brother having consented to make him an allowance of one pound per week
if he would quit England, he retired to the Isle of Man. After nine
weeks his brother ceased to remit; and to support himself, Taylor wrote
for the two newspapers then published in the island, but his articles
attracting attention, he was summoned before the Bishop, and compelled
to quit the island under a threat of imprisonment. In deep distress, he
went to Dublin, where he lectured on Deism until 1824, when he came to
London, and founded the Christian Evidence Society.
Many of the discourses delivered by him were printed in "The Lion."
which was first published in 1828. In 1827 Mr. Taylor was tried at
Guildhall for blasphemy, and was sentenced to imprisonment in Oakham
gaol for one year. In Oakham he wrote "The Diegesis" and "Syntagma."
After his release from prison in 1829, he, together with Richard
Carlile, made a tour through England on an Infidel mission, commencing
with a challenge to the Cambridge University. In 1830 and 1831 he
delivered a series of discourses, which are printed together under the
title of "The Devil's Pulpit." On the 4th July, 1831, he was again
tried for blasphemy and sentenced to two years' imprisonment In 1833
he delivered a number of discourses, which were printed in the
"Philalethean." He was the friend and companion of Richard Carlile for
several years. It is difficult to quote from Robert Taylor's works,
unless at the risk of doing him great injustice, and we must therefore
refer our readers to the works we have named. The following is from
"The Devil's Pulpit:"--
"The gentlemen who distribute religious tracts, the general body of
dissenting preachers, and almost all persons engaged in the trade
of religion, imagine themselves to have a mighty advantage against
Infidels, upon the strength of that last and reckless argument--that
whether the Christian religion be true or false, there can be no harm in
believing; and that belief is, at any rate, the safe side. Now, to say
nothing of this old Popish argument, which a sensible man must see
is the very essence of Popery, and would oblige us to believe all the
absurdities and nonsense in the world: inasmuch as if there be no harm
in believing, and there be some harm and danger in not believing, the
more we believe the better: and all the argument necessary for any
religion whatever would be, that it should frighten us out of our wits:
the more terrible, the more true: and it would be our duty to become
the converts of that religion whatever it might be, whose priests could
swear the loudest, and damn and curse the fiercest. But I am here to
grapple with this Popery in disguise, this wolfish argument in sheepish
clothing, upon Scriptural ground, and on Scriptural ground only; taking
the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, for this argument's sake,
to be divine authority. The question proposed is, 'Whether is the
believer or the unbeliever the more likely to be saved, taking the
Scriptures to be of divine authority!' And I stand here, on this divine
authority, to prove that the unbeliever is the more likely to be saved:
that unbelief, and not belief, is the safe side, and that a man is more
likely to be damned for believing the gospel, and because of his having
believed it, than for rejecting and despising it, as I do.... But, if a
patient hearing be more than good Christians be minded to give us, when
thus advance to meet them on their own ground, their impatience and
intolerance itself will supply the evidence and demonstration of the
fact, that, after all, they dare not stand to the text of their own
book, that it is not the Bible that they go by, nor God whom they
regard: but that they want to be God-a'-mighties themselves, and would
have us take their words for God's words; you must read it as they read
it, and understand it as they understand it: you must 'skip, and go on,'
just where a hard word comes in the way of the sense they choose to put
upon it: you must believe what the book contains, what you see with your
own eyes that it does not contain: you must shut your eyes, and not see
what it does contain; or you'll be none the nearer the mark of their
liking.... Taking the authority of Scripture, for this argument's sake,
to be decisive, I address the believer who would give himself airs of
superiority, would chuckle in an imaginary safety in believing, and
presume to threaten the unbeliever as being in a worse case, or more
dangerous plight, than he. 'Hast thou no fears for thy presumptuous
self?' when on the showing of thine own book, the safety (if safety
there be) is all on the unbelieving side? When for any one text that can
be produced, seeming to hold out any advantage or safety in believing,
we can produce two in which the better hope is held out to the
unbeliever? For any one apparent exhortation to believe, we can produce
two forbiddances to believe, and many threaten-ings of God's vengeance
to, and for the crime and folly of, believing. To this proof I proceed,
by showing you:--1st. What the denunciations of God's vengeance are:
with no comment of mine, but in the words of the text itself. 2d. That
these dreadful denunciations are threatened to believers: and that they
are not threatened to unbelievers. And 3d. That all possible advantages
and safety, which believing could confer on any man, are likely, and
more likely to be conferred on the unbeliever than on the believer. That
the danger of the believer is so extreme, that no greater danger can
possibly be. 1st. What are the denunciations of God's vengeance! 'There
are' (says the holy Revelation, xiv. 10,) 'who shall drink of the wine
of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of
his indignation, and shall be tormented with fire and brimstone, and the
smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever: and they have no
rest day or night.' There's 'glad tidings of great joy' for you! The
Christian may get, over the terror of this denunciation by the selfish
and ungenerous chuckle of his 'Ah! well, these were very wicked people,
and must have deserved their doom; it need not alarm us: it doesn't
apply to us.' But good-hearted men would rather say, 'It does apply.
We cannot be indifferent to the misery of our fellow-creatures. The
self-same Heaven that frowns on them, looks lowering upon us.' And who
were they? and what was their offence? Was it Atheism! was it Deism'
was it Infidelity? No! It was for church and chapel-going; it was for
adoring, believing, and worshipping. They worshipped the beast: I know
not what beast they worshipped; but I know that if you go into any of
our churches and chapels at this day, you will find them worshipping the
Lamb; and if worshipping a lamb be not most suspiciously like worshiping
a beast, you may keep the color in your cheeks, while mine are blanched
with fear. The unbeliever only can be absolutely safe from this danger.
He only who has no religion at all, is sure not to be of the wrong
religion. He who worships neither God nor Devil, is sure not to mistake
one of those gentlemen for the other. But will it be pretended, that
these are only metaphors of speech, that the thing said is not the
thing that's meant? Why, then, they are very ugly metaphors. And what is
saying that which you don't mean, and meaning the contrary to what you
say, but lying? And what worse can become of the Infidel, who makes it
the rule of his life 'to hear and speak the plain and simple truth,'
than of the Christian, whose religion itself is a system of metaphors
and allegories, of double meanings, of quirk and quiddities in dread
defiance of the text that warns him, that 'All liars shall have their
part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone?' Rev. xxi. 8.
"Is it a parable that a man may merely entertain his imagination withal,
and think no more on't,--though not a word be hinted about a parabolical
signification, and the text stands in the mouth of him who, we are told,
was the truth itself? And he it is who brought life and immortality to
light, that hath described in the 16th of Luke, such an immortality as
that of one who was a sincere believer, a son of Abraham, who took the
Bible for the rule of his life, and was anxious to promote the salvation
of his brethren, yet found for himself no Saviour, no salvation; but,
'In Hell he lifted up his eyes being in torment: and saith Father
Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip
of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in
this flame.' But that request was refused. 'Then he said, I pray thee,
therefore, Father, that thou wouldst send him to my father's house; for
I have five brethren, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come
to this place of torment.' But that request was refused. There's 'glad
tidings of great joy' for you! That the believer's danger of coming
or going into that place of torment is so great, that greater cannot
possibly be: and that his belief will stand him in no stead at all,
but make his plight a thousand times worse than if he had not been a
believer; and that unbelief is the safer side--Christ himself being
judge--I quote no words but his to prove. Is the believer concerned
to save his soul, then shall he most assuredly be damned for being so
concerned: for Christ hath said, 'Whosoever will save his soul shall
lose it.' Matthew xvi. 25. Is the believer a complete beggar? If he be
not so, if he hath a rag that he doth call his own, he will be damned
to all eternity. For Christ hath said, 'Whosoever he be of you who
forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.' Luke xiv.
33. Is the believer a rich man? and dreams he of going to Heaven? It is
easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.' Matthew xix. 24.
Is he a man at all, then he cannot be saved, for Christ hath said, 'Thou
believest that there is one God;' saith St. James, 'Thou dost well, the
Devils also believe and tremble.' 2 James xix. And so much good, and
no more, than comes to damned spirits in the flames of Hell, is all the
good that ever did and can come of believing. 'For though thou hadst
all faith, so that thou couldst remove mountains,' saith St. Paul, 'It
should profit thee nothing.' 1 Cor. xiii. 2. Well, then! let the good
Christian try what saving his prayers will do for him: this is the good
that they'!! do for him; and he hath Christ's own word to comfort him
in't, 'He shall receive the greater damnation.' Luke xx. 47. Well, then,
since believing will not save him, since faith will not save him, since
prayer will not save him, but all so positively make things all the
worse, and none the better, there's one other chance for him. Let him go
and receive the Sacrament, the most comfortable Sacrament, you know,
'of the body and blood of Christ,' remembering, as all good communicants
should, 'that he is not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs that
fall from that table.' 'Truth, Lord! But the dogs eat of the crumbs that
fall from their master's table!' O what happy dogs! But let those dogs
remember, that it is also truth, that 'He that eateth and drinketh
unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself.' 1 Cor. xvi. 29. O
what precious eating and drinking!
"'My God! and is thy table spread;
And doth thy cup with love o'erflow?
Thither be all the children led,
And let them all thy sweetness know.'
"That table is a snare, that cup is deadly poison that bread shall
send thy soul to Hell. Well, then! try again, believer: perhaps you had
better join the Missionary Society, and subscribe to send these glad
tidings of these blessed privileges, and this jolly eating and drinking,
to the Heathen. Why, then; you have Christ's own assurance, that when
you shall have made one proselyte, you shall just have done him the
kindness of making him twofold more the child of Hell than yourself.
Mat. xxiii. 15. Is the believer liable to the ordinary gusts of passion,
and in a passion shall he drop the hasty word, 'thou fool!' for that one
word 'he shall be in danger of Hell fire.' Mat. v. 22. Nay, Sirs! this
isn't the worst of the believer's danger. Would he but keep his legs and
arms together, and spare his own eyes and limbs; he doth by that very
mercy to himself damn his eyes and limbs--and hath Christ's assurance
that it would have been profitable for him rather to have plucked out
his eyes, and chopt off his limbs, and so to have wriggled and groped
his way through the 'Straight gate and the narrow way that leadeth unto
life,' than having two eyes and two arms, or two legs, to be cast into
Hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched, where their 'worm
dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.' Mark ix. 43. Well, then! will
the believer say, what were all the miracles and prophecies of both
the Old and the New Testament for those unquestionable miracles, and
clearly-accomplished prophecies, if it were not that men should believe?
Why, absolutely, they were the very arguments appointed by God himself
to show us that men should not believe, but that damnation should be
their punishment if they did believe. 'To the law and the testimony.'"
Sirs! These are the very words:--'Of miracles, saith God's word, 'They
are the spirits of devils, that work miracles.' Rev. xvi. 14. And it
is the Devil who 'deceiveih them which dwell on the earth, by means of
those miracles which he hath power to do.' Rev. xiii. 14. So much for
miracles. Is it on the score of prophets and of prophecies, then, that
you will take believing to be the safe side? Then 'thus saith the Lord
of Hosts, the God of Israel, the prophets prophesy falsely and the
priests bear rule by their means.' Jer. v. 31. 'The prophet is a fool:
the spiritual man is mad.' Hosea i. 7. 'Thus saith the Lord of Hosts:
hearken not unto the prophets.' Jer. xxiii. 15. 'O Israel, thy prophets
are like the foxes of the desert.' Ezekiel xiii. 4. 'They lie unto
thee.' Jerem. xiv. 14. 'And they shall be tormented day and night
forever and ever.' Rev. xx. 10. 'And the punishment of the prophet shall
be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him.' Ezekiel xiv.
10. Nay more, then, it is, when God hath determined to damn men, that
he, in every instance, causeth them to become believers, and to have
faith in divine Revelation, in order that they may be damned. Believers,
and none but believers, becoming liable to damnation; believers and none
but believers, being capable of committing that unpardonable sin against
the Holy Ghost, which hath never forgiveness, neither in this world nor
in that which is to come. 'Whereas all other kinds of blasphemy shall
be forgiven unto men, and all sorts of blasphemy wherewith soever they
shall blaspheme. But there is no forgiveness for believers.' Mark
iii. 28. For it is written, 'For this cause God shall send them strong
delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be
damned.' 2 Thessal. ii. 11. So when it was determined by God that the
wicked Ahab should perish, the means to bring him to destruction, both
of body and soul, was to make him become a believer.
"I offer no comment of my own on words so sacred; but these are the
words: 'Hear thou, therefore, the word of the Lord. I saw the Lord
sitting upon his throne, and all the hosts of Heaven standing by him on
his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said, who shall persuade
Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead? and one said on this
manner, and another said on that manner. And there stood forth a spirit,
and stood before the Lord, and said: I will persuade him. And the
Lord said unto him wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will
be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said,
thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also. Go forth and do so. Now,
therefore, behold the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all
thy prophets.' 1 kings xxii. 22. There were 400 of 'em; they were 'the
goodly-fellowship of the prophets for you; all of them inspired by the
spirit from on high, and all of them lying as fast as they could lie.'
So much for getting on the safe side by believing. Had Ahab been an
Infidel, he would have saved his soul alive. As it was, we may address
him in the words of St. Paul to just such another fool, 'King Ahab,
believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest: but no better
than I know, that for that very belief, fell slaughter on thy soul: and
where thou soughtest to be saved by believing, it was by believing
thou wert damned.' So when Elijah had succeeded in converting the 450
worshippers of Baal, who had been safe enough while they were Infidels,
and they began crying, 'the Lord He is God, the Lord He is God:' the
moment they got into the right faith, they found themselves in the
wrong box; and the prophet, by the command of God, put a stop to their
Lord-Godding, by cutting their throats for 'em, 'Elijah brought them
down to the brook of Kishon, and slew them there.' 1 Kings xviii. 40.
Oh! what a blessed thing, you see, to be converted to the true faith!
Thus all the sins and crimes that have been committed in the world, and
all God's judgments upon sin and sinners have been the consequence of
religion, and faith, and believing. What was the first sin committed
in the world? It was believing. Had our great mother Eve not been a
believing credulous fool, she would not have been in the transgression.
Who was the first reverend divine that began preaching about God and
immortality? It was the Devil. What was the first lie that was ever
told, the very damning and damnable lie? It was the lie told to make
folks believe that they would not be dead when they were dead, that they
should not surely die, but that they should be as gods, and live in a
future state of existence. 'When God himself hath declared, that there
is no future state of existence: that 'Dust thou art, and unto dust
shalt thou return.' Who is it, then, that prefers believing in the Devil
rather than in God, but the believer?--And from whom is the hope of a
future state derived, but from the father of lies--the Devil? But if in
defiance of so positive a declaration of Almighty God, men will have it
that there is a future state of existence after death, who are they who
shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of Heaven,
but unbelievers, let them come from the north, from the south, from the
east, or from the west? And who are they that shall be cast out, but
believers, 'the children of the kingdom?' As St. Peter very charitably
calls them, 'cursed children.' 2 Peter ii. 14. That is, I suppose,
children with beards, children that never grew to sense enough to put
away childish things, but did in gawky manhood, like new-born babes,
desire the pure milk and lollipop of the gospel. 'For of such is the
kingdom of Heaven.' And who are they whom Christ will set upon his
right hand, and to whom he will say, 'Come ye blessed of my father!' but
unbelievers, who never troubled their minds about religion, and never
darkened the doors of a gospel shop? But who are they to whom he will
say, 'Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and
his angels,' but believers, every one of them believers, chapel-going
folks, Christ's blood men, and incorrigible bigots, that had been
bothering him all their days with their 'Lord! Lord!' to come off at
last with no better reward of their faith than that he will protest unto
them, I never knew ye.
"One text there is, and only one, against ten thousand of a contrary
significancy: which, being garbled and torn from its context, seems,
for a moment, to give the advantage to the believer; the celebrated 19th
chapter of Mark, v. 16:--'He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be
saved; but he that believeth not, shall be damned.' But little will this
serve the deceitful hope of the Christian, for it is immediately added.
And these signs shall follow them that believe; in my name shall they
cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up
serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them;
they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.' Can the
Christian show these signs, or any of them? Will he dare to take-up a
serpent, or drink prussic acid? If he hesitate, he is not a believer,
and his profession of belief is a falsehood. Let belief confer what
privilege it may, he hath no part nor lot in the matter; the threat
which he denounces against Infidels hangs over himself, and he hath no
sign of salvation to show. Believing the gospel, then, (or rather,
I should say, professing to believe it, for I need not tell you that
there's a great deal more professing to believe, than believing,)
instead of making a man the more likely to be saved, doubles his danger
of damnation, inasmuch as Christ hath said, that 'the last state of that
man shall be worse than the first.' Luke xi. 26. And his holy apostle
Peter addeth, 'It would have been better for them not to have known the
way (2 Peter ii. 21) of righteousness.' The sin of believing makes all
other sins that a man can commit so much the more heinous and offensive
in the sight of God, inasmuch as they are sins against light and
knowledge: and 'the servant who knew his Lord's will, and did it not, he
shall be beaten with many stripes.' Luke xii. 47. While unbelief is not
only innocent in itself, but so highly pleasing to Almighty God, that it
is represented as the cause of his forgiveness of things which otherwise
would not be forgiven. Thus St. Paul, who had been a blasphemer, a
persecutor, and injurious, assures us that it was for this cause he
obtained mercy, 'because he did it ignorantly in unbelief.' 1 Tim. i.
13. Had he been a believer, he would as surely have been damned as his
name was Paul. And 'tis the gist of his whole argument, and the express
words of the 11th of the Epistle to the Romans, that 'God included them
all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.' Unbelief being the
essential qualification and recommendation to God's mercy: not without
good reason was it that the pious father of the boy that had the devil
in him, when he had need of Christ's mercy, and knew that unbelief
would be the best title to it, cried out and said with tears, 'Lord,
I believe, help thou mine unbelief!' Mark ix. 24. While the Apostles
themselves, who were most immediately near and dear to Christ, no more
believed the Gospel than I do; and for all they have said and preached
about it, they never believed it themselves, as Christ told 'em that
they hadn't so much faith as a grain of mustard seed. And the evangelist
John bears them record, to their immortal honor; that 'though Christ had
done so many miracles among them, yet believed they not.' John xii. 37.
And the same divine authority assures us that 'neither did his brethren
believe in him.' John vii. 5. Which then is 'the safe side.' Sirs, on
the showing of the record itself? On the unbelieving side, the Infidel
stands in the glorious company of the Apostles, in the immediate family
of Christ, and hath no fear; while the believer doth as well and no
better than the devils in hell, who believe and tremble."
"I."
JOSEPH BARKER.