But if the unity of God be the only gracious belief in the eyes of the Creator, I do not see that Christians are entitled to his favour, because they make him three. What was the belief of the Jews? Had they any very refined ideas of their God? They thought him corporeal, incessantly speaking and moving among men, jealous, revengeful, powerful, whose angels ate with Abraham, who himself strove to kill Moses in a public house; they imagined him repenting of his deeds; and, in all respects, a poor contemptible being, the offspring of Jewish fancy. He is throughout the Bible an Asiatic Sultan, who, like the merciful God of Mahomet, puts to the sword, and smites with plagues thousands, as a tribute to his infinite mercy. I refer the reader to the collection of extracts from the Bible, in a subsequent letter, for proofs of my assertions. The Jews admitted, besides other gods, such as Chemosh, several beings subordinate to God, but superior to man, as the serpent which tempted the mother of mankind. They had exterminating angels and cherubims, the Elohim or Genii that made the world, &c. But why dwell upon such topics, when it is evident that all the Jewish mythology is of Chaldean origin, and our theology a copy of that of Plato?
You proceed in your attempt to reconcile the justice of God with his goodness, and, in the height of your reverie, you imagine that the sufferings of the Jews were parts of a grand scheme for the general good of mankind. What, and when are we to see the good effects of their barbarities? We may see reason counteracting the evil of superstition, rendering men humane; but I apprehend, that, if your reasoning was generally adopted, every highwayman would be much inclined to think himself sent by Providence for good and wise purposes, and if chance should bring about a happy event at the end of his career, which he thought the consequence of his deeds, he would triumph in his crimes, and, like Moor in the Robbers, exclaim, "If for ten I have destroyed, you make but one man blest, my soul may yet be saved!" This has been the language of persecutors. They destroy mankind to make them happy in the next world—tortures, burning, and beheading, are but purifications. The worst is, that the famous divine scheme of general good, has never been one jot more advanced than when the Jews were enduring the greatest calamities, and committing atrocities. I count not the effects of reason, for faith is alone the godly faculty; reason destroys it. I close my observations upon this subject with repeating the old question of Epicurus, which your brethren have as yet left unanswered; either God can prevent evil and does not choose it, or he chooses it and wants power to avert calamities from his creatures. In the first instance, he is a malevolent despot, a character we ought to abhor; in the second, we see him an impotent and secondary being, which raises our contempt. Reconcile this with his infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, and show us that he is not formed after the image of man, or else let unbelievers hold their opinions in peace.
LETTER V.
Your fifth letter begins with stating the importance of the concession of Thomas Paine, that the books of Ezra and Nehemiah are genuine. You triumph, and think it a silent acknowledgment of the reality of the prophecies mentioned in those books. Stop, my Lord, your alma-mater surely has not taught you to draw such conclusions. In a genuine book there may be contained incredible events, as in Tacitus, Suetonius, and almost all existent histories. It is your duty to prove that the prophecies there related are not among those popular stories which are apt to gain general credit, whether they are or are not forgeries written after the events. Before we know when Jeremiah wrote, and what is the meaning of the writings under his name, no man is warranted to triumph at the testimony of the Jews after the captivity; since it is a point, in which all parties agree; that their canon and books were compiled at that period, and nobody ever questioned the credulity of the Jews. You proceed to state your notions of the history of the Old Testament; it is all a matter of opinion; and, as you do not support it by any proofs, we must still continue to regard the contradictions and impostures contained in the Old Testament as proofs of its having been the work of ignorant fanatics. I pass over your effusions: that metaphysical disquisitions teach us the limits of our faculties, I strenuously maintain; and if you mean nothing else, we are agreed. That our notions of time and place are not the bugbears which the scholastics would persuade us, is to me unquestionable; that both in science and religion we affix no ideas to many words, I grant; that certainty in philosophical disquisitions is not easily found, I also allow; but, that a man tired with the arduous task of reasoning, of discerning between truth and falsehood, should seek in polemics or superstition a consolation for his ignorance, I consider as a proof of the impaired state of his faculties; he is like the thirsty traveller, who, burnt by the scorching sun, seeks to relieve his distress by drinking of the first water he meets, without regarding its purity. Your acknowledgment that it is possible even for a Bishop to err in matters of religion, gives me real pleasure. To consider our creed as a matter that admits of doubt, is a great step in the road of truth. You say, "May God forgive him that is in an error." Your wish is humane; but, if God be the Creator of mankind, he cannot be offended at the conclusions we may draw, after having employed the faculties he has given us. I wish too that mankind should forgive them that are in an error; but, I hope, they will recollect the long sway of superstition, and its danger to mankind; may they decide in favour of that system which is conformable to reason, and has the greatest tendency to improve society!
You next proceed to show the propriety of the angel ordering Moses to pull off his shoes, which you say is a mark of reverence to God. Is it then by such ridiculous customs that you reconcile your omnipotent and all-wise God? Too long have men substituted rites for morality. O superstition! that makes the Asiatics eat the excrements of the lama, the Papists devour their God; that persuades all Christians that water washeth away sin; and, that if a child happens to die before his face is sprinkled, he must inevitably suffer everlasting torments: led by this, men despise society, and tremble at ceremonies invented by their priests.
I shall not go at great length into the particular contradictions which are found in the enumeration of the families that returned from Babylon. There certainly are great mistakes in the sums; and where precision was to be expected more than in any thing preserved in the record of the people of God, we find them committing the most gross errors, even when they attempt to be peculiarly exact. It is curious, that the individual sums are altogether different in the different accounts, and, therefore, that there must have been a much greater number of errors than you would persuade your readers.
You come to the book of Job; and confine your remarks to disprove the objection of Mr. Paine, drawn from the name Satan, which, he says, is there for the first and only time mentioned in the Bible. Your answer, that it is repeatedly to be found elsewhere in the Old Testament, is just but it certainly does not prove Job to be a Jewish book. We know that Sathan, as well as the names of all the angels, are Chaldean; and as I have already shown, that the Scriptures are compilations written after the captivity, it is not wonderful that this name, together with many others, should be found in the Hebrew Bible. As you say nothing in favour of the book of Job, I shall only observe, that it is not only the opinion of Abenezra, but even of Jerome, the author of the Vulgate, that it is not a Hebrew book, the idiom being in many instances altogether different from the style of that language, and very frequently bearing marks of its Arabic and Syriac origin, as the reader may see in his preface to Job in the Vulgate edition of the Bible. The resemblance between Job's Satan and Momus is so striking, that we cannot help recognising the author to have been a Gentile; and thus are the Jews deprived of a book, which, at least, contains no murders, and shows more knowledge than that nation ever possessed. Your remark as to the generality of the belief of a benevolent and a malevolent being, certainly does not prove that the Gentiles borrowed this notion from the Jews; you ought to have known history better, and that the wars of the Gods and angels formed part of the creed of many nations, not only before a book of the Bible existed, but even before the birth of Moses. Dionysius and Osiris had already fought against the evil genii: the famous Vishnu has been from the highest antiquity the enemy of Chiven. That the numerous mythological systems which have ever existed, sprang from the report of the fathers of the Jewish nation, may appear probable to a clergyman; it is but a pious whim; to me it is a proof, that all religious systems have sprung from the fancy of men. The philosophers among the heathens understood by the evil and bad genii nothing more than the influence of the good or bad seasons, which, personified by ignorant or cunning priests, have by the vulgar been deemed real personages. Besides, where do you find in the Pentateuch any accounts of the Devil? I only see the serpent, an emblem I have already said, copied from the Egyptians, but by the Jews considered a real snake, which talked and walked upright. It was but a poor imitation of the Ahrimanes of Zoroaster.
Concerning the utility of prayers, and the tendency of those of the Jews, I shall say nothing. It is a certain fact, that Solomon, the wisest of men, and who made excellent prayers, killed his brother; while many of those heathen tribes, abhorred by the Jews, had no other crime than to adore images; and, if superstition among them sometimes produced the abominable practice of human sacrifices, they never carried their piety so far as to exterminate whole nations. Besides, the Jews had not even a pretence to despise their neighbours for offering human sacrifices. The case of Jephtha shows plainly that this barbarity was common among God's people. I am utterly surprised at your misplaced exclamations upon the morality of the heathens. Far be it from me to stand forward as the patron of heathenish superstition; it is the mother of ours, and I abhor the common stock; but, my Lord, you ought not to confound the rites of the Greeks with their morals. The Athenians possessed virtues which we in vain look for among the despicable Jews. They possessed knowledge, and their philosophers had more sense than to believe the tales of the priests. Epicurus taught peaceably, and was revered by all, while the vulgar of his country firmly believed their mythology. Such an instance never happened among the Jews. Jehovah would quickly have sent a plague among Epicurus and his followers, or ordered his priests "to kill every one his neighbour and his friend, and hang them up before the sun." Your holy brethren would think nothing of a burning match on the occasion; if it were in your power, atheists would not exist long. But you talk so confidently of the adoration of images among the Gentiles, that we would imagine the Jews were all philosophers. Do you forget their reverence to the holy of holies, which none could approach; the ark of the covenant, and the calves? Or has the story of the five golden mice, for looking at which fifty thousand and three score and ten Israelites were smote by the Lord, escaped you?
Your rhapsody upon the sublimity of Bible composition, and its superiority to all profane writers, is a proof of the strength of early imbibed prejudice. I lament to see a man of your learning think so much like an old woman. The proverbs, to be sure, are wonderful compositions, and prove the great gift of wisdom bestowed by God upon Solomon! What indeed can be more sublime than the following, which I beg leave to add to the specimens given by your Lordship! "The horse leech hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea four things say not it is enough; the grave, and the barren womb, the earth that is not filled with water, and the fire that saith not it is enough."—"There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea four which I know not; the way of an eagle in the air, the way of a serpent upon the rock, the way of a ship in the midst of the sea, and the way of a man with a maid."—"There be three things which go well, a greyhound, an he-goat also, and a king."—"It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the honour of kings is to search out a matter."—"When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee, and put a knife to thy throat if thou be a man given to appetite."—"Buy the truth, and sell it not."—"A whore is a deep ditch, and a strange woman is a narrow pit."—Excellent Solomon! Hear also this wise king in Song of Songs. "How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince's daughter! The joints of thy thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a cunning workman; thy-navel is like a round goblet which wanteth not liquor; thy belly is like a heap of wheat set about with lilies; thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins; thy neck is as a tower of ivory; thine eyes like the fish pools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bath-rabbim; thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon, which looketh towards Damascus." Whether this alludes to one of Solomon's concubines, or our mother, the church of Jesus Christ, the expressions are equally applicable, beautiful, and simple; they are worthy of a man "wiser than Ethan the Ezrehite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mehol," who, I dare say, were wise men. Upon the whole, I agree with you, that Solomon, the illustrious offspring of the man after God's own heart and the virtuous Bathsheba, was not "a witty jester." As to what you call his "sins and debaucheries," these holy books were certainly not written with a view to make us avoid them. Solomon is set before us as a pattern of wisdom and goodness; and the number of his wives and concubines is exultingly recorded as a proof of his greatness, as much as his treasures, which exceed all conception, and the number of his horses, which exceed all belief.