the distribution of his (Milton's) hours _there 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 evidence _has been_,
and much more _can be_ adduced 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
that _untruth_ can no more be _scientific_, than truth can be
_unscientific_, and that belief, whether in the God of Nat