of his own procuring; fo that the best of us would more fenfibly commemorate the day of his nativity, as the poet Dryden makes Marcus Antonius, in double pomp of fadness; but, when we confider the fame event with a retrospect to the Metempfychofis, and behold an offending angelic being freed from the brutal mortal chains, and entering into a state wherein, by progreffive degrees, he arrives to the full exercife of his divine intellectual powers, and is enabled thereby to re-afcend to those regions of blifs, which he had too justly forfeited, then he may with well-grounded reafon annually celebrate fo gracious an incident with pious praise and thanksgiving, and temperate focial joy and feftivity; whether ourselves, or any connected to us, are the objects: otherwise, a ceremonial of this kind muft appear to every thinking being, an empty parade of vainglory; and a mark of unaccountable infatuation, repugnant to common sense,

CON

CONCLUSION.

149. We have now, candid reader, brought our five General Heads to a clofe; in the difcuffion of which, our chief aim has been. the restoring to mankind those effential PRIMITIVE TRUTHS, on which his real state and nature originally exifted, and still exists; and on a due regard to which, his temporal and spiritual happiness ever did, and ever must depend;-but yet, our task is not finished; it remains, that we difcipline the principal subjects of our labor, and draw them together in one compact body, that they may thereby acquire more strength and influence than they poffibly can, fcattered as they are, at fuch a distance from each other, as the nature of our difquifition, required: it is also requifite that we obviate fome objections and difficulties attending our general fyftem, which have not yet been noticed, although we know they will start up against us, in prejudiced, narrow, and felf interested minds;-but these are no less the objects of our benevolence, than the more enlarged and enlightened: we shall

then

then conclude with a few perfuafive reflections, that will naturally rise from our fubject.

150. With all humility we conceive, that we have proved beyond the power of refutation, ift, That original fin took its rife in heaven, and that we have no grounds to look for it in the tranfgreffions of Adam and Eve, or any where else.2dly, That man and beast are either animated by the apoftate angels, or, that they are nothing -a mere vegetative portion of matter in the creation, and that their existence at all, as intelligent beings, can only rationally be accounted for, from the pure doctrine of the Metempsychosis.3dly, That the brute creation was not made either for the use or dominion of man, in the sense he has been pleased to adopt and practise.-4thly, That man, by murdering and eating the brute animals, was guilty of a manifeft violation of his creator's commands, and of his own original nature. 5thly, That those unnatural violations, with the auxiliary force of intoxicating potations, proved the fource on earth of all evil, both phyfical and moral ; producing the fecond defection from GoD of the angelic delinquents in their mortal form of probation in man, and thereby affording Satan an open field, and full scope,

for

for all his diabolical purpofes against the fpecies.-6thly, That man has no chance for fetting Satan at defiance, and for fubduing the univerfal depravity of the species, and reftoring piety and morals, and confequently no chance for falvation, but by putting a total stop to those two (or rather three, including murder) primary vices:-cut off the root, and the branches will neceffarily perish; hereby the primitive age would be reftored, and a reform in morals would probably reftore alfo the globe to its priftine beauty and natural fertility as before urged.-7thly, That it refts on the Clergy of all nations to begin this general reform, for reasons before given.

151. We are fenfible that there are many tribes amongst the inhabitants of every kingdom on the globe,, who will be more deeply affected than others, fhould our general fyftem of reducing mankind to their. primitive regimen take place. Upon the return of moral rectitude into the world, laws would become useless, and confequently lawyers, and their mischievous train of retainers, will have no employment.Phyficians and their coadjutors, upon the restoration of the human body to its ori ginal nature, will, in the fecond generation

at

at least, have no friendly difeafe for their fupport.--Wine-merchants, diftillers, brewers, vintners, dealers in fpiritous liquors, cooks, (thofe dangerous inftruments of luxury, difeafe and death) and butchers, &c. will all be turned a-drift, and be forced to feek for other means of fubfiftence. When we become, bona fide, Christians, the art and destructive practice of war would ceafe to be the bane of mankind, and the inoffenfive brute creation; and a numerous race of able-bodied beings, who have hitherto been employed only to work out the perdition of the fpecies, would contribute to their fupport and maintenance, by being employed in the cultivation of the lands of the state they belong to; a work they would moft certainly prefer to the trade of fpilling the blood of their fellow-creatures, they know not why, or in fupport of the tyranny and wanton ambition of others.

152. Refpecting the firft of the two learned profeffions, it has long been the opinion of wife men, that laws, which were at firft intended for the fecurity of property and peace, are, by a ftrange fatality in the course of human affairs, become the greatest cause of manifold grievances to the fubjects of all nations, and the great fomentors of difcord:

the