records of every nation which have come down to us, and established by the concurrent voice of antiquity. I remain, &c.

J. D.

P. S. One part of the subject remains to be commented on, and it is perhaps deserving of more serious consideration. Cecrops and Moses, it appears, were both Egyptians, and they are each severally represented as deeply versed in all the learning and superstition of that country: from the same point then, at the same time (for it seems they were contemporaries) they started on their course--the one founded Athens-the other led the Israelites to Jerusalem. For centuries afterwards we find their