book called the Acts of the Apostles (an anonymous

work) belongs also to the anecdotal part.
All the other parts of the New Testament, except the book of enigmas called the Revelations, are a collection of letters under the name of epistles ; and the forgery of letters has been such a common practice in the world, that the probability is at least equal, whether they are genuine or forged. One thing, however, is much less equivocal, which is, that out of the matters contained in those books, together with the assistance of some old stories, the Church has set up a system of religion very contradictory to the character of the person whose name it bears. It has set up a religion of pomp and of revenue, in pretended imitation of a person whose life was hu- mility and poverty.
The invention of purgatory, and of the releasing of souls therefrom by prayers bought of the church with money ; the selling of pardons, dispensations, and in- dulgences, are revenue laws, without bearing that name or carrying that appearance. But the case nevertheless
AGE OF REASON. 27
is, that those things derive their origin from the par- oxysm of the crucifixion and the theory deduced there- from, which was that one person could stand in the place of another, and could perform meritorious services for him. The probability, therefore, is that the whole theory or doctrine of what is called the redemption (which is said to have been accomplished by the act of one person in the room of another) was originally fabricated on purpose to bring forward and build all those secondary and pecuniary redemptions upon ; and that the passages in the books, upon which the idea or theory of redemption is built, have been manufactured and fabricated for that purpose. Why are we to give this Church credit when she tells us that those books are genuine in every part, any more than we give her credit for everything else she has told us, or for the miracles she says she has performed? That she could fabricate writings is certain, because she could write ; and the composition of the writings in question is of that kind that anybody might do it ; and that she did fabricate them is not more inconsistent with probability than that she should tell us, as she has done, that she could and did work miracles.
Since, then, no external evidence can, at this long dis- tance of time, be produced to prove whether the Church fabricated the doctrines called redemption or not (for such evidence, whether for or against, would be subject to the same suspicion of being fabricated), the case can only be referred to the internal evidence which the thing carries within itself ; and this affords a very strong pre- sumption of its being a fabrication. For the internal evidence is, that the theory or doctrine of redemption has for its basis an idea of pecuniary justice, and not that of moral justice.
If I owe a person money, and cannot pay him, and he threatens to put me in prison, another person can take
28 AGE OF REASON.
the debt upon himself, and pay it for me ; but if I have committed a crime, every circumstance of the case is changed ; moral justice cannot take the innocent for the guilty, even if the innocent would offer itself. To sup- pose justice to do this, is to destroy the principle of its existence, which is the thing itself ; it is then no longer justice, it is indiscriminate revenge.
This single reflection will show, that the doctrine of redemption is founded on a mere pecuniary idea cor- responding to that of a debt which another person might pay ; and as this pecuniary idea corresponds again with the system of second redemption, obtained through the means of money given to the Church for pardons, the probability is that the same persons fabricated both the one and the other of those theories ; and that, in truth there is no such thing as redemption — that it is fabulous, and that man stands in the same relative condition with his Maker as he ever did stand since man existed, and that it is his greatest consolation to think so.
Let him believe this, and he will live more consistently and morally than by any other system ; it is by his being taught to contemplate himself as an outlaw, as an outcast, as a beggar, as a mumper, as one thrown, as it were, on a dunghill at an immense distance from his Creator, and who must make his approaches by creeping and cringing to intermediate beings, that he conceives either a contemptuous disregard for everything under the name of religion, or becomes indifferent, or turns what he calls devout. In the latter case, he consumes his life in grief, or the affectation of it ; his prayers are re- proaches ; his humility is ingratitude ; he calls himself a worm, and the fertile earth a dunghill ; and all the blessings of life by the thankless name of vanities ; he despises the choicest gift of God to man, the GIFT OF REASON ; and having endeavored to force upon himself the belief of a system against which reason revolts, he
AGE OF REASON. 29
ungratefully cs.Us it human reason^ as if man could give reason to him^^lf.
Yet, with all this strange appearance of humility and this contempt for human reason, he ventures into the boldest presumptions ; he finds fault with everything ; his selfishness is never satisfied ; his ingratitude is never at an end. He takes on himself to direct the Almighty what to do, even in the government of the universe ; he prays dictatorially ; when it is sunshine, he prays for rain, and when it is rain, he prays for sunshine ; he follows the same idea in everything that he prays for ; for what is the amount of all his prayers but an attempt to make the Almighty change his mind, and act otherwise than he does? It is as if he were to say: Thou knowest not so well as I.
But some, perhaps, will say: Are we to have no word of God — no revelation ? I answer. Yes ; there is a word of God ; there is a revelation.
The word of God is the creation we behold : and it is in this word^ which no human invention can coun- terfeit or alter, that God speaketh universally to man.
Human language is local and changeable, and is there- fore incapable of being used as the means of unchange- able and universal information. The idea that God sent Jesus Christ to publish, as they say, the glad tidings to all nations, from one end of the earth to the other, is consistent only wnth the ignorance of those who knew nothing of the extent of the world, and who believed, as those world-saviours believed, and continued to believe for several centuries (and that in contradiction to the discoveries of philosophers and the experience of navi- gators), that the earth was flat like a trencher, and that man might walk to the end of it.
But how was Jesus Christ to make anything known to all nations ? He could speak but one language, which was Hebrew, and there are in the world several hundred
30 AGK OF REASON.
languages. Scarcely any two nations speak the same laneuaee, or understand each other: and as to trans- lations, every man who knows anything of languages knows that it is impossible to translate from one language to another, not only without losing a great part of the original, but frequently of mistaking the sense ; and besides all this, the art of printing was wholly unknown at the time Christ lived.
It is always necessary that the means that are to ac- complish any end be equal to the accomplishment of that end, or the end cannot be accomplished. It is in this that the difference between finite and infinite power and wisdom discovers itself. Man frequently fails in ac- complishing his ends, from a natural inability of the power to the purpose, and frequently from the want of wisdom to apply power properly. But it is impossible for infinite power and wisdom to fail as man faileth. The means it useth are always equal to the end ; but human language, more especially as there is not an uni- versal language, is incapable of being used as an uni- versal means of unchangeable and uniform information, and therefore it is not the means that God useth in manifesting himself universally to man.
It is only in the Creation that all our ideas and con- ceptions of a word of God can unite. The Creation speaketh an universal language, independently of human speech or human language, multiplied and various as they may be. It is an ever-existing original, which every man can read. It cannot be forged ; it cannot be counterfeited ; it cannot be lost ; it cannot be altered ; it cannot be suppressed. It does not depend upon the will of man whether it shall be published or not ; it publishes itself from one end of the earth to the other. It' preaches to all nations and to all worlds ; and this word of God r^v^dils to man all that is necessary for man to know of God.
AGE OF REASON. JI
Do we -want to contemplate his power? We see it in the immensity of the Creation. Do we want to contemplate his wisdom? We see it in the un- changeable order by which the incomprehensible whole is governed. Do we want to contemplate his munificence ? We see it in the abundance with which he fills the earth. Do we want to contemplate his mercy? We see it in his not withholding that abun- dance even from the unthankful. In fine, do we want to know what God is ? Search not the book called the Scripture, which any human hand might make, but the Scripture called the Creation.
""'The only idea man can affix to the name of God is that of a first cause^ the cause of all things. And in- comprehensible and difficult as it is for a man to con- ceive what a first cause is, he arrives at the belief of it from the tenfold greater difficulty of disbelieving it. It is difficult beyond description to conceive that space can have no end ; but it is more difficult to conceive an end. It is difficult beyond the power of man to conceive an eternal duration of what we call time ; but it is more im- possible to conceive a time when there shall be no time.
In like manner of reasoning, everything we behold carries in itself the internal evidence that it did not make itself. Every man is an evidence to himself that he did not make himself ; neither could his father make himself, nor his grandfather, nor any of his race ; neither could any tree, plant, or animal make itself ; and it is the conviction arising from this evidence that carries us on, as it were, by necessity to the belief of a first cause eternally existing, of a nature totally different to any material existence we_know of, and by the power of which all things exist ; and this first cause man calls God.
It is only by the exercise of reason that man can dis- cover God. Take away that reason, and he would be incapable of understanding anything ; and, in this case,
32 AGE OF REASOJ^.
it would be just as consistent to read even the book called the Bible to a horse as to a man. How, then, is it that those people pretend to reject reason ?
Almost the only parts in the book called the Bible that convey to us any idea of God, are some chapters in Job and the 19th Psalm ; I recollect no other. Those parts are true deistical compositions, for they treat of the Deity through his works. They take the book of Creation as the word of God, they refer to no ether book, and all the inferences they make are drawn from that volume.
I insert in this place the 19th Psalm, as paraphrased into English verse by Addison. I recollect not the prose, and where I write this I have not the opportunity of seeing it.
" The spacious firmament on high, With all the blue ethereal sky, And spangled heavens, a shining frame» Their great original proclaim. The unwearied sun, from day to day, Does his Creator's power display; And publishes to every land The work of an Almighty hand.
" Soon as the evening shades prevail, The moon takes up the wondrous tale, And nightly to the list'ning earth Repeats the story of her birth ; While all the stars that round her burn. And all the planets, in their turn, Confirm the tidings as they roll, And spread the truth from pole to pole.
"What, though in solemn silence all Move round this dark terrestrial ball ? What though no real voice, nor sound, Amidst their radiant orbs be found ? In reason's ear they all rejoice And utter forth a glorious voice. Forever singing, as they shine, The hand that made us is divine."
AGK OF REASON. 33
What more does man want to know than that the hand or power that made these things is divine, is om- nipotent ? Let him believe this with the force it is im- possible to repel, if he permits his reason to act, and his rule of moral life will follow of course.
The allusions in Job have, all of them, the same tendency with this Psalm ; that of deducing or proving a truth that would be otherwise unknown, from truths already known.
I recollect not enough of the passages in Job to insert them correctly ; but there is one occurs to me that is ap- plicable to the subject I am speaking upon. "Canst thou by searching find out God ? Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection ? ' '
I know not how the printers have pointed this passage, for I keep no Bible ; but it contains two distinct questions that admit of distinct answers.
, First^ — Canst thou by searching find out God? Yes ; because, in the first place, I know I did not make myself, and yet I have existence ; and by searching into the nature of other things, I find that no other thing could make itself ; and yet millions of other things exist ; therefore it is, that I know, by positive conclusion re- sulting from this search, that there is a power superior to all those things, and that power is God.
Secondly^ — Canst thou find out the Almighty "lo per- fection ? No ; not only because the power and wisdom He has manifested in the structure of the Creation that I behold is to me incomprehensible, but because even this manifestation, great as it is, is probably but a small display of that immensity of power and wisdom by which millions of other worlds, to me invisible by their distance, were created and continue to exist.
It is evident that both these questions were put to the reason of the person to whom they are supposed to have been addressed ; and it is only by admitting the first
34 AGE OF REASON.
question to be answered affirmatively, that the second could follow. It would have been unnecessarv', and even absurd, to have put a second question, more difficult than the first, if the first question had been answered negatively. The two questions have different objects ; the first refers to the existence of God, the second to his attributes ; reason can discover the one, but it falls in- finitely short in discovering the whole of the other.
I recollect not a single passage in all the writings ascribed to the men called apostles, that conveys any idea of what God is. Those writings are chiefly contro- versial ; and the subjects they dwell upon, that of a man dying in agony on a cross, is better suited to the gloomy genius of a monk in a cell, by whom it is not impossible they were written, than to any man breathing the open air of the Creation. The only passage that occurs to me, that has any reference to the works of God, by which only his power and wisdom can be known, is re- lated to have been spoken by Jesus Christ as a remedy against distrustful care. " Behold the lilies of the field, they toil not, neither do they spin. ' ' This, however, is far inferior to the allusions in Job and in the 19th Psalm ; but it is similar in idea, and the modesty of the imagery is correspondent to the modesty of the man.
As to the Christian system of faith, it appears to me as a species of Atheism — a sort of religious denial of God. It professes to believe in a man rather than in God. It is a compound made up chiefly of Manism with but little Deism, and is as near to Atheism as twilight is to darkness. It introduces between man and his Maker an opaque body, which it calls a Redeemer, as the moon introduces her opaque self between the earth and the sun, and it produces by this means a religious, or an irreligious, eclipse of light. It has put the whole orbit of reason into shade.
The eflfect of this obscurity has been that of turning
AGE OF REASON. 35
everything upside down, and representing it in reverse, and among the revolutions it has thus magically pro- duced, it has made a revolution in theology.
That which is now called natural philosophy, em- bracing the whole circle of science, of which astronomy occupies the chief place, is the study of the works of God, and of the power and wisdom of God in his works, and is the true theology.
As to the theology that is now studied in its place, it is the study of human opinions and of human fancies concerning God. It is not the study of God himself in the works that he has made, but in the works or writings that man has made ; and it is not among the least of the mischiefs that the Christian system has done to the world, that it has abandoned the original and beautiful system of theology, like a beautiful innocent, to distress and reproach, to make room for the hag of superstition.
The Book of Job and the 19th Psalm, which even the Church admits to be more ancient than the chronological order in which they stand in the book called the Bible, are theological orations conformable to the original system of theology. The internal evidence of those orations proves to a demonstration that the study and contemplation of the works of creation, and of the power and wisdom of God, revealed and manifested in those works, made a great part in the religious devotion of the times in which they were written ; and it was this de- votional study and contemplation that led to the dis- covery of the principles upon which what are now called sciences are established ; and it is to the discover}^ of these principles that almost all the arts that contribute to the convenience of human life owe their existence. Every principal art has some science for its parent, though the person who mechanically performs the work does not always, and but very seldom, perceive the con- nection.
36 AGE OF REASON.
It is a fraud of the Christian system to call the sciences human inventiG7i ; it is only the application of them that is human. Every science has for its basis a system of principles as fixed and unalterable as those by which the universe is regulated and governed. Man cannot make principles, he can only discover them.
For example : Every person who looks at an alma- nac sees an account when an eclipse will take place, and he sees also that it never fails to take place according to the account there given. This shows that man is ac- quainted with the laws by which the heavenly bodies move. But it v/ould be something worse than ignorance, were any Church on earth to say that those laws are a human invention. It would also be ignorance, or some- thing worse, tc say that the scientific principles by the aid of which man is enabled to calculate and foreknow when an ecilpse will take place, are a human invention. Man cannot invent a thing that is eternal and immutable ; and the scientific principles he employs for this purpose must be, and are of necessity, as eternal and immutable as the laws by which the heavenly bodies move, or they could not be used as they are to ascertain the time when, and the manner how, an eclipse will take place.
The scientific principles that man employs to obtain the foreknowledge of an eclipse, or of anything else re- lating to the motion of the heavenly bodies, are con- tained chiefly in that part of science which is called trigonometry, or the properties of a triangle, which, when applied to the study of the heavenly bodies, is called astronomy ; when applied to direct the course of a ship on the ocean, it is called navigation ; when applied to the construction of figures drawn by rule and compass, it is called geometry ; when applied to the construction of plans or edifices, it is called architecture ; when applied to the measurement of any portion of the surface of the earth, it is called land surveying. In fine, it is the soul
AGE OI^ REASON. 37
of science ; it is an eternal truth ; it contains the mathe- matical demonstration of which man speaks, and the ex- tent of its uses is unknown.
It may be said that man can make or draw a triangle, and therefore a triangle is a human invention.
But the triangle, when drawn, is no other than the image of the principle ; it is a delineation to the eye, and from thence to the mind, of a principle that would other- wise be imperceptible. The triangle does not make the principle, any more than a candle taken into a room that was dark makes the chairs and tables that before were invisible. All the properties of a triangle exist in- dependently of the figure, and existed before any tri- angle was drawn or thought of by man. Man had no more to do in the formation of these properties or prin- ciples, than he had to do in making the laws by which the heavenly bodies move ; and therefore the one must have the same Divine origin as the other.
In the same manner, as it may be said, that man can make a triangle, so also, may it be said, he can make the mechanical instrument called a lever ; but the principle by which the lever acts is a thing distinct from the in- strument, and would exist if the instrument did not ; it attaches itself to the instrument after it is made ; the in- strument, therefore, cannot act otherwise than it does act ; neither can all the efforts of human invention make it act otherwise — that which, in all such cases, man calls the effect is no other than the principle itself ren- dered perceptible to the senses.
Since, then, man cannot make principles, from whence did he gain a knowledge of them, so as to be able to apply them, not only to things on earth, but to ascertain the motion of bodies so immensely distant from him as all the heavenly bodies are ? From whence, I ask, could he gain that knowledge, but from the study of the true theology ?
38 AGE OF REASON.
It is the structure of the universe that has taught this knowledge to man. That structure is an ever-existing exhibition of every principle upon which every part of mathematical science is founded. The offspring of this science is mechanics ; for mechanics is no other than the principles of science applied practically. The man who proportions the several parts of a mill, uses the same scientific principles as if he had the power of constructing a universe ; but as he cannot give to matter that invisible agency by which all the component parts of the immense machine of the universe have influence upon each other, and act in motional unison together, without any ap- parent contact, and to which man has given the name of attraction, gravitation, and repulsion, he supplies the place of that agency by the humble imitation cf teeth and cogs. All the parts of man's microcosm must visi- bly touch ; but could he gain a knowledge of that agency, so as to be able to apply it in practice, we might then say that another canonical book of the Word of God had been discovered.
If man could alter the properties of the lever, so also could he alter the properties of the triangle, for a lever (taking that sort of lever which is called a steelyard, for the sake of explanation) forms, when in motion, a tri- angle. The line it descends from (one point of that line being in the fulcrum), the line it descends to, and the cord of the arc which the end of the lever describes in the air, are the three sides of a triangle. The other arm of the lever describes also a triangle ; and the corresponding sides of those two triangles, calculated scientifically, or measured geometrically, and also the sines, tangents, and secants generated from the angles, and geometrically measured, have the same proportions to each other, as the different weights have that will balance each other on the lever, leaving the weight of the lever out of the case.
AGE OF REASON. 39
It may also be said, that man can make a wheel and axis ; that he can put wheels of different magnitudes to- gether, and produce a mill. Still the case comes back to the same point, which is, that he did not make the principle that gives the wheels those powers. That principle is as unalterable as in the former case, or rather it is the same principle under a different appearance to the eye.
The power that two wheels of different magnitudes have upon each other, is in the same proportion as if the semi-diameter of the two wheels were joined together and made into that kind of lever I have described, suspended at the part where the semi-diameters join ; for the two wheels, scientifically considered, are no other than the two circles generated by the motion of the compound lever.
It is from the study of the true theology that all our knowledge of science is derived, and it is from that knowledge that all the arts have originated.
The Almighty Lecturer, by displaying the principles of science in the structure of the universe, has invited man to study and to imitation. It is as if He had said to the inhabitants of this globe, that we call ours, "I have made an earth for man to dwell upon, and I have rendered the starry heavens visible, to teach him science and the arts. He can now provide for his own comfort,
AND LEARN FROM MY MUNIFICENCE TO ALL, TO BE KIND TO EACH OTHER."
Of what use is it, unless it be to teach man something, that his eye is endowed with the power of beholding to an incomprehensible distance, an immensity of worlds revolving in the ocean of space? Or of what use is it that this immensity of worlds is visible to man ? What has man to do with the Pleiades, with Orion, with Sirius, with the star he calls the North Star, with the moving orbs he has named Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and
40 AGE OF REASON.
Mercury, if no uses are to follow from their being visible? A less power of vision would have been sufficient for man, if the immensity he now possesses were given only to waste itself, as it were, on an immense desert of space glittering with shows.
It is only by contemplating what he calls the starry heavens, as the book and school of science, that he dis- covers any use in their being visible to him, or any ad- vantage resulting from his immensity of vision. But when he contemplates the subject in this light, he sees an additional motive for saying, that nothing was made in vain; for in vain would be this power of vision if it taught man nothing.
As the Christian system of faith has made a revolution in theology, so also has it made a revolution in the state of learning. That which is now called learning, was not learning originally. Learning does not consist, as the schools now make it consist, in the knowledge of languages, but in the knowledge of things to which language gives names.
The Greeks were a learned people, but learning with them did not consist in speaking Greek, any more than in a Roman's speaking lyatin, or a Frenchman's speaking French, or an Englishman's speaking English. From what we know of the Greeks, it does not appear that they knew or studied any language but their own, and this was one cause of their becoming so learned : it afforded them more time to apply themselves to better studies. The schools of the Greeks were schools of science and philosophy, and not of languages ; and it is in the knowledge of the things that science and philosophy teach, that learning consists.
Almost all the scientific learning that now exists came to us from the Greeks, or the people who spoke the Greek language. It, therefore, became necessary for the people of other nations who spoke a difierent Ian-
AGE OF REASON. 43
guage that some among them should learn tiit is cer- langnage, in order that the learning the Greekth, in- might be made known in those nations, by translai':he the Greek books of science and philosophy into the mother tongue of each nation.
The study, therefore, of the Greek language (and in the same manner for the I^atin) was no other than the drudger>' business of a linguist ; and the language thus obtained, was no other than the means, as it were the tools, employed to obtain the learning the Greeks had. It made no part of the learning itself, and w^as so distinct from it, as to make it exceedingly probable that the persons who had studied Greek sufficiently to translate those works, such, for instance, as Euclid's Elements, did not understand any of the learning the works con- tained.
As there is now nothing new to be learned from the dead languages, all the useful books being already trans- lated, the languages are become useless, and the time expended in teaching and learning them is wasted. So far as the study of languages may contribute to the pro- gress and communication of knowledge, (for it has nothing to do with the creation of knowledge), it is only in the living languages that new knowledge is to be found ; and certain it is that, in general, a youth will learn more of a living language in one year, than of a dead language in seven, and it is but seldom that the teacher knows much of it himself. The difficulty of learning the dead languages does not arise from any superior abstruseness in the languages themselves, but in their being dead^ and the pronunciation entirely lost. It would be the same thing with any other language when it becomes dead. The best Greek linguist that now exists does not under- stand Greek so well as a Grecian plowman did, or a Grecian milkmaid ; and the same for the I^atin, com- pared with a plowman or milkmaid of the Romans ; it
44 AGE O^ REASON.
itable in every part where there was land ; yet the truth of this is now too well known even to be told.
If the belief of errors not morally bad did no mischief, it would make no part of the moral duty of man to oppose and remove them. There was no moral ill in believing the earth was flat like a trencher, any more than there was moral virtue in believing that it was round like a globe ; neither was there any moral ill in believing that the Creator made no other world than this, any more than there was moral virtue in believing that he made millions, and that the infinity of space is filled with worlds. But when a system of religion is made to grow out of a supposed system of creation that is not true, and to unite itself therewith in a manner almost inseparable therefrom, the case assumes an entirely dif- ferent ground. It is then that errors not morally bad become fraught with the same mischiefs as if they were. It is then that the truth, though otherwise indifferent itself, becomes an essential, by becoming the criterion that either confirms by corresponding evidence, or denies by con- tradictory evidence, the reality of the religion itself In this view of the case, it is the moral duty of man to ob- tain every possible evidence that the structure of the heavens, or any other part of creation affords, with respect to systems of religion. But this, the supporters or partisans of the Christian system, as if dreading the re- sult, incessantly opposed, and not only rejected the sciences, but persecuted the professors. Had Newton or Descartes lived three or four hundred years ago, and pursued their studies as they did, it is most probable they would not have lived to finish them ; and had Franklin drawn lightning from the clouds at the same time, it would have been at the hazard of expiring for it in the flames.
Later times have laid all the blame upon the Goths and Vandals ; but, however unwilling the partisans of
AGE OF REASON. 45
the Christian system may be to believe or to acknowledge it, it is nevertheless true that the age of ignorance com- menced with the Christian system. There was more knowledge in the w^orld before that period than for many centuries afterwards ; and as to religious knowledge, the Christian system, as already said, was only another species of mythology, and the mythology to which it succeeded was a corruption of an ancient system of theism. *
It is owing to this long interregnum of science, and to no other cause^ that we have now to look through a vast chasm of many hundred years to the respectable characters we call the ancients. Had the progression of knowledge gone on proportionably with that stock that before existed, that chasm would have been filled up with characters rising superior in knowledge to each other ; and those ancients we now so much admire would have appeared respectably in the background of the scene. But the Christian system laid all waste ; and if we take our stand about the beginning of the sixteenth century, we look back through that long, chasm to the times of the ancients, as over a vast sandy desert, in
*It is impossible for us now to know at what time the heathen mythology began ; but it is certain, from the internal evidence that it carries, that it did not begin in the same state or condition in which it ended. All the gods of that mythology, except Saturn, were of modern invention. The supposed reign of Saturn was prior to that which is called the heathen mythology, and was so far a species of theism, that it ad- mitted the belief of only one God. Saturn is supposed to have abdicated the govern- ment in favor of his three sons and one daughter, Jupiter, Pluto, Neptune, and Juno ; after this, thousands of other Gods and demigods were imaginarily created, and the calendar of gods increased as fast as the calendar of saints and the calendars of courts have increased since.
All the corruptions that have taken place in theology and in religion, have been produced by admitting of what man calls revealed religion. The Mythologists pre- tended to more revealed religion than the Christians do. They had their oracles and their priests, who were supposed to receive and deliver the word of God verbally, on almost all occasions.
Since, then, all corruptions, down from Moloch to modern predestinarianism, and the human sacrifices of the heathens to the Christian sacrifice of the Creator, have been produced by admitting of what is called revealed religion, \\\^ most effectual means to prevent all such evils and impositions is not to admit of any other revelation than that which is manifested in the book of creatioti, and to contemplate the creation as the only true and real word of God that ever did or ever will exist ; and that every, thing else, called the word of God , is fable and imposition.
46 AGK OF REASON.
which not a shrub appears to intercept the vision to the fertile hills beyond.
It is an inconsistency scarcely possible to be credited, that anything should exist, under the name of a religion, that held it to be irreligious to study and contemplate the structure of the universe that God had made. But the fact is too well established to be denied. The event that served more than any other to break the first link in this long chain of despotic ignorance is that known by the name of the Reformation by Luther. From that time, though it does not appear to have made any part of the intention of Luther, or of those who are called re- formers, the sciences began to revive, and liberality, their natural associate, began to appear. This was the only public good the Reformation did ; for, with respect to religious good, it might as well not have taken place. The mythology still continued the same, and a mul- tiplicity of National Popes grew out of the downfall of the Pope of Christendom.
Having thus shown from the internal evidence of things the cause that produced a change in the state of learning, and the motive for substituting the study of the dead languages in the place of the sciences, I proceed, in addition to the several observations already made in the former part of this work, to compare, or rather to con- front, the evidence that the structure of the universe af- fords, with the Christian system of religion ; but, as I cannot begin this part better than by referring to the ideas that occurred to me at an early part of life, and which I doubt not have occurred in some degree to al- most every person at one time or other, I shall state what those ideas were, and add thereto such other matter as shall arise out of the subject, giving to the whole, by way of preface, a short introduction.
My father being of the Quaker profession, it was my good fortune to have an exceedingly good moral edu-
AGE OF REASON. 47
cation, and a tolerable stock of useful learning. Though I -went to the grammar school,* I did not learn Ivatin, not only because I had no inclination to learn languages, but because of the objection the Quakers have against the books in which the language is taught. But this did not prevent me from being acquainted with the sub- jects of all the lyatin books used in the school.
The natural bent of my mind was to science. I had some turn, and I believe some talent, for poetry ; but this I rather repressed than encouraged, as leading too much into the field of imagination. As soon as I was able, I purchased a pair of globes, and attended the philosophical lectures of Martin and Ferguson, and be- came afterward acquainted with Dr. Bevis, of the society called the Royal Society, then living in the Temple, and an excellent astronomer.
I had no disposition for what is called politics. It pre- sented to my mind no other idea than is contained in the word Jockeyship. When, therefore, I turned my thoughts toward matters of government, I had to form a system for myself that accorded with the moral and philosophic principles in which I had been educated. I saw, or at least I thought I saw, a vast scene opening itself to the world in the affairs of America, and it appeared to me that unless the Americans changed the plan they were pursuing with respect to the government of England, and declared themselves independent, they would not only involve themselves in a multiplicity of new difficulties, but shut out the prospect that was then offering itself to mankind through their means. It was from these motives that I published the work known by the name of Com- mon Sense^ which was the first work I ever did pub- lish ; and so far as I can judge of myself, I believe I should never have been known in the world as an author,
*The same school, Thetford in Norfolk, that the present Counsellor Mingay went to aiid under the same master.
48 AGE OF RKASOIM.
on any subject whatever, had it not been for the affairs of America. I wrote Com7non Se?tse the latter end of the year 1775, and published it the first of January, 1776. Independence was declared the fourth of July following.
Any person who has made observations on the state and progress of the human mind, by observing his own, cannot but have observed that there are two distinct classes of what are called thoughts — those that we pro- duce in ourselves by reflection and the act of thinking, and those that bolt into the mind of their own accord. I have always made it a rule to treat those voluntary visitors with civility, taking care to examine, as well as I was able, if they were worth entertaining, and it is from them I have acquired almost all the knowledge that I have. As to the learning that any person gains from school education, it serves only, like a small capital, to put him in a way of beginning learning for himself afterward. Every person of learning is finally his own teacher, the reason of which is that principles, being a distinct quality to circumstances, cannot be impressed upon the memory ; their place of mental residence is the understanding, and they are never so lasting as when they begin by con- ception. Thus much for the introductory part.
From the time I was capable of conceiving an idea and acting upon it by reflection, I either doubted the truth of the Christian system or thought it to be a strange af- fair ; I scarcely knew which it was, but I well remember, when about seven or eight years of age, hearing a sermon read by a relation of mine, who was a great devotee of the Church, upon the subject of what is called re- demption by the death of the Son of God. After the sermon was ended, I went into the garden, and as I was going down the garden steps (for I perfectly recollect the spot) I revolted at the recollection of what I had heard, and thought to myself that it was making God Almighty
AGE OF REASON. 49
act like a passionate man, that killed his son when he could not revenge himself in any other way, and as I was sure a man would be hanged that did such a thing, I could not see for what purpose they preached such sermons. This was not one of that kind of thoughts that had anything in it of childish levity ; it was to me a serious reflection, arising from the idea I had that God was too good to do such an action, and also too almighty to be under any necessity of doing it. I believe in the same manner at this moment ; and I moreover believe, that any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be a true system.
It seems as if parents of the Christian profession were ashamed to tell their children anything about the prin- ciples of their religion. They sometimes instruct them in morals, and talk to them of the goodness of what they call Providence, for the Christian mythology has five deities — there is God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, the God Providence, and the Goddess Na- ture. But the Christian story of God the Father put- ting his son to death, or employing people to do it (for that is the plain language of the story) cannot be told by a parent to a child ; and to tell him that it was done to make mankind happier and better is making the story still worse — as if mankind could be improved by the example of murder ; and to tell him that all this is a mystery is only making an excuse for the incredibility of it.
How different is this to the pure and simple profession of Deism ! The true Deist has but one Deity, and his religion consists in contemplating the power, wisdom, and benignity of the Deity in his works, and in en- deavoring to imitate him in everything moral, scien- tifical, and mechanical.
The religion that approaches the nearest of all others to true Deism, in the moral and benign part thereof,
50 AGE OF REASON.
is that professed by the Quakers ; but they have con- tracted themselves too much, by leaving the works of God out of their system. Though I reverence their philanthropy, I cannot help smiling at the conceit, that if the taste of a Quaker could have been consulted at the creation, what a silent and drab-colored creation it would have been ! Not a flower would have blossomed its gayeties, nor a bird been permitted to sing.
Quitting these reflections, I proceed to other matters. After I had made myself master of the use of the globes and of the orrery, * and conceived an idea of the infinity of space, and the eternal divisibility of matter, and ob- tained at least a general knowledge of what is called natural philosophy, I began to compare, or, as I have be- fore said, to confront the eternal evidence those things afford with the Christian system of faith.
Though it is not a direct article of the Christian system, that this world that w^e inhabit is the whole of the habitable creation, yet it is so worked up therewith, from what is called the Mosaic account of the Creation, the story of Eve and the apple, and the counterpart of that story, the death of the Son of God, that to believe otherwise, that is, to believe that God created a plurality of worlds, at least as numerous as what we call stars, renders the Christian system of faith at once little and ridiculous, and scatters it in the mind like feathers in the air. The two beliefs cannot be held together in the same mind, and he who thinks that he believes both, has thought but little of either.
Though the belief of a plurality of worlds was familiar
*As this book may fall into the hands of persons who do not know what an orrery is, it is for their information I add this note, as the name gives no idea of the uses of the thing. The orrery has its name from the person who invented it. It is a machinery of clock-work, representing the universe in miniature, and in which the revolution of the earth round itself and round the sun, the revolution of the moon round the earth, the revolution of the planets round the sun, their relative distances from the sun. as the centre of the whole svstem . their relative distances from each other, and their different magnitudes, are represented as they really exist in what we call the heavens.
AGE OF REASON. 5 1
to the ancients, it is only within the last three centuries that the extent and dimensions of this globe that we in- habit have been ascertained. Several vessels, following the tract of the ocean, have sailed entirely round the world, as a man may march in a circle, and come round by the contrary side of the circle to the spot he set out from. The circular dimensions of our world, in the widest part, as a man would measure the widest round of an apple or ball, is only twenty-five thousand and twenty English miles, reckoning sixty-nine miles and a half to an equatorial degree, and may be sailed round in the space of about three years. *
A world of this extent may, at first thought, appear to us to be great ; but if we compare it with the im- mensity of space in which it is suspended, like a bubble or balloon in the air, it is infinitely less in proportion than the smallest grain of sand is to the size of the world, or the finest particle of dew to the whole ocean, and is therefore but small ; and, as will be hereafter shown, is only one of a system of worlds of which the universal creation is composed.
It is not difficult to gain some faint idea of the im- mensity of space in which this and all the other worlds are suspended, if we follow a progression of ideas. When we think of the size or dimensions of a room, our ideas limit themselves to the walls, and there they stop ; but when our eye or our imagination darts into space, that is, when it looks upward into what we call the open air, we cannot conceive any walls or boundaries it can have, and if for the sake of resting our ideas, we suppose a boundary, the question immediately renews itself, and asks, what is beyond that boundarv^? and in the same manner, what is beyond the next boundar}-? and so on till the fatigued imagination returns and says. There is no ejtd. Certainly,
* Allowing a ship to sail, on an average, three miles Iti an hour, she would sail cti- tirely round the world in less than one year, if she could sail in a direct circle; but she is obliged to follow the course of the ocean.
52 AGE OF REASON.
then, the Creator was not pent for room when he made this world no larger than it is, and we have to seek the reason in something else.
If we take a survey of our own world, or rather of this, of which the Creator has given us the use as our portion in the immense system of creation, we find every part of it — the earth, the waters, and the air that surrounds it — filled and, as it were, crowded with life, down from the largest animals that we know of to the smallest in- sects the naked eye can behold, and from thence to others still smaller, and totally invisible without the as- sistance of the microscope. Every tree, every plant, every leaf, serves not only as a habitation but as a world to some numerous race, till animal existence becomes so exceedingly refined that the effluvia of a blade of grass would be food for thousands.
Since, then, no part of our earth is left unoccupied, why is it to be supposed that the immensity of space is a naked void, lying in eternal waste? There is room for millions of worlds as large or larger than ours, and each of them millions of miles apart from each other.
Having now arrived at this point, if we carry our ideas only one thought further, we shall see, perhaps, the true reason, at least a very good reason, for our happi- ness, why the Creator, instead of making one immense world extending over an immense quantity of space, has preferred dividing that quantity of matter into several distinct and separate worlds, which we call planets, of wdiich our earth is one. But before I explain my ideas upon this subject, it is necessary (not for the sake of those who already know, but for those who do not) to show what the system of the universe is.
That part of the universe that is called the solar system (meaning the system of worlds to which our earth belongs, and of which Sol, or in English language, the Sun, is the centre) consists, besides the Sun, of six dis-
AGE OF REASON. 53
tinct orbs, or planets, or worlds, besides the secondary bodies, called the satellites or moons, of which our earth has one that attends her in her annual revolution around the Sun, in like manner as the other satellites or moons attend the planets or worlds to which they sev- erally belong, as may be seen by the assistance of the telescope.
The Sun is the centre, round which those six worlds or planets revolve at different distances therefrom, and in circles concentrate to each other. Each world keeps constantly in nearly the same track round the Sun, and continues, at the same time, turning round itself in nearly an upright position, as a top turns round itself when it is spinning on the ground, and leans a little sideways.
It is this leaning of the earth (23^ degrees) that oc- casions summer and winter, and the different length of days and nights. If the earth turned round itself in a position perpendicular to the plane or level of the circle it moves in around the Sun, as a top turns round when it stands erect on the ground, the days and nights would be always of the same length, twelve hours day and twelve hours night, and the seasons would be uniformly the same throughout the year.
Every time that a planet (our earth for example) turns round itself, it makes what we call day and night ; and every time it goes entirely round the Sun it makes what we call a year ; consequently our world turns three hun- dred and sixty-five times round itself, in going once round the Sun.*
The names that the ancients gave to those six worlds, and which are still called by the same names, are Mer- cury, Venus, this world that we call ours. Mars, Jupiter,
♦Those who supposed that the sun went round the earth every 24 hours made the same mistake in idea that a cook would do in fact, that should make the fire go round the meat, instead of the meat turning round itself toward the fire.
54 AGE OF REASON.
and Saturn . They appear larger to the eye than the .stars, being many million miles nearer to our earth than any of the stars are. The planet Venus is that which is called the evening star, and sometimes the morning star, as she happens to set after or rise before the Sun, which in either case is never more than three hours. • The Sun, as before said, being the centre, the planet or world nearest the Sun is Mercury; his distance from the Sun is thirty-four million miles, and he moves round in a circle always at that distance from the Suu, as a top may be supposed to spin round in the track in which a horse goes in a mill. The second world is Venus ; she is fifty-seveu million miles distant from the Sun, and consequently moves round in a circle much greater than that of Mercury. The third world is this that we inhabit, and which is eighty-eight million miles distant from the Sun, and consequently moves round in a circle greater than that of Venus. The fourth world is Mars ; he is distant from the Sun one hundred and thirty-four million miles, and consequently moves round in a circle greater than that of our earth. The fifth is Jupiter ; he is distant from the Sun five hundred and fifty-seven million miles, and consequently moves round in a circle greater than that of Mars. The sixth world is Saturn ; he is distant from the Sun seven hundred and sixty-three million miles, and consequently moves round in a circle that sur- rounds the circles, or orbits, of all the other worlds or planets.
The space, therefore, in the air, or in the immensity of space, that our solar system takes up for the several worlds to perform their revolutions in round the Sun, is of the extent in a straight line of the whole diameter of the orbit or circle, in which Saturn moves round the Sun, which being double his distance from the Sun, is fifteen hundred and twenty-six million miles and its circular extent is nearly five thousand million, and its globulai
AGE OF REASON.
55
contents is almost three thousand five hundred million times three thousand five hundred million square miles. *
But this, immense as it is, is only one system of worlds. Beyond this, at a vast distance into space, far beyond all power of calculation, are the stars called the fixed stars. They are called fixed, because they have no revolutionar}^ motion, as the six worlds or planets have that I have been describing. Those fixed stars continue always at the same distance from each other, and always in the same place, as the Sun does in the centre of our system. The probability, therefore, is, that each of those fixed stars is also a Sun, round which another system of worlds or planets, though too remote for us to discover, per- forms its revolutions, as our system of worlds does round our central Sun.
By this easy progression of ideas, the immensity of space will appear to us to be filled with systems of worlds, and that no part of space lies at waste, any more than any part of the globe of earth and water is left unoccupied.
Having thus endeavored to convey, in a familiar and easy manner, some idea of the structure of the universe, I return to explain what I before alluded to, namely, the great benefits arising to man in consequence of the Creator having made a plurality of worlds, such as our system is, consisting of a central Sun and six worlds, be- sides satellites, in preference to that of creating one world only of a vast extent.
* If it should be asked, how can man know these things? I have one plain answer to give, which is, that man knows how to calculate an eclipse, and also how to calcu- late to a minute of time when the planet Venus, in making her revolutions around the sun will come in a straight line between our earth and the sun, and will appear to us about the size of a large pea passing across the face of the sun. This happens but twice in about a hundred years, at the distance of about eight years from each other, and has happened twice in our time, both of which were foreknown by calculation. It can also be known when they will happen again for a thousand years to come, or to any other portion of time. As, therefore, man could not be able to do these things if he did not understand the solar system, and the manner in which the revolutions of the several planets or worlds are performed, the fact of calculating an eclipse, or a transit of Venus, is a proof in point that the knowledge exists ; and as to a few thousand, or even a few million miles, more or less, it makes scarcely any sensible dif- ference in such immense distances.
56 AGE OF REASON.
It is an idea I have never lost sight of, that all onr knowledge of science is derived from the revolntions (ex- hibited to our eye and from thence to our understanding) which those several planets or worlds of which our system is composed make in their circuit round the Sun.
Had, then, the quantity of matter which these six worlds contain been blended into one solitary globe, the consequence to us would have been, that either no revolu- tionary motion would have existed, or not a sufficiency of it to give to us the idea and the knowledge of science we now have ; and it is from the sciences that all the mechanical arts that contribute so much to our earthly felicity and comfort are derived.
As, therefore, the Creator made nothing in vain, so also must it be believed that he organized the structure of the universe in the most advantageous manner for the benefit of man ; and as we see, and from ex- perience feel, the benefits we derive from the structure of the universe formed as it is, which benefits we should not have had the opportunity of enjoying, if the structure, so far as relates to our system, had been a solitary globe — we can discover at least one reason why a plurality of worlds has been made, and that reason calls forth the de- votional gratitude of man, as well as his admiration.
But it is not to us, the inhabitants of this globe, only, that the benefits arising from a plurality of worlds are limited. The inhabitants of each of the worlds of which our system is composed enjoy the same opportunities of knowledge as we do. They behold the revolutionary motions of our earth, as we behold theirs. All the planets revolve in sight of each other, and, there- fore, the same universal school of science presents itself to all.
Neither does the knowledge stop here. The system of worlds next to us exhibits, in its revolutions, the same principles and school of science to the inhabitants of
AGK OF REASON. 57
their system, as our system does to us, and in like man- ner throughout the immensity of space.
Our ideas, not only of the almightiness of the Creator, but of his wisdom and his beneficence, become enlarged in proportion as we contemplate the extent and the structure of the universe. The solitary idea of a solitary world, rolling or at rest in the immense ocean of space, gives place to the cheerful idea of a society of worlds, so happily contrived as to administer, even by their mo- tion, instruction to man. We see our own earth filled with abundance, but we forget to consider how much of that abundance is owing to the scientific knowledge the vast machinery of the universe has unfolded.
But, in the midst of those reflections, what are we to think of the Christian system of faith, that forms itself upon the^idea of only one world, and that of no greater extent, as is before shown, than twenty-five thousand miles? An extent which a man walking at the rate of three miles an hour, for twelve hours in the day, could he keep on in a circular direction, would walk entirely round in less than two years. Alas ! what is this to the mighty ocean of space, and the almighty power of the Creator?
From whence, then, could arise the solitary and strange conceit that the Almighty, who had millions of worlds equally dependent on his protection, should quit the care of all the rest, and come to die in our world, be- cause, they say, one man and one woman had eaten an apple? And, on the other hand, are we to suppose that every world in the boundless creation had an Eve, an apple, a serpent, and a redeemer? In this case, the per- son who is irreverently called the Son of God, and some- times God himself, would have nothing else to do than to travel from world to world, in an endless succession of deaths, with scarcely a momentary interval of life.
It has been by rejecting the evidence that the word or
58 AGE OF REASON.
works of God in the creation afford to our senses, and the action of our reason upon that evidence, that so many wild and whimsical systems of faith and of relio^ion have been fabricated and set up. There may be many systems of religion that, so far from being morally bad, are in many respects morally good ; but there can be but ONE that is true ; and that one necessarily must, as it ever will, be in all things consistent with the ever- existing word of God that we behold in his works. But such is the strange construction of the Christian system of faith that every evidence the Heavens afford to man either directly contradicts it or renders it absurd.
It is possible to believe, and I always feel pleasure in encouraging myself to believe it, that there have been men in the world who persuade themselves that what is called 7i pious fraud \vi\^'i^ at least under particular cir- cumstances, be productive of some good. But the fraud being once established, could not afterward be explained, for it is with a pious fraud as with a bad action, it begets a calamitous necessity of going on.
The persons who first preached the Christian system of faith, and in some measure combined it with the morality preached by Jesus Christ, might persuade themselves that it was better than the heathen mythology that then prevailed. From the first preachers the fraud went on to the second, and to the third, till the idea of its being a pious fraud became lost in the belief of its being true ; and that belief became again encouraged by the interests of those who made a livelihood by preaching it.
But though such a belief might by such means be rendered almost general among the laity, it is next to impossible to account for the continual persecution carried on by the Church, for several hundred years, against the sciences and against the professors of science, if the Church had not some record or tradition that it was originally no other than a pious fraud, or did not
AGE OI^ REASON. 59
.foresee that it could not be maintained against the evi- dence that the structure of the universe afforded.
Having thus shown the irreconcilable inconsistencies between the real word of God existing in the universe, and that which is called the Word of God^ as shown to us in a printed book that any man might make, I pro- ceed to speak of the three principal means that have been employed in all ages, and perhaps in all countries, to impose upon mankind.
Those three means are Mystery, Miracle, and Prophecy. The two first are incompatible with true religion, and the third ought always to be suspected.
With respect to mystery, ever^'thing we behold is, in one sense, a myster}^ to us. Our own existence is a mystery ; the whole vegetable world is a mystery. We cannot account how it is that an acorn, when put into the ground, is made to develop itself, and become an oak. We know not how it is that the seed we sow unfolds and multiplies itself, and returns to lis such an abundant in-^ terest for so small a capital.
The fact, however, as distinct from the operating cause, is not a mystery, because we see it, and we know also the means we are to use, which is no other than putting the seed into the ground. We know, therefore, as much as is necessary for us to know ; and that part of the operation that we do not know, and which, if we did, we could not perform, the Creator takes upon himself and performs it for us. We are, therefore, better off than if we had been let into the secret, and left to do it for ourselves.
But though ever}^ created thing is, in this sense, a mystery^, the word mystery cannot be applied to 7noral truths any more than obscurity can be applied to light. The God in whom we believe is a God of moral truth, and not a God of mystery or obscurity. Mystery is the antagonist of truth. It is a fog of human invention, that
6o AGE OF REASON.
obscures truth, and represents it in distortion. Truth never envelops itself in mystery, and the mystery in which it is at any time enveloped is the work of its an- tagonist, and never of itself.
Religion, therefore, being the belief of a God and the practice of moral truth, cannot have connection with mystery. The belief of a God, so far from having any- thing of mystery in it, is of all beliefs the most easy, be- cause it arises to us, as is before observed, out of necessity. And the practice of moral truth, or, in other words, a practical imitation of the moral goodness of God, is no other than our acting toward each other as he acts be- nignly toward all. We cannot serve God in the manner we serve those who cannot do without such service ; and, therefore, the only idea we can have of serving God, is that of contributing to the happiness of the living crea- tion that God has made. This cannot be done by retiring ourselves from the society of the world and spending a recluse life in selfish devotion.
The very nature and design of religion, if I may so ex- press it, prove even to demonstration that it must be free from everything of mystery, and unencumbered with everything that is mysterious. Religion, considered as a duty, is incumbent upon every living soul alike, and, therefore, must be on a level with the understanding and comprehension of all. Man does not learn religion as he learns the secrets and mysteries of a trade. He learns the theory of religion by reflection. It arises out of the action of his own mind upon the things which he sees, or upon what he may happen to hear or to read, and the practice joins itself thereto.
When men, whether from policy or pious fraud, setup systems of religion incompatible with the word or works of God in the creation, and not only above, but repugnant to human comprehension, they were under the necessity ,of inventing or adopting a word that should serve as a
AGE OF REASON. 6l
bar to all questions, inquiries and speculation. The word mystery answered this purpose, and thus it has happened that religion, which is in itself without mys- tery, has been corrupted into a fog of mysteries.
As mystery answered all general purposes, miracle fol- lowed as an occasional auxiliary. The former served to bewilder the mind, the latter to puzzle the senses. The one was the lingo, the other the legerdemain.
But before going further into this subject, it will be proper to inquire what is to be understood by a miracle.
In the same sense that everything may be said to be a mystery, so also may it be said that everything is a miracle, and that no one thing is a greater miracle than another. The elephant, though larger, is not a greater miracle than a mite, nor a mountain a greater miracle than an atom. To an almighty power, it is no more difficult to make the one than the other, and no more difficult to make millions of worlds than to make one. Everything, therefore, is a miracle, in one sense, whilst in the other sense, there is no such thing as a miracle. It is a miracle when compared to our power and to our comprehension, it is not a miracle compared to the power that performs it ; but as nothing in this description con- veys the idea that is affixed to the word miracle, it is necessary to carr>^ the inquiry further.
Mankind have conceived to themselves certain laws, by which what they call nature is supposed to act ; and that a miracle is something contrary to the operation and effect of those laws ; but unless we know the whole ex- tent of those laws, and of what are commonly called the powers of nature, we are not able to judge whether any- thing that may appear to us wonderful or miraculous be within, or be beyond, or be contrar>' to, her natural power of acting.
The ascension of a man several miles high in the air would have everything in it that constitutes the idea of a
62 AGE OI^ REASON.
miracle, if it were not known that a species of air can be generated, several times lighter than the common atmos- pheric air, and yet possess elasticity enough to prevent the balloon in which that light air is enclosed from being compressed into as many times less bulk by the common air that surrounds it. In like manner, extracting flames or sparks of fire from the human body, as visible as from a steel struck with a flint, and causing iron or steel to move without any visible agent, would also give the idea of a miracle, if we were not acquainted with electricity and magnetism. So also would many other experi- ments in natural philosophy, to those who are not ac- quainted with the subject. The restoring persons to life who are to appearance dead, as is. practised upon drowned persons, would also be a miracle, if it were not known that animation is capable of being suspended without being extinct.
Besides these, there are performances by sleight-of- hand, and by persons acting in concert, that have a mira- culous appearance, which when known are thought nothing of And besides these, there are mechanical and optical deceptions. There is now an exhibition in Paris of ghosts or spectres, which, though it is not imposed upon the spectators as a fact, has an astonishing appear- ance. As, therefore, we know not the extent to which either nature or art can go, there is no positive criterion to determine what a miracle is, and mankind, in giving credit to appearances, under the idea of there being miracles, are subject to \)e continually imposed upon.
Since, then, appearances are so capable of deceiving, and things not real have a strong resemblance to things that are, nothing can be more inconsistent than to sup- pose that the Almighty would make use of means such as are called miracles, that would subject the person who performed them to the suspicion of being an impostor, and the person who related them to be suspected of lying,
AGE OF REASON. 63
and the doctrine intended to be supported thereby to be suspected as a fabulous invention.
Of all the modes of evidence that ever were invented to obtain belief to any system or opinion to which the name of religion has been given, that of miracle, how- ever successful the imposition may have been, is the most inconsistent. For, in the first place, whenever re- course is had to show, for the purpose of procuring that belief, (for a miracle, under any idea of the word, is a show), it implies a lameness or weakness in the doc- trine that is preached. And, in the second place, it is degrading the Almighty into the character of a show- man, playing tricks to amuse and make the people stare and wonder. It is also the most equivocal sort of evi- dence that can be set up ; for the belief is not to depend upon the thing called a miracle, but upon the credit of the reporter who says that he saw it ; and, therefore, the thing, were it true, would have nobetter chance of being believed than if it were a lie.
Suppose I were to say, that when I sat down to write this book, a hand presented itself in the air, took up the pen, and wrote every word that is herein written ; would anybody believe me ? Certainly they would not. Would they believe me a whit the more if the thing had been a fact? Certainly they would not. Since, then, a real miracle, were it to happen, would be subject to the same fate as the falsehood, the inconsistency becomes the greater of supposing the Almighty would make use of means that would not answer the purpose for which they were intended, even if they were real.
If we are to suppose a miracle to be something so en- tirely out of the course of what is called nature, that she must go out of that course to accomplish it, and we see an account given of such miracle by the person who said he saw it, it raises a question in the mind very easily de- cided, which is, is it more probable that nature should go
64 AGK OF REASON.
out of her course, or that a man should tell a lie? We have never seen, in our time, nature o;-o out of her course ; but we have good reason to believe that millions of lies have been told in the same time ; it is, therefore, at least millions to one, that the reporter of a miracle tells a lie.
The story of the whale swallowing Jonah, though a whale is large enough to do it, borders greatly on the marvelous ; but it would have approached nearer to the idea of a miracle, if Jonah had swallowed the whale. In this, which may serve for all cases of miracles, the mat- ter would decide itself, as before stated, namely, is it more probable that a man should have swallowed a whale or told a lie ?
But suppose that Jonah had really swallowed the whale, and gone with it in his belly to Nineveh, and, to con- vince the people that it was true, had cast it up in their sight, of the full length and size of a whale, would they not have believed him to have been the devil, instead of a prophet ? Or, if the whale had carried Jonah to Ninevah, and cast him up in the same public manner, would they not have believed the whale to have been the devil, and Jonah one of his imps ?
The most extraordinary of all the things called mira- cles, related in the New Testament, is that of the devil flying away with Jesus Christ, and carrying him to the *^^op of a high mountain, and to the top of the highest pinnacle of the temple, and showing him and promising to him all the kingdoms of the World, How happened it that he did not discover America, or is it only with kingdoms that his sooty highness has any interest?
I have too much respect for the moral character of Christ to believe that he told this whale of a miracle him- self; neither is it easy to account for what purpose it could have been fabricated, unless it were to impose upon the connoisseurs of miracles, as is sometimes practised upon the connoisseurs of Queen Anne's farthings and col-
I AGE OF REASON. 65
lectors o^ relics and antiquities ; or to render the belief of miracles ridiculous, by outdoing miracles, as Don Quixote outdid chivalry ; or to embarrass the belief of miracles, by making it doubtful by what power, whether of God or of the devil, anything called a miracle was performed. It requires, however, a great deal of faith in the devil to believe this miracle.
In every point of view in which those things called miracles can be placed and considered, the reality of them is improbable and their existence unnecessary. They would not, as before observed, answer any useful purpose, even if they were true ; for it is more difficult to obtain belief to a miracle, than to a principle evidently moral without any miracle. Moral principle speaks univers- ally for itself. Miracle could be but a thing of the moment, and seen but by a few ; after this it requires a transfer of faith from God to man to believe a miracle upon man's report. Instead, therefore, of admitting the recitals of miracles as evidence of any system of religion being true, they ought to be considered as symptoms of its being fabulous. It is necessary to the full and up- right character of truth that it rejects the crutch, and it is consistent with the character of fable to seek the aid that truth rejects. Thus much for mystery and miracle.
As mystery and miracle took charge of the past and the present, prophecy took charge of the future and rounded the tenses of faith. It was not sufficient to know what had been done, but what would be done. The sup- posed prophet was the supposed historian of times to come ; and if he happened, in shooting with a long bow of a thousand years, to strike within a thousand miles of a mark, the ingenuity of posterity could make it point-blank ; and if he happened to be directly wrong, it was only to suppose, as in the case of Jonah and Nineveh, that God had repented himself and changed his mind. What a fool do fabulous systems make of man !
66 AGE OF REASON. \
It has been shown, in a former part of this work, that the original meaning of the words prophet and /r^//^ sense of the word as now used, is a creature of modern invention ; and it is owing to this change in the mean- ing of the words, that the flights and metaphors of the Jewish poets, and phrases and expressions now rendered obscure by our not being acquainted with the local cir- cumstances to which they applied at the time they were used, have been erected into prophecies, and made to bend to explanations at the will and whimsical conceits of sectaries, expounders, and commentators. Every- thing unintelligible was prophetical, and everything in- significant was typical. A blunder would have served for a prophecy, and a dish-clout for a type.
If by a prophet we are to suppose a man to whom the Almighty communicated some event that would take place in future, either there were such men or there were not. If there were, it is consistent to believe that the event so communicated would be told in terms that could be understood, and not related in such a loose and ob- scure manner as to be out of the comprehension of those that heard it, and so equivocal as to fit almost any cir- cumstance that may happen afterward. It is conceiving very irreverently of the Almighty, to suppose that he would deal in this jesting manner with mankind, yet all the things called prophecies in the book called the Bible come under this description.
But it is with prophecy as it is with miracle ; it could not answer the purpose even if it were real. Those to whom a prophecy should be told, could not tell whether the man prophesied or lied, or whether it had been re- vealed to him, or whether he conceited it ; and if the thing that he prophesied, or intended to prophesy, should happen, or something like it, among the multitude of things that are daily happening, nobody could again
AGE OF REASON. (y^
know whether he foreknew it, or guessed at it, or whether it was accidental. A prophet, therefore, is a character useless and unnecessary ; and the safe side of the case is to guard against being imposed upon by not giving credit to such relations.
Upon the whole, myster}', miracle, and prophecy are appendages that belong to fabulous and not to true reli- gion. They are the means by which so manyZ6>, heres ! and Lo^ theres ! have been spread about the world, and religion been made into a trade. The success of one im^ postor gave encouragement to another, and the quieting salvo of doing soine good by keeping up 2, pious fraud protected them from remorse.
Having now extended the subject to a greater length than I first intended, I shall bring it to a close by ab- stracting a summary from the whole.
First — That the idea or belief of a word of God exist- ing in print, or in writing, or in speech, is inconsistent ir itself for reasons already assigned. These reasons, among many others, are the want of a universal language ; the mutability of language ; the errors to which translations are subject : the possibility of totally suppressing such a word ; the probability of altering it, or of fabricating the whole, and imposing it upon the world.
Secondly — That the Creation we behold is the real and ever-existing word of God, in which we cannot be de- ceived. It proclaims his power, it demonstrates his wis- dom, it manifests his goodness and beneficence.
Thirdly — That the moral duty of man consists in imitating the moral goodness and beneficence of God, manifested in the creation toward all his creatures. That seeing, as we daily do, the goodness of God to all men, it is an example calling upon all men to practise the same toward each other; and, consequently, that
68 AGE OF REASON.
everything of persecution and revenge between man and man, and everything of cruelty to animals, is a violation of moral duty.
I trouble not myself about the manner of future exist- ence. I content myself with believing, even to positive conviction, that the Power that gave me existence is able to continue it, in any form and manner he pleases, either with or without this body ; and it appears more probable to me that I shall continue to exist hereafter, than that I should have had existence, as I now have, before that existence began.
It is certain that, in one point, all the nations of the earth and all religions agree — all believe in a God ; the things in which they disagree, are the redundancies annexed to that belief; and, therefore, if ever a universal religion should prevail, it will not be by believing anything new, but in getting rid of redundancies, and believing as man believed at first. Adam, if ever there were such a man, was created a Deist ; but in the meantime, let every man follow, as he has a right to do, the religion and the wor- ship he prefers.
END OF THE FIRST PART.
AGE OF REASON,
BEING AN INVESTIGATION OF
TRUE AND FABULOUS THEOLOGY,
THOMAS PAINE,
SECRETARY TO THE COMMITTEE OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, AND AUTHOR OF "COMMON SENSE," "THE CRISIS," "RIGHTS OF MAN," ETC,