to light, and the means clearly pointed out by which we may obtain everlasting happinefs. With the records of fuch a revelation in their hands, is it not then astonishing that mankind do not earnestly, and folicitously, and with all their faculties, apply themselves to enquire into the authenticity of writings which profefs to reveal truths to them fo interefting and momentous! Truths fo important, that in comparison therewith, all other concerns vanish, or feem "trifles light as air ?" Or-to express myself in the appropriate and elegant language of a liberal divine, whose amiable manners, piety and learning, reflect honor on a dignified ftation; "Is it not a very wonderful thing, that a being fuch as man, placed on a little globe of earth, in a little corner of the univerfe, cut off from all communication with the other systems which are difperfed through the immenfity of space; imprisoned as it were on the spot where he happens to be born; almost wholly ignorant of the variety of spiritual exist

(d) Richard Watfon, D. D. F. R. S. and Bishop of Landaff.

ences, and circumscribed in his knowledge of material things by their remotenefs, magnitude, or minutenefs; a ftranger to the nature of the very pebbles on which he treads; unacquainted, or but very obfcurely informed by his natural faculties of his condition after death;-is it not wonderful that a being fuch as this, fhould reluctantly receive, or faftidiously reject, the instruction of the Eternal God! or, if this is faying too much, that he should hastily, and negligently, and triumphantly conclude, that the Supreme Being never had condefcended to inftruct the race of man? It might properly have been expected, that a rational being, fo circumstanced, would have fedulously inquired into a subject of fuch vast importance; that he would not have fuffered himself to have been diverted from the investigation, by the pursuits of wealth, or honor, or any temporal concern; much less by notions taken up without attention, arguments admitted without examination, or prejudices imbibed in early youth, from the prophane ridicule, or

impious jeftings of fenfual or immoral

men." e

Nor is it fufficient, in an affair of fuch infinite importance, that we take a fuperficial view of the fubject. It is an old, but very just observation, that a little learning is, in many cafes, more dangerous to its poffeffor than ignorance itself, and in no instance can this be more true, than in that of Religion. If a man is already prejudiced against the Christian Revelation, a fuperficial view of the matter will be more likely to confirm, than to banish those prejudices; or, if he was not before prejudi ced, it is not improbable, but he will, by that means, become fo. An acute reasoner, fpeaking on this fubject to "those bufy or idle perfons, whofe time and thoughts are wholly engroffed by the pursuits of business or pleasure, ambition or luxury; who know nothing of this religion, except what they have accidentally picked up by defultory conversation, or fuperficial reading, and have thence determined with them

(e) Preface to a Collection of Theological Tra&s,' by Dr. Watson,

felves, that a pretended revelation, founded on fo strange and improbable a story, fo contradictory to reafon, fo adverse to the world and all its occupations, fo incredible in its doctrines, and in its precepts fo impracticable, can be nothing more than the impofition of priest-craft upon ignorant and illiterate ages, and artfully continued as an engine well adapted to awe and govern the fuperftitious vulgar;"-speaking to perfons of this description, an acute reafoner has said, "I am ready to acknowledge that these gentlemen, as far as their information reaches, are perfectly in the right; and if they are endued with good understandings, which have been entirely devoted to the bu finess or amusements of the world, they can pass no other judgment, and must revolt from the history and doctrines of this religion. The preaching Christ crucified, was to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness;f and fo it must appear to all, who, like them, judge from established prejudices, false learning, and fuperficial know

(f) 1. Cor. i. 26.

ledge; but if they would go more deeply into the subject; if such persons would lay afide their prejudices, and give themselves the trouble carefully to examine the records of the chriftian religion, and the hiftorical evidence by which it is fupported; if they would confider the fublimity of its do&rines, the beauty and juftness of its moral precepts; enter into the wonders of its difpenfations, follow the chain of its prophecies, and mark their exact fulfilment; if they would further confider who are the authors of this religion, the means by which it was propagated, the rapidity with which it fpread, and its speedy establishment, under circumstances the most adverfe; they would then, I conceive, see the matter in another light, and form a very different conclufion; they would then perceive the impoffibility of fuch a religion having been invented or propagated by fuch perfons ;-of events of such vaft magnitude, having been accomplished by means fo infignificant ;-of effects so astonishing,

(g) See "A view of the internal evidence of the Chriftian Religion," by Soame Jenyns,