will impenetrably fix the basis of the triumphant doctrine." In other words, let mankind, ignorant and unfit for such speculations, as the large majority of them ever have been and ever must be, be continually harassed with opposite opinions and contending factions, imposed on by the cabal of infidels, distracted by the din of politics, and opposed by the reasoning of the divine, and the duty of the magistrate,—and truth must be the consequence. In short, leave every man to the freedom of his own will; neither oppose his opinions, nor restrain his actions, and science and virtue will be the grand result: The inbred superiority of reason will assert itself, and infidelity will triumph. It is indeed certain, that if the divine and the magistrate sit silent, and careless spectators of the scene, the progress of infidelity will be rapid; but the experience of ages proves that licentiousness will be equally so. Let the calumniator of all that is sacred go unopposed, and the infringer of the laws unpunished, and atheism and turbulence, ruin and desolation, will quickly raise their direful heads, and act their aweful tragedy in the sight of the sun. But if this inbred superiority of reason does really exist, as infidels inform us, they must at least grant that it has hitherto been a latent quality; and, when it has occasionally been asserted, its consequences have never, amongst any considerable portion of men, been such as we

should expect from a natural attribute of the human mind. The Christian believes that human nature has been corrupted; that man's ideas of right, and his powers of reason, have consequently been obscured; and therefore that some positive institutions were necessary to prevent the worst consequences of this corruption and obscurity, and finally to restore him to the rank from which he fell. Universal experience, independent of all particular proof, pleads strongly for this opinion; and the inbred superiority of reason, if it should exist, since it certainly has never yet obtained its superiority, has no great tendency to confute it.

"The next remark of the Bishop which attracts the notice of Dr Francis and Mr M., and which draws from both much ill nature and misrepresentation, is, "that the Age of Reason has rooted from the minds of the unhappy virtuous all their comfortable assurance of a future recompence." Connected as this remark is, in the Bishop's book, an ordinary reader would not readily have misconceived it; and an honest one certainly would not have misrepresented or cavilled at it. But it has long been the policy of infidels to misconceive the plainest sentences, and to misrepresent and obscure the most indisputable facts. Such cavilling supplies them with matter, when they would otherwise be at a loss, and when they are unable, or unwilling, to bring the main sub

ject to a fair issue. It affords them also a strong argument for their beloved scepticism; because, as they pretend, they hope the world will give them credit for honesty of intention, and lay the error, if error it should be deemed, to the score of their reason. The Bishop evidently means that the principles of those he calls virtuous have, by the misrepresentations of infidelity, been cruelly perverted; and therefore that, ceasing to be virtuous, they have become unhappy: That their assurance of a future recompence, which afforded them comfort in every situation and vicissitude of life, has been staggered or destroyed; and that therefore they are liable to be misled, corrupted, and depraved, by every dangerous doctrine, and every vicious practice. Dr F. asserts that the pious are few in number; that they are not easily' misled, because they will not read the books of infidels:-" but, should chance lead them to a detection of their errors, they would only become less devout, and more useful citizens. Freed from the prospect of hell and heaven, they will have leisure to think of this world, in which they live somewhat like hermits, loving only their priests, and ready to sacrifice victims to credulity." This is a strange sentence, and looks more like the ravings of a subject of Spain or Portugal, than the reasoning of a native of the British empire. They would only become less devout and more useful citizens. Does

this exhibit any extraordinary knowledge of human nature; or is the sentence which follows it either candid or just? The devout and pious Christian is the most useful, as he is certainly the most peacable citizen. His duty is the effect of divine sanctions, and he looks to futurity for his final reward; but, as his religion produces individual virtue, so it promotes social happiness :-" Do to others as ye would they should do unto you," affects every situation and regulates the conduct of every sincere Christian. Is it the way to improve this utility to annihilate such principles; to tell men that this world is their all; that their conduct has hitherto proceeded from a source absurd and false; and that futurity and retribution are mere chimeras? The experiment were madness, and its success would be deplorable. I here argue, you will observe, on the idea that the Doctor understands the words, devout and pious, as they are uniformly understood by Christians, as comprehending every principle, and every duty which unadulterated Christianity lays down and enjoins. But the learned and candid Doctor does not appear thus to understand them. His mind is so impressed with popery and the rack; and he seems to have been so exclusively conversant with ignorant bigots, or debauched hypocrites, as to conceive it impossible for Christianity to be believed and practised in the simple purity in which it

as

was originally taught. As justly might he characterize the human species, by describing an untutored savage; or sume an opinion of the British nation, from a knowledge of the wretches who suffer at Tyburn. That many Christians are and have been grossly wicked is certain; that some established systems of Christianity have occasionally afforded too much room for human depravity, is equally true but that this is the effect of the religion itself, or the necessary consequence of its promulgation, is false; as every honest man,-who has read the new testament; who has coolly considered the effect of this religion, when it was first taught; its general influence on the human character, ever since, when compared with other systems, and other times and circumstances, and its particular happy influence on numerous individuals, in every country where it is professed,-must acknowledge. Mr M., on the other hand, amuses his readers by exhibiting his talent for verbal criticism; and, having said all he could on the expression unhappy virtuous, &c. he proceeds to draw conclusions, and abundantly dogmatical these are, from what he has either really misconceived, or wilfully misrepresented. To follow him through all the dirt he has thus raised, would afford little gratification either to you or me; and it is perhaps more than such barefaced dishonesty, and such pertinacious opposition,