This figure is well worthy of the observation and practice of the philosophers of the present day towards Christians; though it is not a very bright saying for a God. Nothing, so far, Judge Bailey, "infinitely superior to any thing which had ever before entered into the mind of man." I assure you, that I am egotistical enough to say, that I feel quite above, vastly superior to this divine revelation.

Twelfth head. "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your father which is in heaven."

Excepting the fable about the father in heaven, that is not

amiss.

Thirteenth head. "Think not that I am come to destroy the Law, or the Prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil."

That was a sop for the Jews; but none of them would swallow it. You Christians now preach that the Mosaical Law was superseded by Jesus, and this you do just to save your foreskins from circumcision! St. Paul may say what he pleases about circumcising the heart only; it is quite clear, from the above sentence, that they of Johanna Southcote's sect, who submit to the right sort of circumcision, are the only perfect Christians. It is written, that this your son of God was circumcised; though the circumcision of his Father is not written: but as the son was as old as the father, and knew all things from the beginning, where there could be no beginning, and as you further tell us, that the Father and the Son are but one, the logic of Aristotle evidently leads us to the inference, that the Father was also circumcised! Aye! and the Holy Ghost too! A circumcised Trinity! A circumcised God! Alas! for my species!

Since the Roman Catholics are such sticklers for the religion of their fathers, the Legislature should try their fidelity by offering emancipation to those who will submit to circumcision. There Eldon and Peel, is a good thought for you. Surely, they cannot complain of this test, since their God was circumcised! The followers of Johannah Southcote are evidently taking the right ground to obtain unanimity and a sincere return and attachment to primitive Christianity, one rite of which was evidently that of circumcision. I shall not be surprised to have an early account in the newspapers, that you Judge Bailey, Lord Eldon, Mr. Peel, the King as the head of the Church, with all the Bishops and Priests of the establishment, have followed Johanna's followers and submitted to the holy rite of circumcision. This will at once put a stop to all clamour

about Catholic emancipation; because, you will beat the Roman Catholics as to primitiveness. You will then be Greek and Jew Catholics, and they will be the modern dissenters. You may tell them that the St. Peter, whom they claim as their peculiar Apostle, was the Apostle of circumcision. And another grand thing will be, that, to revenge myself upon you for the persecutions you have heaped upon me, I will consent to turn Christian, if you will make me High Priest (self circumcision excepted!) and allow me to become the general circumcisor of you and your brother Christians. Oh! what a delightful post! Give it a thought, Bailey! Make it a Cabinet question, Eldon and Peel! Pray for divine direction upon the subject, all ye Bishops and Priests! And O King! if you will give it your royal assent, as the head of the Church-may you live for ever! It will very soon put a stop to Roman Catholic clamour, and send Mr. Cobbett in search of a new sect of Reformers, whereupon to establish his one necessary religion. There is a book full of precedents to salve your conscience, Judge Bailey-the scene at the Hill of Foreskins; the ruling of Jehovah, in the case of SHARP KNIVES against GILGAL, Josha's Reports, Chapter the fifth, is an incontestible case for your guidance. Pray issue a mandamus, or a writ of Preputia circumcidas, and let Mr. Haydon be present to make it the subject of a great historical picture! It will beat hollow a coronation, or a Lord Mayor's show! Castlereagh would have enjoyed it, had he not been so rash, as to prematurely circumcise his carotid artery. He should have waited, like a good Christian, for a more holy and more becoming circumcision. Though that last was the only sacred, Christian, and becoming deed that he performed. He betrayed his country, and Judas-like, as an act of repentance, destroyed himself! Posterity will look upon him as the last,, as the fabled Judas was the first, Christian that died. Let us (not) pray; but return to criticism: let us go in search of that "infinitely superior" morality which we have not yet found.

Forteenth head. "For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled."

What means the passing of heaven and earth? If heaven passes away, what is to become of the saints? Are they to go to hell? This is the Christian inference, for Christianity knows but three locations-heaven, earth, and hell! If the two former are to pass away, the latter only can remain !

Do you see it Bailey? Your Gospel writer, your divine ser mon preacher, your divine revelation maker, was a blind and stupid fellow, if he was of the masculine gender, Here is a specimen of infinitely superior wisdom!

But this head is a further confirmation of the last, and again proves, that the whole law of the Jews must be fulfilled by the Christians, a part of which, hear it Bailey! was CIRCUMCISION!

Fifteenth head, "Whosoever therefore shall break one of these last commandments, and shall teach men so, be shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."

So this account says, a mau may break a commandment and still go to heaven, only he is to loose something in rank! The only variance as to the reward between obedience and disobedience being, that one is to be called great and the other called little! An excellent teaching of morality!

Before this teacher had said any thing about commandments, he should have laid them down. He alludes to commandments which he has not spoken; for excepting my twelfth head, not a commandment has yet appeared. He has offered blessedness to certain dispositions; but not a commandment to do or not to do any one act.

Sixteenth head. "For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven."

This text is evidently a contradiction of the last; for howsoever righteous a Scribe or Pharisee might be, if most excellent, he must be excelled to obtain admission into the kingdom of heaven! The inference of which is, that, if a Scribe or Pharisee were righteous at every point, and not to be excelled, neither he nor any other person could enter the kingdom of heaven. This is the true inference of the text, and is a striking proof of the impropriety of condemning men by classes. And a striking proof also, that the writer of this Gospel was both very ignorant and basely prejudiced.

Seventeenth head. "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council:

but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire."

I am sure, that if I had heard this man preach this nonsensical sermon, I should have put myself in danger of hellfire (I do not fear it, Bailey!) by exclaiming-Thou fool!

Now, we are told that we must not be angry with a brother without a cause, which is the same as saying, we may be angry with a cause. And where is the wisdom? Who is angry without a cause? Seneca could not have written such trash as this about anger. See the contrast in No. 14, 15 and 16 of "The Moralist." Seneca has written on anger and on every branch of morality like a profoundly wise man; the same may be said for Confucius, Epicurus, and many others; but your Christian God, as a moralist, in contrast with these men, is, what? I can find nothing to apply in the way of contrast, but to say in vulgar language, that he was a Christian Ass. As ignorant as an Ass about what was morality and a proper line of duty for mankind. It is clear enough why Christianity has been the religion of human pain, founded on ignorance. Admitting nothing superhuman in intelligence, my application is of course, to the writer of the gospel.

And to call a brother a fool is to be in danger of hell fire; that is, the highest degree of torture that Christian ferociousness could fancy! If a brother really makes himself a fool, it is quite brotherly to tell him so. And if a little quarrel takes place among brothers, to me it appears, that the most inoffensively angry epithet is to call one another a fool. If such were a valid law among Christians, I believe, all who had brothers would have little chance of escape from this truly Christian punishment-hell fire! Every time we impeach the wisdom of another, we in effect call him a fool. You as good as called me a fool, for putting myself into your Christian clutches: and I call you a fool indeed for publishing such a book as these notes on the book of Common Prayer, and a greater fool for driving me hostilely to criticise them.

Eighteenth head. "Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer the gift."

There is nothing amiss in this, beyond the folly of taking a gift to the altar for either priest or God. The recommenda

tion to reconciliation supposes, that the brother is willing: otherwise the precept would be defective.

But I will confess here, that reconciliation forms no part of my moral code. My rule is never to make a breach in acquaintance upon trivial grounds, never to quarrel whilst a sense of rectitude can ward it off, never whilst you can escape degradation of character; but when you are associated with a being that forces upon you the above causes for quarrel, make a breach once and for ever, carrying no ill will or disposition to injure into the resolution to keep separate. A perpetual round of quarrel and reconciliation cannot fail to degrade the characters of both parties.

There, Judge Bailey, what do you think of that? I will say for myself, that that moral, as calculated to produce effect, to improve the human character, is worth not only the whole sermon on the mount, but the whole of the morals of the Bible put together, as you may find them for sixpence in three Nos. of the Moralist.

Nineteenth head. "Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing."

There is nothing moral in this. First, if it was a matter of debt, the creditor could not be considered an adversaryand if it was a matter of quarrel, which could alone constitute the parties adversaries, there could be no ground for handing the one or the other to the judge, so long as the laws were not violated; nor could there be a payment due from one to the other, if neither debt nor injury existed. So, Bailey, we have so far found nothing worthy of being called peculiar wisdom, or infinitely superior moral precept. I know not what a God is; but I know that this sermon would disgrace a man as an author. Such a thing would not pay for printing in the present day; and, though pretty well tinged with "hell fire," would disgrace a Methodist Preacher, and not draw forth a groan from a congregation of Methodists. A superior being, or a being endowed with peculiar wisdom would not have put his sanction upon perpetual imprisonment; but would have shewn the inutility of imprisonment in trifling cases such as that mentioned.

Twentieth head. "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say