Part 2 of 2
110. That man is endued with higher intellectual powers, and capable of carrying his reasoning faculties to a more transcendent pitch, we readily grant; but -- why will not human pride rest satisfied with this superiority, without aiming to divest the next great work of his Creator of the portion which he has graciously and evidently bestowed upon it, as necessary to their temporal existence? -- If therefore the brute soul, as some (we will not call them philosophers) have taught, is material, and perishes with the body, it is time to tremble for the soul of man; for it is too true and melancholy a fact, that it stands not entitled to a better lot: -- the spirituality and future separate existence of the one, rests on no surer a foundation that the other; and all appearances are as strong in favor of the one as of the other. -- Thus our prejudices and false reasoning, arising from ignorance of our real state and nature, leads us into an uncomfortable dilemma, and we are plunged into a labyrinth of confusion, from which nothing can disentangle and extricate us, but -- the doctrine of the Metempsychosis, which elucidates and reconciles every difficulty by teaching, that the soul of man and brute is one and the same spirit, first in a state of greater degradation, a preparatory state of punishment and purgation, previously necessary to his passing into his state of probation, in the superior and more enlightened form of man. In further support of this conclusion, it remains that we consider the brute creation as beings subjected to misery.
111. The justice, the goodness of GOD stands most evidently impeached in the wild supposition that he could possibly create a race of beings subjected to misery, without some cause of offence on their parts. -- Let us with a becoming indignation reject an opinion so unworthy our GOD, and conclude there must have been a cause, and an efficient one, although no hypothesis hitherto produced has pointed it out to the satisfaction of a rational enquirer. -- The state and existence of man stands in the same predicament, doomed through the progress of his life to a series of natural and moral evils, without any apparent cause, or without possibly having been capable of deserving them by any transgression here; therefore our firm belief in God's justice, and our reason directed us to search for that cause of offence in some former state of the soul's existence, in which we happily succeeded, at least to our full conviction, and we hope to that of our candid readers. To that source we must again apply to solve the present difficulty respecting the brute soul, which must undoubtedly have sinned in a preexistent state, to reconcile its many sufferings here with the idea of a just and good GOD. -- The sensible reflections and sentiments of the ingenious Mr. Dean of Middleton, are apposite to our subject, and so pertinent to what we have further to allege, that we will take the freedom of transplanting them. After presupposing that pains, diseases, death, &c. evils got entrance into the world by sin, he proceeds as follows: "Now brutes as well as men are subject to the same sorts of pains and diseases; so far their cases coincide. In all general desolations they have suffered together; in this they conform. They suffered with man the injuries of the fall (we wish he had said the angelic fall; possibly he meant it). -- They have perished with him in deluges, in conflagrations, in famines, in pestilences, in destructions of the sword; in short, in all capital calamities they have had their share, as well as man (to which he might have added, the many miseries they endure from the tyranny of man). Now, if there is any reason to believe, that such evils are of God's appointment, and occasioned by sin, must not brutes then in some respect or other be supposed to be faulty? We do not pretend to say, or even to insinuate, that they are capable of moral rules, and become criminal after the manner of men; but we allege, that they must have some kind of demerit, they must have contracted defilements some way or other. If we cannot show how this is, it is only an instance, amongst many others, of our ignorance. The facts insisted on are deducible from the preceding cases, and the justice of God. -- God cannot punish his creatures without a cause, and this cause must be guilt or demerit of some kind or other; infinite justice necessarily supposes it." This Gentleman stops not here, but goes a step much higher in his conclusion from the above premises: "that as brute animals have attended man in all great and capital calamities, so they will also attend him in his final deliverance, and be restored with him." How he proves this from scripture, we refer our readers to his "Essay on the Future Life of Brutes," whilst we proceed on our way.
112. Thus have we demonstrated, the creation and state of man and beast are utterly inexplicable upon any other hypothesis than the ancient doctrine of the Metempsychosis, which alone rationally accounts for, and reconciles their existence, as intelligent free agents doomed to misery, in every stage and circumstance of it, to be strictly consistent with the goodness, the justice, and mercy of GOD; the state of the brute creation, and the cause of their sufferings no longer remains a matter of difficulty, nor incompatible with divine justice, but conformable thereto; their mortal bodies being formed for no other end or purpose but the punishment and vehicles of conveyance for the same offending spirit, to a form, which, although still a prison for the soul, was yet so marvelously fabricated (by a modus and construction imperceptible to us), as to afford a greater scope and latitude to the exertion of those intellectual faculties and free agency, which it was only capable of exerting in a limited degree, whilst in its state of deeper degradation; for, touching the portion of cogitation and conscientiousness the brute creation are possessed of, it is impossible for us to say; it may, for aught we know to the contrary, be equal to our own: we are barely authorized in our conception drawn from visible phenomena, that their powers are under some kind of restraint, but of what nature we know not; nor does it follow from the premises, if granted, that their cogitative faculties should be under any restraint at all. We see that they are in general miserable, without remedy or comfort; but that man is only so by predilection, having resources within himself, if he pleases to employ them, that are capable at all times of constituting his felicity; and this privilege marks to us the specific difference and superiority of the same soul in brute and man. In the first, it may be said to be in a close prison, and in the last, a prisoner more at large, and capable of working out its full and final liberty; a privilege it cannot obtain by issuing from the mortal brute form, which is destined to be its state of punishment and purgation, as before observed, and that of man only, kits state of trial and probation; from which form alone it can possibly emerge to its pristine celestial state. It seems to have been the sentiments of Lucian, as well as of Pythagoras, and many others of the ancient philosophers, that what constitutes the greatest punishment of the brutes, is their consciousness of having animated the form of man, and of not having benefited thereby; and that it is by their retaining the ideas of their former state of humanity, that many of their species, by small training, so readily comprehend his language and instructions. Chimerical as this opinion may seem to some, it appears in our judgment to have a good foundation.
113. From what has been said, we have the pleasure of thinking the philosophic reasoning of the learned Baxter stands confirmed and illustrated; the sensible suggestions of the Rev. Mr. Berrow enforced and verified; the doubts and perplexities of the Rev. Mr. Dean, touching the cause for which the brutes are doomed to misery, fully satisfied; and the bold assertions of Mr. John Ilive well grounded, from whom we candidly confess we took our first hints, and became a thorough convert to his hypothesis, upon finding on enquiry, and the exertion of our own reason, that it was built on the first divine revelation that had been graciously delivered to man, to wit, THE CHARTAH BHADE OF BRAMAH; although it is very plain Mr. Ilive was ignorant of the doctrine of the Metempsychosis, by confining his conceptions only to the angelic fall, man's being the apostate angels, and that this earth was the only hell; passing over in silence the rest of the animal creation.
114. As the ancient doctrine of the Metempsychosis alone accounts, as has been said, for the creation, nature, and state of man and beast, so it also clears up many difficulties and objections that have frequently been started concerning the true nature of Christ; some conceiving him to be "very God of very God," that is, God himself, if they mean anything: others conceive him to be God and man, but in what sense we believe infinite wisdom itself could not explain to the comprehension of a finite understanding -- Others conceive Christ to have been mere man, enlightened or inspired by God to a superlative degree, and disavow the preexistent state of his soul or spirit. Touching the two first of these opinions, we have already given our conceptions, esteeming them enthusiastic, if not blasphemous; but respecting the supporters of the third, they shun (we fear) Sylla, and fall upon Carybdis.
115. A Treatise (which we never saw or heard of before we had closed our Second General Head, although published in 1767) entitled, "The true Doctrine of the New Testament concerning Jesus Christ considered," contains a plausible chain of objections to his supposed preexistence. Although in that book, and the appendix, we have the singular pleasure of finding our sentiments upon the evil tendency of the Athanasian doctrine, and the true meaning and reading of the first chapter of St. John's Gospel, supported by so learned and judicious an advocate for truth; yet -- we cannot avoid thinking that this author hurts the cause of Christianity in a most tender part, by contesting the preexistent state of Christ, and thereby divesting him of his original divinity, the criterion, the sine qua non of his doctrines; for when he considers him as only mere enlightened man, he most certainly goes counter to the express declarations of Christ, in many places of the Gospels touching himself, his preexistency, and nature of his mission, as being a delegate immediately from heaven; but more particularly in St. John's Gospel, chap. iii, 16, 17, and 18th verses. We concur in sentiment with this writer, and feel very distinct ideas respecting the DEITY of the Father, and the divinity of the Son; but when he could without scruple admit, that divinity and humanity may unite, or rather, as the learned Baxter states it, that God, by his omnipotency, can unite a spiritual being to any material form he pleases; we cannot conceive why he should stumble at allowing the preexistence of the divine Spirit of Christ. The creation and miserable existence of every mortal intelligent being, we have fully proved, can only be compatible with the justice of God, upon the supposition of the preexistent state of their spiritual part or soul; then where lies the difficulty of supposing the preexistent nature of Christ? as the first created, the first begotten of God of all celestial beings, before all worlds, delegated by the Father to unite for a time with the mortal form of man, for the great purpose of salvation to a race of offending intelligent beings -- Thus Christ may literally, with propriety, and without any mystery or confusion of ideas, be styled and acknowledged THE SON OF GOD AND MAN, as he himself occasionally uses both those titles. -- When this learned and ingenious writer gives an unprejudiced hearing, and full force to the doctrines of the Metempsychosis, and duly weighs the insufficiency of every other human hypothesis, to account for the phenomena of our present existence, and indeed of all nature; he will, we flatter ourselves, receive full conviction that his doubts and disbelieve of the preexistent state and original divinity of Christ, were ill-founded, and not the true doctrine of the New Testament.
116. If reason and religion are deemed worthy a place in the argument, man has now the fullest conviction from both, of the true relation in which he stands to the whole brute creation, and that he can lay no rational claim to the power he has assumed for a multitude of ages past over some of their species; nor has he any the smallest justifiable pretence for the uses to which he has converted others of them, murdering some for the gratification of his depraved unnatural appetites, subjecting others to the most cruel labors without humanity or remorse, devoting others for his wanton sport to premeditated deaths, attended with all the cruel and affecting circumstances of protracted terror; training, exasperating, aiding, and abetting others to bloody combats of death against one another of the same species; spiriting up and encouraging others of them, of different species, to discord, contention, and battle, worrying each other, sometimes to death itself, for man's inhuman diversion; imprisoning and divesting others of the species of that liberty which was originally given to them by their Creator, upon a tenure equal with man's own; and this only for the sake of a trifling amusement and indulgence to the ear; exhausting the strength, and abridging the lives of multitudes of the most noble of the brute creation in contentions of speed, for the base purposes of iniquitous gain and worthless same, acquired not without the application of many cruel ruthless stripes, gaping wounds, and languid sweats, that human pity, if it had existence, would shudder at.
117. The above catalog of evils, which man has hitherto, without scruple or feeling, wantonly loaded the brute creation with, we will suppose may be ascribed to his having lost sight of their original dignity, and the relation they truly stand in to himself; therefore this ignorance may, in some degree, be pleaded in extenuation of his guilt: but now he is fully evinced of both, he in future remains without excuse, if he does not recede from practices that are neither warranted by reason, religion, justice, or the common dictates of humanity. The further to induce him to this worthy recession, we beg leave to remind him, that every brute is animated with a soul identical to his own, advancing only in a progressive state TO MAN; and that he has no right either to hasten or retard that progression, that being an act which God has reserved to himself alone: GOD has said, -- "Thou shalt do NO murder," and man has had the boldness, either totally to disregard this commandment, or by putting his own construction upon it, has infringed it in every sense, where power gave him the means: how could we then expect mercy for the brute creation, when he has shown none for his own species? But this is a kind of murder we shall not speak to here, intending in this place further to examine his pretensions not only to murder, but to eat the animal beings, and the fatal consequences of this transgression to the world, requesting our readers will have the goodness to advert to what has been already presented to them on this subject in our 103rd and few following paragraphs. We know, that in this discussion we shall meet with potent enemies to contend with, no less than a most formidable train of all the sensual appetites and passions, but that shall not deter us; human reason, although long debased, and subjected to the dominion of Circe, is not quite extinct, and only wants to be roused by application of the celestial Moly, to shine forth in its native and original lustre.
118. Besides man's conceit of his right of dominion over the brute creation (which has been sufficiently refuted) he urges two other pleas in support of his practice of killing and eating his fellow-creatures; these he thinks are unanswerable -- The first is the obvious course and destination of Providence, whereby we see that every race of the animal creation are in a perpetual state of war, and doomed to be a prey, the one to nourish and sustain the other; [Vide Part II. from page 77, to 86.] -- the fact, if laid down as a general position, may be admitted, but with large exceptions, as many tribes of quadrupeds are exempted from that general law of nature, as the horse, the cow, the deer, the goat, the sheep, &c. but allowing this plea to have its full force respecting the carnivorous tribes of the brute creation, yet man cannot avail himself of this law; they deviate not from the line prescribed them by the God of nature, but man, in becoming a beast of prey, acts not only in violation of his order and rank in the scale of beings, but also in opposition to an express interdict of GOD, as promulged in the Bramanical and Mosaic history of his creation before cited; and indeed, upon a survey of the natural construction of his form, the quadrupeds above specified might gorge and regale their appetites upon animal food with equal propriety as man, who cannot plead the law of necessity, which carnivorous animals seem to be subjected to for their daily subsistence.
119. Let us not, however, in our abundant zeal for the brute creation, be wanting in our due applause to the amazing and unaccountable moderation and forbearance of man, in that he has not in Europe yet arrived, to what most certainly must be the highest perfection of good eating, the flesh of his own species; which, from the nature of its regimen, and the repletion of animal salts and juices, must yield a much more exalted flavor, and higher enjoyment, than any other kind of brutal flesh can possibly afford. -- Swift, of ever witty and sarcastic memory, was ludicrous on this subject; but we are quite serious, and think man's abstinence from this supreme indulgence the more to be honored, and the more wonderful, as he is not without precedents for the practice, on the authentic records of America, and other savage nations; besides -- his virtue shines brighter in this great self-denial, when he may with propriety urge very cogent political reasons, that would fully justify his transplanting that luscious delicacy and fashion into Europe, to wit, the increasing scarcity and high price of all animal food, both which evils would be effectually and speedily averted from us, by the project of -- KILLING AND EATING THE CONSUMERS; from which practice, the too great population of the human species would also be prevented. A consideration which leads us to man's second plea for killing and devouring the brute creation.
120. The immense increase of the animal creation, which it has been supposed would overrun the world, and endanger man's safety and existence, has been urged as an unanswerable plea of necessity for their destruction; -- to say nothing of the wickedness of this argument, which directly and openly arraigns the wisdom, goodness, and mercy of GOD, we will consider the force of it, and hope to prove it as ill-grounded as the former; for, in the first place, supposing (although not allowing) the fact, it can only give a sanction to man for killing, but not for eating: nor can this argument possibly be applied, even with the semblance of propriety, against any species of the brutes, but those that are obviously obnoxious to him, and these shun his society. -- Any superabundant increase of the sinny race cannot possibly affect man's safety or existence, yet he destroys and devours them in common with their terrestrial and aerial brethren. -- But to show the fallacy of this plea, we find it leveled only against those unoffending animals which man has destined for his prey, and no pretended inconvenience is felt from the increase of those selected for our pleasure or our labor, as witness the elephant, the horse, &c. -- But to cut this plea short, and divest it even of plausibility, let us appeal to facts, which set all reasoning at defiance; -- let us cast our eyes back on the ancient extensive empire of Indostan, where, for a long succession of ages, to the late period of their subjection to Tamerlane, no animal was ever bereaved of life, but left to its natural decay and dissolution, and yet their increase was never found, or objected to as an evil, or obnoxious to man. -- On the contrary, it is most evident, throughout the whole animal creation, man not excepted, that GOD has wisely adjusted the principles of decay in each, in a just proportion to their increase or prolific qualities, in such an equipoise, that the one shall not exceed the other, to the confusion or detriment of his works -- If we admit, that some parts may be overstocked, and that the increase may exceed the means for their support, yet this affords no plea or sanction for slaughtering and eating them; -- since man has, without any authority from GOD or nature, doomed them to labor, to evade and set at nought that part of his sentence which decreed "that he should till the ground by the sweat of his own brow," let him, in case of a superabundant increase, as the least sinful, export them to other regions that may stand in need of them for similar purposes, in place of devoting them to death, for the gratification of his unnatural appetites. -- There may be one situation, and one only, wherein man can possibly, with seeming justice, destroy the animal creation; and that is, when there should be such an increase of those species of similar construction with his own respecting mastication, &c. that should rob or divest him of that food which God and his own nature originally marked and pointed out for his sole subsistence; in such a case, provided he had no other means of freeing himself of them, he possibly might stand vindicated in killing, but in no case in eating them. -- What has been above alleged respecting the empire of Indostan, may be as justly applied to other regions and people of early times, as we shall have occasion to specify below, where we purpose to enquire, when the vice of slaughtering and devouring the brute creation began, and consider its fatal consequences, as one of the great roots of physical and moral evil in the world. But before we proceed to this inquiry, it is necessary to obviate another plea in defense of this error, which just now starts up, and arrests our intended course.
121. Man, when hard pressed, and at a loss for rational argument (for he cannot easily and with a good grace give up the savory flesh-pots of Egypt), has advanced a third plea in support of his practice, which he would also sanctify into a plea of necessity, which is, that without the use of animal food, and vinous and spiritous potations, the human form could not be sustained in full health and vigor. -- Surely man cannot be in earnest, when he urges this as argument, for not only the experience of nations, but daily instances in multitudes of individuals are against him. -- The superlatively wise and inspired DANIEL, in his first chapter, exhibits to mankind a fine lesson, which comes in point to invalidate this futile plea. -- The King of Babylon, desirous of having some youths of the royal Hebrew line trained up in his court, "to stand before the King," he appointed them a daily provision of the King's meat, and the wine which he drank; but Daniel, anxious that neither himself nor the royal youths should be defiled, rejected the meat and wine, and making an interest with the governor that was set over them, "beseeched him to give them pulse to eat; and water to drink;" the result was, that at the expiration of the time prefixed by way of experiment, "their countenances appeared fairer, and fatter in flesh than all the children who had eat the portion of the King's meat." -- Thus we humbly conceive that we have fairly driven man from every subterfuge, every retrenchment, which he has cast up in defense of the cruel and unnatural practice of killing and eating his fellow-brethren of the animal creation, without any necessity, or other rational plea, for so doing.
122. When, or in what period of the world, man fell into the fatal error of murdering and feeding upon his elder brethren of the creation, is difficult to fix with any precision, although we may with much probability conclude it had a very early rise; as it has been observed, man grows not wicked all at once, so we may rationally conjecture this vice became not general, until within the space of three thousand years back; -- that copious fountain of wisdom and knowledge, that incessant advocate for the rationality and morals of the brute creation, the learned author of the Turkish Spy, recites many authorities in proof, that this vice was not practiced in the first times, but was an innovation on the primitive manners of mankind; he honors the Brachmans of India, and seems to be a convert to the doctrine of the Metempsychosis; he stands amazed at the signal circumstances, peculiar only to the SANSCRIT, and the four books of the law (i.e. the Chartah Bhade of Bramah), written in that language; he thinks it strange that no history should mention so divine a speech, and draws his conclusion of the superior antiquity of the Bramins, their language and books, to the rest of the world, -- "in regard that they fall not within any records, save their own." -- He then, with great truth, remarks, that the people of Indostan are the only people in the world who have, in all ages to this day, paid a strict obedience to that first injunction and law of GOD, Thou shalt neither kill, nor eat thy fellow-creatures of the brute creation. He also instances, that the primitive Persian and Egyptian Magi abstained from and prohibited this vice to their followers, and this abstinence remained inviolate so long as they retained the pure theology which had been communicated to them by their neighbors the Bramins of Indostan. -- He also notes, that the ancient Druids of Gaul and Britain, who taught the doctrine of the Metempsychosis, abstained from killing and eating animal food, and remarks likewise, that the first people of the world made offerings to the gods only of the fruits and flowers of the earth, which has been, and is uniformly the practice of the people of Indostan to this time. -- He recites, that the precepts of Triptolemus and Draco, the first lawgivers of the Athenians, comprehended the whole system of virtue and piety in practicing these few following rules: "Let it be an eternal sanction to the Athenians, to adore the immortal Gods, to revere the departed heroes, to celebrate their praise with songs, and the first-fruits of the earth, and neither to kill man or beast."
123. In whatsoever age this depravity took its rise, it is plain it obtained not generally all at once, but by slow degrees; and as every other species of wickedness gained footing and flourished in the world, so we may suppose this also grew to maturity with them, and became universal, except in the single instance of a whole nation, marked above. The use of vinous, and afterwards spiritous potations, we conceive had a later rise, and was a natural consequent of an appetite previously vitiated by the unnatural relish of animal food; and we think it most probable, that both these vices first took possession of man in some period of what Bramah calls the Tirtah Jogue, or second age, immediately succeeding the Suttee Jogue, or age of truth and righteousness; for it was in the Tirtah Jogue [Vide Part II. p. 68 and 69.] (which may be properly styled the first age of evil) that the influence of Moisasoor or Satan brought about the second defection of one-third of the angelic spirits; and as his power increased during the succeeding Duapaar and Kolee Jogues [Ibid, p. 70 and 71.], so we may rationally conclude the two vices under consideration became universal (excepting the Gentoos) about the middle of the Kolee Jogue or age of corruption, that is, about three thousand years ago: how it happened that the Gentoos alone, either never fell into the vice of killing and eating the animal beings, or were reclaimed from it, is easily accounted for, from God's positive injunctions against it [Ibid, p. 51 and 52.], delivered by the mouth and scriptures of Bramah; for as to the use of vinous and spiritous liquors, it should seem that was a vice not in being at the period in which that inspired legislator revealed his Chartah Bhade Shastah to the Gentoos, to wit, 4,870 years ago, for if it had, it is most probable it would not have escaped his notice and prohibition; -- and yet the Gentoos abstain as religiously from the one vice as the other, probably from some positive injunctions laid upon them in the Insoff Bhade, or fourth book of Bramah's Shastah.
124. To give the devil his due, it must in justice be acknowledged, that the introduction of these two first-rate vices was a masterpiece of politics in Moisasoor or Satan, who alone was capable of working so diabolical a change in rational intellectual beings. He had prescience enough to foresee, by reasoning from causes to effects, that if he succeeded in the attempt, he should be able in time to counteract and utterly circumvent the merciful intentions of GOD towards the delinquent spirits. To this he was stimulated by several different motives, all tending to the same end; -- he considered them, from their persevering in penitence and holiness throughout the Suttee Jogue, as in a state of rebellion against himself, and with good reason, as they had acknowledged him for their King and Leader in heaven; -- he had also, with grief and indignation observed, that during that age multitudes of them (on whose fidelity he had depended) had escaped out of his reach, and were advancing through the regions of purification towards their lost seats, and that probably the next age would leave him without any other subjects but those of his own tribe, whose allegiance to him he knew was inviolable; therefore, effectually to guard against a farther revolt of his old associates, he meditated the infernal scheme of tempting them to the use of animal food, and intoxicating drinks, as an infallible expedient that would fully answer all his diabolical purposes. For, first, he knew he should thereby lead them into sin and disobedience, by a breach of an express command and prohibition of their GOD. Secondly, he was sensible that those unnatural aliments would inflame and exalt the desires of the flesh, above the rule and dominion of the spirit. Thirdly, he knew also, that by natural consequence diseases would ensue, that must assuredly abridge their term of probation in the form of man, which would be no inconsiderable point gained. Fourthly, his penetration made it obvious to him, that this inflamed state of the human body (from the continued accession of animal salts and juices, heated and fermented by the auxiliary force of spiritous liquors) would be propagated through the species; and that the sure effects would be, their giving birth amongst them to a train of monstrous, unnatural, violent, and consequently ungovernable passions, as lusts of every kind and species, ambition, avarice, envy, hatred, and malice, &c. that would regularly produce a progeny of concomitant actions and effects; as, invasions of property, contentions, wars, battles, murders, and sudden deaths. Fifthly, he foresaw a farther favorable consequence from the indulgence of these passions, as that they would, by the natural force of their operation, engage and confine their pursuits to the temporary sensual enjoyments and acquisitions of this world only, and cause them to lose sight of the next, as well as of the means by which they were destined to regain it. These deviations from the path marked out for them, Satan knew would in the end estrange their GOD from them, and that they and their posterity would become his own, from generation to generation.
125. It is worth inquiry, by what system of craft Moisasoor, or Satan, could possibly induce rational beings so widely to swerve from their obedience, and from their original nature and dignity, into that of lions, tigers, wolves, &c. beasts of prey; nay, to exceed them in every kind of vicious refinement, and to leave them so far behind in the race of luxurious, voluptuous gluttony, besides the exalted invention of either entirely divesting themselves of their senses and reason, or of turning them from their bias, by the licentious guzzle of wine and spirits; an enchanting relish and enjoyment, which the brutes have not yet arrived to, one species of them only excepted, which approach in kind the nearest to our own, viz. the Satyr, Oronootan, Baboon, and others of the same race, all of which (the first excepted) we have seen smoke and drink until they became as completely beasts as man himself; so that man has not so much cause to plume himself upon this glorious acquisition, as he possibly and vainly may have flattered himself withal. -- But, not to lose sight of our inquiry by any farther reflections on these grievous truths, so degrading to humanity, -- we may suppose, that Satan, having had experience that the angelic spirits, in their superior and preexistent state, had not been proof against his artful seductions, began his operations, and exerted his influence, first upon those who were appointed to preside over the ceremonies of religious worship, rightly judging, that if he could corrupt those who had the lead on earth, the rest would fall an easy prey' he was aware, that if he abruptly proposed the destruction of their fellow-creatures, without some specious plea, human nature might start at the proposition: he therefore cunningly suggested the sanctifying their murder by offering them up in sacrifice, as a work that would be most acceptable to the Deity; he doubtless likewise insinuated, they would thereby not only do a thing pleasing to GOD, but also render a signal service to their delinquent brethren, who they knew were imprisoned in the brute forms, the shortening whose lives would expedite their progressive advance to that of man, from which form alone they could regain their lost stations in the celestial regions. That this was an argument Satan laid no small stress on, appears obvious from this, that it has been frequently made use of by several ancient priests and philosophers, his faithful deputies, in justification of the inhuman practice. -- This great point gained, Satan met with little difficulty in prevailing on them to taste; and thus by degrees the killing and eating the most innocent species of these devoted miserable beings, became an established religious custom all over the world; a practice, say the Bramins, which the devil himself could only have forged. -- Yet Satan thought himself not quite secure of his votaries, without playing an after-game that would infallibly work out their future perdition; therefore his next step was to influence them to extend their religious sacrifices to their own species: to bring them to this supreme pitch of wicked superstition, he found some difficulty, but at length prevailed, by insinuating, that they would thereby not only more effectually deprecate the displeasure and vengeance of the gods, but also free the souls of those who were thus devoted, from future transmigrations through the mortal brute forms of punishment and purgation. -- If any of our readers doubt the address and success of Satan in this arduous attempt, we have only to recommend them to the perusal of the histories of the ancient Phoenicians, Tyrians, and Carthaginians, who were all shoots from the Chaldean stock, and also the history of the Canaanites in our Old Testament. -- Satan still thinking his scheme defective, gave the finishing stroke to it, by suggesting the practice of pouring out libations of wine to the gods, without which the ceremonies of religious sacrifices would be imperfect; this obtained, he left them to themselves, knowing, that as they had so readily been induced to eat of the one, they would of course make as licentious a use of the other; and that he should, from the natural united effects of both, always find them in a proper state to receive any diabolical impressions he should in future suggest to them, by his own immediate operation on them, or by those of his infernal agents: -- and thus, although he had failed of acquiring supreme worship in heaven, he at length effectually obtained it on earth.
126. We may with probability conclude, that some ages (although not many) might have elapsed before the laity came in either for a bit or a sup of those religious sacrifices; that these observing (by the instigation of Satan) how their priests piously devoured them, began to demur against supplying them with victims, unless they also came in for a share, which at last they obtained; the priests still reserving the most delicious morsels for themselves. -- And thus, in process of time, both priests and laity killed and eat the brute creation in common, without even the pretence of religious motives, or indeed any principle at all; a point which Satan foresaw they would in the end arrive at, and the event confirmed the sagacity of his judgment in forming a plan which at once afforded him a triumph over GOD and man.
127. Having above, we humbly conceive, made it manifestly appear, to the full conviction of every unprejudiced reader, that the two vices which we are combating have been, and still are, the pernicious roots from which all moral evils sprang, and continue to flourish in the world; permit us next to repeat, that (according to the showing of the philosophers, moralists, divines, and historians of all nations) there has been an utter depravity in mankind in every part of the known earth, from the earliest records of time. Let any casuist assign any other adequate cause for this universal depravity and corruption of the species, that will account for this phenomenon, better than those which we have above attributed it to, and we will most readily give up our system; -- a cause there must be somewhere, and that a general one too, that could produce such uniform effects. -- Divines point out no other cause than that we are undoubtedly under the influence of the devil. This we know as well as they, but they seem not to know how it happened that we came under that direction; all the learned of the world concur in the opinion that there was a time when primitive man was not under his dominion: the angels continued good for a long space before they fell a sacrifice to his seductions, and their own ambitious folly; and so they did again for an age, when doomed to animate mortal forms on earth, for their first transgression; and they persevered in angelic virtue until Satan projected the introduction of those two vices, which he was sensible would infallibly work such a change in the human body as would of course impair it, and consequently that the free use, exercise, and operation of the spirit's intellectual powers of rectitude would be impeded, and liable to perversion by foreign influence, which otherwise would have remained in full force and vigor, as is verified by many instances on record, where man, by abstaining from these capital vices, has kept his soul in such a state as to resist every effort of Satan to provoke him to sin.
128. When the cause of any disease is discovered, it amounts to more than half a cure. Would man exert his intellectual powers, he would soon pull down what Satan has been so many ages erecting; his empire has acquired no stability but from our easy submission to his diabolical suggestions; and that in such wise, that we can now hardly be said to have any claim to that original free agency given to us, for the very purpose of withstanding his influence; remove the cause, the effect ceases. When man returns to his natural, primitive, simple aliments, his inordinate desires, his passions, and their direful issue, will as naturally subside, as they rose; then we may form a well-grounded hope of the renewal and restoration of the primitive age of purity and holiness; that halcyon age, when man banqueted with innocence and content upon the delicious produce of his parent earth, without a thought of killing and eating his fellow animals; -- that age, wherein the feathered tribe could in freedom and security range in their proper element without dread or apprehension of the cruel fowler; -- when the roes and hinds, with the timorous hares, might gambol and scamper at pleasure over the boundless plains, without the risk of being scattered and drove, in protracted terrors and dismay, to the mountains, rocks, and brakes for sanctuary against the pursuit of the ruthless hunter; -- when the scaly independent race enjoyed at large their watery course, without molestation, from the artful wiles of the insidious angler; -- when the sea remained yet unexplored, and COMMERCE, that bane (falsely called the cement) of mankind, had not a being, and was not, as now, an instrument in the hands of Satan to excite the species to invasions, fraud, and blood; the natural produce of the earth in every region supplied its offspring with all that was useful and necessary, because men were strangers to irregular desires, and we have no solid reason to imagine its inhabitants were less numerous then, than now. As the wickedness and unbounded violence of man brought on a rueful change on the face of the globe, so we might rationally hope and expect, that on an universal return to his primitive goodness, GOD would restore to him his habitation, in all its original beauty and natural fertility. -- This happy restoration would man easily accomplish, if he prevailed with himself to abstain from these two capital vices, which were, as before observed, the parents of every other subsequent transgression on earth; -- JUSTICE would then return in fresh lustre from her long banishment, accompanied by the lovely train of temperance, harmony, reciprocal benevolence, and lasting peace; HAGGARD DISEASE would be drove into a longer banishment than even Justice suffered, and (like her) only be known by name. -- DEATH would be commanded to stand aloof, that man's happy term of probation on earth might be extended to a greater length, as a means for his future salvation. -- Then, and then only, may we hope to see and feel the sacred doctrines of Christ's gospel operate universally on mankind, by producing a general rectitude of morals and piety. -- We are not so sanguine as to expect that this wondrous change would be brought about in one generation, but the next would most sensibly experience its happy effects, and Satan would soon find himself repulsed and baffled in all his cunning and deep planned machinations, and be obliged to retreat with disgrace, and seek an empire in some other region of the universe.
129. Now, as it appears beyond a controversy, that the depravity herein lamented began in the priesthood, who first unhappily fell under the influence of Satan's wicked suggestions; so it is undoubtedly incumbent on popes, patriarchs, cardinals, archbishops, bishops, priests, pastors, and rulers of every church on earth, to set the pious example of beginning a general reformation of these two execrable evils, the killing and eating the rational brute creation, and guzzling vinous, &c. potations, -- They would do well to consider, that the persevering in these vices themselves, burdens them with a double weight of sin, as being the first aggressors, and as being specially commissioned to guard the morals, and point out the right road of worshiping the Deity to the laity; considerations which, joined to their know assiduity and anxiety for the salvation of mankind, leaves us not the smallest room to suspect, that they would hesitate a moment to set so laudable and essentially necessary a precedent. To one unskilled in the workings of human nature, and the powerful sway of the prince of the air, it may appear astonishing, that so learned and holy a body of men should continue so long immersed in such gross enormities; -- but when we reflect, that the (now human) angelic spirit fell when it was more pure, and endued with more superior and enlarged powers, let us cease to wonder at its errors in its present degraded state, and aim only at the correction of them. -- As an encouragement to attempt and prosecute this great work (we may justly say) of salvation, we shall remark, that as the laity too readily followed the example of their ancient reverend teachers, so it may be reasonably presumed, they will as readily, in these our times, joyfully subscribe to and support their sacerdotal leaders in the pious reformations of these unnatural and impious practices, as it would so manifestly insure to them their present, as well as future happy existence.
130. Before we quit this our Third General Head, we will, to enforce our arguments, take leave to present our readers with a lively picture of man's primitive state in the age which we are laboring to restore him to; and also the progress of evil, superstition, and idolatry which Satan reduced mankind to, after he had prepared them, as above, to receive any impressions he was pleased to meditate for their destruction. -- Both these are drawn by an author profoundly skilled in every species of learning and wisdom -- "They went out and in, slept and waked, labored and rested, in safety and quiet. Avarice, envy, and injustice, had not as yet corrupted the minds of mortals. The earth brought forth corn, herbage, and fruits, without the husbandman's or gardener's labor. All places abounded with plenty of innocent refreshments, and those primitive inhabitants coveted no more. The cattle and the bees afforded them milk and honey, and the fountain-waters were generous as wine. This globe was a complete paradise, and no mistaken zeal had taught men religiously to invade another's rights, and in a pious fury to murder their neighbors, in hopes of meriting heaven hereafter. -- The law of nature was in universal force. Every man pursued the dictates of Reason, without hearkening to religious sophistry, and sacred fables." -- "But -- when (at Satan's instigation) the lucre of gold had corrupted men's manners, and they, not contented with the riches and sweets which the surface of the earth daily afforded them, had found a way to descend into her bowels, stung with an insatiable desire of hidden treasures; then began injustice, oppression, and cruelty to take place. Men made enclosures for themselves, and encompassed a certain portion of land, with hedges, ditches, and pales, to fence them from the invasions of others; for the guilty of their own vicious inclinations filled them with fears, and made them jealous of one another. They built themselves strong holds, fortresses, castles, and cities; and their terrors increasing with their criminal possessions, they persuaded themselves that the very elements would prove their enemies, if not pacified by bribes and presents. Hence sprang the first invention of altars and sacrifices, and from these panic fears of mortals, the gods derived their pedigree; for one built a temple to the Sun, another to the Moon, a third to Jupiter, Mars, or the rest of the planets. Some adored the Fire, others the Water or Wind. Every one set up to himself such a god as he fancied would be propitious to him. Thus error. Being equally propagated with human nature, they created an infinite rabble of imaginary deities, paying to those idols the supreme incommunicable honors due only to the Eternal Essence, Father, and Source of all things."