Delufion and falfhood cannot be carried higher than they are in this paffage. You, fir, are but a novice in the art. The words admit of no equivocation. The whole paffage is in the first person and the present tense, "We which are alive??" Had the writer meant a future time, and a distant generation, it must have been in the third perfon and the future tenfe, "They who shall then be alive." I am thus particular for the purpose of nail ing you down to the text, that you may not rainble from it, nor put other constructions upon the words than they will bear, which priests are very apt to do.

Now, fir, it is impoffible for ferious man, to whom God has given the divine gift of reason, and who employs that reafon to reverence and adore the God that gave it, it is, I fay, impoffible for fuch a perfon to put confidence in a book that abounds with fable and falfhood as the New Testament does. This pallage is but a sample of what I could give you.

You call on thofe whom you stile "infidels," (and they in return might call you an idolater, a worshiper of false Gods, a preacher of falfe doctrine)" to abandon their oppofition to the Golpel." Prove, fir, the Gofpel to be true and the oppofition will ceafe of itfelf; but until you do this, (which we know you cannot do) you have no right to expect they will notice your call. If by infidels you mean Deists, (and you must be exceedingly ig norant of the origin of the word Deist, and know but little of Deus, to put that construction upon it) you will find yourself over-matched if you begin or engage in a controverfy with them. Priests may difpute with priests, and fectaries with fectaries, about the meaning of what they agree to call fcripture and end as they began; but when you engage with a Deist you must keep to fact. Now, Sir, you cannot prove a fingle article of your religion to be true, and we tell you fo publicly. Do it, if you can. The Deistical article, the belief of a God, with which your creed begins, has been borrowed by your church from the ancient Deists, and even this article you

difhonour by putting a dream-begotten Phantom* which you call his fon over his head, and treating God as if he was fuperannuated. Deifm is the only profeffion of re ligion that admits of worshipping and reverencing God in purity, and the only one on which the thoughtful mind can repose with undisturbed tranquility. God is almost forgotten in the Christian religion. Every thing, even the creation, is afcribed to the son of Mary.

"

In religion, as in every thing else, perfection confists in fimplicity. The Christian religion of Gods within Gods, like wheels within wheels, is like a complicated machine that never goes right, and every projector in the art of Christianity is trying to mend it. It is its defects that have caufed fuch a number and variety of tinkers to be hammering at it, and still it goes wrong. In the vi fible world no time-keeper can go equally true with the fun; and in like manner, no complicated religion can be equally true with the pure and unmixed religion of Deifm.

Had you not offenfively glanced at a defcription of men whom you call by a falfe name, you would not have been troubled nor honoured with this addrefs; neither has the writer of it any defire or intention to enter into controverfy with you. He thinks the temporal establishment of your church politically unjust and offenfively unfair; but with refpect to religion itfelf, distinct from temporal establishments, he is happy in the enjoyment of his own,. and he leaves you to make the best you can of yours.

A MEMBER OF THE DEISTICAL CHURCH

*The first chapter of Matthew, relates that Jofeph the betrothed husband of Mary, dreamed that an angel told him that his intended bride was with child by the Holy Ghost. It is not every husband, whether carpenter or priest, that can be fo eafily fatisfied, for lo! it was a dream. Whether Mary was in a dream when this was done we are not told. It is, however, a comical story. There is no woman living can understand it. As for priests it is quite out of their way.

Profession of Faith from Rousseau, continued.

As if all the natural inclinations of man were annihilated by the depravation of one people, and as if when monsters appeared the fpecies itfelf were extinct. But what end did it ferve to the fceptical Montaigne, to take fo much trouble to difcover, in an obfcure corner of the world, a custom oppofed to the common notions of justice? What end did it anfwer for him to place a confidence in the most fufpicous travellers, which he refufed to the most celebrated writers? Should a few whimfical and uncertain customs, founded on local motives unknown to us, invalidate a general induction, drawn from the united concurrence of all nations, contradicting each other in every other point, and agreeing only in this? You pique yourfelf, Montaigne, on being ingenuous and fintere; give us a proof of your franknefs and veracity: tell me if there be any country upon earth, in which it is deemed a crime to be fincere, compaffionate, beneficent and generous; in which an honest man is defpicable, and knavery held in esteem?

It is pretended that every one contributes to the pub. lic good for his own interest; but whence comes it that the virtuous man contributes to it, to his prejudice? Can a man lay down his life for his own interest? It is certain all our actions are influenced by a view to our own good; but unlefs we take moral good into the account, none but the actions of the wicked can be ever explained by motives of private interest. We imagine, indeed, no more will be attempted as that would be too abominable a kind of philofophy, by which we fhould be puzzled to account for virtuous actions; or could extricate ourselves out of the difficulty only by attributing them to bafe defigns, and finister views, by debafing a Socrates and calumniating a Regulus. If ever fuch dectrines fhould take rife among us, the voice of nature as well as of reafon would check their growth, and leave not even one of thofe who inculcate them the fimple excufe of being fincere.

It is not my defign here to enter into fuch metaphyfi

cal investigations, as furpafs both your capacity and mine, and which in fact are ufelefs. I have already told you I would not talk philofophy to you, but only affist you to confult your own heart.

To this end you need only to distinguish between our acquired ideas, and our natural fentiments, for we are fenfible before we are intelligent; and, as we do not learn to defire our own good and to avoid what is evil, but poffefs this defire immediately from nature, fo the love of virtue and hatred of vice, are as natural as the love of ourfelves. The operations of confcience are not intellec tual, but fentimental; for though all our ideas are ac quired from without, the fentiments which estimate them arife from within; and it is by thefe alone, that we know the agreement or difagreement which exists be,. tween us and those things which we ought to feek or fhun.

To exist is, with us, to be fenfible; our fenfibility is incontestibly prior to our intelligence, and we were pof feffed of fentiments before we formed ideas. Whatever was the caufe of our being, it hath provided for our pre fervation in furnishing us with fentiments agreeable to our constitution, nor can it pofsity be denied that thefe at least are innate. These fentiments are in the indivi dual, the love of himself, averfion to pain, dread of death, and the defire of happiness. But if, as it cannot be doubt ed, man is by nature a focial being, or at least formed to become fuch, his fociability abfolutely requires that he fhould be furnished with other innate fentiments relative to his fpecies for to confider only the phyfical wants of men, it would certainly be better for them to be difperfed than affembled.

To be continued.

Discourses concerning the principles and effects of the Chriflian Religion, will be delivered every Sunday evening at the Afsembly Room, No. 68, William-ftreet..

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New-York: Published every Saturday, by ELIHU PALMER, No. 26, Chatham-street. Price Two Dollars per ann. paid in advance.

PROSPECT; or, View of the Moral World.

VOL. I.

SATURDAY, August 11, 1804.

No 36

Comments upon the Sacred Writings of the Jews and Christians. Exodus Chapter 15. &c.

THE

HE wonderful miracles which the Jewish God wrought, and by which, according to the story, his chofen people pafsed through the red fea upon dry land, is followed by a triumphant fong from Moles, in which he celebrates the praifes of his God, and afcribes to him all the powers and properties of an excellent warrior. Here the ignorance and favage ferocity of the chofen band are again manifested; their imperfect conceptions of the divine character evince beyond contradiction the immoral and depraved state of the Jewish na. tion, and that all the pretentions of Mofes to celestial intercourfe are fallacies of an impofing and destructive af pect. There is nothing elfe in the chapter worthy of notice but the conjurations of Mofes in turning the bitter waters into fweet, by the fingle circumstance of cutting down an old tree and plunging it into the waters, which act would only have the effect to render the water more muddy, and of courfe make it lefs fit for ufe than it was before. They however, in old times, ufed to manage things in a very strange way, they attempted once to cure blind. nefs by putting clay and fpittle on to a man's eyes-a very good way of destroying fight, but no way calculated to restore it. In the beginning of the 16th chapter, the people murmur against Mofes and Aron, charge them with an intention of destroying them either with thirst or hun ger. Is it probable that murmurs could be excited in a people against their leaders after witnefsing the vari bus miracles which thefe leaders had performed? Is it to be prefumed that the reputation of Moles and Aron was still low after having given to the Jewith people fo many proofs that Jehovah was miraculously enlisted in their favour? no, it is in vain to talk of miracles, and at the fame time to affert, that the very people who were