sion of his Essay on the Immutability of Truth, speaking of Sceptics and Deists, very justly remarks:-" Caressed by those who call themselves the great, engrossed by the formalities and fopperies of life, intoxicated with vanity, pampered with adulation, dissipated in the tumult of business, or amidst the vicissitudes of folly, they perhaps have little need and little relish for the consolations of religion. But let them know, that in the solitary scenes of life there is many an honest and tender heart pining with incurable anguish, pierced with the sharpest sting of disappointment, bereft of friends, chilled with poverty, racked with disease, scourged by the oppressor, whom nothing but trust in Providence, and the hope of a future retribution, could preserve from the ago nies of despair. And do they with sacrilegious hands attempt to violate this last refuge of the miserable, and to rob them of the only comfort that had survived the ravages of misfortune, malice, and tyranny? Did it ever happen that the influence of their tenets disturbed the tranquillity of virtuous retirement, deepened the gloom of human distress, or aggravated the horrors of the grave? Ye traitors to human kind! ye murderers of the human soul! how can ye answer for it to your own hearts? Surely every spark of your generosity is extinguished for ever, if this consi deration do not awaken in you the keenest res

morse." Some strictures, on the nature and prevalence of modern Deism, are contained in the present Bishop of London's Charge to the Clergy for the year 1794. Indeed all the writings of this prelate have a pious, liberal, and useful tendency.

THEOPHILANTHROPISTS.

THE Theophilanthropists are a kind of Deists arisen in France during the revolution. Mr. Thomas Paine figured amongst them for some time, and even delivered a discourse before them on the principles, &c. of this system, which was afterwards established. Since the return of Poperyunder Buonaparte, they are said to be nearly annihilated; at least they by no means attract so much of the public attention. The name by which they stand distinguished, is a compound term derived from the Greek, and intimates that they profess to adore God and love their fellowcreatures. Their common principle is a belief in the existence, perfections, and providence of God, and in the doctrine of a future life; and their rule of morals is, love to God and good-will to men. Dr. John Walker, a medical gentleman, author of the Universal Gazetteer, published the manual of the sect, from which a few particulars shall be extracted

"The temple, the most worthy of the divinity, in the eyes of the Theophilanthropists, is the universe. Abandoned sometimes under the vault of heaven to the contemplation of the beauties of nature, they render its author the homage of adoration and gratitude. They nevertheless have temples erected by the hands of men, in which it is more commodious for them to assemble to listen to lessons concerning his wisdom. Certain moral inscriptions, a simple altar on which they deposit, as a sign of gratitude for the benefits of the Creator, such flowers or fruits as the seasons afford, and a tribune for the lectures and discourses, form the whole of the ornaments of their temples.

"The first inscription placed above the altar, recalls to remembrance the two religious dogmas, which are the foundation of their moral.

"First Inscription.

'We believe in the existence of a God, in the immortality of the soul.

"Second Inscription.

"Worship God, cherish your kind, render yourselves useful to your country.

"Third Inscription.

"Good is every thing which tends to the preservation or the perfection of man.

"Evil is every thing which tends to destroy or deteriorate him.

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"Fourth Inscription.

"Children, honour your fathers and mothers. Obey them with affection. Comfort their old age.

"Fathers and mothers, instruct your children. "Fifth Inscription.

"Wives, regard in your husbands the chiefs of your houses.

"Husbands, love your wives, and render yourselves reciprocally happy.

"The assembly sits to hear lessons or discourses on morality, principles of religion, of benevolence, and of universal salvation, principles equally remote from the severity of Stoicism and Epicurean indolence. These lectures and discourses are diversified by hymns. Their assemblies are holden on the first day of the week, and on the decades." Mr. Belsham, in his answer to Mr. Wilberforce, speaking of this new French sect of Deists, remarks-" Its professed principles comprehend the essence of the Christian religion; but not admitting the resurrection of Christ, the Theophilanthropists deprive themselves of the only solid ground on which to build the hope of a future existence."

The concluding part of the manual of the Theophilanthropists being still further explanatory of their tenets and conduct, shall be here introduced:-" If any one ask you what is the

origin of your religion and of your worship, you can answer him thus:-Open the most ancient books which are known, seek there what was the religion, what the worship of the first human beings of which history has preserved the remembrance. There you will see that their religion was what we now call natural religion, because it has for its principle even the Author of nature. It is he that has engraven it in the heart of the first human beings, in ours, in that of all the inhabitants of the earth: this religion, which consists in worshipping God and cherishing our kind, is what we express by one single word, that of Theophilanthropy. Thus our religion is that of our first parents; it is yours; it is ours; it is the universal religion. As to our worship, it is also that of our first fathers. even in the most ancient writings, that the exterior signs by which they rendered their homage to the Creator, were of great simplicity. They dressed for him an altar of earth, they offered him, in sign of their gratitude and of their submission, some of the productions which they held of his liberal hand. The fathers exhorted their children to virtue; they all encouraged one another under the auspices of the Divinity to the accomplishment of their duties. This simple worship, the sages of all nations have not ceased

See