# New Christianity/Notes by the Translator

Notes by the Translator.
I shall here inclose, in as small a compass as possible, a few notes, which I intended to introduce into the body of the work, but was afraid of interrupting the current of the reader's thoughts.
God.—The St. Simonian definition of God is, "God is all that is;"—that is, universal nature; so that we not only live, move, and have our being in him, but, as the Scriptures say, we are bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh. That this is the ultimate doctrine of Christianity is evident from the words of Christ: "That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us." "God is all and in all." However, the St. Simonians, in a particular manner, give the name of God to the universal mind or power, the chief attribute of which is love or union—the social principle. This active power is the male; nature, or passive matter, is the female; but these two are one and inseparable.
Worship.—Our Protestant idea of worship is "prayer;" according to the St. Simonians, worship is the exercise of the mind and the social feeling. The cultivation of the earth is even a branch of divine worship; but those means which are employed in the public places of assembly, for exciting the feelings, and elevating and ennobling the sentiments, are in an especial manner styled the "culte," or worship. These means are, painting, sculpture, dramatic representations, philosophical experiments, and any other exciting causes which may be thought necessary for instruction or amusement, or for generating universal sympathy. Formal prayer ceases when union begins. Thus, Jesus Christ says, "Now I pray the Father for you; but the time cometh when I shall no more pray the Father for you, for the Father himself loveth you."
Infallibility.—According to the doctrine of Progress, Nature is infallible in her proceedings. Hence human society ​is infallible; that is, it moves on in the most suitable and direct road to perfection, without knowing it. Infallibility, then, belongs to the movement; that is, such infallibility as directs it, not to the final truths, which are inaccessible to men, but to such measures and such partial truths as are best calculated to promote the intellectual and moral development and ultimate happiness of human nature. Therefore, when St. Simon says that the early fathers were infallible for the age in which they lived, he means to say that they were the movement party; and now that the clergy are not infallible, is as much to say that the clergy are not the movement party: for the spirit of the movement has gone to the laity, or men of science and the people, who are now the true clergy.
Theology.—This word at present has a very confined meaning, referring exclusively to an abstract speculative system of doctrine respecting some few isolated facts, or supposed facts, of ancient times. Its real universal meaning comprehends universal science. It is only in its limited or scholastic meaning that St. Simon speaks disrespectfully of it.
Bible.—As there are two species of theology—a limited and an enlarged—so there are two Bibles,—the books commonly called sacred, and science, or "Nature Revealed." The one is the revelation of God, the other is the revelation of Nature. The first is merely the type or seed, containing the elements of science in mystery. The second is the fruit developed; but the one is not to be perfected without the other. The clergy err in confining themselves to the mere seed, the original uncultivated element, which, for want of culture, corrupts in their possession, till it becomes a stink in the nostrils of society; and the men of science cannot systematize their discoveries, and refer them to a common root and focus, without unriddling and systematizing the book upon scientific principles.
Revelation.—All thought is revelation. Whence can knowledge and ideas come, but from the great universal fountain of intelligence? Hence all books, and all religions, and all sciences, are revelations. But, it may be replied, if every religion, and every book, is revelation, then they are all equal. Nay; this is a very false conclusion. All animals were created by God, but they are very unequal, both in beauty, strength, and intelligence. Moreover, there is only one animal who is a moral and scientific animal. All the rest are brutish and unprogressive. Reasoning upon this principle of analogy, therefore, only one of the infinite ​number of revelations ought to be peculiarly "divine," to use a common, but exceptionable term. And as man is a physical, an intellectual, and a moral being, so, in like manner, this revelation ought to have a physical, and intellectual, and a moral career and aspect, corresponding to Jewism, first and second Christianity; and as man is the only progressive being, so we find that progress is confined to one religion; all other religions are stationary, like the brute creation. The first Christianity came out of Jewism—the second Christianity will come out of the first, at the same time borrowing from all that surrounds it. And as these other religions are stationary, so all the nations that adopt them are stagnant. But were the Greeks and Romans stationary? No; they had the revelation of science, and were the recipients of Jewism, prepared by Nature to carry on the second great movement. The scientific Greeks elaborated the doctrines of Old Christianity; the moral Romans established it; hence, the Roman church is the mother of Old Christianity. But there is another stage of Christianity to come; and in searching for the place of its first establishment, we must follow the movement. The last great national movement is Protestantism. Hence, it is from Protestantism we expect the next great establishment to proceed. But there is (not a movement, but) a pause or resistance at the close of Protestantism, which is infidelity. This is a total abnegation or resistance to the old faith. But as this is the negative, or female principle, it never can have collective or political power. Its power is entirely moral. It is, however, the end of the old movement, and out of it the new faith or new movement proceeds. That new faith is God and Nature in unity—religion and science in perfect harmony;—Nature, the female god of the Atheist, imbued with life and intelligence by the male God of the Believer, and the illiberal and exclusive God of the old Believer liberalized and disarmed of his errors by the universal mother, all-bountiful Nature. Thus, old faith and old infidelity correct the follies of each other, and the two combined bring forth the new religion of "Christianity made perfect." They cannot act apart. God cannot act without Nature, nor Nature without God. It is not good for man or woman to be alone; they must each have an helpmate,
Catholicism.—St. Simon says, that the Catholic clergy were Christian until the era of the reformation. This, however, must be understood with very large qualifications. There never has been a Christian clergy in the world, nor ​can there be under the old system, which is Antichrist both in its temporal and spiritual capacity. The Christianity of the old Roman church is this, that it maintained the superiority of the spiritual over the temporal sword. It was in this abstract fundamental principle chiefly that it could be called a Christian church. It had a good deal of the movement spirit in it, in respect to the arts, forms, ceremonies, &c.; and the clergy were the leaders of the movement. But the practical results of their doctrine were by no means such an equitable distribution of the comforts of life, or such a general development of the social principle, as would result from a state of society in which competition had ceased to cherish the selfishness and cruelty of the human heart. In fact, the old Roman church might be called a spiritual hell, and Protestantism the hell of the sword; but all this process has been necessary to develop the fruits of human intellect, and prepare the way for a moral union, which can only be the result of a strict investigation of facts, and a long and ardent conflict of opinion. I don't mean to say that the old gentleman is wrong in calling the old Roman clergy Christian: they were Christians as long as they were elaborating the system; but they could not establish the moral nor unriddle the doctrine; and even in their movement career they confined themselves solely to theology, in the most confined sense of the word, and laid an embargo upon what they denominated the profane sciences. In this they differ decidedly from the clergy posterior to the reformation. The movement of scholastic theology has entirely ceased with the latter. They have wrapped up their talent in a napkin; and not even lent it out to usury. Both Catholics and Protestants are now at a stand, and what theology they now have is a recurrence to first principles, and some of the old practices and dogmas of the fathers, excepting the morality, the fraternal union, and generous distribution of property, which characterised the early Christians. These the reformed Christians and their Catholic contemporaries take care to avoid, as if they were a deadly contagion.
Cousins, Printer, Duke Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields.