DEISTS, a class of people known also under the denomination of Frce-thinhers, whose distinguishing character it is not to profess any particular form or system of religion; but only to acknowledge the existence of a God, and to follow the light and law of nature, rejecting revelation, and opposing Christianity.

This name seems to have been first assumed as the denomination of a party about the middle of the sixteenth [7:7:679]century, by some gentlemen in France and Italy, who were desirous of thus disguising their opposition to Christianity by a more honourable appellation than that of atheists. Virot, an eminent reformer, mentions certain persons, in his epistle dedicatory prefixed to the second volume of his Instruction Chrétienne, published in 1563, who called themselves by a new name, that of Deists. These, he tells us, professed to believe in God, but showed no regard to Jesus Christ, and considered the doctrines of the apostles and evangelists as fables and dreams. He adds, that they laughed at all religion, though they outwardly conformed to the religion of those with whom they lived, or whom they wished to please, or feared to offend. Some, he observes, professed to believe the immortality of the soul, but others denied both this doctrine and that of a providence. Many of them were considered as persons of acute and subtile genius, and took pains in disseminating their notions.

The deists hold that, considering the multiplicity of religions, the numerous pretences to revelation, and the precarious arguments generally advanced in proof of them, the best and surest way is to return to the simplicity of nature and the belief of one God, which is the only truth agreed to by all nations. They complain, that the freedom of thinking and reasoning is oppressed under the yoke of religion, and that the minds of men are ridden and tyrannized by the necessity imposed on them of believing inconceivable mysteries; and contend that nothing should be required to be assented to or believed but what their reason clearly conceives.

The distinguishing character of modern deists is, that they reject all revealed religion, and discard all pretences to it, as the effects of imposture or enthusiasm. They profess a great regard for natural religion, though they are far from being agreed in their notions concerning it. They are classed by some of their own writers as mortal and immortal deists; the latter acknowledging a future state, and the former denying it, or representing it as very uncertain.

Dr Clarke distinguishes four sorts of deists. 1. Those who pretend to believe the existence of an eternal, infinite, independent, intelligible Being, who made the world, without concerning himself in the government of it. 2. Those who believe the being and natural providence of God, but deny the difference of actions, as morally good or evil, resolving it into the arbitrary constitution of human laws, and who therefore suppose that God takes no notice of them. With respect to both these classes, he observes that their opinions can consistently terminate in nothing but downright atheism. 3. Those who have right apprehensions concerning the nature, attributes, and allgoverning providence of God, and seem also to have some notion of his moral perfections, though they consider them as transcendent, and such in nature and degree that we can form no true judgment, nor argue with any certainty, concerning them, but who deny the immortality of human souls, alleging that men perish at death, and that the present life is the whole of human existence. 4. Those who believe the existence, perfections, and providence of God, the obligation of natural religion, and a state of future retribution, on the evidence of the light of nature, without a divine revelation. Such as these, he says, are the only true deists; but their principles, he apprehends, should lead them to embrace Christianity; and therefore he concludes that there is now no consistent scheme of deism in the world.

The first deistical writer of any note who appeared in this country was Lord Herbert. He lived and wrote in the seventeenth century; and his book De Veritate was first published at Paris in 1624. This, together with his book De Causis Errorum, and his treatise De Religione Laici, were afterwards published in London. His celebrated work De Religione Gentilium was published at Amster-^ dam in 1663 in 4to, and in 1700 in 8vo; and an English translation of it appeared at London in 1705. As he was one of the first who formed deism into a system, and asserted the sufficiency, universality, and absolute perfection of natural religion, with a view to discard all extraordinary revelation as useless and needless, we shall subjoin the five fundamental articles of this universal religion. These are, 1. That there is one supreme God: 2. That he is chiefly to be worshipped: 3. That piety and virtue are the principal part of his worship: 4. That we must repent of our sins, and if we do so God will pardon them: 5. That there are rewards for good men, and punishments for bad men, both here and hereafter.