tions, mingled with a just severity: "The Heathen philosophers, those few of them who taught and lived up to the obligations of natural religion, had indeed a consistent scheme of Deism, as far as it went. But the case is not so now; the same scheme is not any longer consistent with its own principles, it does not now lead men to believe and embrace revelation, as it then taught them to hope for it. Deists in our days, who reject revelation when offered to them, are not such men as Socrates and Cicero were; but, under pretence of Deism, it is plain they are generally ridiculers of all that is truly excellent in natural religion itself. Their trivial and vain cavils; their mocking and ridiculing without and before examination; their directing the whole stress of objections against particular customs, or particular and perhaps uncertain opinions or explications of opinions, without at all considering the main body of religion; their loose, vain, and frothy discourses; and, above all, their vicious and immoral lives shew, plainly and undeniably that they are not real Deists, but mere Atheists, and consequently not capable to judge of the truth of Christianity, The present Deists are of two sorts only, those who believe, and those who disbelieve in a future state. If a Theist (from the Greek Bos, God,) be different from a Deist, it

is that he has not had revelation proposed to him, and follows therefore the pure light of nature.

The term Deist comes from the Latin word Deus, a God; and is applied to the rejecters of revelation, because the existence of a God is the principal article of their belief. The name was first assumed by a number of gentlemen in France and Italy, who were willing to cover their opposition to the Christian revelation by a more honourable name than that of Atheists. Viret, a divine of eminence among the first reformers, appears to have been the first author who expressly mentions them; for in the Epistle Dedicatory prefixed to the second volume of his Instruction Chretienne, published in 1563, he speaks of some persons at that time who called themselves by a new name, that of Deists. Deists are also often

* Paganism is the corruption of natural religion, and is little else than the worship of idols and false gods. These were either men, as Jupiter, Hercules, Bacchus, &c.; or fictitious persons, as Victory, Fame, Fever, &c. ; or beasts, as in Egypt, crocodiles, cats, &c.; or, finally, inanimate things, as onions, fire, water, &c. Upon the propagation of Christianity, Paganism declined. Julian the apostate made an ineffectual attempt to revive it, and it is now degenerated into gross and disgustful idolatry. Curious specimens of the Pagan idols may be seen in the British Museum; in Donovan's Museum, Bridge-street, Convent-Garden; and in the Museum at the Baptist Academy,

Bristol

DEISTS

called Infidels (from the Latin word infidelis), on account of their want of faith or belief in the Christian religion. Some indeed have censured the application of the term infidelity to unbelievers, contending that in our language it is used solely in a particular sense, implying the want of conjugal fidelity.

Lord Herbert, of Cherbury, was the first Deist who excited public notice in this country. Dr. Brown's recent edition of Leland's View of the Deistical writers, (Tindal, Morgan, Chubb, Bolingbroke, &c. &c.) together with many other valuable treatises, afford information concerning their principles, and contain a refutation of their objections against revealed religion. Mr. Belsham has thus assigned the principal causes of modern infidelity in his reply to Mr. Wilberforce: "1. The first and chief is an unwillingness to submit to the restraints of religion, and the dread of a future life, which leads men to overlook evidence, and to magnify objections. 2. The palpable absurdities of creeds generally professed by Christians, which men of sense having confounded with the genuine doctrines of revelation, they have rejected the whole at once, and without enquiry. 3. Impatience and unwillingness to persevere in the laborious task of weighing arguments and examining objections. 4. Fashion has biassed the minds of some young

persons of virtuous characters and competent knowledge, to resist revelation, in order to avoid the imputation of singularity, and to escape the ridicule of those with whom they desire to associate. 5. Pride, that they might at an easy rate attain the character of philosophers and superiority to vulgar prejudice. 6. Dwelling upon difficulties only, from which the most rational system is not exempt, and by which the most candid, inquisitive, and virtuous minds are sometimes entangled. The mass of mankind, who never think at all, but who admit, without hesitation,' all that the nurse and the priest have taught,' can never become sceptics. Of course the whole class of unbelievers consist of persons who have thought more or less upon the subject; and as persons of sense seldom discard at once all the principles in which they have been educated, it is not wonderful that many who begin with the highest orthodoxy, pass through different stages of their creed, dropping an article or two every step of their progress, till at last, weary of their labour, and not knowing where to fix, they reject it altogether. This, to a superficial and timid observer, appears to be an objection to freedom of enquiry; for no person beginning to enquire, can or ought to say where he will stop. But the sincere friend to truth will not be discouraged. For without enquiry truth cannot be ascertained, and

if the Christian religion shrinks from close examination in this bold and inquisitive age, it must and it ought to fall. But of this issue I have not the smallest apprehension. Genuine Christianity can well bear the fiery trial through which it is now passing, and while the dross and the rubbish are consumed, the pure gold will remain uninjured, and will come forth from the furnace with increased lustre."

Indeed the objections which some Deists have made to revelation, affect not so much the religion of Jesus Christ, laid down in the New Testament, as certain absurd doctrines and ridiculous practices which have been added to it by the weakness and wickedness of mankind. Reiterated accusations therefore of unfairness have been brought against the generality of Deistical writers; and with this palpable injustice Bolingbroke, Voltaire, and Thomas Paine stand particularly charged. Paine's Age of Reason has been ably answered by many writers, especially by the present Bishop of Landaff, in his Apology for the Bible.

The rejectors of REVELATION (before they thoughtlessly calumniate it) would do well to consider what they are able to give us in its stead, better calculated to alleviate the distresses, and bind up the bleeding heart of humanity.

The late Dr. Beattie, in the eloquent conclu