The principal tenets of the Freethinkers may be seen thrown together in the first volume of the "Connoisseur," under the contradictory title of "THE UNBELIEVER'S CREED."

"That the soul is material and mortal, Christianity an imposture, the Scripture a forgery, the worship of God superstition, hell a fable, and heaven a dream, our life without providence, and our death without hope, like that of asses and dogs, are part of the glorious gospel of Atheists *."

Among the books and tracts I had not previously seen, that were lately put into my hands by one of the learned and venerable prelates of the Lutheran Church, who have kindly condescended to forward the object of this work, were two on the subject of this article; namely, Toland's Pantheisticon, published in 1720; and a tract which the Senator Gregoire had sent him from Paris, as an atheistical curiosity, entitled, "Culte et Loix d'une Societè d'Hommes sans Dieu." L'An 1er de la Raison; 6 de la Republique Française."

The Pantheisticon, "sive Formula Celebrandæ Sodalitatis Socraticæ," is divided into three parts; " quæ Pantheistarum, sive Sodalium, continent, 1. Mores et Axiomata; 2. Numen et Philosophiam; 3. Libertatem, et non fallentem legem, neque fallendam." To the whole is prefixed, "De antiquis et novis Eruditorum Sodalitatibus, ut et de Universo, infinito et æterno, Diatriba."

The Numen, or Deity here acknowledged, appears to be nearly that of Spinoza, and is briefly this:

❝ In mundo omnia sunt unum ;

Unumque est omne in omnibus.

Quod omne in omnibus, Deus est;
Æternus ac immensus,

Neque genitus neque interiturus."-p. 54.

"The society of men without God" maintain the perfectability of man, and speak of the belief in a God, as “de tous les prejuges, celui qui fait le plus de mal!" Of the worship they profess," la vertue seule est l'object." In houses dedicated to virtue, and which had never been used as places wherein any other deity had been worshipped, they adored and sang hymns to virtue, to which "femmes jeunes et pures," added the charms of their voice. In the third strophe of the hymn here given, are these words :

tell us, "Nature is our God, and the Universe our Bible." See the "AntiJacobin Review," vol. i. p. 231.

* Bentley on Freethinking.

"Est-il un Dieu? qu' importe! au geometre habile Laissons resoudre en paix, ce probleme inutile." Their scheme, which was drawn up, issued from the press and circulated, during the reign of Atheism in France, is comprised in 103 paragraphs, maxims or heads, and their grand aim was professedly "combattre et detruire la croyance en Dieu." In their introduction, they say, that the necessity of such an institution is tacitly acknowledged "par tous les bons esprits.". Their creed was briefly this:

"Les Hommes sans Dieu septuagenaires recoivent la consecration des enfans a la vertu, en leur faisant ecrire, et repeter de vive voix, les paroles ci-jointes ;

"Je croix a la vertu: mon coeur la sent; il l'aime : Elle seule est sacrée ; elle seule a ma foi:

Exceptè la vertu, la reste est un probleme,

Pour moi."

They professed to have chiefly in view the good of the rising generation: and their leading aim was to convince mankind that they not only might, but ought, to reject the notion of a God, "le pretexte de tous les crimes et de toutes les calamites!" To effect this strange object, they further employed a printing press; established an atheistical library; and had even the effrontery to inscribe on the walls of their meeting-houses, where they assembled every tenth or fifth night, and in golden letters, these words :

"De toutes les erreurs,

La plus grand est un Dieu."

They likewise published memoirs of their society, together with an elementary system of morals, " degagée de l'alliage impur et sacrilege d'un Dieu;" and they adjudged, annually, a crown to the author of the most approved essay against the prejudice of a belief in God!

Yet these men who were thus at enmity, and at open war Chorresco referens), with God, professed to be in love with virtue, and were so far from wishing to be viewed as Atheists, that they would admit into the number of their members neither any priest, nobleman, servant, or pensioner of a prince, nor yet a man who was an Atheist, i. e. "le scelerat qui nie un Dieu, dans l'espoir de l'impunitè.”

But I refrain from enlarging on so painful a subject-a subject with which, I doubt not, I have already saturated the curiosity of the reader. The society has, it is hoped, long before now ceased to exist: no individual will be found, we trust, at this day, who will advocate its principles: instead,

therefore, of retarding their progress to oblivion, let both them and their abettors be forgotten.

From their case, however, in conjunction with that of their fellow-countrymen and contemporaries, the worshippers of reason, another argument is deduced to shew that the very idea of Atheism, properly so called, is as unnatural as it is irreligious; for man will have some object of worship, either real or imaginary; and that they who either know not, or presumptuously reject, the living and true God, never fail to lose themselves in an unfathomable abyss of absurdities*.

WORKS PRO ET CON.

As Tolandt, Woolston, and Hume, used generally to pretend that they were friends to Christianity, while they were secretly aiming to overthrow it; so most of the abettors of Atheism, unwilling openly to avow their principles, have used arts equally disingenuous, to support their feeble cause.

Thus, Bayle's Dictionary contains, under the mask of religion and science, a whole mass of atheistical principles; and since it was written, the same spawn of irreligion has been industriously scattered all over the world, and especially on the continent of Europe, in the wretched productions of modern philosophers, of various shapes and sizes, under the name of essays, letters, novels, histories, &c., from the bulky quarto to the meagre pamphlet.

Half our danger does not arise from tracts professedly penned in favour of Atheism and Irreligion, but from writings of other kinds, carrying nothing hostile in their appearance. The unsuspecting reader, who sat down to inform or amuse himself with a piece of natural or civil history, biography, a poem, a tale, or a fable, if he have not his wits about him, finds his reverence for the doctrines of religion, and those who teach them, filched from him; rises, to his great surprise, half an infidel; and is not sure whether he has a soul, a Saviour, or a God.

See Dr. Young's " Night Thonghts," night 4th.

"These pompous sons of reason idoliz'd," &e. + An epitaph was written for Mr. Toland in these words:

"By no religion claim'd, nor no land,

Here rest the bones of Master Toland."

Short and popular atheistical tracts have also been printed of late in this country, in the cheapest manner, and sold below their value, that they might find their way to garrets and shop-boards. Such, Dr. Magee tells us, were "literally scattered along the high ways" in Ireland, particularly in the North. See his "Sermon at St. Anne's, Dublin," May 5, 1796.

The dangerous tendency of several writings-some of which were, perhaps, but little suspected of Atheism-bas been shewn by Mr. afterwards Dr. Witherspoon, an able and popular writer of the last century, and the principles contained in them briefly summed up, in what he calls " 'THE ATHENIAN CREED*." And an infalliable antidote against atheistical tenets may be found in the Sermons preached at Boyle's Lecture, collected in three volumes folio, or abridged by Burnett in four volumes, 8vo; Bishop Wilkins's "Principles and Duties of Natural Religion;" Dr. Cudworth's "Intellectual System;" Abernethy "On the Divine Attributes;" Fenelon and Bate "On the Existence of a God;" More's "Antidote against Atheism;" Knight's "Being and Attributes of God demonstrated;" Dr. Paley's "Natural Theology," &c.

All the ablest laymen and most profound philosophers of our nation have been the firmest believers in the existence and superintendence of a Deity. Indeed, as Lord Bacon bas well remarked, in his Essays, " a little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion; for, while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may rest in them and go no farther; but when it beholdeth the chain of them confederated and linked together, it must needs fly to providence and Deity."

The being of a God may be proved, first, From the marks of design, and from the order and beauty visible in the world; for, as Cato very justly says, " And that he is, all nature cries aloud;"-2dly, Confirmed by universal consent+; -3dly, Proved scientifically from the relation of cause and effect;-4thly, From internal consciousness;-5thly, From the necessity of a final as well as efficient cause. And the arguments from these heads may be confirmed from the history of the creation, and from the prophecies and miracles of Scripture.

The arguments for the being of a God are distributed into two kinds: 1st, Arguments a priori, or those taken from the necessity of the Divine existence; 2d, Arguments a posteriori, or those taken from the works of nature.

*This creed is extracted by Mr. Witherspoon, in his "Characteristics," p. 40, to which the reader is referred, as the sum and substance of Leibnitz's "Theodice," and his "Letters," Shaftsbury's " Characteristics," Collins's "Enquiry into Human Liberty," all Mr. H-n's pieces." Christianity as Old as the Creation," D-n's "Best Scheme, "and H-'s" Moral Essays." N. A-e is the author of the "Pleasures of the Imagination," a work to be put on the same shelf with all above."

+ See Bishop Stillingfleet's "Origines Sacræ."

Most people agree with Lord Chesterfield, in believing that the Divine existence cannot be proved a priori, and that it cannot be doubted a posteriori. On the former species of proof, however, Dr. S. Clarke's "Essay on the Being and Attributes of God" has been generally considered a masterpiece; as is likewise a small work, in the mathematical form, by Mr. Moses Lowman*, to prove the Unity and Perfections of God; and of the latter, the following passage from Dr. Balguy is a beautiful illustration :

"Of all the false doctrines and foolish opinions which ever infested the mind of man, nothing can possibly equal that of Atheism, which is such a monstrous contradiction to all evidence, to all the powers of understanding, and the dictates of common sense, that it may be well questioned, whether any man can really fall into it, by a deliberate use of his judgment.

"All nature so clearly points out, and so loudly proclaims, a Creator of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, that whoevers hears not its voice, and sees not its proofs, may well be thought wilfully deaf, and obstinately blind...

If it be evident, self-evident to every man of thought, that there can be no effect without a cause, what shall we say of that manifold combination of effects, that series of operations, that system of wonders, which fill the universe, which present themselves to all our perceptions, and strike our minds and our senses on every side! Every faculty, every object of every faculty, demonstrates a Deity. The meanest insect we can see, the minutest and most contemptible weed we can tread upon, is really sufficient to confound Atheism, and baffle all its pretensions: how much more that astonishing variety and multiplicity of God's works with which we are continually surrounded! Let any man survey the face of the earth, or lift up his eyes to the firmament; let him consider the nature and instincts of brute animals, and afterwards look into the operations of his own mind: will he presume to say or suppose that all the objects he meets with are nothing more than the result of unaccountable accidents and blind chance? Can he possibly conceive that such wonderful order should spring out of confusion; or that such perfect beauty should be ever formed by the fortuitous operations of unconscious, unactive particles of matter? As well, nay better, and more easily, might he suppose that an earthquake might happen to build towns and cities; or the materials carried down by a flood fit them• Author of a well-known work on the Revelation, &c.