nary length, as it must contain all the particulars that are fuppofed to have paffed in his imagination during fo long a fleep. He is faid to have gone already through three days and three nights of it, and to have comprised in them the most remarkable paffages of the four firft empires of the world. If he can keep free from party'ftrokes, his work may be of ufe; but this I much doubt, having been informed by one of his friends and confidents, that he has fpoken some things of • Nimrod with too great freedom. 6 L I am ever, Sir, &c.' ********************** No 185. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2. -Tantæne animis cœleftibus irae ? VIRG. Æn. i. ver. 15. And dwells fuch fury in celestial breasts ? THER HERE is nothing in which men more deceive themselves than in what the world call Zeal. There are fo many paffions which hide themfelves under it, and fo many mifchiefs arifing from it, that fome have gone fo far as to fay, it would have been for the benefit of mankind if it had never been reckoned in the catalogue of virtues. It is certain, where it is once laudable and prudential, it is an hundred times criminal and erroneous; 'nor can it be otherwife, if we confider that it operates with equal violence in all religions, however oppofite they may be to one another, and in all the fubdivifions of each religion in particular. We are told by fome of the Jewish Rabbins, that the first murder was occafioned by a religious controverfy; and if we had the whole hiftory of zeal from the days of Cain to our own times, we fhould fee it filled with fo many fcenes of flaughter and bloodfhed, as would make a wife man very careful how how he fuffers himself to be actuated by fuch a principle, when it only regards matters of opinion and fpeculation. I would have every zealous man examine his heart thoroughly, and, I believe, he will often find, that what he calls a zcal for his religión, is either pride, intereft, or ill-nature. A man who differs from another in opinion, fets himself above him in his own judgment, and in feveral particulars pretends to be the wifer perfon. This is a great provocation to the proud man, and gives a very keen edge to what he calls his zeal. And that this is the cafe very often, we may obferve from the behaviour of fome of the moft zealous for orthodoxy, who have often great friendships and intimacies with vicious immoral men, provided they do but agree with them in the fame fcheme of belief. The reafon is, because the vicious believer gives the precedency to the virtuous man, and allows the good Christian to be the worthier perfon, at the fame time that he cannot come up to his perfections. This we find exemplified in that trite paffage which we fee quoted in almost every fyftem of ethicks, though upon another occafion. -Video meliora proboque, OVID. Met. 1. 7. ver. 20. I fee the right, and I approve it too; TATE. On the contrary, it is certain, if our zeal were true and genuine, we should be much more angry with a finner than a heretick; fince there are feveral cafes which may excufe the latter before his great judge, but none which can excuse the former. Intereft is likewife a great inflamer, and fets a man on profecution under the colour of zeal. For this reafon we find none are fo forward to promote the true worship by fire and fword, as those who find VOL. III. G their No 185. their prefent account in it. But I fhall extend the word Intereft to a larger meaning than what is generally given it, as it relates to our fpiritual fafety and well-fare, as well as to our temporal. A man is glad to gain numbers on his fide, as they ferve to ftrengthen him in his private opinions. Every profelyte is like a new argument for the establishment of his faith. It makes him believe that his principles carry conviction with them, and are the more likely to be true, when he finds they are conformable to the reafon of others, as well as to his own. And that this temper of mind deludes a man very often into an opinion of his zeal, may appear from the common behaviour of the Atheist, who maintains and spreads his opinions with as much heat as thofe who believe they do it only out of a paffion for God's glory. Ill-nature is another dreadful imitator of zeal. Many a good man may have a natural rancour and malice in his heart, which has been in fome meafure quelled and fubdued by religion; but if it finds any pretence of breaking out, which does not feem to him inconfiftent with the duties of a Chriftian, it throws off all reftraint, and rages in full fury. Zei is therefore a great cafe to a malicious man, by making him believe he does God fervice, whilst he is gratifying the bent of a perverse revengeful temper. For this reason we find, that most of the maffacres and devaftations, which have been in the world, have taken their rife from a furious pretended zeal. I love to fee a man zealous in a good matter, and efpecially when his zeal fhews itself for advancing morality, and promoting the happiness of mankind: But when I find the inftruments he works with are racks and gibbets, gallies and dungeons; when he imprifons mens perfons, confifcates their eftates, ruins their families, and burns the body to fave the foul, I cannot stick to pronounce of fuch a one one that (whatever he may think of his faith and religion) his faith is vain, and,his religion unprofitable. After having treated of thefe falfe zealots in religion, I cannot forbear mentioning a monstrous fpecies of men, who one would not think had any existence in nature, were they not to be met with in ordinary converfation, I mean the zealots in atheifin. One would fancy that thefe men, though they fall fhort in every other respect of those who make a profeffion of religion, would at least outfhine them in this particular, and be exempt from that fingle fault which feems to grow out of the imprudent fervours of religion: But so it is, that infidelity is propagated with as much fiercenefs and contention, wrath and indignation, as if the fafety of mankind depended upon it. There is fomething fo ridiculous and perverfe in this kind of zealots, that one does not know how to fet them out in their proper colours. They are a fort of gamefters who are eternally upon the fret, though they play for nothing. They are perpetually teizing their friends to come over to them, though at the fame time they allow that neither of them fhall get any thing by the bargain. In fhort, the zeal of fpreading atheifm is, if poffible, more abfurd than atheifm itself. Since I have mentioned this unaccountable zeal which appears in atheifts and infidels, I muft farther obferve that they are likewife in a moft particular manner poffeffed with the spirit of bigotry. They are wedded to opinions full of contradiction and impoffibility, and at the fame time look upon the smallest difficulty in an article of faith as a fufficient reafon for rejecting it. Notions that fall in with the common reason of mankind, that are con formable to the fenfe of all ages and all nations, not to mention their tendency for promoting the happiness of focieties, or of particular perfons, are exploded G 2 exploded as errors and prejudices; and fcheme's erected in their ftead that are altogether monfrous and irrational, and require the moft extravagant credulity to embrace them. I would fain afk one of thefe bigotted infidels, fuppofing all the great points of atheifm, as the cafual or eternal formation of the world, the materiality of a thinking fubftance, the mortality of the foul, the fortuitous organization of the body, the motions and gravitation of matter, with the like particulars, were laid together and formed into a kind of creed, according to the opinions of the most celebrated atheifts; I fay, fuppofing fuch a creed as this were formed, and impofed upon any one people in the world, whether it would not require an infinitely greater measure of faith, than any fet of articles which they fo violently oppofe. Let me therefore advife this generation of wranglers, for their own and for the public good, to act at least so confift ently with themfelves, as not to burn with zeal for irreligion, and with bigotry for nonsense. Calum ipfum petimus ftultitia HOR. Od. III. 1. i. v. 38. Scarce the Gods and heav'nly climes, Are fafe from our audacious crimes. DRYDEN. UPON my return to my lodgings laft night I found a letter from my worthy friend the clergyman, whom I have given fome account of in my former papers. He tells me in it that he was particularly pleafed with the latter part of my yefterday's fpeculation; and at the fame time inclofed the following effay, which he defires me to publish as the fequel of that difcourfe. It confifts partly of uncommon reflections, and partly of fuch as |