- Title:
- "To the Deists. He never can be a Friend to the Human Race..." (Plate 52)
- Part Of:
Collective Title: Jerusalem: The Emanation of The Giant Albion, Copy E
- Date:
- 1804 to 1820
- Materials & Techniques:
- Relief etching printed in orange ink, with watercolor and pen and black ink on moderately thick, smooth, cream wove paper
- Dimensions:
- Sheet: 13 1/2 x 10 3/8 inches (34.3 x 26.4 cm), Plate: 8 7/8 x 6 3/8 inches (22.6 x 16.2 cm)
- Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Lettered inside image: "Rahab is an Eternal State | To the Deists. | The Spiritual States of the Soul are all Eternal: distinguish between the Man, & his present State. | He never can be a Friend to the Human Race who is the Preacher of | Natural Morality or Natural Religion, he is a flatterer who means to betray, | to perpetuate Tyrant Pride & the Laws of that Babylon which he foresees | shall shortly be destroyed, with the Spiritual and not the Natural Sword : He | is in the State named Rahab: which State must be put off before he can be the Friend of Man. | You, O Deists, profess yourselves the Enemies of Christianity: and | you are so: you are also the Enemies of the Human Race & of Uni- | versal Nature. Man is born a Spectre or Satan, & is altogether an Evil, | & requires a New Selfhood continually, & must continually be changed | into his direct Contrary. But your Greek Philosophy (which is a rem- | nant of Druidism) teaches that Man is Righteous in his Vegetated Spectre: | an Opinion of fatal & accursed consequence to Man, as the Ancients | saw plainly by Revelation, to the intire abrogation of Experimental Theory, | and many believed what they saw, and Prophecied of Jesus. | Man must & will have Some Religion: if he has not the Religion of | Jesus, he will have the Religion of Satan, & will erect the Synagogue of | Satan, calling the Prince of this World, God: and destroying all who do not | worship Satan under the Name of God. Will any one say, Where are those | who worship Satan under the Name of God? Where are they? Listen! | Every Religion that Preaches Vengeance for Sin is the Religion of the | Enemy & Avenger: and not of the Forgiver of Sin: and their God is | Satan, Named by the Divine Name. Your Religion, O Deists! Deism, | is the Worship of the God of this World by the means of what you call | Natural Religion and Natural Philosophy, and of Natural Morality or Self- | Righteousness, the Selfish Virtues of the Natural Heart. This was the | Religion of the Pharisees who murder'd Jesus. Deism is the same & ends in the same. | Voltaire, Rousseau, Gibbon, Hume, charge the Spiritually Religious with | Hypocrisy! but how a Monk, or a Methodist either, can be a Hypocrite, I | cannot conceive. We are Men of like passions with others & pretend not to | be holier than others: therefore, when a Religious Man falls into Sin, he | ought not to be call'd a Hypocrite; this title is more properly to be given to | a Player who falls into Sin; whose profession is Virtue & Morality & the | making Men Self-Righteous. Foote in calling Whitefield, Hypocrite, was | himself one: for Whitefield pretended not to be holier than others: but | confessed his Sins before all the World. Voltaire! Rousseau! You cannot | escape my charge that you are Pharisees & Hypocrites, for you are con- | stantly talking of the Virtues of the Human Heart, and particularly of | your own, that you may accuse others & especially the Religious, whose | errors you, by this display of pretended Virtue, chiefly design to expose. | Rousseau thought Men Good by Nature: he found them Evil & found no | friend. Friendship cannot exist without forgiveness of sins continually. The | Book written by Rousseau call'd his Confessions is an apology & cloke for his sin & not a confession. | But you also charge the poor Monks & Religious with being the causes | of War; while you acquit & flatter the Alexanders & Caesars, the Lewis's | & Fredericks, who alone are its causes & its actors. But the Religion of | Jesus, Forgiveness of Sin, can never be the cause of a War nor of a single Martyrdom. | Those who Martyr others or who cause War are Deists, but never can | be Forgivers of Sin. The Glory of Christianity is, To Conquer by Forgiveness. | All the Destruction, therefore, in Christian Europe has arisen from Deism, | which is Natural Religion. | I saw a Monk of Charlemaine | Arise before my sight: | I talk'd with the Grey Monk as we stood | In beams of infernal light. | Gibbon arose with a lash of steel, | And Voltaire with a wracking wheel : | The Schools in clouds of learning roll'd | Arose with War in iron & gold. | Thou lazy Monk, they sound afar, | In vain condemning glorious War, | And in your Cell you shall ever dwell: | Rise, War, & bind him in his Cell. | The blood red ran from the Grey Monk's side, | His hands & feet were wounded wide, | His body bent, his arms & knees | Like to the roots of ancient trees. | When Satan first the black bow bent | And the Moral Law from the Gospel rent, | He forg'd the Law into a Sword | And spill'd the blood of mercy's Lord. | Titus! Constantine! Charlemaine! | O Voltaire! Rousseau! Gibbon! Vain | Your Grecian Mocks & Roman Sword | Against this image of his Lord! | For a Tear is an Intellectual thing: | And a Sigh is the Sword of an Angel King : | And the bitter groan of a Martyr's woe | Is an Arrow from the Almightie's Bow."
- Credit Line:
- Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
- Copyright Status:
- Public Domain
- Accession Number:
- B1992.8.1(52)
- Classification:
- Prints
- Collection:
- Prints and Drawings
- Subject Terms:
- literary theme | religious and mythological subject | text | vegetation | vines
- Access:
- Accessible in the Study Room [Request]
- Link:
- https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:3484
- Export:
- XML
- IIIF Manifest:
- JSON
William Blake (Tate Britain, 2000-11-02 - 2001-02-04) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]
The Human Form Divine - William Blake from the Paul Mellon Collection (Yale Center for British Art, 1997-04-02 - 1997-07-06) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]