ere
incapable of imagining any thing so beautiful. Add to this, that
the Christian religion is so excellently calculated for the good of
society, that, if we did not derive so great a present from heaven,
the good and safety of men would absolutely demand from them an
equivalent."

Throughout the conversation, M. Le Clerc reproached the Deists strongly,
for the hatred, which they shewed to Christianity. He proved, that, by
banishing it from the world,

"they would overturn whatever was most holy and respectable among
men; break asunder the surest bonds of humanity; teach men to shake
off the yoke of law; deprive them of their strongest incitement to
virtue, and bereave them of their best comfort. What," (he asked
them) "do you substitute in its place? Can you flatter yourself,
that you will discover something better? You expect, no doubt, that
men will erect statues to you, for your exertions to deprive them
of their religion! Permit me to tell you, that the part you act
makes you odious and despicable in the eyes of all honest men."

He finished the conversation by requesting Mr. Collins to bring him no
more such visitors.

[Sidenote: XII. 1. History of Arminians.]

From the close of the 17th century, till the present time, Arminianism
has been continually on the increase. It is a just observation of Mr.
Gibbon, that "the disciples of Arminius must not be computed by their
separate congregations."

Doctor Maclaine says, it is certain, that the most eminent philosophers
have been found among the Arminians. "If both Arminians and Calvinists,"
says Mr. Evans, in the excellent work we have cited,

"claim a _King_ (_James_ I.), it is certain that the latter alone
can boast of a _Newton_, a _Locke_, a _Clarke_, or a _Boyle_.
Archbishop _Usher_ is said to have lived a _Calvinist_; and died an
_Arminian_. The members of the episcopal church in Scotland; the
Moravians, the general Baptists, the Wesleyan Methodists, the
Quakers or Friends, are Arminians; and it is supposed that a great
proportion of the Kirk of Scotland teach the doctrines of Arminius,
though they have a Calvinistic confession of faith. What a pity it
is that the opinions either of Calvinists or Arminians,"

--(we beg leave to add: or any other Catholic or Protestant opinions
whatsoever)--

"cannot in the eyes of some persons be held without a diminution of