The Wheeling repository — Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.], 1808-04-28 00:00:00, page 2

y Thai T cannot in all the Deisticai
writings, find any laws to prevent 'wick
edness or encourage virtue, with re
wards and punishments annexed there
to.
8. 1 hat in the scriptures all the crimes
that man can possible commit are under
the severest penalties iorbid, ami every
possible virtue inculcated andencourag
ed, by pi om’ses pl eternal and exceeding
great rewards.
9. That I have known some Deists,
and read of many, who, at the apparent
point oJf death, were seized by .the most
horrible despair, uttering the most bit
ter reflections against themselves, for
their total m gleet ol those duties co:n
manded in the gospel. But whoever
heard or read cl a Chri tian at th.e hour
oi death, despairingol the mercy ofGod, !
because he had all his life time rejected j
□ e cm,and shunned the company of its
professors ?. Or even when long anil
herce diseases had shaken the nervous
system, and raging fevers inflamed the
blood, have they everbeen so f *r derang
ed as to wish they never had been born,
for not rejecting the bible,asa wicked &
mischievous imposition upon the human
race ?
r rotr. the above, then,what reflections
must arise but that Deism is essentially
burl, ar.d naturally produces wicked
ness, by taking away the only founda
tion or all virtue, viz. the love and fear
oi CiocI ? ior what man can either love
or lear God, who really believes lie in -
tends to annihilate him body, soul and
spirit, or blend him with the common
mass of inanimate matter, or send him
after all his toil and care, bodily pain
and ment«»l sorrow, to vegetate in com
mon grass ; or be re-animated,as chance
directs, into reptiles, insects or bestial
forms. Laborious virtue, bv this faith,
is transfornu d into the < xtrcine of mad
ness ; vice and pb asurable wickedness,
into the most just and rational pursuits
ct man—nay, crimes ofevcrv magni
tude may be committed with impunity ;
for i: man be not immortal, God is not
omnipotent to punish his delinquency—
therefore, when he has become obnoxi
ous to the laws of man, lie may 1 >\ the
fatal bail, the suffocating cord, or pois
onous draught, put himst If out of the
power of law s,human or divine,and thus
completely escape both tempor aland
eternal justice.
And now, rnv old Deistical friends,
I ask you in the name of your boasted
reason, arc these notions calculated to
reform, or to corrupt mankind—-to
create or destroy social order, concord,
harmony and civil liberty ? Are they
not, in their very nature, calculated to
sap the foundation of virtue, produce
immorality, breed confusion, and total
ly dvsirov nil confidence between man
and man ? And w hether tiiat very sys
tem you so ard ntly oppose, is not the i
on!\ means ol curbing the furious pro
gress ot your pernicious tenets, which
would it once become universal turn
this earth into a hell, and involve even
yourselves in such unexpected miserv,
as would make you sincerely pray for the
return ol that religion which you would
then see can only stem the torrent of
lawless villainy, by humanizing the ob
durate heart—and which alone can bend
the stubborn will ot man into humble o
bediencc, and strict conformity to the
law ol Heaven ?
I conclude, by asserting that the a
bove is the ((feet of cool and deliberate
reflection, that the sole end I have in
view by the publication thereof, is, if pos
sible, to undo what 1 and others have
done towards the propagation of Deism.
I have herein stated facts and advanced
opinions, and for the truth of the out-,
and the sincerity of the other, I do, in
tlie most solemn manner, appeal to the
(bod of my existence. And as such, 1
request all the editors of newspapers,
who arc net enemies to Christianitv, to
give this one insertion, that pious heads
of families may hold it up as a warning
to the young and giddy; that neighbours
may guard each other against the pre
vailing poison ; and that Deists, espe
cially, may be inclined to pause a mo
ment, and, it possible, conskh r.
Fr \ncis Ci'JY.
From the American Citizen.
France and England
vs.
The United Stater,.
On the 30th ult. the President laid
before congress, confidentially, Dis
patches from France and England,
which had been received the preceding
week. .These dispatches occupied the
attention of the House of Representa
tives, with dosed doors, until the first
instant, when the ini taction of secreev
taken off, and five thousand (**'>],i s of
the dispatches w ere ordered to be print
ed.
Private letters say that the dispatches
from Engdand, received by our govern
ment through Mr. Erskine, state that
the retaliating orders of Nov. 1807 will
be continued unless wc resist the block
ading decrees of the Emperor of France.
From the same sources we learn that
the Emperor of France, haying consi
dered us at war with England from the
dace ol her retaliating orders, had kind
ly sequestrated our property in his do
minions, which He would carefully and
sabely keep for us until we had come to
some decision in reference to the two
powers. Napoleon, speaking through
Mr. Champagny, feels for our situation,
feels tor the impressmen of our seamen,
leels tor the insults which >ve have suf
fered from Kngl ind, and in the softest
and politest terms imaginable expresses
his opinion that we cannot do less than
join him in the war against the tyrant
ot the seas. I should suppose the land
tyrant to be quite ao dangerous as the
tyrant ot the seas, and that our true
policy would be to keep, it possible, e
qually aloot from the quarrels of both.—
Above all, let us not, like the victim of
the serpent,suffer ourselves to be charm
ed into inevitable destruction.
Since writing the above I have receiv
ed Mr. Champagny’s note to General
Armstrong.
A he aspect or this letter is so terri
ble that he who is not hall consumed by
hatred to Kngland, and half corrupted
by French seduction, cannot look at it
without feeling a raging indignation—
“ That it should ceme to this !” But
twenty-five years an independent nation,
and called upon, with the oily tongue oi
the Dcvd, to surrender our sovereignty’
and independence to the great j v -
RA.-T,and to become what Naples, what
the Italian States, what Holland, Sw it*
Zetland, Germany, Portugal, Spain,
Prussia, and all the European conti
nental nations, but Russia, are—the
slaves of France. What, tell us that
we are abused by England, and under
that pretext rob us ot our freedom ! —
II th.is insult he not flung hack at the
teeth of the tyrant, then are we base
and contemptible, and shall richly me
rit the very yoke which he is prepar
ing for us. Yes, we know that wo are
wronged by England, and without the
insolent and degrading interference of
j the tyrant, we will ourselves re
dress our own wrongs. But has not
die same pieliminary language been
in Id out ta those numerous nations
| \hich French intrigue and gold have
i lust corrupted and irenchforce hassub
I