By a late writer in the Edinburgh Review, we are told that 'some of the opinions avowed by Milton,' were so 'heterodox,' as to have 'excited considerable amazement.' We can scarcely conceive, says this writer, that any one could have read his Paradise Lost without suspecting him of heterodoxy; nor do we think that any reader acquainted with the history of his life, ought to be much startled by his opinions on marriage. The opinions which he expressed regarding the nature of the Deity, the eternity of matter, and the observation of the Sabbath, might, we think, have caused more just surprise. [95:1] Add to this good reader, Dr. Johnson's statement, ('Lives of the Poets,' p. 134, Art. Milton,) that in the distribution of his (Milton's) hoursthere was no hour of prayer, either solitary or with his household; and then come, if you can, to the conclusion that he was a Christian.
The piety of Newton we are not prepared to dispute. It is certain he manufactured for himself a God, inasmuch as to space he ascribed the honor of being His sensorium. It is equally clear that he believed Christianity a divine system, inasmuch as he wrote, and rushed into print with, a lot of exquisite nonsense about the exquisitely nonsensical Apocalypse. But we defy pietists to ferret out of his religious writings, any argument in defence of religion, not absolutely beneath contempt; the best of them are execrably bad—mere ravings of a disordered and o'erwrought intellect. 'The sublime Newton,' said D'Holbach, 'is but a child when he quits physical science, to lose himself in the imaginary regions of theology.' He failed, nevertheless, to achieve the favour, or escape the wrath, of thorough-going theologians who were in ecstacies at his childishness, but bitterly detested him, as they detested every man who had the audacity to open up new, and widen old fields, of investigation; to reject chimera and hold fast by fact in the pursuit of knowledge, and to teach a series of scientific truths, no ability can reconcile with the philosophy (?) of Jesus and Moses, who, according to wise Dr. Epps, never intended to teach man NATURAL SCIENCE, which he defines to be 'God in Creation;' but 'came to teach, in referring to natural events, SCIENTIFIC UNTRUTHS. [95:2]
The Author hopes that the opinions here advanced in reference to what may be named the Argument from 'Authority,' as contradistinguished from 'Time,' will make obvious to Christians themselves, that it is an unsafe argument, an argument which, like the broken reed, not only fails, but cruelly wounds the hand that rests upon it. Much evidencehas been, and much morecan beadduced to show that no prudent, well-informed Christian will say anything about the sanction lent to Christianity, or religion of any sort, by the writings of Newton, Milton, Bacon, and Locke. By admirers of such sanction, (?) this, our Apology for Atheism will, no doubt, be rejected with indignant contempt, but we venture to predict for it better treatment at the hands of those who are convinced thatuntruthcan no more bescientific, than truth can beunscientific, and that belief, whether in the God of Nature, the God of Scripture, or the Scripture itself, opposed to Philosophy, must needs be opposed to Reason and Experience.
[4:1] 25th of November, 1845.
[5:1] Vide 'Time's' Commissioner's Letter on the Condition of Ireland,' November 28, 1843.
[10:1] Essay 'of the Academical or Sceptical Philosophy.'
[11:1] See the Creeds of R. Owen and R. Carlile in No. 14 of the Promptor.
[11:2] 'Essay of the Idea of Necessary Connexion.'
[11:3] 'Essay of a Providence and a Future State.'
[12:1] Critical remarks on Lord Brougham's 'Lives of Men of Letters and Science, who flourished in the time of George III.'—The Times, Wednesday, October I, 1845.
[13:1] History of American Savages.
[13:2] Appendix the Second to 'Plutarchus and Theophrastus on Superstition.'
[13:3] Philosophy of History.
[15:1] See a Notice of Lord Brougham's Political Philosophy, in the number for April, 1845.
[20:1] 'Apology for the Bible,' page 133.
[20:2] Unusquisque vestrum non cogitate prius se debere Deos nosse quam colere.
[27:1] See a curious 'Essay on Nature.' Printed for Badcock and Co., 2, Queen's Head Passage, Paternoster Row. 1807.
[31:1] Elements of Materialism, chapter I.
[32:1] Discussion on the Existence of God, between Origen Bachelor and Robert Dale Owen.
[37:1] Answer to Dr. Priestly on the existence of God, by a Philosophical Unbeliever.
[40:1] Treatise on Human Nature.
[41:1] This sexing is a stock receipt for mystification.—Colonel Thompson.
[44:1] The Rev. J.E. Smith.
[46:1] 'An Address on Cerebral Physiology and Materialism,' delivered to the Phrenological Association in London, June 20, 1842.
[49:1] No 40 of 'The Shepherd.'
[50:1] 'The Shepherd,' Vol. i., page 40.
[52:1] Extracts from an able letter to the Editor of 'The Shepherd,' in No. 23 of that periodical.
[54:1] Novum Organon.
[56:1] Principia Mathmatica, p. 528. Lond. edit., l726.
[63:1] See a pamphlet, price Sixpence, entitled 'Paley refuted in his own words,' by G.J. Holyoake.'
[63:2] Lessing.
[64:1] See "Extract from an unpublished work, entitled the 'Refutation of Deism,'" by the late P.B. Shelley—given in the Model Republic of May 1st, 1813.
[68:1] 'Westminster Review' for May, 1843.
[69:1] Lecture by the Rev. Hugh M'Neil, Minister of St. Jude's Church, Liverpool, delivered about seven years since, in presence of some 400 of the Irish Protestant Clergy.
[69:2] The necessary existence of Deity, by William Gillespie.
[69:3] Page 105 of a Discussion on the Existence of God, between Origen Batchelor and R.D. Owen.
[70:1] Quoted by Dr. Samuel Clarke, in his introduction to the Scripture doctrine of the Trinity.
[72:1] History of England, p. 51.
[75:1] 'Dictionary of Conversions,' page 4.
[76:1] Essay on Superstition.
[77:1] See article 'Auto da Fe,' vol. i. of 'Recreative Review,' published in 1821.
[77:2] Act of Faith.
[78:1] St. Foix observes, with respect to this tomb, that if the Jack Ketch of any country should be rich enough to have a splendid tomb, this might serve as an excellent model.
[81:1] 'Lives of Men of Letters,' by Henry Lord Brougham.
[82:1] Vol iii., page 593, 594, of 'A few hundred Bible Contradictions, a Hunt after the Devil, and other odd matters.' By John P.Y., M.D.
[83:1] No. 8 of J. Rutherford's Series of Tracts, and entitled 'Electing Love.'
[90:1] Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii. page 11.
[91:1] 'Manicheisme,' tome ii, p. 568, 569.
[93:1] Nov. Org., lib; ii. aph. 29.
[95:1] See 'Edinburgh Review' containing a notice of Milton's 'De Doctrina Christiana.'
[95:2] Page 55 of a Pamphlet entitled, 'The Devil.'
End of Project Gutenberg's An Apology for Atheism, by Charles Southwell