RELIGIOUS OPINIONS. CCCCXXXV11 



There is a tract entitled, &quot; The Characters of a believing Paradoxes. 

 Christian, in paradoxes and seeming contradictions,&quot; which 

 is spurious, (a ) 



Such are his religious sentiments in different parts of 

 his works ; but they are not confined to his publications. 

 They appear where, according to his own doctrine, our 

 opinions may always be discovered, in his familiar letters, 

 in the testimony of his friends, in his unguarded obser 

 vations, and in his will. 



In a letter to Mr. Mathew, imprisoned for religion, he Letters. 

 says, &quot; I pray God, who understandeth us all better than 

 we understand one another, contain you, even as I hope 

 he will, at the least, within the bounds of loyalty to his 

 majesty, and natural piety towards your country.&quot; In the 

 decline of his life, in his letter to the Bishop of Win 

 chester, he says, &quot; Amongst consolations, it is not the least 

 to represent to a man s self like examples of calamity 

 in others. In this kind of consolation I have not been 

 wanting to myself, though as a Christian, I have tasted, 

 through God s great goodness, of higher remedies.&quot; (6) 



In his essay on Atheism there is an observation, which Sceptics. 

 may appear to a superficial observer hasty and unguarded, 

 inconsistent with the language of philosophy, and at 

 variance with his own doctrines. It was written, not in 

 prostration to any idol, bat from his horror of the barren 

 and desolate minds that are continually saying, &quot; There is 

 no God,&quot;(c) and his preference, if compelled to elect, of the 

 least of two errors. &quot; I had rather/ he says, &quot; believe all 



of our alphabet. May God the Creator, Preserver, and Restorer of the 

 universe, protect and govern this work, both in its ascent to his glory, 

 and in its descent to the good of mankind, for the sake of his mercy and 

 good will to men, through his only son Immanuel.&quot; 



(a) The evidence of this may be found in the preface to vol. vii. 



(6) See letter to the Duke of Buckingham, postea, p. 445. 



(c) See postea, p. 443, note (). 



