codom, who, the Siamese fay, was born of a virgin, and was the God expected by • the univerfe. The Dervifes have their

I believe there is no one will difpute the Author's great impartiality in fetting down the accounts of thefe different religions. And I think it is pretty evident he delivers the matter with an air, that betrays the hiftory of one born of a Virgin has as much authority with him from St. Sommonocodom as from St. Matthew. Thus he treats revelation. Then as to philofophy, he tells you, p. 136. Cicero produces this as an inftance of a probable opinion, that they who ftudy Philofophy do not believe there are any Gods; and then, from confideration of various notions he affirms Tully concludes, That there can be nothing after death.

As to what he mifreprefents of Tully, the fhort fentence on the head of this paper is enough to oppofe; but who can have patience to reflect upon the affemblage of impoftures among which our Author places the religion of his country? As for my part, I cannot fee any poffible interpretation to give this work, but a defign to fubvert and ridicule the

au

authority of Scripture. The peace and tranquillity of the nation, and regards even above thofe, are fo much concerned in this matter, that it is difficult to exprefs fufficient forrow for the offender, or indignation against him. But if ever man deferved to be denied the common benefits of air and water, it is the Author of a Difcourfe of Free-thinking.

A

▪mentifque capacius altæ.

Ovid.

cer

S I was, the other day, taking a folitary walk in St. Paul's, I indulged my thoughts in the purfuit of a tain analogy between the Fabric and the Christian Church in the largest sense, The divine order and oeconomy of the one seemed to be emblematically fet forth by the juft, plain, and majestic architecture of the other. And as the one confifts of a great variety of parts united in the fame regular design, according to the trueft art, and most exact proportion; fo the other contains a decent fubordination of members, various facred inftitutions, fublime doctrines, and folid precepts of morality digefted into the fame defign,

and

and with an admirable concurrence tending to one view, the happiness and exaltation of human nature.

In the midst of my contemplation I beheld a Fly upon one of the Pillars; and it ftraightway came into my head, that this fame Fly was a Free-thinker. For it required fome comprehenfion in the eye of the Spectator to take in at one view the various parts of the building, in order to obferve their fymmetry and defign. But to the Fly, whofe profpect was confined to a little part of one of the stones of a fingle pillar, the joint beauty of the whole, or the diftinct use of its parts, were inconfpicuous, and nothing could appear but small inequalities in the furface of the hewn stone, which in the view of that infect feem'd so many deformed rocks and precipices.

The thoughts of a Free-thinker are employed on certain minute particularities of Religion, the difficulty of a fingle text, or the unaccountableness of fome step of Providence or point of doctrine to his narrow faculties, without comprehending the scope and defign of Chriftianity, the perfection to which it raiseth human nature, the light it hath fhed

abroad

abroad in the world, and the clofe connexion it hath as well with the good of public focieties, as with that of particular perfons.

This raised in me fome reflexions on that frame or difpofition which is called largeness of mind, its neceffity towards forming a true judgment of things, and where the Soul is not incurably ftinted by nature, what are the likelieft methods to give it enlargement.

It is evident that Philofophy doth open and enlarge the mind, by the general views to which men are habituated in that study, and by the contemplation of more numerous and diftant objects, than fall within the fphere of mankind in the ordinary pursuits of life. Hence it comes to pass, that Philofophers judge of moft things very differently from the vulgar. Some inftances of this may be feen in the Theatetus of Plato, where Socrates makes the following remarks among others of the like nature.

When a Philofopher hears ten thoufand acres mentioned as a great estate, he looks upon it as an inconfiderable spot, having been used to contemplate the whole globe of earth.

• Or

Or when he beholds a man elated with the nobility of his race, because he can reckon a series of feven rich ancestors, the Philofopher thinks him a ftupid ignorant fellow, whofe mind cannot 'reach to a general view of human nature, which would fhew him that we have all innumerable ancestors, among • whom are crowds of rich and poor, Kings and Slaves, Greeks and BarbariThus far Socrates, who was accounted wifer than the reft of the Heathens, for notions which approach the nearest to Christianity.

• ans.

As all parts and branches of Philofophy, or fpeculative knowledge, are useful in that refpect, Aftronomy is peculiarly adapted to remedy a little and narrow fpirit. In that science there are good reafons affigned to prove the fun an hundred thousand times bigger than our earth; and the distance of the stars fo prodigious, that a Cannon-bullet contimuing in its ordinary rapid motion, would not arrive from hence at the nearest of them, in the space of an hundred and fifty thousand years. These ideas wonderfully dilate and expand the mind. There is fomething in the immensity of