



Produced by David Widger






CHRISTIANITY UNVEILED

Being An Examination of The Principles And Effects of The Christian
Religion

By Nicolas-Antoine Boulanger

Translated From The French By W. M. Johnson.

  "Slave to no Sect, who takes no private read,
  But looks through Nature up to Nature's God;

  "And knows where faith, law, morals, all began,
  All end in love of God, and love of Man."

Pope


London

Printed & Published By R. Carlile, 56, Fleet Street.

1819




TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

In this philosophic age, when nature, reason, and the rights of man have
resumed their empire; when the genius of a great, generous, and brave
people is giving the last blow to superstition and despotism, the
publication of a work which has greatly contributed to these glorious
events, must be highly acceptable, not only to the literary world, but
even to the community at large, who eagerly seek after instruction, the
moment they believe it necessary for their happiness.

This publication bears a conspicuous rank among those works whose free
and independent sentiments have introduced a happy change in the public
mind, and concurred with the writings of Rousseau, Mably, Raynal, and
Voltaire, in bringing forward the French Revolution: a revolution which
will probably prove the harbinger of the complete triumph of reason.
Persecutions and wars will then cease for ever throughout the civilized
world.

In offering this translation to the public, I pay a tribute that every
member of society owes to his fellow-citizens, that of endeavouring to
acquaint them with their true rights and duties, and, consequently, the
means most conducive to their happiness.

New York, 1804.




LETTER FROM THE AUTHOR TO A FRIEND.

I receive, Sir, with gratitude, the remarks which you send me upon my
work. If I am sensible to the praises you condescend to give it, I am
too fond of truth to be displeased with the frankness with which you
propose your objections. I find them sufficiently weighty to merit all
my attention. He but ill deserves the title of philosopher, who has not
the courage to hear his opinions contradicted. We are not divines; our
disputes are of a nature to terminate amicably; they in no way resemble
those of the apostles of superstition, who endeavour to overreach each
other by captious arguments, and who, at the expence of good faith,
contend only to advocate the cause of their vanity and their prejudices.
We both desire the happiness of mankind, we both search after truth;
this being the case, we cannot disagree.

You begin by admitting the necessity of examining religion, and
submitting opinions to the decision of reason. You acknowledge that
Christianity cannot sustain this trial, and that in the eye of good
sense it can never appear to be any thing but a tissue of absurdities,
of unconnected fables, senseless dogmas, puerile ceremonies, and notions
borrowed from the Chaldeans, Egyptians, Phenicians, Grecians, and
Romans. In one word, you confess that this religious system is only,
the deformed offspring of almost all ancient superstitions, begotten
by oriental fanaticism, and diversely modified by the circumstances
and prejudices of those who have since pretended to be the inspired
ambassadors of God, and the interpreters of his will.

You tremble at the horrors which the intolerant spirit of Christians has
caused them to commit, whenever they had power to do it; you feel that a
religion founded on a sanguinary deity must be a religion of blood. You
lament that phrenzy, which in infancy takes possession of princes and
people, and renders them equally the slaves of superstition and her
priests; which prevents their acquaintance with their true interests,
renders them deaf to reason, and turns them aside from the great objects
by which they ought to be occupied. You confess that a religion founded
upon enthusiasm or imposture can have no sure principles; that it must
prove an eternal source of disputes, and always end in causing troubles,
persecutions, and ravages; especially when political power conceives
itself indispensibly obliged to enter into its quarrels. In fine, you
go so far as to agree that a good Christian who follows literally the
conduct prescribed to him as the most perfect by the gospel, knows
not in this world any thing of those duties on which true morality
is founded; and that if he wants energy he must prove an useless
misanthrope, or if his temper be warm a turbulent fanatic.

After acknowledging all this, how could it happen that you should
pronounce my work a dangerous one! You tell me that a-wise man ought to
think only for himself; that to the populace a religion is necessary, be
it good or bad; that it is a restraint necessary to gross and ignorant
minds, which, without it, would have no longer any motive for abstaining
from vice. You look upon a reform of religious prejudices as impossible,
because it is the interest of many of those persons who alone can effect
it, to continue mankind in that ignorance of which themselves reap
the advantage. These, if I mistake not, are the weightiest of your
objections. I will endeavour to remove them.

Books are generally written for that part of a nation whose
circumstances, education, and sentiments, place them above the
commission of crimes. This enlightened portion of society, which governs
the other