Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

1

A

LETTER,

&c. &c.

CITIZEN REPRESENTANT,

As every thing in your report, relating to what you call worship, connects itself with the books called the Scriptures, I begin with a quotation therefrom. It may serve to give us some idea of the fanciful origin and fabrication of those books. 2 Chronicles, chap. xxxiv. ver. 14, &c. "Hilkiah, the priest, found the book of the law of the Lord given by Moses. And Hilkiah, the priest, said to Shaphan, the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord, and Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan. And Shaphan, the scribe, told the King (Josiah) saying, Hilkiah, the priest, hath given me a book."

This pretended finding was about a thousand years after. the time that Moses is said to have lived. Before this pretended finding there was no such thing practised or known in the world as that which is called the law of Moses. This being the case, there is every apparent evidence, that the books called the books of Moses, (and which make the first part of what are called the Scriptures) are forgeries contrived between a priest and a limb of the law (1), Hilkiah and Shaphan, the scribe, a thousand years.

after Moses is said to have been dead.

Thus much for the first part of the Bible. Every other part is marked with circumstances equally as suspicious. We ought, therefore to be reverentially careful how we ascribe books, as his word, of which there is no evidence, and against which there is abundant evidence to the contrary, and every cause to suspect imposition.

In your report you speak continually of something by the name of worship, and you confine yourself to speak of one kind only, as if there were but one, and that one was unquestionably true.

(1) It happens that Camille Jordan is a limb of the law.

The tardes of worship are as various as the sects are nuLers, and amidst all this variety and multiplicity there is but Le article of belief in which every religion in the world agree. That article has universal sanction. It is the belle of a God, or what the Greeks described by the

wog Trim, and the Latins by that of Deism. Upon this cae article tave been erected all the different superstructures of creeds and ceremonies continually warring with each other that now exists or ever existed. But the menust and best informed upon the subject of theology rest themselves upon this universal article, and held all the varicus superstructures erected thereon to be at least doubtful, if not altogether artificial.

The intellectual part of religion is a private affair be tween every man and his Maker, and in which no third party has a right to interiere. The practical part consists in our doing good to each other. But since religion has been made into a trade, the practical part has been made to consist of ceremonies performed by men called Priests; and the people have been amused with ceremonial shows, processions, and bells. By devices of this kind true religion has been banished; and such means have been found out to extract money even from the pockets of the poor, instead of contributing to their relief.

No man ought to make a living by religion. It is dishonest so to do. Religion is not an act that can be performed by proxy. One person cannot act religion for another. Every person must perform it for himself: and all that a Priest can do is to take from him, he wants nothing but his money, and then to riot on his spoil and laugh at his credulity.

The only people, as a professional sect of Christians, who provide for the poor of their Society, are the people known by the name of Quakers. Those men have no Priests. They assemble quietly in their places of meeting and do not disturb their neighbours with shows and noise of bells. Religion does not unite itself to show and noise. True religion is without either. Where there is both there is no true religion.

The first object for enquiry in all cases, more especially in matters of religious concern, is TRUTH. We ought to enquire into the truth of whatever we are taught to believe, and it is certain that the books called the Scriptures stand, in this respect, in more than a doubtful predicament. They have been held in existence, and in a sort of credit among the common class of people, by art, terror, and persecution. They have but little or no credit among the enlightened part, but they have been made the means of encumbering the world with a numerous priesthood, who have fattened on the labour of the people, and consumed

the sustenance that ought to be applied to the widows and the poor.

It is a want of feeling to talk of priests and bells whilst so many infants are perishing in the hospitals, and aged and infirm in the streets, from the want of necessaries. The abundance that France produces is sufficient for every want, if rightly applied; but priests and bells, like articles of luxury, ought to be the least articles of consideration.

We talk of religion. Let us talk of truth; for that which is not truth, is not worthy the name of religion. We see différent parts of the world overspread with different books, each of which, though contradictory to the other, is said, by its partizans, to be of divine origin, and is made a rule of faith and practice. In countries under despotic governments, where enquiry is always forbidden. the people are condemned to believe as they have been taught by their priests. This was for many centuries the case in France: but this link in the chain of slavery has been happily broken by the revolution; and that it may never be revitted again, let us employ a part of the liberty we enjoy in scrutinizing into the truth. Let us leave behind us some monument, that we have made the cause and honour of our Creator an object of our care. If we have been imposed upon by the terrors of Government and the artifices of Priests, in matters of religion, let us do justice to our Creator by examining the case. His name is too sacred to be affixed to any thing which is fabulous, and it is our duty to enquire, whether we believe or encourage the people to believe, in fables or in facts?

It would be a project worthy the situation we are in to invite an enquiry of this kind. We have committees for various objects, and among others, a committee for bells, we have institutions, academies, and societies, for various purposes; but we have none for enquiring into historical truth in matters of religious concern. They shew us certain books which they call the Holy Scriptures, the word of God, and other names of that kind; but we ought to know what evidence there is for our believing them to be so, and at what time they originated and in what manner. We know that men could make books, and we know that artifice and superstition could give them a name; could call them sacred. But we ought to be careful that the name of our Creator be not abused. Let then all the evidence with respect to those books be made a subject of enquiry. If there be evidence to warrant our belief of them let us encourage the propagation of it; but if not, let us be careful not to promote the cause of delusion and falsehood.

I have already spoken of the Quakers-that they have no

priests, no bells-and that they are remarkable for their care of the poor of their society. They are equally as remarkable for the education of their children. I am a descendant of a family of that profession; my father was a Quaker; and I presume I may be admitted an evidence. of what I assert. The seeds of good principles, and the literary means of advancement in the world, are laid in early life. Instead, therefore, of consuming the substance of the nation upon priests, whose life at best is a life of idleness, let us think of providing for the education of the children of those who have not the means of doing it themselves. One good schoolmaster is of more use than an hundred priests.

If we look back at what was the condition of France under the ancient regime, we cannot acquit the priests of corrupting the morals of the nation. Their pretended celibacy led them to carry debauchery and domestic infidelity into every family where they could gain admission; and their blasphemous pretensions to forgive sins encouraged the commission of them. Why has the Revolution of France been stained with crimes which the Revolution of the United States of America was not? Men are physically the same in all countries: it is education that make them different. Accustom a people to believe that priests, or any other class of men, can forgive sins, and you will have sins in abundance.

I come now to speak more particularly to the object of your report.

You claim a privilege incompatible with the constitu tion and with rights. The constitution protects equally, as it ought to do, every profession of religion; it gives no exclusive privilege to any. The churches are the common property of all the people; they are national goods, and cannot be given exclusively to any one profession, because the right does not exist of giving to any one that which appertains to all. It would be consistent with right that the churches be sold, and the money arising therefrom be invested as a fund for the education of children of poor parents of every profession, and, if more than sufficient for this purpose, that the surplus be appropriated to the support of the aged poor. After this every profession can erect its own place of worship, if it chuses-support its own priests, if it chuses to have any-or perform its worship without priests as the Quakers do.

As to bells, they are a public nuisance. If one profession is to have bells, another has the right to use instruments of the same kind, or any other noisy instrument they may prefer. Some may chuse to meet at the sound of a cannon, another at the beat of drum, another at the sound of trumpets, and so on, until the whole becomes a scene of ge

« FöregåendeFortsätt »