of importance to the clergy, invariably to treat the powerful influence of the invisible world upon mankind as one of the most important points of faith. And here we arrive at the principal source of the most senseless and revolting superstition, which certainly deserves to be rooted out. But this is not accomplished by refusing to give credence to undeniable facts, but by stating the sacred truth in its genuine purity.

The Christian system of the spiritual and material world, described above, stood for fifteen hundred years unshaken. All at once, the monk Copernicus stood forth! With a mighty hand, he pushed away the globe from the centre of creation, fixed the sun in its place, and bade the former make the circuit of the latter in a year, and revolve upon its own axis in twentyfour hours. By this fortunate discovery, much that was incomprehensible became intelligible, and much that was inexplicable, demonstrable. The pope and the clergy were struck with amazement at it: they threatened curse and excommunication, but Copernicus had already made his escape from them; the earth was now in motion, and no anathema was able to arrest its progress. The consequences of the Copernican system have proved that the censure and apprehension of the Romish clergy were well founded: for now every fixed star was by degrees regarded as a sun, all of which were probably accompanied by their planets, and consequently the earth became a very inconsiderable point in the immense and boundless universe. But whether this system of the world, so generally received, be not still susceptible of some modification, will be seen in the subsequent part of this work.

During this period, Luther and his confederates had also accomplished a mighty revolution in religion, with respect to the articles of faith of the Christian church. The Holy Scriptures again became the sole criterion of faith and conduct, and the clergy of the protestant church renounced all claim to the government of the invisible world: they extinguished the flames of purgatory, and enlarged the bounds of hell by adding hades to it; no middle state or place of purification was any longer believed in, but every departed soul entered immediately upon

the place of its destination, either heaven or hell. I shall show, in its proper place, that they carried this point too far it was wrong to make a purgatory of hades, but it was also going too far to do away with it together with purgatory. The protestant clergy, as such, troubled themselves, in other respects, little about the Copernican system. It was regarded as a subject which could have little influence upon the doctrines of the Christian faith; but they were mistaken: for succeeding astronomers investigated this system still further, and found that it everywhere stood the test. At length those great men, Descartes, Newton, and others, appeared, who, by their inventions. and discoveries, definitely decided the point; so that the Copernican system is now established beyond all contradiction, in the opinion of the learned, particularly because all the calculations on the course of the stars, made according to this system, are found to be most correct.

The pope and his consistory probably only foreboded that this Copernican system of the universe might be injurious to the Christian faith; but it was now gradually evident that they had not been deceived. The following ideas now necessarily occurred to the consistent reasoner: "Earth, with its inhabitants, can not possibly be the chief object of creation : it is only an inconsiderable little planet, a point in the immense universe : the other splendid and capacious heavenly bodies must have much more value in the eyes of the Creator, and their inhabitants must likewise possess many advantages over the human Can it therefore be that the Son of God, the LoGos, by whom the universe was created, took upon himself human nature, in this remote and inconsiderable corner of creation, and ennobled and elevated it to the throne of all worlds? The whole invisible world must therefore now make, with the earth, the annual circuit round the sun," &c.

race.

I entreat my readers not to let themselves be misled by these specious arguments. I will point out to them, in the sequel, an immutable basis, which is in accordance with nature, reason, and the Bible, and on which their faith may rest unshaken, until at length we all attain to sight.

The clergy either gave themselves no concern about all this, or sought to combine it, as well as they could, with the doctrines of the church. The Roman catholic hierarchy continued their dominion over the invisible world, and the protestant took no notice of it. Presentiments, visions, and apparitions, were regarded as either a deception, delusion, and imagination—or, where the facts could not be denied, as the work of Satan and his angels. By their decree-that the pious were immediately, ́after death, received into heaven, and the impious plunged into hell-the gate was closed against the return of departed spirits to this world.

:

The new mechanic system of the universe had given human reason wide admission to further investigation, and, with its mechanic laws of nature, it now ventured into the world of spirits and here originated the belief in the iron necessity of Fate, that monstrous parent of all infidelity, free-thinking, and, in a word, of the falling away from the genuine religion of Christ, and of dreadful antichristianism. The maxim was now once for all established, that nothing existed in the whole of created nature but matter and power. Matter was investigated in natural philosophy by all sorts of experiments; and chemistry, in particular, was very prolific in this way. By this means, some of the noblest, and, in human life, the most useful discoveries, were made; so that those who were engaged in these pursuits are deserving of eternal thanks. But as no other powers were discovered by these investigations than such as are peculiar to matter; or if the influence of secret powers was observed, it was immediately concluded they were also material, only not yet discovered, and that on making further progress the traces of them would also be found, which was generally the case-it was irreversibly established that there were no other powers than such as were material. The following syllogism now fully confirmed this proposition: all the powers of matter, including those of the body, act also according to eternal and immutable laws: the whole universe consists of matter and its powers; consequently every event which occurs

in the universe takes place according to immutable and unchangeable laws.

Hence proceeded another equally appalling and pregnant conclusion. If every event in the universe happens according to eternal and unchangeable laws, which are founded in matter, for an infinite variety of ends, the world is therefore a machine; that is, its whole organization is mechanical; but as every extraneous impetus given to a machine disturbs its progress toward the end designed, no beings can therefore exist who exercise influence on the material world. If such beings were necessary for the government of the world, and their co-operation in nature, the whole universe would be a very imperfect machine, and the supremely perfect Architect of all worlds could not have thus created it.

But what was to become of man, with his reasonable soul? At first they went carefully to work upon this point; for the men who were the authors of the mechanical system above mentioned, at least those of the greatest consideration among them, certainly had not the intention of doing an injury to religion, nor did they remotely foresee that their system would serve for its grave. Hence, though they also regarded man as a wheel in the great machine of the universe, yet they still contended for the freedom of his will; consequently also for liberty of action, under the regulation of reason. The contradiction between liberty of action and the eternal, immutable laws of nature, they thought to have obviated by maintaining that God, before the foundation of the world, had, as it were, formed a plan, according to which he would create and regulate this best of all possible worlds. He then received the human race into this world, who were to consist of purely rational and freely operative beings. Now as he, being an omniscient God, foresaw what every man and every being that was free to act would choose and do, he so formed his plan that every good and evil action fitted into it, and all at length must necessarily lead to the great end of all creation.

The idea of such a plan, and the regulation with respect to the influence of mankind, who were free to act, was called the

system of the best of worlds. A great number of thinking men and honest divines contented themselves with this fig-leaf apron, and there let the matter rest. But there were others who discovered its nakedness; for they said: "If God has interwoven the free actions of men into the eternal and necessary laws of nature, they must therefore themselves be infallibly unchangeable, and consequently take place of necessity, and the idea of human liberty is a deception."

This result naturally follows from the principle of the whole : if the former propositions were correct, the latter must be so too. But this is such a horrible thought, that the friend of God and man shudders through all his frame at the mere idea of it; for in this case all the sins and crimes from the fall of Adam to the last sinner of mankind are acceptable to God, for he has adopted them into the plan of the best of worlds; at least they were necessary for the Creator's purpose, because he did not avoid them and is it possible to imagine anything more dreadful? Therefore when a person commits even the greatest crime, he may think: "This action is part of the plan of the best of worlds, otherwise God would not have allowed me to commit it; and as he has thus included it in his plan, he can not punish me for it." All the just and logical inferences which may be deduced from these axioms are of a nature so infernal, horrible, and revolting, that I do not wish even remotely to

touch upon them. Here all Divine revelation, the Bible with

all its contents, the mission of the Son of God, and the whole of his work of redemption, ceases. There is, at once, an end to all religion: if there be a God, we have nothing to do with him; and even were he himself the all-operating power of nature, it would be of no avail, because he governs all things according to the eternal and unchangeable laws of nature, in which no alteration can ever be made.

See, my dear friends, it is in this way that the so much extolled march of intellect leads inevitably to destruction, and carries along with it multitudes of the human race. This is likewise the non-religion of the "man of sin," over which he puts a religious mask.