that false speculations are necessary to be imposed upon men, in order
to assist the magistrate in keeping the peace, and that men ought
therefore to be deceived, like children, for their own good. I answer,
that zeal for imposing speculations, whether true or false (under which
name of speculations I include all opinions of religion, as the belief
of a God, Providence, immortality of the soul, future rewards and
punishments, &c.) has done more hurt than it is possible for religion to
do good. It puts us to the charge of maintaining ten thousand priests in
England, which is a burden upon society never felt upon any other
occasion; and a greater evil to the public than if these ecclesiastics
were only employed in the most innocent offices of life, which I take to
be eating and drinking. Now if you offer to impose anything on mankind
besides what relates to moral duties, as to pay your debts, not pick
pockets, nor commit murder, and the like; that is to say, if, besides
this, you oblige them to believe in God and Jesus Christ, what you add
to their faith will take just so much off from their morality. By this
argument it is manifest, that a perfect moral man must be a perfect
atheist; every inch of religion he gets loses him an inch of morality:
For there is a certain _quantum_ belongs to every man, of which there is
nothing to spare. This is clear from the common practice of all our
priests, they never once preach to you to love your neighbour, to be
just in your dealings, or to be sober and temperate. The streets of
London are full of common whores, publicly tolerated in their
wickedness; yet the priests make no complaints against this enormity,
either from the pulpit or the press: I can affirm, that neither you nor
I, sir, have ever heard one sermon against whoring since we were boys.
No, the priests allow all these vices, and love us the better for them,
provided we will promise not "to harangue upon a text," nor to sprinkle
a little water in a child's face, which they call baptizing, and would
engross it all to themselves.
Besides, the priests engage all the rogues, villains, and fools in their
party, in order to make it as large as they can: By this means they
seduced Constantine the Great[22] over to their religion, who was the
first Christian emperor, and so horrible a villain, that the heathen
priests told him they could not expiate his crimes in their church; so
he was at a loss to know what to do, till an AEgyptian bishop assured
him, that there was no villainy so great, but was to be expiated by the
sacraments of the Christian religion; upon which he became a Christian,
and to him that religion owes its first settlement.
[Footnote 22: The reference here is to the luminous cross which
Constantine said he saw in the heavens, and which influenced him to
embrace Christianity. [T. S.]]
It is objected, that freethinkers themselves are the most infamous,
wicked, and senseless of all mankind.
I answer, first, we say the same of priests, and other believers. But
the truth is, men of all sects are equally good and bad; for no religion
whatsoever contributes in the least to mend men's lives.
I answer, secondly, that freethinkers use their understanding, but those
who have religion do not; therefore the first have more understanding
than the others; witness Toland, Tindal, Gildon[23], Clendon, Coward,
and myself. For, use legs and have legs.
[Footnote 23: John Clendon, of the Middle Temple, published in
1709-1710, "Tractatus Philosophico-Theologicus de Persona; or, a
Treatise of the Word Person." This singular book appears to have been
written principally to prove that the doctrine of the Trinity was very
well explained by an Act of Parliament, 9 and 10 Will. III. It was
complained of in the House of Commons, March 25th, 1710, and was judged
to be a scandalous, seditious, and blasphemous libel .... and was burnt
by the common hangman at the same time with Tindal's "Rights." [N.] ]
I answer, thirdly, that freethinkers are the most virtuous persons in
the world; for all freethinkers must certainly differ from the priests,
and from nine hundred ninety-nine of a thousand of those among whom they
live; and are therefore virtuous of course, because everybody hates
them.
I answer, fourthly, that the most virtuous people in all ages have been
freethinkers; of which I shall produce several instances[24].
[Footnote 24: What follows is in ridicule of a long list of
freethinkers, as he calls them, with which Collins has graced his
discourse; in which he includes not only the ancient philosophers, but
the inspired prophets, and even "King Solomon the wise." [S.] ]
Socrates was a freethinker; for he disbelieved the gods of his country,
and the common creeds about them, and declared his dislike when he heard
men attribute "repentance, anger, and other passions to the gods, and
talk of wars and battles in heaven, and of the gods getting women with
child," and such like fabulous and blasphemous stones. I pick out these
particulars, because they are the very same with what the priests have
in their Bibles, where repentance and anger are attributed to God; where
it is said, there was "war in heaven;" and that "the Virgin Mary was
with child by the Holy Ghost," whom the priests call God; all fabulous
and blasphemous stories. Now, I affirm Socrates to have been a true
Christian. You will ask, perhaps, how that can be, since he lived three
or four hundred years before Christ? I answer, with Justin Martyr, that
Christ is nothing else but reason, and I hope you do not think Socrates
lived before reason. Now, this true Christian Socrates never made
notions, speculations, or mysteries, any part of his religion, but
demonstrated all men to be fools who troubled themselves with enquiries
into heavenly things. Lastly, 'tis plain that Socrates was a
freethinker, because he was calumniated for an atheist, as freethinkers
generally are, only because he was an enemy to all speculations and
inquiries into heavenly things. For I argue thus, that if I never
trouble myself to think whether there be a God or no, and forbid others
to do it, I am a freethinker, but not an atheist.
Plato was a freethinker, and his notions are so like some in the Gospel,
that a heathen charged Christ with borrowing his doctrine from Plato.
But Origen[25] defends Christ very well against this charge, by saying
he did not understand Greek, and therefore could not borrow his doctrine
from Plato. However their two religions agreed so well, that it was
common for Christians to turn Platonists, and Platonists Christians.
When the Christians found out this, one of their zealous priests (worse
than any atheist) forged several things under Plato's name, but
conformable to Christianity, by which the heathens were fraudulently
converted.
[Footnote 25: Origen, a Father of the Church, was born about 185. He
carried to extremes the celibate life taught in the Gospel; and his
"Treatise against Celsus" contains, according to St. Jerome and
Eusebius, the refutation of "all the objections which have been made,
and all which ever will be made against Christianity." [T. S.] ]
Epicurus was the greatest of all freethinkers, and consequently the most
virtuous man in the world. His opinions in religion were the most
complete system of atheism that ever appeared. Christians ought to have
the greatest veneration for him, because he taught a higher point of
virtue than Christ; I mean the virtue of friendship, which in the sense
we usually understand it, is not so much as named in the New Testament.
Plutarch was a freethinker, notwithstanding his being a priest; but
indeed he was a heathen priest. His freethinking appears by showing the
innocence of atheism, (which at worst is only false reasoning,) and the
mischiefs of superstition; and explains what superstition is, by calling
it a conceit of immortal ills after death, the opinion of hell torments,
dreadful aspects, doleful groans, and the like. He is likewise very
satirical upon the public forms of devotion in his own country (a
qualification absolutely necessary to a freethinker) yet those forms
which he ridicules, are the very same that now pass for true worship in
almost all countries: I am sure some of them do so in ours; such as
abject looks, distortions, wry faces, beggarly tones, humiliation, and
contrition.
Varro,[26] the most learned among the Romans, was a freethinker; for he
said, the heathen divinity contained many fables below the dignity of
immortal beings; such, for instance, as Gods BEGOTTEN and PROCEEDING
from other Gods. These two words I desire you will particularly remark,
because they are the very terms made use of by our priests in their
doctrine of the Trinity: He says likewise, that there are many things
false in religion, and so say all freethinkers; but then he adds; "which
the vulgar ought not to know, but it is expedient they should believe."
In this last he indeed discovers the whole secret of a statesman and
politician, by denying the vulgar the privilege of freethinking, and
here I differ from him. However, it is manifest from hence, that the
Trinity was an invention of statesmen and politicians.
[Footnote 26: Marcus Terentius Varro (born B.C. 117) was the friend of
Cicero. He was a profound grammarian, historian, and philosopher. The
expression Swift applies to him as "the most learned among the Romans"
is one by which he is generally called. [T. S.] ]
The grave and wise Cato the censor will for ever live in that noble
freethinking saying--"I wonder," said he, "how one of our priests can
forbear laughing when he sees another!" (For contempt of priests is
another grand characteristic of a freethinker). This shews that Cato
understood the whole mystery of the Roman religion "as by law
established." I beg you, sir, not to overlook these last words,
"religion as by law established." I translate _hanisfax,_ into the
general word, _priest_. Thus I apply the sentence to our priests in
England, and, when Dr. Smallridge sees Dr. Atterbury, I wonder how either
of them can forbear laughing at the cheat they put upon the people, by
making them believe their "religion as by law established."
Cicero, that consummate philosopher, and noble patriot, though he was a
priest, and consequently more likely to be a knave; gave the greatest
proofs of his freethinking. First, he professed the sceptic philosophy,
which doubts of everything. Then, he wrote two treatises;[27] in the
first, he shews the weakness of the Stoics' arguments for the being of
the Gods: In the latter, he has destroyed the whole revealed religion of
the Greeks and Romans (for why should not theirs be a revealed religion
as well as that of Christ?) Cicero likewise tells us, as his own
opinion, that they who study philosophy, do not believe there are any
Gods: He denies the immortality of the soul, and says, there can be
nothing after death.
[Footnote 27: "De Natura Deomm." [T. S.] ]
And because the priests have the impudence to quote Cicero in their
pulpits and pamphlets, against freethinking; I am resolved to disarm
them of his authority. You must know, his philosophical works are
generally in dialogues, where people are brought in disputing against
one another: Now the priests when they see an argument to prove a God,
offered perhaps by a Stoic, are such knaves or blockheads, to quote it
as if it were Cicero's own; whereas Cicero was so noble a freethinker,
that he believed nothing at all of the matter, nor ever shews the least
inclination to favour superstition, or the belief of a God, and the
immortality of the soul; unless what he throws out sometimes to save
himself from danger, in his speeches to the Roman mob; whose religion
was, however, much more innocent and less absurd, than that of popery at
least: And I could say more--but you understand me.
Seneca was a great freethinker, and had a noble notion of the worship of
the gods, for which our priests would call any man an atheist: He laughs
at morning devotions, or worshipping upon Sabbath-days; he says God has
no need of ministers and servants, because he himself serves mankind.
This religious man, like his religious brethren the Stoics, denies the
immortality of the soul, and says, all that is feigned to be so terrible
in hell, is but a fable: Death puts an end to all our misery, &c. Yet
the priests were anciently so fond of Seneca, that they forged a
correspondence of letters between him and St. Paul.
Solomon himself, whose writings are called "the word of God," was such a
freethinker, that if he were now alive, nothing but his building of
churches could have kept our priests from calling him an atheist. He
affirms the eternity of the world almost in the same manner with
Manilius,[28] the heathen philosophical poet, (which opinion entirely
overthrows the history of the creation by Moses, and all the New
Testament): He denies the immortality of the soul, assures us that men
die like beasts, and that both go to one place.
[Footnote 28: Marcus Manilius, who probably flourished under Theodosius
the Great, was a Latin poet, who wrote a poem entitled "Astronomica."
[T.S.] ]
The prophets of the Old Testament were generally freethinkers: you must
understand, that their way of learning to prophesy was by music and
drinking.[29] These prophets writ against the established religion of
the Jews, (which those people looked upon as the institution of God
himself,) as if they believed it was all a cheat: that is to say, with
as great liberty against the priests and prophets of Israel, as Dr.
Tindal did lately against the priests and prophets of our Israel, who
has clearly shewn them and their religion to be cheats. To prove this,
you may read several passages in Isaiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Jeremiah, &c.,
wherein you will find such instances of freethinking, that, if any
Englishman had talked so in our days, their opinions would have been
registered in Dr. Sacheverell's trial, and in the representation of the
Lower House of Convocation, and produced as so many proofs of the
profaneness, blasphemy, and atheism of the nation; there being nothing
more profane, blasphemous, or atheistical in those representations, than
what these prophets have spoke, whose writings are yet called by our
priests, "the word of God." And therefore these prophets are as much
atheists as myself, or as any of my freethinking brethren whom I lately
named to you.
[Footnote 29: Collins, after making the charge, which has been repeated
by all freethinkers down to Thomas Paine, that the prophets acquired
their fervour of spirit by the aid of music and wine, allows,
nevertheless, that they were great freethinkers, and "writ with as great
liberty against the established religion of the Jews, which the people
looked on as the institution of God himself as if they looked upon it
all to be imposture."--_Discourse_, p. 153, _et sequen._ [S.] ]
Josephus was a great freethinker: I wish he had chosen a better subject
to write on, than those ignorant, barbarous, ridiculous scoundrels, the
Jews, whom God (if we may believe the priests) thought fit to choose for
his own people. I will give you some instances of his freethinking. He
says, Cain travelled through several countries, and kept company with
rakes and profligate fellows; he corrupted the simplicities of former
times, &c., which plainly supposes men before Adam, and consequently
that the priests' history of the creation by Moses, is an imposture. He
says, the Israelites' passing through the Red Sea, was no more than
Alexander's passing at the Pamphilian sea; that as for the appearance of
God at Mount Sinai, the reader may believe it as he pleases; that Moses
persuaded the Jews he had God for his guide, just as the Greeks
pretended they had their laws from Apollo. These are noble strains of
freethinking, which the priests knew not how to solve, but by thinking
as freely: For one of them says, that Josephus writ this to make his
work acceptable to the heathens, by striking out everything that was
incredible.
Origen, who was the first Christian that had any learning, has left a
noble testimony of his freethinking; for a general council has
determined him to be damned; which plainly shews he was a freethinker,
and was no saint; for people were only sainted because of their want of
learning and excess of zeal; so that all the fathers, who are called
saints by the priests, were worse than atheists.
Minutius Felix[30] seems to be a true modern latitudinarian,
freethinking Christian; for he is against altars, churches, public
preaching, and public assemblies; and likewise against priests; for, he
says, there were several great flourishing empires before there were any
orders of priests in the world.
[Footnote 30: Marcus Minutius Felix is said to have been born in Africa.
He flourished in the third century, and wrote a defence of Christianity,
in dialogue form, entitled, "Octavius." The work has been translated
into English by Lord Hailes. [T.S.]]
Synesius,[31] who had too much learning and too little zeal for a saint,
was for some time a great freethinker; he could not believe the
resurrection till he was made a bishop, and then pretended to be
convinced by a lying miracle.
[Footnote 31: Synesius of Cyrene, born 379, is the Platonic philosopher
who became Bishop of Ptolemais. [T.S.]]
To come to our own country: My Lord Bacon was a great freethinker, when
he tells us, that whatever has the least relation to religion, is
particularly liable to suspicion; by which he seems to suspect all the
facts whereon most of the superstitions (that is to say, what the
priests call the religions) of the world are grounded. He also
prefers atheism before superstition.
Mr. Hobbes was a person of great learning, virtue, and freethinking,
except in the high church politics.
But Archbishop Tillotson is the person whom all English freethinkers own
as their head; and his virtue is indisputable for this manifest reason;
that Dr. Hickes, a priest, calls him an atheist; says, he caused several
to turn atheists, and to ridicule the priesthood and religion. These
must be allowed to be noble effects of freethinking. This great prelate
assures us, that all the duties of the Christian religion, with respect
to God, are no other but what natural light prompts men to, except the
two sacraments, and praying to God in the name and mediation of Christ.
As a priest and prelate, he was obliged to say something of
Christianity; but pray observe, sir, how he brings himself off. He
justly affirms that even these things are of less moment than natural
duties; and because mothers' nursing their children is a natural duty,
it is of more moment than the two sacraments, or than praying to God in
the name and by the mediation of Christ. This freethinking archbishop
could not allow a miracle sufficient to give credit to a prophet who
taught anything contrary to our natural notions: By which it is plain,
he rejected at once all the mysteries of Christianity.
I could name one-and-twenty more great men, who were all freethinkers;
but that I fear to be tedious: For, 'tis certain that all men of sense
depart from the opinions commonly received; and are consequently more or
less men of sense, according as they depart more or less from the
opinions commonly received; neither can you name an enemy to
freethinking, however he be dignified or distinguished, whether
archbishop, bishop, priest, or deacon, who has not been either "a
crack-brained enthusiast, a diabolical villain, or a most profound
ignorant brute."
Thus, sir, I have endeavoured to execute your commands, and you may
print this Letter, if you please; but I would have you conceal my name.
For my opinion of virtue is, that we ought not to venture doing
ourselves harm, by endeavouring to do good.
I am yours, &c.
_I have here given the public a brief, but faithful abstract of this
most excellent Essay; wherein I have all along religiously adhered to
our author's notions, and generally to his words, without any other
addition than that of explaining a few necessary consequences, for the
sake of ignorant readers; for, to those who have the least degree of
learning, I own they will be wholly useless. I hope I have not, in any
single instance, misrepresented the thoughts of this admirable writer.
If I have happened to mistake through inadvertency, I entreat he will
condescend to inform me, and point out the place, upon which I will
immediately beg pardon both of him and the world. The design of his
piece is to recommend freethinking, and one chief motive is the example
of many excellent men who were of that sect. He produces as the
principal points of their freethinking; that they denied the Being of a
God, the Torments of Hell, the Immortality of the Soul, the Trinity,
Incarnation, the history of the creation by Moses, with many other such
"fabulous and blasphemous stories," as he judiciously calls them: And he
asserts, that whoever denies the most of these, is the completest
freethinker, and consequently the wisest and most virtuous man. The
author, sensible of the prejudices of the age, does not directly affirm
himself an atheist; he goes no further than to pronounce that atheism is
the most perfect degree of freethinking; and leaves the reader to form
the conclusion. However, he seems to allow, that a man may be a
tolerable freethinker, though he does believe a God; provided he utterly
rejects "Providence, Revelation, the Old and New Testament, Future
Rewards and Punishments, the Immortality of the Soul," and other the
like impossible absurdities. Which mark of superabundant caution,
sacrificing truth to the superstition of priests, may perhaps be
forgiven, but ought not to be imitated by any who would arrive (even in
this author's judgment) at the true perfection of freethinking._
***** ***** ***** *****
SOME THOUGHTS
ON
FREETHINKING.
WRITTEN IN ENGLAND, BUT LEFT UNFINISHED.