OR THE IDEAS OF GOD, AND HIS CONDUCT, GIVEN US BY THE CHRISTIAN
RELIGION.
God, by an inconceivable act of his omnipotence, created the universe
out of nothing.1 He made the earth for the residence of man, whom he
created in his own image. Scarcely had this man, the prime object of
the labours of his God, seen the light, when his Creator set a snare for
him, into which he undoubtedly knew that he must fall. A serpent, who
speaks, seduces a woman, who is not at all surprised at the phenomenon.
She, being persuaded by the serpent, solicits her husband to eat of a
fruit forbidden by God himself. Adam, the father of the human race,
by this light fault, draws upon himself and his innocent posterity
innumerable evils, which are followed, but not terminated by death. By
the offence of only one man, the whole human race incurs the wrath of
God, and they are at length punished for involuntary faults with an
universal deluge. God repents having peopled the earth, and he finds it
easier to drown and destroy the human race, than to change their hearts.
A small number of the just, however, escaped this destructive flood; but
the deluged earth, and the destruction of mankind, did not satiate the
implacable vengeance of their Creator. A new generation appeared, These,
although descended from the friends of God, whom he had preserved in the
general shipwreck of the world, incense him by new crimes. The almighty
is represented as having been incapable of rendering his creature such
as he desired him. A new torrent of corruption carries away mankind; and
wrath is again excited in the bosom of Jehovah.
1 Ex nihilo nihil fit, was considered as an axiom by ancient
philosophers. The creation, as admitted by the Christians of
the present day, that is to say, the eduction of all things
from nothing, is a theological invention, not, indeed, of
very remote date. The word Barah, which is used in Genesis,
signifies to compote, arranges to dispose matter already
existing.
Partial in his affections and his preferences, he, at length, casts his
eyes on an idolatrous Assyrian. He enters into an alliance with this
man, and covenants that his posterity shall be multiplied to the number
of the stars of heaven, or the sands of the sea, and that they shall for
ever enjoy the favour of God. To this chosen race he reveals his
will; for them, unmindful of his justice, he destroys whole nations.
Nevertheless, this favoured race is not the more happy or the more
attached to their God. They fly to strange gods, from whom they seek
succours, which are refused to them by their own. They frequently
insult the God who is able to exterminate them. Sometimes he punishes,
sometimes consoles them; one while he hates them without cause, and
another caresses them with as little reason. At last, finding it
impossible to reclaim this perverse people, for whom he continues to
feel the warmest tenderness, he sends amongst them his own son. To this
son they will not listen. What do I say? This beloved son, equal to God
his father, is put to an ignominious death by his favourite nation. His
father, at the same time, finds it impossible to save the human race,
without the sacrifice of his own son. Thus an innocent God becomes
the victim of a just God, by whom he is beloved. Both consent to this
strange sacrifice, judged necessary by a God, who knows that it will
be useless to an hardened nation, which nothing can reclaim. We should
expect that the death of this God, being useless to Israel, must
serve, at least, to expiate the sins of the rest of the human race.
Notwithstanding the eternal alliance with the Hebrews, solemnly sworn to
by the Most High, and so many times renewed, that favourite nation find
themselves at last deserted by their God, who could not reduce them
to obedience. The merits of the sufferings and death of his Son, are
applied to the nations before excluded from his bounty. These are
reconciled to heaven, now become more just in regard to them, and return
to grace. Yet, in spite of all the efforts of God, his favours are
lavished in vain. Mankind continued to sin, enkindle the divine wrath,
and render themselves worthy of the eternal punishments, previously
prepared and destined for the greater part of the human race.
Such is the faithful history of the God, on whom the foundation of the
Christian religion is laid. His conduct being so strange, cruel, and
opposite to all reason, is it surprising to see the worshippers of this
God ignorant of their duties, destitute of humanity and justice,
and striving to assimilate themselves to the model of that barbarous
divinity which they adore? What indulgence have mankind a right to
expect from a God, who spared not even his own son? What indulgence can
the Christian, who believes this fable, shew to his fellow-creature?
Ought he not to imagine that the surest means of pleasing his God, is to
imitate his ferocity and cruelty? 1
1 The sacrifice of the Son of God is mentioned as a proof of
his benevolence. Is it not rather a proof of his ferocity,
cruelty, and implacable vengeance? A good Christian, on his
death-bed said, "he had never been able to conceive how a
good God could put an innocent God to death, to appease a
just God."
It is at least evident, that the sectaries of such a God must have a
precarious morality, founded on principles destitute of all firmness.
This God, in fact, is not always unjust and cruel; his conduct varies.
Sometimes he appears to have created all nature for man alone; at
others, he seems to have created man only as an object, whereon to
exercise his arbitrary rage. Sometimes they are cherished by him,
notwithstanding all their faults; at others, the whole species is
condemned to eternal misery for an apple. This unchangeable God is
alternately agitated by anger and love, revenge and pity, benevolence
and fury. His conduct is continually destitute of that uniformity which
characterises wisdom. Partial in his affections, he makes it the duty of
his favourite people to commit deliberately the most atrocious crimes.
He commands them to violate good faith, and contemn the rights of
nations. He enjoins upon them the commission of robbery and murder.
On other occasions, we see him forbidding the same crimes, ordaining
justice, and prescribing to mankind abstinence from whatever disturbs
the good order of society. This God, who is in turn styled the God of
Vengeance, the God of Mercies, the God of Arms, and the God of Peace, is
ever at variance with himself. His subjects are consequently each one at
liberty to copy that part of his conduct which he finds most congenial
to his humour. Hence their morality becomes arbitrary. It is surprising,
that Christians have never yet been able to agree amongst themselves,
whether it would be most pleasing to their God to tolerate the various
opinions of mankind, or to exterminate all who differ from themselves.
It is, in fact, a problem with them, whether it be most expedient to
persecute and assassinate those who think not as they do, or to treat
them with humanity, and suffer them to live in peace.
Christians, however, do not fail to justify the strange and often
iniquitous conduct attributed to their God in the Scriptures. This
God, say they, being of right the absolute master of his creatures, can
dispose, of them at his pleasure, and for this no one can accuse him of
injustice, or demand an account of his conduct. His justice is not
the justice of mankind, and they have no right to censure any of his
actions. It is easy to perceive the insufficiency of this answer.
Mankind in making justice an attribute of their God, can have no idea
of this virtue, but by supposing that it resembles the justice of their
fellow-creatures. If God have a justice, which in its essence differs
from that of man, we know not what it is, and we attribute to him a
quality of which we have no idea. If it be said, that God owes nothing
to his creatures, he is supposed to be a tyrant, whose conduct has no
rule but his own caprice, and who cannot continue to be a model for
us, having no longer any relation with us, seeing all relations must
be reciprocal. If nothing be due from God to his creatures, how can any
thing be due from them to him? If, as we are continually told, men are
to God, as the clay in the hands of the potter, no moral relation can
exist between them. It is, nevertheless, upon those relations that all
religion is founded. Therefore, to say that God has no duty towards his
creatures, and that his justice is different from that of mankind, is
to sap the foundations of all religion and justice, which necessarily
suppose that punish them for doing evil.
In fine, how can the followers of the Christian system reconcile that
barbarous conduct, and those sanguinary commands, attributed to him in
the Scriptures, with his goodness or his wisdom? And how can goodness
be an attribute of a God, who has created most of the human race only to
damn them eternally? God ought to reward mankind for doing good.
Here we shall be told that the conduct of God is, to us, an impenetrable
mystery, that we have no right to scrutinize it, and that our feeble
reason must be lost whenever it attempts to sound the depth of divine
wisdom. We are informed that we must adore in silence, and tremblingly
submit to the oracles of a God, who has himself sufficiently made known
his will in his holy Scriptures. This is what they call revelation, to
which we proceed in the next chapter.