COLLINS, ANTHONY (1676-1729), English deist, was born at Heston, near Hounslow in Middlesex, on June 21, 1676. He was educated at Eton and King's college, Cambridge. The most interesting episode of his life was his intimacy with Locke, who in his letters speaks of him with affection and admiration. He died at his house in Harley street, London, on Dec. 13, 1729.
His writings are important as gathering together the results of previous English Freethinkers. In spite of unorthodoxy Collins was not an atheist or even an agnostic. In his own words, "Ignor ance is the foundation of atheism and freethinking the cure of it" (Discourse of Freethinking, 105) .
His first work of note was his Essay concerning the Use of Reason in Propositions the Evidence whereof depends on Human Testimony (1707), in which he rejected the distinction between above reason and contrary to reason, and demanded that revela tion should conform to man's natural ideas of God. Like all his works, it was published anonymously. Six years later appeared his chief work, A Discourse of Freethinking, occasioned by the Rise and Growth of a Sect called Freethinkers (1713) . In spite of its indiscriminate attack on the priests, the book contends for no more than every Protestant must allow. In England this essay, which was regarded and treated as a plea for deism, made a great sensation, calling forth several replies, among others from William , Whiston, Bishop Hare, Bishop Hoadly, and Richard Bentley. Swift, also, being satirically referred to in the book, made it the subject of a caricature.
In 1724 Collins published his Discourse of the Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion, with An Apology for Free Debate and Liberty of Writing prefixed. Ostensibly, it is written in opposition to Whiston's attempt to show that the books of the Old Testament did originally contain prophecies of events in the New Testament, which had been eliminated or corrupted by the Jews, and to prove that the fulfilment of prophecy by the events of Christ's life is all "secondary, secret, allegorical and mystical," since the original and literal reference is always to some other fact. Since, further, according to him the fulfilment of prophecy is the only valid proof of Christianity, he thus secretly aims a blow at Christianity as a revelation. No less than 35 answers were directed against this book, the most noteworthy of which were those of Bishop Edward Chandler, Arthur Sykes and Sam uel Clarke. To these Collins replied by his Scheme of Literal Prophecy Considered (1727). An appendix contends against Whiston that the book of Daniel was forged in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes (see In philosophy, Collins, is a defender of Necessitarianism. His brief Inquiry Concerning Human Liberty (17 1 5) has not been excelled, at all events in its main outlines, as a statement of the determinist standpoint. Attacked by Samuel Clarke he replied after Clarke's death with Liberty and Necessity (i72g).
Besides these works he wrote A Letter to Mr. Dodwell, argu ing that it is conceivable that the soul may be material, and, secondly, that if the soul be immaterial it does not follow, as Clarke had contended, that it is immortal; Vindication of the Divine Attributes (I 71o) ; Priestcraft in Perfection (i 7o9).
See Kippis, Biographia Britannica; G. Lechler, Geschichte des en glischen Deismus (1841) ; J. Hunt, Religious Thought in England, ii. (1871) ; Leslie Stephen, English Thought in the r8th Century, i. (1881) ; A. W. Benn, Hist. of English Rationalism in the igth Century (1906) ; J. M. Robertson, Short History of Freethouglzt (1906) ; and Deism.