claims to make them a topic for wit and raillery, or a theme of contention for literary wranglers; or to advance as arguments the follies of superstition, and the cruelties of wars, and massacres which stain the ecclesiastic page, as if the gospel of peace sanctioned the bloody deeds of bigotry, or armed its disciples with the sword of intolerance and extirpation.

Under these circumstances, it is extremely easy to account for the opposition and unbelief which Christianity has often met with among the learned. They had not the due preparation, and therefore could not possibly arrive with certainty at truth; any more than a philosopher, who, without a necessary foundation in preliminary studies, will never attain to eminence in science. It was not likely that men who had thrown off with impatience all moral subordination, who were elated by the pride of mental improvement, or so blinded with the mists of sceptical speculations, that no argument whatever could convince them, should embrace a system of doctrines which struck at the root of all their prejudices, and imposed such narrow and disagreeable restraints upon their conduct. All this admits of a ready solution; but it amounts to no argument against the truth of revelation, that some men of enlarged minds, who have traversed the whole range of literary or scientific attainments, but of haughty or perverse spirits, who do not choose to bring to the consideration of these important subjects, that modesty, candour, and humility of mind, which become the imperfection of human faculties, when contemplating the moral discoveries of Omniscient Wisdom, are occasionally led to spurn the whole, after a partial or pretended

that few, if any of them, either in ancient or modern times, have possessed the qualifications essential to the attainment of religious truth, or a temper suited to religious inquiry. With all their superior advantages in point of knowledge, they have been deficient in fair, serious, and upright intentions. Their minds were warped by prejudice, and pre-occupied with false theories, before their judgment had come to a determination. They were either inflated with conceit, and so wanted proper humility of spirit; or affected a singularity of thinking; or were immoral, and consequently exerted every faculty to invent excuses; and were disposed to embrace, in contradiction to reason or evidence, any error that flattered their appetites and passions. Many of them were absolute buffoons, who sported with every thing sacred, and turned even the belief of a Deity into a jest; or they were lively and volatile, but superficial men, who had great literary information, and a desultory knowledge of the sciences, but without much solidity of understanding, and obviously unacquainted with the actual state of human nature. They were, moreover, utter strangers to the genius of Christianity, entertained a violent aversion to its ordinances, or dwelt altogether upon abuses and corruptions; in the hope of giving it a mortal wound, through the vices of its professors, or the false representations of its character.

its

In exposing faults and errors, they have indeed been eloquent and effective; and had they not blended the simplicity of truth with the absurd forms and appendages which human invention had superadded, they had done religion a kindness rather than an injury. But it is not dealing fair with its

claims to make them a topic for wit and raillery, or a theme of contention for literary wranglers; or to advance as arguments the follies of superstition, and the cruelties of wars, and massacres which stain the ecclesiastic page, as if the gospel of peace sanctioned the bloody deeds of bigotry, or armed its disciples with the sword of intolerance and extirpation.

Under these circumstances, it is extremely easy to account for the opposition and unbelief which Christianity has often met with among the learned. They had not the due preparation, and therefore could not possibly arrive with certainty at truth; any more than a philosopher, who, without a necessary foundation in preliminary studies, will never attain to eminence in science. It was not likely that men who had thrown off with impatience all moral subordination, who were elated by the pride of mental improvement, or so blinded with the mists of sceptical speculations, that no argument whatever could convince them, should embrace a system of doctrines which struck at the root of all their prejudices, and imposed such narrow and disagreeable restraints upon their conduct. All this admits of a ready solution; but it amounts to no argument against the truth of revelation, that some men of enlarged minds, who have traversed the whole range of literary or scientific attainments, but of haughty or perverse spirits, who do not choose to bring to the consideration of these important subjects, that modesty, candour, and humility of mind, which become the imperfection of human faculties, when contemplating the moral discoveries of Omniscient Wisdom, are occasionally led to spurn the whole, after a partial or pretended

examination, as a cunningly devised fable, the contrivance of knaves and impostors.

Were Christianity disposed, however, to rest any part of its defence on the authority of names, it might refer to many in the first ranks of letters and philosophy, who have investigated the subject with that candour and sobriety of spirit, of which infidels have been so notoriously destitute; and who have united all the acuteness of science, with a firm belief in evangelical religion,-men of the most opposite sentiments and pursuits,who have speculated with the greatest freedom of thought,-examined with prying curiosity into the organic structure of matter, or carried the line and rule of demonstration to the farthest verge the material universe. Authorities, it is true, however eminent, are not arguments, and have no claim to be admitted as a ground of faith; but they may serve, at least, to neutralize or refute those prejudices against revelation, which have no other support than human authority, by shewing that its divine original has been admitted, and vindicated by the most prominent names in the annals of literature, and in every field of human research.

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Even in this competition, therefore, the suffrages of learning and science, would be found completely on the side of Christianity; and if infidel philosophers, with all their followers and partisans, were cast into the adverse scale, they would appear few in number and contemptible in character, when contrasted with its many able and celebrated defenders. Were the catalogue of its learned advocates to be recounted, it would be difficult to know where to begin, or when to leave off. Of divines, who have, written in support of its evidences, and who are

entitled to rank in the highest class of human authorities, in respect of genius, abilities, and intellect, the instances are almost innumerable; of men who have done honour to their profession, and were as competent to judge of the nature of revealed truth, as conceited sciolists or sceptical historians. Or should these be objected to as interested witnesses, speaking under the bias of professional prejudice, for there is frequently an unreasonable prepossession against the writings of the clergy, as if they were the dictates, not of conscience or conviction, but of party zeal or personal interest; there are others to whom no such jealousy or stigma can attach.

Among distinguished laymen who have believed, or written in vindication of Christianity, and on whom no motive but a love of truth could be supposed to operate, there is such a catalogue of illustrious names, that it is almost impossible to enumerate, and may appear invidious to select. Such advocates are to be found in almost all different countries and ages; of various sects and parties; of opposite views on the minor points of religion; yet all concurring with perfect unanimity in admitting its divine authority, and acknowledging the importance of its doctrines.

Were it necessary to urge examples instead of reasons, or advert to men of science among the laity, who have publicly avowed their conviction, after investigating, with all seriousness and accuracy, the grounds on which their faith was built, it might suffice to refer to Pascal, Leibnitz, M'Laurin, and Euler, the first mathematicians of their time; to Boerhaave, Zimmerman, Mead, Sydenham, Cheyne, Hartley, and Haller among the physicians,