OF CHRISTIANITY, DERIVED FROM ITS NATURE AND RECEPTION. BY J. B. SUMNER, M. A. PREBENDARY OF DURHAM; VICAR OF MAPLEDURHAM, OXON. LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. HATCHARD AND SON, SOLD ALSO BY C. AND J. RIVINGTON AND CO. ST. PAUL'S PREFACE. THE idea, which the following pages are designed to illustrate, is briefly this: that a religion like the Christian could never have existed, unless it had been introduced by divine authority. It could not have been invented: it would not have been received. This line of argument has at least one advantage; at the same time that it proves, if well founded, that the religion is true, it shows also what the religion is. I am by no means confident, however, that the field into which I have been led in pursuit of the idea above mentioned, is sufficiently unoccupied to justify this addi |