Hauey, a brother of the eminent crystallogist, assembled the
first society of Theophilanthropists, (lovers of God and man,) as they
called themselves. They held their meetings on the day corresponding to
Sunday. They had their manual of worship and their book of canticles.
Their dogmas were the existence of one God and the immortality of the
soul. And they wisely said nothing about matters which they did not
believe. Paine, who in his "Age of Reason" had attempted to prepare a
theology _ad usum reipublicae,_ felt moved by the spirit of morality,
and delivered a sermon to one of these Theophilanthropist
congregations. His theme was the existence of God and the propriety of
combining the study of natural science with theology. He chose, of
course, the _a-posteriori_ argument, and was brief, perhaps eloquent.
Some passages of his discourse might pass unchallenged in the sermon of
an Orthodox divine. He kept this one ready in his memory of brass, to
confound all who accused him of irreligion:--"Do we want to contemplate
His power? We see it in the immensity of the creation.
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