learned from his nurse that two and two make four; and whenever she
divides an apple among her children, she instills into them this
prejudice, That the whole is equal to its parts, and all the parts
equal to the whole: and yet Sir Isaac Newton, (shame on him!) what work
has he made, what a building he has erected upon the foundation of this
nursery-learning? As to religion, there never was a religion, there
never will be one, whether true or false, publickly owned in any
country, but children have heard, and ever will hear, more or less of
it from those who are placed about them. And if this is, and ever must
be the case, whether the religion be true or false; 'tis highly absurd
to lay stress on this observation, when the question is about the truth
of any religion; for the observation is indifferent to both sides of
the question.

We are now, I think, got through the common-place learning, which
must forever, it seems, attend upon questions of this nature; and are
coming to the very merits of the cause.

And here the Gentleman on the other side thought proper to begin
with an account of the people of the Jews, the people in whose country
the fact is laid, and who were originally, and in some respects
principally concerned in its consequences.

They were, he says, a weak superstitious people, and lived under
certain pretended prophecies and predictions; that upon this ground
they had, some time before the appearance of Christ Jesus, conceived
great expectation of the coming of a victorious prince, who should
deliver them from the Roman yoke, and make them all kings and princes.
He goes on then to observe, how liable the people were, in this state
of things, to be imposed on, and led into rebellion, by any one who