submission from them than we can pretend to: for we are content and thankful, if our people will but observe us in what is evidently true and right, while they expect to be believed and followed in what is palpably false and wrong. From hence may appear the bigotry of the inferior sort among the Deists.

As to the leading men themselves, they generally follow the track of their predecessors, and appear to be zealous bigots to their systems, to their creeds, to their paradoxes, to their party; all which they adhere to as pertinaciously as we can do to our Bible. They have Pagan historians to rest their faith upon, instead of Moses and the Evangelists; they have Pagan morals to answer to the Divine Sermon on the Mount, and Pagan or Jewish calumnies to set against our Christian evidences. They have Epicurus and Celsus, Porphyry and Julian, for their guides and leaders in many things, as we have the sacred writers in all. Hobbes and Spinoza seem to be their chief instructors among the moderns; and it has been observed by knowing judges, that Hobbes himself was little more than a disciple of Epicurus & in his system of religion, or irreligion. The like may be shown, and has been shownh in some measure, of the present advocates for infidelity. Now, indeed, if they have reason for preferring those their guides and teachers to ours, then we are the bigots: but if it has been manifested a thousand times over, as I presume it has, that the proofs are on our side, and that it is impossible to come at any, as to the main things, on theirs; then we humbly conceive that the bigotry lies at their door, and we appeal from the seat of calumny to the truth and reason of things. Let them show that they

& Hoc probe scio, ipsum nihil nobis obtulisse nisi quod apud veteres in Epicuro reprehensum inveniamus. Ut enim Epicurus omnia a Democrito surripuisse dicitur, ita Hobbius omnia Epicuri flagitia ingenti fastu tanquam sua recudit; atque ut nova videantur, novis nominibus (quorum ille, ut sunt novatores omnes, egregius artifex) appellare affectavit. Parker, Disputat. de Deo, p. 86.

h Scripture Vindicated, vol. vi part 2. p. 166, &c.

have as good grounds for following the doctrines of Epicurus, or any other ancient or modern infidel, as we have for following Christ. Such was the challenge which Arnobius long ago made to the Pagans, who presumed to oppose their philosophers to Christ and his Apostles i: and such we make to every unbeliever at this day. Perhaps they will say, that they follow no one's authority implicitly or absolutely, but collect from all what they like best. This might show they are no bigots to mere human authority; neither are we: but then they may be bigots to their own passions, or prejudices, or party, in rejecting Divine authority sufficiently attested; while there is no bigotry in submitting to the highest reason, and in adhering to God. Balance reasons with reasons, evidences with evidences, facts with facts, and thereupon judge where truth and credibility, where error and bigotry lie. It is easy to raise objections to any thing; as it is easy to be ignorant, or unattentive, or humoursome, or perverse: but the great point is, whether those objections, surmises, or suspicions, comparatively, have any weight, or how much, when put into the scale against solid arguments. There then rests the whole thing: let our accusers show that the reasons are all on their side, and then we shall readily admit, that all the bigotry is on ours: but till this be done, (and it is impossible it ever should,) the charge which they bring against us is as easily retorted as made, and with much more truth and justice; which will always be the case, as often as Christianity is impeached upon this article.

3. Another famous term of reproach, which unbelievers

1 Et quid est quod in hac parte, aut vos plurimum habeatis, aut nos minus? Vos Platoni, vos Cronio, vos Numenio, vel cui libuerit creditis: nos credimus et acquiescimus Christo. Iniquitas hæc quanta est, ut cum utrique auctoribus stemus, sitque nobis et vobis unum et socium credere, vobis velitis dari, quod ita ab illis dicatur accipere, vos ea quæ proferuntur a Christo, audire et spectare nolitis. Atqui si causas causis, partes partibus voluerimus æquare, magis nos valemus ostendere quid in Christo fuerimus secuti, quam in philosophis quid vos. Ac nos quidem in illo secuti hæc sumus: opera illa magnifica, &c. Arnob, adv. Gent. lib. ii. p. 49.

asperse us with, is superstition; a name which often stands for Christianity, or for all revealed religion, in their nomenclature. But the word properly imports any religious excesses, either as to matter, manner, or degree. There may be a superstitious awe, when it is wrong placed, or is of a wrong kind, or exceeds in measure: and whenever we speak of a superstitious belief, or worship, or practice, we always intend some kind of religious excess. Any false religion, or false part of a true one, is a species of superstition, because it is more than should be, and betokens excess. Hence it has been usual for persons of some religion, to style all but their own, superstition, as being false in their account: and they that admit no religion as true, make superstition the common name for all. The contrary extreme to excess is defect, or want of religion, and is called irreligion, profaneness, impiety, apostasy, atheism, according to its respective circumstances and degrees. The due mean between the two extremes is true and sound religion. Now since the Christian religion is most evidently true, (if any ancient facts whatever can be proved to be true,) we do insist upon it, that it is properly religion, and not superstition : and that a disbelief of it, where it is sufficiently promulgated, is irreligion, profaneness, madness. This then is a short and a clear answer to our adversaries upon the present head; that they can never maintain the charge of superstition against Christian believers, as such; but we can easily make good the charge of profaneness or irreligion against them. But besides that, I may venture perhaps to add, that they are not so clear even of superstition itself, as is commonly imagined: for infidelity and superstition are, for the most part, near allied, as proceeding from the same weakness of judgment, or same corruption of heart. Those guilty fears and apprehensions of an avenging Deity, which drive some persons into superstition, do as naturally drive others of a more hard and stubborn

* See Vossii Etymologicum, in Superstitio.

temper into infidelity, or atheism'. The same causes working differently in different persons, or in the same persons at different times, produce both m: and it has been a common observation, justifiable by some noted instances, that no men whatever have been more apt to exceed in superstition, at the sight of danger, than those who at other times have been most highly profane.

But I may farther observe, that superstition (practical superstition at least) may be more directly charged upon many or most of our accusers, as it is their avowed principle to comply outwardly with any public and autho·rized superstitions whatever. Epicurus and his followers conformed readily to the popular superstitions ", being willing enough to compound at that rate to save themselves harmless. I have before observed of the leaders of the modern Deists abroad, that they accommodated themselves to the prevailing religions wheresoever they lived. Hobbes and Spinoza are known to have advised and inculcated the same doctrine, making the magistrate's religion the sovereign rule for outward practice. Mr. Toland observes of Atheists, (and he knew them well,) that their principle is, to stand up for all established religions, by all means, right or wrong P. The author of the Oracles of

1 See Smith's Select Discourses, p. 25. and p. 41, &c.

A late ingenious author has well expressed and illustrated the observation, as follows:

“Atheism and superstition are of the same origin: they both have their "rise from the same cause, the same defect in the mind of man, our want "of capacity in discerning truth, and natural ignorance of the Divine es66 sence. Men that from their most early youth have not been imbued with "the principles of the true religion, or have not afterwards continued to be "strictly educated in the same, are all in great danger of falling either into "the one or the other, according to the difference there is in the tempera"ment and complexion they are of, the circumstances they are in, and the 66 company they converse with." Second Part of the Fable of the Bees, p.

374.

; n Vid. Plutarch. contr. Epicur. Opp. tom. ii. p. 1102. Origen. contr. Cels. lib. vii. p. 375.

• Vid. Kortholtus de Tribus Impostoribus, p. 208, &c.

P Atheus, commodo suo intentus, nunquam a stabilita religione dissen

Reason and his friends profess the same principle of conformity to the religion of one's country, whatever it be 9. Some have openly, and with great immodesty, even boasted of it; interpreting it to such a monstrous latitude, that the same person might indifferently go to a Popish chapel, or a Turkish mosque, or to an Indian pagod. Among the noted characteristics of atheistical men, this commonly makes one, that they follow the religion of the magistrate, value it not as true, but as established, and regard it only as an instrument of state policys.

tiet; cui omnes alios, ne suspectus evadat, per fas et nefas velit conformes. Toland. Adeisidæmon, p. 78.

1 See Blount's Miscellanies, p. 202, 203. Compare Nicholls's Conference, part ii. p. 193.

Colo Deum talem qualem princeps vel respublica me jubet. Si Turca, Alcoranum ; si Judæus, Vetus Testamentum; si Christianus, Novum Testamentum veneror pro lege et religionis meæ norma. Papa si imperans, Deum credo transubstantiatum; si Lutherus, Deus mihi particulis in, cum, et sub circumvallatur; si Calvinus, signum pro Deo sumo. Sicque cujus regio, in qua vivo, ejus me regit opinio, &c. Autor Meditation. Philosoph. &c. apud Budd. Isagog. p. 1390.

• Those characteristics are numbered up in twelve articles, by a learned foreigner.

1. Omni occasione data, negare aut in dubium vocare supernaturalia ; miracula, &c.

2. Sacræ Scripturæ autoritatem imminuere, aliisque suspectam et contemptam reddere; Scripturam cum Scriptura et cum ratione committere, et inde elicere contradictiones.

3. Metum omnem et justam solicitudinem omnibus excutere, nil nisi hilaritatem et securitatem commendare.

4. Immortalitatem animæ rationalis negare.

5. Providentiam Dei accusare, vel vocare in dubium.

6. Mysteria religionis Christianæ exagitare, et scurriliter traducere.

7. Ab Ecclesiæ Ministris abhorrere, et eorum colloquia declinare.

8. Atheismos aliorum cupide enarrare, et argumenta pro Atheismo tanquam indissolubiles subtilitates admirari.

9. Religionem aliquam strenue simulare, et gravissime contra eos qui Atheismi ipsos insimulant, contestari.

10. Religionem non alio nomine urgere, quam quatenus ad rationem status facit.

11. Atheismi impugnationes et increpationes ægre ferre.

12. Libros gentilium libentius quam Christianorum legere, et sacræ Scripturæ lectionem aversari.

Adjiciunt plerique, non seorsim esse spectanda hæc criteria, sed conjunc