world; but no subterfuge can be alleged as to the doctrine which forbids going to the war, and exercising civil offices; those who profess such a doctrine must necessarily follow it; the practice cannot be separated from the theory; there are no distinctions nor equivocations. It is, therefore, a true constraint; it is not a transient mortification, like that of those who discipline themselves once a year; it is a perpetual and continual state. We may therefore affirm that those Italian refugees were no cheats; they were deceived by their subtilties, and by their relying too much upon the natural light of their reason; and if they kept only part of the Christian doctrines, it is because their first principle, whereby they will admit nothing that is directly against their reason, led them to it. This is apparently the cause of their choice: had they been mere impostors, greedy of followers, they would have gone another way to work. Let us, therefore, condemn their principle as a deceitful one, and not usurp the place of him that searcheth the reins and hearts. Their principle debases religion, and changes it into philosophy. The greatness, authority, and sovereignty of God require, that we should here walk by faith and not by sight. A Spanish politician hath wisely said, "that it is an excellent qualification to keep secret one's thoughts and resolutions." Si todo excesso en secreto, lo es en caudal ; sacramentar una voluntad sera soberania.--Arguye eminencia de caudal penetrar toda voluntad agena; y concluye superioridad saber celar la propria."* The Heathens also said, " that mysteries better discover God's majesty, and are an image of his nature, because he cannot be perceived by our senses."+

If it be considered that most men are more inclined

* See father Bouhours, Entretiens d'Ariste et d'Eugene, p. 201.

† Strabo, b. 10.

to acquiesce in the inward sentiments, than to follow the thread of innumerable consequences methodically connected, and proceeding from distinct notions, and that they may be quickly and easily offended by the paradoxes which reason throws them upon, it will appear somewhat probable that the Socinian system is not very proper to gain the people. It may rather lead studious and speculative men to Scepticism. There will always be something defective in that system whereby people may be kept from it. The eternity of matter, God's extension, the limitation of this extension, and of the Divine knowledge, and of hell torments, are Socinian doctrines, which being eloquently represented to princes and their subjects, will always inspire them with great horror. If it be a convenient thing to each private person not to be afraid of being punished after this life, yet it is more inconvenient to think that one is daily conversant with people who are not afraid of it. And therefore it is not the interest of private persons, that any doctrine tending to lessen the fear of hell torments should be admitted in their country; and it is probable that the preachers of such a doctrine will always be more offensive than acceptable to the public. A certain author says, that "the same persons who reject the gospel by reason of the austerity of its moral precepts, would express a greater horror for a religion enjoining them to plunge themselves into the most infamous disorders, if it were offered to them when they are able to reason, and before they are blinded by the prejudices of education."* He has made some reflections upon this, but he has omitted one of the best, for he says nothing of self love and personal interest. It is true, that a wicked man would like a doctrine, with respect to his own conscience,

* Pensées diverses sur les Cometes, num. 89, pag. 592.

that should allow him to be a poisoner, and to commit adultery, perjury, &c. but he would not like it upon many other accounts. He has a mother, a wife, a sister, and nieces, who would vex him horribly if they grew infamous for their lewdness. There are more people who can poison, rob, and cheat him, &c. than there are against whom he can commit the same crimes. Every body is more capable of being offended than of offending others, for of twenty equal persons, it is evident that every one of them is less strong against nineteen than nineteen against one. It is therefore the interest of each private person, though never so wicked, that men should be taught such doctrines as will terrify the conscience.

I shall farther observe, by the by, that nothing has proved more prejudicial to the Socinians than this doctrine, which they thought very proper to remove the greatest difficulty a philosopher can find in our theology. A thinking man, who only consults reason and the bright idea of infinite goodness, which, morally speaking, makes up the principal character of the divine nature, will be offended at what we read in the Scripture concerning the eternity of hell torments: especially if he add to it the paraphrases and the many explanations that are to be found in several books. "Deus optimus maximus" were the current and usual titles of the Divine Nature amongst the antient Heathens. It was their set form when they spoke of God, and they never said, "Deus severissimus, implacabilissimus." The two epithets "optimus" and "maximus," properly speaking, were only the image and expression of one sole quality, I mean a supreme goodness, for goodness ought to be attended with greatness to appear in all its lustre. But what, I pray you, is greatness? Is it any thing else besides magnanimity, generosity, liberality, magnificence, and pouring out of favours? This natural idea, which

made the Heathens speak in that manner, is confirmed by the Scripture, wherein the goodness of God is all along extolled above his other attributes. Doing good, shewing mercy, is the daily and pleasant work of God, according to the Scripture: chastising, punishing, shewing severity, is to him unusual and unpleasant work. And therefore so long as a man shall adhere to his natural reason, and not humbly submit to some passages in the gospel, he will look with abhorrence upon that doctrine of the infinite torments and punishments of the whole human race, except a few only. The Socinians, relying too much upon reason, have limited those torments so much the more carefully, because they considered that men would be made to suffer only for suffering's sake, since no advantage would accrue from those torments to the sufferers or the spectators: a thing never done by any well regulated legislature. They hoped to bring over to Christianity by that means those who are offended with a notion that seems little consistent with the supreme goodness. But they were not aware that this very thing would make them more odious and more unworthy of a toleration than all their other tenets. After all, few people are offended with the doctrine concerning the eternal duration of hell torments, like Theodorus Camphusius. He was a minister, born at Gorcum, in Holland; he turned Socinian, and publicly declared he should have had no religion, had he not met with some books, wherein he found that hell torments will not last for ever. "Memini, meminerunt et alii, fuisse quendam Didericum Camphusium, qui in epistola typis expressa, et canticis ipsius adjuncta, profiteretur, se pronum fuisse ad reliquendam omnem religionem, donec inciderit in illos libros, qui docerent, perpetuos ignes nihil esse et eternos cruciatus."*-Art. SOCINUS.

* Cocceius, in Examine Apolog. Equitis Poloni, pag. 305.

SORCERY.

(Extraordinary Case of Urban Grandier.)

URBAN GRANDIER, curate and canon of Loudun, burnt alive as a magician, was the son of a royal notary of Sablé, and born at Bovère, near Sable. He was a good preacher; which made the monks of Loudun envy him at first, and at last hate him, when he pressed the obligation of confessing to the parish curate at Easter. He was a handsome man, agreeable in conversation, and neat in his clothes, which made him suspected of being beloved by the women, and of loving them. He was accused, in 1692, of having lain with women in his own church. The official of Poitiers condemned him to resign his benefices, and to live a penitent; but he appealed from that sentence, and by a decree of the parliament of Paris, was referred to the presidial of Poitiers, which declared him innocent.

Three years after, some Ursuline nuns of Loudun were thought by the common people to be possessed; Grandier's enemies immediately spread the report that it was by his means, and accused him of magic, which seems very curious; for if they believed he could send the devil into people's bodies, they should have been afraid of provoking him; they should have used him kindly, lest he should possess them with a legion of devils. Menage indeed says, that, as to the learned, the greatest part of them maintained that those nuns were only distempered, not finding in them, whatever had been said to the contrary, any of the three symptoms that the Roman ritual requires, as a sign of being truly possessed by the devil; which are divination, the understanding of languages which the person has not learned, and a supernatural strength of body." Dr Seguin, a physician of Tours, however says, "they answered in the Taupinaboux language,