AGE of REASON: CHAPTER I - THE AUTHOR'S PROFESSION OF FAITH.

IT has been my intention, for several years past, to publish my thoughts upon religion; I am well aware of the difficulties that attend the subject, and from that consideration, had reserved it to a more advanced period of life. I intended it to be the last offering I should make to my fellow-citizens of all nations, and that at a time when the purity of the motive that induced me to it could not admit of a question, even by those who might disapprove the work.

The circumstance that has now taken place in France, of the total abolition of the whole national order of priesthood, and of everything appertaining to compulsive systems of religion, and compulsive articles of faith, has not only precipitated my intention, but rendered a work of this kind exceedingly necessary, lest, in the general wreck of superstition, of false systems of government, and false theology, we lose sight of morality, of humanity, and of the theology that is true.

As several of my colleagues, and others of my fellow-citizens of France, have given me the example of making their voluntary and individual profession of faith, I also will make mine; and I do this with all that sincerity and frankness with which the mind of man communicates with itself.

I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life.

I believe the equality of man, and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy.

But, lest it should be supposed that I believe many other things in addition to these, I shall, in the progress of this work, declare the things I do not believe, and my reasons for not believing them.

I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.

All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.

I do not mean by this declaration to condemn those who believe otherwise; they have the same right to their belief as I have to mine. But it is necessary to the happiness of man, that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.

It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, if I may so express it, that mental lying has produced in society. When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind, as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe, he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime. He takes up the trade of a priest for the sake of gain, and, in order to qualify himself for that trade, he begins with a perjury. Can we conceive anything more destructive to morality than this?

Soon after I had published the pamphlet COMMON SENSE, in America, I saw the exceeding probability that a revolution in the system of government would be followed by a revolution in the system of religion. The adulterous connection of church and state, wherever it had taken place, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, had so effectually prohibited, by pains and penalties, every discussion upon established creeds, and upon first principles of religion, that until the system of government should be changed, those subjects could not be brought fairly and openly before the world; but that whenever this should be done, a revolution in the system of religion would follow. Human inventions and priest-craft would be detected; and man would return to the pure, unmixed, and unadulterated belief of one God, and no more.

 

AGE of REASON: CHAPTER II - OF MISSIONS AND REVELATIONS.

EVERY national church or religion has established itself by pretending some special mission from God, communicated to certain individuals. The Jews have their Moses; the Christians their Jesus Christ, their apostles and saints; and the Turks their Mahomet; as if the way to God was not open to every man alike.
Each of those churches shows certain books, which they call revelation, or the Word of God. The Jews say that their Word of God was given by God to Moses face to face; the Christians say, that their Word of God came by divine inspiration; and the Turks say, that their Word of God (the Koran) was brought by an angel from heaven. Each of those churches accuses the other of unbelief; and, for my own part, I disbelieve them all.
As it is necessary to affix right ideas to words, I will, before I proceed further into the subject, offer some observations on the word 'revelation.' Revelation when applied to religion, means something communicated immediately from God to man.
No one will deny or dispute the power of the Almighty to make such a communication if he pleases. But admitting, for the sake of a case, that something has been revealed to a certain person, and not revealed to any other person, it is revelation to that person only. When he tells it to a second person, a second to a third, a third to a fourth, and so on, it ceases to be a revelation to all those persons. It is revelation to the first person only, and hearsay to every other, and, consequently, they are not obliged to believe it.
It is a contradiction in terms and ideas to call anything a revelation that comes to us at second hand, either verbally or in writing. Revelation is necessarily limited to the first communication. After this, it is only an account of something which that person says was a revelation made to him; and though he may find himself obliged to believe it, it cannot be incumbent on me to believe it in the same manner, for it was not a revelation made to me, and I have only his word for it that it was made to him.
When Moses told the children of Israel that he received the two tables of the commandments from the hand of God, they were not obliged to believe him, because they had no other authority for it than his telling them so; and I have no other authority for it than some historian telling me so, the commandments carrying no internal evidence of divinity with them. They contain some good moral precepts such as any man qualified to be a lawgiver or a legislator could produce himself, without having recourse to supernatural intervention
When I am told that the Koran was written in Heaven, and brought to Mahomet by an angel, the account comes to near the same kind of hearsay evidence and second hand authority as the former. I did not see the angel myself, and therefore I have a right not to believe it.
When also I am told that a woman, called the Virgin Mary, said, or gave out, that she was with child without any cohabitation with a man, and that her betrothed husband, Joseph, said that an angel told him so, I have a right to believe them or not: such a circumstance required a much stronger evidence than their bare word for it: but we have not even this; for neither Joseph nor Mary wrote any such matter themselves. It is only reported by others that they said so. It is hearsay upon hearsay, and I do not chose to rest my belief upon such evidence.

Becoming Enlightened

The Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, was a vast intellectual movement that took place during the 17^th and 18^th centuries and profoundly influenced how people (particularly intellectuals) perceived both the world and humanity’s place in the world. As a way of perceiving, the Enlightenment was manifested in art, politics, religion, education, science, and economics. The movement advocated rationality—the use of reason—as a means to discover knowledge, ethics, and aesthetics. Believing that the world had for too long suffered in ignorance, superstition, and tyranny, Enlightenment thinkers urged to use of reason to move humanity out of fear and irrationality.

Throughout the 1500s and 1600s, Europe had been ravaged by religious wars. After so much suffering caused by religious sectarianism, there was an upheaval which overturned the notions of mysticism and faith in individual revelation as the primary source of knowledge and wisdom. By using reason, human beings could discover knowledge for themselves. Creation was not perceived as being mysterious and unknowable. Thus the Enlightenment was an age of optimism, believing that progress was inevitable.

Sir Isaac Newton became the great hero of the Enlightenment. Using scientific observation and experimentation, Newton popularized the notion that there were “natural laws” that governed the universe—and that by using reason individuals could discover these laws. The Enlightenment stressed that the world was comprehensible and orderly. As a religious philosophy, deism stressed that the Creator could best be perceived by studying creation—not through centuries-old revelations. God was perceived as the divine and benevolent clockmaker.

In his 1784 essay, “What is Enlightenment?” Immanuel Kant stated:

Enlightenment is man’s leaving his self-caused immaturity. Immaturity is the

incapacity to use one’s own understanding without guidance of another. Such

immaturity is self-caused if its cause is not lack of intelligence, but by lack of

determination and courage to use one’s intelligence without being guided by

another.

A Witch Trial at Mount Holly

Burlington, Oct. 12. Saturday last at Mount-Holly, about 8 Miles from this Place, near 300 People were gathered together to see an Experiment or two tried on some Persons accused of Witchcraft. It seems the Accused had been charged with making their Neighbours Sheep dance in an uncommon Manner, and with causing Hogs to speak, and sing Psalms, &c. to the great Terror and Amazement of the King’s good and peaceable Subjects in this Province; and the Accusers being very positive that if the Accused were weighed in Scales against a Bible, the Bible would prove too heavy for them; or that, if they were bound and put into the River, they would swim; the said Accused desirous to make their Innocence appear, voluntarily offered to undergo the said Trials, if 2 of the most violent of their Accusers would be tried with them.

Accordingly the Time and Place was agreed on, and advertised about the Country; The Accusers were 1 Man and 1 Woman; and the Accused the same. The Parties being met, and the People got together, a grand Consultation was held, before they proceeded to Trial; in which it was agreed to use the Scales first; and a Committee of Men were appointed to search the Men, and a Committee of Women to search the Women, to see if they had any Thing of Weight about them, particularly Pins. After the Scrutiny was over, a huge great Bible belonging to the Justice of the Place was provided, and a Lane through the Populace was made from the Justices House to the Scales, which were fixed on a Gallows erected for that Purpose opposite to the House, that the Justice’s Wife and the rest of the Ladies might see the Trial, without coming amongst the Mob; and after the Manner of Moorfields, a large Ring was also made. Then came out of the House a grave tall Man carrying the Holy Writ before the supposed Wizard, &c. (as solemnly as the Sword-bearer of London before the Lord Mayor) the Wizard was first put in the Scale, and over him was read a Chapter out of the Books of Moses, and then the Bible was put in the other Scale, (which being kept down before) was immediately let go; but to the great Surprize of the Spectators, Flesh and Bones came down plump, and outweighed that great good Book by abundance. After the same Manner, the others were served, and their Lumps of Mortality severally were too heavy for Moses and all the Prophets and Apostles.

This being over, the Accusers and the rest of the Mob, not satisfied with this Experiment, would have the Trial by Water; accordingly a most solemn Procession was made to the Mill-pond; where both Accused and Accusers being stripp’d (saving only to the Women their Shifts) were bound Hand and Foot, and severally placed in the Water, lengthways, from the Side of a Barge or Flat, having for Security only a Rope about the Middle of each, which was held by some in the Flat. The Accuser Man being thin and spare, with some Difficulty began to sink at last; but the rest every one of them swam very light upon the Water. A Sailor in the Flat jump’d out upon the Back of the Man accused, thinking to drive him down to the Bottom, but the Person bound, without any Help, came up some time before the other. The Woman Accuser, being told that she did not sink, would be duck’d a second Time; when she swam again as light as before. Upon which she declared, That she believed the Accused had bewitched her to make her so light, and that she would be duck’d again a Hundred Times, but she would duck the Devil out of her. The accused Man, being surpriz’d at his own Swimming, was not so confident of his Innocence as before, but said, If I am a Witch, it is more than I know. The more thinking Part of the Spectators were of Opinion, that any Person so bound and plac’d in the Water (unless they were mere Skin and Bones) would swim till their Breath was gone, and their Lungs fill’d with Water. But it being the general Belief of the Populace, that the Womens Shifts, and the Garters with which they were bound help’d to support them; it is said they are to be tried again the next warm Weather, naked.

The Witch Trial at Mount Holly

On October 22, 1730 an article appeared in the Pennsylvania Gazette describing a witch trial that had recently been held in Mount Holly near Burlington, New Jersey.

Remarkable Providence Narratives

In a book of sermons, A Call from Heaven (1679), Increase Mather stated: "there should be a Collection of Special Providences of God towards his New England People; and that Memorials being duly communicated, a History should be compiled according to Truth, for the benefit of Posterity, that they might see how God hath been with their Fathers, in laying the Foundation of the Churches, and of the Common-Wealth."

In May, 1681, Increase Mather sent out "some Proposals" for "the RECORDING of ILLUSTRIOUS PROVIDENCES" to the ministers of New England:

1. In order to the promoting of a design of this nature, so as shall be indeed for Gods Glory, and the good of Posterity, it is necessary that utmost care shall be taken that All, and Only Remarkable Providences be Recorded and Published.

2. Such Divine Judgments, Tempests, Floods, Earth-quakes, Thunders as are unusual, strange Apparitions, or whatever else shall happen that is Prodigious, Witchcrafts, Diabolical Possessions, Remarkable Judgments upon noted Sinners: eminent Deliverances, and Answers to Prayers, are to be reckoned among Illustrious Providences . . .

5. It is therefore Proposed that the Elders may conjure in desiring some one that hath Leisure and Ability for the management of such an undertaking, with all convenient speed . . .

from Cotton Mather's Introduction in Magnalia :

"to regard the illustrious Displays of that PROVIDENCE wherewith our Lord CHRIST governs the World, is a Work, than which there is none more Needful or Useful for a Christian."

"But whether New England may live any where else or no, it must live in our History!"

from Increase Mather's Doctrine of Divine Providences (1684) (a book of six sermons):

"the God of Heaven has an over-ruling hand of Providence in whatever cometh to Pass in this World"

"the Lord in Heaven knows all that is done upon the Earth . . . [and He] is everywhere present . . . in all Places"

"there is a holy Decree and Predetermination in Heaven concerning all things which come to pass in the World"

Providence is "an Ancient, Eternal, Unchangeable decree of Heaven . . . It is extended unto all places of the world and unto all Creatures"

"To the sparrows, and to every single sparrow, not one of them is kill'd without the ordering hand of divine Providence."

"there are some events of providence in which there is a special hand of Heaven ordering of them."

"extraordinary mercies" and "extraordinary judgments"

Increase Mather's An Essay for the Reording of Illustrious Providences was published in 1684. The book was praised and remained popular, becoming an early American bestseller. During its first year An Essay was reprinted three times (twice in Boston and once in London). Later it was republished in part or in full throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Errand into the Wilderness—From Selfless to Selfish?

In his famous lay sermon, John Winthrop warned that, if they failed to carry out God's errand to establish His kingdom on earth, the Puritans should expect divine wrath and retribution. By the latter third of the seventeenth century, it seemed apparent to the ministers of New England that God was indeed angry with the Puritans. During the 1660s and 1670s ministers throughout New England delivered a series of jeremiads (sermons lamenting New England's failings and calling for its repentance). These sermons castigated the people of New England for having defaulted on their covenant with God. As proof of God's wrath, the ministers cited a long list of afflictions that an angry God had given to New England: crop failures, epidemics, grasshoppers, caterpillars, torrid summers, Arctic winters, Indian wars, hurricanes, shipwrecks, accidents (esp. fires), and (most grievous of all) unsatisfactory children. Several large events particularly had great impact on the spirit of New England's ministers: the Restoration of the monarchy and the accession of Charles II (1660), the adoption of the "Half-Way" Covenant (1662), King Philip's War (1675-1676), and the loss of Massachusetts' original charter and its becoming a royal colony (1684).

In 1679 the clergy and lay elders of Massachusetts met in a formal synod in Boston to discuss "The Necessity of Reformation." Under the leadership of Increase Mather, the synod investigated the reasons for New England's afflications, and upon completion it published a long and detailed list of sins of omission and commission:

1. there was a great and visible decay of godliness;

2. there were overt manifestations of pride--contention in churches, insubordination of inferiors towards superiors, particularly of those inferiors who had, unaccountable, acquired more wealth than their betters, and, astonishingly, a shocking extravagance in attire, especially on the part of the meaner sort who persisted in dressing beyond their means.

3. there were outbreaks of heresies and heretics, especially Quakers and Anabaptists.

4. there was a notable increase in swearing and a spreading disposition to sleep at sermons.

5. the Sabbath was wantonly violated.

6. family government had decayed, and fathers no longer kept their sons and daughters from prowling at night.

7. instead of people being knit together in mutual love, they were full of contention, so that lawsuits were on the increase and lawyers were thriving.

8. the egregious sins of sex and alcohol were becoming widespread: militia days had become orgies, taverns were crowded; women threw open temptation in the way of befuddled men by wearing false locks and displaying naked necks and arms, or, which is most abominable, naked breasts; there were mixed dancings, along with light behavior and company-keeping with vain persons, wherefore the bastardy rate was rising. (In 1672 there was actually an attempt to establish a brothel in Boston.)

9. New Englanders were betraying a marked disposition to tell lies, especially when selling anything.

10. the business morality had declined.

11. the people showed no disposition to reform.

12. the people seemed utterly destitute of civic spirit.

Most ministers generally believed that the people of New England had forsaken their original errand for God in favor of a more personal, selfish errand.

--from Perry Miller, "Errand into the Wilderness"