ment, regeneration, doctrine of the trinity, &c. The answer to those who contend upon this ground is very short and easy. The doctrines are all either unjust or unintelligible, and in either case they cannot be called divine revelation. God will not reveal that which is unjust, and to reveal that which is unintelligible would be of no use-it would be a revelation unrevealed, it would be a revealed mystery which is no revelation at all, but it will perhaps be said that the position which has been laid down is wrong, that these doctrines are neither unjust, nor unintelligible; but we affirm that the doctrine of the atonement is unjust, because it sacrifices innocence at the shrine of vice; the doctrine of the trinity, christians themselves do not pretend to understand, they only pretend to believe it, because they think it is heresy not to believe it; the doctrine of regeneration is as little capable of being understood, it is a mysterious change that nobody can give any account of; Jesus himself was puzzled with it, for when Nichodemus asked him how a man could be born again, he evades the enquiry, by saying, the wind bloweth where it listeth, we hear the sound thereof, but cannot tell whence it cometh, or whether it goeth, se is every one that is born of the spirit." That is in plain terims, I do not know any thing about it! Christian believers are therefore invited to point out the parts in the old or new testament, which deserve to be called a revelation from God, and give us some better proofs than those of tradition, that their system is true and divine.

T

COMMUNICATION.

IHE church tells us that the books of the old and new Testament are divine revelation, and without this revelation we could not have true ideas of God.

The deists, on the contrary, say, that those books are not divine revelation, and that were it not for the light of reason, and the religion of deism, those books, instead of teaching us true ideas of God, would teach us not only false but blasphemous ideas of him

Deism teaches us that God is a God of truth and justice. Does the bible teach the same doctrine? it does not.

The bible says (Jeremiah, chap. 20, v. 7) that God is a deceiver. "O Lord (says Jeremiah) thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived. Thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed." Jeremiah not only upbraids God with deceiving him, but in chap. 4, v. 9, he upbraids God with deceiving the people of Jerusalem. "Ah! Lord God! (says he) surely thou hast

greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ye shall have peace, whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul."

In chap. 15, v. 8, the bible beconies more impudent, and calls God, in plain language, a liar. "Wilt thou, (says Jeremiah to God) be altogether unto me as a liar and as waters that fail."

Ezekiel chap. 14, v. 9, makes God to say " If the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord hath deceived that prophet." All this is downright blasphemy.

The prophet Micaiah, as he is called, 2 chron. chap. 18, v. 18, tells another blasphemous story of God." I saw, says he, the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said, who shall entice Ahab king of Israel to go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead? And one spoke after this manner and another after that manner. Then there came out a spirit (Micaiah does mot tell us where he came from) and stood before the Lord, (what an impudent fellow this spirit was) and said, I will entice him. And the Lord said unto him, wherewith? and he said, I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And the Lord said thou shalt entice him, and thou shalt also prevail; go out and do even so.

We often hear of a gang of thieves plotting to rob and murder a man and laying a plan to entice him out that they may execute their design, and we always feel shocked at the wickedness of such wretches; but what must we think of a book that describes the Almighty acting in the same manner, and laying plans in heaven to entrap and ruin mankind. Our ideas of his justice and goodness forbid us to believe such stories, and therefore we say that a lying spirit has been in the mouth of the writers of the books of the bible.

T. P.

OF SUPERSTITION AND ATHEISM.

PLUTARCH

FROM PLUTARCH.

LUTARCH in his Treatise on Superstition undertakes to prove, that atheism, though an opinion false and stupid, is far less hurtful to men than superstition. He explains superstition to be the continual dread of a deity no less mischievous than powerful, which is the most odious character that can belong to any intellectual Being, and has given birth to those shocking notions, and dismal rites in religious worship that have either run men into atheism and exposed religion itself to contempt and ridicule; or made mankind the dupes of de

signing knaves, and taught fierce bigots to exercise and then sanctify the most inhuman barbarities.

" The atheist," says Plutarch, "knows no God at all; the superstitious none but what is monstrous and terrible; mis"taking for dreadful what is most kind and benificent, for ty" rannical, what is truly paternal, for mischievous, what is full " of providential care; nay, for a being brutally savage and " fierce, what is perfect goodness itself. Shall then the atheist " be accounted impious, and not this superstitious person much more so?

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"I, for my part," continues Plutarch, "had rather men " should say there is no such person as Plutarch, than that he was a man unconstant, fickle, prone to anger, ready to revenge " himself on the slightest occasion, and full of indignation of " mere trifles, &c.; yet this is no more than what the supersti"tious think of the Deity, whom, of consequence, they must " hate as well as fear. They worship, indeed, and adore him; " and so they do even those tyrants they would be glad of an

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opportunity to destroy.

"Atheism contributes not in the least to superstition; but " superstition having given out so hideous an idea of the Deity, " some have been frightened into the utter disbelief of any such

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Being, because they think it much better, and more reasona"ble there should be no Deity, than one whom they see more reason to hate and abominate than to love, honour, and reverence. Thus inconsiderate men, shocked at the deformity " of superstition, run directly into the opposite extreme, athe

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ism, heedlessly skipping over true piety, that is, the golden "mean between both."

PUBLIC DISCOURSES concerning the principles and character of Christian superstition, will be delivered by the Editor every Sunday evening at seven o'clock, at Shepherd's Long-Room, No. 11, George

street.

NEW-YORK:

PRINTED and published by the editor, at No. 26 Chathamstreet, price 2 dollars per annum, one half paid in advance every six months.

Comments upon the sacred writings of the Jews and

Christians: Genesis, chapter 23-24.

1

THIS twenty-third chapter contains an uninteresting account concerning the death and burial of Sarah, Abraham's wife.Abraham purchased a burying ground in Machpelah, where he might deposit the remains of his aged companion, and for this piece of ground it is said he was to pay four hundred shekles of silver. These three ideas, that is, the death of Sarah, the contract for the burying ground, and the sum of money which it cost, are the only prominent ideas contained in this chapter. It may well then be demanded of those who believe this book to be divine, that they point out wherein the di vinity of this chapter consists. The circumstances related are all plain and simple, destitute of all the characteristic properties of a revelation from God, and wholly uninteresting to every body besides the contracting parties. The twenty-fourth chapter presents us with a very curious and singular courtship, and the still more curious manner in which Abraham compelled his servant man to take a solemn oath. (For the form of ta. king this oath see the 2d and 3d verses of this chapter.) This servant man of Abraham's seems to have been appointed by his master to the office of matrimonial negociator to Isaac. Ac cordingly he sets out with his camels for the land of Mesipo. tamia; and, when arrived there, he invokes the Jewish divinity to assist in designating the favorite object to which young Isaac was to be united, he speaks in the following manner: And he said, O Lord God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day, and shew kindness unto my master Abraham, Behold, I stand here by the well of water; and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water: and let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink; and she shall say, drink; and I will give thy camels to drink also; - let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac; and thereby I shall know that thou hast shewed kindness unto my master. (See verses 12, 13, and 14.) Perhaps this waiter of Isaac, like many superstitious people of the present day, believed that matches are made in heaven; if so, one would think they ought to be better made than they are. Be this as it may, however, it seems that Rebekah, who came to the well with her pitcher upon her shoulder, was marked out by the negociating servant of Isaac to become the favorite of his young master. Accordingly, to her he made a present of a golden ear-ring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold. After this Rebekah invited them to her fa ther's house, where the servant man of Abraham spoke with great zeal of the splendid riches of his master, and that Isaac would one day take possession of the whole. He made also rich presents to the father and the brother of Rebekah, and so managed his embassy, that he carried away in triumph the beautiful damsel destined to be the wife of Isaac. The marriage was celebrated immediately after their arrival; Isaac became the husband of Rebekah, and Rebekah became Isaac's wife, and there ends the story. Ye fanatics in the cause of christianity, can ye call such trifling anecdotes divine revelation? The domestic circumstances related in this chapter are in no shape whatever connected with a pure system of religion, or with those eternal principles of moral virtue, in the practice of which man developes in the highest manner the essential dignity of his existence.

RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

THE following publication, which has appeared in several newspapers in different parts of the United States, shews in the most striking manner the character and effects of religious fanaticism, and to what extravagant lengths it will carry its unruly and destructive operations. We give it a place in the Prospect, because we think the perusal of it will be gratifying to our subscribers; and because, by exposing the true character of such frantic zeal, we hope to produce some influence upon the reason of man, and