Warburton and a whole host of apologists carried on the battle against deism and infidelity.

Hume, after furnishing the arsenal of scepticism with a new array of deadlier engines and more abundant ammunition, had betaken himself placidly to the composition of history.

What is remarkable in Burke's first performance is his discernment of the important fact, that behind the intellectual disturbances in the sphere of philosophy, and the noisier agitations in the sphere of theology, there silently stalked a force that might shake the whole fabric of civil society itself.

In France, as all students of its speculative history are agreed, there came a time in the eighteenth century when theological controversy was turned into political controversy.

Innovators left the question about the truth of Christianity, and busied themselves with questions about the ends and means of governments.