duce an explosion. Did the applauded intercommunity of the Pagan theology preferve the peace of the Roman world? Did it prevent oppreflions, profcriptions, maffacres, devaftations? Was it bigotry that carried Alexander into the East, or brought Cæfar into Gaul? are the nations of the world, into which Chriftianity hath not found its way, or from which it hath been banifhed free from contentions? are their contentions lefs ruinous and fanguinary? Is it owing to Chriftianity, or to the want of it, that the finest regions of the Eaft, the countries inter quatuor maria, the peninfula of Greece, together with a great part of the Mediterranean coaft, are at this day a defert; that the banks of the Nile, whofe conftantly renewed fertility is not to be impaired by neglect, or deftroyed by the ravages of war, ferves only for the fcene of a ferocious anarchy, or the fupply of unceafing hoftilities. Europe itfelf has known no religious wars for fome centuries, yet has hardly ever been without war. Are the calamities, which at this day afflict it, to be imputed to Chriftianity? Hath Poland fallen by a Chriftian crusade ? Hath the overthrow in France, of civil order and fecurity, been effected by the votaries of our religion, or by the foes? Amongst the awful leffons, which the crimes and the miferies of that country afford to mankind, this is one, that, in order to be a perfecutor it is not neceffary to be a bigot; that in rage and cruelty, in mifchief and deftruction, fanaticifm itself can be outdone by infidelity. Finally, if war, as it is now carried on between nations, produce lefs mifery and ruin than formerly, we are indebted, perhaps to Chriftianity for the change, more than to any other caufe. Viewed therefore even in its relation to this fubject, it appears to have been of advantage to the world. It hath humanized the conduct of wars; it hath ceafed to excite them. The differences of opinion, that have in all ages prevailed amongst Christians, fall very much within the alternative which has been ftated. If we poffeffed the difpofition which Chriftianity labours, above all other qualities, to inculcate, these differences would do little harm. If that difpofition be wanting, other caufes, even were thefe abfent, would continually rife up, to call forth the malevolent paffions into action. Differences of opinion, when accompanied with mutual charity, which Chrif tianity forbids them to violate, are for the most part innocent, and for fome purposes ufeful. They promote inquiry, difcuffion, and knowledge. They help to keep up an attention to religious. subjects, and a concern about them, which might be apt to die away in the calm and filence of univerfal agreement. I do not know that it is in any degree true, that the influence of religion is the greatest, where there are the fewest diffenters. The Conclufion. IN religion, as in every other fubject of human reafoning, much depends upon the order in which we difpofe our inquiries. Anna who takes up a fyftem of divinity with a previous opinion that either every part must be true, or the whole falfe, approaches the difcution with great difadvantage. No other fyftem, which is founded upon moral evidence, would bear to be treated in the fame manner. Nevertheless, in a certain degree, we are all introduced to our religious ftudies under this prejudication; and it cannot be avoided. The weakness of the human judgment in the early part of youth, yet its extreme fufceptibility of impreffion, renders it neceffary to furnish it with fome opinions, and with fome principles or other. Or indeed, without much exprefs care, or much endeavour for this purpose, the tendency of the mind of man, to affimilate itself to the habits of thinking and fpeaking which prevail around him, produces the fame effect. That indifferency and fufpenfe, that waiting and equilibrium of the judgment, which fome require in religious matters, and which fome would wish to be aimed at in the conduct of education, are impoffible to be preferved. They are not given to the condition of human life. It is a confequence of this fituation that the doctrines of religion come to us before the proofs; and come to us with that mixture of explications and inferences from which no public creed is, or can be, free. And the effect which too frequently follows, from Chriftianity being presented to the understanding in this form, is, that when any articles which appear as parts of it, contradict the apprehenfion of the perfons to whom it is propofed, men of rafh and confident tempers, haftily and indifcriminately reject the whole. But is this to do juftice, either to themselves, or to the religion? The rational way of treating a subject of fuch acknowledged importance is to attend, in the first place, to the general and substantial truth of its principles, and to that alone. When we once feel a foundation, when we once perceive a ground of credibility in its history, we fhall proceed with fafety to inquire into the interpretation of its records, and into the doctrines which have been deduced from them. Nor will it either endanger our faith, or diminish or alter our motives for obedience, if we should discover that these conclufions are formed with different degrees of probability, and poffefs different degrees of importance. This conduct of the understanding, dictated by every rule of right reasoning, will uphold perfonal Chriftianity even in thofe countries in which it is established under forms the moft liable to difficulty and objection. It will alfo have the further effect of guarding us against the prejudices which are wont to arise in our minds to the difadvantage of religion, from obferving the numerous controverfies which are carried on amongst its profeffors, and likewise of inducing a spirit of lenity and moderation In our judgment, as well as in our treatment, of those who stand, in fuch controverfies, upon fides oppofite to ours. What is clear in Christianity we shall find to be fufficient, and to be infinitely valuable; what is dubious, unneceffary to be decided, or of very fubordinate importance; and what is moft obfcure, will teach us to bear with the opinions which others may have formed upon the fame fubject. We fhall fay to thofe, who the most widely diffent from us, what Auguftine faid to the worst hereties of his age : "Illi in vos feviant, qui nefcient, cum quo labore verum inveniatur, et quam difficile caveantur errores-qui nefciunt, cum quantâ difficultate fanetur oculus interioris hominis-qui nefciunt, quibus fufpiriis et gemitibus fiat, ut ex quantulacunque parte poffit intelligi Deus." A judgment, moreover, which is once pretty well fatisfied of the general truth of the religion, will not only thus difcriminate in its doctrines, but will poffefs fufficient ftrength to overcome the reluctance of the imagination to admit articles of faith which are attended with difficulty of apprehenfion, if fuch articles of faith appear to be truly parts of the revelation. It was to be expected beforehand, that what related to the economy and to the perfons of the invifible world, which revelation profeffes to do, and which, if true, it actually does, fhould contain fome points remote from our analogies, and from the comprehenfion of a mind which hath acquired all its ideas from fenfe and from experience. a Aug. Contr. Ep. fund. cap. 2. n. 2, 3. It hath been my care, in the preceding work, to preferve the feparation between evidences and doctrines as inviolable as I could; to remove from the primary question all confiderations which have been unneceffarily joined with it; and to offer a defence of Chriftianity, which every Chriftian might read, without feeing the tenets in which he had been brought up attacked or decried and it always afforded a fatisfaction to my mind to obferve that this was practicable; that few or none of our many controverfies with one another affect or relate to the proofs of our religion; that the rent never defcends to the foundation. The truth of Chriftianity depends upon its leading facts, and upon them alone. Now of thefe we have evidence which ought to fatisfy us, at least until it appear that mankind have ever been deceived by the fame. We have fome uncorsefted and inconteftible points, to which the hiftory of the human fpecies hath nothing fimilar to offer. A Jewish peafant changed the religion of the world, and that, without force, without power, without fupport; without one natural fource or circumstance of attraction, influence or fuccefs. Such a thing hath not happened in any other inftance. The companions of this perfon, after he himself had been put to death for his attempt, afferted his fupernatural character, founded upon his fupernatural operations; and, in teftimony of the truth of their affertions, i. e. in confequence of their own belief of that truth, and, in order to communicate the knowledge of it to others, voluntarily entered upon lives of toil and hardship, and, with a full experience of their danger, committed themfelves to the last extremities of perfecution. This hath not a parallel. More particularly, a very few days after this perfon had been publickly executed, and in the very city in which he was buried, thefe his companions declared with one voice that his body was reftored to life; that they had feen him, handled him, ate with him, converfed with him; and, in purfuance of their perfuafion of the truth of what they told, preached his religion, with this ftrange fact as the foundation of it, in the face of thofe who had killed him, who were armed with the power of the country, aud neceffarily and naturally difpofed to treat his followers as they had treated himfelf; and having done this upon the fpor where the event took place, carried the intelligence of it abroad, in defpite of difficulties and oppofition, and where the nature of their errand gave them nothing to expect but derifion, infult, and outrage. This is without example. Thefe three facts, I think, are certain, and would have been nearly fo, if the gofpels had never been written. The Christian story, as to these points, hath never varied. No other hath been fet up against it." Every letter, every difcourfe, every controverfy, amongst the followers of the religion; every book written by them, from the age of its commencement to the prefent time, in every part of the world in which it hath been profeffed, and with every sect into which it hath been divided, (and we have letters and difcourfes written by contemporaries, by witneffes of the tranfaction, by perfons themfelves bearing a share in it, and other writings following that age in regular fucceffion) concur in representing thefe facts in this manner. A religion, which now poffeffes the greatest part of the civilized world, unquestionably sprang up at Jerufalem at this time. Some account must be given of its origin, fome caufe affigned for its rife. All the accounts of this origin, all the explications of this caufe, whether taken from the writings of the early followers of the religion, in which, and in which perhaps alone, it could be expected that they should be diftinctly unfolded, or from occafional notices in other writings of that or the adjoining age, either exprefsly allege the facts above ftated as the means by which the religion was fet up, or advert to its commencement in a manner which agrees with the fuppofition of these facts being true, which renders them probable according to the then state of the world, and which teftifies their operation and effects.. Thefe propofitions alone lay a foundation for our faith, for they prove the existence of a tranfaction, which cannot even in its most general parts be accounted for upon any reasonable suppofition, except that of the truth of the mission. But the par ticulars, the detail of the miracles or miraculous pretences (for fuch there neceffarily must have been) upon which this unexampled tranfaction refted, and for which thefe men acted and fuffered as they did act and fuffer, it is undoubtedly of great importance to us to know. We have this detail from the fountain head, from the perfons themselves; in accounts written by eye-witneffes of the feene, by contemporaries and companions. of those who were fo; not in one book, but four, each containing enough for the verification of the religion, all agreeing in the fundamental parts of the hiftory. We have the authenticity of thefe books established by more and stronger proofs than belong to almost any other ancient, book whatever and by proofs which widely diflingu th them from any others claiming a finn C c |