delivered this definition, from which one would expect he did not defign' to fhew a particular inclination for or against any thing before he had confidered it, he gives up all title to the character of a Free-thinker, with the most apparent prejudice againft a body of men, whom of all other a good man would be most careful not to violate, I mean men in holy orders. Perfons who have devoted themselves to the fervice of God, are venerable to all who fear him; and it is a certain characteristic of a diffolute and ungoverned mind, to rail or fpeak difrefpectfully of them in general. It is certain, that in fo great a crowd of men fome will intrude, who are of tempers very unbecoming their function; but because ambition and avarice are fometimes lodged in that bofom, which ought to be the dwelling of fanctity and devotion, must this unreasonable Author vilify the whole order? He has not taken the least care to disguise his being an enemy to the perfons against whom he writes, nor any where granted that the institution of religious men to ferve at the altar, and inftruct fuch who are not as wife as himself, is at all neceffary

or

or defirable; but proceeds without the leaft apology, to undermine their credit, and fruftrate their labours: Whatever clergymen in difputes against each other, have unguardedly uttered, is here recorded in fuch a manner as to affect religion itself, by wrefting conceffions to its difadvantage from its own teachers. If this be true, as fure any man that reads the difcourfe muft allow it is; and if religion is the strongest tie of human fociety; in what manner are we to treat this our common enemy, who promotes the growth of fuch a fect as he calls Free-thinkers? He that fhould burn a houfe, and justify the action by afferting he is a free agent, would be more excufable than this Author in uttering what he has from the right of a Freethinker: But they are a fet of dry, joylefs, dull fellows, who want capacities and talents to make a figure amongst mankind upon benevolent and generous principles, that think to furmount their own natural meannefs, by laying offences in the way of fuch as make it their endeavour to excel upon the received maxims and honeft arts of life. If it were poffible to laugh at fo melancholy an M 5

affair

affair as what hazards falvation, it would be no unpleasant enquiry to ask what fatisfaction they reap, what extraordinary gratification of fenfe, or what delicious libertinifm this fect of Free-thinkers enjoy, after getting loofe of the laws which confine the paffions of other men? Would it not be a matter of mirth to find, after all, that the heads of this growing fect are fober wretches, who prate whole evenings over coffee, and have not themfelves fire enough to be any further debauchees, than merely in principle? These fages of iniquity are, it seems, themselves only fpeculatively wicked, and are contented that all the abandoned young men of the age are kept fafe from reflexion by dabbling in their rhapfodies, without tafting the pleasures for which their doctrines leave them unaccountable. Thus do heavy mortals, only to gratify a dry pride of heart, give up the interefts of another world, without enlarging their gratifications in this; but it is certain that there are a fort of men that can puzzle truth, but cannot enjoy the fatisfaction of it. This fame Free-thinker is a creature unacquainted with the emotions which poffefs great minds when they are

turned

;

turned for religion, and it is apparent that he is untouched with any fuch fenfation as the rapture of devotion. of devotion. Whatever one of thefe fcorners may think, they certainly want parts to be devout and a fenfe of piety towards heaven, as well as the fenfe of any thing elfe, is lively and warm in proportion to the faculties of the head and heart. This gentleman may be affured he has not a tafte for what he pretends to decry, and the poor man is certainly more a blockhead than an Atheist. I must repeat, that he wants capacity to relifh what true piety is; and he is as capable of writing an heroic Poem, as making a fervent Pray

er.

When men are thus low and narrow in their apprehenfions of things, and at the fame time vain, they are naturally led to think every thing they do not understand, not to be understood. Their contradiction to what is urged by others, is a neceffary confequence of their incapacity to receive it. The atheistical fellows who appeared the laft age did not ferve the devil for nought; but revelled in exceffes fuitable to their principles, while in thefe unhappy days mifchief is done for mifchief's fake. Thefe Free

Free-thinkers, who lead the lives of reclufe ftudents, for no other purpose but to disturb the fentiments of other men, put me in mind of the monftrous recreation of thofe late wild youths, who, without provocation, had a wantonnefs in ftabbing and defacing those they met with. When fuch writers as this, who has no fpirit but that of malice, pretend to inform the age, Mobocks and Cutthroats may well fet up for wits and men of pleasure.

It will be perhaps expected, that I fhould produce fome inftances of the ill intention of the Free-thinker, to support the treatment I here give him. In his 52d page he fays,

2dly, The Priefts throughout the world differ about Scriptures, and the authority of Scriptures. The Bramins have a book of Scripture called the Shafter. The Perfees have their Zundavaftaw. The Bonzes of China have books written by the Difciples of Fo-he, whom they call the God and Saviour of the world, who was born to teach the way of falvation, and to give fatisfaction for all • mens fins. The Talapoins of Siam have • a book of Scripture written by Sommono• codom,