opinion in the men of the fame party. Then, which was the main thing, he gave a candid view of the arguments on both fides, from reason, and efpecially from Scripture. Here his found judgment led him to put aside every thing trivial, and to bring forth the very strength of the arguments, as well as of the difficulties, on each fide; particularly, the most plausible paffages of Scripture urged in proof of the oppofite opinions,-the criticisms by which the force of thefe texts was fupported or evaded,-with the answers, replies, and duplies made by the parties in the course of the debate. In fine, juftice was done to both parties, not only in this representation of their opinions, with the grounds of them, but also by admitting their difavowal of the abfurd and dangerous confequences charged on each by their antagonists, and exhibiting the important points of christianity mutually acknowledged by both.

After all, the queftion remained undecided that is, the hearers were left entirely to the exercise of their own judgment, and directed to the means of further enquiry. VOL. I. D

No

34

No dictatorial opinion, no infallible or decifive judgment on any great controverted point, was ever delivered from that theological chair. After the point had undergone a full difcuffion, none of the ftudents yet knew the particular opinion of this venerable Profeffor, in any other way than by the fuperior weight of the arguments which he had brought under their view: fo delicately fcrupulous was he to throw any bias at all upon ingenuous minds, in their enquiry after Sacred Truth. In this he certainly acted right; for fuch was the reverence which the great body of his fcholars felt for his fuperior judgment, that, had they known it in particular points, it would have had too much weight in determining theirs.

As if this had not been enough, when he gave the ftudents his parting advices at the end of the feffion, he warmly recommended candour and continued diligence in the fearch after truth; modesty and caution in forming their laft judgments on points about which wife and good men had thought differently; advised them long

to

to retain the character of enquirers, and to keep their minds open to new light and evidence from every quarter. He fhewed how wife and how lovely this was in all, especially in young minds; and painted, on the other hand, in ftrong colours, the indecency of rafh prefumptuous judgments, and the fatal effects of bigotry.

On the Wednesdays he delivered, during the course of one year, Lectures on the Evidences of Chriftianity; and next year, Lectures on Compofition, viz. that of sermons. As his own modesty refifted the preffing folicitations of his friends, to publifh either the whole or any part of thefe Lectures; fo the Writer of these Memoirs wi!!, he hopes, be forgiven, for attempting to give the world a flight view of what appeared to be moft original, at least in the first fet of them; even though it fhould fwell thefe Memoirs to a greater fize than was at first intended.

After a fhort hiftorical account of the principal oppofers and defenders of Chriftianity, efpecially during the firft four cen

turies; after exhibiting Christianity as a chain of paft, prefent, and future facts and marking, in the fpirit of Bishop Butler, the prefumptive evidence in its favour, arifing from a general view of the scheme itself: he divided his fubject into two great branches: I. The internal evidence of Chrif tianity, refulting from the perfection of the moral doctrine and character of its Author. II. The more direct or external evidence arifing from miracles, and the accomplishment of prophecies. Of the Lectures on this last branch I fhall fay nothing farther, than that they contained an accurate and striking view of the fubftance of many volumes that have been written on it; but I fhall give a very general account of the course of lectures on the first branch, which comprehended about the half of the whole, because there feems to have been something more new, or peculiar at least, in the manner of treating the subject *.

He

* Traces of the fame train of thought and argument are to be met with in Dr. Duchal's Sermons, and Dr. Macnight's book on the Evidences of Christianity, both publifhed long after thefe Lectures were firft compofed. Even

fimilar

He gave a fhort regular view, from the Evangelifts, of the moral truths and precepts delivered by Jefus Chrift; together with the motives by which he recommended or enforced that high ftandard of moral excellence, he fet before his followers; and challenged the adverfaries of Chriftianity to produce any thing equal to this doctrine. He answered, at confiderable length, the principal objections that have been made to the Christian morality *, and closed this part of the fubject with fome excellent obfervations on the manner of our Saviour's teaching; fuch as, that our great Inftructor taught religion in the way beft fuited to the condition of mankind; not as founded on reafoning, but upon teflimony;-that he mixed the truths or facts of religion and the practice of it together; —that he waved every thing curious, and delivered nothing but what was highly ufeful to mankind ;-that the knowledge of

fimilar views feem to have ftruck the fceptical but feeling mind of Roffeau, from a very flight knowledge of the Scriptures, and to have made him at times, almost a Chriftian.

* See this done in a very fpirited manner in Dr. Beattie's late book on the Evidences of Chriftianity, Vol. II. page 105, &c.

D 3

Jefus