SECT. 1.] GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

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measures and public contributions. Hence originated that noble society, which derives its name from its object, the propagation of the Gospel; and which, in its progress, having increased in numbers, dignity, privileges, and advantages of every kind, has gradually enlarged and extended its efforts for the salvation of the nations estranged from Christ, and especially in America. Immensely more, as all must admit, remains still to be done yet any one must be uncandid, or ignorant of such things, who can deny that much has been done, and with greater success than was to be anticipated. We shall hereafter have occasion to speak of Pennsylvania, in which people of all sects and religions now live, and worship God in the manner they see fit. The Hollanders began to diffuse the knowledge of christianity with great success in those provinces of Portuguese America, which they had conquered under the conduct of Maurice, prince of Orange but all these prospects were intercepted when the Portuguese recovered the possessions they had lost subsequently to the year 1644. Nor did the Dutch, so far as I know, expend much labour and effort in improving the minds of the Indians that inhabited Surinam and the adjacent regions.

§ 21. The opposers of all religion, and especially of christianity, in this century, are represented by some as more numerous, and by others as less so, according to the party and the views which they embraced. The English complain, that from the times of Charles II. their nation was contaminated with the grossest of vices and profligacy; that this state of things gave rise to unbridled licentiousness of speculation, and disputation on religious subjects; and that both united, produced a multitude of persons who prostituted their talents and ingenuity to extinguish all sense of religion and piety. And that these complaints were not groundless, appears both from the numerous examples of Englishmen of this period, who either declared war against all religion, or who maintained that the religion of nature and reason was alone to be followed; and also from the many excellent treatises, by which the most

Jo. Henr. Hottinger's Topographia Ecclesiastica, p. 47. Fran. Mich. Janisson's Etat présent des Provinces unies,

VOL. IV.

tom. i. p. 396, &c. He also treats of Surinam, and the state of religion there, in cap. xiv. p. 407.

D

solid writers of the nation defended the divinity and excellence of christianity against their hostile assaults. The strongest evidence, however, is the noble institution of the very learned knight, Robert Boyle; who, by his will, in 1691, bequeathed a splendid portion of his estate to religion; the income of which was to be annually paid over to acute and eloquent men, who should oppose the progress of impiety, and demonstrate and confirm the truth of natural and revealed religion, in eight public discourses each year. Down to our times, men of the greatest talents and genius have undertaken this service; and their discussions or discourses have been laid before the public, to the great advantage of all Europe'.

§ 22. By the English, generally, Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury is represented as the leader and standard-bearer of the impious company who, from the accession of Charles II., set themselves in opposition to God and to things sacred. He was a man daring, crafty, acute, and perspicacious, and of more genius than learning or knowledge, either sacred or human '. He has, however, found some advocates out of Great Britain; who maintain that he erred indeed, yet not so basely as to

8 See Ricotier's Preface to his French translation of Sam. Clark's Discourses on the Being and Attributes of God. Of Boyle himself, and his merits, Edw. Budgell has treated very fully, in his Memoirs of the Lires and Characters of the illustrious Family of the Boyles, Lond. 1737. 8vo. See the Bibliothèque Britannique, tom. xii. pt. i. p. 144, &c. ["But above all, the late learned Dr. Birch's Life of Boyle, published in 8vo. in the year 1744; and that very valuable collection of Lives, the Biographia Britannica, Article, Boyle, Robert, note (z). See also Article Hobbes, in the same collection." Macl.]

9 A catalogue of these discourses is given in the Bibliothèque Angloise, tom. xv. pt. ii. p. 416, &c. A learned and neatly digested summary of all the discourses of this nature, thus far delivered, was published not long since, in English, by Gilbert Burnet; which the French and the Germans have begun to translate into their languages. ["This abridgment comprehends the discourses of Bentley, Kidder, Wil

liams, Gastrell, Harris, Bradford, Blackhall, Stanhope, Clarke, Hancock, Whiston, Turner, Butler, Woodward, Derham, Ibbot, Leng, J. Clarke, Gurdon, Burnet, Berriman."-Macl.]

1 See Peter Bayle's Dictionnaire, tom. ii. p. 478. Anth. Wood's Athence Oxonienses, vol. ii. p. 461, of the late edition. [Add Brucker's Historia Crit. Philos. Appendix, Lips. 1767. 4to. p. 880, &c. where his life and character are described with impartiality and accuracy. He was, in Cromwell's time, a zealous adherent to the royalist party, and a defender of their rights, with a servile submission. Yet he lost the favour of the court, and died in 1679, in his 91st year, a private country gentleman. Two of his works, namely de Cice, Paris, 1642. 4to. and his Leviathan, 1651. fol. are most worthy of notice. In them he recommends monarchic despotism, represents the human soul as material and mortal, discards all natural distinction between moral actions, and makes morality depend wholly on the enactments of

subvert the being of a God and the worship of him'. Those who shall read attentively the books he has left, must admit, that, if he was not destitute of all regard for God and religion, it is manifest, his principles naturally lead to an utter disregard for all things sacred: and his writings betray, not obscurely, a mind most unfriendly to Christ and to the christian religion. It is said, however, that, in his old age, he became more rational, and publicly condemned the sentiments he had formerly published: but whether he was sincere in this, is uncertain. With more truth it may be said of John Wilmot, earl of Rochester, who attacked God and religion with even more fury than Hobbes, that he became a penitent. He was a man of great discernment and brilliancy of genius, but of astonishing levity, and while his bodily powers were subservient to his will, libidinous and debauched. Yet it was his happy lot,

monarchs. Schl.-The whole of the moral and political works of Thos. Hobbes, with a life of the author prefixed, were elegantly printed, probably under the eye of Warburton, Lond. 1750. fol. See Henke, Kirchengeschichte, vol. iv. p. 399, note. Tr.]

2 In defence of Hobbes, appeared, besides others, Nic. Hieron. Gundling, Obsero. Selecta, tom. i. n. ii. p. 30. and in the Gundlingiana, pt. xiv. p. 304. Add Godfr. Arnold, Kirchen- und Ketzerhistorie, pt. ii. book xvii. ch. xvi. § 25. p. 1082, &c. Against these, appeared Jo. Fran. Buddeus, Theses de Atheismo et Superstitione, cap. i. p. 187,

&c.

This rests on the authority of Anthony Wood; who states, in his Athence Ozon. vol. ii. p. 646, that Hobbes wrote an apology for himself and his writings; in which he professes never to have embraced the opinions he proposed in his Leviathan, but to have brought them forward merely to try his ingenuity; that, after writing the book, he never defended those opinions, either publicly or privately, but submitted them to the judgment of the church; that those positions of his book, in particular, which seemed to militate against the received notions of God and religion, were published, not as true and incontrovertible, but only as plausible, and for the purpose of draw

ing forth the judgment of theologians concerning them. Wood does not tell us, in what year this apology appeared; which is evidence that he had not been able to examine the book. Neither does he state, whether Hobbes was alive, or dead, when it was published. But its being placed in the list of Hobbes' writings posterior to 1682, leads to the conjecture, that it was published after his death: for he died in 1679. It does not, therefore, yet appear, what we are to think of this change of opinion in Hobbes. I can believe, that such an apology for Hobbes exists: but perhaps it was drawn up by one of his friends, to shield his reputation after he was dead. Yet, if it was written and published by himself, it can afford but little support to those who would defend his character. For the method Hobbes takes to excuse himself, is, that in which all try to clear themselves, when they have incurred odium and indignation, by advancing corrupt and pernicious opinions, yet wish to live quietly, though continuing to be just what they were before.

4 See an account of his life and writings, in Anthony Wood's Athena Oxon. vol. ii. p. 654. On his poetic talents Voltaire treats, Mélange de Littérature et de Philosophie, cap. xxxiv. in his works, tom. iv. p. 303.

in the last years of his short life, through the admonition especially of Gilbert Burnet, to betake himself to the mercy of God and Jesus Christ; and he died religiously, a. D. 1680, seriously lamenting and detesting his former wickedness3. In this list may be placed Anthony Ashly Cooper, earl of Shaftsbury, who died of a consumption at Naples, A. D. 1703: not that he was an open enemy of christianity, but his pungent wit, the elegance of his style, and the charms of his genius, rendered him the more dangerous foe to religion, in proportion to the concealment he practised. Various of his works are extant, and have been often published; all exquisitely fine, from the native charms of his diction and thoughts, yet exceedingly dangerous to young and inexperienced minds. A rustic and coarse brawler, compared with these, was John Toland, an Irishman, who, at the close of this century, was not ashamed to disgrace himself and his country by several tracts reproachful to christianity. But as those who pamper the vicious propensities of men seldom lack admirers, so this man, who was not destitute of learning, though vainglorious, and of abandoned morals, was thought something of by the undiscerning'. The

5 This scene is described by Gilbert Burnet, in a special tract entitled: Some passages of the Life and Death of John, earl of Rochester, written at his desire, on his death bed, by Gilbert Burnet, D.D. It is extant also, in German, French, and Latin.

His works were first published collectively, Lond. 1711, in three volumes, 8vo. and are called Characteristics, [of Men, Manners, and Opinions,] from the title of the greater part of them. See Jo. La. Clerc, Bibliothèque Choisie, tom. xxiii.

Some

notes of Geo. Wilh. Leibnitz upon them, were published by Peter des Maizeaux, Recueil des diverses Pièces sur la Philosophie, tom. ii. p. 245. There are some who maintain, that this otherwise great and illustrious man has been rashly accused, by clergymen, of contemning religion. I wish they could solidly evince that it is so. But, if I do not wholly mistake, whoever shall read but a moderate portion of his writings, or only his noted Letter on Enthusiasm, which in French bears

the title: Essai sur la Raillerie, will readily fall in with the judgment which Dr. Berkley passes upon him, in his Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher, vol. i. dial. iii. p. 200, &c. This very ingenious man employs ridicule, when seeming to speak the most gravely on sacred subjects; and divests the arguments, derived from the sacred Scriptures, in support of a devout and virtuous life, of all their power and influence: nay, by recommending an indescribable, sublime kind of virtue, far above the conceptions of common people, and which rests satisfied with itself, he appears to extinguish all zeal for the pursuit of virtue, in the minds of common people.

7 In my younger years I treated largely of this man, in a Commentatio de Vita et Scriptis ejus, prefixed to a Confutation of his insidious book entitled Nazarenus. The deficiencies, if any, in that Commentatio, may be supplied from the Life of Toland, prefixed to his Posthumous Works, published at London, 1726. 2 vols. 8vo.

other Englishmen, of less notoriety, belonging to this class, need not be enumerated: yet if any one is disposed, he may add to the list Edward Henry [Herbert, baron] of Cherbury, a nobleman and philosopher, who, if he did not deny the divinity of the christian religion, yet maintained that the knowledge of it was not necessary to salvation; and Charles Blount, the author of the Oracles of Reason, who committed suicide in 1693.

§ 23. In France, upon the continent near England, Julius Cæsar Vanini, an Italian, author of the Amphitheatre of Providence, and of Dialogues concerning Nature, was publicly burnt at Toulouse, in 1629 [1619], as a perverse enemy of God and of all religion. But some respectable and learned writers think that he fell a victim to personal resentment; and that he neither wrote nor lived and acted, so stupidly and impiously, as to be justly chargeable with contemning God'. But the

The author of that Life is Peter des Maizeaux, well known for various literary labours.

8 Lord Herbert is sufficiently known to the learned, by his book de Causis Errorum, and other writings; but especially, by his work de Religione Gentilium. And not less known, are the confutations of the sentiments he advances in these books; by John Musæus, Christ. Kortholt, and other celebrated divines. He is commonly considered the father of the family of Naturalists [or Deists]. See Godfr. Arnold's Kirchen- und Ketzerhistorie, pt. ii. book xviii. ch. xvi. p. 1083, &c. [Cherbury is properly the founder of the modern religious indifferentism. If we may believe him, the divine origin of christianity cannot be proved, but only be rendered very probable. The whole of religion, according to him, consists in fire articles: I. There is a God. II. He is to be worshipped. III. And this, by the practice of vir

tue.

IV. Repentance and reformation will procure us pardon from God. V. After this life, the virtuous will be rewarded, and the vicious punished. -Schl.]

? See Chaufepied's Nouveau Dictionnaire Historique et Crit. tom. i. pt. ii. p. 328. He, however, omits his tragical death, from a regard, undoubtedly,

to the feelings of the illustrious family of Blounts, still living in England.Concerning all the English deists mentioned in this section, their works, their opinions, and the confutation of them, see John Leland's View of the principal deistical writers that have appeared in England, in the last and present century, with Observations, first published in 1754,and since, often, in 2 vols. 8vo. Tr.]

1 See the compilations of Jo. Fran. Buddeus, concerning him, in his Theses de Atheismo et Superstitione, cap. i. p. 120, &c. The author of the Apology for Vanini, which was published in Holland, 1712, 8vo. was Peter Fred. Arp, a lawyer of extensive learning; who promised a new and much enlarged edition of this little book, in his Ferice Estirales seu Scriptorum suorum Historia, pt. i. § xl. p. 28, &c. His coadjutor, in vindicating the character of Vanini, was Elias Fred. Heister, Apologia pro Medicis, sect. xviii. p. 93, &c. [Vanini was a physician, and a wild, enthusiastic naturalist. He travelled in England, the Netherlands, Germany, France, and Switzerland; professed himself a catholic; but he advanced, particularly in his last book, his Dialogues, such mystical and deistic opinions concerning God, whom he seemed to confound with nature, that