rather declamation; and all panegyrics on the excellency of faith, were
sure to be interlarded with some severe strokes of satire against natural
reason. A celebrated prelate [Monsr. Huet] too, of the Romish communion,
a man of the most extensive learning, who wrote a demonstration of
Christianity, has also composed a treatise, which contains all the cavils
of the boldest and most determined PYRRHONISM. LOCKE seems to have been the
first Christian who ventured openly to assert, that faith was nothing but
a species of reason; that religion was only a branch of philosophy; and
that a chain of arguments, similar to that which established any truth in
morals, politics, or physics, was always employed in discovering all the
principles of theology, natural and revealed. The ill use which BAYLE and
other libertines made of the philosophical scepticism of the fathers and
first reformers, still further propagated the judicious sentiment of Mr.
LOCKE: And it is now in a manner avowed, by all pretenders to reasoning
and philosophy, that Atheist and Sceptic are almost synonymous. And as it
is certain that no man is in earnest when he professes the latter
principle, I would fain hope that there are as few who seriously maintain
the former.

Don't you remember, said PHILO, the excellent saying of LORD BACON on
this head? That a little philosophy, replied CLEANTHES, makes a man an
Atheist: A great deal converts him to religion. That is a very judicious
remark too, said PHILO. But what I have in my eye is another passage,
where, having mentioned DAVID's fool, who said in his heart there is no
God, this great philosopher observes, that the Atheists nowadays have a
double share of folly; for they are not contented to say in their hearts
there is no God, but they also utter that impiety with their lips, and
are thereby guilty of multiplied indiscretion and imprudence. Such
people, though they were ever so much in earnest, cannot, methinks, be
very formidable.