blication,(453) which is a greater admission than Tindal made in his
extant volume. When however he passes from the decision on the general
possibility of revelation to particular historic forms, the Mosaic and
Christian, he discredits both. The infallibility of the moral sense is
still the canon by which his judgment is determined. On this ground he
disbelieves the Jewish religion,(454) selecting successive passages of the
national history, such as the sacrifice of Isaac, the oracle of Urim,(455)
the ceremonial religious system,(456) as the object of his attack. A
degree of interest attaches to his criticism on these points, in that it
was the means of calling forth the celebrated work of Warburton on the
Divine Legation of Moses.

The same principles of criticism mislead him in his examination of
Christianity. The hallowed doctrine of the atonement forms a
stumblingblock to him, on the ground of the transfer of merit by
imputation.(457) He regards Christianity as a Jewish gospel, until it was
altered by the apostles, whose authority he discredits by arguments not
unlike the ancient ones of Celsus. The method of Morgan is more
constructive than that of his predecessors. Not denying the historic
element of Christianity by idealizing it as Collins, he attempts a natural
explanation of the historic facts. The central thought which guides him
throughout is the supreme authority of the moral reason. His works open up
the broad question whether the moral sense is to pronounce on revelation
or to submit to it, and thus form a fresh illustration of the intimate
dependence of particular sceptical opinions and methods upon metaphysical
and ethical theories.

In the period which we are now examining, deism was almost entirely
confined to the upper classes. It was in the latter part of the century
that it spread to the lower, political antipathy against the church giving
point to religious unbelief. Chubb,(458) whom we next consider, is one of
the few exceptions. He was a working man, endowed with strong native
sense; who manifested the same inclination to meddle with the deep subject
of religion which afterwards marked the character of Thomas Paine and
others, who influenced the lower orders later in the century. In his
general view of religion, Chubb denied all particular providence, and by
necessary consequence the utility of prayer, save for its subjective value
as having a reflex benefit on the human heart.(459) He was undeci