other. Let all who love their species, or their country, calmly consider whether the neglect or rejection of Christianity may not be the real cause of moral and political: and let those who are thus persuaded, cooperate with every attempt to revive and diffuse the TRUE SPIRIT OF THE GOSPEL. "Let us

meekly instruct those that oppose themselves,"* (if God, peradventure, will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth,) "not being overcome of evil, but overcoming evil with good."+

Nor let a private clergyman be thought to step out of his province, in thus endeavouring to tranquillize the tumult of the world, by calling the attention of erring and wretched mortals to the gospel of peace. He is justified, not only by the general principles of humanity, but by the particular command of the religion of which he is a minister. Thus saith the Apostle, in a charge which may be considered as generally addressed to all ordained preachers of the Gospel, who having taken the oversight of the flock, are in the true sense of the word

ETTIOKOTOL, or overseers.

"Feed the flock of God, as much as lieth in you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingness; not for filthy lucre, but of ready mind.‡ Take heed to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood."S

* 2 Tim. ii. 25.
‡ 1 Pet. v. 2.

† Romans, xii. 21.

§ Acts, xx. 28.

This I have humbly attempted; and, in imitation of a most excellent prelate,* I have adapted my book to all the flock; yet various parts of it more particularly to various descriptions of men; some to the great, some to the learned, but the greater part to the people remembering the Apostle's example, who says, "To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some; and this I do for the GOSPEL'S SAKE, that I might be a partaker thereof with you."+

And now, readers, before you proceed any farther, let me be permitted to say to you, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with you," in your progress through this book, and also through life, even to its close.

* Bishop Sanderson, who preached in an appropriate manner, ad aulam, ad magistratum, ad clerum, ad populum.-See the titles of his Sermons.

† 1 Cor. ix. 22.

PREFACE

ΤΟ

THE SUBSEQUENT EDITIONS.

"THE modern method," says an ingenious divine,* "of perpetually discussing the evidence of the Christian religion in the way of curiosity and literary debate, has a tendency to keep the mind in a very immoral suspense; and to divert it from habituating itself to the temper and precepts of the religion, thus made the subject of endless disquisition. The NEW TESTAMENT INCLUDES ITS OWN EVIDENCE."+

This opinion alone would justify the design of the subsequent volume, which is to persuade men to

The abundant shower of divine grace which is diffused over the Scriptures, becomes an argument so cogent and conclusive to my mind, that, in comparison with it, all demonstration appears inefficacious. DANTE, quoted by F. SIMON and by Dr. APTHORPE,

habituate themselves to the "temper and precepts of the Christian religion," instead of spending their lives in ostentatious disquisitions on its external evidence.

In opposing the doctrines of those who call themselves, by way of eminence, the rational Christians, or the philosophers, I foresaw that I rendered myself obnoxious both to misapprehension and misrepresentation. I was not unprepared to bear consequences which I predicted. They excite no surprise; and even the pain which they might otherwise inflict, is prevented by a consciousness of having, with singleness of heart, espoused a cause beneficial to mankind, and founded on scriptural, as well as the HIGHEST HUMAN authority.

Nevertheless I think it right, not to neglect an opportunity of farther explaining the scope of these pages; because such an explanation may render them more efficacious in accomplishing their good purpose.

My book, as, I think, must have been evident to every attentive and unprejudiced observer, was, in the first instance, designed to counteract, among the multitude, the effect of Mr. Paine's Age of Reason, Volney's Ruins, and the general example of French apostasy.

But what mode of counteraction did I adopt? that of producing* historical evidence or abstruse

* Dr. Cudworth was a philosopher of the very first order, deeply learned, and singularly sagacious. Yet, what says he on the subject of producing faith by historical evidence? the following words are from the Preface to his Intellectual System: