it. Hence it was, that so much ingenuity was exerted to cry down public worship, the Sabbath, or Lord'sday, and to establish decades in their stead. To divert the people from the ancient public worship on the first day of the week, and the religious instructions generally given thereon, they were ordered to attend on every tenth day in the temples, originally dedicated to the service of the living God. There they impiously celebrated the favours of nature, of society, liberty, reason, and the revolution, in direct opposition to the creator of all things. The magnificent Church of St. Genevieve, at Paris, was changed, by the national assembly, into a repository for the remains of their great men, or rather into a Pagan temple; and as such was aptly distinguished by the name of the Pantheon. It had this inscription on the front, To great men acknowledged by their country; according to a decree proposed by the impious Condor cet. To this temple the remains of Voltaire and Rosseau were conveyed, in solemn and magnificent procession. The bones of Voltaire (that enemy to the Gospel) were placed on the high altar, and incense offered. And when the infatuated multitude, consisting of the convention and whole city of Paris, prostrated themselves and bowed down before the relics of this arch-enemy to Christ, in silent adoration, a voice was heard to utter, in this moment of national idolatry, and of avowed attachment to Voltaire's principles-a single voice was heard to utter, in a tone of agony and indignation, these memorable words, O God! thou wilt be revenged! Search was immediately made for the man who thus dared to interrupt these rites; and this abdiel was probably sac rificed to the fury of the multitude, but his reward is with him.* Having thus, on this day, deified reason, liberty, and the most immoral characters, and declared Jesus Christ to be an impostor, they proceeded to the most extravagant effusions of joy and mutual congratulations, in fulfilment of the forewarnings of the holy apostle. The day was devoted to the most lascivious riot and blasphemous festivity. To increase their diabolical victory, they took a Bible from the tail of an ass, and burnt it to ashes, amidst the most violent bursts of applause. The convention appointed a day, on which this triumph of atheism and anarchy over religion, morality, and social order, should universally and annually be celebrated. As citizens of regenerated France were habituated to use an ass in their contemptuous treatment of Christianity, they little thought that this was reviving the conduct of the ancient Pagan persceution of Christians. Tertullian tells us, that Christians were called by the Roman Heathens, Asinarii, or Ass worshippers; and that Christ was painted and publickly exposed by the bold wicked hand of an apostate Jew, with ass's ears, holding a book in his hand, and having a gown over him, with this inscription, Deus Christianorum ;—and that this ridiculous representation was taken from a story, equally false and ridiculous, of the Jews worshipping the ass, for having been preserved, when like to perish for want of water, by following one to a fountain; and the Heathen often considered Jews and Christians as one people.† The people were to fill up their time (lest the remembrance of what they once enjoyed should alarm them to 3 Kett. p. 145. Cave's Prim. Christianity, 1st part, p. 120. repentance) in reading in the Churches, the rights of man;-laws decreed within the decade;-in singing hyms to nature;-old age ;-to labour;-filial piety ;and love of country; to all of which should succeed military exercises, to form the youth to the art of war. Thus were the great props of the Christian religion, to wit, the instruction of the people in the Church of Christ, by preaching of the Gospel; and the public worship of Almighty God, through the mediator Jesus Christ, totally done away and abolished, as far as these refuse of society could accomplish, and who now had obtained, as they vainly thought, unlimited power.* *Public worship may be defeated by total absence and utter disuse. Sufficient, and more than sufficient time, may be found in the experience of man for solitary and private devotion; but it may well be doubted, whether any advantages which he derives from domestic meditation, can counterbalance the loss of that sacred unction, which is sometimes dispensed, and always promised to the public worshippers of the living God. If those who have watched and lamented the decline of religion in other countries, would attend to the gradation of causes by which it has been produced, they would tremble to engage in a plan for weakening the respect due to that day, which is dedicated to the offices of devotion. If the great body of the public should ever be released from the apprehensions of violating, in any notorious degree, the solemn and approved institutions of religion-if they should ever imbibe that interpretation of the Sabbath, which destroys its moral obligation, and should deem it either the bugbear of superstition or an arbitrary contrivance of human policy, I see not how any security will remain for the respect, or even the survival of our public devotion. Instead of assembling once in seven days to worship God, and to promote our salvation, we may only retain a bitter memorial of our abolished Sabbaths, in the dedication of every tenth day to the rites of infidelity or the orgies of pleasure. Ye friends of order, virtue, and social happiness, be admonished of your delusion and your danger! Regard not with indiffer Although this was the general character of those who had usurped all power in their own hands, yet, as in the days of Elijah, the Jewish prophet, there were seven thousand of his brethren preserved in secret, without his knowledge, amidst, as he thought, the universal infidelity of the nation. So, even in this unhappy country, were there a goodly number of the oppressed and suffering servants of Jesus Christ, who were continually mourning and praying, between the porch and the altar, and crying, Lord save thy people. I have been informed, from the best authority, that there were many singular instances of pious resignation, and firm reliance on the sovereign will of a Holy God, found among the lower orders of both clergy and laity in France, amidst all their distresses, that would have done honour to primitive martyrs. While this diabolical system was carrying on in Paris, the convention was equally vigorous in endeavouring to drive the coalesced powers from their conquests in the republic. Toulon, which had submitted to the English and Spaniards, was attacked with great violence, and the principal fort being stormed, with the loss of 3000 men on the part of the garrison, it was determined, by the possessors, to evacuate Toulon without delay. Such was the horror and confusion that seized the inhabitants, that it is easier to be conceived than expres ence such an artful innovation upon that which you have learned to revere, and which you have shewn yourselves so forward to maintain. In pledging yourselves for the public defence, in bringing your property to the treasury, and your engagements before your fellow citizens, you have done well. Establish one other claim to the gratitude of posterity-give to religion this last sacrifice."t Christ. Mon. p. 127-170. sed. "A scene of confusion now ensued, such as had not been known in the history of modern wars; crowds of people, of every rank, age, and sex, hurried on board the ships to avoid the vengeance of their enraged countrymen. Some of the inhabitants began to fire on their late allies; others in despair were seen plunging into the sea, making a vain effort to reach the ships; and others putting an end, at once, to their own existence on the shore."* A civil war also raged at this time, with great fury in La Vendee, a department of France, the inhabitants of which did not understand the French language, as used in the capital, and, therefore, knew very little of the nature of the revolution. The inhabitants were headed by the priests, and, at first, appeared as a very formidable foe; but they were dispersed and destroyed without mercy, so that 300,000 people are supposed to have lost their lives in that department. Indeed the cruelties committed upon them, by the Mountain party, was shocking to humanity. In the language of a late writer upon this subject, whom I have already quoted, "the Mountain party always disgraced their successes by dreadful cruelties; humanity is shocked, and history would almost cease to gain credit, were we to state, in detail, the unrelenting cruelties which were exercised against the unfortunate royalists, chiefly by Carriere, a deputy from the convention, sent into this quarter with unlimited * The voluntary exile of the inhabitants, prevented Collot D'Herbois from passing a sentence on Toulon, similar to that inflic ted on Lyons. "Let this city be destroyed, and the blood of its inhabitants increase the waters of the Rhone."+ † Month. Mag. 3 vol. p. 375, for 1797, |
