restraints have not answered the purpose; if such be the fact, they might as well have been without a Devil, for he appears to have answered them no purpose. Men who do not believe in this immoral monster, are frequently more virtuous, and never more vicious, than many who declare that they would not, for all the world, renounce the belief of a Devil. Among those nations, where the reign of terror has been the most complete, there has been the least virtue, the least morality, the least attention to the rights and dignity of human nature. Spain, Portugal, and Italy, have been eminent for their attachment to the Christian religion; for their pious zeal and unshaken faith in the gospel, and yet there is scarcely a spot upon the globe where moral principle is less understood, or more universally abandoned in practice, than it is in these wretched and superstitious countries. If the machinery of the Christian religion could have answered the purpose of moral restraint, a fair opportunity has been given among many Christian nations for proving, in this respect, the efficacy of this religion. It has not, however, been proved; and the fact is, that the most religious countries have been the most immoral. The hor rors of the Inquisition, the cruelties of Spain, and other countries of Europe, upon the peaceable and unoffending inhabitants of America, are not yet forgotten; they are still fresh in the mind, and evince, with indubitable certainty, that the spirit of Christianity is ferocious cruelty, and not a generous and exalted benevolence toward the human race. Facts are, therefore, in pointed opposition to the opinion that the terrific part of revealed religion has aided the cause of moral virtue. The condition of man in nature impels him to virtue; but superstition has perverted his heart, and deranged the operations of his understanding. It is the business and the duty of reason, to restore him to intellectual sanity, to exalt the feelings of his heart, and give to his energies a new impulse productive of universal happiness.

CHAP. XVII.

Death, or the Disorganization of intelligent Beings. PAINZUL sensations are often the consequences of surveying the history of man. The means of ingenious torture are everywhere discovered, and the imagination gives an accumulating impulse to the developement of their operations. The ingenuity and the fury of fanaticism are continually busied in manufacturing misery for unfortunate mortals. The natural and unavoidable evils which are connected with the condition of human life, are not sufficient; the disordered fancy of man secks in the distant heavens, or in futurity, the causes calculated to produce, by anticipation, a new modification of distress; and, in this respect, enthusiasm has been extremely successful. It has awakened all the fears of weak and ignorant mortals, and taken special care to convert this to its own profit and advantage. Death, which is as natural as life, has been converted into a fruitful source of revenue, and clerical avarice has been satiated through the channel of human frailty and destruction. It is not sufficient that man is everywhere subjected to the natural and unavoidable influence of the elementary worldto pain, sickness, and inevitable calamities of every sort, without being alarmed by the terrors which superstition has connected with his ultimate dissolution. Must this final event of our temporary existence become the cause of perpetual torture during our life? Must the mind of man be for ever on the rack, in consequence of an anticipated evil, which no prudence or foresight can possibly prevent? Must the unpleasant sensations which result from the capacity of our natures, be increased by the artificial ingenuitics of a blind and fanatic zeal? Is there no source from whence to draw consolation and mental tranquillity-no fundamental principles of repose and happiness-uo primary objects of delight, calculated to dissipate the mist of ignorance and general wretchedness: Yes; and they are to be found in the established order of nature. My object, therefore, in this chapter,

is to reconcile man to his fate; to tranquillize his mind, and raise it above the superstitious fears of death; to call into action his fortitude and his reason, and by a justifiable exhibition of the general and uniform operation of the laws of nature, to increase the quantity of human happiness. To do this with success, it is necessary to destroy the prejudices and the evils which are connected with the belief of ancient systems. It is universally agreed and verified, by the experience of all past ages, that death is the inevitable fate of every sensitive and intelligent agent: but it is denied by philosophy, that this death is the consequence of any primary apostacy of the But since a supposed first parents of the human race. contrary belief has obtained credit throughout all the Christian world, it becomes our duty to make the neces sary inquiry respecting this strange and unnatural doc. trine, and develope the true causes of ultimate disor ganization in the human species. In doing this, we shall examine the three-fold death of the Christians.

First, Spiritual Death. Secondly, Temporal Death. Thirdly, Eternal Death.

These three kinds of death have been foolishly attri buted to the sin of Adam, when, in fact, the first and the last are not true; and neither of them bears any rela. tion to the supposed violation of moral law. By spiritual death, Christians understand a total corruption and debasement of the moral qualities of our nature, by which man is rendered incapable of the performance of any virtuous action; and this, they say, has been the fatal consequence of the primitive defection of Adam, who violated the command of heaven, by eating of the forbidden fruit. Let us examine this doctrine on the principles of nature, reason, and justice. The moral quali ties of our nature are capable of being drawn into action, in perfect coincidence with the fundamental principles of an exalted virtue; but it is also conceded that they are capable of being vitiated. In every intelligent agent, actions of the most opposite nature will sometimes obtain; man is not wholly virtuous, nor is he wholly vicious; but he consists of a compound of these two dif

ferent kinds of action; but whether virtuous or vicious, it is the result of his own choice, and the use of the moral energies of his nature; his virtue is always personal, and his vices are to be attributed to a source which entitles them to a similar denomination. He acts as an independent moral agent; he acts for himself, he is accountable for himself, and he cannot be justifiably criminated by the vices of another; neither can another be criminated by his violation of moral rectitude. In this case, personal moral agency is the correct ground of decision, and to this tribunal alone the whole must be referred. From this statement it ought to be perceived, that the partial corruption of our natures and character is admitted through its proper channel; but it ought also to be evident, that no concession is 'made relative to a transfer of personal immorality. What then can these spiritual doctors mean, when they speak of a spiritual death referable to the primary apostacy of Adam? Do they mean that these personal infractions of moral law are to be attributed to the conduct of him who lived six thousand years ago?— Do they mean to exhibit the idea of a double crimination, in consequence of one present and personal infraction? Do they mean to charge Adam with the sins of the whole world, and afterwards each individual with his portion of the national debt of iniquity? Would they procure two judgments, two payments, and then remain unsatisfied? Yes, and after all, the whole debt must be eventually cancelled by the death and sufferings of Jesus Christ ! Christians, can you examine seriously the nature of human actions, and still contend for the propriety of such unnatural doctrines? Will you never give to man his due degree of merit, and reward him for his real virtue? Is there nothing tender, nothing sympathetic, nothing moral in the heart of an intelligent being? Is there no justice for the benefit of society-no benevolence to brighten the character of man-no humanity for the relief of the distressed objects? Is the heart wholly corrupted, and the mental qualities of our nature totally vitiated? Are there no principles preserved in operation, honourable to the character of the human species? It is in vain to attempt, at this enlightened day, to impose a religion upon the

world which tortures all the social faculties of our nature, It is in vain and reduces man to the condition of a brute. to say there is no moral goodness, no elevated sentiments of virtue, no beneficial operations of the heart, by which to preserve the happiness of the human species. Society could never exist without the influence of moral principles and the practice of real virtue; but since it both exists and proceeds in a manner mutually beneficial to all its members, it is fair to conclude, that its preservation is to be ascribed to the exercise of a social morality, and this morality fundamentally connect with the nature and condition of man. But admitting for a moment, that the world is as vitious as it has been represented, it does not follow that this aggregate of wickedness is to be attributed to the sin of Adam; but the contrary is evident from the personal nature of moral actions, and the responsibility connected with the character of intelligent beings. Let fanaticism and superstition, therefore, exhibit their laboured discourses on this supposed spiritual death: they speak of phantoms, and not of realities; they lose sight of the moral nature of man and the sources of human action; virtue and vice are confounded, and their transferable nature serves only to perplex the understanding, and destroy the line of personal and discriminative justice. This spiritual death may serve to augment the mysteries and follies of the Christian religion, but I am confident it will never serve the cause of virtue, or lead to the practise of genuine morality. I proceed to the consideration of temporal death.

This temporal death, which is the death that every man suffers when he leaves the theatre of human action, seems to be less mysterious and more cognizable by the human mind; we are taught the knowledge of it by the experience of all ages and all countries; by our own observation on the facts and events constantly presented to our contemplation. Death is the inevitable portion of every living creature; it is the certain fate of every organized being; it is the counterpart of our original construction; it is a change in the mode of existence; it is a dissolution of the combined modifications of animal life; it is a physical property of every sensitive agent; it is the eternal muta.

bility of infinitely diversified modes of being; it is established in the primary arrangements of nature; it is a property, and ever will be, of the parts of all existence. Death is as natural and as necessary as life; the preservation of the latter is an unavoidable effect of the former. Change or mutability is essentially connected with the uniform harmony and preservation of the great fabric of the universe, and no one can expect to be excepted from the opera tion of this general law. Vice is not the cause, though it may accelerate the event; the seeds of death are contained in the original organization of our natures; sensation and reflection, by their necessary operation, lead to decay. Life is naturally progressive to a certain point, which having passed it, necessarily retrogrades toward a state of dissolution. This is the true condition, the just and eternal order of organized existence; and the knowledge of this ought to be the highest consolation of a reflecting mind. But here superstition, from her dismal and dark recess, cries out heresy, and proclaims damnation to the man who dares to reason on the ground of nature;-we hear her awful voice sounding hollow in her dark and gloomy abodes, and we regard it not. Reason whispers in our ears, and says, pursue with indefatigable zeal the cause of nature, develope truth, and labour for the hap piness of the human race.

But after all, how is it possible we can attribute temporal death to the sin of Adam? Did this transgression change the physical organization of man? Did it destroy any of his natural faculties, or make an addition to those he was already possessed of? If so, what was the construction of Adam previous to his supposed fall from a state of innocence? If he was possessed of sensation, he must have been exposed to pain; if he was exposed to pain, he was liable to death: for death is often the consequence or severity of pain. If he was not possessed of. sensation, he must have been a being entirely different from ourselves, and consequently could not have been the parent of the human race. It follows, therefore, that there is no point of view in which this subject can be considered which will warrant the conclusion, that death is to be attributed to the primitive apostacy of Adam. It follows,

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