Man, as yet in the main a mere phenomenal and ephemeral modification of one absolute existence, presents his claim to immortality upon the ground of sovereignty, or as a being elevated above the conditioned arrangements of natural processes or law in the universe; but how can he demonstrate and support this supernatural system, if left to the unaided influence of this hypothesized theistical power. As man judges, so ought he and so will he most certainly be judged in turn, for judgment invokes judgment, as surely as vibratory motion generates similar vibrations. What man abides by the unnatural separation of moral, spiritual, or immaterial from physical or material force in dealing with his fellow man? No one carries out in practice this absurd division, for invariably, crimes that are called moral are not punished, except by resorting to material measures to supplement moral retributive, or remedial justice. And yet, in spite of man's own judgment of his fellow, he presumes rashly to dictate to his postulated Deity, what justice should be meted out to him, saying practically, "You must measure out to me, if your scales are really properly adjusted for good and evil, moral punishment for my moral or theological crimes, and physical pain for material offences." Cain resorted to a material argument to support his spiritualism, and excommunicated his dear brother from the pale of his church's salvation by knocking out his brains. In a theistical controversy, Cain butchered his brother for heresy and infidelity, because Cain was a champion of orthodox theism, and therefore denied his opponent's right to differ from him. Mark well, however, how this erudite doctor of theology, this brave and puissant champion of orthodox spiritualism, deprecates the like material application of punitive measures to his precious self. This valiant priest insists upon some preternatural adjustment for his criminal act. He dreads that judgment of life for life, which he called down upon himself from his fellow man, by his own judicial sentence, and the murderer is permitted to crawl out the span of his miserable life, for Deity does not butcher in retaliation, as mankind pray, and would insist upon his doing. From Cain's excommunication, and slaughter of the heretic Abel in a theistic controversy, down to the present hour, this mortal antagonism between rival systems of faith has continued and cannot be settled to man's satisfaction without the shedding of blood. What else can be expected? Supplement a creed, embodying in a material form of words a Manichean war of good and evil immaterial principles, with a sanguinary code of laws for vindictive punishment of evil deeds, and this sacrificial system of blood shedding will make man's blood be drawn by his fellow until it runs in streams, in rivers and oceans, and until man's own judgment has been consummated in the final extermination of his species. Oh! man's inhumanity to his fellow man! and all in praise, all in honour, all for the glory of God, of course! Alas for the destiny of humanity, if, in this coming contest, sacerdotalism should succeed in getting the upper hand. WILLIAM BRADE. London, December, 1861. Jesus of Nazareth's onslaught on the Jewish theologians of his day Dr. Channing upon ecclesiastical despotism ... CONFLICT OF RIVAL OPINIONS. Sacerdotalism and cosmism compared and contrasted ... ... ... Cosmical hypothesis of creation by generation ... self-existent and unconditioned entities... ... ... ... ... Imponderable force and matter phenomenally revealed as one nature... 19 Time, a conditioned process of generated force ... Imponderable force and matter not separable as vulgarly postulated... The human testimony of Cogito Ego sum no proof of absolute existence Human cognition necessarily limited to material parentage... Postulated superiority of the female element in the cosmos Theory of creation by fabrication or artificial construction The Paleyan "design" argument, and Mr. T. Carlyle's criticism thereon 27 The cosmos as generated by conjugation of two eternal entities The paternity of an infinite Deity veiled in material processes The spirit of divine revelation from the Hebrew canonical Scriptures THE BIBLE AND ITS INTERPRETERS. The "Tower of Babel," an edifice constructed of books ... Mr. Isaac Taylor upən “immaterialism" in his "World of Mind” 32 The Hebrew scriptures, declared by Isaiah, to be effectually sealed up The "six days" of creative formation Sacerdotalism the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden Religious novels as a means of propagating theistical knowledge Enigma of the "144 hours" of formative creation Enigma of the "serpent" seducer of Adam and Eve in paradise Enterpretation of the "serpent" riddle in the book of Ecclesiastes ... Oriental tradition and rabbinical theological meanderings Extinction and preservation of species by means of "natural selection" The infinite and absolute beyond the conditions of human cognition The late Baron Bunsen on the tendency of Spinoza's philosophy Infinite attributes of Deity, a problem for solution in "logical Sir William Hamilton versus the Aristotlean system of logic ... ... Fallacies of the philosophy of absolute and unconditioned spiritualism Dr. Morell upon "immaterialism" as the basis of self-existence... The ruin of ancient Babylon the antitype of the fall of immaterialism The Ecclesiastes" (ascribed to King Solomon) on the condition of Sacerdotal commentary upon the " sense " of the old Hebrew Scriptures 68 The doctrine of man's mortality from the Psalms of king David and Marked antithesis in the "Psalms" between the mode of existence and the destiny of "sons of God" and "sons of men" Condition of man in the cosmos, according to Job and the Hebrew Dr. Channing on difficulties arising from the "peculiar dialect of Debate between Jesus Christ and Rabbi Nicodemus upon regeneration Reference made by Jesus of Nazareth to preceding revelations of Declaration of certain apostles respecting man's final destiny Theological contradiction involved in the dogmas of future life and Human cerebration a reflex action of cosmical gestation Man's knowledge confined to the phenomenal revelation of material Dr. Channing's idea of the influence and uses of religion.. Mr. G. J. Holyoake's comments on Professor Newman's book, "The Soul, her sorrows and aspirations" Declaration of Jesus Christ that he was "subject" to the omnipotence Significance of Jesus' agony in Gethsemane and his subsequent ... |