with my printer, to give him a little pamphlet I have written; but not
politics. It will be out by Monday."

The present text is based on that of the first edition, collated with
those given by Nichols, Hawkesworth and Scott. None of the
"Miscellanies" prints this tract, nor is it given in Faulkner's edition
of 1735-38 (6 vols.). It is fully annotated and edited by Nichols in the
first volume of his "Supplement to Swift's Works" (1779).

[T. S.]

Mr. COLLIN'S
DISCOURSE
OF
FREE-THINKING,
PUT INTO PLAIN ENGLISH,
BY WAY OF ABSTRACT,
FOR THE
USE OF THE POOR.

BY A FRIEND OF THE AUTHOR.

1713.

INTRODUCTION.

Our party having failed, by all their political arguments, to
re-establish their power; the wise leaders have determined, that the
last and principal remedy should be made use of, for opening the eyes of
this blinded nation; and that a short, but perfect, system of their
divinity, should be published, to which we are all of us ready to
subscribe, and which we lay down as a model, bearing a close analogy to
our schemes in religion. Crafty, designing men, that they might keep the
world in awe, have, in their several forms of government, placed a
_Supreme Power_ on earth, to keep human-kind in fear of being hanged;
and a supreme power in heaven, for fear of being damned. In order to
cure men's apprehensions of the former, several of our learned members
have writ many profound treatises on Anarchy; but a brief complete body
of Atheology seemed yet wanting, till this irrefragable Discourse
appeared. However, it so happens, that our ablest brethren, in their
elaborate disquisitions upon this subject, have written with so much
caution, that ignorant unbelievers have edified very little by them. I
grant that those daring spirits, who first adventured to write against
the direct rules of the gospel, the current of antiquity, the religion
of the magistrate, and the laws of the land, had some measures to keep;
and particularly when they railed at religion, were in the right to use
little artful disguises, by which a jury could only find them guilty of
abusing heathenism or popery. But the mystery is now revealed, that
there is no such thing as mystery or revelation; and though our friends
are out of place and power, yet we may have so much confidence in the
present ministry, to be secure, that those who suffer so many free
speeches against their sovereign and themselves, to pass unpunished,
will