83. HOWARD, THE PHILANTHROPIST.

JOHN HOWARD, Esq., the celebrated philanthropist, was born at Hackney, in England, about the year 1727. His father died while he was young, and by his direction the son was apprenticed to a wholesale grocer; but this business neither suiting his health or disposition, and a handsome fortune falling into his hands, he bought out his time before its regular expiration, and commenced his first travels on the continent. After the death of his first wife, Mr. Howard, in 1756, made a voyage in order to view Lisbon after the earthquake at that place, but was taken by a French privateer, and suffered in his confinement. By this means his attention seems to have been first excited to compassionate those persons "who are sick, and in prison.'

Upon his return from the continent, he married the second time, but his wife dying a short time after his marriage, he retired to an estate he purchased in Bedfordshire, where he very much gained the esteem and affection of the poor by building them cottages, employing the industrious, relieving the sick, and educating the children of the poor. In 1773 he served the office of sheriff for the county, which brought him further acquainted with the misery of prisons; and from this he commenced his career of benevolence and glory. During the last seventeen years of his life he visited every country in Europe, exploring their prisons and dungeons, and relieving the miseries of the distressed. He also published a number of works on the state of prisons, hospitals, &c. In 1774 he received the thanks of the House of Commons for his inquiries and exertions. Mr. Howard's character is well drawn by the celebrated Mr. Burke, who, speaking of him, says, "I cannot name this gentleman without remarking that his labours and writings have done much to open the eyes and hearts of mankind. He has visited all Europe, not to survey the sumptuousness of palaces, nor the stateliness of temples; not to make accurate measurement of the remains of ancient grandeur, nor to

form a scale of the curiosities of modern art; not to collect medals, nor to collate manuscripts; but to dive into the depths of dungeons, to plunge into the infections of hospitals; to survey the mansions of sorrow and pain ; to take guage and dimensions of misery, depression, and contempt; to remember the forgotten; to attend to the neglected; to visit the forsaken; and to compare and collate the distresses of all men in all countries. His plan is original, and as full of genius as humanity. It is a voyage of philanthropy-a circumnavigation of charity."

Mr. Howard commenced his last journey in July, 1789, in which he proposed to visit Turkey, Russia, and other parts of the east, and not to return under three years; withal apprehending that he, very probably, never might return, which proved to be the event; for while he was at Cherson, a Russian settlement, near the northern extremity of the Black Sea, he visited a young lady at some distance in a malignant fever, caught the fatal infection, and died January 20, 1790. "And now, Benevolence! thy rays divine

Dart round the globe from Zembla to the line;
O'er each dark prison plays the cheering light,
Like northern lustres o'er the vault of night-
From realm to realm, with cross or crescent crown 'd,
Where'er mankind and misery are found,

O'er burning sands, deep waves, or wilds of snow,
Thy Howard, journeying, seeks the house of wo."

84. MODERN INFIDELITY.

PREVIOUS to the French revolution, Voltaire and some others formed a set design to destroy the Christian religion. For this purpose, they engaged, at different periods, a number of men of distinguished talents, power, and influence; all deadly enemies to the gospel; men of profligate principles, and profligate lives.

These men distinguished themselves with diligence, courage, activity, and perseverance, in the propagation of their sentiments. Books were written and published in innumerable multitudes, in which infidelity was

brought down to the level of peasants and even of children, and poured into the cottage and school. Others of a superior kind crept into the shop and the farmhouse; and others, of a still higher class, found their way to the drawing-room, the university, and the palace. By these and other efforts, infidelity was spread with astonishing rapidity in many parts of Europe, particularly in France.

In the year 1776, Dr. Adam Weishaupt, professor of the canon law in the university of Ingoldstadt, in Bavaria, established the society of the Illuminati. This society was distinguished beyond all others for cunning, mischief, an absolute destitution of conscience, an absolute disregard of all the interests of man, and a torpid insensibility to all moral obligation. Their doctrines were, that God is nothing; that government is a curse; that the possession of property is robbery ; that chastity and natural affection are mere prejudices, and that adultery, assassination, poisoning, and other crimes of a similar nature, are lawful, and even vir-*

tuous.

The disciples of Voltaire, finding this system one of more perfect corruption than their own, immediately united in its interests, and eagerly entered into all its plans and purposes. These legions of infidelity, united, went forward with astonishing success, till their abominable doctrines infected all classes of the French people. The bloody storm of the French revolution commenced. Then it was that infidelity obtained a complete triumph; the dagger of the assassin, the axe of the executioner, the infuriated mob, were now let loose, and thousands and tens of thousands perished; and the national assembly, in a public decree, declared that there is no God, and that death is an eternal sleep."

Voltaire laboured through a long life to diffuse the poison of infidelity. In life he was pre-eminent in guilt, and at death, in misery. He had for years

been accustomed to call the adorable Saviour "the wretch," and to vow that he would crush him. He

closed many of his letters to his infidel friend with these words" Crush the wretch." This apostle of infidelity, being laid upon his death-bed, was in the utmost horror of mind. In the first days of his illness, he showed some signs of wishing to return to that God whom he had so often blasphemed. He made a declaration, he in fact renounced his infidelity, but in vain; despair and rage succeeded in such a manner, that the physicians who were called in to administer relief retired, declaring the death of the impious man too terrible to be witnessed.

In one of his last visits, the doctor found him in the greatest agonies, exclaiming, with the utmost horror, "I am abandoned by God and man.” He then said, "Doctor, I will give you half of what I am worth, if you will give me six months' life.”

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The doctor an

Voltaire

swered, Sir, you cannot live six weeks." replied, "Then I shall go to hell, and you will go with me!" and soon after expired.

The following account of the tenets of the principal English infidels is extracted from "Dr. Dwight's Baccalaureate Sermon."

Lord Herbert, of Cherbury, the first considerable English deistical philosopher, and clearly one of the greatest and best, declares the following things, viz.

That Christianity is the best religion:

That his own universal religion of nature agrees wholly with Christianity, and contributes to its establishment:

That all revealed religion (viz. Christianity) is absolutely uncertain, and of little or no use:

That men are not hastily, or on small grounds, to be condemned, who are led to sin by bodily constitution: That the indulgence of lust and of anger is no more to be blamed than the thirst occasioned by the dropsy, or the sleepiness produced by the lethargy :

That the soul is immortal; that there will be a future retribution, which will be according to the works and thoughts of mankind; and that he who denies these

truths, is scarcely to be accounted a reasonable crea

ture.

Mr. Hobbes declares,

That the Scriptures are the voice of God; and yet that they are of no authority, except as enjoined by the civil magistrate:

That inspiration is a supernatural gift, and the immediate hand of God; and that it is madness:

That the Scriptures are the foundation of all obligation; and yet that they are of no obligatory force, except as enjoined by the civil magistrate :

That every man has a right to all things, and may lawfully get them if he can:

That man is a mere machine; and that the soul is material and mortal.

Mr. Blount declares,

That there is one infinite and eternal God; and yet insinuates that there are two eternal, independent beings: That God ought to be worshipped with prayer and praise; yet he objects to prayer as a duty:

That the soul is probably material, and of course mortal. Lord Shaftsbury declares,

That the belief of future rewards and punishments is noxious to virtue, and takes away all motive to it :

That the hope of rewards, and the fear of punishments, make virtue mercenary :

That to be influenced by rewards is disingenuous and servile:

That the hope of reward cannot consist with virtue; and yet that the hope of rewards is not derogatory to virtue, but a proof that we love virtue.

He represents salvation as a ridiculous thing, and insinuates that Christ was influenced and directed by deep designs of ambition, and cherished a savage zeal and persecuting spirit; and

That the Scriptures were a mere artful invention to secure a profitable monoply, i. e. of sinister advantages to the inventors:

That the magistrate is the sole judge of religious truth, and of revelation: