the facred writers, and fome things inconclufive in their reasoning, especially in their quotations from, and their application of the Old Teftament; and taking it for granted that (as indeed the profeffors of christianity have too generally and incautiously boafted) the books which contain the history of our religion are as perfect as the religion itself, haftily conclude, that because the books of fcripture were written by men, and bear the marks of human imperfection, therefore the fcheme in which they were engaged was wholly of men, and had nothing fupernatural in it; without reflecting that thofe very imperfections in the books of fcripture, at which they are so much offended, demonftrate that the writers of them were incapable of contriving fuch a scheme, or of procuring credit to it; and alfo without reflecting that, on the very fame grounds, they might reject the whole current of antient history, no part of which has been written with perfect accuracy, uniformity, or even confiftency. For here, as in the fcripture hiftory, different hiftorians agree in their accounts of the principal things only; but as certainly differ in their accounts of leffer circumstances.

Men of taste and science are alfo exceedingly apt to be ftruck with the idea of what appears, on the first view, to be rational and liberal in their fentiments, and remote from vulgar prejudices; and because the bulk of mankind are, in many refpects, credulous,

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credulous, and often think very abfurdly, thefe gentlemen, though they will not avow it, and indeed may not be sensible of it, are secretly disposed to reject what others admit, and to pride themselves in their fingularity in this respect; thinking it more great, noble, and philofophical, to err on the fide of incredulity; whereas they ought to confider that the understandings of all mankind being naturally fimilar, even the lowest of the vulgar, when lying under no prejudice (and men of letters are subject to their peculiar prejudices as well as the illiterate) must be as capable of judging concerning truth, and especially concerning facts, as themselves; that their opinions, if they are not true, are founded upon fomething analogous to truth, though the analogy may be faulty; and therefore are not to be rejected at random, but are themselves an object worthy of philofophical investigation. A true philofopher will no more fatisfy himself without endeavouring to trace the rife and progress of pre. vailing opinions, than without understanding the cause of any other general appearance in nature.

The opinion of men of letters, however, and of fpeculative perfons of all kinds, will always have great weight with many who do not pretend to fpeculation. As they will not take the pains to think for themselves, they chufe to think with philofophers rather than with the vulgar; not confidering that men of learning and genius, who are

ever so capable of determining justly, have no advantage over the rest of mankind, unless they will carefully attend to a subject, and make themselves mafters of it; and that a politician might as well be expected to be an aftronomer, or an aftronomer a politician, as that a mere philofopher should be a competent judge of the evidence of christianity, when his attention to them has been very fuperficial, if he have attended to them at all.

I will not deny that fome unbelievers are serious and inquifitive men; they even wish to find chriftianity to be true, and have some fecret hope that it may be fo; but they cannot fully fatisfy themfelves with refpect to many objections which they have heard made to it; fo that the arguments in favour of it do not, at leaft they do not always preponderate with them. Were a very great number of perfons in this fituation, it would be a circumstance, I readily own, that might afford a reafonable foundation for doubt, or at leaft for fufpence; but confidering how very few thefe ferious and inquifitive unbelievers are, in comparison with the numbers who are profligate and thoughtless among them, I think that no conclufion can be drawn from the confideration of it, unfavourable to the evidences of chriftianity. For what cause is there fo good and so clear, as that every person can be brought to join in it.

Some of the perfons above-mentioned may have 'been much in the way of fenfible and fubtile unbelievers, to whofe objections, through want of prefence of mind, or of a fufficiently comprehenfive acquaintance with the fubject, they have not been able readily to reply; or, being perfons of weak and timid difpofitions, they may have been led by their extreme anxiety to give more attention to the objections which have been thrown in their way than to the plain and folid arguments in favour of christianity; on which account only the former may have made more impreffion upon their minds than the latter; whereas if they had been more converfant with chriftians and chriftian writers, and lefs with unbelievers and their writings, they would have thought as well of the evidences of chriftianity as of chriftianity itself; objections which have been fwelled into mountains in their imaginations, would have appeared no greater than mole-hills; and doubt and anxiety would never have invaded them. Befides, it is true, I believe, in general, that the things at which well-difpofed minds ftumble the moft, are fuch as ought to give them no offence, being quite foreign to chriftianity, though unhappily they have been generally deemed to belong to it.

Having confidered who, and how many of the prefent age are unbelievers, let it likewife be con

fidered

fidered if not how many, at least who are the believers.

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With refpect to the minifters, or profeffed teachers of chriftianity, I am well aware, it will be faid, that, befides the prejudices of education in favour of their religion, in common with the bulk of the people, they are gainers by the fyftem, and therefore that they must be fet afide as of no weight in the cafe. I am very ready to own that, in these circumstances, their mere profeffion of christianity has no weight, because it is confiftent with real infidelity; but allowing them to be men of fense, fudy, and inquiry, and withal men of fair moral characters, their fincere belief, of chriftianity certainly has fome weight, efpecially in cafes in which the gains of the profeffion do not place them much above the common level of their fellow citizens.

Study and inquiry cannot but be allowed to be, in fome meafure, a balance to the prejudices of education, befides that, in numberlefs cafes, this prejudice is much more than balanced by an oppofite one, which is peculiarly incident to ftudious and learned men, viz. the affectation of being thought wifer than our ancestors, and free from vulgar prejudices. As to the emoluments of the christian ministry, they are not fo great as to be fufficient, in other cafes, to induce an equal number of men, in fimilar circumftances, to wish to ac

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quire