might be expected from perfons of their profeffion; and that if I thought my conduct in this refpect needed to be, or could be, juftified by fuch a precedent, I might plead even their example as my apology. But I disclaim every plea that fuch a precedent could afford me: I write not in the spirit of retaliation; and when I find myself inclined to be an imitator, I will look out for other models. Indeed it is hardly to be fuppofed, that I would take thofe for my pattern, whofe principles and projects are fo directly oppofite to mine. Their writings tend to fubvert the foundations of human knowledge, to poifon the fources of human happiness, and to overturn that religion which the best and wifeft of men have believed to be of divine original, and which every good man, who understands it, muft reverence as the greatest bleffing ever conferred upon the human race. I write with a view to counteract these tendencies, by vindicating fome fundamental articles of religion and science from the fceptical objections, and by showing, that no man can attempt to difprove the firft principles of knowledge without contradicting himself. To the common fenfe of mankind, they fcru4 B

ple

ple not to oppofe their own conceits, as if they judged these to be more worthy of credit than any other authority, human or divine. I urge nothing with any degree of confidence or fervour, in which I have not good reason to think myself warranted by the common fenfe of mankind. Does their cause, then, or does mine, deferve the warmeft attachinent . Haye they, or have I, the most need to guard againft vehemence of expreffion * ? As certainly as the happiness of mankind is a defirable object, fo certainly is my caufe good, and theirs evil.

To conclude: Liberty of fpeech and writing is one of thofe high privileges that diftinguish Great Britain from all other

"There is no fatisfying the demands of falfe deli"cacy," fays an elegant and pious author, "because they are not regulated by any fixed ftandard. But a "man of candour and judgement will allow, that the "bafhful timidity practifed by those who put themselves

on a level with the adversaries of religion, would ill "become one who, declining all difputes, afferts primary truths on the authority of common fenfe; and that "whoever pleads the caufe of religion in this way, hath

a right to affume a firmer tone, and to pronounce "with a more decifive air, not upon the ftrength of his own judgement, but on the reverence due from all "mankind to the tribunal to which he appeals."

66

Ofwald's Appeal in behalf of Religion, p. 14.

nations.

nations. Every good fubject wishes, that it may be preferved to the latest posterity; and would be forry to see the civil power interpofe to check the progress of rational inquiry. Nay, when inquiry ceases to be rational, and becomes both whimfical and pernicious, advancing, as far as fome late authors have carried it, to controvert the first principles of knowledge, morality, and religion, and confequently the fundamental laws of the British government, and of all well-regulated fociety; even then, it must do more hurt than good to oppose it with the arm of flesh. For perfecution and punishment for the fake of opinion, feldom fail to ftrengthen the party they are intended to fupprefs; and when opinions are combated by fuch weapons only, (which would probably be the cafe if the law were to interpofe), a fufpicion arifes in the minds of men, that no other weapons are to be had; and therefore that the fectary, though deftitute of power, is not wanting in argument. Let opinions then be combated by reason, and let ridicule be employed to expofe nonfenfe. And to keep our licentious authors in awe, and to make it their intereft to think before they write, to examine facts before they 4 B 2 draw

draw inferences, to read books before they criticise them, and to study both sides of a question before they take it upon them to give judgement, it would not be amifs, if their vices and follies, as authors, were fometimes chaftifed by a fatirical feverity of expreffion. This is a proper punishment for their fault; this punishment they certainly deferve; and this it is not beneath the dignity of a philofopher, or di vine, or any man who loves God and his fellow-creatures, to inflict. Milton, Locke, Cudworth, Sidney, Tillotson, and feveral of the greatest and beft writers of the prefent age, have fet the example; and: have, I doubt not, done good by their ner vous and animated expreffion, as well as by the folidity of their arguments. This pu nishment, if inflicted with discretion, might teach our licentious authors fomething of modefty, and of deference to the judgement of mankind; and, it is to be hoped, would in time bring down that fpirit of prefumption, and affected fuperiority, which hath of late diftinguished their writings, and contributed, more perhaps than all their fubtlety and fophiftry, to the feduction of the ignorant, the unwary, and the fafhionable. It is true,

the

the best of caufes may be pleaded with an excefs of warmth; as when the advocate is fo blinded by his zeal as to lofe fight of his argument; or as when, in order to render his adverfaries odious, he alludes to fuch particulars of their character or private hiftory as are not to be gathered from their writings. The former fault never fails to injure the caufe which the writer means to defend: the latter, which is properly termed perfonal abufe, is in itself fo hateful, that every person of common prudence would be inclined to avoid it for his own fake, even though he were not restrained by more weighty motives. If an author's writings be fubverfive of virtue, and dangerous to private happiness, and the public good, we ought to hold them in deteftation, and, in order to counteract their baneful tendency, to endeavour to render them deteftable in the eyes of others; thus far we act the part of honest men, and good citizens: but with his private history we have no concern; nor with his character, except in fo far as he has thought proper to fubmit it to the public judgement, by difplaying it in his works. When these are of that peculiar fort, that we cannot expose them in their proper colours,