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for achieving their purposes; but our limits necessarily restrict us at present from entering into the exposition. The result has proved how little Christianity has to fear from the malice or the subtlety of its bitterest opponents,-how futile their most plausible objections are,—and how trivial the amount of all that their learning and ingenuity have found to say against it, after the most rigorous examination, and with full liberty of declaring their sentiments without the terror of faggots or inquisitions.

Nothing has been done to detect fraud or imposture, or invalidate the solid evidences on which it rests. Its truth

fresh lustre in the controven has accrued through all those ingenious sot many sceptics like so many cob-webs, asceptical po ponder had endeavoured to spin around it. have of being detrimental toreligion, its adversaries have done it an important, though unintentional service. They have shewn that it can never be subverted by the force of reason or argument; that it is in no danger from the most rigid scrutiny; but, like pure gold, will lie for centuries in the furnace without losing a single grain; whereas,

were all the tinsel and embroidery of Deism or Infidelity put into the same crucible, and burnt down, there would not be found at the bottom of the melting-pot an ounce of metal that was not dug from the mine of Revelation.

Besides exposing their own weakness, they have stimulated the friends of piety to greater zeal by their example; they have taught Christians of all denominations to unite in the same spirit of honourable rivalry; and, forgetting for a time the distinctions of party, to associate their labours in repelling the encroachments of error. wit, used men of talents and learnrate the subject, who have anumerous writings, the most

and convincing statements of the an evidences, and established their veracity on the basis of demonstration. To this cause it is that we owe the masterly productions of Stillingfleet, Sherlock, Clarke, Butler, Bentley, Doddridge, Newton, Leland, Lardner, Campbell, and a catalogue of other respectable names, that have done honour to literature and science, as well as to religion.

Thus has the opposition of enemies and infidels contributed to advance and perpetuate the cause they intended to destroy. It has assisted, in no small degree, to sweep away the rubbish which had been accumu lating for ages round the temple of Truth; and, by revealing the solid rock on which it is founded, has made the venerable structure only appear more majestic and impregnable. It has given birth to those ingenious and immortal defences of our faith, which serve at once for beauty and for strength, and which will continue to be read and admired while the language in which they are written exists.

An additional benefit which has accrued from these discussions is, that many sceptics and unbelievers, being induced to ponder and examine the matter in question, have been reclaimed to the truth, and confirmed in right principles. The contemners of the Christian religion, have been compelled to throw down the weapons of their rebellion, and led not only to entertain a more favourable opinion of its proofs and its doctrines, but to render it a public homage, by laying their confessions and retractions undis

guisedly before the world. Numbers have even entered the lists of controversy, as advocates and champions of the cause they had reviled; and produced elaborate works in its defence, which have baffled the ablest of their antagonists to answer.

Some of the more generally known, and best accredited examples of these conversions, the reader of the following volumes will find, in the Lives of Eminent Individuals who have renounced libertine principles and sceptical opinions, and embraced Christianity. Such narratives may be regarded as interesting in themselves, but more especi→ ally important, as furnishing the most authentic testimonies to the truths of revealed religion; and setting forth the decided concessions in their favour, which have been extorted under circumstances so impressive, and from witnesses whose competency or credibility cannot be doubted.

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Among the Converts here selected are to be found men of all ranks and professions in life, laymen and clergymen, statesmen, philosophers, historians, poets, and physicians; many of whom were not less distinguished for their extensive acquirements in

learning and science, than for the homage they paid to religion. They exhibit instances of various attainments in knowledge, and of all descriptions of intellectual vigour,-of men who cannot be charged with acting from hypocrisy, or under the influence of prejudice,-who have been deeply versed in the philosophy of nature, and accustomed to the most cautious forms of scientific experiment, and who, had the evidences of Revelation been weak, or founded on error, were in every respect qualified, and from the character of their previous habits and opinions, would have been most eager to detect and expose the imposture.

Christianity, it is true, does not rest its claims on human authority,-it does not appeal to the aid or the attestation of names, however celebrated; nor does it require its disciples to count voices in order to determine their belief. It has other supports, and more irrefragable arguments, than the proofs to be adduced from the number or extent of its conversions. But the concurring testimonies of so many individuals, who from enemies and revilers became proselytes, who were endowed with talents

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