of his misdeeds, he should have no after account to make, was resolved to profit by the doctrine, and made off with many things of value, particularly the plate. Luckily, he was so closely pursued, that he was brought back with his prey to his master's house, who examined him before some select friends. At first, the man was sullen, and would answer no questions; but being urged to give a reason for his infamous behaviour, he resolutely said, "I have heard you so often talk of the impossibility of a future state, and that after death there was no reward for virtue, nor punishment for vice, that I was tempted to commit the robbery." "Well, but you rascal, (replied Mallet) had you no fear of the gallows?" "Sir, (said the fellow) looking sternly at his master, "what is that to you? if I had a mind to venture that, you had removed my greatest terror; why should I fear the least ?" : It is no wonder the Parisian ladies did not use their fans, when a christian female would have had all the crimson instantly called up into her face; for those ladies were infidels and infidelity is the consump tion of virgin purity; and the grave of female delicacy. Broken hearted parents, polluted daughters, debauched wives, and abandoned husbands, shew what the vo luptuous infidel is when admitted into a a family. In this scene of French gaiety, the genius, or rather the demon of infidelity, stood unmasked; and was beheld thirsting equally for the immolation of the minister of religion, and the sovereign of the people. Its votaries were then, and would now be, guilty of any crime. that suited their convenience and inclination. Serpents, in their guile; and tigers, in their cruelty. "Diderot's distich was recollected and applauded." Judge of its sublimity and humanity! "And of the last Priest's entrails form the string, "Around the neck of the last King. This was a quotation, which exhibited the originality of a monster; and was most admirably suited to the taste of a company of infidels, whose principles and practices turned Paris, into a Tyburn; and Europe, into a slaughter-house. "The deluge of pleasantries on religion, and the bursts of laughter against it," did no honor to their characters, as rational beings, who were shortly to lay down their heads and die. They were a deep reflection on their understanding, because the religion of the bible, breathing forth good will to man, is no more a proper subject for the wild uproar of licentious merriment, than would be the strangling of a wise and benevolent man, because his enemies had placed a fool's cap upon his head; and dressed him up in a harlequin's jacket. As to that son of Bacchus, with the bumper in his hand, who exclaims, "I am as sure that there is no God, as that Homer is a fool;" his bolt is soon shot; for though Homer were proved a fool, there yet might, and would be a God. He need excite no surprise, unless it be, that what a fool of old only said in his heart, he, the greater fool, has uttered with his lips. If this man ever was an eagle, capable of gazing on the sun, sceptical, and licentious notions, have transformed him into an owl; and now, rolling his eyes, amid the blaze of day, he hates the sun, because he cannot bear the splendour of its beams. We need not be surprized, that "Mons. Cazotte, an amiable man, of an original turn of mind, but one of the French illuminati," should utter such astonishing and fearful predictions, and which received as astonishing, and as fearful an accomplishment; for, even Balaam, the covetous soothsayer, was over-ruled by God, to foretel the prosperity, advance G G ment, and victories of Israel, the destruction of nations, and the kingdom of Christ. God, who reigns every where, without being confined to place; who is in all, and above all, works where, and by whom he will employing all, and being accountable to none. Deny him this, and he ceases to be a God. But we must not overlook this Revolution in religious sentiments; this pretended age of reason, so vauntingly spoken of, as forming the brightest ray of Voltaire's glory. Bring forth, then, the ballances. In worth, it is lighter than a feather. Exhibit the scales high to view; it is, in mischief, ponderous dross. Speak, historic truth, for thou hast both heard and seen. What sayest thou? It has, in its effects, eclipsed the sun of royalty; it has torn the priestly vest; shut up the temples of antichrist, and of Christ; it has shaken the nations; disorganized the political, and deranged the moral world; and would have shut man out of heaven, and God out of the universe. THE QUAKER THE PRE- Mr. Editor, In the Methodist Magazine, for this year, page 74, I recollect reading a very interesting anecdote respecting David Sands; and as the following refers to the same person, and is well authenticated, it may be perused by some of your numerous readers, if you judge it proper for insertion in your useful and esteemed miscellany. Serious persons take a peculiar pleasure in hearing, or reading any singu lar occurrence, that tends to display the attributes of God in creation, providence, or grace, and, perhaps, there are few circumstances which occur, wherein the divine goodness is more discernable, than in the following:-The person who communicated this anecdote to me, had his information from another person, but being himself afterwards, in company with David Sands, he took occasion to relate what he had heard, and requested to know whether it was true; and the reply he received, was a confirmation of the whole. I am, Dear Sir, Yours, &c. JAMES EVERETT. Belper, Dec. 29, 1808. |