it would be needless to follow. All is conjecture. Sober philosophy contents itself with demonstration; and there was much that was demonstrable, with which Mr. Paine had no acquaintance.

"Our ideas, not only of the Almightiness of the Creator, but of his wisdom and beneficence become enlarged in proportion as we contemplate the extent and the structure of the universe. The solitary idea of a solitary world rolling, or at rest, in the immense ocean of space, gives place to the cheerful idea of a society of worlds so happily contrived, as to administer, even by their motion, instruction to man. We see our own earth filled with abundance; but we forget to consider how much of that abundance is owing to the scientific knowledge, the vast machinery of the universe has unfolded."

How small a portion of time does "the cheerful idea of a society of worlds" occupy! How many thousands, and millions never entertained the thought! how few entertain it at this moment! How many nations have riseħ and decayed without reaching it! And if our earth be filled with abundance, who, besides Mr. Paine, ever dreamt that that abundance was "owing to the scientific knowledge the vast machinery of the universe has unfolded?" Surely, he must have fancied, that the plough was suggested by what was injudiciously called "Charles Wain;" and, perhaps, in his own gloss upon the characters of "the starry heavens;" he found the spade, and every other implement of husbandry. Absurd stuff! and yet it is with trash like this, that he presumes to confront revealed Religion, and threatens to prove it a fraud.

"But in the midst of those reflections, what are we to think of the Christian system of faith that forms itself upon the idea of only one world, and that of no greater extent, as is before shown, than twenty-five thousand miles, an extent, which a man walking at the rate of three miles an hour, for twelve hours in the day, could he keep on in a circular direction would walk entirely round in less than three years. Alas! what is this tø the mighty ocean of space, and the almighty power of the Creator."

The Christian system of faith, is a system of redemption for fallen man; a system of rules of life; a system of morals and religion, and not a system of Astronomy. It forms itself upon no "idea" whatever that is associated with "the structure of the universe;" and, easy as it is for imagination to travel farther than our own globe, it is constrained to leave demonstration behind. We have nothing to do with "the mighty ocean of space." See page 246.

"From whence then could arise the solitary and strange conceit, that the Almighty who had millions of worlds equally dependent on his protection, should quit the care of all the rest, and come to die in our world, because, they say, one man, and one woman, had eaten an apple. And on the other hand, are we to suppose, that every world, in the boundless creation, had an Eve, an apple, a serpent, and a Redeemer? In this case, the person who is irreverently called, the son of God, and, sometimes, God himself, would have nothing else to do than to travel from world to world, in an endless succession of death, with scarcely a momentary interval of life.”

"The solitary and strange conceit" of which Mr. Paine complains, is the production of his own fancy. See the comments upon the last paragraph. The mistake into which he has fallen on the subject of man's fall, and redemption has been explained already. See pages 89, 145, 156, 208. But, independently of that explanation, was analogical conjecture ever carried to so unwarrantable an extent as it is in this paragraph? Before Mr. Paine concluded, that all the planets were peopled with beings like our own, he should have considered, how the inhabitants at the equator of Mercury, or the poles of Saturn, were to live. He might next have considered, the nature of the soil of Saturn, whose mean density is not quite half that of water; or that of Jupiter, which is nearly the same as water. He might then, had that planet been discovered, have speculated on the influence of a Georgium Sidus winter of twenty-four years! Reflections, such as these would have interrupted him in tracing his

K k

fancied analogy, his " strange conceit," to the extreme length he has done. It has no countenance in Religion,

none in reason.

The wicked perversion, and a deliberate perversion, is wicked, that the transgression of Adam was simply "the eating an apple," has already been exploded. See page 78 and 89 &c.

"It has been by rejecting the evidence, that the word or works of God in the creation affords to our senses and the action of our reason upon that evidence, that so many wild and whimsical systems of faith and of Religion have been fabricated, and set up. There may be many systems of Religion, that so far from being morally bad, are in many respects, morally good but there can be but one that is true; and that one, necessarily must, as it ever will be, în all things consistent with the ever-existing word of God, that we behold in his works. But, such is the strange construction of the Christian system of faith, that every evidence the heavens affords to man, either directly contradicts it, or renders it absurd."

If" the word of God exists in the works of Creation," how came man "to reject that evidence?" Has the Al-, mighty so obscurely expressed this word, that mankind, may receive or neglect it at pleasure? See page 159-166. And why did men reject that obvious word "to fabricate so many wild and whimsical systems of faith and Religion?" Is there any one of Mr. Paine's disciples, so invincibly obstinate, as to maintain the possibility, that any man, or nation of men, would reject a clear express word of God, to insult Him with "wild and whimsical systems" of their own? Religion, in its wildest and most whimsical condition, is a form of worship, and reverence to a superior being; and how can that be reconciled with a voluntary rejection of the only worship and reverence that' can be acceptable to him? It contradicts itself. That' there is but one, authoritative Religion, is true. From such an admission, it is not difficult to establish the truth of the Christian Religion. In the Religion of ancient Greece, in the Religion of Turkey, in the Religion of

China, in the Religion among all savage nations, in the Religion of Deism, there is not to be found one tittle of evidence of the existence of a God, or the immortality of the soul, but what has been derived from Revelation, See pages 5-12, 172 &c. 235. In none of them is the source of moral and physical evil explained; in none of them is there one glimpse of a hope of a removal of those evils, and a restoration of man to a state of happiness; in none is there one authoritative precept of morality. But all these are to be fonnd in Christianity. All that concerns man in this life, and in the life to come, is to be found in Christianity. It would, therefore, be idiotcy, or something worse, to pause a moment in determining, which system of Religion is true; nor is this system "contradicted or rendered absurd" by any "evidence the heavens afford to man."

Mr. Paine seems to expect, that Christianity ought to have explained the structure of the universe, and the œconomy by which it is preserved; to have told him the number of created worlds; with what beings they are peopled; their morals and religion: and because Christianity is silent upon these topics (and who except himself would have expected any thing else) he raises that silence into objections against its truth; and since it does not teach him every thing, he will learn from it nothing. He was resolved to receive morality and religion from the hand of science only. When a man mistakes his Euclid for his Bible, or demands moral truths from physical facts, there is no limit that can confine the flight of his imagination. It has been the error of Mr. Paine to search for the word of God in the works of creation; to mistake a mechanical principle for a precept of religion: and these errors and mistakes have led him into all the contradictions and absurdities that he imputes to Christianity.

"It is possible to believe, and I always feel pleasure in encouraging myself to believe it, that there have been men in the world who persuaded

themselves that what is called a pious fraud, might, at least under particular circumstances, be productive of some good. But the fraud being once established, could not afterwards be explained; for it is with a pious fraud as with a bad action, it begets a calamitous necessity of going on."

This paragraph contains the most insidious charge against the Christian religion, that is to be found in the book I am now examining. But, whilst it is the most insidious, it is also the feeblest that malignancy can urge, or wickedness contrive, to destroy its truth. It is no credit to the moral character of Mr. Paine, to have "felt pleasure in encouraging himself to believe, that there have been men in the world who persuaded themselves, that what is called a pious fraud, might, at least under particular circumstances, be productive of some good," for there is the same contradiction in essence between religion and “fraud,” as between truth and falshood. Pure Religion, and strict truth, are inflexible. It is the compound character, the half Christian, and half worldling, that would practise a "pious fraud;" and here, let it be observed, that true Christianity admits of no such partitive service. A man must be wholly a Christian, or not a Christian at all; and, therefore, if ever there were men guilty of a "pious fraud," they were hypocrites if they professed religion, and no Christians whether they did or not. But, let us grant to Mr. Paine, that a "pious fraud" was the origin of Christianity, and then we shall see what consequences will follow the concession. If Christianity was a "pious fraud," Judaism is also a "pious fraud;" for the one is the counterpart of the other. Hence, either both are true, or both are false. Either Judaism was a "pious fraud," anticipating the "pious fraud" of Christianity, and therefore laid a foundation for it thousands of years before its existence: or Judaism is a revelation from Heaven, and Christianity established upon it. The former, even deistical rhapsody cannot imagine; and the Jews, who proclaim Christianity a fraud, with the same breath, proclaim Judaism a Religion revealed from God; and, therefore, the