asserts, "No religion ever appeared in the world whose natural tendency is so much directed to promote the peace and happiness of mankind, as the Christian; nor any in which both the duties to be practised, and the propositions required to be believed, are so plain, so simple, so innocent, and so beneficial." Lord Herbert likewise calls it "the best religion that ever existed." Dr. Tindal owns, that "Christianity itself, stripped of all additions that policy, mistake, and the circumstances of time have made to it, is a most holy religion." Even the moral philosopher expresses himself to the same purpose. And Mr. Chubb is, in candour, forced at last to acknowledge, "that Christianity, if it could be separated from every thing that hath been blended with it, yields a much clearer light, and is a more safe guide to mankind, than any other traditionary religion, as being better adapted to improve and perfect human nature.” Thus one and all, we find, subscribe to the truth of what,nevertheless, one and all endeavour to vilify. Can such intemperance, then, be the legitimate offspring of true wisdom? From the abundance of materials, indeed, it requires no mighty effort of genius to make out lame facts by conjecture, to support doubtful opinions by some sort of authority; authority; to give probability to what is improbable, plausibility to what is absurd, or colouring to what is most deformed and odious. But why, in a land of Christians, should it be the singularity of the Christian religion to be the more traduced the more it is confirmed? Every part of its evidence has been repeatedly examined, repeatedly objected to, and repeatedly substantiated. The utmost acuteness of sophistry has, in short, been employed to prove it false; and yet we may, with confidence, ask its adversaries, Has the attack succeeded? Its enemies, indeed, if they think they detect a mistake, instantly plume themselves upon it, affect a triumph, and sing Te Deum. Without ceremony or hesitation, they at once ascribe all the miserable consequences, flowing from artificial theology, to the existence of genuine Christianity. Is it fair, however, to make the subsequent abuse of an original truth an argument against its primitive authenticity? Misrepresentation, distortion, aggravation, are of extremely easy coinage. Falsehoods are, without much difficulty, annexed to truths: and firstrate abilities, when unhappily so misapplied, may spread the most fatal errors. VOL. VI. Z Ꮓ If If we are to deny the truth of the Christian religion, because abuses have pervaded its sacred precincts, so may we deny the use of chymistry, because it has degenerated into alchymy; of astronomy, because it has given occasion to judicial astrology; of physics, because they have been applied to theurgic and natural magic; and even to the plain religion of nature, as it is called, because it has been converted into various systems of inhuman doctrines, of absurd mysteries, and of superstitious rites. At the same time, I am free to confess, it may be demanded, who is there who has not in religion, as in the sciences, encountered difficulties which he has not been able to resolve? Yet still I ask, Should a man, because he cannot conquer every thing, destroy every thing? It has been, unfortunately, the passion of certain authors to read the annals of Christianity with a view to collect all the contradictions in opinion, and all the immorality and impiety in practice, that could in any manner be brought forward, to discredit the Christian church. They seem, as it were, to have studied, in order to disgrace the most sacred and valuable things; and to have given them such characters as would stigmatize every distinguished guished effort of human worth. For my own part, I have no hesitation in declaring, I no more look for infallibility in the judgments of men, than I do for impeccability in their lives. At the same time, I cannot reconcile to myself the belief, that there really ever existed, whatever vain display there may have been of such characters, more than one or two solitary instances of truly philosophic minds, who both understood Christianity, and, by fair argument, thought themselves bound to destroy it. If it be asked, was Christianity, then, intended only for learned divines and profound philosophers? I answer, No. It was at first preached, as we have seen, by the illiterate, and received by the ignorant; and to such are the practical, which are the most necessary parts of it, sufficiently intelligible. Philosophers, on the contrary, when they have meddled with it, have too frequently puzzled the clear, and not cleared the obscure. Virtue, be assured, is antecedent to all law. It is the faithful discharge of those obligations, which reason dictates. And, in truth, what is reason itself but a portion of the divine wisdom with which the Creator has furnished our minds, in order to direct us in our duty? Philosophy, then, is not required for the just Z 2 'compre |