ON MATTERS Of BEl/rEtf* 6j 



wife. Is the conviction of the underftanding inde- 

 pendent on the will ; can error never juftly be punifhed 

 as a crime : then let us once at length confefs, that it is 

 at the fame time both folly and injuftice, to tarn names 

 by which merely, a different mode of representation, 

 different ideas, doctrinal tenets and ' perfuafions arc 

 diffingutfhed from each other, into names of abafe 5 



It is really difgafting to perfons of plain fenfe to fee 

 the cuftom frill prevailing, even among people of 

 learning, of treating the word deifi: or theift, which 

 denotes a man who holds neither atheifrical nor dscmo- 

 nifHcal tenets, as if it carried with it a blot which no 

 man of honour oaght to pat ap with, — though Chris- 

 tianity manifeftly takes deifm for its groundwork, and 

 the chriftians of the firffc century pride themfelves in 

 b^ing deifrs. The turn that is given to the word deiit, 

 in the ufual fcurrilous application of it to a profeffisr 

 of natural religion, who cannot believe in the parti- 

 cular dogmas of chriftians, as they are fettled by cer- 

 tain councils and in certain fyrnbols and formularies^ 

 is a wretched eyafion. For, though we mould allow, 

 that every deift muft, according to his principles, ic* 

 ject all the peculiar doctrines of chriftians : yet even 

 on this fuppofition it remains always unjuft to load 

 every one with hatred or contempt who does not be- 

 lieve whatever they believe. But in fact the cafe is 

 quite otherwife. Real deifm is very near to genuine 

 chriftianity cleared from all magifm and dgemonifm and 

 from all the reft of the drofs of the barbarous a^es: 

 and, if a deift had to chufe, from among all the reli- 

 gious parties on the face of the earth ? a religion to 

 which he would firmly adhere, he would certainly wifli 



to 



