5

LIFE OF TOLAND. 43
him to be a friend of our deceased author, was
obliged to confine himself to matters of fact. But
what Avill place the conduct of M. Maizeuz in a
very favourable point of view, is,
that when Mr.
Toland's works were printed at London, in 172G,
M. Maizeuz not only withheld his own name from
his
life, but also that of the gentleman at, whose
request it was written.
This gentleman having been guilty of these unpardonable
omissions, I shall endeavour, as concisely
as possible, to remedy the defect, and shall
principally confine myself to Mr. Toland's Christianity
not Mysterious,
moise in the world.
which has made so much
Previous to the Reformation, the infallibility of
the Pope in spiritual, and the divine right of kings
in temporal, matters, were carried to the very
highest pitch; and the servile, ignorant,
and debased
state, to which mankind were reduced, by
the operation of these abominable doctrines, is too
well known to need any comment. At the dawn
of the Reformation, a better order of tilings began.
The scriptures were read and studied, and the
monstrous impositions, for more than ten centuries
practised on mankind, clearly displayed.
JNeither
the infallibility of the Pope, nor the divine right
of kings, could stand the criterion either of reason
or revelation, and both were discalrded. After a
long stroggh', during more than a ceittury and a
half, our civil and re';j?,ious liberties v/eve efiects-