because
the majority of mankind declare it so.

The Author of this Apology does not desire it may be inferred from the
foregoing remarks, that horror of Atheism, and detestation of its
apostles, is confined to the low, the vulgar, the base, or the
illiterate. Any such inference would be wrong, for it is certainly true
that learned, benevolent, and very able Christian writers, have
signalised themselves in the work of obstructing the progress of Atheism
by denouncing its principles, and imputing all manner of wickedness to
its defenders. It must indeed be admitted by the really enlightened of
every name, that their conduct in this particular amply justifies pious
Matthew Henry's confessions, that 'of all the christian graces, zeal is
most apt to turn sour.'

One John Ryland, A.M. of Northampton, published a 'Preceptor, or General
Repository of useful information, very necessary for the various ages
and departments of life' in which 'pride and lust, a corrupt pride of
heart, and a furious filthy lust of body,' are announced as the
atheist's 'springs of action,' 'desire to act the beast without control,
and live like a devil without a check of conscience,' his only 'reasons
for opposing the existence of God;' in which he is told 'a world of
creatures are up in arms against him to kill him as they would a
venomous mad dog,' in which among other hard names he is called 'absurd
fool,' 'beast,' 'dirty monster,' 'brute,' 'gloomy dark animal,' 'enemy
of mankind,' 'wolf to civil society,' 'butcher and murderer of the human
race,' in which moreover he is _cursed_ in the following hearty terms:

'Let the glorious mass of fire burn him, let the moon light him to the
gallows, let the stars in their courses fight against the atheist, let
the force of the comets dash him to pieces, let the roar of thunders
strike him deaf, let red lightnings blast his guilty soul, let the sea
lift up her mighty waves to bury him, let the lion tear him to pieces,
let dogs devour him, let the air poison him, let the next crumb of bread
choke him, nay, let the dull ass spurn him to death.'

Dr. Balguy in the course of a Treatise which the 'liberal' author of a
Sketch of the Denominations of the Christian World, 'considered an
excellent antidote against atheistical tenets,' expresses himself in the
following manner: 'Of all the false opinions which ever infested the
mind of man, nothing can possibly equal that of atheism, which is such a
monstrous cont