In many points, however, Lord Bolingbroke goes far beyond his
predecessors. His 'First Philosophy' marks a distinct advance or
decadence, according to the point of view from which we regard it, in
the history of Freethinking. Everything in the Bible is ruthlessly swept
aside, except what is contained in the Gospels. S. Paul, who had been an
object of admiration to the earlier Deists, is the object of
Bolingbroke's special abhorrence. And not only is the credibility of the
Gospel writers impugned, Christ's own teaching and character are also
carped at. Christ's conduct was 'reserved and cautious; His language
mystical and parabolical. He gives no complete system of morality. His
Sermon on the Mount gives some precepts which are impracticable,
inconsistent with natural instinct and quite destructive of society. His
miracles may be explained away.'

It may be said, indeed, that most of these tenets are contained in the
germ in the writings of earlier Deists. But there are yet others of
which this cannot be said.

Bolingbroke did not confine his attacks to revealed religion. Philosophy
fares as badly as religion in his estimate. 'It is the frantic mother of
a frantic offspring.' Plato is almost as detestable in his eyes as S.
Paul. He has the most contemptuous opinion of his fellow-creatures, and
declares that they are incapable of understanding the attributes of the
Deity. He throws doubt upon the very existence of a world to come. He
holds that 'we have not sufficient grounds to establish the doctrine of
a particular providence, and to reconcile it to that of a general
providence;' that 'prayer, or the abuse of prayer, carries with it
ridicule;' that 'we have much better determined ideas of the divine
wisdom than of the divine goodness,' and that 'to attempt to imitate God
is in highest degree absurd.'

There is no need to discuss here the system of optimism which Lord
Bolingbroke held in common with Lord Shaftesbury and Pope; for that
system is consistent both with a belief and with a disbelief of
Christianity, and we are at present concerned with Lord Bolingbroke's
views only in so far as they are connected with religion. From the
extracts given above, it will be seen how far in this system Deism had
drifted away from its old moorings.

After Bolingbroke no Deistical writing, properly so called, was
published in England. The great controversy had died a natural death;
but there are a few apologetic works which h