the place of the damned, some limbus partum, others the wrath of God, others the grave.  Some will make Christ two persons, some give him but one nature and one will; some affirming him to be only God, some only man, some made up of both, some altogether deny him.  Some will have his body come from Heaven, some from the Virgin, some from the elements.  Some will have our souls mortal, some immortal; some bring them into the body by infusion, some by traduction.  Some will have souls created. before the world, some after; some will have them created altogether, others severally; some will have them corporeal, some incorporeal; some of the substance of God, some of the substance of the body.  So infinitely are men’s conceits distracted with a variety of opinions, whereas there is but one Truth, which every man aims at, but few attain it; every man thinks he hath it, and yet few enjoy it.’ [27:1]

The chiefs of these sects are, for the most part, ridiculously intolerant; so many small Popes, who fancy that whomsoever they bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whomsoever they loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.  They remorselessly cobble the true faith, without which to their ‘sole exclusive heaven,’ none can be admitted;

          As if religion were intended,
          For nothing else but to be mended,

and rarely seem so happy as when promising eternal misery to those who reject their chimeras.  Even Dissenting ministers, from whom better things might be expected, have been heard to declare at public meetings, called by themselves for the purpose of sympathising with, and supporting one of themselves who was suffering for ‘conscience sake,’ that when they spoke of liberty to express opinions, they meant such liberty for religionists, not irreligionists.  When learned and ‘liberal’ Dissenters gratuitously confess this species of faith, none have a right to be surprised that the ‘still small voice of truth’ should be drowned amid the clamour of fanaticism, or that Atheists should be so recklessly villified.

But wisdom, we read, is justified of her children; and to the wise of every nation the Atheist confidently appeals.  He rejects religion, because religion is based on principles of imaginative ignorance.  Bailly defines it as ’the worship of the unknown, piety, godliness, humility, before the unknown.’  Lavater as ’Faith in the supernatural, invisible, unknown.’  Vauvenargus as ‘the duties of men towards the unknown.’  Dr. Johnson as ’Virtue founded upon reverence of the unknown, and expectation of future rewards and punishments.’  Rivarol as ’the science of serving the unknown.’  La Bruyere as ’the respectful fear of the unknown.’  Du Marsais, as ’the worship of the unknown, and the practice of all the virtues.’  Walker as ’Virtue founded upon reverence of the unknown, and expectation of rewards or punishments:  a system of divine faith and worship as opposed to other systems.’