can be no harm in disposing of it as we please: that there can be no more crime in turning a few ounces of blood out of their course (that is, in cutting one's throat) than in turning the waters of a river out of their channel. What is murder? It is nothing more than turning a little blood out of its way. And so the Irishman said, by the same figure of rhetoric, that perjury was nothing more than kissing a book, or, as he worded it, smacking the calveskin. This is the sage Mr. Hume! whom Dr. Adam Smith delivers to the world, after his death, as a perfect character; while a man of plain sense, who takes things as they are, would think it impossible that any person, who is not out of his mind, should argue at this rate. Mr. Hume seems to me to have borrowed from the school of the old Pyrrhonists much of that system which he is supposed to have invented. They made all things indifferent, and doubted of every thing, that there might be nothing true or real left to disturb them. chief good they aimed at in every thing, was what they called arapaia, a state of undisturbance or tranquillity, in which the mind cares for nothing: and it was the ambition of Mr. Hume to be thought to have lived and died in this state; but by all accounts his arapačia was not quite perfect *. His object was undoubtedly the same with that of the Pyrrhonists, and he pursues The * Pliny the Natural Historian has rightly observed, that Philosophers, through the affectation of apathy, divested themselves of all human affections; that this was the case with Diogenes the Cynic, Pyrrho, Heraclitus, and Timon of Athens; the last of whom actually sunk into a professed hatred of all mankind. "Exit hic animi tenor aliquando in rigorem quemdam, torvitatemque naturæ duram et inflexibilem; adfectusque humanos adimit, quales apathes Græci vocant, multos ejus generis experti." Nat. Hist. lib. vii. c. 19. it by a like way of reasoning. The speculations of these men were so copious, that there is matter enough left for another Mr. Hume to set himself up with, and pass for an original. Of all the sects of antiquity this was the most unreasonable; though pretending to more wisdom than all the rest. That, which was but folly under Heathenism, turns into desperation and madness under the light and truth of Christianity. Where all was blind tradition, or wild conjecture, there might be some excuse for fixing to nothing; but to affect undisturbance, after what is now revealed, concerning death and judgment, and heaven and hell, is to try how far a man can argue himself out of his senses. What angels may think of such a person, I do not inquire: but how must evil spirits look upon that man, who sleeps or laughs over the things at which they tremble; and then calls himself a Philosopher! Of the Letters on Infidelity, the first half is employed on Mr. David Hume; the latter half on a more modern adventurer; who, to be revenged on the Bishops of this Church, put together a miscellany of objections against the Scripture and the Christian religion. The Right Reverend Bench had procured an act of Parliament against the Sunday-Clubs, which met together on the evening of the Sabbath-day, to indulge themselves, and corrupt an audience, with blasphemous disquisitions and disputations. For thus cruelly disturbing the amusements of infidelity, the Bishops are represented as the vilest of persecutors : whips, tortures, racks, and all the implements of the Holy Office, are introduced to confirm the accusation; from all which a stranger to the case might suppose it a common thing with the Prelates of this country, to break the bones of Infidels, or roast them alive: and all this is for nothing else, but that they had seasonably and wisely provided, that the Christian religion, in a Christian country, should not be trampled under foot, upon the Sabbath-day. The objections this man hath brought together are very well taken off: but if Christians are bound to answer, so long as infidels will object, who never wish to be satisfied, and are probably incapable of being so, their lot would be rather hard, and much of their time unprofitably spent. The Gentlemen of the Long Robe attend the court, not to answer the scruples which felons may entertain about the principles of justice, but to administer the law; otherwise their work would never be done: and it is the business of the clergy to preach the Gospel to the people: it was the part of God, who gave the word, to prove it to the world by prophecies and miracles. The prophecies are as strong as ever; some of them more so than formerly: and miracles are not to be repeated for proof, after the world hath once been persuaded. All is then left to testimony and education. Before Moses gave the law, he showed signs and wonders: but, when the law was once received, parents were to tell their children, and confirm the truth by the memorials that were left of it. It therefore lies upon our adversaries to show, how it came to pass, on any of their principles, that men like themselves, as much disposed to make objections, should receive the Scripture as the word of God in the several nations of the world, and receive it at the peril of their lives: a fact which they cannot deny. Let them also try to account for it, on their own principles, how the Jews have been strolling about the world for seventeen hundred years, as witnesses to the Scripture, and to the sentence therein passed upon themselves. Till they can do these things, it is nothing but an evasion to cavil about words and passages; a certain mark of prejudice and perverseness. They know they cannot deny the whole, but, as they must appear to be doing something, they flatter their own pride by keeping up a skirmish, and perplex weak people, by raising difficulties about the parts. This was the expedient on which Mr. Voltaire bestowed so much labour. It does not appear to me that he really thought the facts of Christianity to be false; but that his vanity and perverseness tempted him to ridicule the Bible, without denying in his mind that God was the author of it: in fact, that he was a Theomachist, who hated the truth, knowing it to be such, and braved the authority of Heaven itself: or, in the words of Herbert, that he was a man, Who makes flat war with God, and doth defy If a religion, to which the nature of man is so hostile, did actually make its way without force, and against the utmost cruelty and discouragement from the world; that fact was a miracle, including within itself a thousand other miracles. See, on the other hand, how Paganism, Mahometism, and modern Atheism, were and are supported and propagated: the Pagan Idols by ten bloody persecutions, with every act of outrageous mockery and insult, for want of reasons and miracles: the religion of Mahomet (a sort of Christian Heresy) by rewards of sensuality and the power of the sword; that is, by force and temptation: the Atheism of France by farcical representation and ridicule of truth, assisted in the rear by imprisonments, murders, and confiscations. These be thy gods, O Infidelity, by the power of which thy kingdom is established in the world! These efforts of 66 violence show the weakness of false reason, and the strength of that which is true; and demonstrate, that men were prevailed upon by true evidence, and rational persuasion, to receive the Christian faith. Here lie the merits of the cause in a small compass: and let all the infidels upon earth lay their hands together, and give a direct answer. Swift assures us, from his own observations, and I believe very truly, that a man was always vicious before he became an unbeliever;" and that "reasoning will never make a man correct an opinion, which by reasoning he never acquired." Some service, however, is done to the cause of piety, and defensive weapons are put into the hands of those whose minds are as yet uncorrupted, when the malice or ignorance of an infidel is exposed by an examination of his objections: the corruption of his mind is thereby displayed in such a manner, that even a child may see it and therefore we are much obliged to Dr. Horne, for answering the doubts of infidels, and for reasoning his answer with such wit and spirit, that the work, in some parts of it, has the force of a comedy: it should therefore be put into the hands of young people, that they may see how foolish some men are, when they pretend to be over-wise. The Letter to Dr. Priestley from an Under-graduate, that to Dr. Adam Smith on the Character of David Hume, and the Letters on Infidelity, are three choice pieces upon the same argument, which should always go together. But suppose infidelity is answered, the business is not all done: we have still the believing unbeliever to contend with, of whom there is but little hope. The Christian evidence can certainly have no effect on those that deny it: but that it should have so little effect on some that believe it, and even argue and dispute well for it, this is the greatest wonder of all: but so the matter |