The New Gospel

In the infancy of new religions, the wise and learned commonly esteem the matter too inconsiderable to deserve their attention or regard.  And when afterwards they would willingly detect the cheat in order to undeceive the deluded multitude, the season is now past, and the records and witnesses, which might clear up the matter, have perished beyond recovery.

Survey most nations and most ages.  Examine the religious principles, which have, in fact, prevailed in the world.  You will scarcely be persuaded, that they are any thing but sick men’s dreams:  Or perhaps will regard them more as the playsome whimsies of monkeys in human shape, than the serious, positive, dogmatical asservations of a being, who dignifies himself with the name of rational.  

The primary religion of mankind arises chiefly from an anxious fear of future events; and what ideas will naturally be entertained of invisible, unknown powers, while men lie under dismal apprehensions of any kind, may easily be conceived.  Every image of vengeance, severity, cruelty, and malice must occur, and must augment the ghastliness and horror which oppresses the amazed religionist.  A panic having once seized the mind, the active fancy still farther multiplies the objects of terror.

The heart [of the believer] secretly detests such measures of cruel and implacable vengeance, but the judgment dares not but pronounce them perfect and adorable.  And the additional misery of this inward struggle aggravates all other terrors by which these unhappy victims to superstition are forever haunted. 

Here then we are first to consider a book [the Torah], presented to us by a barbarous and ignorant people [the Jews], written in an age when they were still more barbarous, and in all probability long after the facts which it relates, corroborated by no concurring testimony, and resembling those fabulous accounts, which every nation gives of its origin.  Upon reading this book, we find it full of prodigies and miracles.  It gives an account of a state of the world and of human nature entirely different from the present:  Of our fall from that state: Of the age of man, extended to near a thousand years: Of the destruction of the world by a deluge: Of the arbitrary choice of one people, as the favorites of heaven; and that people the countrymen of the author: Of their deliverance from bondage by prodigies the most astonishing imaginable: I desire anyone to lay his hand upon his heart, and after a serious consideration declare, whether he thinks that the falsehood of such a book, supported by such a testimony, would be more extraordinary and miraculous than all the miracles it relates; which is, however, necessary to make it be received.

No testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous.

One day, a priest, it is said, gave inadvertently, instead of the sacrament, a counter, which had by accident fallen among the holy wafers.  The communicant waited patiently for some time, expecting it would dissolve on his tongue; but finding that it still remained entire, he took it off.  “I wish,” cried he to the priest, “you have not committed some mistake.  I wish you have not given me God the Father: He is so hard and tough there is no swallowing him.”

The greater part of mankind are naturally apt to be affirmative and dogmatical in their opinions … nor have they any indulgence for those who entertain opposite sentiments … But could such dogmatical reasoners become sensible of the strange infirmities of human understanding, even in its most perfect state, and when most accurate and cautious in its determinations; such a reflection would naturally inspire them with more modesty and reserve …