PROSPECT,

OR

View of the Moral World,

BY ELIHU PALMER.

VOL. I:

SATURDAY, January 28th, 1804.

No. 8.

Comments upon the sacred writings of the Jews and Christians: Genesis, Chapter first and second.

CREATION OF MAN.

(Continued from our last.)

THE account given in these chapters concerning the formation of the supposed progenitors of the human race, is of a very extraordinary nature, and stamps upon the very face of this book the most blundering incorrectness, and not divinity of character. In this first chapter it is said, verse twenty-seven-So God created man in his own image; in the image of God created he him-male and female created he them. Here is an explicit affirmation respecting the existence of both a man and a woman, they were made with competent powers to answer every important purpose of human life-the irline of conduct was in part marked out to them and directions given in regard to several prominent objects to which they ought to devote their attention.This may be seen by a perusal of the passages subsequent to the twenty-seventh verse-but if we turn to the second chapter, we shall find mention made again of the creation of man, for it says, verse seventh, and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life-and man became a living soul. How is this matter to be explained? Did God so soon forget what he had performed, or did the writer of this second chapter so soon forget what he had said in the first? This was evidently a new creation spoken of here, for it is said just before, (Verse fifth) that there was not a man found to till the ground. What then had become of the first man spoken of in

the first chapter? Was he dead, or had he so soon escaped the all piercing eye of omnicience? But this was not all, the woman also it seems had abandoned her station and was no more to be found. God therefore takes a new method of creating another out of one of the ribs of Adam.This was done because there was not found for Adam an help meet, of course the first female creation had dwindled into nothing, or was forgotten by the creator. In whatever point of view we look at this matter, we shall see the most positive internal evidence that this book was not written by the inspiration of God. We cannot surely charge the supreme being with such egregrious blunders-with such terrible departures from propriety and correctness. We must therefore be driven to the necessity of ascribing these writings to the folly, the imbecility, and the ignorance of human nature. It is said also, that this man when made was placed in the garden of Eden, to keep it, and to dress it.— Now a garden implies a spot of earth highly cultivated, of course somebody must have been working there for a long time before Adam was appointed gardner. By whom was the labor performed anterior to the agricultural improvement of Adam? The account says that God planted the garden himself. Do believers in this book mean to assert that God was really a gardner that he laboured upon a spot of earth like a human being? Have they no better conceptions of the majestic author'of nature, and will they never cease to ascribe to him the feelings, the conduct and the passions of human beings? No, it seems as if man was so attached to the properties of his own nature, that he is determined upon a terrestrial prototype becoming an object of celestial imitation.

(To be Continued.)

FOLLY

OLLY and malevolence may spurn at the idea of human perfectibility-but let it be remembered, that between the man the most scientific and the most virtuous, and the one the most ignorant and the most vicious, there exists at the present moment as great a difference as can possibly be conceived, between the former character and a truly perfect man. The march of science is slow-but under the influence of the press, and the establishment of righteous political institutions it is as sure as the motion of the Earth round the Sun.

It is observed that in common disputes, obstinacy and

self conceit are seldom known to run into the very utmost extremes, from a general sense, that we are liable to mistakes-whereas in religious controversy every one flies ito. an unquenchable flame against his adversary. Accordingly, it is the saying of an English divine, "No fire burns so fiercely as that kindled at God's altar."

It was not for the sake of Jesus's religion that the Spaniards

subdued America, tho' under that pretence they have depopulated a country nearly equal in extent to all Europe, and mas. sacred between twelve and fifteen millions of people, without any charge or matter of accusation against them, but that they were in possession of gold-and this they never so much as once refused to give up to those invaders. did every Spaniard in the fervor of his devotion hang up thirteen of those benevolent Americans, who had supplied them with provisions, and this they impiously dared to say was done in honor of our Lord and his twelve disciples.

Yet

THE

ON THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.

HE Christian System, from the day of its birth, appears to have opened to the world a new and melancholy scene of contention, animosity and bloodshed. During its three first centuries it was frequently and severely persecuted, even to the destruction of millions of its devotees. Either from state policy, or otherwise, about this time it began to be encouraged and was afterwards embraced by the Roman emperors, who then gave laws to all the christian world. Thus were the christians reconciled to their enemies and relieved from former sufferings: having now no external persecutions, the system soon furnished the means of converting friends into enemies-they split and were divided by its mysteries, and the sword of enthusiasm was drawn to explain them.So great were the massacres, carnage, and distress occasioned thereby, that even in the days of the greatest superstition it was made a question, whether their existing notions of religion had not done the world more harm than good;

and a great defender of christianity has long since acknowledged, that the mischiefs attending the christian system had cost the lives of fifty millions of the human race. Oh! that the cause had never existed-these horrid effects could not have taken place. Ambition, intrigue and fanatical madness in the priests, and bigotry and superstition in the people, led on these dreadful and savage barbarities which distracted and almost desolated the christian world.

It is well known that priestcraft is an imposition of early date. Cato, the great Roman orator was surprised that two priests could possibly meet without bursting into fits of laughter---but tears of blood would not have atoned for the misery and distress they brought upon the human race. Dark and mysterious things are the essence of imposition. The craft and secrecy practised by the clergy of Rome, served to obscure the avenues of light, to encourage superstition and religious bigotry, and became a lasting source of corruption, imposition and pious fraud. Hence, the sale of pardons and dispensations, the forgiving of sins, and praying the souls of the dead out of purgatory: besides public worship was at all times administered in a foreign language. None were permitted to read the bible, and to be detected with it, in their known language, was a criminal matter in the people. Hence, they became the ignorant dupes, the slaves, and mere sport of the priests; and thus the priests became superior to check restraint or responsibility-fraud, tyranny, and imposition appears to have reigned triumphant!

The priviledge of forgiving sin, must have been a most sublime acquisition to these holy fathers. Hence, were they deified by the very means adopted for their lucrative purposes, their lust, and ambition :-" Whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them—and whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained." John, xx. 23. The Sovereign Ruler of the universe gave being to man, he called forth the globe we inhabit, and gave existence to numerous worlds that surround us; directing their order and course, all firmly supported without visible agency or apparent foundation; yet permanently secure, and free from clashing or confusion.— The author of such wisdom and power could not act inconsistently; we know that he gave us reason for our guide; consequently, we cannot know, nor ought we to believe, that he gave us this system of religion which in fact is diametrically opposite to reason. His wisdom and power must have been competent to the support of his rational creation, able to affect their ultimate and lasting good, without the neces

sity of a miraculous conception, divine suffering, or the eternal damnation of any individual.

The common opinion of christians in these matters is nothing more, than the result of that pride and prejudice, which originated in deception and intrigue. They have no foundation in nature or reason, and ought to be rejected as inconsistent and contradictory to the wisdom, the power, and justice of the great and eternal Source of Nature.

The supposed Saviour must either have been of the divine essence or of the human. If of the divine essence, it was impossible he could have suffered, and being ofthe human, it was equally impossible that his sufferings should redeem the sins of the world, or the sins of any part thereof:-God could not have suffered, nor could man have redemed us.

We are told in Scripture, that not many wise, not many mighty are called; that God has chosen the weak things to confound the strong, and foolish things to confute the wise. "I thank thee, O Father! Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." These texts, thus disguised, are the great support, the joy, and comfort of the bigot-but divest them of mystery and they appear less flattering, viz. the weak and foolish things are the most suitable objects of craft and imposition, they can believe eve. ry thing that is inconsistent with reason, that radical and powerful enemy of revelation.

The wise and prudent, when divested of prejudice and interest, will recur to reason as their safest guide. They must be fairly convinced before they assent to matters of importance. They have no interest in deceiving or in being deceived: they endeavor to avoid the one and guard against the other. They see, they know, and regret, that mankind have been long duped and imposed upon. They consider the inhabitants of the whole world as one great family of the deity, and that the precepts necessary for one part extend universally to all. They regret that the pretended holiness of religion is frequently made apretext for war. That this idle pretence has quietly excused for the murder of millions of the human race. truly the Son of Man goeth as it was determined, but woe unto that man by whom he is betrayed." Thus it was decreed by God that Jesus should be betrayed by a certain man, and that as a reward for performing the divine will, this man was doomed to eternal punishments. "Those that thou gavest me have I kept, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition, that the scriptures might be fulfilled."

And