YALE
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

A TREATISE

EELIGION AND CHEISTIANITY,

ORTHODOXY AND RATIONALISM ;

AN APPEAL TO THE COMMON-SENSE OF ALL WHO LIKE TRUTH LETTER
THAN ERROR.

FREDERICK MUNCH.

BOSTON:
B. H. GREENE, 124 WASHINGTON STREET.
1847.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the y.ear 1847, by
FREDERICK MUNCH,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

ripK53 Tb2

PRINTED BY
COOLIDGE AND 'WILEY,
WATER STREET.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR.
I was bom on the 25th of June, 1799, in a village of the Gtand-
Dukedom of Hesse Darmstadt, where my father had employment as
a Lutheran minister. He was a man of great simplicity, genuine
piety, more than common learning, and universally esteemed. With
a small income he yet reared up seven .children. Being strongly
attached to his calling and its duties, he wished his three sons, of
whom I am the second, to follow the same vocation, and they did so ;
my elder brother is established as a minister in Germany, my younger
is living near me. By my father I was educated and instructed till
my fifteenth year ; I then frequented for two years the college at Darm
stadt. At the age of seventeen, I was matriculated as a student of divin
ity at the University of Giessen. It was my good luck, that while there
I formed an intimate association with a select number of friends, most
of them older and more mature than myself, amongst whom Charles
Follen and his brothers were perhaps the most prominent, and this
event decided the moral, political, and scientific course of my whole
future life. Thus secured from follies, too common amongst men of
my age, my mind was early, too early, directed to the most serious
objects. It was the condition of our beloved Fatherland that occupied
our youthful minds ; we hoped to be able, and therefore prepared our
selves, to aid in the deliverance of our oppressed people, and antici
pated this glorious result by inspired patriotic songs. In the mean
time I applied myself most sedulously to my professional studies, —
and before I had reached the age of twenty, was honorably graduated,
examined, ordained, and installed as assistant-minister in my native
village. I was restored to the same tranquil and secluded country-life,
yea, the very scenes, to which by early impressions I had been so much..
attached. My official duties leaving half of my time idle, and myself being
well aware that I had been compelled to finish my studies rather in
too much hurry, I went through the whole of them anew and with a
more manly application. I read the old classics again, and devoted
myself to the study of natural and philosophical sciences ; studied
Kant, Fries, Jacobi, Herder, and others ; tried myself sometimes in
poetical essays, and on the whole spent my time more usefully than
young men in my situation commonly do.
In such pursuits I felt happy, though one cloud darkened the seren
ity of my mind ; it was disappointed hope. How many times did I
repeat Schiller's immortal words, " Die Ideale sind zerronnen." Ideal

IV BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR.
Hopes are rent asunder! Real life corresponded little to the ideal
dreams I had indulged in former years ; my dear parent-country still
remained in disgraceful subjugation. Many of my friends, too forward-
in their zeal, sighed in dungeons or were already expatriated, and the
systematic coercion on the part of our crowned little despots became
eVery day more intolerable.
Respecting my theological views, I must remark, that, although
bred by my father in the orthodox Lutheran creed, when I commenced
thinking for myself, I found myself drawn to the New School, that is,
to the rational view of Christianity, as it had lately been established
by the most prominent teachers of theology in my country; I have
oeen confirmed therein by all my subsequent studies.
After my father's death, I succeeded to his employment, married,
and was happy in the circle of my beloved. Nor must it be thought
that I was spared the trials of life. I have experienced its darkest
hours, yet not despaired.
The year 1830 revived the hopes and energy of the German patriots;
the era of freedom seemed at length to dawn upon old Europe. Its
rulers began to tremble. Soon, however, they re-collected their
strength; confirmed their power anew, oppressed and persecuted the
liberal party more systematically than ever before, and all hopes for
the better vanished at last. Under such circumstances, it appeared
unreasonable to me and some of my friends to bind our desire of living
under a republican government, any longer to our native soil. A res
olution was taken to dissolve for ever all ties which bound us to the
old world, and seek the accomplishment of our youthful ideas in the
other hemisphere. A number of respectable families joined with us;
the late well-known Paul Follenius and myself were chosen the lead
ers, and in 1834 we sailed, about 500 strong, in two vessels over the
Atlantic, looking for a place of asylum in the far West. Our idea was
to settle and live together here as a German colony, in order to escape
the feeling of being strangers in the land of our adoption ; but this was
found impracticable, and we scattered.
I pass over many new trials I had to undergo, and only observe that
I am living in Warren County, Mo., being occupied at the same time
as a farmer, teacher, preacher, and coeditor of a German religious pa
per, the " Lichtfrewnd," printed at Herman in this State. In all that I
consider essential, I have found what I have so long been seeking for,
though there is probably no place in this world, where man's life may
pass without trials and disappointment.
Warren County, Missouri, November, 1S46.
Frederick Munch.

PREFACE.
In offering the following remarks on a most serious subject to you,
my countrymen, I presume you will ask who I am. Not intending,
however, to enlarge on my own insignificant self, I will only state that
frem my very childhood I was designed for what is called a learned
profession ; that it was chiefly the study of Theology, together with
such other branches of science as have a natural connection with it, to
which I have devoted myself incessantly with what little talents I
have, up to this time ; that I never blindly followed in the wake of
others, what splendor soever might surround their names, but always
examined for myself; that the following is to be considered as the re
sult of my own investigations, though it is my good fortune not to
stand solitary and alone, but to enjoy a most cheering companionship.
After having been for many years a Protestant preacher in my
native country, yielding to an impulse which I have no reason to be
ashamed of, I came to this country and settled in Warren Co., Mo.
Although like the rest of my companions, I had to struggle here for a
living by "unwonted labor, yet I continued my former calling, preach
ing as I had ever done, rational Christianity to my countrymen. But
in doing so I could not avoid getting into conflict with the so called
Orthodoxy, and seeing my doctrine, even my person, denounced by
such as I could not consider above me either in candor and purity of
design, or in literary acquirements. Thus I thought proper to give
my ideas the greatest possible publicity by publishing two pamphlets
in the German language, entitled " On Religion and Christianity, etc."
At the same time I spared no pains to become so far conversant witri
the English language as to be able to communicate my own convic
tions also to my countrymen who speak that tongue. How far I may
have succeeded in being intelligible to you, yourselves will judge after
the perusal of the following pages.
I have thought proper to bring the whole under different heads, the
order of which will perhaps be found not entirely systematical. But
that is of little importance. My principal aim was to lead my readers
step by step in such a manner, as I hoped they would most conven
iently follow me, arriving at length at a point, where they might meet
with entire satisfaction and be spiritually united with me.
Meanwhile, should any in the spirit of candor attack this treatise,
either as irreligious or lame in argument, it will give me pleasure
speedily to reply, — the more so as this little pamphlet does not com
prise all I have to say on so extensive a subject. It will depend on
the reception this first essay shall meet with, whether I shall resolve
to continue it at some future time.

CONTENTS.
Page
Chap. I.— First Principle, ..... i
Chap. n. — The Bible in general, and how to read it, 2
Chap. DX — The Old Testament in particular, - - 7
Chap. IV. — The New Testament in particular, and its Writers, 10
Chap. V. — The Genuine Doctrine of Christ, - 13
Chap. VI. — Jesus Christ,  15
Chap. VDI. — Corruptions of Christianity, - 20
Chap. VET- The Reformation, - 31
Chap. IX. — Rationalism, 33
Chap. X — Rationalism in its farther progress, - 40
Chap. XI. — Revelation, ¦- ... 45
Chap. XH. — Miracles,  49
Chap. XDJ. — The Nature of Religion,  53
Chap. XTV. — Providence, - - 61
Chap. XV. — The Nature, Origin, and Consequences of Sin, 70
Chap. XVI. — American and English Theology, - 80
Final Remarks,  85

INTRODUCTION.
It is not more true in any other regard than it is respecting religious
doctrines, that " the mass is led captive by the iron hand of the few."
Though this is less to be wondered at in countries where every branch
of social life is subject to the control of a sovereign ruler, it is the
more astonishing in a free country like our own. Indeed, by the spirit
and letter of our constitution, all that concerns religion is exempt
from the influence of political power. Every description of religious
faith and worship is free and unmolested. Yet there is a moral com
pulsion as well as a physical, and the former, in most instances, proves
to be more irresistible than the latter. Yes, there is an influence on
millions, dangerous and powerful, such as I allude to, exercised in this
country as well as in all others -r-and may be especially in this — by
a class of men, in many cases candid but deceived, in others wilful
deceivers of the public. In short, I allude to the priesthood, who
exercise an influence in the body politic, silent, yet not the less potent,
though our State authorities neither give to them — like the govern
ments of other nations — any additional strength, nor will check in
any way the misuse of their presumptuous power.
In this country, where our public affairs are or ought to be regulated
merely by the dictates of sound sense, where no ancient usages, as
such, are considered as competent rulers of our public or private life
every thing should be brought before the tribunal of sober reasoning,
and made conformable to the results of progressive science and experi
ence. Here the spirit should in no respect be fettered. In this coun
try, of course, it becomes us also to examine the foundations of our
religious institutions and inherited creed, and not timidly shrink back
from a thorough investigation of the same. And, truly, the more
sacred the object is thought to be, the more eagerly should we endeav
or to gain a clear, a well-founded, and sound understanding of it, sub
mitting, if necessary, and unchecked by prejudice, our whole belief
to » sober and serious criticism. The time has arrived, when
it must appear proper to make this matter the subject of a public
discussion. There were from early times, clearsighted men, who saw that in
matters of religion, the mass is led blind. But too eagerly striving to
correct errors, they committed, the fault of Qverth rowing and casting
away both truth and error; what is sacred, material, and permanent,

Till INTRODUCTION.
together with what had proved to be mere human invention, improper
addition, or blamable deceit. Their combatting mistake and folly,
was therefore considered as a war against religion and Christianity
itself. And thus their efforts remained without effect upon the many
My design is different. Early imbued with (he sacredness of religious
faith, being a preacher of a Christian congregation, and considering
Christianity as by far the purest and most perfect of all religious con
fessions, my only aim is : To confine religious doctrines to what is
essential and within the sphere of human knowledge ; to restore Chris
tianity to its original purity and simplicity; to demonstrate its primi
tive excellency by pointing out the aberrations and misconstructions
of former times and those of our own. Thus the gratitude of all for
the blessings of true religion would be heightened, and something done
to give, the divided world that peace and harmony which, in their bit
ter controversies, men never yet enjoyed,
I am prepared, however, to hear my principles harshly condemned,
myself denounced as an unbeliever, and the voice of warning raised
against listening to my words. But that is little to me, and shall.
never lead me astray from the path of truth and duty. I shall not
attempt to convey the idea of being myself the author of a new doc
trine. My principles are those of all truly enlightened men of our
time in the country whence I came, and I think of not a few in this*
They are entertained by thousands in different parts of the world, and
boldly confessed by all of those thousands who are ingenuous and
frank.

RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.

CHAPTER T.

FIRST PRINCIPLE.

I shall as far as I am able avoid intimating that my
readers are to believe this or that, so or so ; — I say : hear and
examine ! And this is the first point on which I widely dif
fer from most of those who profess to be preachers of the
gospel. They always urge in the tone of most solemn exhor
tation : " You must believe ! On your belief of this or that
doctrine depends your welfare, your happiness in this and a
future world ; — unless you believe nobody can save your soul.
For your sins and trespasses, redemption may be found and
is made already, but believe you must if you wish to escape
eternal misery ! " And I say quite the contrary : Examine !
Dare to think for yourselves. Do not think, as numbers do,
only by borrowed thoughts. It is for this that God has be
stowed on you intellect and sense, blindly to follow none !
Use your mental capacities in this as in all other instances,
especially when the object is to gain a satisfactory religious
conviction. Believe in nothing that is opposed to the inter
nal and inborn light of your mind ! "What more can man do
than calmly and seriously inquire after truth, from whatso
ever source it is offered, gladly adopting any new thought that
is in conformity with his own reason, and boldly rejecting
1

2 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
whatever is adverse to the laws of sound reasoning or to his
own unbiassed conviction ?
Be not afraid, though, by this course, you might perhaps
fall into some error. Mere error is no sin, provided that
you candidly search after truth. Mere belief or implicit
faith cannot establish a man's worthiness, or make error
truth, or fiction reality. The world had existed many thou
sand years before the doctrines which are now thought to con
stitute the principal part of religion, were known. Shall all
those who, for that reason, could not have believed in them,
or shall the many who even now with the sincerest. love of
truth, cannot make themselves persuaded of some of those
doctrines, be condemned and miserable for ever ? What in
human feeling must fill his heart who entertains such a
thought ! Yet it is entertained by thousands who, in con
demning their brethren, condemn at the same time that truly
Christian principle : " Prove all things, hold fast that which
is good! " 1 Thess. v. 21. Man is judged by his actions ;
this is the most explicit doctrine of Christianity. " By their
fruits you shall know them ; not every one that saith unto
me Lord, Lord, &c."

CHAPTER II.
*HE BIBLE IN GENERAL, AND HO"W TO READ IT.
But the apologist for the creeds of modern orthodoxy
gravely exclaims : " So the Bible, the book of God, says, and
so, of course, you must believe.'' I say on the contrary : A
great many things that such teachers would make you believe
are not contained in the Bible. This book, of all others,
should be understood in the spirit of sound interpretation.
Such however is no easy task, and requires more study and
scientific information than many of those who, feeble in their
own intellect, are always appealing to the Bible, ever took
pains to attain. That the way of understanding the Bible
may be very different, is evident from the fact, that all Chris
tian parties, from the beginning, founded their most contradic
tory dogmas on the authority of the Scriptures. And yet all
cannot be correct at the same time. But those blind zealots
for the credit of the Bible, will not even permit you to under
stand its sentiments in your own way, with regard to the
manner of expression, or the way of thinking and other cir
cumstances in those remote days, so totally differing from
modern use. And yet, what relic of antiquity can rightly be
understood or appreciated, unless considered with reference
to the time and place of its origin ? Too many see only let
ters in the Bible, and what of life and spirit is therein
(John vi. 62,) escapes their notice.
The Bible, like most books of oriental origin, not only
abounds in figurative words and sentiments, but a great many
of its tales are to be understood in a figurative sense or as par
ables. Such, for instance, are the terms — the eyes, ears,
nose, hands, feet, of God, &c. When it is said, that God has
spoken to certain individuals, this too must either be ascribed to

RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITV.

a very imperfect and rude conception of Deity, or understood
in a figurative sense. God, as a spiritual being, according to
Christian notions, cannot be thought to utter words percepti
ble to our ears ; he speaks human language as little as he can
be seen by human eyes. (1 John iv. 12.) To people in an
cient times, the beauty of nature was the garment of the
Most High ; the thunder was his word ; the storm his chariot;
the clouds his ethereal seat, &c. Striking events in nature
imbued them with the thought of God's immediate presence,
and the strain of ideas thereby awakened in their own minds
was considered or represented as the voice of the Invisible
himself. This simple buLincontestible remark will fully ex
plain all the passages in the Bible where God is represented
as having spoken to men. Even the term " word of God,"
applied to the Bible, means nothing more than books thought
to have been composed by men inspired, that is, moved or in
cited, by God ; or books treating on religious (Divine) sub
jects. As Parables we are not only to consider the known beau
tiful parables of Christ, but many other tales in the Old and
New Testaments : for instance, the fall of man and his expul
sion from Eden ; the murder of Abel by Cain ; the confine
ment of Jonah in the whale's belly ; the temptation of Christ ;
the whole books of Job, Ruth, Esther, and others. Most of
those tales contain such obvious impossibilities, that in our
time no reasonable man could in good earnest take them for
real history, whereas, understood as parables, they convey
the most sublime truths.
Again, in the Bible we meet with other tales of an equally
incredible character, which, however, may have some histori
cal foundation. But the events related had passed through
many centuries as oral tradition, before they were penned.
Now, we know how apt men are to enlarge, embellish, and-
especially m times of so gross superstition - mix wondrous
incidents with even the most simple fact ; so much so, that in
after times it is often impossible to separate the true from the

RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY. 0
fictitious. Like children, men in the lower degrees of cul
ture, being children in mind, will always like a narrative the
better the more it is stuffed with the incomprehensible, fabu
lous, supernatural, and miraculous. The narratives of the
Deluge, of the manner in which the Israelites were liberated
from their servitude in Egypt and conducted to Palestine, of
the deeds of Samson, &c, may serve as examples.
Other tales are nothing more than the result of the reflec
tions of certain individuals on some important subject, and so
far mixed up with error ; for no man in those remote days
could possibly be acquainted with the disclosures of modern
science. I allude to the account of the Creation of the world,
which, in connection with several palpable mistakes, contains
some most eminent truths and ideas confirmed even by re
searches of our time. All this I shall more in detail eluci
date hereafter.
On the Origin of the Bible I will here allege this much.
The Old Testament contains all the extant literature of the
Hebrew nation. Like most ancient nations, the Hebrews
claimed a holy character for their old writings. These books,
however, are most various in purport and of different value,
written within a period of perhaps a thousand years, the
greater part composed, afterwards amended, revised, and
partly enlarged, by hands unknown, and finally collected and
brought into their present order after the return of the Jews
from the Exile.
The books of the New Testament were not collected be
fore the close of the fourth tfentury. So many books, claiming
a holy character, were then extant and in circulation, and yet
some of them so palpably spurious, that it was thought neces
sary to separate the genuine from the counterfeit. It was,
however, even then too late. Probably several books in the
selection made by the priests assembled at Laodicsea in 365,
and called from that time the New Testament, are not genu
ine ; such as the Revelation, and the second epistle of Peter ;
several chapters are of later composition, for example, the first
1*

b RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
two chapters of the gospel of Matthew and the last of that of
John, and so are some passages and verses, (probably Matt.
xxvi. 53, and xxvii. 19; 1 Cor. xi. 23-32; 1 John v.
7, 8.) Besides, various oral traditions relative to the su
pernatural origin of Christ, and some occurrences of his after
life, had already crept into the gospels, of which only the
fourth can be considered as being originally composed by an
eye-witness. To prove all this requires, however, deeper investigations
than I can here enter into. The above may suffice to convince
the intelligent of the absurdity of looking on the whole scrip-
tifres, word by word, as Divine Revelation, and appealing to
its authority even for the corroboration of tenets contradic
tory in themselves. We should use the Bible as we do other
books, selecting what is good, true, and excellent, and consid
ering the rest as belonging to a time and conceptions where
with we have nothing to do.

CHAPTER III.
THE OLD TESTAMENT IN PARTICULAR.
However valuable the greater part of the Old Testament
may be, for the well informed reader, whether we consider
the historical accounts it contains, or its poetical performances,
the Psalms, the book of Job, &c, or some of its religious doc
trines, — for instance, the idea of Monotheism, some moral
prescriptions, and most of the commandments, — yet it was a
great mistake and one highly to be regretted, that the ivhole was
from early times up to our time thought to be a source of the
Christian religion, or in orthodox language : a Book of Divine
Revelation, even of the same authority with the New Testa
ment. How many fanatical excrescences, finding no foundation
in the New Testament, looked for their basis in the Old !
In the first place, some of the books of the Old Testament
are not what they seem to be. Modern investigations have
shown beyond doubt that at least the greater part of the books
styled Books of Moses, are of later origin, and probably sev
eral others. Such is not only the opinion of our most learned
theologians and critics, but it is the conviction, handed down
by old tradition, of numbers of the Jews themselves. Modern
travellers in the East, for instance James Campbell, tell us
that the Jews in the vicinity of Aleppo and elsewhere, reject
as spurious the books ascribed to their great lawgiver, includ
ing the account of the Creation, and indeed all the books pro
fessedly antecedent to the Babylonian captivity ; and do not
deem them entitled to the character which the Christians
generally ascribe to them as works of inspiration. So far as
they allow the history of their nation to be authentic, they
hold that it goes no farther back than the period of the Exile,

8 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
when they conceive that all their former records were de
stroyed. Again, some of the doctrines advanced in the Old Testa
ment are harsh and imperfect. God is represented as having
adopted, and as cherishing, only one little nation, — the de
scendants of the Patriarchs, — while the rest of mankind were
rejected and disavowed. He is said to have now and then
slaughtered thousands for offences apparently not greater
than those which have everywhere and at all times occurred.
He is said to punish with implacable wrath children and chil
dren's children for the sins of their fathers. And how does it
accord with the holiness of God to bid the Jews, (as is related
Numb. xxxi. &c.,) extirpate whole nations with more than
Indian-like cruelty ? or take their rightful possessions ? or
steal, In a mean and roguish manner, the property of the
trusting ? (Exod. iii. 22, and xii. 36.) This same God pre
scribes rules for sowing and harvesting, weaving cloth, prun
ing trees, trimming the hair and beard, &c. (Levit. xix. 9,
10, 19, 23, 27) ; is seen walking (Gen. iii. 8) ; is heard talk
ing human language ; wrestles with Jacob (Gen. xxxii. 24,
30) ; suffers Abraham to expostulate with him (Gen. xviii.
22, 33) ; he is not the omniscient, for he must go and see
before he can judge (Gen. xviii. 20, 21) ; not the all-wise,
for he is repenting sometimes, &c, &c. In short, the whole
idea of the Supreme Being is that of the puerile, not of the
enlightened age.
Moreover, the behaviour of some of those who are repre
sented as the special favorites of God, is in many instances
so offensive, yes, scandalous, that I think little of the moral
character of those who would recommend them for emulation
in the nineteenth century. Yet those ancient tales, some of
which are filled with either barbarities, or scandal, or impos
sibilities, are still read for devotion's sake by thousands, even
by persons of erudition and sagacity. They contain no doubt
something attractive, like the most ancient literary remains of
nearly all nations. But the interest they call up, is, at least
with me, different from a religious feeling.

RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY. 9
It is true, Christ himself refers more than once to " Moses
and the Prophets ; " they were the books of his nation, the
only ones he could have knowledge of, and says that " he was
not come to destroy the law but to fulfil it," (or rather perfect
it, according to the Greek : plerosai.) In all that, I see but
a confirmation and recommendation of such moral command
ments as for instance are cited in Luke xviii. 20. He who
would suppose that Christ had intended to bind his followers
to all the doctrines of the Old Testament, would charge him
with great inconsistency. Did he not in fact abolish the rules
for the celebration of the Sabbath, as established by Moses ?
Did he not by these few words : " Not that which goeth into the
mouth defileth a man," (Matt. xv. 11) abrogate more than
half of the Mosaic rites ? And is not -the worship of God
" in spirit, and in truth," as instituted by him, in direct
opposition to the whole sacrificial service instituted by Moses ?
In short, what unprejudiced man can see in Moses any
thing else but the disciple of the Egyptian magi into whose
mystical wisdom he was initiated, but at the same time the
true and energetic patriot, the great lawgiver of a nation that
being unwilling from the want of all civilization to receive his
laws as his own, must be made to believe that they were the
immediate impositions of their national God Jehovah ? Thajt
he mixed ordinances of police and diet with moral and relig
ious precepts, that he established a powerful Hierarchy as
the fittest form of the Jewish government, and many things
besides incompatible with the notions of more enlightened
times, we cannot reasonably make an object of blame.
The so called Apocryphal books were composed in a later
period and after the code of the Old Testament was closed.
Some of these, especially that of Jesus Sirach, belong to the
most excellent portion of the Hebrew literature, breathing a
spirit of liberality and showing a refinement of thought not
often met with in the more ancient writings.

10

CHAPTER IV.
THE NEW TESTAMENT IN PARTICULAR, AND ITS WRITERS.
Although the New Testament is superior to the Old in
many respects, and, being the only source of Christian faith,
of far greater importance to us, yet appeals to it should like
wise be made with some discretion. Christ spoke to his
disciples and the people in his native language, — in Hebrew.
Some of the former afterwards wrote down what they recol
lected, in Greek, which is the language of the New Testa
ment, translating sentences, — the meaning of which was per
haps dark to them when heard, or the expressions of which
were imperfectly remembered, — into a language entirely dif
ferent in genius and character, and with which they were by no
means sufficiently conversant. Though I do not often find it
necessary, in inteipreting the New Testament, to recur to
these suggestions, yet he who does cannot justly be blamed.
The public in general read the Bible in such modern trans
lations as by no means give, — or can give, from the difference
of the genius of the languages, — in all instances the sense
of the original in a manner sufficiently precise or intelligible.
But that is not all. All the accounts of Jesus Christ and
his sayings, some of which are not entirely harmonious, do not
originate from such as had been personally acquainted with
him. On the contrary, other reports, by a longer oral circu
lation elevated into the miraculous, and not fully authentic,
have crept into the New Testament. Whoever, for instance,
compares the two genealogies, (Matt. i. and Luke iii.,) will
find entirely different names. I do not think either of them
to be correct. And how should it be possible to demonstrate
the descent of any person back through several thousand years,
without resorting to fables ? But such contradictions, plain

RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY. 11
as they are, are unavailing with those who are resolved, at
all hazards, to adhere to the established doctrine of inspira
tion, without examining whether any thing reasonable may
be arrived at by it. Their childish views of Divine omnipo
tence will raise them most conveniently above all, even the
most obvious inconsistencies.
That the disciples in many instances misunderstood and
misapplied their Master's sentences and propositions, even if
they did not candidly confess it, (Matt. xvi. 6, 7, &c.,) we
must conclude, from various erroneous conceptions which they
entertained to the last. It was, for example, impossible for
them to get free from the generally adopted notions about the
Messiah and his expected worldly kingdom. They ever
" trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed
Israel," notwithstanding he had peremptorily declared : " My
kingdom is not of this world." After the nation of the Jews
had laid their murderous hands upon him . and condemned
him to death, it was their idea, that in revenge for that crime,
Jerusalem was to be destroyed, and at the same time Christ,
then returning in the clouds of heaven, was to be glorified, and
the new kingdom established. (Matt, xxiv., &c.) Now, Jeru
salem was laid waste, as Christ had foreseen, but he himself
has not " come back in the clouds," nor has he " sent his an
gels with a great sound of a trumpet," &c. (30 and 31.)
Although it is expressly stated (34,) that "this genera
tion shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled." Here is
but this alternative given : Either Christ himself has taught
erroneous and fanatical ideas, or — what is a great deal
more probable — his hearers misconstrued some figurative and
poetical speech of his, (perhaps about the future victory of his
doctrine, or about a future life, &c.,) into such coarser ideas
as were familiar to them. How strongly they, adhere'd to
the expectation of the near transmutation of the world, or
" the end of all things," — which means the establishing of the
reign of the Messiah, — may be collected from such places
as 1 Pet. iv. 7; 1 Cor. x. 11; 1 John ii. 18, &c. All

12 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
their thoughts about " the end of all things being at hand,"*
or about " the world's end being come upon them," or about
the time of their own life being the "last time," have proved
mere reveries.
Another mistake of theirs is, that in a great many occur
rences connected with the life of Christ, they saw the fulfil
ment of certain texts of the Old Testament, understood as
prophecies, though such texts, if interpreted according to
their true sense and context, contain not the least allusion to
events of the time in which Christ lived. (Matt. ii. 15 and
17, 18 and 23 ; xxviii. 9 and 35. John xix. 36 and 37, &c.)
In general, the Christians did not, for a long time, see in
Jesus the author of a new religion, but the Messiah of the
Jews. Whoever would recognize him as such, was one of
them. Their chief exertions being devoted to making him
acknowledged as the Messiah, they were naturally led, at an
early period, to a mystification of his person. His dignity as
the Messiah was thought to require some supernatural splen
dor ; he must be declared to be " the Son of God," by voices
from heaven, (John xii. 28, 29, while the majority of those
present heard but a thunder ;) in an uncommon way he must
have come into life, and gone out of it, &c. In those times,
when there existed no clear discernment between natural and
supernatural events, all being ascribed to the immediate agen
cy of the Almighty, it was easy to persuade themselves and
others that his whole life was enveloped in a mysterious
veil, and to construe remarkable and extraordinary circum
stances into real miracles. With us, it is of little concern,
whether Jesus be considered as the Messiah of the Jews or
not. We admire and venerate in him the Sage, the Saint,
the Benefactor of mankind, the author of the purest and most
perfect religion.

13
CHAPTER V-
THE GENUINE DOCTRINE OP CHRIST.
When the question arises — What is to be considered as
genuine Christian doctrine, I shall not recur to that part of
the Bible commonly called the Old Testament, whicb, in the
whole, contains the doctrines, not of the Christian, but Jewish
religion, and- many things besides, in no way connected with
religion. Christ himself, when speaking in this manner :
'" Ye have heard that it was said by them of old times, &c. —
but I say unto you" &c, places his doctrine in direct oppo
sition to the old one. Whoever, therefore, would adhere to
the whole of that ancient book, would hardly deserve the name
of a Christian, or he falls back to what Christianity was intend
ed in part to alter, or abolish. In the early ages, when
mankind were low in the scale of mental cultivation, things
were thought orthodox and right which ceased to be so in
Christ's time, and are still less so in our own.
In order to set forth the pure Christian doctrine, I rely
principally upon the evident sayings of Jesus himself. Evi
dent I call such sentiments as admit of' no ambiguity ; I far
ther keep to the rule to interpret places of a doubtful mean
ing by those which are evident, and of the evident I find
plenty to make the exposition I intend to give here not
very difficult. Fortunately the most important and essential
part of what remains of the sayings of Christ, is clear enough to
give us an insight into the spirit and fundamental principles
of his doctrine.
It cannot, however, be denied, that very early, and more
and more afterwards, the teachers of Christianity began to
transfer into, and mix it with many of the conceptions and
views they had entertained while Pagans, or Jews. Thus
there sprang up a Christianity, widely different from the orig-
2

14 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
inal doctrine, all deviations from which may be very dis
tinctly traced to that source.
The pure doctrine of Christ is very simple, altogether con
genial and intelligible to every person of common sense, yet
at the same time fully satisfactory to the most eminent
thinker. It contains nothing mysterious and leaves no doubt
or darkness in the mind. For his religion is not that of a cer
tain time or nation, but of cultivated and ennobled humanity.
The substantial doctrines of primitive Christianity seem
to be these :
The belief in one invisible God, author and ruler of the
world, to be worshipped in spirit and in truth, as a God not
of wrath but of love, as the benign father of all his children.
The belief in a future life, a resurrection of the soul when
the body goes to dust, — a revival of our being's better part,
to enter a more perfect state of existence, — as also a life of
requital, each of us taking with him, in his own awakened
conscience, his " heaven or hell," and going to occupy, in the
spiritual world, that place he has here prepared himself for.
The belief that man was made and destined to attain the
highest possible mental perfection, to store his mind with the
knowledge of truth, and particularly to adorn it with love,
kindness, justice, and all other virtues, while by vicious pur
suits he would debase himself, displease a holy God, and
deprive him self of the cheerful hope of eternal welfare.
To subordinate what is earthly, sensual, and perishable to
what is heavenly, spiritual, and everlasting, and to be willing
to sacrifice any thing for the sake of faith, truth, and virtue, or
the happiness of our brethren, is the sublime idea suggested
and advanced by the author of Christianity ; while he clear
ly demonstrates that what is merely external, (as the letter of
belief, this or that religious ceremony, this or that manner of
worshipping, &c.,) can confer no real merit on man, the state
of our heart and mind being the only thing our worthiness
depends upon.
Such is the substance of the religion of Christ, and of all
true religion.

15

CHAPTER VI.

JESUS CHRIST.

And who was He that presented mankind with such a doc
trine, the highest gift which man can offer to man ; He who
has freed us from superstition, darkness, and despair, which
had so long reigned over the world ? Who was He to whom
none can be compared that ever was, and, probably, ever will
be ? Who was this greatest benefactor of our race ?
This seems to be the proper place to give my ideas on that
subject. I will not, however, refer to all the various mistakes
which, in this respect, have prevailed over the Christian
world from the earliest times till now, and caused so many
sanguinary controversies and such bitter hate. Nor will I
decide the matter by what the superstition of his so called
followers has made out of him, but by what He says of him
self. These are the words of his prayer to his and our God :
" This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only
true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." (John
xvii. 3.) Thus, in concordance with the ancient Mosaic com
mandment, not to worship any thing besides God alone, he
calls the God to whom he was lifting up his eyes, the only
true one, calling himself the Christ, that is, Messiah, sent by
God ; and, we may add, not sent only, but also endowed with
such prominent capacities or strength of spirit as were neces
sary to fulfil his work on earth.
Thus, far from adoring him with the superstitious mass, we
look up to him with veneration and gratefulness, and cheer
fully confess that he was equalled by none, whether we con
sider his doctrine, eclipsing all the wisdom of our sages, or
his life, spotless and holy, or his death, by which he has for
ever sealed the truth of his words.

16 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
Indeed, while man wants an Ideal in which to embody all
the accomplishments that human nature is capable of, an
•ideal to be set before us as the elevated aim which we should
constantly aspire to arrive at : He is that Ideal, an image of
human perfection, as it were the reflection of Divine excel
lency in human form ; in short, a consummate man.
Did he consider himself in a different light ? With all his
greatness, he does not want "to receive honor from men;" is
become " an example to us, that we should follow his steps,"
&c. Thus to look at him is, surely, doing him more true
honor than those do who will make us believe, that to wor
ship him in an idolatrous manner is true Christianity. They,
indeed, never knew him, though his name be ever on their
lips !
I must, however, be yet plainer and more explicit.
I will first observe that the term " Son of God," by which
Jesus is often called, is, in the Hebrew way of speaking,
synonymous with King, or Messiah, or Christ. (John i. 49 ;
xi. 27.) Occidental nations consider their kings as installed
" by the grace of God ; " oriental language, with still greater
exaggeration, calls them " Sons of God." How liberal the
Jews were in the use of such terms, may be inferred from
such places as John x. 34—36. Jesus, most modestly, usually
calls himself " Son of Man ; " Paul calls him " the man
Christ Jesus. (1 Tim. ii. 5.) His contemporaries generally
considered him as the son of Joseph and Mary, and his
brothers and sisters are repeatedly mentioned. (Matt. xiii.
54-56 ; Mark vi. 3 ; Luke iii. 23, and iv. 22 ; John vi. 42,
&c.) But this term was afterwards misconstrued, and under
stood in a sense similar to that in which the Pagans attrib
uted sons and daughters to their gods. Is it not time to
correct such a gross mistake ?
The so called orthodox doctrine asserts, that Jesus is God,
or that with his human nature a Divine nature was combin
ed ; that in his Divine nature he was essentially and person
ally one with the Most High or the Creator of the Universe,

RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY. 17
and the Father of all, equally almighty, equally omniscient,
equally eternal, and an equal object of adoration. Do the
narratives of the gospels accord with such monstrous concep
tions, which ought long ago to have been consigned to obliv
ion, to save Christianity from the contempt of the most simple
children of nature ? Can the eternal God be born as an in
fant from a human mother ? Or what was Jesus before his
mother gave him birth ? Can the All-perfect become a child,
" grow and increase in wisdom, stature, and favor with God
and men ? " — Jesus, as a good son, was obedient to his
parents. Why, the Deity himself obeys men, and is educated
by them ! Christ was tempted. May the All-wise and Holy
even for a moment be tempted and deluded by such a mean
and contemptible being as Satan is represented to be ? On
the drawing near of his last sufferings, we see Jesus for a
moment dismayed and trembling, praying for Divine aid, &c.
May the Lord of the universe properly be thought to be
appalled by the horrors of death ? Were not those more
sensible Pagans right in saying to the Christian converters :
" You believe in a God born from a woman, nursed by human
hands, — then abused by men, hung on a cross and killed ;
you cannot convert men of common sense ? "
Away then with all such folly ! God is One, one nature,
one person ; he is not perceptible to human senses, never
was visibly wandering on earth in mortal shape, eating, drink
ing, sleeping, laughing, weeping like the rest of mankind.
The greatness of Jesus is a moral one; he need not bor
row splendor from an imaginary supertiaturalness. Little do
we know of the exterior circumstances of his life, but his
work is before us ; it is an immortal one, it secures to him
for ever glory and veneration.
It would lead me too far here to show — as can be shown
and proved — that the ultimate fate of Jesus is also some
what embellished and drawn into the miraculous in the ac
counts given by his biographers. The records of John, the
only eye-witness, are to be relied upon more than the rest.
2*

18 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
From his representation it may be concluded that the supposed
death, consecutive to his being crucified, was no actual death,
but a temporary numbedness or swoon, and his resurrection,
of course, an event natural, though astonishing. Of the so
called ascension, John has nothing at all ; which renders it
impossible for us to decide when and in what manner Jesus
finally departed from life. So much is evident, however,
that the ascension of a human body to the heavenly spheres
is a matter of impossibility. But suppose it were possible,
how can a human body breathe and live beyond our atmos
phere ? What was the glorified spirit to do in heaven with a
body of dust ? Or where is that heaven to which the earthly
body of Christ was to be elevated ? Is it the Moon ? or the
Sun ? or some of the Stars, or what else ? Our under
standing is, that not his body, but his unfettered spirit ascend
ed to the happier abode, after his toilsome but glorious work
on earth was finished.
The Unitarians, no doubt the least prejudiced of all Chris
tian denominations of this country, urging the Unity of God,
and, consequently, not believing in the divinity of the person
of Christ, yet omit clearly to state what they believe that he
was. They talk of the divinity of his mission, call him a
messenger commissioned from heaven to make a revelation,
and seem still to adhere to something supernatural and mirac
ulous in his life and person. Thus Jesus would appear as
a middling being between God and man, a sort of Demi-god,
and we are little bettered. By the way, Unitarians are very
anxious to disclaim a distinct creed or a separate system of
faith and articles of belief, professing the Bible to be their
only and whole creed. This, indeed, will not do. The Bible
does not contain one congruous system of religious doctrines,
but different conceptions of different individuals, of different
ages and of different degrees of cultivation. Besides it is not
true, that the language of the Bible is so clear as to prevent all
misunderstanding of the doctrines therein laid down The very
existence of above fifty different Christian denominations all

RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY. 19
appealing to Bible authority, is sufficient testimony to the con
trary. I, for one, cannot see, how distinct party lines may be
drawn, misconstruction avoided, and uniformity attained, with
out publishing some sort of a "list of articles" written out in
modern plain and precise language, though it were to no other
purpose but to make known how the Bible is understood and
construed.

20

CHAPTER VII. '
CORRUPTIONS OF CHRISTIANITY.
However, with all these highest qualifications to be the
teacher of mankind, Jesus could find but a comparatively
small number of followers who invariably adhered to him.
How shall we account for that? Was there any thing in his
doctrine to give offence ? Was not what he spoke sacred
truth, enlightening, elevating, calming the hearts even of the
obdurate ?
It is unnecessary to search for another explanation than
the one given by himself: "If I say the truth, why do ye
not believe me?" (John viii. 46,) and, "My words are spirit
and life." (John vi. 62.) Spirit is opposed to what is
sensual ; life to what is mere dead letter and form. And
what do the mass most want in what they style religion ?
External forms to excite their sensuality, and written dogmas
to save the trouble of self-thinking. Thus, indeed, the relig
ion of Christ was much too spiritual, too pure, too heavenly,
to satisfy the majority of his hearers. Instead of listening
to his words and examining their truth, they seek of him a
sign from heaven. Instead of a spiritual kingdom, which he
intended to establish on earth, they ask for the splendor of
worldly dominion. Instead of an adoration of God in spirit
and truth, which he was about to institute, they adhere to
antiquated ceremonies.
Now the religion of the Jews, as well as of the pagan na
tions, was, at that time, no longer satisfactory to thousands, —
it was at variance with the advanced spirit of the time, and
numbers longed for something better than obsolete supersti
tion, without being, however, advanced far enough to be sus
ceptible of pure and uncolored truth. What was to be ex-

RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY. 21
pected, then ? The very thing that happened. Christianity
was offered, and, as something new, eagerly embraced by
thousands. But in their hands, and by their management,
it must needs soon degenerate, they being unable to keep
up its first sublime spirit ; while, at the same time, by va
rious additions to, and adulterations of the simple original
doctrine, it was rendered more acceptable to the sensual and
rude minds of the many. Thus, the dark and deadly theQ-
ries of superstition and fanaticism were made to mingle with
the pure waters of the primitive living fountain. Then, in
deed, numbers would readily adopt the new faith, but it was
Christianity no more.
It is a cause of the deepest and lasting regret to humanity,
it is an irremediable injury done to mankind, that such a mis
take was ever committed ! There is no exaggeration in say
ing, that from the earliest times, Christianity was (and is still,)
used, or misused, with its truth to color an ocean of fiction.
But was not such generally the fate of every thing heavenly
and pure, whenever it touched this earth, and men in their
blindness, selfishness, and passion laid their rude hands upon
it ? In vain I look around among the almost innumerable
congregations, claiming the name of Christians ; in vain I
look for the spirit of true Christianity — prejudice and per
version have taken the place of the word full of spirit and
life. Yet it is a task worthy of our best endeavors, to re
store that treasure out of the mass of rubbish that has been
accumulated upon it.
This is no new remark, nor first made by myself. About
a century ago, a celebrated English writer (Jenyns) expressed
himself thus: "At length, Christianity appeared, — it was
but a sketch, whose outlines indeed appear the work of a
consummate master, but filled up, from time to time, by une
qual and injudicious hands. Its great Author revealed it
only to a small and obscure corner of the world, in parables
and mysteries (figurative sentences) ; he guarded not its
original purity, which seems to have died with himself, by

22 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
committing it to any written records, but left it in the hands
of illiterate men, who, though they were honest to die for it,
were never wise enough perfectly to understand it. Nor did
he expect any better consequences from its progress than
those which actually followed ; he was by no means ignorant
of its future corruption, and that, though his primitive insti
tution breathed nothing but peace and forbearance, good-will
and benevolence, yet, in mixing with the policies and in
terests of mankind, it would be productive of tyranny and
oppression, martyrdoms and massacres, of national wars and
family dissensions. The moment any religion becomes na
tional or established, its purity must certainly be lost, because
it is then impossible to keep it unconnected with men's inter
ests ; and, if connected, it must inevitably be perverted by
them. Hence must arise hierarchies, inquisitions, and
popery. For popery is but the consummation of that tyr
anny which every religious system in the hands of 'men is
in perpetual pursuit of, and whose principles they are all
ready to adopt, whenever they are fortunate enough to meet
with its success."
The fundamental doctrines of pure Christianity are, in
deed, so simple, that they may be expressed in these few
words : God, Eternal Life, Universal Benevolence. Let us
see what misapprehension has made thereof*
1. The doctrine that God, as the supreme spiritual being
and ruler of the world, must be one, was too pure and simple.
A God was preferred that had visibly wandered oni earth ;
yes, three distinct persons of Deity were invented. Still, it
was contended — in order to avoid the opprobrium of real
paganism — that these three were one. But three cannot be
one, nor one three. The contradiction was obvious. To re
move it, it was thought sufficient to add : " Here is a great
mystery; you are unable to comprehend how it is, but must
submit reason and sense to the letter of the dogma." Never
has a grosser error filled the place of holy truth ! Had
the author of our religion intended such a thing as Trinity

RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY. 23
for a Christian tenet, and a cardinal one too, he would him
self have most explicitly expressed it; and left no room for
doubt or dispute about it. But we know he never uttered
any thing like it. Why should there be, in the most sacred
and vital article of our faith, in our belief of a God, some
thing at war with all common sense ? Should a belief natu
ral and comprehensible even to the infant mind be made a
mere quibble of unmeaning words ? So, however, it was
prescribed by those who had the presumption to dictate the
rules of faith to universal Christendom ; and we see, even in
the nineteenth century, temples erected inscribed — " To the
triune God." !
2. Nor was less pure and simple the doctrine of Christ
concerning a future life of our soul. Very early this addition
was made : The dead dust will likewise be resuscitated and
put together in its former shape ; the dead, after having slept
till a universal resurrection in the day of judgment, shall be
. called forth, either to enjoy, in a heaven, such a sort of hap
piness as was thought to differ little from earthly pleasures,
or, in a hellish fire, to be bodily tormented and roasted. So
completely incapable were they of comprehending the true
meaning of certain words and phrases used by Christ accord
ing to the manner of speaking at that time, that, by adhering
to the mere letter, they lost sight of the spirit. So little did
they consider that this body, composed of earthly particles, has
to serve, and only can serve, the earthly destination of man,
which ends in death. Whereas, for our future or heavenly
destination, the idea of an organ of dust is absurd. So little,
finally, they conceived that there may be spiritual joys as
well as pains, far above what may sensually and bodily be
felt. 3. Too simple and pure for the taste of the mass was also
the doctrine, not only repeatedly and explicitly advanced by
Christ, but suggested in a well-known beautiful parable : That
God, as a loving father, will throw off none of his children,
called none of his creatures -into existence to be miserable

24 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
for ever, but offers grace and forgiveness even to the erring
and unthankful. NoWJ such boundless love being founded in
the nature of God, how was it possible to speak of a vicarious
sacrifice, made to appease divine anger and revenge ? Of
an innocent tormented and slaughtered to atone for the tres
passes of the rest ? How was it possible to invent a doctrine
so contradictory to all noble feeling, so repulsive to even hu
man notions of justice, and calculated to subvert the whole
foundation of morality and virtue ? Was such the manner of
that father who kindly embraced the lost son on his returning
to him, wretched but repentant ? Must I appeal to man's
own more generous feelings, in order to show the great error?
Should we not prefer suffering ourselves for our faults to hav
ing the innocent tormented in our place ? For my part, I
renounce most solemnly all the benefits to be derived from
such a proposition, and however frail and defective I confess
myself to be, I throw myself into the hands of a merciful,
divine parent, who will not demand of me what is too hard
or impossible, and will bestow grace upon me without the in
tercession of any one.
The orthodox doctrine of a " vicarious satisfaction," render
ed by the murdered innocent, is justly disavowed by the Unita
rians and Universalists of this country, who, however, in vain
attempt to deny that the essentialpart of that doctrine was
professed even by some of the apostles, as must be obvious
to the unprejudiced reader of such -passages as 1 Pet. i.
18, 19; ii. 24; Ephes. i. 7 ; 2 Cor. v. 19, 21 ; Heb. ix. 28;
1 John i. 7. It may not be improper to adduce the following
judicious remarks of Jenyns : " The doctrine of sacrifice, or
vicarious punishment, is the most universal and yet the most
absurd of all religious tenets that ever entered into the mind
of man. So absurd is it, that how it came to be so universal
is not easy to be accounted for. Pagans, Jews, and Christians
have all agreed in this one point, though differing in all oth
ers ; and have all treated it as a self-evident principle, that
the sins of one creature might be atoned for by the suffering

RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY. 25
of another. But from whence they derived this strange opin
ion, none of them have pretended to give any account, or to
produce in its defence the least shadow of a reason. For
that there should be any manner of connection between the
miseries of one being and the guilt of another; or, that
the punishment of the innocent, and excusing the guilty,
should be a mark of God's detestation of sin ; or that two
acts of the highest injustice should make one of justice, is so
fundamentally wrong, so diametrically opposite to common
sense and all our ideas of justice, that it is equally astonish
ing that so many should believe it themselves, or impose it
upon others."
4. I come to another mistake, connected with the forego
ing. Who does not recollect the significant words of Christ,
" Suffer the little children to come unto me, &e." ? He consid
ered those little ones as innocent and harmless creatures, be
fore being perverted by the seductions of the world. Is that
any thing like the doctrine of an original and hereditary sin,
and entire and inborn corruption of mankind since the first
man's disobedience? When did Christ make the least' allu
sion to such absurdities? (though the first features of that
doctrine may certainly be traced in other parts of the Bible.)
The truth is, that man is still born, as the first of our race
were, with various and different inclinations, some of which,
like benevolence, leading him to the good, some, like selfish
ness, very often to what is wrong. On him, therefore, it was
imposed to strengthen and cultivate his good propensities, and
control the bad, and never puffer them to degenerate into un
governable passions. But there is no curse of God cast upon
the human race or the whole world for the fault of one indi
vidual, and, surely, in the nineteenth century, none but idiots
can be persuaded of such an enormity. Jenyns has the fol
lowing : " Indeed, according to the common notions of the
absolute omnipotence of God, and the absolute free will in
man, the doctrine of original' sin is most absurd and impious,
its it represents the Deity voluntarily bringing men into being
3

26 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
with depraved dispositions, tending to no good purpose, an4
then arbitrarily punishing them for the sins which they occa
sion, with torments which answer no ends, either of their
reformation or utility to the universe."
5. The renewal of the Jewish Hierarchy in the Christian
Church was neither foreseen nor, still less, intended by Christ.
His words are clear : " Whoever will be great among you,
shall be your minister, and whosoever will be the chiefest,
shall be the servant of all." By this, it seems, a moral
equality among his followers was designed. Nor is there in
the original Christianity any foundation for the difference be
tween laity and priesthood to be traced ; no class of men is
hinted at to exercise, by well-known means, a usurped power
on the minds and consciences of others, forming an ecclesiasti
cal aristocracy, and taking, as it were, a position between men
and their Maker. He, himself, never professes to be such a
mediator. (John xvi. 26-27.) Let us have, then, preachers
for the benefit of those who wish for religious instruction and
edification of their hearts, and select the best and wisest for
such an employment, but discard most decidedly .all priest
like arrogance and importunateness. There have also, from
the earliest time, been those who assumed a stand above
the most honest and upright, refusing to associate with the
rest, and looking with scorn upon the common doings of
men. But it is the climax of absurdity to pretend to a su
periority, not- by the strictest morality and benevolence, but
by a certain stern and gloomy affectation of devoutness, wide
ly different from the spirit of true, serene, and cheerful
Christian devotion. Such a silly practice is not justified by
the example of Christ, who disdained not to partake of the
innocent pleasures of others, nor thought necessary to disturb
their harmless enjoyments.
6. This leads me still farther. It is Christian doctrine, I
believe, to do what is right and decent every day : then one
day may be held like the other.. Jesus himself by no means
observed the Jewish Sabbath according to the severe laws

RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY. 27
then in force, and being blamed for it, declared : " the Sab
bath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." Al
though the Christians early abolished, for certain reasons, the
Jewish Sabbath, by choosing the first day of the week for
their holy day, yet, by degrees, the whole superstitious cele
bration of the former was engrafted on the latter, with no
justification or warrant in the whole New Testament. In
this country, it is an opinion very widely diffused, that religion
or Christian devotion chiefly consists in the rigorous keeping
of the Sunday. This indeed is mere bigotry. Yet I would
not like to be misunderstood on that subject. I fully approve
of the existing regulation, that, after six days of toil and la
bor, one day of rest and religious instruction should succeed.
What would be man's life, if the whole of it must be passed
in uninterrupted pains and troubles for the mere necessaries
of life ? I think it equally wholesome and necessary to have
a day fixed, designed for recreation and social amusement,
together with the necessary arrangements for public devotion,
to be disturbed by none. But all that I would consider as a
conventional agreement between men, suggested by the spirit
of civilization, — in short, as a human institution. With God,
one day is like the other. His omnipotence operates in nature
without discrimination of first and last days, and the eternal
principles of morality undergo no mutations in consequence of
the alternations of day and night, just as the machinery of the
physical world silently and surely numbers its mighty cycles
without interruption. Thus we might with equal propriety
or piety, choose any other day for religious devotion. All
excess in this respect is doubtless in opposition to the liberal
spirit of Christianity ; is an improper revival of the ancient
laws from the oppression of which the Christian religion was
designed to deliver the world.
7. I have to touch upon one more strange deviation from
the original purity of Christianity. As God Almighty is to
be considered as the author of the world, so it is divine wis
dom and goodness by which all things were regulated from

28 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
the beginning, and to the instrumentality of which, all events
in the universe, as their ultimate cause, are to be attributed, —
there being none but Deity who could have fixed the end and
scope of all things. Consequently, what we call the evils of
life, or whatever operates as a temptation, we do not consider
as actual defects, but as so appearing to us because of our
shortsightedness and imbecility, which prevent us from pen
etrating through the designs of the Master of creation. Such,
I believe, is genuine Christian doctrine. But this was too
much at variance with the prejudices of the unenlightened.
Let us see how they contrived to mend it. Among other
false views entertained by ancient nations, one was : That
the Supreme Being had granted to a species of inferior but
mischievous spirits a certain power to do evil in the world,
and that man had ever to struggle with their delusions, mal
ice, and arts of seduction. At the time of the Babylonian
exile, the Jews became acquainted with-these ideas, and not
only adopted but extended them so much, that they dream
ed of a host of Devils, now visible, then invisible, who had
even their monarch, were pleased in performing all possible
physical and moral harm to mankind, and were thought,
among others, to cause such diseases, (madness, falling sick
ness, &c.,) as could not be cured by ordinary means. To be
affected by such an illness, was " to be taken by a devil ; " to
cure the sick, was " to cast out the unclean spirit." Besides
this, it was an established dogma that these same evil spirits
would one day be employed to torture the bad in the infernal
fire. All that is very like to what the Greeks and Romans
of old ascribed to their Demons and Furies.
By the ideas of a nation are shaped their forms of expres
sion. But the latter often remain in use when the former
have already become obsolete. This remark fully accounts
for the fact that terms occur in the New Testament which
ought not to be understood in their literal sense, and for the
use of which those may not be censured, who, in speaking to
the people, deemed it necessary to accommodate their language

RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY. 29
to the people's way of thinking and talking. But the misun
derstanding of the following centuries revived that heathen
ish, Jewish superstition, which even in our time is proclaimed
from pulpits, and represented as an article of Christian faith.
What can we do ? We must leave the Devil to whomsoever
cannot do without him.
8. Already in the Old Testament we meet with allusions
to the Spirit of God, or a Holy Ghost. Those terms, how
ever, occur more frequently in the New Testament, the lan
guage of the writers of which is often highly figurative in
making use of those terms ; for instance, John xv. and xvi.
Unable to discriminate between figure and matter, the
teachers of Christianity early began to transform a simple
and sublime truth into the mysterious and absurd.* If God
be a spirit (as Christ says), can the spirit of God be a par
ticular person besides God ? The term " Divine Spirit," or
" Holy Ghost," means in the language of the Bible most fre
quently, " all-operating Divine power," (Luke i. 35) and is
chiefly used to designate the efficacy of God in the spiritual
world. (Jes. vi. 2, &c.) As an operation of God — or his spirit
— is considered every stronger affection of the mind, the
stirring up of the conscience, and particularly that elevation
of the soul above the sensual world, which in modern way
of thinking we call inspiration or enthusiasm. Hence the
expressions, " the Holy Spirit was poured out or shed forth ; "
or " being taken away or filled with the spirit," &c. No man
of sound sense will deny that there is a true enthusiasm,
fitting us for deeds of magnanimity, — necessary for all higher
performances of art, — and most sublime as a religious feel
ing, then called devotion. But every body must at the same
time confess that religious enthusiasm, when carried above
its proper bounds, is very apt to degenerate into fanaticism of
the most odious nature. Spiritual and sensual things are
mixed and confounded ; impressions, produced within the
* Making the Divine Spirit the third person in the nature of Deity, " proceeding
from Ihe Father and Son," &c.
3*

30 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
mind by palpable means — and too often by very exception-
ble ones — are looked upon as operations of some invisible
power ; and the whole ends in complete mental intoxication,
frantic fits, delirious shouts, which folly takes for — religion !
There is no mistake in the assertion, that the writers of the
Scriptures were also " moved by the Holy Ghost," (2 Peter
i. 21,) if by this is understood that higher impulse or enthu
siastic condition of their minds, which, for instance, w& ad
mire in the writers of the Psalms, the Prophets in general,
the author of the Revelation, &c. Concerning this doctrine,
I would cheerfully subscribe to the faith of the Unitarians,
did they not, in denying the personality of the Holy Ghost,
yet talk of a supernatural influence communicated to men by
the power or the spirit of God. Why will not that class of
Christians, together with the Universalists, generally more
enlightened than the rest, take the last step by rejecting all
obsolete notions of supernaturalism ?

ol

CHAPTER VIII.
THE REFORMATION.
From early times men of sound judgment rose and pointed
out the corrupted state of Christianity. But few would listen
to them, and generally they were overruled and persecuted
by an intolerant priesthood. At length Luther and his con
temporaries, by their bold innovations and criticisms of the
more inveterate popish enormities, succeeded in freeing our
religion of its grossest corruptions, and in shaking the hierar
chy to its very foundation. But all could not be done at
once ; the times seemed not yet ready for more than was
achieved. It was enough then to have established the prin
ciple of free examination, of protesting against human author
ity in matters of religion, against all manner of constraint of
conscience and conviction. By doing so, those eminent men
must not be supposed to have designed their individual opin
ion as tenets or dogmas, by which to bind their followers for
ever. They argued and reasoned, indeed, according to the
state and within the limits of science and general enlighten
ment at that time, and thereby paved the way to a progressive
reformation. They had no right to bind us to any doctrine of
their own, or to the manner in which they interpreted the
Scriptures ; they did not consider themselves bound to what
till then was the orthodox creed. The high-minded Luther
even protested against his name being used as a party de
nomination by bis adherents. Certainly then he cannot be
supposed to have intended to impose any new restraints on
the human mind, for the new fetters could not have been
very different from those which he so boldly contended to
liberate Christendom from. How much wiser than numbers
of our contemporaries was he in pronouncing this maxim :

32 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
" What is contrary to reason is certain to be much more
contrary to God ! " Whereas our religionists are in nothing
so truly rabid as in accusing and degrading God's noblest
gift, human reason.
Who then are the true followers of the great Reformers ?
Those, who, animated by their free and intrepid spirit, and
following their laudable course, never refrain from unbiassed
and thorough examination, protesting not merely against
popish usurpation, but likewise against all the absurdities and
hierarchical remains still to be found in the midst of the so
called Protestant confessions.
We must not overlook the fact, that since the time of the
Reformation, science has made gigantic strides. Hence our
time most imperiously calls upon us to continue and finish
the glorious work of the reformation or the purification of
Christianity. This I consider the high achievement reserved
for the time we live in. And would it not be shameful in us,
should we appear unequal to the task or lacking courage for
the attempt ? But here an abridged history of the origin of
the modern German Rationalism, together with an exposition
of its principles, may be proper.

33
CHAPTER IX.
RATIONALISM.*
The Reformation of the sixteenth century was the result
of what in Europe is called the Restoration of the Sciences.
The study of the ancient classics was revived, and the barba
rism of the middle ages compelled to give way. The discov
ery of new parts of the world had given a mighty impulse to
reflection and enterprise, and the invention of the art of
printing, nearly contemporaneous, had immeasurably increased
the means of propagating new ideas. Such an epoch could
not pass without producing some memorable result, and the
result was : Deliverance from religious oppression and in
veterate prejudice. An observer of the events then going
on, an observer more far-seeing than the rest, must even
then have concluded that such would be the final result.
However, the Reformers, when they first ventured to enter
their protest against some of the most enormous misusages
of popery, did by no means anticipate such a result. But the
bold step being once taken, who can foretell to what end it
will lead ? Time was ripe for a reformation, and it must
come in some way.
The Reformers soon perceived that their own work went
on faster than they had intended, and saw themselves under
the necessity of stemming its too rapid progress. In protest
ing against some popish enormities, they had appealed to the
sacred right of free examination ; but where was that princi
ple to stop ? They thought it best to define it more distinctly
thus : That they, as members of the Christian Church, had a
* This article -was originally written out for " The Herald of Religious Liberty]1
but the edilors, who had declared in their prospectus, " Our object is nol secta
rian, — we propose to occupy a common ground, where all Protestant Christians
may meet ; give us words of truth and soberness, of light, love, and liberty, &c,"
refused the insertion.

34 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
right as well as others to determine what doctrines and re
ligious usages were in accordance with the contents of the
Scriptures, and what not, and to reject the latter, the Bible
being considered as the only binding rule. In the progress
of the controversy, they were farther obliged to state, what
doctrines and rites they considered Scriptural. Thus originat
ed their symbolical books, out of which the so called Protes
tant creed was afterwards composed in a systematical form by
numerous authors. Yet, though the Reformers were satisfied
that they had taken the most solid and immovable ground,
by appealing to. the authority of the " Word of God," it would
soon appear, that unanimity of thinking and uniformity of
persuasion were by no means to be achieved in this way, for
they had denied the exclusive authority of one man, the
head of the Church, to give an apodictical interpretation of
the Bible. They could not with propriety presume to be
themselves such infallible interpreters, by their own construc
tion to bind all their followers for ever ; otherwise they would
have equalled themselves with the writers of the Scriptural
books. The difference became soon apparent : neither Luther
and Melancthon in Saxony, nor Zwinglius and Calvin in Swit
zerland were harmonious in doctrines and principles consider
ed as being of vital importance. After the death'of those emi
nent men, the contest was pursued with great animosity ; the
different branches of the Protestant Church bitterly denounced
each other ; new sects sprang up, yet all pretended to stand
on Bible ground.
Meanwhile Germany was devastated by religious wars ; but
peace being restored at length and the ecclesiastical relations
of the different parties finally settled, by the treaty of West
phalia, from mere exhaustion tranquillity prevailed for a time.
Yet the spirit was not quite dormant.
In the beginning of the eighteenth century, some geniuses
of uncommon brilliancy made their appearance : Leibnitz and
Wolf broke new paths of philosophical contemplation. At
the same time, the sciences more properly theological were

RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY. 35
most industriously improved. In the second half of that cerr-
tury, a lustre, such as is rarely seen, came forth : Kant.
By starting and answering the questions, " What can I
lenow? What is it that I originally know ? " he led us into
the depths of the human mind, showed us unexplored treas
ures of knowledge in our inborn intellectual capacities, or in
human reason, and indeed gave the whole scientific pursuits
of the German students that mighty and new impulse, which,
in the present century, has led to such unparalleled results.
Many were the followers of that great man, not blindly tread
ing in his footsteps, but improving his ideas and applying
them to all particular sciences. Fichte, Jacobi, Fries, &c,
are glorious names. These men made it appear, beyond
doubt, that the essential religious and moral truths are origi
nally deposited in the human mind, and that all studying and
reflecting on such things can have no other tendency but to
bring to our consciousness the inborn truth.
This new philosophy must necessarily disturb, in a manner,
the common and gross conceptions of inspiration with scien
tific men. But the theologians themselves were not idle. A
profound acquaintance with the oriental languages and the
Greek tongue, as well as with the peculiar character, concep
tions, fashions, and manners of the oriental nations in general,
and the Jews of old in particular ; the comparison of contem
poraneous writers in the same Greek idiom in which the
New Testament is written, Philo and the New-Platonists,
enabled them better to understand the spirit and letter of the
Bible. A new science was started : " Criticism of the Scrip
tural Books," by which it was shown, in part from the con
tents of those very books, in part from historical testimony,
that all of them were not what they are generally taken for,
neither in respect to their age nor the authenticity of their
whole contents ; that the Bible did not contain a consistent sys
tem of religious doctrines, but a variety of conceptions, more
or less perfect according to the degree of intellectual culture of
the several writers ; that even the most sublime doctrine of

36 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
Christ, although eminently excelling the views then prevail
ing, was in many instances dressed and veiled by conceptions
suited only to that time and nation, that is, was wisely accom
modated to the comprehensions of the first hearers ; that
from the earliest period, and even so early as the Apostles'
time, improper additions were made to the simple and entirely
rational doctrine of Christ, — the converts' from the Mosaic
creed and the converted pagans being equally unwilling, or
incapable, entirely to renounce their former prejudices ; that
although Christianity was intended by its Author for a uni
versal religion, containing nothing sectarian or repulsive to
the dictates of reason, yet it was early made a mere sectarian
creed, a mixture of Judaism, Paganism, and, indeed, some
truly Christian ideas ; tnat about the person, or nature of
Christ, the notions of his first followers, and still more of his
later adherents, materially differed from what he himself had
professed to be. In short, by studies, not conducted in a
spirit of levity, but with an earnestness worthy of the subject,
led on from one incontestible truth to another, and never sat
isfied till full light was shed on the question, in a spirit of
liberality, toleration, and true but undissembled piety, in a
spirit of mental soberness and unquenched thirst for truth, not
indulging in dictation, priestcraft or denunciation — our great
men have brought forth a system of religious truths, called
Rationalism or Rational Christianity, not to be confounded
with what is often called Deism, the latter being rather mere
speculation without any historical foundation, while Ration
alists profess the original unadulterated doctrine of Christ,
which is, indeed, contemplated as being in strict accordance
with the suggestions of enlightened reason. Lessing, Herder,
and more latterly Paulus, Wegscheider, Gesenius, Bretsch-
neider, Rohr, Strauss, and many others, are the founders or
supporters of that system, which is, with few exceptions, at
present professed by all men of scientific attainments, and
fast gaining ground also among the other classes of the popu
lation, contested only by some ultra-zealots, who still indulge

RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY. 37
in mystical absurdities, by the catholic priesthood in general,
and in some instances by egotistical governments. Our Phi
losophers, Poets, Historians, Statesmen, &c, are in general
Rationalists. Thus in my native country another Reformation was
brought about, without any forcible means, without a separa
tion from the established churches, merely by the natural and
quiet progress of science and general enlightenment; an
astounding reformation, which will not fail, before long, to
exert its influence over all Christian countries, and break
down at last a system called Orthodoxy, (that is, correct faith,)
but which is a strange compound of truth and palpable non
sense, of acuteness and contradiction, which has too long held
thousands of intelligent minds in vain delusion.
All those changes, however, have not created a sense of
frivolousness and profaneness among the people. Highly ac
complished ministers, in a truly appropriate manner, preach
rational Christianity, developing the eternal truths of a boun
tiful God, a future life, virtue, moral goodness, and brotherly
love. They place the image of Christ before the spiritual
eyes of their hearers, show them that he was the exalted, wise,
and blameless ideal of moral grandeur, the great sufferer for
the cause of truth and happiness, and then invite all to follow
him. Their words, equally far from frigid speculation and
polemical acrimony, find their way to the heart. There is
nothing fanatical, gloomy, or terrifying to be heard or seen :
cheerfulness, hope, confidence, love, toleration, and liberality
ere the characteristic results of the doctrines which they have
advanced. Indeed, in Germany religious meetings are gen
erally held only on Sundays and holy-days. There are no
night-meetings, nor campmeetings, nor revivals, nor any such
things calculated to excite wild fanaticism. For reading at
home, provision is made by numberless religious books, writ
ten in modern cultivated taste, among* which none is more
common than " The Hours of Devotion by Zschocke," com
posed in a truly pious but most liberal style, spread by more
4

38 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
than twenty editions over the whole country, and read by
members of all confessions.
The fundamental articles of the genuine German Ration
alism may be thus defined :
1. There is a primitive, or original revelation in man's
rational nature ; education, instruction, and study can have no
other object than to develop the inborn truth.
2. History, though it shows innumerable errors of human
reason, yet on the whole discloses a progress of our race in
developing the inborn light;
3. There have been historical events more eminently cal
culated for the advancement of truth and enlightenment ; the
Mosaic institution was such a one, yet imperfect and adapted
to the state of intellectual culture at that time.
4. The establishment of Christianity is the most consum
mate and perfect effort recorded by history to develop the
eternal truths, and has been followed by greater results than
any other known. Its author, the wisest amongst the wise,
the purest amongst the good, the most exalted in spiritual
vigor, is entitled to lasting gratitude and admiration.
5. Unadulterated Christianity is in strict conformity with
the dictates of enlightened reason, is the fullest revelation
thereof, can never be supplied by any other doctrine of human
invention, and will, even though its name should be forgotten,
in all ages to come form the substance of the convictions of
the wisest and best of men.
6. The belief of a Supreme Being and a future life, to
gether with the obligation of moral behaviour, is the sub
stance of all Religion.
7. Religious forms and rites are of a temporal, in part
national character, and may change ; the truth is eternal.
8. Our holy books are to be interpreted according to the
same rules applied to other remnants of antiquity.
9. All conceptions of supernatural events and perform
ances are to be attributed to a deficiency of clearsightedness

RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY. 39
in the observer, narrator, and believer, in taking the extraor
dinary for the miraculous.
10. All men have a right, and it is their duty, to think
for themselves, and live according to their own candid con
victions ; there ought to be no compulsion in religious mat
ters, no hatred, no denunciation, not even violent disputes ;
truth must eventually Iriumph by its intrinsic superiority and
strength.

40

CHAPTER X.
RATIONALISM IN ITS FARTHER PROGRESS.
The victory of sound sense over inveterate prejudice-is not
easily won. Whenever the words "religious enlightenment"
are pronounced, hosts of spirits of the night are roused,
crying " Sacrilege and blasphemy," at the violation of their
sanctuary. The priesthood will utter their anathemas, and
the frightened multitude will leave every thing as it was. Yet
there is one consolation. Man, in many instances, although
unwilling to follow the call of the spirit of the time, is dragged
along by it. Already the liberal persuasion lives in unnum
bered minds ; even the bulk of the people seem fully prepared
to receive it, so soon as it is offered in a proper form, and the
contest will not timidly be given up before the exalted aim is
arrived at.
Now the question arises, What will generally be the conse
quence if Rationalism is made universal ? Is there, in that
event, any real danger that true religion will be subverted,
morality weakened, the safety of the body politic endangered,
or the happiness of mankind destroyed ? I fea* none of those
evils ; I expect only gain, most important gain, no loss.
This gain will, in. the first place, consist in the high gratifi
cation which every one must feel, — I have felt it myself, —
in whose mind darkness, doubt, and superstition make room
for a satisfactory and rational faith. Truth has its value in
itself, without regard to adventitious circumstances. She is
the daughter of heaven, and he whom she favors with her
smiles will no more be deluded by empty phantoms. Yet
here is room for another remark. The confessors of ortho
doxy must have little faith in the goodness of their cause,
since no complaints are more frequently heard than of Infi-

RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY. 41
delity gaining ground rapidly, and threatening to subvert re
ligion. But such complainants are deceiving themselves
about the true cause of this phenomenon. It is orthodoxy
that has called forth the struggle of common sense — never
completely dormant — against palpable absurdities ; and it
is no wonder that, in many instances, the antagonistic party
carry their resistance to excess. As soon as rational Chris- '
tianity shall fill up the place of the corrupt one, there will
be no more danger of Infidelity, — and the cause of true re
ligion must be the principal gainer by such a change.
Again, I expect and demand a purer morality and more
genuine virtue than the corrupted Christianity could possibly
produce. I deny not that benevolence, generosity, true piety,
and all other virtues, have been conspicuous in numbers of
Christians — and of all denominations — heretofore ; yet not
only of Christians but of the confessors of other religions
likewise. This I consider as proof of the original excellence
of human nature, as the triumph of a noble mind over a
wrong conception. But such facts must not mislead us to
false general conclusions. On the contrary, one misconcep
tion leads ordinarily to another, and very often to the most
abject superstition and wildest fanaticism. And wherever
Christianity has degenerated into these, what have been the
fruits ? Let me silently pass over the deeds of horror and
abomination — hardly paralleled by any enormities of pagan
barbarity — perpetrated in the name of Christianity. His
tory blushes at their record. Let me not call to your memo
ry the thousands slaughtered for the honor of the Christian
God, Remember that religious intolerance has not vanished
even in our century. Keep in mind that there has been, and
still is, Christian as well as heathenish idolatry, with all the
follies and vices springing up from it. Do not forget that the
sort of Christianity most common as yet, has, in innumera
ble instances, been the mother of hypocrisy ; that there are
Christian as well as Jewish Pharisees ; and that feigned holi
ness is little better than open vice. Before the light of truth,
4#

42 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
all delusive mist must disappear, and nothing will remain but
what is pure and genuine. And he who lives in the light,
will he not doubly feel the obligation of acting worthy of the
light? We asked, What effect is the diffusion of our liberal relig
ious ideas likely to have on public life ? Let us inquire be
forehand, what influence the spurious Christianity has exer
cised on the political institutions of the nations. Christ,
indeed, by frequently pointing to the inborn and unalienable
dignity of human nature, by preaching love and justice towards
all, by urging men not to despise even the lowest, by abolish
ing all difference of high and low, first and last, among his
followers, — had established the principle of freedom and
equality, though it would be truly absurd to demand that he,
under the circumstances of those times, should have preached
the theories of modern democracy. Had the principle been
maintained, it ought certainly to have effected the political
emancipation of all Christian nations. Instead of that, we
see very early Christianity used as a means to subdue the
natural vigor, and break the sense of liberty, of the converted
nations. Very early, we behold a powerful priesthood unite
and go hand in hand with despotic rulers, the latter lending
their arm to the hierarchy for the suppression of every free
thought, and the priests proclaiming from their pulpits, that
the people must be subject to their masters, " not only to the
good and gentle, but also to the froward " — " for conscience'
sake." In consequence of this, freedom disappeared wherever
such a Christianity took root. Of this, no other nation has
furnished a more striking example than the different German
tribes. Their Hermann had boldly avenged the attempt of
the then masters of the world to quench their free spirit, and
by their bravery the gigantic Roman empire was at length
subverted. But the power of Rome emerged once more in
the shape of the mitre ; the crosier was wielded, and Her
mann's race bowed under a yoke more intolerable, more dis
gusting and disgraceful than the supremacy of a temporal

RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY. 43
despot could ever have been. So matters went on through the
middle age, a period equally remarkable for religious enthu
siasm and fanaticism, for the political slavery of the nations,
and for the unbounded power of the priesthood. Most of
the civilized nations are still in this same state. Their yoke
will not be broken before religious superstition has vanished.
We must not boast of Protestantism as if it had freed the
world of that curse : it has done something, not all. Still
protestant princes as well as others lean upon their clergy,
considering them as the strongest pillars of their power, and
fearing little, while the mass of the people are kept in relig
ious darkness and dependency. Has not protestant Britain
carried on for a long time a system of policy calculated to keep
in religious bondage a large portion of her subjects ? Again,
when the British colonies of North America rose in resistance
to usurpation, was not even that manly effort condemned by
numbers on religious grounds ? Were there no Christian
sects who refused to take up arms against their country's op
pressors, from religious scruples ? Is not, in our days, that
whole glorious revolution denounced by bigots of this very
country as a violation of religion and Christianity ? And,
truly, should things go on for a while longer as they are do
ing now, the day is not remote, when even in this freest land
on earth, sectarian alliances and clerical influence will, in
many instances, get the better of, and make delusive, the free
action of the sovereign people ! In short, the world cannot
be emancipated but by the irresistible sway of Reason. May
the day of its reign soon dawn !
It will dawn ; the world will at length scorn to be led cap
tive any longer by the force of habit, or the arts of priestcraft ;
and in centuries to come, men will look back with a smile on
the feeble efforts of our contemporaries to stifle the mighty
spirit of the age.
We are generally inclined to think more highly of our ad
vancement in true civilization than the actual state of our re
ligious, social, and political relations would justify. We are

44 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
still, in many respects, little better than half-barbarians, and
will continue to be so until Reason is installed in her full su
premacy, I have now reached a point where I might close my re
marks, leaving it to the sober judgment of my readers, either
to adopt the views advanced, or to refute them, if they can.
Those of my readers, however, who have, with satisfaction,
followed me thus far, will not be displeased with some few
more fruits of my hours of meditation, all intimately connected
with the foregoing.

45

CHAPTER XI.

REVELATION.

Human Reason is to be considered as the primitive and
universal Revelation or source of truth. What is more com
monly called revelation, consisting in historical facts, can only
hold a secondary place, could not be designed to abrogate or
supersede, or be in contradiction to, the primitive light, but
to awaken and strengthen it.
Should the performer of incomprehensible miracles, or a
person of the most spotless sanctity, bid us believe any thing
contradictory to sound reason and common sense, — for in
stance, that twice two are five, or three are one, — we should
be right in the first place to rely on our primary source of
truth. It would, therefore, be great inconsistency to admit
that the Bible contains propositions above, and opposite to,
human Reason, and yet adopt its whole contents, as being re
vealed by an act of Deity. All tenets of religion, of course,
must have their evidence in themselves, and it is no proof of
the correctness of a doctrine to appeal to the authority of
those by whom, or the circumstances under which, it was pro
mulgated. All so called revelation, attributed to the life and deeds of
certain individuals, and to certain events, is something tem
poral, partial, and national; human Reason is original, uni
versal, and eternal. And this very Reason is not so weak or
incompetent to discover truth, as it is often represented. It
requires indeed to be awakened, developed, strengthened, like
the germ of the grain, or the bud in spring ; but in its full
vigor it is, and ought to be, the only judge of truth and cor
rectness. He who mistrusts his own reason, should be placed
under a guardian, or sent to the Madhouse.

46 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
What does all this talk about the insufficiency of human
reason mean ? I, for one, entertain too lofty ideas of the
Creator's wisdom to believe that he called man into existence,
not endowing him with all the necessary capacities to attain
the high destination he was made for. It is the manner of a
bungler to amend and correct, after the work is done. The
skilful artist will finish his at once. Revelation, in the ortho
dox meaning, is only such a poor amendment to a work sub
sequently thought to be defective.
Indeed, our Orthodox look at the universe in a strange
manner, judging from the method God is said to have pur
sued in the course of time, by causing a miraculous and super
natural revelation to go so far as to make an ass talk in
human language. They represent him as making a temporary
and partial interruption of the once established laws of na
ture ! To them the world — physical as well as moral — is a
machine, the Author of which may sometimes, for certain
purposes imputed to him, grasp into its wheels, interrupting
or quickening their motion at pleasure ! Has God so defec
tively and improvidently regulated this world as to be under the
necessity in some cases — which must be thought unforeseen
— of changing and interrupting the ordinary course of nature?
A similar and continuous agency of that Spirit who watches
all things, shines through history from its beginning ; but mi
raculous interferences never occurred; interruptions of na
ture's everlasting laws never were ; never will be.
It is common for the advocates of Orthodoxy to refer to
the many errors into which reason is said to have fallen.
But error is rather something anti-reasonable, proceeding
from not making the proper use of reason. However, reason
will but gradually advance, and must be imperfect in the in
fancy of mankind as well as of each individual, while it has
shone clearest in the few most prominent of our race whose
doctrines and institutions we admire as master-pieces of
human genius.
I might ask Orthodoxy, Why was there no revelation on

RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY. 47
political questions, to save the world from the misrule under
which it has been sighing so many thousand years ? Why
was there none on so many other most important subjects
tending to the enlightening of the world, — for instance, on the
system or construction of the Universe ? Whereas it cannot
be denied that some doctrines contained in, and some institu
tions estabhshed by the authors of the Bible in the name of
God, are not at all connected with religion ; some of very in
ferior, some of very doubtful utility. Or is, for instance, also,
the hierarchical government of Moses, pretended to be a Di
vine establishment, or the polygamy of the patriarchs, or the
institution of slavery, set as patterns by inspiration, to which
we must needs conform ?
We may justly rejoice that reason has, in our time, come
generally to greater perfection. The truly wise of all nations
begin to unite in what is good, right, and true. But all is not
yet done. The light is dawning but it is not yet broad noon,
and we may still see many a {lark cloud overshadowing the
moral world, obscuring the bright rays of truth, at least for a
while. As an eminent German writer, J. P. Richter, says :
" The progress of mankind to the City of God is like the
walking of certain pilgrims to Jerusalem, who, after every
step forwards, took one backwards."
But you, who condemn human reason for its errors, will
you pretend to say that those who boast of having received
Divine and supernatural revelation, have not erred ? do not
err ? Look at the contents of your universally acknowledged
revelations. Do not the different Christian churches, though
agreeing on the one point, that a revelation has taken place,
disagree on all others ? You allow, that the ends of a reve
lation must have been to reveal indubitable and incontrovert
ible religious truth? Are those ends anywhere attained?
And is it worthy of God that he should have made an effort
which has proved entirely abortive ?
What else but human reason can it be, that is to judge
which of the various revelations that might be offered to us
ought to be considered as genuine and true ? Has not he

48 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
who believes in the Koran of the Turks, or the Zend-Avesta
of the Persians of old, the same right to claim for his holy
books a supernatural origin, as the worshippers of the Old or
New Testament? Yet you would place revelation above
reason, notwithstanding the latter must decide upon the au
thenticity of the latter, and interpret it. All this seems to be
very simple and plain ; yet the world has stood many thou
sand years without comprehending it.
In this too, the clearsighted Jenyns agrees with German
Rationalism, as will be seen by the following quotation.
" It is impossible we can be certain of the Divine authority,
even by a personal communication with its first author, much
less can we be assured of it through the fallacious mediums
of traditions, or history. History must efer be liable to in
finite imperfections. We can never be certain that the writ
ers of it, being men, were not imposed upon themselves, or
did not intend to impose upon others ; and, therefore, its orig
inal evidence cannot be conclusive, and must grow daily
weaker in proportion to its antiquity. It must necessarily be
subject to all uncertainties proceeding from the variation of
languages and customs, ignorant transcribers, false transla
tions, interpolations, and forgeries. And as the histories of
religions are more connected with men's interests than those
of other occurrences, so they must be ever more subject to
these frauds and impositions, — for the same reason that a
bank-note is more likely to be counterfeited than' a newspaper.
It is, therefore, impossible that history can afford us any cer
tain proof of a supernatural and miraculous dispensation,
because a fact, unlikely to be true, can never be demonstrated
by a relation not impossible to be false. If it be said that
God may inspire the writers of such important records with
infallibility, I answer : The proof that he has so inspired
them, will be attended with no less difficulties than the proof
of that divine authority which is to be established by it ; and
it must ever be absurd to prove the truth of a revelation
from the infallibility of its records, and then the infallibility
of its records from the truth of the revelation."

49

CHAPTER XII.
MIRACLES.-
Supernatural revelation is said to have been attended
by miraculous events and performances, and thus miracles
are appealed to, by Orthodoxy, as the testimony of truth.
In the first place, we may with propriety contend, that
there exists no reasonable connection between marvellous
events or deeds, and truth, the latter being something self-
dependent, and having its evidence in itself. Of miracles,
no precise definition can be given, since they exist only in the
conception or imagination of those who see them. If it be
said : A miracle is a performance beyond human power, I
say : Anything performed by a human being, must needs be
within the power of man. It will be of no use to reply :
Miracles are performed by the mediation of divine agency
for certain purposes. For we shall rejoin : AU events in this
world, and also the exertion of the human faculties, for good
purposes and evil ones, must be traced back to the agency
of Omnipotence — as the primitive source of life and action ;
but it is an absurd presumption in man to talk about special
purposes or ends of God, of which we cannot possibly have
the least knowledge. If a miracle is defined as a perform
ance by momentary interruption of the fixed laws of nature,
or at their expense, I would ask: Are we so thoroughly
initiated into the mysteries of the laws by which the universe
is ruled, that we can decide whether, in any incident, those
laws were interrupted ? And is it not mere nonsense to talk
of such an interruption at all ; to dream of events occurring
in nature, yet being above and against nature's eternal laws ?
The word " supernatural" ought never to have been adopted
into the language of civilized nations. It is even antichristian
5

50 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
to make religious truth depend on prodigies. For if Christ
says that "false Christs and fake prophets may show great
signs and wonders," how can signs and wonders be the
testimonial of a true prophet ? (Matt. xxiv. 24.)
Again, how feebly founded must a religious conviction be
that is based on such things, and standing or falling with
them ? Let us for a moment dwell upon some of the mirac
ulous relations of the Old Testament. Of what value is the •
proof of the supposed wondrous passage of the Red Sea by
the Jews, when the principle of the ebbing and flowing of
tides is well understood ? Of like nature is also the great
miracle of the manna fallen from heaven. It is now well
known that manna is still found by travellers in the desert
country of Arabia, secreted by certain plants in the form of
sweet sap during night, and hardened by the coolness of
morning. The burning, or rather shining bush of Moses
is a phenomenon still observed by modern travellers. Some
of the ten Egyptian plagues, said to have been miraculously
inflicted by Moses, are public calamities which have visited
that country since time immemorial. The rest of those
wonders may be explained in a similar way.
To the uninformed man, every thing that, by his defective
understanding, he is unable to account for, appears miracu
lous. Thus, in ancient times, men would fancy themselves
surrounded on all sides by marvellous occurrences, and at the
same time were fond of embellishing simple facts with a tinge
of the miraculous. All nations of antiquity are alike in that,
and the mythological traditions of the Hebrews may with
propriety be compared with those preserved by Homer, Os-
sian, and others. Miracles have disappeared and ceased, not
because the course of events, or the manner of divine reign
ing over the world is now different from what it ever was
before, but because a knowledge of rthe laws of nature has
become more universal, intelligent persons do not stand in
need of wonders to confirm their religious convictions, and
so they are willing to leave all miraculous tales in the Bible

RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY. 51
at rest ; the time being too remote, in many instances, for a
satisfactory explanation, and the gain from the most punctil
ious researches being disproportionate to the exertions made,
although, in many other cases, we are able enough to discover
the actual fact, by divesting such tales of their marvellous
hue. By doing so, it is not difficult also to show, that the mira
cles ascribed to Christ were natural events, although by his
contemporaries considered as something extraordinary, and
demonstrative of his Messiahship. I cannot here be specific
on this subject ; yet, in order to corroborate my assertion, I
will comment on, and explain, one of those miracles, Mark
vi. 35 and 36. It is an impossibility that five thousand hun
gry people should be satisfied with five ordinary loaves and
two fishes ; or that after such a repast more should remain
than existed before. The common idea is, that the loaves
and fishes in the hands of Christ, were growing again, as fast
as he broke off pieces of them. But this is a palpable ab
surdity. It must be farther considered, that even though
such growing again be thought possible, one person could not,
with the utmost activity, break, in so little time, so many
pieces as to feed five thousand men. The true proceeding
is, however, obvious. Christ bids the disciples give the peo
ple to eat. But they represent that they had not enough
provisions with them, whereupon Christ himself takes the
little on hand, and divides it, — and all become not only satis
fied, but twelve baskets of crumbs remain. Do not these very
baskets, which were of course brought with them, justify the
supposition, that not the disciples alone, but others of the
company, had been careful enough to provide victuals ? All
depended on the example of distribution being given ; those
who had an abundance, benevolently aided the others who
were wanting. As soon as Christ and the disciples had given
such an example, a general meal was arranged, and the pro
visions on hand proved to be more than sufficient. Tradition
afterwards magnified this simple fact, and later superstition

52 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
looked upon it as the most enormous miracle that credulity
has ever believed in.
Most of the astonishing deeds of Christ were cures of sick
persons. It is fair to suppose that Christ, in his earlier years,
had acquired more knowledge and experience in curing dis
eases than the rest of the -people were possessed of, the more
so, as with all ancient nations the medical practice was com
bined with the calling of their priests and prophets or divines.
Besides the natural means employed — though tradition is
silent on them — his word, his air, his touching by the hand,
may, in many instances, have exercised a mental — yea,
physical — influence, of salutary effect on the sufferers.

53

CHAPTER XIII.

THE NATURE OF RELIGION.

If the question be proposed, " What is religion ? " we must
be prepared to receive as many different answers as there
are different religious denominations. For the term " to get
religion " means generally to be converted either to Method
ism, or Baptism, or Calvinism, &c, each of those and the
other sects pretending to be in the possession of the only true
religion. My object is to persuade the reflecting part of my
readers that religion must be something quite independent of
all existing and imaginable isms ; rather something universal,
original, and everlasting, not to be manufactured by the
authors of certain religious rites and dogmas. I must, how
ever, entreat my readers to follow me in a somewhat circui
tous course.
I would venture to assert, that in investigating and argu
ing, the people of this country generally indulge a predomi
nant propensity to turn their observation and judgment upon
every thing outward, rather than to go to the interior source
of truth hidden in the depths of the human mind. They ap
peal to the experience of past centuries, and overlook the
nearest, surest, and most indubitable fountain of truth, which
flows in our own heart. I am no despiser of the lessons
given us by what has long before occurred ; but I should dis
dain to make all my convictions and maxims of action depend
ent thereon. I rather advise men to study human nature,
to explore their own mind, and keep the rules therein laid
down. In this respect, as in many others, I profess to be a
follower of the ancients, who pronounced as the cardinal
maxim of all their superior wisdom : " Nosce te ipsum," that
is : Learn to know thyself. Or, as Pope has it : " Man know
5*

54 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
thyself; all other knowledge vain." Indeed, without such
knowledge, man is like a sailor on the ocean, without compass
or rudder.
Considering, also, what is called Revelation as a historical
fact, subject, like all other events recorded by history, to a
sober criticism, it is undeniable that we ought to have first
developed our internal fund of knowledge, before we can
make proper use of, or can sift any additional instruction of
fered from without. For though God from heaven should
descend to give us information, it would become the intelli
gent first within himself to raise the question : Is it God who
speaks to me ? And should the lessons given be contradic
tory to the suggestions of his own mind, he would rightly
conclude, that it was a mere phantom that appeared before
him. Such, I think, is the only safe ground for free, self-
dependent, and reflecting beings to stand upon.
Thus, in order to attain any thing like a correct defini
tion of Religion, we must beforehand look away from histor
ical events, and, by exploring man's spiritual nature, and
discovering in the same his religious faculties, arrive at length
at a satisfactory and solid understanding.
Man is a double-natured being, at the same time connected
with, and belonging to, two worlds, the sensual and spiritual.
As a sensual creature, he is subject to the laws of physical
nature which govern this earth and the universe ; as a being of
intelligence — as a rational individual — he ascends far above
the visible world, partaking of the eminence, self-dependency,
and dignity of spirits. By comparing man with the rest of
animals, we find indeed that even brutes exercise a faculty
akin to intellect, and to a certain extent judge, choose, feel,
remember ; but all that is directed and confined to sensual
objects; the station of reason they cannot possibly attain.
By his reason man rises far above sensual things, impressions,
and pursuits ; reason is the guide to introduce him into an
ideal world, — and thus reason or rationality is the immeas
urable advantage which man has over all other known crea-

RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY. 55
tures ; is the insurmountable partition-wall between him and
bis fellow-beings; is his affinity to God, or the image of
Deity in the human mind.
The more rationality or reason is displayed in the life of a
man, the higher is the station of worthiness and dignity he
assumes amongst men ; absurdity of thought, roughness of
feeling, and meanness of pursuits and conduct, are all alike in
conflict with reason, or unreasonable.* Hence there are de
grees of rationality. Reason in its first dawning appears as
a dim light, grows brighter by and by, and has attained its
fullest splendor only in a few prominent men. Some individ
uals, yes, nations, seem hardly to have entered into the series
of rational beings ; for reason, though born as a germ in
every human mind, will, however, grow and thrive only
under appropriate circumstances.
Now, religion is found only where reason is, both being in
timately connected. The word religion is generally, even by
persons free from sectarianism, too narrowly defined as being
a certain mode of worshipping God. This is. making re
ligion a mere form, not reaching to its substance. Then, the
idea of a Supreme Being is indeed something, but not the
only thing, essential in religion, the ideas of an eternal life
and of moral obligation being just as essential. Be it ob
served, by the way, that Christianity embraces those three
substantial elements of religion in greater perfection than
any other creed. The ancient Mosaism for instance, knows
not the idea of a future life, which does not occur in the Old
Testament prior to the writings of Solomon.
Religion (from the Latin religere, i. e., to tie) I define as
the tie or the connection of our mind with the spiritual world,
and he has religion who lives in the consciousness of being
spiritually connected with the invisible world, acknowledging
* Reason, as synonymous with rationality, is not to be defined as a mere capacity
of comprehending, judging, and concluding, though all that is oflen called reason
ing, which comes rather under the department of what is called intellect, or good
sense. In the German language, the words Vernimft (for reason.) and Verstand
(for good sense,) are more distinct than the corresponding English expressions.

56 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
a superior being as the author and ruler of the universe, be
lieving in the dignity and indestructible nature of his own
spiritual life, and feeling himself under the obligation of a
moral behaviour. The atheist, the denier of immortality, the
derider of virtue, — alone are irreligious.
Such is religion in the widest and truest meaning of the
word. In a more narrow and objective sense, by religion —
for instance, the Christian religion — is understood a certain
system of religious ideas and forms.
Thus religion is, as it were, the fullest and brightest bloom
of our rational nature, yea, its very vigor, health, and proper
life. And though in its external appearance, religion may
assume a thousand different forms, in the substance there is
but one ; and we might with more propriety speak of dif
ferent degrees of religion, than of divers religions.
Most writers on, and teachers of, religion are accustomed to
begin at the wrong end, having always the name of God either
in their pen or mouth, gravely reasoning upon the " character
of God," explaining the " communicable and incommunicable
nature and moral perfections of Deity," with the assurance of
a professor demonstrating a geometrical theorem. By view
ing the course nature takes in the development of man's in
tellectual capacities, we find that of all rational conceptions,
or religious ideas, those of duty, or of what is right and wrong,
decent and unbecoming, are the first that arise in the mind.
These too are capable of being presented to our conscious
ness as something altogether precise and clear, and consider
ed, when rightly understood, as the laws established for the
spiritual world, just as eternal and indispensable as those
by which the physical world is governed. The moral ideas
of duty, honor, and justice are therefore the first to be awak
ened and developed in the mind. This foundation being duly
laid, the belief of a Supreme Being together with the hope -of
a future life may safely be built upon it. It is an incontesti-
ble fact, that according to the greater or lesser perfection of
the moral ideas in the mind, the conceptions of the Deity and

RELIGION -AND CHRISTIANITY. 57
his attributes are shaped by individuals and nations. This is
a hint as to what we should begin and end with. The God
of the truly wise is an ideal of perfection, such as the limited
conceptions of man can conceive. But what is the God of
the unenlightened mass ?
What appears next is the hope and belief of a future life,
love of existence being strong enough to make us wish for its
continuation after death, and the feeling of something unsen-
sual, free, and independent within us being distinct enough to
make, us indulge the hope of immortality of the soul. But no
sooner is such a belief established, than imagination is busy
to color the looked-for future existence with pictures taken
from our present life, and thus to transform one of the most
sublime ideas that our mind can conceive, into real superstition.
The pursuits of this life are, in the puerile imagination, to
be continued, and the pleasures hoped for, or the miseries
apprehended, are of an earthly nature. The visions of a
Tartarus and Elysium, Hell and Paradise, a day of judgment,
purgatory, restoration of the dead bodies, &c, labor under the
like mistake, — that of mixing incongruously sensual and spir
itual things, worldly and religious matters.
Last in order, because most indistinct and farthest be
yond the reach of our conception, is the idea of Diety. For
man is unable to conceive with clear preciseness any thing of
greater perfection than himself; all attributes by which he
endeavors to think or describe such greater perfection, are
generally of a mere negative character. However, indistinct
as it is, the belief of a God, the idea of a most perfect being,
of an almighty power on which the universe is dependent, of
a wisdom and love by which it is regulated and sustained, of
a Great Spirit, as some Indian tribes very appropriately
name God, of whom our own spirit is an efflux and with whom
we are spiritually connected, — all this is so deeply engraved
on our rational consciousness, that it would be a matter of
astonishment not to meet with it in any individual or nation.
But not content with that, and unable to resign their childish

58 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
views, men generally pictured their God or Gods into a
similitude with themselves, some considering him like an old
man with a long beard, some like the stern chief-justice of a
criminal court, others like a proud monarch with a splendid
court ; — and indeed the God of most Christians is not ma
terially different from the above puerile notions.
As mental philosophy discerns in the human mind a faculty
of thinking, a faculty of feeling — of being impressed, —
and a faculty of choosing, or determining, — so there are
religious truths, religious feelings, and a religious acting.
All these together constitute the religious character of an in
dividual or nation. What is called devotion, is the lively
sense of our being connected with the spiritual world, and the
expression of such a feeling in some chosen form. Religious
ceremonies are such forms of devotion, which may be and
will be different according to the state of civilization and
the taste of a community. Although man, as a partly
sensual being, will probably never be without some religious
forms or ceremonies, yet from the multitude and nature
of such mere external rites, a conclusion may be drawn as to
the state of enlightenment of society. While the mass, led on
by their priests, will kneel at altars made of rock, there to
tender their offerings or send up their lamentations, the wise
has an altar erected in his own heart, the sacrificial flame of
wfeich will never be extinguished.
From the foregoing deduction it will at the same time ap
pear why the friends of a liberal view of religious matters
have assumed the name of Rationalists. They are no athe
ists, nor despisers of the additional light cast upon religious
questions by the instructions of prominent men within past
centuries, nor, least of all, do they undervalue the high merits
of the Christian faith in its primitive purity. But man's ra
tional capacities are by them considered as the primary chan
nel through which all truth, and all religious truth likewise,
flows to us from God. Reason is held the supreme judge of
the authenticity of revelation and the value of revealed doc-

RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY. 59
trines. Neither religious dogmas nor ceremonies are thought
to constitute the substance of religion : the former have
changed according to the state of enlightenment and the taste
of the devotees, while religion itself is something unchangeable
and eternal.
The progress of true mental cultivation is slow, according
to the testimony of past ages. But if there be any progress,
however slow, must not the time at length arrive, when all
rational beings will truly be Rationalists ?
Rationalists do not consider themselves as a peculiar sect;
they are not anxious to gain a place amongst, and an equal
rank with, the other denominations already extant. They,
indeed, claim to be above sectarian notions and ends. Their
system had and has its friends among all religious forms.
But the time has arrived when it seems proper for them to
unite their scattered members into one body, and exert that
influence on society which is due to their candid love of truth
and their spirit of liberality and toleration.
As to the different Christian denominations professing to
be Protestants, since they have adopted the principle of pro
testing against human authority in religious matters, it is only
necessary — and I hope not impossible — to convince them
of the untenableness and superstitious character of their no
tions of a supernatural revelation, in order to convert them
to Rationalism.
It will prove a different thing with Catholicism. This
latter religious system is like a strong and well guarded for
tress, defended on all sides with equal watchfulness and
caution, the inmates being well aware, that when one breach
is suffered to be made in their walls, the whole must soon
surrender. But will not time at length also destroy the
foundation that delusive system — or wholesale humbug —
is erected upon ? — at length, I say, not presuming to deter
mine the time. Indeed, for a long while yet Catholicism will
stand not unhke the immovable cliff in the ocean. Vessels sail
along, thousands of passengers go by, — and in looking back

60 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
it serves them as a mark how far, how fast they have advanc
ed. Thus Catholicism will stand unchanged, unimproved, —
to show the rest of mankind the rapidity of progress in men
tal enlightenment ; a ruin preserved from ages gone by in the
midst of new generations ; an Egyptian pyramid, grotesque in
form and foreign in matter to the taste and ideas of the Uving
race. " But," says Jenyns, " it is with old establishments —
national governments and national religions — as with old
houses : their deformities are commonly their supports, and
these can never be removed without endangering the whole
fabric." Yet such a fabric, though supported by priestcraft, arro
gance, illusion, and secular interests, will be unable to with
stand for ever the influence of time.

61

CHAPTER XIV.

PROVIDENCE.

It is impossible to attain sound views of religion without
submitting the current notions respecting Providence and
Divine agency to our examination, and, indeed, giving up a
considerable part of them. It requires no uncommon degree
of sagacity, when the mind is once seriously put to this sub
ject, to discover that too much of the human, nay of the child
ish, has crept into this belief.
I am willing to adopt the words of the Apostle, Rom. xi-
33-36, for my text : " O the depth of the riches both of the
wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his
judgments and his ways past finding out ! For who has
known the mind of the Lord ? Or who has been his coun
sellor ? — For of him, and through him, and to him, are all
things : to whom be glory for ever ! "
This is a passage as beautiful as it is true, and containing
in a synopsis the ideas that I am about to advance.
It is essential in the belief of a God to consider Him as
" the great first cause," as the author as well as the ruler of
the universe. By attributing all things and all events to Di
vine agency, our further idea must be that the world was
created for certain ends, and that God's wisdom and power are
constantly operating to have those ends realized. Thus two
other systems are excluded: that of Casuality and that of
Fatalism. To believe in the former is to cherish the absurd
idea that any thing can happen without a sufficient cause, or
to make occurrences dependent on mere accident. The be
liever in Fatality substitutes an unconscious, gloomy, and re
lentless, yet cogent and irresistible power, fate or fatum, either

62 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
for the natural course of events, or to the operation of a wise
and benign Deity.
Now, if by Providence an agency is meant, leading all
events so as to make them answer and serve the ends of the
world, — we may with propriety ask : Who knows the de
sign of creation ? What genius comprehends what the uni
verse was made for ? None but the Only One that called all
things into existence, that views all things and times in one
glance, " of whom, and through whom, and to whom, are all
things," but " whose mind no one has ever known ! " Man,
of course, being a creature short-lived and of very circum
scribed observation and judgment, a child of the moment and
not seeing beyond the present minute, unacquainted with the
construction of the universe — with the exception of the little
that he knows of the small spot which he moves on — and with
no idea of the concatenation of all things, man does not know
the design of the world.
This assertion which, I think, none will contradict in the
abstract, is of more consequence than will at the first sight
appear. For nothing is more common than to hear even the
best and most devout persons judge, argue, and conclude, with
a great deal of self-satisfied pride, as though they thorough-
ly understood the design of the world. Hence arise not
only innumerable wrong conceptions, but the most vexing
doubts, and in short a narrow and feeble view of human life,
as I shall now proceed to show.
What does all the clamor mean, which has been raised
since time immemorial, about the evils in this world as being
irreconcilable with the belief in a wise and benign Provi
dence ? What all those as yet fruitless attempts — being gen
erally mere sophistry — to explain the apparent difficulty ? It
is the pretension of knowing the design of the world, that
those doubts and the vain attempts to remove them proceed
from. It is generally thought, the design of creation must
be, to have the greatest number of happy beings in existence.
There are, no doubt, innumerable means of enjoyment and

RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY. 63
happiness in this world ; but if the happy feeling of one single
creature be interrupted, even for moments, that supposed
object is not fully attained. And is it proper for us to impute
to the Supreme Being ends which, according to our every
day's experience, the regulation of this world answers so very
imperfectly ? It will not do to refer a suffering being to a
future state of existence. Of that we know nothing distinct,
and future blessings would not justify present injuries.
Again, man being generally very apt to claim a considera
ble portion of Divine care and attention for himself, attribut
ing his own views and objects to Providence, most ordinarily
falls into the following erroneous strain of argumentation:
Our conscience demands most urgently a strictly moral be
haviour ; and cultivation of mind, which includes a moral
character, is the thing that we are by our rational nature
compelled most to admire, love, and respect in man. All is
right so far. Why then has Providence thrown so many im
pediments in our way, aggravating and preventing the attain
ment of that object ? Why are our mental powers so feeble,
so inadequate ? Why are no exertions in this respect crown
ed with complete success ? — And finally, why is not, as
justice seems to demand, moral conduct universally attended
with happiness ? For if there be but a single apparent ex
ception to the rule that virtue must be rewarded, it could not
be contemplated as a rule, since God's and nature's laws suffer
no exceptions. — But we are wont to go still farther. Here
the saving of a single human life is attributed to a particular
protection of Providence ; but if Providence design to save
human lives, why are thousands destroyed by a single earth
quake ; by contagions, famine, &c. ? — There, the favorable
circumstances under which it was possible to realize some
favorite object — a marriage, a victory, a large crop, the elec
tion of a president, &c, — are ascribed to the especial guar
dianship of Providence, while it must be thought the same
Divine dispensation that crosses our schemes, even our purest
designs, in a hundred instances. All this, so obviously

64 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
wanting in principle and system, is to mix religious ideas and
feelings with such things as have nothing to do therewith.
The whole argumentation concerning the interposition of
Providence in given cases, under the supposition of man's
being initiated into the mysteries of the Divine intentions,
proves generally to flow from mere selfishness. Man is ever
inclined to consider himself as the favorite of heaven, and his
own childish pursuits as the objects of the Most High. Is it
not for himself, or his friends and beloved that he appeals to
Divine intercession ; while he lets thousands perish — no doubt
by the same hands of Omnipotence — with little commiseration ?
And have we a right to demand a happiness from heaven that
is denied to thousands ? Or can we conceal to ourselves that
the severest calamities, for aught we can determine, would as
justly fall on us as on our neighbor?
I am prepared to hear this denounced as harsh doctrine,
extinguishing in the human bosom that sense of dependence
on an Almighty will, that cheerful trust in the protection of a
benign and wise heavenly father, and that gratitude for his
bounty, which are so characteristic of a truly religious mind.
But I hope to convince my readers that what I would incul
cate, is the very reverse ; that I design to purify religious
feeling, not to destroy it, and to soothe the vexing conflict in
the hearts of the most noble, by raising them to a more ele
vated point of view.
My maxim is : let feeling have its rights, but do not, at the
same time, encroach upon those of common-sense. There are
two different views which a man may take of this world ; the
common-sense view, and the view which we may take when
strictly under the influence of religious feeling. Common-
sense, being the faculty of judging, arguing, and concluding,
in short, of analyzing and combining, — all very cool opera
tions, — is never to be confounded with feeling, or the language
of our heart, which is an involuntary impression, not obeying
any rule or maxim, and explainable only by the peculiar con
struction of our nature.

RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY. 65
Now then, how do the events of this world represent them
selves to common-sense ? By the laws of the latter we are
compelled to ascribe any effect to a cause sufficient, and this
necessary connection between effect and cause will in all
events either be perceived, or must be supposed. Moreover,
this connection is to be considered as a natural one, ac
cording to the state of modern culture ; that is, all occur
rences are to be ascribed to the operation of certain immuta
ble laws of nature, the swinging of heavenly bodies in their
orbs as well as the falling down of a single drop of rain.
There is nothing more steady, universal, and less capable of
being interrupted or diverted than the laws of nature. By
their constant operation, all effects and occurrences in the
visible world are satisfactorily and fully explained and ac
counted for, and the mere common-sense view demands no
other " first great cause " than a power that set and keeps
those laws of nature in operation.
It is true, there is still another agency to produce effects
on this small particle of the world called earth : it is the free
agency of human will. Free beings even of a higher order
than man, may be, and probably are, amongst the inhabitants
of other celestial bodies. But this does not weaken our prop
osition. We are free, indeed; for our self-consciousness
tells us so. We are sure within ourselves that to choose,
decide, and act, are entirely dependent on our free-will. But
though it must so appear to us, the observer from a higher
point of view will look upon even our most spontaneous
actions as being subject to and resulting from certain fixed
laws. For there are laws as well in the spiritual or moral,
as in the physical world. Our mental life moves on accord
ing to such laws ; all our actions proceed from certain im
pulses. Whether these latter be pure and noble, or ignoble
and sordid, more of a sensual or spiritual nature, depends on
the whole state of our mind, or of our character. This latter
again was formed by many preceding thoughts and actions,
not without the cooperation as well of inborn parts, disposi-
6*

66 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
tions, and propensities, as of the various circumstances of our
life, including education, society, station, fortune, &c.
Thus even our most arbitrary actions have their laws, and
the laws of the moral world are no doubt such that also free
beings, even by their wildest extravagances, cannot trans
gress certain prescribed limits, nor prevent the reahzation of
the ends of creation. The course of the world is going on in
spite of all human follies, errors, and imperfections.
Nor do I hesitate, in pursuance of such considerations,
seemingly to overthrow another pillar of religious faith, by
asserting, that the mere wishes of our heart, though devoutly
sent up to the Almighty, cannot reasonably alter the natural
course of things ; that even in the formulas of prayer there is
no magic power to prevent evil or procure good. It is a
mere infant-like way of viewing matters to imagine that
either the Omniscient must first be informed of our wants by
our prayer, (" Your father knoweth what things you have
need of, before you ask him," Matt. vi. 8,) or that our puerile
wishes and chimeras can determine the All-wise to interrupt
the course of events in their natural march. To demand or
expect such a Divine interposition, would indeed be unbe
coming presumption.
Now, what does religious feeling say to all this ? There is
something within our mind which intimates, that a common-
sense view, though it must guide us in all human affairs, yet
is insufficient to expound our being connected with an invisi
ble world; an unfathomable feeling elevates us far above
what the keenest reasoning can reach. Indistinct as our
conception of a Supreme Being is, yet the idea of God is
born with us, and our heart testifies that he is eternal love
and wisdom ; that the whole creation is attributable to his be
nignant designs not less than to his almighty power ; that
especially man, his noble image, was made for everlasting
and increasing happiness; that wherever and in whatever
circumstances we may be, we are in the arms of a kind and
provident parent ; that living or dying, we have no cause to

RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY. 67
despair. Such feehngs will prompt us to offer our thanks to
the All-benevolent, to send the most secret desires of our
heart up to his holy throne, and to recommend ourselves and
our beloved to his protection. And this may all be right so
far as a predominant selfish feeling is not implied. Self-de
nial and resignation are ever the proof and test of a sound
religious disposition of our mind. " I know not the ends of
thy wisdom, eternal father, and I will cheerfully submit to
thy will ; what thousands have experienced before me and
are still suffering, I cannot, I will not demand to be exempt
from ; but courage and hope and confidence shall never for
sake me." Such is the language of our heart not led astray
by the scruples and niceties of mere argumentation.
Give him then the thanks of your heart, — I shall be the
last to censure you for it ; — for there is no more dignified
feeling than that of gratitude. Disclose to him your dearest
wishes ; it will serve to purify and ennoble these very desires.
Pray for those you love ; it will heighten and sanctify your
attachment. Pray for your enemies; it will dispose your
heart to reconciliation and forgiveness. Confess to God your
faults and transgressions ; it will strengthen you in your pur
suit of virtue. Pray to him in the hour of danger and dis
tress ; it will fortify your courage and patience. Let not
your thoughts get estranged from him in joy and happiness,
lest your heart becomes bewildered.
But we must be well aware, that in all this words and cer
emonies are no more than types, figures, and a feeble embodi
ment or expression of feeling, the latter being rather some
thing inexpressible, and having nothing to do with cool
reasoning. Whereas, to common-sense, words are signs of a
precise meaning ; and where common-sense is reasoning, the
intercession of feeling is to be excluded, each of them having
its peculiar laws.
History is a science which requires a great deal of scru
tinizing, reasoning, and arguing. We have to examine the
authenticity of the sources and facts ; we judge of characters

68 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
and deeds ; we combine causes and effects. All this is the
proper department of common-sense. To the pious mind,
indeed, the efficacy of a Divine spirit appears throughout the
whole human history, which is, as it were, a continued revela
tion ; and whatever the best and wisest of our race have done
for the instruction and amelioration of the rest, from a relig
ious point of view it may be attributed to Divine inspiration.
But beyond that we must not venture, or we should encroach
upon the claims of common-sense. To cut certain events
and facts out of the great whole of things past, and under
take to demonstrate that the same were particular, miraculous,
and supernatural Divine revelation, designed for such or such
ends, while the rest of events were flowing on in their natural
course, common-sense must ever refuse. Who is entitled
to say : Here is the finger of God, and there not ? Or, here
is immediate Divine agency, and there only intermediate ?
Common-sense mocks at such an attempt at overthrowing all
its rules, and true religious feeling professes : " Of him, and
through him, and to him, are all things."
Dr. Goldsmith seems to have cherished ideas similar to
some here expressed, when remarking : " Happiness and
misery are rather the result of prudence than of virtue in
this life, temporal evils or felicities being regarded by Heaven
as things merely in themselves trifling, and unworthy its care
in distribution."
More pertinent are the remarks of the German philoso
pher, J. Fr Fries, some of which I will try to translate here.
"I think all mistakes in the views on Providence origi
nate with these two errors : first, that the design of the world
is confounded with the earthly destination of man, with the
task imposed on him for this life ; and secondly, that man is
mistaken about his own present destination. We shall clear
ly see in all these things, when recollecting that the whole
value of this life is only in the developing of mental beauty,
in the cultivation of the eternal spiritual life, and in special
in realizing the ideals of honor, justice, love, friendship, and

RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY. 69
devotion. He who has comprehended, this, will, for the play
of joy and sorrow, felicity or misfortune, demand nothing of
Providence, but calmly and humbly take what he offers. We
shall be satisfied with any of his gifts ; for we live in the
cheerful belief of the eternal beauty of the heavenly life, and
of the world-creating holy love."
" The value of life consists only in the internal beauty of
the spiritual development of life. May the condition of this
my finite existence glitter in happiness, or exhibit the deepest
misery, this is nothing, or it matters little ; but the eternal
beauty of the mind alone is significant. All hope, all fear,
attending the changes of temporal happiness and misery, fade
away before the sublime thought of death, which will bring
us back to the fountain of the eternal light, and to holy love."
" The duty of helping himself is imposed on man. Of fate or
fortune we have nothing to expect. Fate with blind power
now gives the good and then the bad, success or ruin, prosper
ity or destruction."
" Even in history, we see but man's own work, not the de
signs of Deity concerning the universe."
And I add : Prudence and fortune rule in all human affairs ;
but wisdom and virtue alone secure to the heart its internal
peace and lasting satisfaction.

70

CHAPTER XV.
THE NATURE, ORIGIN, AND CONSEQUENCES OF SIN.
On this subject, also, the common views must undergo
some change and rectifying, before they can be made accord
ant with an enlightened conviction. Sin is generally de
scribed as being a transgression of some divine law. God is
represented as the supreme legislator and judge, who gave
his commandments to man ; the latter are said to be con
tained in a certain statute-book called the Bible ; he who
willingly and knowingly acts contrary to those prescriptions,
is thought to commit sin, and is to be punished. This train
of reasoning labors under the same mistake that was already
alluded to : it is turning our views to something outward for
the explanation of what may be understood only by explor
ing our own mind and nature. It was before observed, that
our conceptions of a Supreme Being are very indistinct ; yet
our ideas of moral obligations are entirely precise and clear,
being something self-dependent, and by no means exposed to
doubts, or subject to modifications, according to the nature of
our belief of God. If it were possible that the belief of a
living and personal God could, for a while, vanish from the
world, yet, in human affairs, every thing must proceed as
with such a belief: sin and crime, virtue and uprightness,
would be just the same as they are now.
Again, following the analogy of civil legislation, we must
uphold this maxim : Laws must be promulgated before trans
gressions can be spoken of; and he who is absolutely prevent
ed from knowing the law cannot be found guilty of having
acted against it. Now, if the Bible be our Divine law-book,
I would remind men that the world had long stood before that
book was written, and millions have never had, as yet, any

RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY. 71
chance of getting acquainted with it. Yet it will not be de
nied that sin has been in this world ever since, and wherever
men are living in it. Then, my investigations on this sub
ject have convinced me, that it is utterly impossible to make
a written law, clearly defining what in every instance shall
be sinful or not, without leaving a great deal to every one's
own discretion and feeling. In this respect, moral prescrip
tions can never be of the same universal and unconditional
character as civil laws, it being chiefly the motive that deter
mines the value of the latter. If, for instance, the Mosaic
commandment, " Thou shalt not kill," be understood as a
moral rule, I would intimate, that the soldier kills, and so
does the executioner, or a person under the necessity of self-
defence ; that Brutus, Timoleon, Lucretia, William Tell, &c,
killed. Man, as was heretofore observed, is a double-natured be
ing. To this truism we must recur whenever we undertake
to explain any of his peculiarities. And to this peculiar con
struction or combination of our nature, also, the possibility
and origin of sin must be ascribed. Were man made a mere
sensual being, I see no possibility of his sinning. Brutes do
not, cannot sin. They are govefned by their instincts ; all
they do, led by their inborn appetites, is in accordance with
their nature and destination, and those appetites are at the
same time thus circumscribed by the Creator's wisdom, that
their gratification can never transgress certain limits, or be
carried to excess or harm to themselves. Brutes, for instance,
cannot purposely destroy their own lives. Brutes, of coufse,
cannot act wrong. It is right for the little birds to devour
flies, and so it is for the hawk to kill the pigeon, or for the
fox to steal hens.
Let us now contemplate the nature of spiritual beings, as
far as our conception can reach it. As animals are led by
an unconscious yet unerring instinct, to do and choose what
is in accordance with, and conducive to, their physical nature,
so spiritual beings must have, and actually do have, a feeling,

72 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
consciousness, or understanding of what is conformable to
their nature, that is, of what promotes and secures the health,
soundness, dignity, aye, beauty, of their spiritual life. This
is the same that is understood by the laws or rules of the
moral world. Morality, then, is something analogous to
bodily health, firmness, and handsome form ; sin is analogous
to infirmity and deformity. Thus, sin might be defined as
being all that is contrary to the dignity of our spiritual life,
or opposed to the rules by which a pure spirituality can
alone exist.
But natural instinct has, at the same time, an instigating,
yes, a forcing power in itself. And such a power hes also in
our mental instinct, that is, in the consciousness of the afore
said rules ; in short, in our conscience, which is something
quite analogous to instinct. Finally, the power of free de
cision, or free-will, being something characteristic of spiritual
beings, we are led to the conclusion, that such beings — know
ing, being pleased with, and having the abihty of freely
choosing, what is good, what is in accordance with their, na
ture — will sin no more than beasts purposely hurt themselves.
It is an absurdity to fancy spiritual beings agitated by an
actual desire of harming or destroying the soundness and
well-being of themselves, or acting from being pleased with
what is contrary to their nature. To sin from love of sin,
would constitute a really diabolical character, such a one as
imagination indeed can create, but sound judgment must find
a contradiction in itself.
Now we ask : As neither in our physical nor spiritual na
ture, each considered by itself, the cause of sin can be found,
where else can it be ? I answer : In the connection, union,
or combination of both. That connection is a very intimate
one, designed for the well-being of both parties by mutual
helps. The soul constantly wants the assistance of the senses
and members of the body for the accomplishment of her own
ends. The different powers of the soul, in return, are active
to make ourselves physically comfortable. In man, under-

RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY. 73
standing, art, and ingenuity gradually supersede in a manner
the animal instinct, by multiplying and refining the means of
gratifying our senses, and by circumspectly defending our
lives from every thing that is adverse.
So far, this connection is beneficial to both parties. But it
is not so in all instances. How often are health and life en
dangered, or even sacrificed, sleep and rest disturbed, hunger,
thirst, cold, heat, and fatigues undergone, enjoyment resigned,
&c, in order to obtain spiritual objects ! Yet this, we think,
is all right, the body being inferior and consequently subor
dinate and subservient to the soul. But very often this order
of things is subverted, when the powers of the soul are made
the slaves and mere tools of sensual gratification. And here
you have^the origin of sin. I must repeat it : The»instinctive
inclinations or appetites, by themselves, include nothing sin-
firiVbeing implanted in our nature for a wise design ; man
brought nothing sinful with him into this world. But a soul,
with rational capacities, sense, and free-will, being added to
our sensual nature — wedded to it — man is able and apt,
as no other known creature is, to exaggerate or carry to
excess the gratification of his lusts, or to seek for such a
gratification by unnatural or improper means, or, in many
instances, to gratify his appetites at the expense of the digni
ty of his spiritual nature. Whenever those instinctive ap
petites come into conflict with the rules laid down in our
rational consciousness — and this is very often the case — the
spiritual interest ought to be paramount and decisive, other
wise our dignity as rational beings is injured and blemished.
And, alas ! man is apt to forget that dignity so far as to be
carried along by the impetuosity of passion, almost unwilling,
to be hurried on by the whirlpool of sensuality, and in its
vortex to have every vestige of his nobler and Godlike
character obliterated. As the Apostle has it : " Walk in the
spirit and you shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh ; for the
flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh,
and these are contrary the one to the other, so that you can-
7

74 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
not do the things that ye would." (Gal. v. 16, 17.) Or, as
Christ says : " If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and
cast it from thee, &c." (Matt. v. 29.)
It is not necessary or proper, entirely to suppress or kill,
as it were, the desires of our physical nature, in order to se
cure the dignity of the soul. Only beware lest the servant
act the part of the master. Let the servant, too, enjoy his
rights and be kept healthy and strong, to be better qualified
for doing his master's biddings ; yet never spoil him like an
illbred child.
Now, then, sin is the gratification of sensuality in contra
diction to the dictates of conscience, or the triumph of the
appetite in its conflict with reason. Sin can only be commit
ted when- the rational consciousness has already become
awake; otherwise, man acts from the mere instinct, like
brutes, however enormous his actions may appear. Ethics
I wouhT define as the science of mental diet, strength, and
health. Thus, in many cases, the same thing may be sinful or right,
depending on circumstances and the state of mind of a cer
tain individual. The exterior appearance of. an action can
never decide its intrinsic worth ; and the compliance with, or
transgression of, the letter of a law is by itself neither virtue
nor sin. The question is : Whether, by a certain action, the
dignity of mind is secured and heightened, or violated. If
neither be the case, that action may be termed morally indif
ferent. This being rightly understood, I have no objection to con
sidering sin, at the same time, as a transgression of Divine
laws, since God has attributed to us that preeminence which
constitutes our character as rational beings, and since it must
be thought the will of nature's God that our dignity as moral
beings should be held uncompromised and undisgraced, still
more than our physical constitution ought to be preserved
unimpaired and vigorous.
As all moral precepts may be reduced to these two : " Keep

RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY. 75
thy own dignity as a spiritual being untarnished," and " Hold
the dignity of thy fellow-beings of the same species unoffend-
ed," or, differently speaking : As there are but two moral
duties, that of self-esteem and justice, so there are but two
sins, self-degradation and injustice, the latter, however, being
never committed without the former being inherent.
We have arrived at the last part of our investigation,
namely: What are the consequences of sin? The most
ready answer is : Punishment ! Punishment, indeed, in the
same sense as every deviation from the rules prescribed for
our physical well-being will always punish itself, by a subse
quent feeling of uncomfortableness, depression, and pain.
Properly speaking, the consequences of sin" consist in a feel
ing of mental uneasiness, anguish, repentance, self-accusation,
and self-contempt ; and every body knows how far more in
sufferable those pains are than any bodily sensation of incon
venience. Though custom exercises a prevalent influence on
man, and by it the feeling of degradation may, by degrees, be
weakened, — it is the same with corporeal sufferings and in
firmities," — yet, as the sick and infirm cannot have the pleasing
feeling of health and strength, so the wicked can never enjoy
the peace, serenity, and happiness of a virtuous mind. The
only infallible consequence of virtue — aside from results of
a mere accidental nature — being the feeling of our own
worthiness or self-approbation, the only consequence connect
ed with vice and crime, that never fails, must be the con
sciousness of self-debasement, or remorse of conscience. All
ideas of punishment, in another meaning of the word, are to
be given up as mere chimeras.
But some of my readers will not content themselves with
this simple and plain deduction, being used to hearing a
great deal said about future rewards and punishment. Why,
I am ready to attend them even to yon veiled future state,
though neither they nor I can form any thing like a clear
conception of it. If, what none of us doubts, the soul will

76 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
survive the destruction of the body, it will enter into another
state of existence precisely in the same condition in which it
left this earthly abode. Death will pot be an immediate
transformation or metamorphosis of the soul, but its deliver
ance from the bands of sensuality. Where its future abode
will be, and whether or not it will again be connected with a
bodily, though refined organ, these are questions impossible
for us to answer. One thing, however, seems to be certain ;
that wherever we shall go, conscience must go along with us,
and in it we shall have the unbribable judge of our actions.
" Their works do follow them." (Rev. xiv. 13.) Nay, exempt
from the stunning noise and narcotic mist of sensuality, the
soul will, with heightened clearsightedness and more vivid
feeling, judge of its own worthiness or debasement, or, figu
ratively speaking, will see either heaven or hell opened.
But here I must remark, that it is extreme absurdity to
fancy that there are actually two, and only two diversified
future abodes for souls, heaven and hell, as though there were
but two classes of men, good ones and bad ones. Where is
the dividing line between both classes ? Have not even the
best some weakness and defects inherent ? Or is any crimi
nal so abject as not to show one single good trait of character ?
And, I dare say, the majority of mankind, wavering between
virtue and vice, are not good enough for the fancied enjoy
ments of heaven, though not bad enough for the tortures of
hell. In my opinion, there are as many degrees of moral
worthiness as there are individuals, none of whom being ex
actly comparable with the other ; or there is the same vari
ety in the internal state of mind as in the external features
of men. Of course, millions of diversified intermediate states
between the two extremes — heaven and hell — would not
suffice. I forbear to prosecute this subject farther, and show the ab
surdity of theories generally proclaimed from pulpits, invent
ed by folly or intentional fraud for the purpose of domineer-
inor rwfir t.riA PY.T.Sf».pnr*pa nf t.Vip ft»*>T.1o  Knf Voon +r_ i\\a

RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY. 77
words of the Apostle: "Beloved, if our heart condemn us
not, then we have confidence toward God." (1 John iii. 21.)
But everlasting punishment in hell of the sinner, or eternal
wrath, is contended for by the one and denied by the other
party. It has been justly remarked by the latter, that an
infinite punishment for a finite action, committed in a finite
state of existence, is contradictory to Divine justice, a mere
arbitrary cruelty with no reasonable end. To me the whole
subject seems not to justify any serious dispute. In an or
ganic being any disturbing influence, by which it is seriously
affected, will either be overcome by the strength of the or
ganism, or finally tend to the complete destruction of it, how
long so ever it may linger. What consequences must a simi
lar disturbance in a spiritual *being be supposed to have ?
The latter being of an indestructible nature, yet, as sickness
can only be a transient condition, it is fair to presume, that
any interruption of the healthy state of the soul can only last
for a limited space of time, that in this as in most other cases,
the ill carries.the means of its cure with itself, and that event
ually all rational beings, how long so ever they may have
been wretched and captive under the thraldom of sin, will be
restored to full health and prosperity. Indeed, man must be
unhappy, while wicked propensities are paramount in his
mind. But man, as a rational being, can never be thought
so abandoned as to be unable to raise himself above his deeds.
This he can do even now, though surrounded with innumera
ble sensual influences of a seducing nature; why not when
the eventful time arrives in which such influences shall be no
more ? Though there be tried a thousand erroneous ways,
and there is but one that is right, and a rational being may
try all the former, at last he will find the only right one,
relish the happiness it bestows, and probably abandon it never
again. However, it is easy to perceive that there is the
strongest reason for early taking, and never going astray
from, the only safe path of duty and honor, in order to escape
fronf the pangs which unavoidably follow upon the sinner's
7*

78 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
course. In other words, there is the strongest inducement to
keep the condition of our mind healthy, to prevent the pains
of sinfulness and distemper.
And is that not enough ? Must you have the horrors of a
hell to prevent you from plunging headlong into the gulf and
abyss of brutal sensuality and crime ? Yours would not de
serve the name of virtue ; you would be a miserable slave
only, spurred by fear, and not knowing the delight of self-
approbation. Orrdoes your heart feel so little pity for the
unhappy wretch who, led by circumstances to which even
yourselves might have succumbed, and yielding to temptations
which it was not your merit to have escaped from, fell into
crime, — as seriously to believe an all-benign Deity will
after this moment of life for ever deliver him up to the most
exquisite tortures and anguish, and even delight in the dole
ful shrieks and moans of his damned creature ? Shame to
the name of man that such a thought was ever conceived !
I find that some ancient sages were far wiser in this respect,
and, indeed, in many others, than our Orthodpx Christians.
What is all the nonsense of the latter — their talk about fire and
brimstone, &c, compared with what Tully says in one of his
Orations ! " Do not believe, as you often see in tragedies,
that those who perpetrated any thing wrong, are agitated and
terrified by the burning torches of the Furies : " — by the
way, there is little or no difference between the pagan Furies
and Christian devils. " By his own fraud and terror every
one is mostly vexed, by bis own crime agitated, by his own
folly affected ; his own wicked thoughts and conscience will
terrify him. These are to the wicked assiduous and ever
attending Furies."
This, it will be remarked, is the Universalist doctrine. If
it be such, I congratulate that denomination on having so far
yielded to a nobler feeling and sounder argumentation as to
adopt the doctrine of the final salvation of all the children of
God. But if I should deserve the acknowledgment of the
followers of the venerable Mnrrav for bavino- na T flat.toT

RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY. 79
myself, established that truly humane belief on the only sound
basis, I should be glad to receive from them a favor in return ;
namely, I invite them calmly to examine the whole train
of thoughts by which I arrived at my suggestions, and then
never more to express it as their publicly maintained belief:
" That mankind, being sinners, became unreconciled to God,
and are in a lost and wretched condition, captive under the
thraldom of Satan, sin, and death, moral and natural, &c."
(Gospel Advocate, Vol. HI.) This is the abject and obso
lete bait by which priestcraft has ever attempted to captivate
the minds of the unwary.

80

CHAPTER XVI.
AMERICAN AND ENGLISH THEOLOGY.
I have gone through many volumes of American and
English theology, in order to compare the results of the
studies of other nations with what the genius of my native
country has brought to light. But I soon found German
theology to be so far ahead, perhaps a century, that my
gain was but very small. Germany, being second to no
country in literary progress in general, has in philosophical
and theological studies latterly out-flanked all other countries.
This is acknowledged by the more sagacious portion even .of
British writers. The "Edinburgh Review for December,
1831," Vol. LIV. pp. 238, 239, contains the following perti
nent remark :
" It is we think high time for the well-paid champions of
orthodoxy in this country, to awake from the dignified slum
ber in which it is their delight to indulge, and to take some
notice of those incursions into their sacred territory, which the
theologians of Germany have been so long permitted, without
any repulse, to make. We are assured by Shakespeare, that
" dainty bits
Make rich the ribs, but bankerout the wits ; "
nor could we ask a much more pregnant proof of this fact
than the striking contrast which exists between the poor, ac
tive, studious, and inquisitive theologians of Germany, and
the sleek, somnolent, and satisfied divines of the Church of
England. — Our portly sentinels slumber on their posts,
while the lean theologues of Halle and Gottingen carry
away all the glory of the field."

RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY. 81
Amongst American writers, I have very seldom met with
such truly sound and liberal views on religious subjects as
those of Mr. Robert Little, expressed in a sermon preached
in the Hall of the House of Representatives, in 1822. He
says — and his ideas deserve being reprinted here : —
" The history of all national religious establishments is but
a repetition of the same intolerance and mischief. Founded
in ages of comparative darkness, they have adopted for im
mutable truths, dogmas at which posterity will smile with
contempt, or from which they will revolt with disgust. The
world moves on ; science acquires fresh flights, and progresses
with increased velocity ; every age advances in discoveries of
important facts and principles, which in their results change
the state and relations of society. But an established relig
ion admits of no improvement ; it stands venerable by its
antiquity, bearing the deep furrows of age on its front, and
having no sympathy or congeniality with the manners and
sentiments of an advanced period of the world; it sternly
frowns on every effort to understand truth and duty better
than our forefathers did. — But such stability as admits of no
modification or improvement, whether it be a theological
creed or a political constitution, is not consistent with human
nature, which is manifestly designed for perpetual growth,
and advances, from age to age, to new positions in the moral
and intellectual world. Attempts to restrain or limit inquiry
within the bounds of ancient prejudice, are like binding the
sleeping Samson with green withes : the waking giant will
burst the despicable bands, as a thread of tow is broken when
it touches the fire. — On this account we [the Unitarians]
are calumniated as infidels and denounced as unworthy the
Christian name. Is it believed, then, that our religion will
not bear examination? Or that the genuine doctrines of
Christ are contrary to reason ? — We believe the system
taught by our great Master and the Apostles, to be sublimely
simple, adapted for general conviction, as it was intended for
the universal benefit of mankind. Are we then justly con-

82 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
sidered the enemies of truth and goodness because we desire
to free this Divine religion from the corruption and supersti
tions that have gathered around it in dark and credulous
ages ? No, let us clear away those parasitical plants — the
noble tree will flourish with greater beauty, and bear, as at
first, more abundant and richer fruit; let us remove those
meretricious ornaments with which bad taste or bad intention
have ignorantly or impiously clogged the venerable pile, and
the sacred temple of Christianity will once more stand majes
tic in its own simplicity, the admiration of ages, and the
praise of its Divine architect. — We only plead for the nat
ural, unalienable right of every human being to judge for
himself in a concern of infinite importance to himself. Free
and impartial investigation is surely the most likely to arrive
at satisfaction and certainty, in matters confessedly difficult.
And why should freemen, who have renounced the slavish
political doctrines by which nations have been held in a state
of childhood and bondage, for successive generations, content
themselves with following, in religious opinions, the weak
and inconclusive reasoning of a credulous and superstitious
age, whose mystical speculations have deformed and obscured
the features of Christianity ? "
To show my readers that I have been reading with atten
tion, I subjoin here a criticism on one of the most significant
productions of modern American theology : " The Pro and
Con of Universalism, by George Rogers, 1839."
To a German theologian, this book presents a curious
specimen of American divinity. In fact, I must give the
author credit for his purer and more exalted notions of the
Supreme Being, his more generous feeling in deprecating the
idea of eternal damnation and misery, for his liberaUty of
mind in rejecting the ordinary nonsense of hell and devil,
&c. I must moreover acknowledge that he is possessed of
no common degree of such logical powers as enable him to
render the cause of his opponents quite hopeless, — and that
lift is thnroncrilv af!nna.ir.t.pr. w.rli tha rvmtpnk nf ?!.__ finm'n.

RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY. 83
tures. I am convinced, that not many American readers
will peruse this work without being compelled to adopt the
doctrine of the ultimate salvation of all, though they should
feel disinclined to subscribe to all that is advanced in con
nection with that fundamental proposition.
To me, indeed, the whole appears pretty much like " fight
ing the air." With the exception of some few ultra-orthodox,
old-fashioned, or ignorant preachers, in Germany no one in
good earnest now advances the doctrine of a devil and hell.
Indeed, the truly diabolical dogma of everlasting tortures
by fire and brimstone, I have never, in my lifetime, heard
treated in any German place of worship. That harsh doc
trine was never urged there with so much intemperate zeal
and frightful denunciation as I have witnessed in America,
and by the progress of cultivation it died away without con
troversy. Had the author confined himself to demonstrating that it
is inconsistent with the goodness and wisdom of God, to have
created any being for misery, and inconsistent with bis justice
to inflict infinite punishment for finite actions ; had he made
it appear from the moral nature of man that sin must finally
destroy itself, and, consequently, punishment cease, I should
judge that he had sufficiently and fully attained his object.
But he has endeavored, at the same time, to adduce numbers
of Scriptural texts for the confirmation of his views. This
appears to me not only an idle, but fruitless attempt. There
are, indeed, very sublime sentiments about the perfections of
God and the destination of man laid down in either part of
the Bible ; but no consistent and well defined system of re
ligious truths is contained therein, and the most opposite as
sertions may with the" like propriety be, and have been, de
fended on Bible authority. Christ's doctrine is not that of
the Old Testament ; the Apostles frequently advance their
mere private views. By adopting, then, the author's method
of sophistically urging certain Scriptural terms and senti
ments, taking them out of their true connection, giving them

84 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
a general meaning, while they are applicable only to some
given circumstances and particular cases, or being the mere
expression of excited and transient feeling, or a metaphorical
phrase or poetical figure, the author, as well as his opponents,
might be enabled to prove any thing from the Bible.
The doctrine of a hell and devil, a day of judgment, ever
lasting fire and endless tortures, may, without doubt, be traced
in the Scriptures, as also the opposite doctrine ; and the only
way to get over those difficulties is, not to make our own per
suasion dependent on the temporary conceptions of times
gone by, but rather to adhere to the evident expressions of
the author of Christianity, which we will always find con
cordant with reason. Universalists strive in vain, by forced
interpretation, to prove the whole contents of the Bible to be
consonant with their views. It cannot be denied, that an ac
count of our actions to be given hereafter is therein repeated
ly spoken of, and I assert, that Scriptural passages referring
to that, if divested of their metaphorical envelop, suggest
the true idea, that the consequences of our behaviour in life
will not end with life itself, since in our conscience the re
membrance of our actions must endure. According ,to the
author's view, the rude barbarian and the accomplished sage,
the hardened criminal and the truly pious and pure, will, by
mere dying, jump over into the like fruition of heavenly bliss.
This is a total misapprehension of the moral nature of man.
He alone can be blest who is worthy of being so, here and to
all eternity. Yet it is reasonable to suppose, that the means
of correction will never fail to any intelligent being ; that all
spirits shall, sooner or later, learn to love the good, and thus
be saved.
Is the author serious in denying that the Apostles, — miscon
struing some figurative expressions of Christ about the de
struction of the Jewish empire, the future triumph of Chris
tianity, — still clinging to the popular notions about the reign of
the Messiah, were looking for the coming again of Christ to
witness the downfall of Jerusalem, to inrlorp nil nations- tn

RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY. 85
select the converts to Christianity as his followers, and estab
lish a new order of things, a heavenly kingdom on earth ?
But their views must not be ours.
Our author makes, throughout, too much use of sophistical
niceties to suit my taste, assuming the air of knowing a great
deal more about " Divine economy," and such impenetrable
mysteries or barren questions, than man is allowed to know.
This proves him more a sophist than a true philosopher,
though to the sort of opponents he has to fight with, his
acuteness may prove a dangerous weapon. In this, he has
gone so far, that in fact he has reasoned himself out of a
doctrine than which no other has a firmer foundation in our
own self-consciousness, — the free agency of human will ;
he makes God the author of sin, imputes ends to him which
he brings about by. making men commit crimes, (p. 287,) and
more of such abstruse and metaphysical nonsense, which
sound philosophy has long ago consigned to oblivion. As an
instance, indeed not the most striking, of the author's sophis
tical mode of reasoning, I give the following. He appeals
to Christ's authority that " the endless misery of the damned
would involve reflection on the Divine goodness," by alleging
the words, Matt. xi. 20, " Capernaum, if the mighty deeds,
&c.'7 Then he proceeds : " Now, it certainly must be consid
ered a singular fact, that God desires the salvation of all, and
permits thousands to sink to endless woe, who could have
been saved by his doing merely as much for them as he saw
fit to do forothers ! How is this ? " (p. 57.)
The author cherishes, in common with the rest of the sects,
the idea of. something supernatural having been connected
with the person and life of Christ; believes in a miraculous
mode of salvation by Christ, either now or hereafter ; in the
equal inspiration of all Scriptural books ; imagines a mode of
restoration of all things, and a general resurrection, as also
an intermediate state between man's death and that restora
tion — proved in a rather astonishing manner, p. 341 — and
8

86 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
such other things as I consider not less chimerical than the
superstitious conceptions of his opponents.
Despite of such weaknesses in this book, I shall rejoice at
seeing it widely circulated, considering the system of Univer
salism as an important step to get nearer the truth, or to pre
pare the mind for the whole truth.
I confess myself obliged to the author for the compliment
paid to German theologians, (p. 331,) and hope they will
never relax their exertions to deserve it.
At the end of the book, (p. 361,) the author advances the
reasonable idea, that other celestial spheres, the planets, the
sun, (one and a half million times larger than our earth,) and
the other numberless fixed stars, are probably peopled by intel
lectual beings, consequently with a nature and destination sim
ilar to ours. Did it not occur to him then, to consider the ques
tion whether, if salvation can be brought about only by Christ,
the same Christ has visited, or must visit, all the rest of the
myriads of heavenly bodies, for otherwise their people could
not believe in him ? or whether each of those bodies had
its own Son of God, slaughtered and sacrificed in a similar
manner ? or why just this most insignificant thing amongst
the numberless worlds, called earth, was selected to have the
author of the whole incorporated for a while in human shape ?
why thil little earth was made the theatre of such enormous
miracles and inexplicable interruptions of nature's laws, while
the great whole seems to have moved on in eternal order and
harmony ? Does he not see that all such Orthodox notions
are incongruous with the modern state of culture, and that
with his notions of a marvellous revelation, he must return
to that time when the earth was thought the principal object
of creation, and sun, moon, and stars nothing more than little
appurtenances to the former ?

87

FINAL REMARKS.

In writing the above, I had to take some pains to keep off
the idea that aU this would be lost labor. Is it, thought I,
worth while to waste many words on a subject which to all,
who do not purposely shut their eyes, must be as clear as
daylight ? Is it not a satire on common-sense, in the nine
teenth century, seriously to engage in a demonstration that
Reason is the source of human knowledge ? Is it not pre
sumption to pretend, that man, who attempts to explore the
laws by which the universe is held together, and to meas
ure the distance and define the motion of the celestial bodies,
— that man in our time must yet be taught the very first ele
ments of correct thinking? that our celebrated statesmen,
our highly learned scholars, our ingenious artists, are still in
fants in their religious notions ? Would it not be better and
more honorable to engage in investigations by which some
new light might be brought forth, instead of treating on a
subject that is evident by itself to all who will take the least
pains of reflecting on it ?
When a boy, I often saw my playmates fasten a thread to
a May-bug, and then make it fly. The poor creature in vain
attempted to get off; its flight was no more than a painful
motion in a circumscribed circle. The thread, by which
human genius is fettered, is now Religious Prejudice, and he
who cuts off the checking string and thereby restores to the
noblest of beings full freedom of thought, is he not a bene
factor to his race, how insignificant so ever the pains taken
may appear ? In vain this people boast of their republican
institutions and of being the freest nation on earth ; in vain
they march onward with the spirit of enterprise to be checked
by no difficulties, to grandeur and prosperity. I see the fatal

68 RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY.
thread which, unless cut off in time, will deprive them of the
well-deserved honor and of the looked-for success at last.
Yes, J see that thin thread gradually strengthen and become
an iron chain, to shackle the spirit of this nation in such a
manner as to render the blessings of their political independ
ence illusory, and transfer the rich fruits of all their struggles
into the hands of — a selfish priesthood.
Could I flatter myself that I have done a little to prevent
such a calamity, I should think myself amply rewarded.

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