JOSEPH PRIESTLEY, LL. D. F. R. S. &c.

Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh
you a reafon of the hope that is in you.

1 PETER iii. 15.

PHILADELPHIA PRINTED.

LONDON:

Reprinted for J. JOHNSON, in St. Paul's Church-yard.

ENOX LIBRARY

1490

1895

THE PREFACE.

THIS volume of difcourfes may be con

fidered as a continuation of those which I delivered, and published, the last year, as those were of the fet that I delivered in England, fince they all relate, directly, or indirectly, to the evidences of revealed religion; and I flatter myself they will not be thought lefs original, or useful. All great truths, and fyftems of truth, have numerous relations to other truths, and it cannot be expected that they should all be discovered by the fame perfon, and still lefs at the fame time. We may therefore expect that if revealed religion be true, various proofs and illustrations of its truth will still be discovered by those who give their attention to the subject; and, in the present state of things, a more important one cannot be imagined. It is to be hoped, therefore, that many learned and studious perfons, the friends of Chriftianity and of

A 2

truth,