Note 110 — Chapter XIV · BRITISH FREETHOUGHT IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

Of deists as such, Sherlock has nothing to say beyond treating as “practical atheists” men who admit the existence of God, yet never go to church, though “religious worship is nothing else but a public acknowledgment of God.” Their non-attendance “is as great, if not a greater affront to God, and contempt of him, than atheism itself.”110 But the reverend writer’s strongest resentment is aroused by the spectacle of freethinkers asking for liberty of thought.