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of his prosperity, Julian renounced the Christian faith, became bigotedly attached to the Pagan theology, and near the close of life published a book, with the design of overthrowing Christianity. Like most who had preceded him on the same side of the question, Julian admits the authenticity of the sacred books of the Christians, and the miracles of our Saviour, and urges various objections drawn from the books themselves. These objections were replied to, at great length, by Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem.

From the death of Julian, which took place, A. D. 363, there was no longer any organized opposition to the Christian faith in the Roman empire; and no writer of any note appeared in opposition to Christianity for the next thousand years. The Christian world was agitated with various internal controversies; but the great controversy respecting the foundations of the Christian faith was permitted to slumber.

In the thirteenth century, there were those in Italy, who were regarded as enemies of the Christian religion; but whether they were Deists, or Atheists, or what form their infidelity assumed, it is not easy to determine.

In the sixteenth century, complaints were again made of Deists in different parts of Europe, particularly in Italy and Germany. Among these, we find the name of no less a personage than Leo X. He is reported to have said, that he "considered the Christian religion a fable, though a very gainful one." Another of the infidels of this age was that impersonation of vanity, and of literary and medical quackery, Paracelsus.

The first in the ranks of English Deists, who have appeared in modern times, was Lord Edward Herbert, Baron of Cherbury. He published his book, de Veritate, in the year 1624, and several works subsequent to this, in all of which he asserts the sufficiency, universality, and absolute perfection of the religion of nature. This universal religion he reduces to the five following articles: "1. There is one Supreme God. 2. He is chiefly to be worshipped. 3. Piety and virtue constitute the principal part of his worship. 4. If we repent of our sins, God will pardon them. 5. There is a future state of rewards and punishments."

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Lord Herbert is represented as being himself an amiable, moral man; although the morality which he inculcated was of a very loose character. In his book de Veritate, he inSECOND SERIES, VOL. III. NO, II.

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sists that those are not to be condemned, who are urged to sin by any thing growing out of their particular bodily constitution, more than a dropsical person is to be condemned for immoderate thirst.

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With all his philosophy, Lord Herbert was not wholly free from the charge of superstition. When he had prepared his book de Veritate, he was still uncertain whether to publish it; and he prayed to God, that if it was his will the book should be published, he would deign to give him a sign from heaven. Immediately," he says, "I received a sign. A loud though gentle noise came forth from the heavens, (for it was like nothing on earth,) which so cheered and comforted me, that I could but regard my petition as granted. Whereupon I resolved to print my book."-Thus this impugner of all revelation professed to have received a direct revelation, and to have been governed by it in an important question of duty.

Charles Blount was a follower of Lord Herbert, and published a translation of one of his books. He also published a translation of Philostratus' life of Apollonius Tyanæus, with Notes, designing to hold him up as a rival magician and worker of miracles, in opposition to our Lord Jesus Christ. Blount became desperately in love with his own sister-in-law, and wished to marry her; and because she refused him, he put an end to his life, about the year 1690.

Of Hobbes, some notice was taken in a previous article. I regard him as rather an Atheist, than a Deist. The same may be said of Toland, who lived at about the same time with Hobbes. He published a work, entitled Pantheisticon, in which he avows himself an admirer of the philosophy of Spinoza, which really acknowledges no God but the universe. He published another work, called Amyntor, in which he endeavors to show that the apocryphal books of the New Testament have as high claims to be considered of Divine authority, as any of those belonging to the canon.

Among the infidels of Great Britain, who have appeared successively during the last hundred and fifty years, are the Earl of Shaftesbury, the Earl of Rochester, Collins, Woolston, Tindall, Morgan, Neville, Harrington, Chubb, Dodwell, Hume, Lord Bolingbroke, and more recently, Gibbon and Thomas Paine.

Lord Shaftesbury published his characteristics in the year

1711, in which, notwithstanding his efforts at concealment, his opposition to Christianity is sufficiently manifest.

The Earl of Rochester, after having done more than almost any other man to corrupt the age in which he lived, and having ruined his own health by a life of debauchery, became at length a hopeful penitent and convert, and ended his days a very decided believer. Among the last acts of his life was a request and an injunction, that all his profane and lewd writings should be burned.

Anthony Collins published a discourse on Free Thinking, in 1707; and afterwards a book entitled, "The Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion." In this latter work, he allows Christianity no other foundation than the allegorical, or (as he understood it) the false sense of the Jewish prophecies.

Woolston published several discourses on the miracles of our Saviour, in which, under pretence of defending the allegorical sense of Scripture, he endeavors utterly to destroy the truth of the facts recorded in the gospels. He asserts that the four gospels, taken in a literal sense, are "full of improbabilities, incredibilities, and gross absurdities; that they are like Gulliverian tales of persons and things which, out of the romance, never had a being; that neither the Fathers, the Apostles, nor Jesus himself ever intended that his miracles should be taken in the literal, but in the mystical and parabolical sense." He casts base and scurrilous reflections on the character of our blessed Lord; and yet he charges the bishop of London with ignorance or malice, in representing him as a promoter of infidelity. Woolston was a clergyman of the church of England.

Dr. Tindall discovered his infidelity, in a work entitled, "Christianity as old as the Creation;" in which, though he pretends a high regard for the Christian religion, he uses his utmost efforts to discard all revelation, as useless and needless, and sets himself to expose and subvert the revelations contained in the Holy Scriptures. Those who wish for positive precepts in religion, Tindall honors with the name of Demonists, representing them as enemies to the exercise of reason, and even below the brutes.

Another attempt against religion was made in England by Dr. Morgan, in his book entitled, "The Moral Philosopher." Though he professes himself a Christian, "on the footing,"

as he says, "of the New Testament," still, he insinuates reflections on the character of the Saviour, and endeavors to invalidate the attestation given to Christianity, by the bestowment of miraculous powers. He represents the apostles as preaching different gospels, and the New Testament as a jumble of inconsistent religions. Doctors Tindall and Morgan honored themselves and their followers with the appellation of Christian Deists.

In the posthumous writings of Mr. Chubb, notwithstanding all his professions to the contrary, he clearly shows himself an enemy to Christianity. He does not allow a particular providence, or admit that prayer to God is a duty. He seems in doubt with respect even to a future state of existence. He absolutely rejects the Jewish Scriptures, but expresses a very favorable opinion of the religion of Maho

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In the year 1742, Mr. Dodwell published his famous pamphlet, entitled "Christianity not founded on Argument." Under the semblance of great zeal for the Christian religion, he endeavors to show, that this religion has no foundation in reason, but rests on a constant and particular revelation or inspiration, imparted separately and supernaturally to each individual."

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Near akin to this were the sentiments of Mr. Hume, as expressed in the conclusion of his Essay on Miracles. He represents those as "dangerous friends or disguised enemies to the Christian religion, who undertake to defend it on the principles of human reason. Our most holy religion," says he, "is founded on faith, not on reason, and it is a sure method of exposing it, to put it to such a trial, as it is by no means fitted to endure." That Mr. Hume discarded the Christian revelation, there can be no doubt. The probability is, that he went much farther than this, questioning even the Divine existence, and laboring to subvert the deep foundations of morality and truth. He involved himself, and strove to involve others, in a universal skepticism.

Lord Bolingbroke was a vain, flippant, arrogant, outrageous infidel, though, like most who preceded him, he endeavored to cloak his infidelity under professions of regard for the Christian religion. Thus, while he tells us, in one place, that "genuine Christianity is taught in the gospel"that it is the word of God," and as such "requires our

strict conformity to it," he proceeds to say, that "it is no less than blasphemy to assert the Jewish Scriptures to have been divinely inspired," and that those who attempt to justify them are worse than Atheists, though they may pass for saints." He charges the Apostle Paul with "dissimulation, falsehood, and even with madness." He asserts that Paul's "gospel was different from that of Christ, and contradictory to it"-that " he writes confusedly, obscurely, and unintelligibly "—and that where his writings are intelligible, "they are often absurd, profane, and trifling." The real sentiments of Bolingbroke were not fully disclosed, until the publication of his works, subsequent to his decease.

The attacks of Gibbon on Christianity were rather in a way of sneer and sarcasm, than of direct argument or assertion. It would be hard to convict him of palpable falsehood, in any of the statements in his learned history; and yet his statements are often so discolored, not to say distorted, as to have all the effect of falsehood on the mind of the reader.

It should be added here, that as these infidel writers appeared, one after another, on the stage, they were met by able and successful opponents, who removed their objections, exposed their sophisms, and solidly refuted their specious reasonings. The following are the names of those who distinguished themselves in this protracted infidel controversy: Baxter, Halyburton, Whitby, Ward, Clark, Warburton, Chandler, Sherlock, Lardner, Stackhouse, Lowman, Doddridge, Benson, Littleton, Campbell, Watson, and West.

I have dwelt the longer on the names and works of the older English infidels, because on them rests the responsibility of opening a fountain, whose poisonous streams have deluged half Europe. From them, the virus was conveyed into France, and from France into Germany, and back again into England, and to the United States; and it is of the Lord's mercies that the foundations of religion and of social order have not, by this means, been utterly subverted.

It is a remarkable fact that, until within the last half century, nearly all the infidels in the civilized world have. thought proper to cloak their infidelity under professions of regard for the Christian religion. Thus did all those, without an exception, whose names have been mentioned. They talked of the excellent morality of the gospel, and of its Divine author. Instead of declaring themselves to be infi

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