divine authority of Moses and the prophets was admitted, and even established, as the firmest basis of christianity. From the beginning of the world, an uninterrupted series of predictions had announced and prepared the long expected coming of the Messiah, who in compliance with the gross apprehensions of the Jews, had been more frequently represented under the character of a king and conqueror, than under that of a prophet, a martyr, and the son of God. By his expiatory sacrifice, the imperfect sacrifices of the temple were at once consummated and abolished. The ceremonial law, which consisted only of types and figures, was succeeded by a pure and spiritual worship, equally adapted to all climates ai well as to every condition of mankind-and to the initiation of blood, was substituted a more harmless initiation of

water.

GIBBON.

FOR sale by the editor, (price 1 dollar) at No. 26 Chatham-street, the PRINCIPLES OF NATURE, or a Developement of the Moral Causes of Happiness and Misery among the Human Species, second edition, with five new chapters, upon the following subjects:-Origin of Moral Evil, and the means of its Ultimate Extirpation from the Earth; that Moral Principles are not founded upon Theological Ideas, nor upon any Sectarian Modification of these Ideas, but upon a basis as immortal and as indestructible as Human Existence itself; Universal Benevolence; Mcses, Jesus, and Mahomet; Philosophical Immortality.

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PROSPECT,

OR

View of the Moral World,

BY ELIHU PALMER.

VOL. I.

SATURDAY, January 7th, 1804.

No. V.

THE PROGRESS OF KNOWLEDGE FATAL TO ERROR AND SUPERSTITION.

It is in

T is in dark ages and in the dark intellects of individuals that error shoots up, extends its growth with rancorous rapidity, and spreads far and wide its direful and destructive effects. An important question has been frequently agitated, whether science be favorable to virtue? To this the answer ought to be given indubitably in the affirmative.The apparent but rare exceptions which seem to be at war with this decision, cannot diminish in any high degree its force and correctness. But whether an accurate but close investigation into this subject should terminate in this case, in favor of the advocates of science, is not now a material point of inquiry; the connection subsisting between the cultivation of our faculties and the discovery of truth, must be apparent to every contemplative mind. In modern days, science and philosophy have attached themselves to many splendid and important truths, flowing or deducible from the view of the moral and physical world. These demonstrations and moral axioms have presented themselves in a formidable manner before the alter of superstition, and demanded of its votaries a refutation-if refutation were possible, by the powers and lights of theology. But christian theology admits of no improvements which stretch their influence beyond the opinions of the church, because, as Saint Athanasius intimates, the opinions and faith of the true church must be kept holy and undefiled, and the heretick who denies or disbelieves, without doubt, shall perish everlastingly. The opinion of some of the adherents to christianity, that revelation augments knowledge, ought to fall to the ground, upon the slightest review of the history of the christian church;

the learning and science that existed in the Roman empire at the introduction of christianity, were not the cause of accelerating its progress, or diffusing its doctrines over a considerable portion of Europe-but on the contrary, this religion became afterward the cause of destroying or surpressing that venerable accumulation of principles and of virtues, which the Roman philosophers had collected from past ages, and the energetic operation of their own faculties-neither was it the christian religion which caused the revival of learning and the love of science,which began to appear again during the fifteenth century. The historical anecdote which we published in a former number, concerning the immortal Galileo, is a strong and corroborating proof of this opinion he knew and had demonstrated to his own satisfaction, that the sun is the centre of the planetary system-that the earth and all the other planets revolve at stated but different periods around this common center; this was damnable heresy in the view of the christian church and its pious inquisitors, who assumed to be the agents of heaven for the special purpose ofkeeping holy and undefiled God's holy word, and who caused the venerable Galileo, that immortal philosopher of a dark but persecuting age, to appear before them upon his knees, formally to renounce one of the first and most solemn principles of philosophy, a principle which the church has since been constrained to acknowledge as true, and that it possesses a solid foundation in nature. The theories of Galileo, which at that time threw the church into such spasmodic conster nation, were afterward undeniably demonstrated by the cir cumnavigation of the globe. This bold and enterprising specimen of human genius, while it marked with precision the relative position of the earth, in the solar system, collected also such a mass of facts relative to the Geography of the world and the moral state of nations, as surpassed all the ingenuity of ecclesiasticks to refute. Sun, stand thou still up on Gibeon, was a declaration which after this cut but a poor figure in a book reputdely holy and divine. But superstition, rigid and tenacious, never abandons her grasp, till she is dri ven from her ground by the light of science and the force of public opinion.

Since geographical and philosophical sciences have become more extended, christian superstition has relaxed in the fury of its resentment, and the sun is now permitted to stand where it always did stand, in the center of the planetary system, diffusing light and heat to to those bodies that perform periodical revolutions round this resplendant luminary. Is it to be presumed that a system

of religion which formerly made the earth stationary and the sun revolutionary, and which now reverses both positions, can be either true or divine? Can we believe, that in the system of nature, God has revealed one set of laws, and in the system of revelation countermanded this display of infinite wisdom! No, the writers of the bible system of religion were ignorant of the laws of nature-they judged solely by external appearance, and the common phenomena of the physical world became the basis of their decision. The sun appeared to rise and set-of course the sun, in their estimation, moved, and therefore the philosophy of Galileo which had placed the sun in the center immovable, was false and heretical. It was this circumstance that brought this wise and enlightened man, apparently in a state of humiliation, before a set of ignorant persecuting and christian inquisitors, to answer for pretended crimes of which he was never guilty.They extorted, from him, it is true, a confession in favor of mother church and her holy doctrine-but the crime of decla ring against the laws of nature, and the immutable order of the physical universe, must rest upon the heads of the inqui sitors, and not upon the philosophic and immortal Galileo. Ye fanatics of the world, will ye ever learn wisdom from the harmonious works of the creator?-Will ye ever recognize the solemn truth that the sentiments of Galileo-the indes tructible laws by which eternal wisdom governs the world, will one day annihilate superstition, and extend incalculably the sphere of human energy. It is the province of reason in opposition to superstition, to accomplish this important object, and confer upon man a new era in the history of his intellectual existence.

The three following paragraphs, taken from European publications, were politely handed to us by a friend. The first shews the apprehensions of the church in relation to the force of reason and the art of printing. The second was written by a dissenting clergyman in England, and proves that graduated christianity may be at war with the ingredients of its own existence.The third pleasantly shews the foolishness of super

stition.

TOWAR

OWARDS the latter end of the reign of Louis XV. infidelity was so prevalent in France, that the higher dignitaries

of the church began to tremble for their offices. It was nee cessary on their own account to stay the torrent of infidel publications, and a remonstrance was presented to the king, through the medium of a prelate who did not believe even in the existence of a God, M. Lomerie, archbishop of Toulouse, in favor of the gospel, and the intolerant edicts of 1542, 1547 and 1551! "Your majesty is too well apprized," observe these pious petitions, "of the advantages which reli"gion confers on nations, and above all, of the powerful sup port it yields to the authority of kings, not to consider "impiety which endeavors to annihilate that support as "the greatest scourge that can afflict your reign. We are on the eve of the fatal moment when the press will overcc turn the church and the state."

66

Who is to judge of error, you or I? You for me, or I for you, or each for himself? There is no safe ground of action except the leaving of every individual to judge for himself, and account to his master. I love the man who thinks for himself, think what he will. I honor the virtue of every one who dares to be free, and to shake off the petty tyranny of ecclesiastics, who bind the grievous burthens of tyrannical systems upon the conscience of another man's disciples ;disciples whom they neither created, nor redeemed, nor appointed to judge. My soul come not thou into their intolerant assembly!

As to personality in God, a trinity of persons, I think it the most absurd of all absurdities, and in my opinion a man who hath brought himself to believe the popular doctrine of the trinity, hath done all his work; for after that there can be nothing hard, nothing inevident; the more unintelligible the more credible, and as this serves the purpose of produ cing implicit faith in pretended guides, priests will always try to keep it in credit. The bible reads easy if we consider God one, Jesus the son of God, and the Holy Ghost the influence of God. But this would spoil trade, the scriptures would become plain and easy, and a learned priesthood would be unnecessary to make out and unfold that hard science. Christianity to us poor blind creatures. Verily, priestcraft is at the bottom of all this burlesque upon religi on, for such I account the grimace of one man's pretending to take care of another man's soul. The direct end of all their schemes is to cheat people into a disuse of their own understandings, and to pitch their eyes and place their affections upon a frail and often a wicked proxy.