Page:History of Modern Philosophy (Falckenberg).djvu/209

TOLAND. 187 It was inevitable that the doctrines of original sin, of satis- faction and atonement should prove especially objectionable to the purely rational temper of the deists. Neither the guilt of others (the sin of our ancestors) nor the atone- ment of others (Christ's death on the cross) can be imputed to us ; Christ can be called the Savior only by way of metaphor, only in so far as the example of his death leads us on to faith and obedience for ourselves. The name atheism, which, it is true, orthodoxy held ready for every belief in- correct according to its standard, was on the contrary undeserved. The deists did not attack Christian revela- tion, still less belief in God. They considered the atheist bereft of reason, and they by no means esteemed his- torical revelation superfluous. The end of the latter was to stir the mind, to move men to reflection and conver- sion, to transform morals, and if anyone declared it unnec. essary because it contains nothing but natural truths, he was reff.rred to the works of Euclid, which certainly contain nothing which is not founded in the reason, but which no one but a fool will consider unnecessary in the study of mathematics. That which we have here summarized as the general position of deism, gained gradual expression through the regular development and specialization of deistic ideas in individual representatives of the movement. The chief points and epochs were marked by Toland's Christianity not Mysterious, 1696; Collins's Discourse of Freethinking, 1 71 3; Tindal's Christianity as Old as the Creation, 1730; and Chubb's True Gospel of Jesus Christ, 1738. The first of these demands a critique of revelation, the second de- fends the right of free investigation, the third declares the religion of Christ, which is merely a revived natural re- ligion, to be the oldest religion, the fourth reduces it entirely to moral life. The deistic movement was called into life by Lord Her- bert of Cherbury (pp. 79-80) and continued by Locke, in so far as the latter had intrusted to reason the discrimination of true from false revelation, and had admitted in Chris- tianity elements above reason, though not things contrary to reason. Following Locke, John Toland (1670-1722)