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Carlile, who has only promoted inquiry that truth might benefit by the result. Truth has benefitted by it, but the Christian religion has not; for the more vigorously it has been investigated, the more absurd have its evidences been found: not one tittle of it is supported by Reason-nay, to argue with a Christian Divine upon the authenticity of his religion, you must place Reason quite out of the question, and listen to the Munchausen tales of the Bible, about blowing the fortifications of a city to pieces by the blast from a ram's horn-slaying a multitude of men with the jaw-bone of an ass, &c. &c. with all imaginable gravity; or you will be stigmatised as a blasphemer and an infidel. Their mode of arguing is also most ridiculous: if a tenet of their creed is questioned, they bring a miracle to support it; indeed nothing but miracles could support many of them, and it would appear to us a miracle how they could have imposed for so many centuries such absurdities upon the inhabitants of Europe, but that they were inculcated in childhood, when Reason is too weak to combat the most improbable doctrines of a wicked or visionary set of beings, and as manhood ripened the understanding, inquiry into matters of religion was threatened with the punishment of eternal damnation. If you question the authenticity of the miracle, on the ground of miracles being without the scale of possibility, the answer is, " that nothing is impossible to God." We, in this point, are agreed: but as a Supreme Being must have some powerful motive for performing miracles in the presence of Man, if that motive cannot be perceived, and that you require its explanation, the answer is sure to be, "the ways of God are unsearchable to human understanding: you must believe, or eternal punishment is your doom: it is impious to question the motives of the Almighty." Thus Reason is totally excluded, and we are left to wonder for what purpose it was bestowed, since its exercise is prohibited.

He again says, alluding to the Scriptures," Their divine authority and inspiration are next considered, and the external evidences arising from miracles and prophecy, are concisely but fully stated, together with the internal proofs arising from the sublimity and excellence of the moral doctrine and precepts delivered in the Bible." We will close our observations with two extracts from the forementioned work, viz. Palmer's Principles of Nature: one to shew the uselessness of miracles, the other to prove that the Bible is any thing but a system of morality.

"If supernatural religion were a thing founded in truth, it would not seek for so many divers means of support, but would rest itself upon the decisions of human judgments

and the general science of the world. A true system of ethics disclaims all foreign aid, all violation of Nature's laws, and stands upon its own intrinsic merit. Miracles make it neither better nor worse; if it be false, miracles canpot make it true; and if it be true in its own nature, the working of miracles.cannot make it more true. There cannot, therefore, be any use in miracles, since they do not alter the nature of things, or destroy the force and extent of evidence."

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"It is, however, denied by Christians, that their religion contains maxims and principles of an immoral nature. It is therefore necessary to furnish incontrovertible proofs of this position, and shew in what respects the Bible is at war with moral virtue, the peace of society, and the best interests of man. It is necessary to shew that this book

contains maxims and commands which are said to have come from God, which would disgrace the character of any honest man, and make him a candidate for a state prison or a gallows.

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"When the chosen people of God were about to leave the land of Egypt, he commanded them to borrow from the Egyptians, jewels of silver and jewels of gold, without any intention of ever returning them to their proper owners, but to march off and appropriate them exclusively to their own use. Here was deception and a breach of trust of so black a complexion, that it was very little better than downright theft or open plunder. Of a similar nature is the conduct of Jesus, when he sent his disciples to bring him a colt that was none of his own. In case of a detection or attack, he ordered his disciples to answer, that the Lord had need of him. Such a trifling evasion at the present day would not be considered as a valid excuse for feloniously taking and carrying away another man's property. If it was right at that time to steal in the name of the Lord, or get clear of the crime, by saying that the Lord had need of the stolen goods, it is right yet, and such a maxim once admitted would overturn the empire of justice, and subvert the order and peace of society. There are many heavy crimes and high-handed misdemeanors, which lie very strong against the chosen people of God; and if the accounts of immorality detailed in the Old Testament concerning the Jews are true, we should be led to conclude that God had not made a very wise choice. The history of that barba rous people is the history of carnage and murder, of theft, robbery, and almost every species of villainy that ever disgraced an ignorant and savage nation. It is to be presumed that if God would condescend to become partial to any of the human race, and make them his chosen people, he

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would choose those that were already strongly attached to the practice of an exalted virtue, or that he would instantly instruct them in the knowledge of useful moral and sublime principles. This, however, is not the fact in the present case; the Jews knew nothing of morality or science, before God made them his chosen people, and they knew nothing of it afterward; so that their intimacy with their God was of no advantage to them, and still less to their neighbours. To their neighbours it was the sword of vengeance and slaughter; for when they were impelled to the abominable crimes of unrelenting murder and universal pillage, they charge it upon God, and said, for so doing they had his immediate command!!! In proof of this, various passages might be cited; but a few are sufficient to destroy the credit of the Bible, and free the divine character from such odious imputations. In the 20th chapter of Deuteronomy, the following bloody and exterminating commands are attributed to God himself. (Ver. 13.) "And when the Lord thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword. But the women and the little ones, and the cattle and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof shalt thou take unto thyself." (Ver. 16.) "But of the cities of these people, which the Lord thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt suve alive nothing that breatheth. But thou shalt utterly destroy them." In the sixth chapter of Joshua there is another specimen of the immoral and murdering spirit of God's chosen people. (Ver. 21.)" And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword." To charge the Creator of the world with such a violation of all justice, with such a dereliction of every humane sentiment, is to deprive him of all his moral perfections, and to make him equal in villainy to Moses and Joshua, or any of the eminent murderers, whose names have been recorded in the bloody history of the human race, It is strange to observe that in reasoning upon theological subjects, men are disposed to abandon the correct ground of moral decision, and contend that those actions which would be unjust in man, would nevertheless be just when performed by the Creator, This is a mode of reasoning which perverts all the faculties of our existence, destroys the moral excellence of Deity, and overturns the foundation of principle. In all beings that are intelligent, moral principle is the same, and God has no more right to violate it than any other being. He is essentially bound by the properties of his existence, and his character cannot be sustained without an undeviating attention to the immutable principle of Justice,

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CONDUCT WHICH OUGHT TO BE PURSUED BY THE REFORMERS, PARTICULARLY IN THE DISUSE OF EXCISEABLE ARTICLES,

WE are weary of recurring to period which must for ever sully the glory of English History, but the necessity of bringing the authors of the demon-like scenes alluded to, to the bar of their insulted country-and thus to relieve the nation from the odium attached to their deeds, compels us weekly to register with our own sentiments those of the country at large, which we have accurately gathered from the resolutions passed at numerous public meetings throughout the kingdom. Of all the public functionaries in England, only three have as yet stood forward to assert the Rights of the People, and address our most just and considerate Prince Regent on the necessity of instituting an enquiry into the heroic and praise-worthy conduct of the counsellors, officers, and privates who so conspicuously distinguished themselves during and after the battle of PeterLoo, that they may be rewarded according to their merits, and elevated to that enviable station from whence they may grin through a collar at the groans and hisses of their less fortunate fellow-countrymen. These patriotic and honest magistrates are the Mayor of Norwich, the Lord Mayor of York, and Mr. Princeps, High Bailiff of the Borough of Southwark. We would recommend the Gentlemen who are to present the addresses voted at the Meetings where the foregoing Magistrates severally presided, to be prepared to retort, should an insult be offered by His Royal Highness, such as was received by the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council of London. For our own parts we declare, that had such an answer been given to us as the Deputies of a considerable body of Englishman, we should not have hesitated to have made the following reply:—

"It is with feelings of deep regret, Sir, that we receive this insult from your Royal Highness; regret, as much for your own weakness in listening to the counsel and advice of traitors who are endeavouring, by means the most daring and insidious, to overturn the Constitution and place you as a despotic monarch on the throne, as also for the blood which will flow profusely, to bring your Royal Highness to the scaffold for sanctioning their attempts upon the liberties of a free and independent people, With the circumstances which took place at Manchester we are acquainted, and hav been more correctly informed than your Royal Highness, for our intelligence has not proceeded from murderers or assassins, but from disinterested individuals; wę came hither, Sir, to give you an opportunity of redeeming the slur which Lord Sidmouth's Letter of Thanks had thrown

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upon your character, and of reinstating yourself in the esteem and affections of your countrymen. We now, Sir, perceive that we have mistaken your character, and shall not fail to bear your ungracious and unpitying insult to the people, who have placed you upon the eminence where you now stand, and from whence you ungratefully sanction the massacre of those, who labour by the sweat of their brow to support you in the lap of idleness and luxury. We now, Sir, leave you to your reflections, with the assurance that there is but one line of conduct which can ensure to you the enjoyment of your life and your expected crown,

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A few such replies as the foregoing from various parts of the country would soon convince the Prince that the people were not to be used as play things, and shew him the necessity of conceding to their just demands, ere he himself would be treated like a foot-ball and kicked from a throne, which is better empty than when occupied by a Prince who sanctions the shedding of innocent blood by a set of cowardly assassins. Sir Robert Wilson in his speech at the Southwark Meeting, said, that the publication of a comparison between the present state of England and France would do more towards the subversion of the present order of things, than that which was called the seditious press (in which we doubtless are included) could do in half a century. We agree with the worthy Baronet, that France has considerably the start of us in the road to popular independence, but yet this is not what the people seek for!-they know and feel their grievances:-they are aware of the source from whence they spring;-they are sensible that it is the boroughmongers who are crushing them to the dust;-but they want to know how to shake them from their hold:-how to compel them to disgorge the plunder they have so nefariously obtained-and, lastly, how to bring the plunderers to punishment, He who can point out the means most effectual for this purpose, will merit the heartfelt thanks and approbation of his countrymen. Amongst the various methods proposed, that which to us appears the most feasible, is that of abstaining from exciseable articles: remove the cause and the effect will cease!-When the coffers of the treasury are exhausted, the present Ministers must resign; in fact they will do so, for they are strangers to that patriotic feeling which would induce a man to render his country a gratuitous loan of his services. The last quarter's revenue is EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND POUNDS deficient, or less than it was the same quarter of last year: if the Reformers unite they can reduce the ensuing quarter's revenue still more, and to effect this union we would recommend that places be appointed (not public

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