2 A View of ibe Dxis TIcAL. Writers. Let. I.

The name of Deiſts, as applied to thoſe who are no friends to revealed religion, is ſaid to have been firſt aſſumed about the middle of the fixteenth century, by ſome gentlemen in France and Italy, who were willing to cover their oppoſition to the Chriſtian revelation by a more honourable name than that of Atheiſts. One of the firſt authors, as far as I can find, that makes expreſs mention of them, is Viret, a divine of great eminence among the firſt Reformers, who in the epiſtle dedica- tory prefixed to the ſecond tome of his Inſtruction Chretienne, which was publiſhed in 1563, ſpeaks of ſome perſons in that time who called themſelves by a new name, that of Deilts. Theſe, he tells us, profeſſed to believe a God, but ſſiewed no regard to Jeſus Chriſt, and conſidered the doctrine of the apoſtles and evangeliſts as fables and dreams. He adds, that they laughed at all religion, notwithſtanding they conformed themſelves, with regard to the outward appearance, to the re- ligion of thoſe with whom they were obliged to live, or whom they were deſirous of pleaſing, or whom they feared. Some of them, as he obſerves, profeſſed to believe the immortality of the ſoul; others were of the Epicurean opinion in this point, as well as about the providence of God with reſpect to mankind, as if he did not concern himſelf in the government of human affairs. He adds, that many among them ſet up for learning and philoſophy, and were ſocked upon to be perſons of an acute and ſubtil genius; and that, not content to periſh alone in their error, they took pains to ſpread the poiſon, and to in- fect and corrupt others, by their impious diſcourſes, and bad examples a.

I leave it to you to judge, how far the account this learned author gives of the perſons that in his time called themſelves Deiſts, is applicable to thoſe among us who take upon them the ſame title, and which they ſeem to prefer to that of Chriſtians, by which the diſciples of Jeſus have hitherto thought it their glory to be diſtinguiſhed. That which properly characterizes theſe Deiſts is, that they rejeèt all revealed religion, and diſcard all pretences to it, as owing to impoſture or enthuſiaſm. In this they all agree, and in profeſſing a regard for natural reli- gion, though they are far from being agreed in their notions of it. They are claſſed by ſome of their own writers into two ſorts, mortal and immortal Deiſts b. The latter acknowlege a eny it, or at lealt repreſent it as a very

tuture ſtate, the former d a See Bayle's dictionary, article Viret. 2 Oracles of

4 uncertain