The cause of Deism in its earlier sense was now almost extinct.  Those who were afterwards called Deists really belong to a different school of thought.  A remarkable book, which was partly the outcome, partly, perhaps, the cause of this altered state of feeling, was published by Dodwell the younger, in 1742.  It was entitled ’Christianity not founded on argument,’ and there was at first a doubt whether the author wrote as a friend or an enemy of Christianity.  He was nominally opposed to both, for both the Deists and their adversaries agreed that reason and revelation were in perfect harmony.  The Deist accused the Orthodox of sacrificing reason at the shrine of revelation, the Orthodox accused the Deist of sacrificing revelation at the shrine of reason; but both sides vehemently repudiated the charge.  The Orthodox was quite as anxious to prove that his Christianity was not unreasonable, as the Deist was to prove that his rationalism was not anti-Christian.

Now the author of ‘Christianity not founded on argument’ came forward to prove that both parties were attempting an impossibility.  In opposition to everything that had been written on both sides of the controversy for the last half century, Dodwell protested against all endeavours to reconcile the irreconcilable.

His work is in the form of a letter to a young Oxford friend, who was assumed to be yearning for a rational faith, ’as it was his duty to prove all things.’  ‘Rational faith!’ says Dodwell in effect, ’the thing is impossible; it is a contradiction in terms.  If you must prove all things, you will hold nothing.  Faith is commanded men as a duty.  This necessarily cuts it off from all connection with reason.  There is no clause providing that we should believe if we have time and ability to examine, but the command is peremptory.  It is a duty for every moment of life, for every age.  Children are to be led early to believe, but this, from the nature of the case, cannot be on rational grounds.  Proof necessarily presupposes a suspension of conviction.  The rational Christian must have begun as a Sceptic; he must long have doubted whether the Gospel was true or false.  Can this be the faith that “overcometh the world”?  Can this be the faith that makes a martyr?  No! the true believer must open Heaven and see the Son of Man standing plainly before his eyes, not see through the thick dark glass of history and tradition.  The Redeemer Himself gave no proofs; He taught as one having authority, as a Master who has a right to dictate, who brought the teaching which He imparted straight from Heaven.  In this view of the ground of faith, unbelief is a rebellious opposition against the working of grace.  The union of knowledge and faith is no longer nonsense.  All difficulties are chased away by the simple consideration “that with men it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”  Philosophy and religion are utterly at variance.  The groundwork of philosophy