1. THAT Men who use their Understandings, must have more Senfe than they who use them not; and this I take to be felf-evident. And as to the other part of the Objection, I affert, That Free-Thinkers muft, as fuch, be the moft virtuous Perfons every where. (1.) BECAUSE if any Man prefumes to think for himself, and in confequence of that departs from the Sentiments of the Herd of Mankind among whom he lives, he is fure to draw upon himself the whole Malice of the Prieft, and of all who believe in him, or who hope to make their Fortune by pretending to believe in him (which must of course be 999 of 1000) and can have no Credit but what his Virtue, in spite of his Enemys, neceffarily procures for him. Whereas any profligate Fellow is fure of Credit, Countenance and Support, in any Sect or Party whatsoever, tho he has no other quality to recommend him than the worft of all Vices, a blind Zeal to his Sect or Party. The Free-Thinker therefore is for his own fake in this World oblig'd to be virtuous and honeft; but the Bigot is under no fuch Obligation; and befides, has the temptation to become a Knave, because fo many weak People of all Partys are ready to put their confidence in him purely for his Bigotry. (2.) BE (2.) BECAUSE whoever applies himself to any Action, much more to FreeThinking (which requires great Diligence and Application of Mind) muft by that Habit expel all thofe vicious Difpofitions and Paffions, by which every Man out of action is tofs'd and govern'd. (3.) BESIDES, by much Thinking only, are Men able to comprehend in their minds the whole compafs of human Life, and thereby to demonftrate to themselves, that Mifery and Unhappiness attend the Practice of Vice, and Pleasure and Happiness the Practice of Virtue, in this Life; and that to live pleasantly, they must live virtuously. *For who, fays CICERO, lives pleafantly, except him who delights in his Duty, and has well confider'd and settled his manner of Life; and who obeys the Laws not out of Fear, but obferves and regards them because he judges it the best thing he can do? Whereas we fee by experience, that most Men, for want of confidering the whole compass of human Life, mistake their own Happiness, and think it wholly confifts in Quis igitur vivit, ut vult, nifi qui gaudet officio, cui vivendi via confiderata atque provifa eft; qui legibus non propter metum paret, fed eas fequitur atque colit, quia id maximè falutare effe judicat? Opera, Gron. p. 4170. Ciceronis gratifying their present Paffions and Inclinations: And accordingly are very little mov'd even by their Belief of future Happiness and Mifery to become virtuous, while they are under fuch a mistake. And thus of course all unthinking People are vicious, unless they are prevented by fome natural Defect or Impediment, or are moral by the Goodness of their natural Temper. CICERO admirably defcribes the Effects of this wrong Judgment about the Rule of Morality. Says he, Whoever places Happiness in any thing befides Virtue, and judges of Happiness by his prefent Intereft and Advantage, and not by the Rules of Honesty, or what is good upon the whole; if he be confiftent with himself, and is not carry'd away with his own good` natural Difpofition, can neither be friendly, nor equitable, nor generous. No man can be courageous, who takes Pain to be the greatest Evil ; nor be moderate in the enjoyment of Pleasure, who takes that to be the greatest Good. 2. I ANSWER, That tho there has hardly ever been a Country where the Priests * Qui fummum bonum inftituit ut nihil habeat cum virtute conjunctum, idque fuis commodis non honeftate metitur; hic fi fibi ipfe confentiat & non interdum bonitate naturæ vincatur, neque amicitiam colere poffit, nec juftitiam, nec liberalitatem: fortis vero, dolorem fummum malum judicans; aut temperans voluptatem fummum bonum ftatuens, effe certè nullo modo poteft. De Offic. 1. 1. have have been fo few in number, or have had fo little credit, or where Superftition' has been at fo low an ebb, as not to draw fome Inconveniences on Men for thinking freely; and by confequence, many Free-Thinkers have either fallen in with the reigning Superftition of their Country, or fuffer'd it quietly to take its courfe, forefeeing how little good was to be done on fo knavish and ignorant a Creature as Man, and how much mischief was to be expected from him: yet they who have been moft diftinguifh'd in. all Ages for their Understanding and Virtue, have been Free-Thinkers. (1.) SOCRATES, the divineft Man that ever appear'd in the Heathen World, and to whofe Virtue and Wifdom all Ages fince have done juftice, was a very great FreeThinker. He not only disbeliev'd the Gods of his Country, and the common Creeds about them, and declar'd his Diflike, when he heard Men attribute * Repentance, Anger, and other Paffions to the Gods, and talk of Wars and Battels in Heaven, and of the Gods getting Women with Child, and fuch-like fabulous and blafphemous Storys: but ob-. tain'd a juft Notion of the Nature and Attributes of God, exactly agreeable to that which we have receiv'd by Divine Revelation, and became a true Christian (if it be Platonis Euthyphro. p. 6. vol. 1. Ed. Serrani. allow'd allow'd that the Primitive Fathers underftood what true Chriftianity was:) For JUSTIN MARTYR tells us, * That CHRIST, the first-begotten of God, is nothing else but Reafon, of which all Mankind are Partakers; and that whoever live by Reafon, tho they are efteem'd Atheists and WorShippers of no God, are Chriftians: and that fuch were SOCRATES, and the like. In like manner, ERASMUS in his Colloquys comparing SOCRATES and the generality of Chriftians together, gives the preference to SOCRATES in point of Christianity. Says he, †There is nothing would more become a Chriftian, than what SOCRATES faid to CRITO a little before he drank his poisonous Draught; "Whether God will ap66 prove of the Actions of my Life, I know "not: I have truly done my best endea vours to please him; and have good "hopes he will accept of them." This is a wonderful Thought in a Man who knew not CHRIST and the Holy Scriptures. And when * Τον Χριςόν πρωτότοκον το Θεό, καὶ λόγον ὄντα, ὅ παν γίνω ανθρώπων μετέχε' καὶ δι μετα λόγον βιώσαντες, Χριςιανοί εἰσι, κἄν ἄθεοι ενομίθησαν· είται εν Έλλησι Σωκράτης, καὶ ὁι όμοιοι, Opera, Ed. Par. p. 83. Nihil aptius quadret in hominem vere Chriftianum, quam quod Socrates paulo poft bibiturus cicutam, dixit Critoni; An opera, inquit, noftra fit probaturus Deus, nefcio. Certè fedulò conati fumus, ut illi placeremus. Est mihi tamen bona fpes, quod ille conatus noftros fit boni confulturus. Mirandus profecto Animus in eo qui Chriftum & facras Scripturas non noverat. Proinde quum hujufmodi tego, Vix |