prejudices of Hume and Gibbon, and Voltaire and Paine, whom they fancy they have discovered to be "as superstitious as washerwomen." Others have been impelled to still greater heights in this intellectual delirium. They contemplate with delight the prospect of a world without a Creator or a Governor; and boast of their demonstrations, by which they can convert any sensible man into an Atheist in a quarter of an hour; a transformation which, of course, would not be very difficult after they had explained to that sensible man, upon their own hypothesis, from whom he derived his sense. But the gentlemen, into whose company you are now so frequently thrown, do not, I presume, belong to either of these classes. It is more probable that some of them have embraced a kind of SEMI-ATHEISM (I cannot think of a more appropriate term); a fine-spun theory, in conformity with which they persuade themselves that the Supreme Being does not govern the universe he created; but, after having covered it with living, and many of them rational, beings, leaves them to console themselves with the cheering reflection that they are inhabitants of a forsaken and fatherless world-while HE, according to this comfortable as well as philosophical notion, like a kind of Sardanapalus, sits at ease and surveys the goodly scene. If men who endeavour to disseminate such opinions ever cease to ridicule the maintainers of opposite sentiments, and condescend to argumentation, you might ask them to explain how it is possible that a derived being can be independent? You might inquire of them, whether that which is derived from

another can exist necessarily in the first moment of its being? Whether that which does not exist necessarily in the first moment of its existence, can exist necessarily in the second, or in any succeeding instant? or, whether it must not owe its continued existence to the being by whom it was at first produced? If they be men of any acumen, they will at once perceive that, by supposing the existence of the being to continue when that on which it depended ceases, they would suppose it to be without the cause of its existence; and thus they would, by a kind of mental felo-de-se, support their hypothesis by destroying the superstructure on which it rests: so that, if they, to this acuteness which I have supposed them to possess, unite only common candour and openness to conviction, you would, by a very short process, make them ashamed of their fashionable Semi-atheism, and compel them to acknowledge that all the creatures of God do incessantly depend upon Him for the continuance of their existence. Thus will your opponents be forced to take the ground of pure Deism; and on that ground it is that you must meet them, if you have any wish to this momentous contest.

enter upon

The opinions of Deists, from the time of Lord Herbert (the first and purest of the British freethinkers) to the present period, have assumed such multifarious shapes, that it is difficult to state them in such a way as to be free from objection. (b) Nominal

(b) This extreme diversity of sentiments among the pretended philosophers who reject Christianity has not escaped the pointed notice of some of their own class. The following language of Rousseau, descriptive of their conduct and contradictions, is highly worthy of attention:

2

Deism is separated into nearly as many climates and
districts as nominal Christianity; so that, if Calvinism
be placed in the torrid zone, and Socinianism in the
polar regions of Christianity; you may with equal
propriety imagine the sentiments of Herbert to occupy
the equatorial regions, and those of Hume, Holcroft,
and Godwin, the frigid zone of infidelity. Moderate
Deists, however, and to such a candid reasoner would
direct his arguments, profess to believe in one God,
possessing natural and moral attributes, the former of
which may be comprehended under power and know-
ledge, the latter under justice and benevolence;
they believe, I presume, that virtue is that which
is consistent with the will of God in act and
motive; and yet that God has never made any
revelation of his will to men; but that the collection
"I have consulted our philosophers, I have perused their books, I have
"examined their several opinions, I have found them all proud, positive,
"and dogmatizing, even in their pretended scepticism, knowing every
"thing, proving nothing, and ridiculing one another; and this is the
"only point in which they concur, and in which they are right. Daring
"when they attack, they defend themselves without vigour. If you
"consider their arguments, they have none but for destruction; if you
"count their number, each one is reduced to himself; they never unite
"but to dispute; to listen to them was not the way to relieve myself from
66 my
doubts. I conceived that the insufficiency of the human under-
“standing was the first cause of this prodigious diversity of sentiment,
"and that pride was the second. If our philosophers were able to dis-
66 cover truth, which of them would interest himself about it? Each of
"them knows that his system is not better established than the others;
"but he supports it, because it is his own: there is not one amongst them
"who, coming to distinguish truth from falsehood, would not prefer his
66 own error to the truth that is discovered by another. Where is the
philosopher, who, for his own glory, would not willingly deceive the
"whole human race? Where is he, who, in the secret of his heart,
proposes any other object than his own distinction; provided he can

of books which we receive as such, and consequently by way of distinction denominate THE SCRIPtures, are in fact no such thing, but are the oldest, the most artful, and most successful collection of forgeries that ever was palmed upon the world.

And are they the apostles and disseminators of this heart-chilling system who wish to laugh you out of your religion? or rather, who are ridiculing you for the scrupulous attention with which you are investigating the evidences of Christianity, and for the solicitude you express that you may "be established in Faith and "Holiness?" Let them enjoy the comforts of their supposed intellectual superiority, while you pursue your inquiry; and then you will in due time "enjoy the "fruits of the spirit," while they may haply retain all that fine flow of soul which so naturally results from

Among be-
Shun, shun

"but raise himself above the commonalty, provided he can eclipse his "competitors, he has reached the summit of his ambition. The great "thing for him is to think differently from other people. "lievers, he is an Atheist, among Atheists, a believer. "then, those who, under pretence of explaining nature, sow in the "hearts of men the most dispiriting doctrines, whose scepticism is far 66 more affirmative and dogmatical than the decided tone of their adver"saries. Under pretence of being themselves the only people en66 lightened, they imperiously subject us to their magisterial decisions, "and would fain palm upon us, for the true causes of things, the un"intelligible systems they have erected in their own heads. Whilst "they overturn, destroy, and trample under foot, all that mankind 66 reveres, snatch from the afflicted the only comfort left them in their "misery, from the rich and great the only curb that can restrain "their passions; tear from the heart all remorse of vice, all hopes of "virtue, and still boast themselves the benefactors of mankind. "Truth,' they say, 'is never hurtful to man.' I believe that as well 66 as they; and the same, in my opinion, is a proof that what they "teach is not the truth."-Rousseau, as quoted by M. Gandolphy, in his Defence of the Ancient Faith.

the consciousness of being lost in a labyrinth of uncertainty. Do not suppose that the exultation so commonly manifested by these men, and which seems so much to have impressed your mind, is always natural. Confident as they often profess themselves to be, that unless you are a mere child in intellect you will soon think as they do; be assured, that in general their sarcasms and affected contempt originate in the apprehension that your sentiments will soon be diametrically opposite to theirs, and in their consequent eagerness to deter you from inquiry. Do not imagine that when these your lively, and laughing, and witty companions leave you, their mirth and hilarity support them equally in solitude. Could you follow them into their retirements without being witnessed, or could you conceive the language of their souls to be formed into audible words, you might, without any breach of candour, fancy them soliloquizing in the following language of Pascal.

"I hardly know who has sent me into the world. "Nor know I what the world is, or what I am myself. "I am shockingly ignorant of all things. I know not "what my body is, what my senses are, or what my "soul is. This very part of me, which thinks what I "speak, which reflects upon itself and upon every thing round me, is yet as ignorant of itself, as it is of

66

every thing else. I behold these frightful spaces of "the universe with which I am encompassed, and feel

66

myself confined to one little portion of the vast ex"tent, without understanding why I am placed in this "part of it rather than in any other; or why the short