[32]: Argument contre l'abolition du christianisme. Il s'agit de décrier les whigs, amis des libres penseurs.
[33]: It may perhaps be neither safe nor prudent, to argue against the abolishment of christianity, at a juncture, when all parties appear so unanimously determined upon the point.... However I know not how, whether from the affectation of singularity, or the perverseness of human nature, but so it unhappily falls out, that I cannot be entirely of this opinion. Nay, though I were sure an order were issued for my immediate prosecution by the attorney-general, I should still confess, that in the present posture of our affairs, at home or abroad, I do not yet see the absolute necessity of extirpating the christian religion from among us. This perhaps may appear too great a paradox even for our wise and paradoxical age to endure; therefore I shall handle it with all tenderness, and with the utmost deference to that great and profound majority which is of another sentiment.... I hope no reader imagines me so weak as to stand up in the defence of real christianity, such as used in primitive times (if we may believe the authors of those ages), to have an influence upon men's belief and actions. To offer at the restoring of that would indeed be a wild project; it would be to dig up foundations; to destroy at one blow all the wit, and half the learning of the kingdom.... Every candid reader will easily understand my discourse to be intended only in defence of nominal christianity; the other having been for some time wholly laid aside by general consent, as utterly inconsistent with our present schemes of wealth and power.
[34]: It is likewise urged, that there are by computation in this kingdom above ten thousand parsons, whose revenues, added to those of my lords the bishops, would suffice to maintain at least two hundred young gentlemen of wit and pleasure, and freethinking, enemies to priestcraft, narrow principles, pedantry, and prejudices, who might be an ornament to the court and town.
[35]: It is likewise proposed as a great advantage to the publick that if we once discard the system of the Gospel, all religion will of course be banished for ever, and consequently along with it, those grievous prejudices of education, which under the names of virtue, conscience, honour, justice, and the like, are so apt to disturb the peace of human minds, and the notions thereof are so hard to be eradicated by right reason, or free-thinking.
[36]: I am very sensible how much the gentlemen of wit and pleasure are apt to murmur and be shocked at the sight of so many daggle-tail parsons, who happen to fall in their way, and offend their eyes; but at the same time, those wise reformers do not consider what an advantage and felicity it is for great wits to be always provided with objects of scorn and contempt, in order to exercise and improve their talents, and divert their spleen from falling on each other, or on themselves; especially when all this may be done without the least imaginable danger to their persons. And to urge another argument of a parallel nature: if christianity were once abolished, how could the freethinkers, the strong reasoners, and the men of profound learning, be able to find another subject so calculated in all points whereon to display their abilities? What wonderful productions of wit should we be deprived of from those whose genius, by continual practice, hath been wholly turned upon raillery and invectives against religion, and would, therefore, be never able to shine or distinguish themselves on any other subject? We are daily complaining of the great decline of wit among us, and would we take away the greatest, perhaps the only topic we have left?
[37]: I do very much apprehend that in six months time after the act is passed for the extirpation of the Gospel, the Bank and East-India stock may fall at least one per cent. And since that is fifty more than ever the wisdom of our age thought fit to venture for the preservation of christianity, there is no reason why we should bear so great a loss, merely for the sake of destroying it.
[38]: La Boucle de cheveux enlevée.
[39]: Pope, Arbuthnot et Swift y ont travaillé ensemble.
[40]: My first prediction is but a trifle; yet I will mention it to show how ignorant those sottish pretenders to astrology are in their own concerns. It relates to Partridge the almanack-maker. I have consulted the star of his nativity by my own rules and find he will infallibly die upon the 29th March next, about eleven at night of a raging fever; therefore I advise him to consider of it, and settle his affairs in time.
[41]: To call a man a fool and villain, and an impudent fellow, only for differing from him in a point merely speculative, is, in my humble opinion, a very improper style for a person of his education. I will appeal to Mr Partridge himself, whether it be probable I could have been so indiscreet, to begin my prediction, with the only falsehood that ever was pretended to be in them, and this in an affair at home?