at his body is transformed
into his divinity. Some will have the Eucharist administered in both
kinds, some in one, some not at all. Some will have Christ descend to
hell in respect of his soul, some only in his power, some in his
divinity; some in his body, some not at all. Some by hell understand 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 a