His
[144] vigorous criticisms vary in value, but many of them hit the nail
on the head, and the fashion of some modern critics to pass over
Woolston's productions as unimportant because they are "ribald" or
coarse, is perfectly unjust. The pamphlets had an enormous sale, and
Woolston's notoriety is illustrated by the anecdote of the "jolly young
woman" who met him walking abroad and accosted him with "You old rogue,
are you not hanged yet?" Mr. Woolston answered, "Good woman, I know you
not; pray what have I done to offend you?" "You have writ against my
Saviour," she said; "what would become of my poor sinful soul if it was
not for my dear Saviour?"
About the same time, Matthew Tindal (a Fellow of All Souls) attacked
Revelation from a more general point of view. In his Christianity as old
as the Creation (1730) he undertook to show that the Bible as a
revelation is superfluous, for it adds nothing to natural religion,
which God revealed to man from the very first by the sole light of
reason. He argues that those who defend Revealed religion by its
agreement with Natural religion, and thus set up a double government of
reason and authority, fall between the two. "It 's an odd jumble," he
observes, "to prove the truth of a book by the truth
[145] of the doctrines it contains, and at the same time conclude those
doctrines to be true because contained in that book." He goes on to
criticize the Bible in detail.
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