upside down, and representing it in reverse, and among the revolutions it has magically produced, it has made a revolution in Theology."

What the Christian system of faith" might "appear to Mr. Paine, is of no consequence; prejudice sees truth through a medium that at once obscures and distorts her. What it is I will here declare. The first item in the Christian system of faith is, that there is one God, who is the sole moral Governor of the world. Is that a species of Atheism?" The next is, that man is in a condition different from, and infinitely inferior to, that which he possessed when he came from the hands of his Creator. Is that Atheistical? Is it not demonstrable? Is it not selfevident? Can imperfection come from perfection? And who is there that has not learnt from the morbid trembling of a nerve, that he is imperfect? What then? Is there any other conclusion besides this? That man has been the sole Author of his own degeneracy! But how? By observing the laws imposed by omnipotency, by înfinite wisdom, and perfect goodness? That's impossible. How then? Is there any other way remaining, than by a violation of those laws? and if by a violation of those laws, will infinite justice be violated with impunity? And, how can an offender merit pardon? Can the criminal doomed to death, work out by service his reprieve? See page 88. No. What then? Shall man suffer eternally? Justice demands it; Justice knows nothing of mercy, nothing of atonement, nothing of pardon? And hence the Athenian Legislator said, in the spirit of pure justice, "the smallest offence deserved death." Behold then the condition of man! He stands self-condemned of being alienate from God! But are there no means of restitution? No, none that man can contrive. But God, whose justice decreed our eternal punishment, opened by his mercy the way to salvation; a way, that in his inscrutable wisdom seemed best. His blessed Son, Jesus Christ, contemplating the prospective ruin and misery of man, atoned for his transgression, trod the path prescribed to him by his Father,

and declared himself the guide to heaven and immortality, to as many of mankind, as would follow and obey him. Thus the records of judgment were blotted out, and man is again invited to communion with his God. Is this Atheism? Is that Atheistical, whatever else it may be, that professes to bring man to God? Has this "put the whole orbit of reason into shade"? Has it not rather scattered light over the whole orbit of Pagan ignorance, which was eclipsed for two thousand years; ignorance which, during that period, groped in the darkness of superstition "without God in the world; " without hope or assurance of immortality? And, to preserve the simile, has not one quarter of the globe immerged into the full radiance of Revelation since this doctrine has been taught; is not the penumbra of idolatry becoming every day fainter and fainter; and the umbra itself, confined almost to one portion of the earth? and may not the period of obscuration be pronounced about to close forever?

I do not stop to enquire how "obscurity turns every thing upside down, and represents it in reverse," but Mr. Paine should have explained whence these "magical revolutions" arose. The Jews "thought 'twas magic," when they beheld the miracles of Christ. Well then might he ascribe the universal diffusion of the Gospel, which is "covering the earth as the waters cover the sea" to that power. That it is wonderful must be admitted by all; but that wonder ceases when we know it to be the work of God.

"That which is now called natural philosophy, embracing 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 human fancies concerning God. It is not the study of God himself in his 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.

Mr. Paine has fallen into a singular error in the first of these paragraphs, where he confounds the study of “natural philosophy" with the study of true theology;" if by theology he understood what is usually meant by that term, "the word or will of God." For, although the Poet says, that "the undevout Astronomer is mad," Halley was an Astronomer, and an Infidel. And many a man, it is to be feared, is acquainted with the principles of natural philosophy, whose morals and religion are but little influenced by such knowledge.

If I were disposed to raise minute objections, I might say, the study of "the science of astronomy" may be, and has been, often pursued by men, who thought little, and cared less, whether there was a sun that attracted, or a planet that revolved round it, in nature. A man acquainted with the three mechanical laws delivered by Sir Isaac Newton, and the principles of Geometry, may read the Principia, or write one; and after both, know nothing of "true theology."

But to him who has a mind like Newton, the volume of nature is a comment upon Religion; whose text is Revelation. He read both, and understood both better than most men-the first better than any; and he did not consider the study of the Scriptures as "the study of human opinions and of human fancies concerning God," but as the study of the express word of God himself. How the study of the word of God has been pursued by those who had no previous instruction from Revelation, we have already seen. See page 5-10, 63, 172&c.

The ridiculous piece of declamation which closes the last paragraph, evinces how readily men will sacrifice truth to compass even a peculiar turn of expression, or complete a figure of the mind. If by "the system of theology," be meant "natural philosophy," and Mr. Paine confessess their identity, let me ask, whether that study

has been abandoned? whether it ever had so many disciples as at present?. And, whatever Mr. Paine might think. to the contrary, I hesitate not to assure his admirers, that many of those disciples were and are the best advocates of Christianity, and Revelation. It is "the hag of superstition" that disgraced the temples of Greece; that reared her bloody altars in the woods of Britain; that still holds tyrannic sway over the idolatrous East, that Revealed Religion was designed to supplant-and will supplant.

"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 of the religious devotion of the times in which they were written; and it was this devotional study and contemplation that led to the discovery of the principles, of what are now called sciences, are established; and it is to the discovery 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 connexion."

If Mr. Paine wished to prove, that Deism was the religion professed by Job, he should first have explained to us what was meant by his expression, "covering transgressions as Adam;" by the declaration, that "wisdom" was the fruit of "death;" and how he acknowledged, that God "said unto man, behold the fear of the Lord that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding." These certainly are not articles of the Deist's creed; but they are the words of Job himself. And, having digested these, let his disciples consider, what was the faith of Job when he said, "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin worms destroy the body, yet in my flesh shall

Δα

I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and not another." Job was a Christian by anticipation as we are by retrospection; and both by faith. After this let the Deist, if he dares, claim Job for an infidel.

I know not how far my Reader may bear with me whilst I follow Mr. Paine from his errors in religion to his mistakes in philosophy; but was there ever uttered a more flagrant untruth, or ever conceived a more ridiculous piece of absurdity, than that "devotional study and contemplation led to the discovery of the principles upon which what are now called sciences, are established"? Was Kepler, or even Newton, pious as he was, led by "devotion," the one to discover the laws of planetary motion, and the other to demonstrate the principles of those laws? Does "devotion" carry us into the abstruse speculations of Dynamics? To investigate the problem of the three bodies? ridiculous! Contemplation may discover facts, but it is reflection that leads to principles. Interest first made men Astronomers. To cross a desert or a sea required a knowledge of the position of the stars; and to the husbandman such knowledge was indispensable; he learnt from it "quo sidere terram vertere ulmisque adjungere vites." These led men to observe and record the periodical appearances of the heavens, and gave rise to the rudiments of science; but they never led to the principles of science; or if they did, thousands of years elapsed before those principles were discovered. The book of Job and the 19th. Psalm, Mr. Paine acknowledges to be "more ancient than the chronological order in which they stand in the book called the Bible." The former is, in that Book, assigned to a date 1500 years anterior to the time of our Saviour. Now let Mr. Paine's disciples tell us, why, if that Book be full of "devotional contemplation of the works of creation," it did not lead, as he says it ought to have done, "to the discovery of the principles upon which what are now called sciences, are established." That it did not, is proved by the fact, that the Jews never understood any thing of those principles. They never made any progress in science.