Jews have their Moses; the Christians their Jesus Christ; their Apostles and Saints; and the Turks their Mahomet; as if the way to God was not open to every man alike."

Before the Christian can be justly called upon, to explain the conditions upon which he declares, that any one may come to God, it will be fair to ask the Deist, why he thinks there is any way to God at all? Indeed, Mr. Paine confesses his incertitude in a passage already quoted, (viz.) “I trouble not myself about the manner of future existence. I content myself with believing, even to positive conviction, that the power that gave me existence, is able to continue it &c. and it appears more probable to me, that I shall continue to exist hereafter &c." This "ability," and "probability," which are other expressions for uncertainty, are the miserable foundations of the pure Deist's hopes and fears, when he speculates beyond this life. The fact is, that a pure Deist no more exists than a pure Atheist. I mean a man who, independently of all Revelation, believes in such a God as nature declares in its infinitely varied exhibitions of mercy, and apparent cruelty and who makes its laws, and the manifestations, of instinct, his guides of moral, and religious action. A pure Deist should be sought for in the Sandwich Islands, or among the lately discovered inhabitants of Greenland. But there he will be sought for in vain. If they believe in superior Beings at all, it is in the true manichean spirit, of a good and evil Power, for ever opposing each other, and struggling for ascendency; and their worship consists, as much in deprecating the malignity of the one, as in soliciting the benignity of the other. Their conduct cannot, strictly, be called moral, but political; and their Religion by no milder name, than ignorant superstition.

I humbly think, that I have already proved, (see page 5-12) that neither reason, nor nature, ever pointed out the existence of such a Being as the God of the Christians, and the Deists. And, also, that our moral and, religious duties, cannot, by any effort of the human mind,

be referred to him. And, therefore, that Deism, so far from leaving "the way to God open to every one alike," as Mr. Paine intimates, it brings "shadows, clouds, and darkness to rest upon it." It is Christianity alone, that does leave the way open to every man alike; that encourages the weary traveller of this world, to pursue his journey with unfading hope; and promises, that his pilgrimage shall certainly bring him at last, to the holy land of rest, and happiness. Upon what grounds the Mahometan" mission" rests, will be seen in the examination of the next paragraph.

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"Each of those churches shews certain books, which they call Revela, tion, or the word of God. The Jews say, that their word of God, was given by God to Moses, face to face; the Christians say, that their word of God came by divine inspiration; and the Turks say, that their word of God (the Koran) was brought by an angel from Heaven, Each of those churches accuses the other of unbelief; and for my own part I disbelieve them all."

If Mr. Paine meant, and it is certainly implied, that the Jews say, that their word of God, was given by "God to Moses face to face," without having any evidence of the truth of that assertion, he has advanced an impudent falshood. The Jews who say so, also add, that they believe what they say, because, the sacred records of their Forefathers tell them, that when the two tables were given to Moses, the people heard the voice of God themselves, and saw the sublimely awful accompaniments of his presence. They also add, that the same records bear testimony to the miracles of Moses; an evidence, which, alone, would have justified their belief. If they are to distrust such evidence, why does the Deist not inform us of that irre sistible kind of proof, by which the transitory events of life may be transmitted to after times, so as to overcome prejudice, and bear down obstinacy? An unbroken, an uncontradicted, and, I might add, a universally accredited record, from the period of Moses to the birth of our Savi

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our Saviour, is such a testimony as the Jews possess to warrant their saying, that God gave his word to that Patriarch "face to face." Let the Disciples of Mr. Paine, if they can, produce a parallel in profane History, to establish any fact that happened at a distance of time equally remote. It cannot be done.

It is for similar reasons, that the Christians say, that "their word of God came by inspiration." They produce the evidence of miracles; the only evidence that can establish the reality of inspiration. Our blessed Saviour did not call upon the Jews to believe him to be the Son of God, because he told them so, but because he gave attestations of that truth. "If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works;" was the mild, and, as we might have thought, the irresistible exhortation, with which he addressed the perverse multitude in the Temple, at the feast of the Tabernacles. Compare these attestations with the evidence given by Mahomet to the Turks, to convince them, that he had received the Koran by an angel from heaven, and you will see, who it is that, truly, says," that he received the word of God. Moses and Jesus Christ proved their mission by miracles; Mahomet by the sword. That military Apostle preached his voluptuous fraud, at the head of an infatuated army; desperate from a belief of fatality, and solicitous of death, as the introduction to the celestial haram; and they who fell under his conquering arm, were glad to accept a religion which promised them every indulgence that could inflame sense, and gratify desire.

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But" each of these Churches accuses the other of unbelief." The true state of this passage is as follows. The Jews accuse the Christians of unbelief, not with regard to the sacred records of the Bible, but respecting the advent of the promised Messias; which they deny, and the latter affirm to have taken place in the person of Jesus Christ. The evidence by which the last is established, will be fully given in the comments upon a future paragraph. The

unbelief which Mr. Paine insinuates, that the Mahometans entertain of the Jewish and Christian creed, demands a larger qualification; for it has been justly observed, by an elegant writer, that, "The Koran possesses this striking peculiarity, that it bears witness to the truth while it propagates a lie. Though itself founded on imposture, it professes to acknowledge both Judaism and Christianity as true; admits the miracles both of the old and new Testament; and affects to reverence the authority of Moses, and of Christ. It allows that Jesus was the true Messias, the word and breath of God, a worker of miracles, a preacher of heavenly doctrine, and an example of perfect virtue; and asserts that he was miraculously carried up into Heaven, by the ministry of Angels."

Mr. Paine finishes this paragraph by declaring, that he "disbelieves them all," (viz.) the Jewish, the Christian, and the Turkish creeds,) he might have confessed that he was ignorant of them all.

If he meant to infer, because there existed a difference of creed among the Jews, the Christians, and the Turks, that, therefore no one of them was entitled to belief, his "therefore" is one of the weakest sophisms, that was ever spread to entangle the unguarded mind. Had not a late delinquent expected to have disturbed the Christian's hope, by inciting a contrariety of opinion concerning some of the fundamentals of religion; and, had not Volney made such a contrariety, the basis of his florid declamation, I should have passed by this impotent attack of Mr. Paine, as unworthy a serious resistance. But there is in the mental eye of infidelity, a kind of gutta serena, which shuts out the light of truth: and, which nothing but the corroborants of candid argument, can restore to healthy action, and secure those that are labouring under it, from falling into the most artless snare. With this impression, I shall proceed to expose its absurdity.

The immediate consequence of Mr. Paine's reasoning, in the paragraph now under consideration, is to annul the existence of truth in all those points respecting which there

has been maintained a diversity of opinion. Or, in other words, to conclude, that whenever men differ, since some must be wrong, therefore no one can be right. How will the creed of the Deist escape this formidable therefore? Again, Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, and Ptolomy, differ fundamentally from each other, respecting the structure of the planetary system: are we, therefore, to infer, because two of them must necessarily be wrong, that one of them cannot possibly be right? no, I am confident, Mr. Paine would have answered, because in this Book is contained a smattering of astronomy, which sufficiently intimates his belief in the system of Copernicus. He would have said, we know that the system of Copernicus, is the only one that is true. But how could he know that? certainly not by intuition! nor by the apparent phænomena of the Heavens. No, but by diligent research. Had Mr. Paine employed the same diligent, and candid spirit in investigating the opinions, professed by the Jews, the Christians, and the Turks, he would also have known which of these was true. By applying the inductive philosophy of Bacon to moral testimony, in the same manner that it is here extended to physical phænomena, he would have found his advances to truth, alike certain and irresistible. It is, indeed, not improbable, that his faith in the system of Copernicus, was actually derived from moral evidence; for it is pretty clear, that "to him proud science never oped her way.

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I trust we shall never again hear this palpable absurdity brought forward to invalidate the truth of the Christian Religion, unless he who employs it shall, in the genuine spirit of Pyrrhonism, doubt the existence of truth any where, because there is a universality of belief concerning her no where: and such a doubt expressed in the nineteenth century, would justly expose a man to the statute of lunacy.

"As it is necessary to affix right ideas to words, I will, before I proceed further into the subject, offer some observations on the word Revelation.