114 LIBERTY OF REASONING, &C» 



make it totter, or even to overthrow it, in the minds 

 of men, cannot poffibly do any good ; but it is more- 

 over, in fact, no better than making an open attack 

 upon the original conftitution of the government, 

 whereof religion conftitutes an effential part, and on 

 the public repofe and fafety of which it is a grand 

 fupport. 



I make no hesitation, then, in adding yet this one 

 article to my humble advice to the kings or princes, 

 who (againft all probability) may afk me for it about 

 fifty years hence : that the abfurd and fcandalous dif- 

 putation againft the being of a God, or againft. the 

 received demonftrations of it, if a man has no better 

 to give, and in like manner the public contentions of 

 the doctrine of the immortality of the foul, be declared 

 an attack upon mankind, and a confpiracy againfl civil 

 fociety ; and that it be forbidden by a penal law ex- 

 preflly to that purpofe. Philofophy has more ufeful 

 concerns to manage, than to be trying the keennefs of 

 her weapons on the main columns of the moral order, 

 and on what has been in all times the comfort and the 

 hope of the beft of men ; and that philofopher fcarcely 

 deferves the name, who does not confider, that, for 

 ©ne man who can difpenfe with religion, without hurt- 

 ing his morality and his peace of mind, there are ten 

 fhoufand, who, though they were deficient in the no- 

 bleft purpofe of it, yet, without that reftraint which it 

 lays upon them, would be much worfe, and without 

 the hope which it affords them, would be much more 

 wretched than they are. 



CON- 



