It is no intention of mine to faften the odium of wilful infidelity on any perfon, who profef ses his belief of the fcriptures; though I am equally concerned and furprized that a gentleman, whose understanding has been enlightened by the Chriftian revelation, and enlarged by all the aids of human learning, fhould broach tenets, which equally militate against the first principles of reason, and the oracles of the Divinity, and which if true would be of no service to mankind. Whoever is fo unhappy as to work himself into a conviction, that his foul is. no more than a fubtile vapour, which in death is to be breathed out into the air, to mix confusedly with its kindred element, and there to perish, would still do well to conceal his horrid belief with more fecrecy than the Druids concealed their myfteries. In doing otherwise he only brings difgrace on himself, for the notion of religion is fo deeply impreffed on our minds, that the bold champions who would fain destroy it, are considered by the generality of mankind, as public pefts, fpreading diforder and mortality wherever they appear; and in our feelings we discover the delufions of a cheating Philosophy, which can never introduce a religion more pure than that of the Chriftians, nor confer a more glorious privilege on man, than that of an immortal foul. In a word, if it be a crime

to have no religion, it is a folly to boast of the want of it.

Whence then this eagerness to propagate fyftems, the tendency whereof is to flacken the reins that curb the irregularity of our appetites, and restrain the impetuofity of paflion? In our dogmatizing philofophers, it must proceed from the corruption of the heart, averfe to restraint; or the vanity of the mind, which glories in ftriking from the common path, and not thinking with the multitude.

Your unfpotted character, juftifies you from any imputation of a defign to infect others with the poifon of a licentious doctrine

It

but vanity is one of thofe foreign ingredients, blended by the lofs of original juftice into our nature. prefers glorious vices to obfcure virtues. It animates the hero to extend his conquefts at the expense of juftice; and ftimulates the philofopher to erect the banners of error on the ruins of truth. You feem to acknowledge it in your enquiries into the caufes of error: "It was va"nity in philofophers which caufed so many fo different fects and fyftems." I believe it. Montaigne was of the fame opinion. Immerfed în an ocean of diforders, glorying in appearance, in an utter extinction of remorse, and converfant with the doctrine taught in Epicu rus's garden, he acknowledges that vanity in

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duces

duces Free-thinkers to affect more impiety than they are really capable of. Lucretius in like manner, whofe arguments against the immortality of the foul are the fame with yours, corroborates your opinion, relative to the biafs vanity gives those foaring and philofophical geniuses, who strike from the trodden path. When in glowing numbers he enforced his fond opinion of carelefs Gods and material fouls, as favourable to the calm repose which the voluptuous bard, who makes his invocation to Venus, would fain enjoy without remorfe here, or punishment hereafter, he was well aware that his doctrine clashed with the general sense of mankind. But the philofophical poet confoles himself, with the flattering expectation of gratifying his vanity.

""Tis fweet to crop fresh flowers, and get a

"crown,

"For new and rare inventions of my own." Creech's Lucretius.

In a word, fome men of learning plume themselves upon the fingularity of their opinions; and however they may disclaim vanity, as the spring of their literary performances, yet it is one of thofe ingredients which gives a zeft to their compofitions. And if fingularity and novelty of invention, be ftimulatives to felflove, few authors of the age are more bound to guard

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guard against this dangerous and agreeable pol fon, than the author of the Thoughts on nature and religion.

To range thofe fingularities under their proper heads, is almost impoffible; and modefty does not permit to tranfcribe from your book feveral paffages of your allegorical commentary, on the second chapter of Genefis. The coat of Jkins, then, with which God covered the man and woman after their fall, as well as the fruit fo pleafing to the eye, which the woman tafted, I leave the Doctor in full poffeffion of. He is a married man, and skilled in the anatomy of all parts of the body.

After giving his readers the important information, that Adam was displeased with his wife, for inducing him to a faux pas, which I believe no married man (except Adam, if we believe the Doctor) ever scrupled, he allegorizes fome of the rest of the chapter in the following manner: "God planted a garden eastward in "Eden," fays the inspired writer," and there "he put the man whom he had formed. What "is called a garden," fays the Doctor, "I take "to be the human mind. By the river which "watered the garden, and afterwards divided "into four branches, is meant innocence di"vided into the four cardinal virtues." Here he lofes breath, for to allegorize all would be

too

too tedious, and doubtless the public have room to regret the Doctor's omiffion in not continuing the allegory to the end of the chapter.

He professes his belief in the scriptures, but has the good luck to elude every difficulty which falls in his way, by the affistance of metaphors, and thinks himself the more authorized to take this freedom with Mofes, as he discovers a mistake in the Bible. "I will ftrike Egypt, "faith the Lord, from the tower of Syene to the "borders of Ethiopia. Ezechiel." "Inftead of "Ethiopia," fays the Doctor, "it fhould be "Arabia, for Syene was fituated on the bor"ders of Ethiopia."

Pray, Doctor, does a mistake in geography on the part of the tranflators of the Bible, invalidate the Mofaical account of man's innocence, together with his felicity in Paradife; the malice of the tempting fpirit, and his appearance under the form of a ferpent; the fall of Adam and Eve, fatal to all their posterity; the first man juftly punished in his children, and mankind curfed by God; the first promise of redemption, and the future victory of men over the Devil who had undone them? Has not the memory of thofe great events, and the fatal tranfition from original juftice to the corruption of fin, been preserved in the golden and iron ages of the poets, their Hefperian gar

dens