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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 the 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 writteng 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 chuse 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 not 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 that is every day increasing. It is not infidelity, as Mr. Erskine prophanely 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 the 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 how they ascribe books to him as his word, which from this confused condition would dishonour a common scribbler, and against which there is abundant evidence, and every cause to suspect imposition. Leave then the Bible to itself. God will take take care of it if he has 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 shew 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 shew Mr. Erskine that there are religious establishments for public worship which make no profes sion 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 Theophilan thropists, 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 armis des hommes. The society proposes to publish each year a volume enti tled Armie Religieuse des Theophilantropes, Year religious of the Theophilanthropists; the first volume is just published, entitled

YEAR RELIGIOUS OF THE THEOPHILANTHROPISTS,

OR,

ADORERS OF GOD, AND FRIENDS OF MAN; Being a collection of the discourses, lectures, nymns, and canticles, for all the religious and moral festivals of the Theophilanthropists during the course of the year, whether in their public temples or in their private families, published by the author of the Mannel of the Theophilanthro pists.

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, No. 1, 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 Adorateurs.

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

10. Moral thoughts extracted from the Bible.

11. Hymn, No. V. 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 magnificence.

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

19. Upon the spring.

20. Thoughts moral of divers Chinese authors.

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

22. Continuation of the moral thoughts of Chinese au

thors.

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 month of Vendimiaire, of the year 5, (Sept. 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

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