CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY:

OR,

THE EVIDENCE AND EXCELLENCE

OF

REVEALED RELIGION.

SECTION I.

Cupimus enim inveftigare quid verum fit; neque id folum, fed quod cum veritate, PIETATEM quoque præterea erga Deum habeat conjunctam. It is my object to inquire what is true; but not to acquiefce merely in the difcovery of Speculative truth; but to find out that doctrine which, together with truth, unites PIOUS AFFECTIONS to God. SADOLET.

I

INTRODUCTORY.

ENTER on the subject of this volume with unaffected diffidence. I tread on holy ground with awe. Though much of my life, devoted to letters from the earlieft age, has been spent in reading the best writers on the Chriftian doctrine, and more in contemplation of it, yet a sense of its high importance, and of my own fallibility, has long reftrained the impulfe which prompted me to engage in its public difcuffion. Nothing but confcious rectitude of intention, co-operating with the hope of obtaining the aid of God's holy Spirit and the reader's indulgence, could animate the tremulous mind in an enterprise to which it feels and avows itself unequal. A conviction that the fubject

t

fubject is peculiarly feafonable, has contributed to overcome reluctance. The TIMES indeed appear to me to call upon every profeffor of Chriftianity to vindicate, in the manner beft adapted to his abilities and opportunities, its controverted truth, and infulted honour; and if I fhall be fortunate enough to communicate one fuggeftion to the wavering mind, which may conduce to this great purpofe, my labour will not be in vain, nor my undertaking rafhly adventurous. I fhall have accomplished my wifh. To diffufe the funfhine of religious hope and confidence over the fhadowy path of life; to diffipate the gloom of defpair; to contribute, in the smallest degree, to the falvation of a fellow-creature; objects fo defirable infpire an ardour which enables zeal in a good caufe to triumph over timidity.

That unbelief in Chrift is increasing in the prefent age, and that the fpirit of the times is rather favourable to its increafe, has been afferted by high authority, and is too notorious to admit denial. The apoftafy of a great nation, in the most enlightened and polished part of Europe; the public, unblushing avowal of atheism among some of its leaders; the multiplication of books on the Continent, in which Chriftianity is treated as a mere mode of fanaticism; all thefe circumftances have combined, with others, to caufe in many perfons not only an indifference to the religion of Chrift, but contempt and averfion to his very name. It were easy to cite contumelious reproaches of his perfon, as well as audacious denials of his claim to divine authority. But with fuch citations I will not pollute my page, which, however it may be deformed by error, fhall not be ftained with the transfusion of blafphemy. It is to be wifhed that all fuch works could be configned to immediate and everlafting

oblivion;

oblivion; but, I am forry to fay that they are diffufed with an induftry, which, if it appeared in making profelytes to truth, would be in the highest degree meritorious. Almost every individual in our own country can now read; and manuals of infidelity, replete with plaufible arguments, in language level to the loweft claffes, are circulated among the people, at a price which places them within reach of the poorest member of the community. They may indeed be despised by the rich and neglected by the learned, but they fall into the hands of the poor, to many of whom any plaufible opinion in print bears the ftamp of authority. At the fame time, it must be lamented that there are treatifes of a higher order, on the fide of infidelity, which come recommended to the fuperior ranks, to men of knowledge and education, with all the charms of wit and elegance.

But it cannot be faid that in this country the apologifts and defenders of Chriftianity have been few, or unfurnished with abilities natural and acquired. Great have been the efforts of our profoundest scholars, both profeffional divines and laymen, in maintaining the caufe of Christianity, and in repelling, by argument, by ridicule, by invective, by various and deep erudition, the affaults of the infidel. Yet what fhall we fay ? Notwithstanding their ftupendous labours, continued with little intermiffion during many centuries, the great caufe which they have maintained, is evidently, at this moment, on the decline. Though many of them, not contented with perfuafion and argument, have profeffed to DEMONSTRATE the truth of the Chriftian religion, it is certain that a very great number of men in Chriftian countries continue unperfuaded, unconvinced, and totally blind to their demonftration. Such being the cafe, after all

their voluminous productions, is it not fair to conclude that their defences, however celebrated, are either erroneous in the mode, or defective in the matter? Had their fuccefs been equal to their labours and pretenfions, infidelity in Europe must now have been utterly exterminated.

For the learned labours of theologists, the subtilty of schoolmen, the erudition of critics, the ingenuity of controverfialists, I feel a fincere respect; but I cannot help thinking that their productions have contributed rather to the amufement of recluse scholars already perfuaded of Christianity, than to the converfion of the infidel and the inftruction of the PEOPLE. It appears to me, that' some of the most elaborate of the writings in defence of Christianity are too cold in their manner, too metaphyfical or abftrufe in their arguments, too little animated with the spirit of piety, to produce any great or durable effect on the heart of man, formed as he is, not only with intellectual powers, but with fine feelings and a glowing imagination. They touch not the trembling fibres of fenfibility. They are infipid to the palate of the people. They have no attractions for the POOR, the great multitude to whom the gospel was particularly preached. They are fcarcely intelligible but to fcholars in their clofets, and while they amufe, perhaps, without convincing the underftanding, they leave the moft fufceptible part of man, his bosom, unaffected. The bufy world, eager in pursuit of wealth, honour, and pleasure, pays them no regard; though they are the very perfons whose attention to religion, which they are