self by the middle of the eighteenth century. The movement has
borne the name of Deism. In so far as it had one watchword, this came to
be 'natural religion.' The antithesis had in mind was that to revealed
religion, as this had been set forth in the tradition of the Church, and
particularly under the bibliolatry of the Puritans. It is a witness to
the liberty of speech enjoyed by Englishmen in that day and to their
interest in religion, that such a movement could have arisen largely
among laymen who were often men of rank. It is an honour to the English
race that, in the period of the rising might of the rational spirit
throughout the western world, men should have sought at once to utilise
that force for the restatement of religion. Yet one may say quite simply
that this undertaking of the deists was premature. The time was not ripe
for the endeavour. The rationalist movement itself needed greater
breadth and deeper understanding of itself. Above all, it needed the
salutary correction of opposing principles before it could avail for
this delicate and difficult task. Religion is the most conservative of
human interests. Rationalism would be successful in establishing a new
interpretation of religion only after it had been successful in many
other fields. The arguments of the deists were never successfully
refuted. On the contrary, the striking thing is that their opponents,
the militant divines and writings of numberless volumes of 'Evidences
for Christianity,' had come to the same rational basis with the deists.
They referred even the most subtle questions to the pure reason, as no
one now would do. The deistical movement was not really defeated. It
largely compelled its opponents to adopt its methods. It left a deposit
which is more nearly rated at its worth at the present than it was in
its own time. But it ceased to command confidence, or even interest.
Samuel Johnson said, as to the publication of Bolingbroke's work by his
executor, three years after the author's death: 'It was a rusty old
blunderbuss, which he need not have been afraid to discharge himself,
instead of leaving a half-crown to a Scotchman to let it off after his
death.'

It is a great mistake, however, in describing the influence of
rationalism upon Christian thought to deal mainly with deism. English
deism made itself felt in France, as one may see in the case of
Voltaire. Kant was at one time deeply moved by some English writers who
would be assi