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about scripture, and they will understand you mean scrip, and tell you how much it is worth at the Stock Exchange. Ask them about theology, and they will say they know of no such gentleman upon 'Change. Tell some country squires of the sun and moon standing still, the one on the top of a hill and the other in a valley, and they will swear it is a lie of one's own making. Tell them that God Almighty ordered a man to make a cake and bake it with a t-d and eat it, and they will say it is one of Dean Swift's blackguard stories. Tell them it is in the Bible, and they will lay a bowl of punch it is not, and leave it to the parson of the parish to decide. Ask them also about theology, and they will say they know of no such a one on the turf. An appeal to such juries serves to bring the Bible into more ridicule than any thing the author of the Age of Reason has written; and the manner in which the trial has been conducted, shews that the prosecutor dares not come to the point, nor meet the defence of the defendant. But, all other cases apart, on what ground of right, otherwise than on the right assumed by an inquisition, do such prosecutions stand? Religion is a private affair between every man and his Maker, and no tribunal or third party has a right to interfere between them. It is not properly a thing of this world—it is only practised in this world; but its object is in a future world: and it is no otherwise an object of just laws, than for the purpose of protecting the equal rights of all, however various their beliefs may be. If one man choose to believe the book called the Bible to be the word of God, and another, from a convinced idea of the purity and perfection of God, compared with the contradictions the book contains-from the lasciviousness of some of its stories, like that of Lot getting drunk and debauching his two daughters, which is not spoken of as a crime, and for which the most absurd apologies are made-from the immorality of some of its precepts, like that of shewing no mercy-and from the total want of evidence on the case, thinks he ought not to believe it to be the word of God, each of them has an equal right; and if the one has a right to give his reasons for believing it to be so, the other has an equal right to give his reasons for believing the contrary. Any thing that goes beyond this rule is an inquisition. Mr. Erskine talks of his moral education: Mr. Erskine is very little acquainted with theological subjects, if he does not know there is such a thing as a sincere and religious belief that the Bible is Ict the word of God. This is my belief; it is the belief of thousands far more learned than Mr. Erskine; and it is a belief hi every day increasing. It is not infidelity, as Mr. Erskine profanely and abusively calls it: it is the direct reverse of infidelity. It is a pure religious belief, founded on the idea of the perfection of the Creator. If the Bible be the word of God, it needs not the wretched aid of prosecutions to support it; and you might with as much propriety make a law to protect

the sunshine, as to protect the Bible, if the Bible, like tne sun be the work of God. We see that God takes good care of the Creation he has made. He suffers no part of it to be extinguished; and he will take the same care of his word, if he ever gave one. But men ought to be reverentially careful and suspicious now they ascribe books to him as his word, which from this confused condition would dishonour a common scribbler, and against wnich there is abundant evidence, and every cause to suspect imposition. Leave then the Bible to itself. God will take care of it if he nas any thing to do with it, as he takes care of the sun and the moon, which need not your laws for their better protection. As the two instances I have produced in the beginning of this letter, from the book of Genesis, the one respecting the account called the Mosaic account of the Creation, the other of the Flood, sufficiently show the necessity of examining the Bible, in order to ascertain what degree of evidence there is for receiving or rejecting it as a sacred book, I shall not add more upon that subject; but in order to show Mr. Erskine that there are religious establishments for public worship which make no profession of faith of the books called Holy Scriptures, nor admit of priests, I will conclude with an account of a society lately began in Paris, and which is very rapidly extending itself.

The society takes the name of Theophilantropes, which would be rendered in English by the word Theophilanthropists, a word compounded of three Greek words, signifying God, Love, and Man. The explanation given to this word is, Lovers of God and Man, or Adorers of God and Friends of Man-Adorateurs de Dieu et amis des Hommes. The society proposes to publish each year a volume, entitled Année Religieuse des Theophilanthropes-Year religious of the Theophilanthropists; the first volume is just published, entitled,

RELIGIOUS YEAR OF THE THEOPHILANTHROPISTS,

OR

Adorers of God and Friends of Man,

Being a collection of the discourses, lectures, hymns, and canticles, for all the religious and moral festivals of the Theophilanthropists during the couse of the year, whether in their public temples or in their private families, published by the author of the Manuel of the Theophilanthropists.

The volume of this year, which is the first, contains 214 pages duodecimo.

The following is the table of contents.

1. Precise history of the Theophilanthropists.

2. Exercises common to all the festivals.

3. Hymn, Nɔ. I. God of whom the universe speaks.

4. Discourse upon the existence of God.

5. Ode II. The heavens instruct the earth.

6. Precepts of wisdom, extracted from the book of the Adora

teurs.

7. Canticle, No. III. God Creator, soul of nature.

8. Extracts from divers moralists upon the nature of God, and upon the physical proofs of his existence.

9. Canticle, No. IV. Let us bless at our waking the God who gives us light.

10. Moral thoughts 11. Hymn, No. V.

extracted from the Bible.
Father of the universe.

12. Contemplation of nature on the first days of the spring. 13. Ode, No. VI. Lord, in thy glory adorable.

14. Extracts from the moral thoughts of Confucius.

15. Canticle in praise of actions, and thanks for the works of the creation.

16. Continuation from the moral thoughts of Confucius.

17. Hymn, No. VII. All the universe is full of thy magnifi

cence.

18. Extracts from an ancient sage of India upon the duties of families.

19. Upon the spring.

20. Moral thoughts of divers Chinese authors.

21. Canticle, No. VIII. Every thing celebrates the glory of the eternal.

22. Continuation of the moral thoughts of Chinese authors.

23. Invocation for the country.

24. Extracts from the moral thoughts of Theognis.

25. Invocation, Creator of man.

26. Ode, No. IX. Upon death.

27. Extracts from the book of the Moral Universal upon happiness. 28. Ode, No. X. Supreme Author of Nature.

INTRODUCTION,

ENTITLED

PRECISE HISTORY OF THE THEOPHILANTHROPISTS.

"Towards the mouth of Vendimiaire of the year 5, (Sep. 1796) there appeared at Paris a small work, entitled, Manuel of the Theoantropophiles, since called, for the sake of easier pronunciation, Theophilantropes (Theophilanthropists) published by C

"The worship set forth in this Manuel, of which the origin is from the beginning of the world, was then professed by some families in the silence of domestic life. But scarcely was the Manuel published, than some persons, respectable for their know

ledge and their manners, saw, in the formation of a society open to the public, an easy method of spreading moral religion, and of leading by degrees great numbers to the knowledge thereof who appear to have forgotten it. This consideration ought of itself not to leave indifferent those persons who know that morality and religion, which is the most solid support thereof, are necessary to the maintenance of society as well as to the happiness of the individual. These considerations determined the families of the Theophilanthropists to unite publicly for the exercise of their worship. "The first society of this kind opened in the month of Nivose, year 5, (Jan. 1797) in the street Denis, No. 34, corner of Lombardstreet. The care of conducting this society was undertaken by five fathers of families. They adopted the Manuel of the Theophilanthropists. They agreed to hold their days of public worship on the days corresponding to Sundays, but without making this a hindrance to other societies to choose such other day as they thought more convenient. Soon after this, more societies were opened, of which some celebrate on the decadi (tenth day) and others on the Sunday it was also resolved, that the committee should meet one hour each week, for the purpose of preparing or examining the discourses and lectures proposed for the next general assembly. That the general assemblies should be called fetes (festivals) religious and moral. That those festivals should be conducted, in principle and form, in a manner so as not to be considered as the festivals of an exclusive worship; and that, in recalling those who might not be attached to any particular worship, those festivals might also be attended as moral exercises by disciples of every sect, and consequently avoid, by scrupulous care, every thing that might make the society appear under the name of a sect. The society adopts neither rites nor priesthood, and it will never lose sight of the resolution not to advance any thing, as a society, inconvenient to any sect or sects, in any time or country, and under any government.

"It will be seen, that it is so much the more easy for the society to keep within this circle, because, that the dogmas of the Theophilanthropists are those upon which all the sects have agreed, that their moral is that upon which there has never been the least dissent, and that the name they have taken expresses the double end of all the sects, that of leading to the adoration of God and love of man.

"The Theophilanthropists do not call themselves the disciples of such or such a man. They avail themselves of the wise precepts that have been transmitted by writers of all countries and in all ages. The reader will find in the discourses, lectures, hymns, and canticles, which the Theophilanthropists have adopted for their religious and moral festivals, and which they present under the title of Année Religieuse, extracts from moralists, ancient and modern, divested of maxims too severe, or too loosely conceived, or contrary to piety, whether towards God or towards man."

Next follow the dogmas of the Theophilanthropists, or things they profess to believe. These are but two, and are thus expressed: Les The philantropes croient à l'existence de Dieu et à l'immortaiité de l'ame-the Theophilanthropists believe in the existence of God, and the immortality of the soul.

The Manuel of the Theophilanthropists, a small volume of sixty pages auodecimo, is published separately, as is also their catechism, which is of the same size. The principles of the Theophilanthropists are the same as those published in the first part of the Age of Reason in 1793, and in the second part in 1795. The Theophilanthropists, as a society, are silent upon all the things they do not profess to believe, as the sacredness of the books called the Bible, &c. &c. They profess the immortality of the soul, but they are silent on the immortality of the body, or that which the church calls the resurrection. The author of the Age of Reason gives reasons for every thing he disbelieves, as well as for those he believes; and where this cannot be done with safety, the government is a despotism, and the church an inquisition.

It is more than three years since the first part of the Age of Reason was published, and more than a year and a half since the publication of the second part: the bishop of Llandaff undertook to write an answer to the second part; and it was not until after it was known that the author of the Age of Reason would reply to the bishop, that the prosecution against the book was set on foot, and which is said to be carried on by some of the clergy of the English church. If the bishop is one of them, and the object be to prevent an exposure of the numerous and gross errors he has committed in his work (and which he wrote when report said that Thomas Paine was dead), it is a confession that he feels the weakness of his cause, and finds himself unable to maintain it. In this case, he has given me a triumph I did not seek, and Mr. Erskine, the herald of the prosecution, has proclaimed it.

THOMAS PAINE.

A DISCOURSE

Delivered to the Society of Theophilanthropists at Paris.

RELIGION has two principal enemies, Fanaticism and Infidelity, or that which is called Atheism. The first requires to be combated by season and morality, the other by natural philosophy.

The existence of a God is the first dogma of the Theophilanthropists. It is upon this subject that I solicit your attention : for

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