abandon their unfinished trophies to the foe. While they are under the influence of this panic, it is perhaps ungenerous in me to attack them, but hoping they may recover their courage, I here throw down the gauntlet, aud candidly declare, without fear or temerity, that, if the clergy will set aside the aid of the civil power, so that I may engage with them upon an equality, I will stand forward as the advocate of pure monotheism, will overthrow every other system that may be opposed to it, even though the Archbishop of Canterbury himself should be the advocate of that system, and will prove that every thing which goes beyond natural religion, is injurious or indifferent to mankind. Hoping from my soul that the clergy may accept this challenge, and thus give me an opportunity of defending publicly the liberty of thinking on matters of religion, I remain, Your most affectionate Fellow-Citizen, SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR Mr. CARLILE. 0 a SUBSCRIPTION received by Mr. Carlile in the King's Bench Prison, but omifted in the insertions in conse quence of his hasty removal. A few Mechanics 19s 3d Subscribed by a few well wishers, of Civil and Reli gious Liberty, at Crayford... PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTIONS RELATIVE Never presume to make a God appear, Roscommon. JOB says, " canst thou by searching find out God?eanst, thou find out the Almighty to perfection." Put these questions to a philosopher, he will feel himself somewhat embarrassed; yet there is not a priest in, the present day, from a bishop to a field-preacher, but what would answer them without the least hesitation; they have nothing more to do than to turn to the bible, which proves all things necessary for a priest. They have only to look at Genesis, chap. 6. ver. 3. There the Lord says, my spirit shall not always strive against man, for that he also is flesh. Here he is described at once to be flesh and blood like unto man; the same chapter also informs us that he had sons that were flesh and blood also, and fell in love with the daughters of men, and they bare children unto them, and they become mighty men, which were of old, men of renown. The story then goes on and says that the Lord repented that he had made man, and makes up his mind to drown the whole world; nothing is mentioned of the corruption of mankind until this commerce of the sons of God. I dont know how far it may be consistent with the moral justice of God in the eyes of a Christian, but if we may be allowed human reasoning, the sons of God ought to have been drowned, lest they should run astray again in the new world. If we could believe this childish story to be true, we might infer that they have, as this new world is as corrupt as the old one. To finish this immoral tale, it is necessary to refer to a very ancient book, said to be the book of Enoch, where we find the names of the giants, their leaders, &c. Semiaxas their prince said to them, I fear that you will not have courage to accomplish such a design, and I alone shall remain charged with the crime. Upon which all answered, let us bind ourselves by an oath, to execute our design, and may we be accursed if we fail therein. They then joined together in an oath and in making im precations. They were 200 in number, they set out together at the time of Jared, and went up to the mountain which is called Hermonim, on account of their oath, The names of their leaders are as follows; Semiaxas, Atatculph, Arakel, Parmar, Thausel, Samiel, Tiniel, and Sumiel. These and the rest took themselves wives in the year 1170 from the creation of the world, this commerce produced three kinds of men, the Giants, Naphilim, &c. It is true that the bible does not contain this quotation, but it manifestly sanctions it in the chapter aliuded to, which appears, as it stands in the bible, to be`only a fragment, thus it is evident the bible supports the doctrine of Polytheism, the Unity, and Trinity of God; this book we are expected to believe, notwithstanding all these contradictions. It is enough to say that the priest says it is true, and we ought not to examine for ourselves, for when the priest speaks, reason must be silent; and when the church speaks the philosopher must be silent also. We might suppose that the priests of all ages and countries studied how they should degrade the Almighty; they seem to have studied to outdo each other, in making him the most ridiculous character that the human mind can suggest. Look into the history of what nation you will, you will find the same propensity amongst all the priests. The sect of Laotze, say his mother became pregnant by a junction of heaven and earth, and was pregnant fourscore years with him, he was born with white hair and promulgated his doctrine on a black cow. The God Fo, had a white elephant for his father, and pro- mises immortal life. Sammono-codom came down to fly a kite among the Siam ese, and Camis went from the moon to visit Japan. These are the impositions of designing priests, to keep mankind in darkness and slavery; these are the people that are to be kept in idleness, and live on the vitals of their fellow creatures, to preach up these idle tales. To deny them, you would have been in danger of your life; not to believe them is blasphemy; but to invent them and promulgate them is divine, because they were invented by priests. Can there be any-thing more degrading to the Almighty than these blasphemous tales, yet such is the weakness of the human mind, that while it suffers itself to be priest-ridden, it never attempts to exercise its own reason, it gives implicit belief to every thing that comes from the mouth of a priest, and would take the life of any one that would oppose their credulity. The covetousness of the priests at the time of the Lacede monians was so great, that Lycurgus made a law that every one should serve the gods with as little expense as possible, alledging fora reason, that the service of the gods would be intermitted, for he feared if religion should be expensive, that the divine worship out of covetuousness of some, and the poverty of others, would be neglected. Kingsland. ; D. FRIEND. P. S. Simonides being asked by Dionysius, what God was, desired a day's time to consider of it before he made. reply; when the day was expired he desired two days, and afterwards, instead of returning his answer, demanded still double the time to consider of it. This great philosopher, the more he contemplated the nature of the Deity, found that he waded but the more out of his depth, and that he lost himself in the thought, instead of finding an end of it. DEAR MADAM, TO MRS. CARLILE. I beg your acceptance of the enclosed five shillings, and when circumstances will permit, you may rely on my puisne aid I am, dear Madam, December 24, 1819. Your well wisher, Q. R. S. TO MR. CARLILE. SIR, HAVING observed in your Republican of Friday last, a proposal to pay your Fine by a Subscription of a Penny a Week. If such proposal, (or any similar one) should be adopted, I, together with some of my friends, are willing to pay the first year's subscription in advance; and have no doubt but that such example would be pretty generally followed by those persons (not a few in number,) who approve your conduct: but think it would be necessary, to ensure its success, to open a house in some public part of the town (yours, for instance, in Fleet Street) for receiving them, I am, December 27, 1819. Sir, W. S. MADAM, TO MRS. CARLILE. Had there existed in this country any number of perSons truly animated with the spirit and feelings of the amiable founder of the Christian faith, neither your husband, nor his ruined family, could long have remained in the state of forlorn misery, to which I fear you are now reduced. Your salvation not only in this world, but the next, must ere now have roused every true believer in Jesus to hold out the olivebranch of peace and charity as the best and only means of convincing you and yours that truth and humanity were the grand pillars of our Church and State, but alas! how few in this great metropolis can boast of any thing, beyond the name of Christians? All I have to say for myself is, that I am a man, and in that humble capacity alone, now beg your acceptance of the enclosed one pound note, which with equal pleasure I would encrease to a thousand, were it in my power to devote such a sum to any other purpose than my own support, aud the maintenance of numerous relatives, and dependents, in my domestic circle. I am a decided foe to every species of persecution, and shall ever continue, so far as self-preservation will admit, the firm friend and sincere well-wisher of every honest victim to hypocritical power, which I conceive Mr. Carlile, yourself, and his innocent little ones all are. Be of good cheer-you may live to see better days, when people will not be afraid of telling their names as your friends. Yours faithfully, A FELLOW-CREATURE. TO THE EDITOR OF THE REPUBLICAN. Glasgow, Dec. 22, 1819. DEAR SIR, I have to inform you that both my wife and I were served with an indictment on Monday last to stand our trial before the lords Justiciary at Edinburgh on the 6th of January next, for circulating or causing to be circulated seditious and blasphemous publications The ones fixed upon, and from which large extracts are taken, were the Republican, Nos. 12 and 13, especially No. 12; the Dwarf, Nos. 41 and 44, especially No. 41, and a copy of Paine's Age of Reason. So that whatever may be the issue, we will be put to an immense deal of trouble and expense, which I am not able to bear, besides it is generally allowed here I need have little hope from a Scotch jury. I wish you could on receipt of this |