agree that
he died 1733--he was therefore seventy-six or seventy-seven
at the time of his death.

Tindal opens his great work thus:--"The author makes no apology for
writing on a subject of the last importance; and which, as far as I can
find, has no where been so fully treated: he builds nothing on a thing
so uncertain as tradition, which differs in most countries; and of
which, in all countries, the bulk of mankind are incapable of judging;
but thinks he has laid down such plain and evident rules, as may
enable men of the meanest capacity, to distinguish between religion and
superstition; and has represented the former in every part so beautiful,
so amiable, and so strongly affecting, that they, who in the least
reflect, must be highly in love with it; and easily perceive, that their
duty and happiness are inseparable."

The character of the performance will be seen from a few of the
propositions he maintains:--

"That God, at all times, has given mankind sufficient means of knowing
whatever he requires of them.

"That the religion of nature consists in observing those things, which
our reason, by considering the nature of God and man, and the relation
we stand in to him, and one another, demonstrates to be our duty; and
that those things are plain; and likewise what they are.

"That the perfection and happiness of all rational beings, supreme
as well as subordinate, consist in living up to the dictates of their
nature.

"That God requires nothing for his own sake; no, not the worship we are
to render him, nor the faith we are to have in him.

"That the not adhering to those notions reason dictates, concerning
the nature of God, has been the occasion of all superstition, and those
innumerable mischiefs, that mankind, on the account of religion, have
done either to themselves, or one another.

"The bulk of mankind, by their reason, must be able to distinguish
between religion and superstition; otherwise they can never extricate
themselves from that superstition they chance to be educated in."

Tindal deals with the question of the obscurity of Revelation in these
terms, sufficiently salient to alarm the very proper divines of that
day:--

"Had God, from time to time, spoken to all mankind in their several
languages, and his words had miraculously conveyed the same ideas to
all persons; yet he could not speak more plainly than he has done by the
things themselves, and the relation which reason sh