ble, that "the conftitution of government, formed "by it, should place them in fuch a state of peace and happiness, that they fhould never again fuffer "themselves to be oppreffed or degraded by tyranny;" when the authors of it knew, in their hearts, that the fyftem of government they meant to eftablish, would fubject them to a much greater tyranny, than that which they profeffed to relieve them from, and to greater injuftice and mifchief, than they could have experienced even in a state of nature. In direct confirmation of this truth, have not the people of France, ever fince the commencement of the adminiftration, under this infidious "bill of rights," groaned, without hope of redress, under oppreffion unheard of, and defpotifm more extenfive and deftructive than ever before cursed any nation?

It holds out to the people, that "they "fhall be vefted with the fovereign power;" when they know that fovereign authority in the people was a delufive chimera, and as incompatible with the nature of civil fociety, as fire is with water, or truth with falfehood; and that it was equally impoffible for a fovereignty vefted in the populace, and a civil fociety, to exift together. And what share of the fovereign authority have the miferable people enjoyed? Not one iota. On the contrary, they have been oppreffed and diftreffed by a greater variety of laws, made without their confent; by public rapine and murders, and altogether by a dreadful havoc of the human race. It holds out to the people that they are, and fhall be, "above the law," even above all law, human and divine; when they knew, that men in fuch a ftate, from the nature and fitness of things, are and muft of neceffity be under the original law of God, and under

the

the direction of their reafon and confciences, rightly informed; and that in a fate of civil fociety, from a like neceffity, they must be subject to the laws of the ftate. How captivating, and yet how villainous the delufion! How wretchedly mistaken have the people found themselves! The rulers alone, with their brigands, have, indeed, been “above all law,” both of God and man; while, by their defpotic decrees, they have spread the wild-fire of rapine, confifcations, and death, over the whole country.

It holds out to the people "the rights of man," which they are affured they fhall poffefs, under the administration of this fundamental bafis of their affociation; and these are "liberty, equality, fafety, "and property." Of thefe in their order.

The "liberty," here promised, is as captivating as it is finful; and replete with the deepest deception. It confifts in a "right to do every thing," that the depraved will of man can fuggeft, with only one qualification, and that is, "that it fhall "not hurt the rights of other perfons ;" and thus they defignedly left wide open the door to every felf indulgence, to every kind of deftructive intemperance, and even to the black crime of fuicide; to the perpetration of the most flagrant and abominable fins; at the bare mention of which, reason, confcience, and decency, are confounded. They have, indeed, enjoyed ample and unrestrained liberty, until the land has been contaminated with all finful impurity, and luftful filth; a fecond Augæan ftable! But as to any degree of rational liberty, they have: not enjoyed the smallest portion imaginable, under the adminiftration of this delufive and iniquitous code: no liberty to worship God in any manner, Done to perform a duty to a parent, or to a child;

nor to protect an innocent and diftreffed ftranger; unless fuch parent, child, or firanger, was the devotee of the demon of revolution: and in that cafe, they were not only at liberty" to aid and comfort, but to unite with them in plundering and murdering all who prefumed to worship God; all fuch parents, children, and firangers, and all others who dared to speak against the bloody mea! fures of the revolution; infomuch, that it was lawful for a parent to deftroy the offspring of his loins, and for a child to plunge the dagger into the breaft of the venerable author of his existence with impunity, nay to be publicly honoured for the impious deed.

It further held out to the people the chimerical and fafcinating right of equality, declaring that "all "men are equal by nature;" when they must have known, from their philofophical researches (for it feems they were all philofophers), that the God of Nature, and the Univerfe, or (as they have rejected the name of God in their atheistical code, as well as in all their conduct) that Nature in all her works has delighted in infinite variety, equality, and fubordination, in every component part of her fyftem; and that there are no two ranks, nor any two fpecies in any rank, nor any two creatures in any fpecies of being, which are equal by nature, and much lefs the animal powers and intellectual faculties of any two men. And what have the people gained by believing this chimerical and fafcinating delufion? Have they been raised to the exalted rank and equality of kings, as they were taught to believe? Have they even retained that protection, juftice, and peace, which they before poffeffed, or might have poffeffed, even in a state of nature? No! But they have been degraded to a fate far below

that

that of the brute creation, and of unparalleled flavery, by a convention of atheistical defpots, altogether out of the reach of their fictitious fovereignty, and as much above them in power as the heaven is

above the earth.

It alfo profeffes to grant to each citizen "protec"tion, for the prefervation of his perfon and his pro"perty." Now in what has this protection, thus as fraudulently as folemnly promised, confifted? The experiment has been made, and the facts are before the world. It has confifted in unjust and arbitrary requifitions of their perfons; in cruel decrees, by which millions have been dragged, hand-cuffed, against their wills, into the field of battle and of death; in arbitrary tribunals, by which thoufands have been condemned to fuffer death without a trial, without a hearing, and without mercy; in affaffinations and murders of thoufands of men, women, and children, en maffe: and as to the folemn affurance, that the people fhould poffefs "the right of "difpofing of their property," their revenues, and the produce of their induftry, they have been fo far from receiving the promifed protection, against public and private rapine and deftruction, that their palaces, and other places of habitation, have been burnt, their forests proftrated, their fields laid waste, and their wealth arbitrarily taken from them, by public authority or connivance, by unjuft requifitions, confifcations, and forfeitures of all they poffeffed. From opulence they have been fuddenly reduced to poverty, and from poverty to abfolute want; while thousands of them, driven into the most diftreffing exile, are, at this moment, fubfifting upon the charitable alms of ftrangers, the melancholy and defponding fpectators of the ruin of their country! And all this ruin was effected by the authors, and under the authority of this detefiable unparalleled

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unparalleled code of civil polity; a code, in the compilation of which the wit and invention of all the authors combined, muft have exhaufted all their frauds and plans of villainy. Is not this the code of "all deceivableness of unrighteousness, and of the myftery of iniquity," defcribed and foretold by the apostle?

Again, the power foretold was "to come with all deceivableness of unrighteoufnefs in them that perish." Here is an evident allufion to the wretched fate, which has attended the principal au thors of the revolution. The apoftle, after having informed us, that it fhall come with all deceivableness of unrighteoufnefs," adds, " in them that "perifh;" or, in other words, in them that shall fuffer an exemplary death, as a juft judgment for thus deluding the people into utter ruin. The word "perish" can here mean nothing short of this. The apoftle could not mean thofe who fhould die a natural death: that is the fate of mankind in general, and therefore could be no mark, by which the Power might be diftinguished. Indeed, this application of the words, in them that perifh," feems fupported by the text itfelf, which refers and attaches them to the authors of all deceivableness

of unrighteoufneis," who, I have fhewn to be the revolutionitts. Now it is well known, that after it had pleafed God, in the course of his all righteous providence, to permit thofe demons of atheifm and revolution to come, as a fcourge to papal France (that ever proud, and afpiring, and corrupt nation; that reflefs disturber of the peace of Europe; that leader of every wanton, and lewd fashion; that feducer of mankind, into all manner of diffipation; that exemplar of iniquity; that fofter-nurse of papal apoftafy, and firfi great theatre of atheifm), he has not fuffered them to elude his juftice, after he had

permitted