as Diderot, one of the principal compilers, has inadvertently confeffed fince its publication, a gulf, o rather a rag basket, where they (the blafphemous compilers) promifcuoufly threw every thing half examined, ill digested, good, bad, and indifferent, but always incoherent.' In fhort, it was, and yet is an artful and chaotic mixture of grofs contradictions and impious errors and abfurdities, of deifm and atheifm, of fpirituality and materialifm, of liberty and fatalifin, of virtue and vice, of truth and falfehood, of religion and blafphemous impiety; in which the firft are flightly touched, or placed in the back ground, and in the darkest fhades, corrupted and perverted; while the laft are enforced upon the imagination, with all the management of cunning and deception. It was artfully calculated first to confound the human intellect, then to feduce it into fcepticifin; and afterwards to plunge it, thus bewildered, into the groffeft errors and the blackest impiety. It was a "bottomlefs pit," out of which we fhall prefently fee the revolutionary power of France, the true prototype of the "beaft afcending," and bringing with it all the means of impiety, defolation, anarchy, and ruin. From the fophifms and falfe doctrines of the Encyclopædia flowed a variety of tracts, or rather extracts of the fame impious nature and tendency. They were compiled by the different confpirators, revived by their fecret committee in their fecret clubs, and thence fecretly difperfed throughout France, and many other parts of Europe. In thefe extracts, the mifchievous and terrible effects of error and falfehood were fo artfully concealed, that kings, emperors, princes, nobles, men of letters, and from them down to the lowest ranks of men, became profelytes, without perceiving or fufpecting the latent poifon. They became converts to doctrines which were calculated calculated to fap the foundation of all thrones, and all governments; to diforganize all order; to level. the monarch with the fubject, the noble with the peafant, the learned with the ignorant, men of virtue and piety with the profligate and vicious, men of induftry and property with the incorrigible beggar. Their aim, in fhort, was to fubvert all the principles of religion and morality, all thofe invaluable fecurities, without which human life itself would be the greatelt of misfortunes, and from which mankind have ever been accustomed to derive the only prefervation of their poffeffions, their liberty, and their lives; and, to fum up their horrible machinations, to desolate the whole world with the deadly and incurable poifon of their atheistical liberty and equality.” The fecrecy and induftry with which thefe books were dispersed, particularly through all the departments of France, is fcarcely to be defcribed. Millions of them were printed in Paris, and either fold at a lefs price than the coft of printing, or given away to all the petty fchoolmafters refident in, and to the hawkers and pedlars traverfing the whole country. They were read by all ranks of men, women, and children. The facred truths and moral precepts of the Old and New Teftament were ridiculed in their public theatres, and other places of public amufement, as well as in private companies; infomuch, that the perfons who could declaim against thofe truths with the most wit and humour, came to be esteemed as the most wife, most learned, and most excellent philofophers. The reader, with this general, yet formidable account before him, may naturally be fuppofed to defire to hear the particulars of the new tenets, thus univerfally difperfed throughout France. It can only F 4 only be a fhort detail confiftently with my main defign, and yet will be found long enough to fill the foul with the utmost deteftation, and the deepest horror. Refpecting the existence of a God, the first great Caufe, and Creator of the univerfe, they taught, "That the Supreme Being, the God of philofophers, Jews, and Chriftians, was but a chimera and a phantom: "That the imagination of men creates daily fresh "chimeras, which raife in them the impulse of fear; and fuch is the phantom of the Deity: "That the phenomena of nature only prove the "existence of a God to a few prepoffeffed men; and "that the wonders of nature, fo far from befpeaking a God, are but the neceffary effects of matter, prodigiously diverfified." Refpecting the foul, or immortal fpirit of man, they maintained, "That every thing which is called the Spirit or foul, has no more reality than the phantoms, the " chimeras, or sphinxes; and that it is the body. that "thinks and judges." And refpecting the principles of morality they declared, & "That all ideas of juftice and injuftice, of virtue "and vice, of glory and infamy, are purely arbitrary, "and dependent on cuftom: "That : "That virtue and honefty, with regard to indi"viduals, is no more than the habit of actions perfonally advantageous; and that felf-intereft is, the "fole fcale by which the actions of men can be "meafured that fublime virtue, and enlightened "wisdom, are only the fruits of thofe paffious called folly that confcience and remorfe are nothing but "the natural forefight of those natural penalties to " which crimes expofe us; and that the man who is "above the law can commit, without remorse, any difhoneft act, that may ferve his purpose *.' Such were the philofophiftical and impious tenets, published and difperfed by the confpirators, against the order and peace of civilized fociety. And fuch, with many additional branches of the fame tree of evil, at length composed the creed of the great mafs of the people of France. In this creed, thus replete with the groffeft abfurdities, the darkeft errors, and the most abominable blafphemies, he that hath an eye may fee the "bottomlefs pit," into which neither the light of reafon, nor of confcience, nor of the revealed word of God, can poffibly enter. In this creed he may behold the principles of the angel of" darkness," whofe name in the Hebrew tongue is "Abaddon, and in the Greek Apollyon, the de"ftroyer;" as its direct and manifeft tendency is to deftroy, in the opinion of men, all value for, and indeed all fenfe of virtue, religion, and truth. In this creed he may trace all the principles of the "great "red dragon, that old ferpent called the devil and "Satan, who deceiveth the whole world," the great enemy of God and man. It is, I repeat it, the dark gulf, the bottomlefs pit," of all thofe errors and crimes which alienate mankind from God, their benevolent Creator, and diffolve all the focial ties * Barruel's Memoirs. between between the prince and people, parent and child, hufband and wife, and between man and man: in fine, a creed which, fhould it be generally embraced by mankind, could not poffibly fail to produce all' the mifery, uproar, and horror of hell upon earth: and from this diabolical creed, we shall prefently fee the confpirators forming themselves into the JACOBIN CLUB, and thence "afcending" into a republic, the political "beaft of the bottomlefs pit." The great body of the people having thus been' taught to cancel and trample upon all the restraints and obligations, arifing from their idolatrous fuperftition, wicked as it was, became prepared for the fearless perpetration of all manner of licentioufnefs and vice. Amidft fuch an univerfal confufion, darknefs, and uproar, nothing was efteemed criminal. The confpirators now faw their infernal plot growing faft to maturity, and nearly ripe for explofion; and that nothing was wanting but a concentration of their powers. For although their object was the fame, yet hitherto they had been divided into different clubs, and conftantly oppofed and confounded the projects of one another. For every atheift, felf-intereft being his only God, loves nothing but himself, and hates his own father, mother, and brother. They faw the neceffity of a fyftematic union, and this was effected in the Jacobin Club; that club from which proceeded 40, 000 inferior clubs, all obedient to its nod, and ready to execute its will, however diabolical. All-powerful, every thing with them was lawful; even infurrection, treafon, poifon, affaffination, and murders of every kind. The mafier-club was compofed of the fame men that caused the King of Sweden to be affaffinated, the Emperor Jofeph. II. to be poifoned, the King of France, his confort, and innocent infant, the Dauphin, to be murdered. It was compofed of the fame men |