XVIII. ous productions have cast a deserved reproach on CENTURY the names and memories of Toland, Collins, Tindal, and Woolston, a man of an inauspicious genius, who made the most audacious, though senseless attempts, to invalidate the miracles of Christ. Add to these Morgan, Chubb, Mandeville, and others. And writers of the same class will soon be found in all the countries of Europe, particularly in those where the reformation has introduced a spirit of liberty, if mercenary booksellers are still allowed to publish, without distinction or reserve, every wretched production that is addressed to the passions of men, and designed to obliterate in their minds a sense of religion and virtue. deists. VI. The sect of atheists, by which, in strictness Atheists and of speech, those only are to be meant who deny the existence and moral government of an infinitely wise and powerful Being, by whom all things subsist, is reduced to a very small number, and may be considered as almost totally extinct. Any that yet remain under the influence of this unaccountable delusion, adopt the system of Spinoza, and suppose the universe to be one vast substance, which excites the inestimable blessing of religious liberty, which the wise and good have improved to the glory of Christianity, by setting its doctrines and precepts in a rational light, and bringing them back to their primitive simplicity, has been so far abused, by the pride of some, and the ignorance and licentiousness of others, as to excite an opposition to the christian system, which is both designed and adapted to lead men, through the paths of wisdom and virtue, to happiness and perfection. It is nev ertheless carefully to be observed, that the most eminent of the English unbelievers were far from renouncing, at least in their writings and profession, the truths of what they call natural religion, or denying the unchangeable excellence and obligations of virtue and morality. Dr. Mosheim is more especially mistaken, when he places Collins, Tindal, Morgan, and Chubb, in the list of those who called in question the perfections of the Deity, and the obligations of virtue; it was sufficient to put Mandeville, Woolston, and Toland, in this infamous class. CENTURY and produces a great variety of motions, all uncontrollably necessary, by a sort of internal force, which they carefully avoid defining with perspicuity and precision. The deists, under which general denomination those are comprehended who deny the divine origin of the gospel in particular, and are enemies to all revealed religion in general, form a motley tribe, which, on account of their jarring opinions, may be divided into different classes. The most decent, or, to use a more proper expression, the least extravagant and insipid form of deism, is that which aims at an association between Christianity and natural religion, and represents the gospel as no more than a republication of the original law of nature and reason, that was more or less obliterated in the minds of men. This is the hypothesis of Tin-. dal, Chubb, Mandeville, Morgan, and several others, if we are to give credit to their own declarations, which indeed ought not always to be done without caution. This also appears to have been the sentiment of an ingenious writer, whose eloquence has been ill employed in a book, entitled, Essential Religion distinguished from that which is only Accessory for the whole religious system of this author consists in the three following points; That there is a God; that the world is governed by his wise providence; and that the soul is immortal; and he maintains, that it was to establish these three points by his ministry, that Jesus Christ came into the world. The original title of this book, which is supposed to have been written by one Muralt, a Swiss, author of the Lettres sur les Anglois et sur les Francois,' is as follows; 'Lettres sur la Religion essentielle a l'Homme, distinguee de ce qui n'en est que l'accessoire.' There have been several excellent refutations of this book published on the continent, among which the 'Lettres sur les vrais principes de la Religion,' in two volumes 8vo. composed by the late learned and ingenious Mr. Bouiller, deserve particular notice. XVIII. The Romish VII. The church of Rome has been governed, CENTURY since the commencement of this century, by Clement XI. Innocent XIII. Benedict XIII. Clement church, and its XII. and Benedict XIV. who may be all considered pontiffs. as men of eminent wisdom, virtue, and learning, if we compare them with the pontiffs of the preceding ages. Clement XI. and Prosper Lambertini, who at present fills the papal chair under the title of Benedict XIV. stand much higher in the list of literary fame, than the other pontiffs now mentioned; and Benedict XIII. surpassed them all in piety, or at least in its appearance, which, in the whole of his conduct, was extraordinary and striking. It was he that conceived the laudable design of reforming many disorders in the church, and restraining the corruption and licentiousness of the clergy; and for this purpose held a council, in the palace of the Lateran, in the year 1725, whose acts and decrees have been made public. But the event did not answer his expectations; nor is there any probability that Benedict XIV. who is attempting the execution of the same worthy purpose, though by different means, will meet with better success. We must not omit observing here, that the modern bishops of Rome make but an indifferent figure in Europe, and exhibit little more than an empty shadow of the authority of the ancient pontiffs. Their prerogatives are diminished, and their power is restrained within very narrow bounds. The sovereign princes and states of Europe, who embrace their communion, no longer tremble at the thunder of the Vatican, but treat their anathemas with indifference and contempt. They indeed load the holy father with pompous titles, and treat him with all the external marks of veneration and respect; yet they have given a mortal blow to his authority, by This history was published while Benedict XIV. was yet alive XVIII. CENTURY the prudent and artful distinction they make between the court of Rome and the Roman pontiff. For, under the cover of this distinction, they buffet him with one hand, and stroke with the other; and, under the most respectful profession of attachment to his person, oppose the measures, and diminish still more, from day to day, the authority of his court. A variety of modern transactions might be alleged in confirmation of this, and more especially the debates that have arisen in this century, between the court of Rome, and those of France, Naples, Sardinia, and Portugal, in all which that ghostly court has been obliged to yield, and to discover its extreme insignificancy and weakness. All prospect of a reconcilia VIII. There have been no serious attempts made tion between in later times to bring about a reconciliation beRomish tween the protestant and Romish churches; for, entirely remo- notwithstanding the pacific projects formed by pri the protestant and communions ved. vate persons with a view to this union, it is justly considered as an impracticable scheme. The difficulties that attend its execution were greatly augmented by the famous bull of Clement XI. entitled Unigenitus, which deprived the peacemakers of the principal expedient they employed for the accomplishment of this union, by putting it out of their power to soften and mitigate the doctrines of popery, that appeared the most shocking to the friends of the reformation. This expedient had been frequently practised in former times, in order to remove the disgust that the protestants had conceived against the church of Rome; but the bull Unigenitus put an end to all these modifications, and in most of those points that had occasioned our separation from Rome, represented the doctrine of that church in the very same shocking light in which they had been viewed by the first reformers. This shows, with the utmost evidence, that all the attempts the Romish doctors have made, from time to time, to give an air of plausibility to their tenets, and render XVIIL them palatable, were so many snares insidiously CENTURY laid to draw the protestants into their communion; that the specious conditions they proposed as the terms of a reconciliation, were perfidious stratagems; and that consequently there is no sort of dependence to be made upon the promises and declarations of such a disingenuous set of men. IX. The intestine discords, tumults and divisions, that reigned in the Romish church, during the preceding century, were so far from being terminated in this, that new fuel was added to the flame, and the animosities of the contending parties grew more vehement from day to day. These divisions still subsist. The jesuits are at variance with the dominicans, and some other religious orders, though these quarrels make little noise, and are carried on with some regard to decency and prudence; the dominicans are on bad terms with the franciscans; the controversy concerning the nature, lawfulness, and expediency of the Chinese ceremonies still continues, at least in Europe; and were we to mention all the debates that divide the Romish church, which boasts so much of its unity and infallibility, the enumeration would be endless. The controversy relating to jansenism, which was one of the principal sources of that division which reigned within the papal jurisdiction, has been carried on with great spirit and animosity in France and in the Netherlands. The jansenists, or, as they rather choose to be called, the disciples of Augustin, are inferior to their adversaries the jesuits, in numbers, power, and influence; but they equal them in resolution, prudence, and learning, and surpass them in sanctity of manners and superstition, by which they excite the respect of the people. When their affairs take an unfavourable turn, and they are oppressed and persecuted by their victorious enemies, they find an asylum in the Netherlands. For the greatest part of the Roman catholics in Spanish Flanders, and all the members Intestine divis ions in the Ro mish church. |