fions, interests, and diversions shall be represented from time to time, as news from the tea-table of fo accomplished a woman as the intelligent and difcreet lady Lizard. No 3. Saturday, March 14, 1713 Quicquid eft illud, quod fentit, quod fapit, quod vult, quod vigit, cælefte et divinum eft, ob eamque rem æternum fic neceffe eft CICERO. Whatever that be, which thinks, which understands, which wills, which acts, it is fomething celeftial and divine, and, upon that account, muft neceffarily be eternal. I AM diverted from the account I was giving the town of my particular concerns, by cafting my eye upon a treatise, which I could not overlook without an inexcufable negligence, and want of concern for all the civil, as well as religious interests of mankind. This piece has for its title A Difcourfe of Free-thinking, occafioned by the rise and growth of a Sect called Free-thinkers'. The author very methodically enters upon his argument, and fays, By freethinking, I mean the use of the understanding in endeavouring to find out the meaning of any propofition whatsoever, in confidering the nature of the evidence for, or against, and in judging of it according to the feeming force or weakness of the evidence.' As foon as he has 1 By Anthony Collins. See Biograph. Brit. Art. Collins; Guardian N° 9, ad finem, and No 39. 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 against 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 service of God, are venerable to all who fear him; and it is a certain characteristic of a diffolute and ungoverned mind, to rail or speak difrespectfully 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 sometimes lodged in that bosom, 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 inftitution of religious men to ferve at the altar, and inftruct fuch who are not as wife as himself, is at all neceffary or defirable; but proceeds, without the leaft apology, to undermine their credit, and fruftrate their labours: whatever clergymen, in disputes against each other, have unguardedly uttered, is here recorded in such a manner as to affect religion itself, by wrefting conceffions to its disadvantage from its own teachers. If this be true, as fure any man that reads the discourse must allow it is; and if religion is the strongest tie of human so ciety; 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 should burn a houfe, and juftify 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 free-thinker. But there are a fet of dry, joyless, 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 so melancholy an affair as what hazards falvation, it would be no unpleasant inquiry to ask what fatisfactions they reap, what extraordinary gratification of fenfe, or what delicious libertinifm this fect of freethinkers enjoy, after getting loose 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 themselves fire enough to any further debauchees, than merely in principle? These fages of iniquity are, it feems, themselves only speculatively wicked, and are contented that all the abandoned young men of the age are kept safe from reflection by dabbling in their rhapsodies, without tasting the pleafures for which their doctrines leave them unaccountable. Thus do heavy mortals, only to gratify a dry pride of heart, give up the in be VOL. I. C terests of another world, without enlarging their gratifications in this; but it is certain there are a fort of men that can puzzle truth, but cannot enjoy the fatisfaction of it. This fame freethinker is a creature unacquainted with the emotions which poffefs great minds when they are turned for religion, and it is apparent that he is untouched with any such sensation as the rapture of devotion. Whatever one of these 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 else, 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 relish what true piety is; and he is as capable of writing an heroic poem, as making a fervent prayer. When men are thus low and narrow in their apprehenfions of things, and at the same 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 last age did not ferve the devil for nought, but revelled in exceffes fuitable to their principles; while in these unhappy days mifchief is done for mischief's fake. These 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 those late wild youths, who, without provocation, had a watonnefs in stabbing and defacing those they met with. When fuch writers as this, who, has no fpirit but that of malice, pretend to inform the age, mohocks and cut-throats 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 this free-thinker, to fupport the treatment I here give him. In his 52d page he says, Secondly, The priests throughout the world differ about fcriptures, and the authority of fcriptures. The Bramins have a book of scripture called the shafter. The Perfes have their zundavastaw. The Bonzes of China have books written by the disciples 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 fcripture written by Sommonocodom, who, the Siamefe fay, was 'born of a virgin, and was the God expected by the universe.' The Dervises have their alcoran.' I believe there is no one will dispute the author's great impartiality in setting down the accounts of thefe different religions. And I think it is pretty evident he delivers the matter with an air which betrays that the history 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 philosophy, he tells you, p. 136, Cicero pro |