Yet both are equal, and the woman shall govern the man.

The woman is commanded to obey the man, and the man ought to obey the woman.

And yet there are not two obedients, but one obedient.

For there is one dominion nominal of the husband, and another dominion real of the wife.

And yet there are not two dominions, but one dominion.

Moreover we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge, that wives must submit themselves to their husbands, and be subject in all things.

So we are forbidden by the conjugal faith to say, they shall be at all influenced by their wills, or pay any regard to their commands.

The man was not created for the woman, but the 'woman for the man.

And yet the man shall be the slave of the woman, and the woman the tyrant of the man.

So that, as aforesaid, the subjection of the superior to the inferior is to be believed.

He, therefore, that would marry, must thus think of the woman and of the man.

Furthermore, it is necessary to submissive matrimony, that he also believe the infallibility of the wife.

For the right faith is this, that the wife is fallible and infallible.

Perfectly fallible and perfectly infallible, of an erring soul and an unerring mind subsisting.

Fallible as touching her human nature, and infallible as touching her female sex.

Who, although she be fallible and infallible, yet is she not two, but one woman.

Who submitted to lawful matrimony to acquire unlawful dominion, and promised religiously to obey, that she might rule in injustice and folly.

This is the conjugal faith, which, except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be married.

Tyranny to the wife, slavery to the husband, and ruin to the family.

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, to the end of the world. Amen.

New York Correspondent.

Printed and Published by RICHARD CARLILE, 62, Fleet Street, where all Communications, post paid, or free of expense, are requested to be left.

The Lion.

No. 4. VOL. 1.] LONDON, Friday, January 25, 1828. [PRICE 6d.

JOURNAL OF MR. CARLILE'S TOUR THROUGH THE COUNTRY.

ASHTON-UNDER-LINE.

I CONSIDERED the letter, which I received from Mr. Edward Lees, on the behalf of the Israelites of Ashton-under-Line, as ingeniously written, to frame an excuse for not meeting me in conversation, as any thing of the kind could be. I did not write a reply, when I saw an evident indisposition to receive any thing of the kind. But, I would now, through this medium, beg leave to remind Mr. Edward Lees, and the Israelites of Ashton-underLine, that so long as the Bible, as to its validity, authenticity, and authority, is disputed, so powerfully, on moral, historical, and physical grounds, as it is now disputed, it cannot be a competent authority, on which to found a doctrine of any kind, ceremonial, moral, historical, physical, legislative, or jurisprudent, and that the first principle of every sect should be, not to make it a standard for the confirmation of opinions, until its validity, authenticity, and authority can be maintained against those, who, with myself, impugn them. My object, with the Ashton-underLine Israelites, was not to interpret the meaning of various parts of the Bible, but to shew, that the first principle and pretension, which had been improperly given to the character of the book, were not valid, authentic, or a sufficient authority, on which to waste upon its contents, so much of time and means, as are wasted by various sects, and by that of their own in particular.

If there be no appeal for religious subjects, as Mr. Edward Lees assumes, beyond the Bible, then can there be no religion beyond the two religions of the Jews and Christians. But there are other religions, which are not founded on the Bible, and there being others not founded upon the Bible, is a reason, why some other standard than the Bible should be sought for the confirmation of religious opinions. That general standard must not be sought from any one book, nor from all the religious books together; butit must be sought in something, that is not so fallible as human production, which we assert every book to be,

Printed and Published by R. CARLILE, 02, Fleet Street.

No. 4.-Vol 1.

but in the infallible operations of the physical arrangements which surround us. If any one book be the word of God, then every religious book successively must have been the word of God; for it is preposterous to suppose, that the millions of people who have composed the splendid nations of Asia, of Africa and of Europe, to say nothing of those that have existed in America, should have been neglected by this god, and his word and will at last communicated to a people, of whom we know historically nothing, but that they once colonised a small barren part of the earth for a few years, and that their most distinguished characteristic is that of having been captives, vagrants, or superstitious foreigners in every country but that which they call their own. Whatever others might have thought of Judea, the Jews historically appear never to have had much relish for it; but to have deserted it for other and better countries: and if the experiment be made by the Christian powers of Europe, again to colonize the Jews in Judea, after it may be cleared of Turkish authority, it will be as before, the Jews will not remain there; but the great mass of them will wander and prefer, most wisely, other and better countries. Common sense bespeaks this disposition, and proclaims, that there is no need of prophecy or divine interference, to produce such a disposition among any part of mankind.

The Bible is not the first, the best written, and most moral book, that has appeared under the pretension of being the word of God. Indeed, it has no pretension, in its own pages, of being the word of God: that pretension is the assumption of modern men, more fallible than the writers of the Bible. It has not, in itself, the ordinary pretension of the Koran, that it was sent down by the heavenly messenger Gabriel, chapter by chapter, from heaven. The highest pretension of the first fourteen books of the Bible is that of being historical, though personal communications from the deity are worked in, which serve only as an additional proof, that the whole is a fabled history, a sort of mythological allegory reduced to the vulgarity of barbarous history. The pretended law of Moses is nothing more than a compilation of Asiatic and African laws, borrowed from the Hindoos, the Persians, the Assyrians, the Phenicians, the Egyptians, the Ethiopians and others, compiled nobody knows where or by whom. It contains nothing original, or that may not be traced to books of more ancient date, as to their known existence. The Jews with their books are but as a people of yesterday, compared with other nations and their books, compared with the Chinese, the Hindoos, the Persians, the Egyptians and other African nations. How much more distinct and authentic, and more antient, is the history of either the Greeks or the Romans, than that of the Jews, these christianly pretended exclusive receivers and bearers of the word of God! How much superior was the morals. the philosophy, the politics, the social habits, the arts and sci

ences, the religion or mythology of either Greeks or Romans, compared with those of the Jews. It is to degrade the ancient pagans, as they are called by Jews and Christians, to put them in contrast with the Jews.

The reader should notice, that the Israelites profess to have direct communications with the Deity. The letter from Mr. Edward Lees states, in noticing their peculiar views and inferences of the Scriptures, that "this information, we profess to have, not from men, but from the same source, and by the same means, as the truths in question were first communicated to man." Thus, the Israelites choose a prophet, and instruct that prophet to hold a communication with the Deity, when they wish to have peculiar information on any particular subject. They put a question to the prophet, and the answer from the prophet is considered an answer from the Deity. By putting this confidence in a prophet, some tricks have been played off upon them. We may be assured that the most forward and impudent among them will aspire to be the prophet. At least, this has been the case in one instance. The family of the Lees are respectable as to property. I believe there are three brothers in the society.Henry, to whom I addressed a letter, in The Republican, when he was about to take his trial for manslaughter, in consequence of a child having died after circumcision by his hand. The case went off, by Mr. Ögden the surgeon of Ashton-under-Line, stating, that the death of the child was caused by the after-treatment, and not by the circumcision. I conceited, that my letter was not without its weight on Judge Bayley, in the case. Edward, who signs the letter addressed to me; and another, whose name I do not know. I was told, that one of them was the reader in the pulpit, on the Sunday morning. There is also a sister, who is the subject of a curious prophecy.

One of the persons, on whom the society had conferred the prophetic power, felt the spirit in him move toward this Miss Lees. I think the fellow had been a journeyman tailor, or in some low occupation, and in point of general circumstances, would not have been considered a match for Miss Lees. But who shall resist the arm of the Lord? Who shall stand against his prophets? Big with the prophetic spirit, he one day delivered himself to the society, and told them, that he had a very important communication to make from the Lord. In the style of the old prophets we may suppose him thus to speak:-"Thus saith the Lord-the young woman, Lees (I do not know her maiden name), shall bring forth one that shall be mighty in Israel, and from her womb shall come forth salvation in one that shall be able to save his people Israel. Let the virgin Lees be coupled with the prophet of the Lord, who is your servant, and great shall be your reward, great your rejoicings. The spirit of the Lord that is in me, shall pass into the virgin. Nine months

shall it be nurtured in her womb, and then shall be the day of your salvation, then shall your gladness come."

The plan was well laid, the trick succeeded, the virgin Lees was given in marriage to the prophet, she conceived in religious rapture; but lo! at the time of her delivery, when a Shiloh should have been born, unluckily for the prophet, the birth proved to be that of a female child! The prophet, by no means discouraged, patient to wait the good time of the Lord, was about to supply the defect, when, a former wife, from a neighbouring town, whom he had deserted, hearing of his new career, came forth, denounced and claimed him! This was a sad mortification to the society of the Israelites, and to the family of the Lees' in particular. The sister was taken home, and the best face possible put upon the matter. But faith is ever triumphant, it removes mountains; the power to prophesy is still dispensed by the society, and a new prophet is still an object of veneration among them!

In the afternoon of the Sunday, that I visited the chapel of the Israelites, there was a sermon preached; but such a preaching! as I never heard before, and such as, I presume, has only been matched by the lowest Methodist street, field, or house preachers. The ignorance of the preacher was more peculiarly visible, at the commencement of his disjointed discourse. He proceeded with difficulty, and committed some inexcusable outrages on the propriety of our language. In describing the parabolic difference between the man who built his house upon a rock and the one who built on the sand, he exclaimed, with an attempt at energy: "The winds blows, the rains felled, the floods comes, and the house was carried away." Again, in speaking of the Israelites, as a sect, he said:-"We are laughed at, my friends, we are mocked, we are derided, and the newspapers blazes at us." This was repeated with great energy; and with an "I say;" but consolation was held out, that theirs was the work of the Lord, and that all would be well with them. After my morning's visit, it was generally known, that I had been there, and that Iwas to be there again in the afternoon. The preacher made a sort of preparation for me, and had I been in Spain or Portugal, or in England fifty years ago, I should not have been very easy in my situation. The preacher observed, that it was likely that some great unbeliever might be among them, and he would tell them, how they should deal with the enemies of the Lord. They should deal with the enemies of the Lord as Samuel dealt with Agag. They should bring them forth and slay them before the Lord. This was varied and repeated with such an energy, that I began to look round, to see if any one was coming to drag me forth, and to slay me before the Lord. But it turned out to be nothing more than the spiritual slaying by the prophet: and the Israelites, with this exception on the part of the preacher, treated their visitor with great courtesy.