FOR SALE BY ISAAC HALL, CORNER OF VINE AND FRONT-STREET, PHILADELPHIA, PRINCIPLES of NATURE, THE SECOND EDITION, WITH FIVE NEW CHAPTERS, 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, mor upon any Sectarian Modification of these Ideas, but upon a basis as immortal and as indestructible as Human Existence itself; Universal Benevolence; Moses, Jesus, and Mahomet; Philosophical Immortality. PUBLIC DISCOURSES, UPON MORAL and PHILOSOPHICAL SUBJECTS, will be delivered by the Editor every Sunday evening, at 6 o'clock at Snow's long room, No. 89 Broad-Way. NEW-YORK: PRINTED and published by the editor, at No. 26 Chathamstreet, price 2 dollars per annum, one half paid in advance every six months. PROSPECT, OR View of the Moral World, BY ELIHU PALMER. VOL. I. SATURDAY, March 17th, 1804. No. 15. Comments on the sacred writings of the Jews and Christians: Genesis, Chapter the eleventh. TOWER. OF BABEL. THE more we examine Divine Revelation, the more we shall discover that it is full of fiction and extravagance. In this chapter, there is a wild and marvellous project set on foot for building a city, and a tower whose top should reach to heaven. Those people must have had very strange ideas of the distance between earth and heaven, when they conceived the lofty plan of erecting this lofty and exalted tower. It is said to have been upon the plains of Shinar, that this wandering people formed the mighty scheme, and it was there they actually set about collecting the materials for the accomplishment of this great object, and the completion of this superb and magnificent building." And they said, go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly; and they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, go to, let us build us a city, and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven;" to what point in the heaven they intended to go it is not said; if to the sun, then. they would have to bul their tower ninety-five millions of miles high, for this is the distance between the sun and the earth. But to give them a fair chance, since the job's a heavy one, we will suppose they intended to carry it only to the moon; this is sixty semidiameters of the earth, or about two hundred and forty thousand miles. Let any one calculate the quantity of materials, the portion of labour, and the length of time necessary for the accomplishment of such a work, and he would be inclined to believe that God Almigh ty was not quite so much alarmed as he is represented to have been according to this account-but more of this hereafter. At present let any one reflect upon the folly of the scheme in regard to time and distance. Suppose they had reared their tower half way to the moon; then the men carrying brick and mortar, must have travelled an hundred and twenty thousand miles with each load, and the same distance back to earth after the next load; one turn up and down would have taken each labourer more than thirty years, travelling at the rate of twenty miles a day; besides, what they were to do for water, provisions, &c. on the road, must be left for bible-makers and inspired men to explain. But suppose all these difficulties to be surmounted, a new one would arise when they approached so near the heavenly bodies, as to feel more forcibly the power of attraction from that quarter than from the earth; in this case, men, brick, and mortar, together with all their tools and other materials, would fly off in a direct line to the moon, and forever prevent the completion of this wonderful project; the folly and impossibility of the thing stamp the story with a character, which ought to make christian believers ashamed of calling such stuff Divine Revelation. But God, it is said, came down to see the city, and the tower which the children of men builded; rec ould not see where ithe was-it was necessary to make a journey from heaven to earth, in order to discover what plots and conjurations were going on against him. This revealed system of religion will never cease to represent the creator as a jealous God, full of apprehensions for his safety, and terrified at the designs of those poor feeble mortals, of whose existence he was himself the author. "And the Lord said, behold, the people is one, and they all have one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech." any man of common sense believe it was necessary for God to confound the language of any pele to prevent an invasion of his celestial dominions? what nonsense is this, and how inconsistent with the perfections of him who holds in his hands the sceptre of the universe! one would suppose that the writer of this chapter believed that these Babel-builders intended to take heaven by storm, dethrone the Creator, and seize upon the government of the world;-and they make God in his apprehensions conform to this contemptible idea. One remark further is necessary, and this chapter of revealed extravagance may be passed over. In the Can first verse of this chapter it is said, that the whole earth was of one language and of one speech; but if we turn back to the tenth chapter, we shall find mention is made of different tongues. By what means these different languages became so soon consolidated into one, must be left for the pious and learned believers of christianity to explain. This book of God, this book of divine revelation, is remarkable for inconsistencies; but God's ways are not like our ways—and se there is an end of the matter. THE A Letter concerning the Deists in Bohemia. VIENNA, Aug. 18, 1783. HE accounts I promised to send you concerning the Deists in Bohemia, and which at last you now receive, are obtained from such good authority, that I have no need to fear they can ever come too late. Upon the publication of the emperor's letters-patent for a general toleration, two and fifty families of the two adjoining villages of Rockitno and Chwoynetch, in the Chrudimer circle, presented themselves before the chief magistrate of the district, and delivered to him their confession of faith, in which they rejected the divinity of Christ, and solemnly declared themselves of the religion of God, (Boguvera), or as they explained it, the religion of one only God. Bishop Hay of Konigsgrætz, who distinguished himself from the clergy of his rank like a star between the clouds, ordered these people to be assembled in the chancery office at Pardubith, where he discoursed with them for several hours, exerting all his powers of sagacity as well as the whole force of his eloquence: in order with the former to penetrate into the prime origin of these their notions, uncommon and unthought of among the country-folks in general, and with his eloquence persuade them, if not to the catholic, at least to some one of the christian professions tolerated in the country. They heard him with the greatest composure; but their answer always was: that their reason revolted against the mysteries of the christian religion, and that they could not believe what was contrary to their reason. * Joseph II. The bishop asked them: Whether they comprehended how their corn grew? Whether they comprehended the numberless mysteries of nature? and whether these were therefore the less true?-Whether, after the example of so many princes and great ones of the earth, so many learned and enlightened men, after the example of all Europe, who confess the cross of Christ, they could not be silent concerning the mysteries, and perform their adorations in private, in order to pass their days in peace? "Kings and princes, returned they, the great ones and rulers of the people, thousands and tens of thousands think as we do; but they keep silence, and are therefore more prudent; we speak out, and are therefore the more honourable." Their confession of faith consists nearly of the following articles: " They believe and adore one God, the creator of heaven and earth; but do not believe in a trinity, which they consider as polytheism; they receive and admit the history of Christ, as they do the history of a Huss and several others of a like nature; they believe he was just so, and no otherwise, a son of God, as they themselves are his sons; for all mankind, but principally the virtuous and pious, are crea tures and children of God. But a God become man, they can as little believe as a man become God. In the spirit of God they believe, just as they believe that every man has his own spirit; that the divine spirit is for them the spirit of good counsel and of strength, it guides and comforts them; but that this spirit is a separate person in the deity, they can no more believe than that their spirit forms another person in them. They believe the soul of man to be immortal. The innocent and good men that are harrassed and tormented in this world, will in the other receive their reward; they will everlastingly love and be with God. The eternity of hell-torments they do not believe; they say it is in direct opposition to the infinite mercy of the best of fathers. The sinner, according to the greatness of his offences, will be chastened or destroyed. "Their law book they say is the ten commandments. God wrote them with his finger on the tables of stone, and at the same time on the hearts of all mankind. They say their worship, for the virtuous, is that fine prayer of the christians, the Pater noster, which they learn in their youth'; for the sinner, who has to reconcile himself with God, the psalms of David, which they sing together in their assem |
