preserved only with that of their irreligion, they vaunt these grand examples; after such illustrious models, it appears dignified to believe nothing; their names are constantly in their mouths: it is a false embroidery, where a laughable vanity and littleness of mind alone are conspicuous, since nothing can be more miserable or mean than to give ourselves out for what we are not, or to assume the personage of another.
Thirdly, and lastly. Because the language of impiety is in general the consequence of licentious society. We wish to appear the same as our companions in debauchery; for it would be a shame to be dissolute, and yet seem to believe, in the very presence of our accomplices in riot. It is a sorry cause, that of a debauchee who still believes: impiety and licentiousness are the only colour for debauchery; without these he would only be a novice in profligacy: the dread of punishments and of a hell is left to those yet unexercised in guilt; that remnant of religion seems to savour too much of childhood and the college. But when attained to a certain length in debauchery, ah! these vulgar weaknesses must all be soared above; their opinion of themselves is raised in proportion as they can persuade others that they are now above all these fears; they even mock those who appear still to dread: like the wife of Job, they say, with a tone of irony and impiety, " Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Art thou so simpie as to believe all these tales with which thy childhood hath been alarmed? Thou seest not that all these are merely the visions of a weak mind, and that the more knowing, who preach them up so much, believe not a word of them themselves!"
O my God! how mean and despicable is the impious man, who seems so proudly to contemn thee! He is a coward, who outwardly insults, yet inwardly fears thee; he is a vain boaster, who makes a show of unbelief, but tells not what passes within; he is an impostor, who, wishing to deceive us, cannot succeed in deceiving himself; he is a fool, who, without a single inducement, adopts all the horror of impiety; he is a madman, who, unable to attain irreligion, or to extinguish the terrors of his conscience, extinguishes in himself all modesty and decency, and endeavours to make an impious merit of it in the eyes of men; who madly sacrifices, to the deplorable vanity of being thought an unbeliever, his religion which he still preserves, his God whom he dreads, his conscince which he feels, his eternal salvation which he hopes. What a desertion of God, and what a sink of madness and folly!
And could you, my brethren, (and in this wish I comprise the whole fruit of this Discourse,) who still feel a reverence for the religion of our fathers, but be sensible of the contemptibility of those men who give themselves out as freethinkers, and whom you often so much esteem, you would then comprehend how much the profession of unbelief, now so fashionable among us, is, of all other characters, the most frivolous, cowardly, and worthy of laughter: you would then know, that every thing mean and shameful, even according to the world, is concealed under this ostentation of im-
