AN APOLOGY FOR CHRISTIANITY, IN A SERIES OF LETTERS ADDRESSED TO EDWARD GIBBON, ES2. AUTHOR OF THE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. Ninth Edition. It I KNOW not whether I may be allowed, without the imputation of vanity, to express the satisfaction I felt on being told by my Bookseller, that another Edition of the Apology for Christianity was wanted. is a satisfaction, however, in which vanity has no part; it is altogether founded in the delightful hope, that I may have been, in a small degree, instrumental in recommending the Religion of Christ to the attention of some, who might not otherwise have considered it, with that serious and unprejudiced disposition which its importance requires. The celebrity of the work which gave rise to this Apology, has, no doubt, principally contributed to its circulation; could I have entertained a thought, that it would have been called for so many years after its first publication, I would have endeavoured [iv] to have rendered it more intrinsically worthy the public regard. It becomes not me however to depreciate what the world has approved; rather let me express an earnest wish, that those who dislike not this little Book, will peruse larger ones on the same subject: in them they will see the defects of this so abundantly supplied, as will, I trust, convince them, that the Christian Religion is not a system of superstition, invented by enthusiasts, and patronised by statesmen, for secular ends, but a revelation of the will of God. LONDON, March 10, 1791. AN APOLOGY FOR CHRISTIANITY. LETTER I. SIR, It would give me much uneasiness to be reputed an enemy to free inquiry in religious matters, or as capable of being animated into any degree of personal malevolence against those who differ from me in opinion. On the contrary, I look upon the right of private judgment, in every concern respecting God and ourselves, as superior to the controul of human authority; and have ever regarded free disquisition as the best mean of illustrating the doctrine, and establishing the truth of Christianity. Let the followers of Mahomet, and the zealots of the church of Rome, support their several religious systems by damping every effort of the human intellect to pry into the foundations of their faith: but never can it become a Christian, to be afraid of being asked a reason of the faith that is in him; nor a Protestant, to be studious of |