The theological works of Thomas Paine : to which are added the Profession of faith of a Savoyard vicar

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among the professors of the art of soul-saving that would disgrace any other business whatever. It is of course the interest of every sectarian preacher to draw after him as many hearers as possible, in order to increase his emoluments ; and the means naturally suggested to effect this, is to abuse and vilify all other schemes of salvation but his own.

Thus have religious parties been formed, and deadly animosities engendered and cherished throughout Christendom ever since the introduction of the Jewish and Christian dogmas ; and the gibbet and the stake have been appealed to as the ultimate reason of fanatics. Well, therefore, might the venerable John Adams exclaim, as reported by Jefferson, " This would be the best of worlds, if there were no religion in it."

The only cure for the evils of religion, the curse of superstition, which has been entailed upon mankind by an interested priesthood, is for every one to think for himself, and not pay others to think for him ; to reassume that common sense with which nature has endowed him, and of which he has been deprived by his spiritual teachers.

" We have," says Jefferson, (see Correspondence, vol. iv. p. 322,) " most unwisely committed to the hierophants of our particular superstition, the direction of public opinion, that lord of the universe. We have given them stated and privileged days to collect and catechise us, opportunities of delivering their oracles to the people in mass, and of moulding their minds as wax in the hollow of their hands. But in despite of their fulminations against endeavours to enlighten the general mind, to improve the reason of the people, and encourage them in the use of it, the liberality of this state will support this institutions* and give fair play to the cultivation of reason."

The manner in which ministers of the gospel are got up, is worthy a passing notice. Young men who receive a collegiate education, are governed in the choice of business, by the advice of parents, the opinion they entertain of the abilities they possess, or the apparent prospect of the greatest gain in either of the learned professions, without regard to their religious propensities. Those who determine on divinity, in the last year of their term at college, hold conference meetings, and exercise themselves in the art of praying, and in disquisitions on religion.

Divines thus formed, can readily accommodate their religion to circumstances. If they find the pulpit overstocked in the persuasion in which they were educated, they often change their opinion, and adc pt another creed. There are several instances in this city, of young men, who were educated presbyterians, becoming episcopal clergymen, in consequence, as they declared to intimate friends, of that church paying better than the one they abandoned. Men of liberal education, who have gained

* The University of Charlottesville, w Virginia,, of which Mr. Jefferson Wag the founder*

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V some knowledge of the frauds of religion, can easier change their creeds than sincere devotees who are duped by them.

And what does their preaching amount to ? What is the mighty boon obtained, as is said* by the excruciating sufferings even of a God ; the glad tidings trumpeted forth by divines, and hailed with great joy by their grateful hearers ? What is it, but that a very small portion of the human species will be made happy in another life, and that the remainder will be roasted, in a brimstone fire, to all eternity ? Are these glad tidings 1 Are they not rather to be deprecated as the tidings of damnation ? Shall human reason be tortured for arguments in proof of a doctrine so abhorrent to justice and humanity ; so abhorrent to any rational idea that can be conceived of a Creator, and of every principle of right and wrong established among men 1 The chances in this lottery of life and death, according to the statements of theologians, are at least, a thousand to one against every living soul ; and yet the scheme is cherished as an infinite benefit to mankind. And what are the alleged causes that involved the human race in this shocking predicament ? Why, that a woman in some age of the world, nobody knows when or where, eat an apple, or some other fruit, contrary to the commands of her Maker.

" The very head and front of her offending Hath this extent, no more."

Upon this pitiful story, the whole foundation of priestcraft is laid. It is followed up with the sacrifice of a god to atone for the monstrous offence of poor Eve ; and then comes the great benefit of the boasted atonement ; which, by the way, is to procure salvation only for those who had been previously elected for that purpose ; and who are coerced into the true faith through the instrumentality of the Holy Ghost, without the least claims on account of their own merits ; whilst the rest, who could be no more implicated in the faux pas of the first pair than the former, are debarred that favour by an absolute decree. " Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness."

It is matter of surprise that any person, who believes in the existence of a Supreme Being, should have the hardihood to attribute to him such deliberate cruelty, such pitiful subterfuge, such palpable mockery of justice ?

All clergymen deem themselves to be numbered among the elect, and are so considered by their followers ; and that the bulk of their congregations are doomed to perdition. In this point of view, it is heart-rending for a man of sense and feeling to witness with what sang froid, and cruel, I had almost said savage exultation, they expatiate upon the tortures of the damned: whilst their hearers, as tame and passive as lambs, listen with reverential awe and respect, and appear to acquiesce in the justness of their condemnation. In fact, the members of presbyterian congregation?, in general, woufd not like their minister if he vi

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did not preach hell fire as the just reward of their backslidings, and want of faith and zeal in the cause of Christ ; and in default thereof, would change him for another more orthodox. As is required, they profess a willingness to be damned, provided nevertheless, that the glory of God shall be thereby enhanced.

The following are fair samples of the eternal ding-dong upon this subject, with which calvinistic divines regale their hearers.

The late Dr. Jonathan Edwards, (whose writings are highly applauded by the English reviewers, who seem to consider it their interest to commend those whose aim is to stupify and besot the minds of the people,) in a sermon on the duration and torments of hell, says,

" Be entreated to consider attentively how great and awful a thing Eternity is. Although you cannot comprehend it the mor© by considering, yet you may be made more sensible that it is not a thing to be disregarded. Do but consider what it is to suffer extreme pain for ever and ever ; to suffer it day and night, from one day to another, from one year to another, from one age to another, from one thousand ages to another ; and so adding age to age, and thousands to thousands, in pain, in wailing and tormenting, groaning and shrieking, and gnashing your teeth ; with your souls full of dreadful grief and amazement, with your bodies, and every member of them, full of racking torture ; without any possibility of getting ease ; without any possibility of moving God to pity by your cries ; without any possibility of hiding yourselves from him ; without any possibility of diverting your thoughts from your pain ; without any possibility of obtaining any manner of mitigation, or help, or change for the better. How dismal will it be, when you are under these racking torments, to know assuredly that you never, never shall be delivered from them." — " The saints in glory will be far more sensible how dreadful the wrath of God is, and will better understand how terrible the sufferings of the damned are, yet this will be no occasion of grief to them, but rejoicing. They will not be sorry for the damned ; it will cause no uneasiness or dissatisfaction to them, but, on the contrary, when they see this sight it will occasion rejoicing and excite them to joyful praises."

The Rev. Dr. Emmons, of Massachusetts, distinguished for his piety and biblical knowledge, gives the following lively description of the joys of the elect, contrasted with the sufferings of the reprobated :

" The happiness of the elect in heaven will in part consist in witnessing the torments of the damned in hell, and among these it may be their own children, parents, husbands, wives, and friends on earth.

" One part of the business of the blessed is to celebrate the doctrine of reprobation. While the decree of reprobation is externally executing on the vessels of wrath, the smoke of their torment will be eternally ascending in the view of the vessels of

PREFACE* vii mercy, who instead of taking the part of those miserable objects, will say amen, hallelujah, praise the Lord.

" When the saints shall see how great the misery is from which God hath saved them, and how great a difference he hath made between their state, and the state of others who were by nature, and perhaps by practice, no more sinful and ill-deserving than they, it will give them more a sense of the wonderfulness of God's grace to them. Every time they look upon the damned, it will excite in them a lively and admiring sense of the grace of God in making them so to differ. The sight of hell torments will exalt the happiness of the saints for ever."

Dr. Parish, of the same state, in a sermon delivered in the time of our late war with England, in denunciation of his countrymen who rendered it their support, exclaimed, " How will the supporters of this anti-christian warfare endure their sentence, endure their own reflections ; endure the fire that for ever burns ; the worm that never dies ; the hosannas of heaven, while the smoke of their torments will ascend for ever and ever ."'

Notwithstanding the confidence and apparent self-security in which presbyterian ministers animadvert upon the vindictive spirit of the Almighty, and the horrors of that hell, which, according tG them, he has prepared for the reception of the greatest portion of his creatures, if reliance can be had upon the view taken of the means necessary for salvation by the late Bishop Hobart, their condemnation is inevitable.

The grand panacea for the cure of all evil, and the restoration of man to the favour of the Deity, seems, with the bishop, to consist in the due administration of the rite of baptism. In his Companion to the Altar, he says :

" In this church, the body which derives life, strength and salvation from Christ its head, baptism was instituted as the sacred rite of admission. In this regenerating ordinance, fallen man is born again from a state of condemnation to a state of grace. He obtains a title to the presence of the Holy Spirit, to the forgiveness of sins, to all those precious and immortal blessings which the blood of Christ purchased." Com. for the Altar, ed. 1824, p. 186.

" Wherever the gospel is promulgated, the only mode through which we can obtain a title to those blessings and privileges which Christ has purchased for his mystical body, the church, is the sacrament of baptism. Repentance, faith, and obedience, will 7iot of themselves be effectual to our salvation. We may sincerely repent of our sins — heartily believe the Gospel ; we may walk in the paths of holy obedience : but until we enter into covenant with God by baptism, and ratify our vows of allegiance and duty at the holy sacrament of the Supper — commemorate the mysterious sacrifice of Christ, w 7 e cannot assert any claim to v salvation." Ib. pp. 189—90.

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«' In order to be effectual, to be acknowledged by God, and accompanied by his power, they (the sacraments) must be administered by those who have received a commission for the purpose from him." — " None can possess authority to administer the sacraments but those who have received a commission from the bishops of the church." — " Great is the guilt and imminent the danger of those who negligently or wilfully continue in a state of separation from the authorised ministrations of the church, and participate of ordinances administered by an irregular and invalid authority" — " wilfully rending the peace and unity of the church, by separating from the administration of its authorised priesthood ; obstinately contemning the means which God has prescribed for their salvation. They are guilty of rebellion against the almighty Lawgiver and Judge ; they expose themselves to the awful displeasure of that almighty Jehovah, who will not suffer his institutions to be contemned, or his authority violated, with impunity." 16. pp. 198—200 : 203 — 4.

This is all fair as a matter of trade. The rivalry for adherents constantly carried on among the various denominations of Christians, justifies every divine in endeavouring to draw as many gulls to his shop as possible ; and the end must sanctify the means.

From this nonsense, advanced even by wise men, with a view of promoting their interests, it is pleasant to turn to the writings of philosophers who have not the same inducements.

Thomas Jefferson speaks of religion as every man of common sense, not under the influence of early impressions before the mind is capable of distinguishing right from wrong, thinks ; and as every honourable man, who wishes to benefit his species, ought to express himself.

The following sentiments are extracted from his correspondence with his old revolutionary colleague, John Adams, whose minds seem in perfect unison on the subject treated of ; both must be actuated by the purest motives of humanity, as no sinister views could possibly be entertained at the late period in which the letters were written.

" I remember to have heard Dr. Priestieysay, that if all England would candidly examine themselves, and confess, they would find that unitarianism was really the religion of all. It is too late in the day for men of sincerity to pretend they believe in the Platonic mysticisms that three are one, and one is three ; and yet that the one is not three, and the three are not one : to divide mankind by a single letter into homoousians and homoiousians* But this constitutes the craft, the power, and the profit of the priests. Sweep away their gossamer fabrics of factitious reli- -4 gion, and they would catch no more flies. We should all then, like the Quakers, live without an order of priests, moralize for ourselves, follow the oracle of conscience, and say nothing about what no man can understand nor therefore believe 5 for I sup-

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IX pose belief to be the assent of the mind to an intelligible proposition." Vol. iv. p. 205.

" The Christian priesthood, finding the doctrine of Christ levelled to every understanding, and too plain to need explanation, saw in the mysticisms of Plato, materials with which they might build up an artificial system, which might, from its indistinctness, admit everlasting controversy, give employment for their order, and introduce it to profit, power, and pre-eminence. The doctrines which flowed from the lips of Jesus himself are within the comprehension of a child ; but thousands of volumes have not yet explained the Platonisms engrafted on them ; and for this obvious reason, that nonsense can never be explained. Their purposes, however, are answered. Plato is canonized ; and it is now deemed as impious to question his merits as those of an apostle of Jesus." Ib. p. 242.

" The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the happiness of man. But compare with these the demoralizing dogmas of Calvin.

" 1. That there are three Gods. — 2. That good works, or the love of our neighbour, are nothing. — 3. That faith is every thing, and the more incomprehensible the proposition, the more merit in its faith. — 4. That reason in religion is of unlawful use. — 5. That God, from the beginning, elected certain individuals to be saved, and certain others to be damned.; and that no crimes of the former can damn them ; no virtues of the latter, save.

" Now, which of these is the true and charitable Christian ; he who believes and acts on the simple doctrines of Jesus, or the impious dogmatists, as Athanasius and Calvin W Ib. p. 349.

" The wishes expressed in your last favour, that I may continue in life and health until I become a Calvinist, would make me immortal. I can never join Calvin in addressing his God. He was indeed an atheist, which I can never be ; or rather his religion was daemonism. If ever man worshipped a false God, he did. The being described in his five points, is not the God whom you and I acknowledge and adore, the creator and benevolent governor of the world ; but a daemon of malignant spirit. It would be more pardonable to believe in no God at all, than to blaspheme him by the atrocious attributes of Calvin. Indeed, I think that every Christian sect gives a great handle to atheism by their general dogma, that, without a revelation, there would not be sufficient proof of the being of a God. Now, one-sixth of mankind only are supposed to be Christians : the other fivesixths then, who do not believe in the Jewish and Christian revelation, are without a knowledge of the existence of a God!" Ib. p. 363.

" The result of your fifty or sixty years of religious reading in the four words, ' Be just and good,' is that in which all our inquiries must end ; as the riddles of all the priesthoods end in four

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more, t Ubi panis^ibi deus.' " lb. p. 300. Where there is bread, there is God. That is, whatever religion is most conducive to the interests of the clergy, that they will preach. This is what the professors of every other kind of business do. If any community of people should prefer five wheels to a coach, and would give high prices for such, a coach-maker would act very unwisely to refuse to accommodate them. The clergy are, therefore, not so much to blame as the people who take their quack medicines and pay very dear for them. If praying be of any service, every one knows what he stands most in need of, and should therefore prefer his own petitions, instead of paying others for doing it. And as for moral instruction, there are certainly books enough extant upon that subject, the cost of which is nothing in comparison to what is paid for oral sermons..

Let the people shake off the shackles with which, they are bound by the existing priestcraft, and profess a manly religion, founded upon moral virtue alone, divested of all creeds, as the sure and only foundation of happiness here and hereafter, and they would soon find teachers enough who would accommodate themselves to their wishes. In this case, useful, scientific instruction would form a prominent part of the preacher's duty. How much more pleasant and satisfactory would such a course be, than in listening to the eternal repetition of stupid, unintelligible dogmas, < vhich can never be of the least possible advantage.

The religious opinions of Jefferson, Franklin, John Adams, and a host of wise and good men in Europe and America, differ in no respect from those of Thomas Paine. Yet he has been singled out particularly as a mark for the priesthood to aim their most deadly shafts. This, no doubt, arose from fear that his writings would prove more destructive to the craft than those of other liberal writers, on account of the bold, plain common sense which distinguishes his compositions.

Mr. Paine's natural goodness of heart seems to have rendered him sceptical in the prevailing religious dogmas, at an early period. He says, " 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 affair ; I scarcely know which it was, but I well remember, when about .seven or eight years of age, hearing a sermon read upon the Redemption, by the death of the Son of God. After the sermon was ended, I revolted at the recollection of what I had heard ; 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 the necessity of doing it. I believed in the same manner to this moment."

Of Jesus Christ he speaks in the following terms : " The morality that he preached and practised was of the most benevolent kind ; according to his declarations, in the 25th chapter of

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Matthew, he makes salvation, or the future happiness of man, to depend entirely upon good works. Here is nothing about predestination, that lust which some men have for damning one another. Here is nothing about baptism, whether sprinkling or plunging, nor about any of those ceremonies for which the Christian church has been fighting, persecuting and burning each other, ever since the Christian church began."

In another part, he says, " My own opinion is, that those whose lives have been spent in doing good, and endeavouring to make their fellow mortals happy, for this is the only way in which we can serve God, will be happy hereafter : and that the very wicked will meet with some punishment. This is my opinion. It is consistent with my idea of God's justice, and with the reason that God has given me."

Why should Mr. Paine be reprobated for these opinions, and the clergy, who proclaim the eternal damnation of their species* be approved of and applauded ? The reason is plain. The clergy " mould th^ minds of the people like wax in the hollow of their hands." They well know, if Paine's principles prevail, w their consequence and high salaries would be at an end. Hence the outcry against him and those who. adopt his opinions. King's, in the first instance, created a band of priests to tyrannize over the mental faculties of man, that they might the more readily enslave him ; and the American republic imbibed the malady through a predisposition to infection inherited from their ancestors. The business of life is incorporated with priestcraft, and whoever takes an honorable part in vindication of truth, is sure to meet with abuse. The doctrine of let us alone, is the constant cry of priests, and the fear of censure from the pulpit creates and fosters the detestable crime of hypocrisy.

The flatteries and respect shown to the clerical character, of all denominations, has induced some of the profession to adopt a language towards their opponents truly astonishing. In fact, many preachers of the Gospel of Christ, seem to consider themselves licenced calumniators, and that they have a right, by virtue of their office, to abuse the whole human race, as enemies to God and all righteousness.

A few years since, a young preacher of the Methodist connection arrived in this country from England. He laid great claims to religious endowments, and, in consequence of his pertness and assurance, was highly caressed by the members of his church. Emboldened by the attentions he received, in order to show his zeal for the cause, he had the effrontery, at a tract society meeting, to express himself in the following terms : " I thank God, that the bones of Tom Paine have been rooted up, and no longer disgrace the soil of our country." No man at the meeting, or in the public prints since, dared to reprove him. As a man of God, he w^as deemed to bf privileged to stigmatize the memory xii

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of one who had so powerfully opposed the clerical scheme of eternal misery.

The same spirit, which dictated the above declaration, is conspicuous in an article that lately appeared in the New-York Herald, supposed to be written by an English clergyman of the Episcopal church. It is entitled, " The Lone Tomb ; a scene in Westchester county." The object of it was to eulogize the virtues of a young woman who died in New-Rochelle, at the age of nineteen. Thomas Paine, at the mention of whose name, the clergy were wont to quake, was also dead, and had been interred in the same village. What a glorious opportunity — ■ it was irresistible ; and the pious parson improved it to bespatter the tomb of the great advocate of human rights ; the vindicator of the justice and goodness of God ; the opponent of the pleaders for Calvinistic fire and brimstone. And, strange as it may appear, he found an American printer who was enjoying, in common with his countrymen, the fruits of Paine 's revolutionary services, indiscreet, or shall I say, base enough to lend his types in furtherance of the unholy purpose.

The article concludes as follows : " Here is found the delightful village where the pious, but persecuted Huguenots, fleeing from oppressions of bigotry and intolerance, found a quiet and a happy home ; and where too is still pointed out the consecrated little enclosure, in which, when the toils and sufferings of this life were over, they rested from their labors. And here, alas ! that the place should be known but to be shunned, — here is yet seen the ruins of the sad and forsaken spot rendered infamous by the sepulchre of the infidel Paine. ! /"

This consistent Christian writer, in persecuting the memory of Paine, commits the same outrage that he reprobates in others. — But, in the one case, it regarded pious Huguenots, Calvinists, who believed in hell-fire ; in the other an infidel, who was endeavouring to wrest mankind from the clutches of the clergy, and to render them happy, here and hereafter, by the mere force of moral virtue. The difference, in the view of a minister of the gospel, must be enormous indeed. — But where were nine-tenths of these believing Huguenots, according to their own doctrine, after their toils and sufferings were over, to restl In hell, among glowing embers ! This is a true statement of the case, and I leave the reader to his own reflections.

I will mention one more instance of clerical charity and forbearance. A preacher in the Dutch church, corner of Cedar and Nassau streets, lately gave vent to the following rodomontade : —

" A deist, he said, was no man — he unmans himself — he is an enemy to science — denies all history, and is a rebel to Almighty God!" The last clause of the sentence the speaker pronounce 1 with great energy, raising at the same time both hands to heaven. A gentleman, in company with the reporter, who

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xiit mistook declamation for argument, on leaving the church, observed, that Mr. was a. most powerful preacher ; and probably

this was the opinion of the bulk of the audience. It is, however, still a mooted case, which is the greatest rebel to God, the deist who represents him as benevolent, just and merciful ; or the Calvinistic divine who clothes him with attributes that would disgrace a savage ?

" The quality of mercy is not strain'd ; It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath : it is twice blessed ; It blesseth him that gives, and him that tatas: 'Tis mightiest in the mightiest."

By the extracts I have made from the writings and speeches of clergymen, some might be inclined to think them in general a very wicked class of men ; but this is by n%. means the case. — They are like men in other pursuits of life, some good and some bad. The system is more in fault, than the professors. They are hired to teach a certain set of dogmas, which they cannot depart from without bringing ruin upon themselves. Were a presbyterian parson, for instance, to say to his congregation, that God was too benevolent and merciful to punish any of them to all eternity; that punishments would be graduated to crimes, and that if their lives were moral, they need be in no fear of incurring his displeasure on account of their opinions ; the consequence would be that every old lady imbued with orthodox principles r and who had an enemy, on earth, that she wished to be roasted forever, would immediately quit his church. Their daughters would take the same course, and the men would be compelled to follow suit. The parson, consequently, would be left without hearers, and without bread. Let us not, then, blame the clergy, but ourselves. Old bigoted schemes of religion must be broken down, and plain common sense substituted for them; and this must be done by laymen — it is not in the power of the clergy to effbet it.

I will here introduce a few appropriate questions, propounded by the celebrated Voltaire.

" Next to our holy religion, which would be the least exceptionable ? Would it not be the most simple — that which taught a great deal of morality and few doctrines — that which tended to make men virtuous without making them fools — that which did not impose the belief of things impossible, contradictory, injurious to the deity, and pernicious to mankind ;• and which did not take on itself to threaten, with eternal punishments, all who had common sense ? Would it not be that which did not support its articles by executioners, and deluge the world with blood, for unintelligible sophisms I Would it not be that which taught only the adoration of one God, of justice, forbearance and humanity?"