But these arts, how long soever they may prosper, and by whatever authority they may be supported; though they may call to their aid all the powers of superstition and prejudices of education, and be assisted by the pride and deceit of hypocritical bigots and mercenary tyrants; still must they finally fall, and sink into contemptuous oblivion. The present state of society seems peculiarly adapted to the advancement of truth, and destruction of error. The sun of reason has begun to appear, dispelling the thick and almost impenetrable mists of ignorance and superstition, illuminating the most secret recesses of the mind, and will continue to increase in splendour, till it shine forth in one clear, unclouded, and eternal day. The writings of modern philosophers have served greatly to illuminate the minds of the present generation. I will here, quote Pope's beautiful description of that _sublime and heavenly_ religion, which mankind in a state of nature professed, contrasted with that distorted, gloomy religion which has been imposed on mankind by power and fraud. "Man, like his Maker, saw that all was right, To virtue, in the paths of pleasure, trod, And own'd a father when he own'd a God. Love all the faith, and all th' allegiance then; For Nature knew no light divine in men, No ill could fear in God; and understood A sov'reign being but a sov'reign good." "Superstition taught the tyrant awe, Then shar'd the tyranny, then lent it aid, And Gods of conq'rors, slaves of subjects made: She, 'midst the lightning's blaze and thunder's sound, When rock'd the mountains, and when groan'd the ground, She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray, To pow'r unseen, and mightier far than they: She, from the rending earth and bursting skies, Saw Gods descend and fiends infernal rise: Here fix'd the dreadful, there the blest abodes; Fear made her devils, and weak hope her gods; Gods partial, changeful, passionate, unjust, Whose attributes were rage, revenge, or lust; Such as the souls of cowards might conceive, And, form'd like tyrants, tyrants would believe. Zeal, then, not charity, became the guide, And hell was built on spite, and heav'n on pride. Then sacred seeneth ethereal vault no more; Altars grew marble then, and reek'd with gore: Then first the Flamen tasted living food; Next his grim idol smear'd with human blood; With heav'n's own thunders shook the world below; And play'd the god an engine on his foe." From an attentive perusal of such liberal, enlightened writers as Pope, Locke, Hume, &c. who were not interested in forcing any unnatural systems upon mankind, whose only aim was the happiness of the human race, and from my own reflections, I have adopted the following _creed_, which I here submit to the impartial consideration of my fellow-citizens of all denominations.