[168] is established there is no difficulty about miracles, and it is on miracles that Paley bases the case for Christianity—­all other arguments are subsidiary.  And his proof of the New Testament miracles is that the apostles who were eye-witnesses believed in them, for otherwise they would not have acted and suffered in the cause of their new religion.  Paley’s defence is the performance of an able legal adviser to the Almighty.

The list of the English deistic writers of the eighteenth century closes with one whose name is more familiar than any of his predecessors, Thomas Paine.  A Norfolk man, he migrated to America and played a leading part in the Revolution.  Then he returned to England and in 1791 published his Rights of Man in two parts.  I have been considering, almost exclusively, freedom of thought in religion, because it may be taken as the thermometer for freedom of thought in general.  At this period it was as dangerous to publish revolutionary opinions in politics as in theology.  Paine was an enthusiastic admirer of the American Constitution and a supporter of the French Revolution (in which also he was to play a part).  His Rights of Man is an indictment of the monarchical form of government, and a plea for representative democracy.  It had an enormous

[169] sale, a cheap edition was issued, and the government, finding that it was accessible to the poorer classes, decided to prosecute.  Paine escaped to France, and received a brilliant ovation at Calais, which returned him as deputy to the National Convention.  His trial for high treason came on at the end of 1792.  Among the passages in his book, on which the charge was founded, were these:  “All hereditary government is in its nature tyranny.”  “The time is not very distant when England will laugh at itself for sending to Holland, Hanover, Zell, or Brunswick for men” [meaning King William III and King George I] “at the expense of a million a year who understood neither her laws, her language, nor her interest, and whose capacities would scarcely have fitted them for the office of a parish constable.  If government could be trusted to such hands, it must be some easy and simple thing indeed, and materials fit for all the purposes may be found in every town and village in England.”  Erskine was Paine’s counsel, and he made a fine oration in defence of freedom of speech.

“Constraint,” he said, “is the natural parent of resistance, and a pregnant proof that reason is not on the side of those who use it.  You must all remember, gentlemen, Lucian’s pleasant story:  Jupiter and a countryman

[170] were walking together, conversing with great freedom and familiarity upon the subject of heaven and earth.  The countryman listened with attention and acquiescence while Jupiter strove only to convince him; but happening to hint a doubt, Jupiter turned hastily around and threatened him with his thunder.  ‘Ah, ha!’ says the countryman, ’now, Jupiter, I know that you are wrong; you are always wrong when you appeal to your thunder.’  This is the case with me.  I can reason with the people of England, but I cannot fight against the thunder of authority.”