ou from falling
into a ditch.

In like manner, there ought to be no restraint at all on thinking freely
upon any proposition, however impious or absurd. There is not the least
hurt in the wickedest thoughts, provided they be free; nor in telling
those thoughts to everybody, and endeavouring to convince the world of
them; for all this is included in the doctrine of freethinking, as I
shall plainly show you in what follows; and therefore you are all along
to understand the word freethinking in this sense.

If you are apt to be afraid of the devil, think freely of him, and you
destroy him and his kingdom. Freethinking has done him more mischief
than all the clergy in the world ever could do; they believe in the
devil, they have an interest in him, and therefore are the great
supports of his kingdom. The devil was in the States-General before they
began to be freethinkers. For England and Holland[4] were formerly the
Christian territories of the devil; I told you how he left Holland; and
freethinking and the revolution banished him from England; I defy all
the clergy to shew me when they ever had such success against him. My
meaning is, that to think freely of the devil, is to think there is no
devil at all; and he that thinks so, the devil's in him if he be afraid
of the devil.

[Footnote 4: Collins is supposed to have imbibed his freethinking
philosophy during his repeated visits to Holland. [S.]]

But, within these two or three years, the devil has come into England
again, and Dr. Sacheverell[5] has given him commission to appear in the
shape of a cat, and carry old women about upon broomsticks: And the
devil has now so many "ministers ordained to his service," that they
have rendered freethinking odious, and nothing but the second coming of
Christ can restore it.

[Footnote 5: See note on p. 147.]

The priests tell me, I am to believe the Bible, but freethinking tells
me otherwise in many particulars: The Bible says, the Jews were a nation
favoured by God; but I who am a freethinker say, that cannot be, because
the Jews lived in a corner of the earth, and freethinking makes it
clear, that those who live in corners cannot be favourites of God. The
New Testament all along asserts the truth of Christianity, but
freethinking denies it; because Christianity was communicated but to a
few; and whatever is communicated but to a few, cannot be true; for that
is like whispering, and the proverb says, that there is no whisp