CONCLUSION.

IF I mistake not, I have now fully established the truth of my three propositions.

First, That there is now extant a book intitled the New Testament.

Secondly, That from this book may be ex­tracted a system of religion intirely new; both in its object, and its doctrines, not only superior to, but totally unlike every thing, which had ever before entered into the mind of man.

Thirdly, That from this book may likewise be collected a system of ethics, in which every mo­ral precept founded on reason is carried to a higher degree of purity and perfection, than in any other of the wisest philosophers of preced­ing ages; every moral precept founded on false principles totally omitted, and many new pre­cepts added, peculiarly corresponding with the new object of this religion.

Every one of these propositions, I am per­suaded, is incontrovertibly true; and if true, this short, but certain conclusion must inevitably follow: That such a system of religion and mo­rality could not possibly have been the work of any man, or set of men, much less of those ob­scure, ignorant, and illiterate persons who actu­ally did discover, and publish it to the world; and that therefore it must have been effected by the supernatural interposition of divine power and wisdom; that is, that it must derive its ori­gin from God.

[Page 41] This argument seems to me little short of de­monstration, and is indeed founded on the very same reasoning, by which the material world is proved to be the work of his invisible hand. We view with admiration the heavens and the earth, and all therein contained; we contemplate with amazement the minute bodies of animals too small for perception, and the immense plane­tary orbs too vast for imagination: We are certain that these cannot be the works of man; and therefore we conclude with reason, that they must be the productions of an omnipotent Crea­tor. In the same manner we see here a scheme of religion and morality unlike and superior to all ideas of the human mind, equally impossible to have been discovered by the knowledge, as invented by the artifice of man; and therefore by the very same mode of reasoning, and with the same justice, we conclude, that it must de­rive its origin from the same omnipotent and omniscient Being.

Nor was the propagation of this religion less extraordinary than the religion itself, or less above the reach of all human power, than the discovery of it was above that of all human understanding. It is well known, that in the course of a very few years it was spread over all the principal parts of Asia and of Europe, and this by the ministry only of an inconsiderable number of the most inconsiderable persons; that at this time Paganism was in the highest repute, believed universally by the vulgar, and patro­nised by the great; that the wisest men of the wisest nations assisted at its sacrifices, and con­sulted its oracles on the most important occasi­ons: [Page 42]Whether these were the tricks of the priests or of the devil, is of no consequence, as they were both equally unlikely to be converted, or overcome; the fact is certain, that on the preach­ing of a few fishermen, their altars were desert­ed, and their deities were dumb. This miracle they undoubtedly performed, whatever we may think of the rest: and this is surely sufficient to prove the authority of their commission; and to convince us, that neither their undertaking nor the execution of it could possibly be their own.

How much this divine institution has been corrupted, or how soon these corruptions began, how far it has been discoloured by the false no­tions of illiterate ages, or blended with fictions by pious frauds, or how early these notions and fictions were introduced, no learning or sagacity is now able precisely to ascertain; but surely no man, who seriously considers the excellence and novelty of its doctrines, the manner in which it was at first propagated through the world, the persons who atchieved that wonderful work, and the originality of those writings in which it is still recorded, can possibly believe that it could ever have been the production of imposture, or chance; or that from an imposture the most wicked and blasphemous, (for if an imposture, such it is,) all the religion and virtue now exist­ing on earth can derive their source.

But notwithstanding what has been here urg­ed, if any man can believe, that at a time when the literature of Greece and Rome, then in their meridian lustre, were insufficient for the task, the son of a carpenter, together with twelve of the meanest and most illiterate mechanics, his asso­ciates, [Page 43]unassisted by any supernatural power, should be able to discover or invent a system of theology the most sublime, and of ethics the most perfect, which had escaped the penetration and learning of Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero; and that from this system, by their own sagacity, they had excluded every false virtue, though universally admired, and admitted every true virtue, though despised and ridiculed by all the rest of the world: If any one can believe that these men could become impostors, for no other purpose than the propagation of truth, villains for no end but to teach honesty, and martyrs without the least prospect of honour or advan­tage; or that, if all this should have been possi­ble, these few inconsiderable persons should have been able, in the course of a few years, to have spread this their religion over most parts of the then known world, in opposition to the interests, pleasures, ambition, prejudices, and even reason of mankind; to have triumphed over the power of princes, the intrigues of states, the force of custom, the blindness of zeal, the influence of priests, the arguments of orators, and the phi­losophy of the world, without any supernatural assistance; if any one can believe all these mira­culous events, contradictory to the constant ex­perience of the powers and dispositions of human nature, he must be possessed of much more faith than is necessary to make him a Christian, and remain an unbeliever from mere credulity.

But should these credulous infidels after all be in the right, and this pretended revelation be all a fable; from believing it what harm could ensue? Would it render princes more tyrannical, [Page 44]or subjects more ungovernable? the rich more insolent, or the poor more disorderly? Would it make worse parents or children, husbands or wives, masters or servants, friends or neigh­bours? Or would it not make men more virtu­ous, and consequently more happy in every situation? It could not be criminal; it could not be detrimental. It could not be criminal, be­cause it cannot be a crime to assent to such evi­dence, as has been able to convince the best and wisest of mankind; by which, if false, Provi­dence must have permitted men to deceive each other, for the most beneficial ends, and which therefore it would be surely more meritorious to believe, from a disposition of faith and cha­rity, which believeth all things, than to reject with scorn from obstinacy and self-conceit: It cannot be detrimental, because if christianity is a fable, it is a fable, the belief of which is the only principle which can retain men in a steady and uniform course of virtue, piety, and devo­tion, or can support them in the hour of distress, of sickness, and of death. Whatever might be the operations of true deism on the minds of pagan philosophers, that can now avail us nothing: for that light which once lightened the gentiles, is now absorbed in the brighter illumi­nation of the gospel; we can now form no rati­onal system of deism, but what must be borrow­ed from that source, and, as far as it reaches towards perfection, must be exactly the same; and therefore if we will not accept of Christia­nity, we can have no religion at all. Accord­ingly we see, that those who fly from this, scarce [Page 45]ever stop at deism; but hasten on with great alacrity to a total rejection of all religious and moral principles whatever.

If I have here demonstrated the divine origin of the christian religion by an argument which cannot be confuted; no others, however plau­sible or numerous, founded on probabilities, doubts, and conjectures, can ever disprove it, because if it is once shewn to be true, it cannot be false. But as many arguments of this kind have bewildered some candid and ingenuous minds, I shall here bestow a few lines on those which have the most weight, in order to wipe out, or at least to diminish their perplexing in­fluence.

But here I must previously observe, that the most unsurmountable, as well as the most usual obstacle to our belief, arises from our passions, appetites, and interests; for faith being an act of the will as much as of the understanding, we oftener disbelieve for want of inclination, than want of evidence. The first step towards think­ing this revelation true, is our hopes that it is so; for whenever we much wish any proposition to be true, we are not far from believing it. It is certainly for the interest of all good men, that its authority should be well founded; and still more beneficial to the bad, if ever they intend to be better: because it is the only system either of reason or religion which can give them any assurance of pardon. The punishment of vice is a debt due to justice, which cannot be remit­ted without compensation: repentance can be no compensation; it may change a wicked man's dispositions, and prevent his offending for the [Page 46]future, but can lay no claim to pardon for what is past. If any one by profligacy and extrava­gance contracts a debt, repentance may make him wiser, and hinder him from running into further distresses, but can never pay off his old bonds; for which he must be ever accountable, unless they are discharged by himself, or some other in his stead: this very discharge Christianity alone holds forth on our repentance, and, if true, will certainly perform: the truth of it therefore must ardently be wished for by all, except the wicked, who are determined neither to repent or reform. It is well worth every man's while, who either is, or intends to be vir­tuous, to believe Christianity, if he can; because he will find it the surest preservative against all vitious habits and their attendant evils, the best resource under distresses and disappointments, ill health and ill fortune, and the firmest basis on which contemplation can rest; and without some, the human mind is never perfectly at ease. But if any one is attached to a favourite pleasure, or eagerly engaged in worldly pursuits incompatible with the precepts of this religion, and he believes it, he must either relinquish those pursuits with uneasiness, or persist in them with remorse and dissatisfaction, and therefore must commence un­believer in his own defence. With such I shall not dispute, nor pretend to persuade men by arguments to make themselves miserable: but to those, who, not afraid that this religion may be true, are really affected by such objections, I will offer the following answers, which, though short, will, I doubt not, be sufficient to shew them their weakness and futility.

[Page 47] In the first place then, some have been so bold as to strike at the root of all revelation from God, by asserting, that it is incredible, because unnecessary, and unnecessary, because the reason which he has bestowed on mankind is sufficiently able to discover all the religious and moral duties which he requires of them, if they would but attend to her precepts and be guided by her friendly admonitions. Mankind have undoubtedly at various times from the re­motest ages received so much knowledge by di­vine communications, and have ever been so much inclined to impute it all to their own suf­ficiency, that it is now difficult to determine what human reason unassisted can effect: But to form a true judgment on this subject, let us turn our eyes to those remote regions of the globe, to which this supernatural assistance has never yet extended, and we shall there see men endued with sense and reason not inferior to our own, so far from being capable of forming sys­tems of religion and morality, that they are at this day totally unable to make a nail or a hatch­et: from whence we may surely be convinced, that reason alone is so far from being sufficient to offer to mankind a perfect religion, that it has never yet been able to lead them to any degree of culture, or civilization whatever. These have uniformly flowed from that great fountain of divine communication opened in the east, in the earliest ages, and thence been gradually diffused in salubrious streams, throughout the various re­gions of the earth. Their rise and progress, by surveying the history of the world, may easily be traced backwards to their source; and wher­ever [Page 48]these have not as yet been able to penetrate, we there find the human species not only void of all true religious and moral sentiments, but not the least emerged from their original igno­rance and barbarity; which seems a demonstrati­on, that although human reason is capable of progression in science, yet the first foundations must be laid by supernatural instructions: for surely no other probable cause can be assigned, why one part of mankind should have made such an amazing progress in religious, moral, meta­physical, and philosophical enquiries; such won­derful improvements in policy, legislation, com­merce, and manufactures, while the other part, formed with the same natural capacities, and divided only by seas and mountains, should re­main, during the same number of ages, in a state little superior to brutes, without govern­ment, without laws or letters, and even without cloaths and habitations; murdering each other to satiate their revenge, and devouring each other to appease their hunger: I say no cause can be assigned for this amazing difference, ex­cept that the first have received information from those divine communications recorded in the scriptures, and the latter have never yet been favoured with such assistance. This remarkable contrast seems an unanswerable, though perhaps a new proof of the necessity of revelation, and a solid refutation of all arguments against it, drawn from the sufficiency of human reason. And as reason in her natural state is thus incapa­ble of making any progress in knowledge; so when furnished with materials by supernatural aid, if left to the guidance of her own wild [Page 49]imaginations, she falls into more numerous, and more gross errors, than her own native ignorance could ever have suggested. There is then no absurdity so extravagant, which she is not ready to adopt: she has persuaded some, that there is no God; others, that there can be no future state; she has taught some, that there is no difference between vice and virtue, and that to cut a man's throat and to relieve his necessities are actions equally meritorious: she has con­vinced many, that they have no free-will in oppo­sition to their own experience; some, that there can be no such thing as soul, or spirit, contrary to their own perceptions; and others no such thing as matter or body, in contradiction to their senses. By analysing all things she can shew, that there is nothing in any thing; by perpetual sisting she can reduce all existence to the invisible dust of scepticism; and by recurring to first prin­ciples, prove to the satisfaction of her followers, that there are no principles at all. How far such a guide is to be depended on in the important concerns of religion, and morals, I leave to the judgment of every considerate man to determine. This is certain, that human reason in its highest state of cultivation amongst the philosophers of Greece and Rome, was never able to form a religion comparable to Christianity; nor have all those sources of moral virtue, such as truth, beauty, and the fitness of things, which modern philosophers have endeavoured to substitute in its stead, ever been effectual to produce good men, and have themselves often been the productions of some of the worst.

[Page 50] Others there are, who allow, that a revelation from God may be both necessary, and credible; but allege, that the scriptures, that is the books of the Old and New Testament, cannot be that Revelation; because in them are to be found errors and inconsistences, fabulous stories, false facts, and false philosophy; which can never be derived from the fountain of all wisdom and truth. To this I reply, that I readily acknow­ledge, that the scriptures are not revelations from God, but the history of them: The revelation itself is derived from God; but the history of it is the production of men, and therefore the truth of it is not in the least affected by their fallibility, but depends on the internal evidence of its own supernatural excellence. If in these books such a religion, as has been here described, actually exists, no seeming, or even real defects to be found in them can disprove the divine origin of this religion, or invalidate my argument. Let us, for instance, grant that the Mosaic history of the creation was founded on the erroneous but popular principles of those early ages, who ima­gined the earth to be a vast plain, and the celes­tial bodies no more than luminaries hung up in the concave firmament to enlighten it; will it from thence follow, that Moses could not be a proper instrument in the hands of Providence, to impart to the Jews a divine law, because he was not inspired with a fore-knowledge of the Coper­nican and Newtonian systems? or that Christ must be an imposter, because Moses was not an astronomer? Let us also suppose, that the ac­counts of Christ's temptation in the wilderness, the devils taking refuge in the herd of swine, [Page 51]with several other narrations in the New Testa­ment, frequently ridiculed by unbelievers, were all but stories accommodated to the ignorance and superstitions of the times and countries in which they were written, or pious frauds intend­ed to impress on vulgar minds a higher reverence of the power and sanctity of Christ; will this in the least impeach the excellence of his religion, or the authority of its founder? or is Christianity answerable for all the fables of which it may have been the innocent occasion? The want of this obvious distinction has much injured the Christian cause; because on this ground it has ever been most successfully attacked, and on this ground it is not easily to be defended: for if the records of this revelation are supposed to be the revelation itself, the least defect discovered in them must be fatal to the whole. What has led many to overlook this distinction, is that com­mon phrase, that the scriptures are the word of God; and in one sense they certainly are; that is, they are the sacred repository of all the reve­lations, dispensations, promises, and precepts, which God has vouchsafed to communicate to mankind; but by this expression we are not to understand, that every part of this voluminous collection of historical, poetical, prophetical, the­ological, and moral writings, which we call the Bible, was dictated by the immediate influence of divine inspiration: The authors of these books pretend to no such infalsibility, and if they claim it not for themselves, who has authority to claim it for them? Christ required no such belief from those who were willing to be his disciples. He says, ‘He that believeth on me, hath everlasting [Page 52]life; ^*’ but where does he say. He that believeth not every word contained in the Old Testament, which was then extant, or every word in the New Testament, which was to be wrote for the instruction of future generations, hath not everlasting life? There are innumerable occurrences related in the scriptures, some of greater, some of less, and some of no importance at all; the truth of which we can have no reason to question, but the belief of them is surely not essential to the faith of a Christian: I have no doubt but that St. Paul was ship-wrecked, and that he left his cloak and his parchments at Tro­as; but the belief of these facts makes no part of Christianity, nor is the truth of them any proof of its authority. It proves only that this apostle could not in common life be under the perpetual influence of infallible inspiration; for, had he been so, he would not have put to sea be­fore a storm, nor have forgot his cloak. These writers were undoubtedly directed by supernatural influence in all things necessary to the great work, which they were appointed to perform: At particular times, and on particular occasions, they were enabled to utter [...]cies, to speak languages, and to work miracles; but in all other circumstances, they seem to have been left to the direction of their own understandings, like other men. In the sciences of history, geogra­phy, astronomy, and philosophy, they appear to have been no better instructed than others, and therefore were not less liable to be milled by the errors and prejudices of the times and countries in which they lived. They related facts like [Page 53]honest men, to the best of their knowledge or information, and they recorded the divine lessons of their master with the utmost sidelity; but they pretended to no infallibility, for they sometimes differed in their relations, and they sometimes disagreed in their sentiments. All which proves only, that they did not act, or write, in a com­bination to deceive, but not in the least im­peaches the truth of the revelation which they published; which depends not on any external evidence whatever: For I will venture to affirm, that if any one could prove, what is impossible to be proved, because it is not true, that there are errors in geography, chronology, and philo­sophy, in every page of the Bible; that the pro­phecies therein delivered are all but fortunate guesses, or artful applications, and the miracles there recorded no better than legendary tales: if any one could shew, that these books were never written by their pretended authors, but were posterior impositions on illiterate and credulous ages: all these wonderful discoveries would prove no more than this, that God, for reasons to us unknown, had thought proper to permit a reve­lation by him communicated to mankind, to be mixed with their ignorance, and corrupted by their frauds from its earliest infancy, in the same manner in which he has visibly permitted it to be mixed, and corrupted from that period to the present hour. If in these books a religion supe­rior to all human imagination actually exists, it is of no consequence to the proof of its divine origin, by what means it was there introduced, or with what human errors and imperfections it is blended. A diamond, though found in a bed [Page 54]of mud, is still a diamond, nor can the dirt, which surrounds it, depreciate its value or destroy its lustre.

To some speculative and refined observers, it has appeared incredible, that a wise and bene­volent Creator should have constituted a world upon one plan, and a religion for it on another; that is, that he should have revealed a religion to mankind, which not only contradicts the prin­cipal passions and inclinations which he has im­planted in their natures, but is incompatible with the whole oeconomy of that world which he has created, and in which he has thought proper to place them. This, say they, with regard to the Christian is apparently the case: the love of pow­er, riches, honour, and fame, are the great in­citements to generous and magnanimous actions; yet by this institution are all these depreciated and discouraged. Government is essential to the nature of man, and cannot be managed without certain degrees of violence, corruption, and im­position: yet are all these strictly forbid. Nati­ons cannot subsist without wars, nor war be car­ried on without rapine, desolation, and murder; yet are these prohibited under the severest threats. The nonresistance of evil must subject individuals to continual oppressions, and leave nations a de­fenceless prey to their enemies; yet is this re­commended. Perpetual patience under insults and injuries must every day provoke new insults and new injuries; yet is this injoined. A ne­glect of all we eat and drink, and wear, must put an end to all commerce, manufactures, and industry; yet is this required. In short were these precepts universally obeyed, the disposition [Page 55]of all human affairs must be intirely changed, and the business of the world, constituted as it now is, could not go on. To all this I answer, that such indeed is the christian revelation, though some of its advocates may perhaps be unwilling to own it, and such it is constantly de­clared to be by him who gave it, as well as by those, who published it under his immediate di­rection: To these he says, ‘If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. ^*’ To the Jews he de­clares, ‘Ye are of this world; I am not of this world. ^†’ St. Paul writes to the Romans, "Be not conformed to this world;" ^‡ and to the Corinthians, ‘We speak not the wisdom of this world. ^§’ St. James says, ‘Know ye not, that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. ^‖’ This irreconcileable disagreement between chris­tianity and the world is announced in numberless other places in the New Testament, and indeed by the whole tenour of those writings. These are plain declarations, which, in spite of all the evasions of those good managers, who choose to take a little of this world in their way to hea­ven, stand fixed and immoveable against all their arguments drawn from public benefit and pre­tended necessity, and must ever forbid any recon­ciliation between the pursuits of this world and the christian institution: But they who reject it [Page 56]on this account, enter not into the sublime spirit of this religion, which is not a code of precise laws designed for the well ordering society, adapted to the ends of worldly convenience, and amenable to the tribunal of human prudence; but a divine lesson of purity and perfection, so far superior to the low considerations of conquest, government, and commerce, that it takes no more notice of them than of the battles of game­cocks, the policy of bees, or the industry of ants: they recollect not what is the first and prin­cipal object of this institution; that this is not, as has been often repeated, to make us happy, or even virtuous in the present life, for the sake of augmenting our happiness here, but to con­duct us through a state of dangers and sufferings, of sin and temptation, in such a manner as to qualify us for the enjoyment of happiness here­after. All other institutions of religion and mo­rals were made for the world, but the character­istic of this is to be against it; and therefore the merits of christian doctrines are not to be weighed in the scales of public utility, like those of moral precepts, because worldly utility is not their end. If Christ and his apostles had pre­tended, that the religion which they preached would advance the power, wealth, and prospe­rity of nations, or of men, they would have deserved but little credit; but they constantly profess the contrary, and every where declare, that their religion is adverse to the world, and all its pursuits. Christ says, speaking of his dis­ciples, ‘They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. ^*’ It can therefore [Page 57]be no imputation on this religion, or on any of its precepts, that they tend not to an end which their author professedly disclaims: nor can it surely be deemed a defect, that it is adverse to the vain pursuits of this world; for so are reason, wisdom, and experience; they all teach us the same lesson, they all demonstrate to us every day, that these are begun on false hopes, carried on with disquietude, and end in disappointment. This professed incompatibility with the little, wretched, and iniquitous business of the world, is therefore so far from being a defect in this re­ligion, that, was there no other proof of its di­vine origin, this alone, I think, would be abun­dantly sufficient. The great plan and benevolent design of this dispensation is plainly this; to enlighten the minds, purify the religion, and amend the morals of mankind in general, and to select the most meritorious of them to be successively transplanted into the kingdom of heaven: Which gracious offer is impartially ten­dered to all, who by perseverance in meekness, patience, piety, charity, and a detachment from the world, are willing to qualify themselves for this holy and happy society. Was this univer­sally accepted, and did every man observe strictly every precept of the gospel, the face of human affairs and the oeconomy of the world would indeed be greatly changed; but surely they would be changed for the better; and we should enjoy much more happiness, even here, than at present: For we must not forget, that evils are by it forbid as well as resistance; injuries, as well as revenge; all unwillingness to diffuse the [Page 58]enjoyments of life, as well as solicitude to ac­quire them; all obstacles to ambition, as well as ambition itself; and therefore all contentions for power and interest would be at an end; and the world would go on much more happily than it now does. But this universal acceptance of such an offer was never expected from so depraved and imperfect a creature as man, and therefore could never have been any part of the design: For it was foreknown and foretold by him who made it; that few, very few would accept it on these terms. He says, ‘Strait is the gate, and nar­row is the way which leadeth into life, and few there be that find it:’ * Accordingly we see, that very few are prevailed on by the hopes of future happiness, to relinquish the pursuits of present pleasures or interests, and therefore these pursuits are little interrupted by the seces­sion of so inconsiderable a number: As the na­tural world subsists by the struggles of the same elements, so does the moral by the contentions of the same passions, as from the beginning: The generality of mankind are actuated by the same motives, fight, scuffle, and scramble for power, riches, and pleasures with the same eagerness: all occupations and professions are exercised with the same alacrity, and there are soldiers, law­yers, statesment, patriots, and politicians, just as if Christianity had never existed. Thus, we see this wonderful dispensation has answered all the purposes for which it was intended: It has en­lightened the minds, purified the religion, and amended the morals of mankind; and, without subverting the costitution, policy, or business of [Page 59]the world, opened a gate, though a strait one' through which all, who are wise enough to choose it, and good enough to be fit for it, may find an entrance into the kingdom of heaven.

Others have said, that if this revelation had really been from God, his infinite power and goodness could never have suffered it to have been so soon perverted from its original purity, to have continued in a state of corruption through the course of so many ages, and at last to have proved so ineffectual to the reformation of man­kind. To these I answer, that all this, on ex­amination, will be found inevitable, from the nature of all revelations communicated to so imperfect a creature as man, and from circum­stances peculiar to the rise and progress of the Christian in particular: for when this was first preached to the gentile nations, though they were not able to withstand the force of its evi­dence, and therefore received it; yet they could not be prevailed on to relinquish their old super­stitions, and former opinions, but chose rather to incorporate them with it: By which means it was necessarily mixed with their ignorance, and their learning; by both which it was equally in­jured. The people defaced its worship by blend­ing it with their idolatrous ceremonies, and the philosophers corrupted its doctrines by weaving them up with the notions of the Gnostics, Mys­tics, and Manichaeans, the prevailing systems of those times. By degrees its irresistible excellence gained over princes, potentates, and conquerors to its interests, and it was supported by their patronage: but that patronage soon engaged it in their policies and contests, and destroyed that [Page 60]excellence by which it had been acquired. At length the meek and humble professors of the gospel inslaved these princes, and conquered these conquerers their patrons, and erected for them­selves such a stupendous fabric of wealth and power, as the world had never seen: they then propagated their religion by the same methods, by which it had been persecuted; nations were converted by fire and sword, and the vanquished were baptized with daggers at their throats. All these events we see proceed from a chain of causes and consequences, which could not have been broken without changing the established course of things by a constant series of miracles, or a total alteration of human nature: whilst that continues as it is, the purest religion must be corrupted by a conjunction with power and rich­es, and it will also then appear to be much more corrupted than it really is: because many are inclined to think, that every deviation from its primitive state is a corruption: Christianity was at first preached by the poor and mean, in holes and caverns, under the iron rod of persecution, and therefore many absurdly conclude, that any degree of wealth or power in its ministers, or of magnificence in its worship, are corruptions in­consistent with the genuine simplicity of its origi­nal state: they are offended, that modern bishops should possess titles, palaces, revenues, and coaches, when it is notorious, that their prede­cessors, the apostles were despicable wanderers, without houses, or money, and walked on foot. The apostles indeed lived in a state of poverty and persecution attendant on their particular situ­ation, and the work which they had undertaken: [Page 61]this was their misfortune, but no part of then religion, and therefore it can be no more incum­bent on their successors to imitate their poverty and meanness, than to be whipped, imprisoned, and put to death, in compliance with their ex­ample. These are all but the suggestions of envy and malevolence, but no objections to these for­tunate alterations in Christianity and its profes­sors; which, if not abused to the purposes of tyranny and superstition, are in fact no more than the necessary and proper effects of its more pros­perous situation. When a poor man grows rich, or a servant becomes a master, they should take care that their exaltation prompts them not to be unjust or insolent; but surely it is not requisite or right, that their behaviour and mode of living should be exactly the same, when their situation is altered. How far this institution has been effectual to the reformation of mankind, it is not easy now to ascertain, because the enormities which prevailed before the appearance of it are by time so far removed from our sight, that they are scarcely visible; but those of the most gigan­tic size still remain in the records of history, as monuments of the rest: Wars in those ages were carried on with a ferocity and cruelty unknown to the present: whole cities and nations were ex­tirpated by fire and sword; and thousands of the vanquished were crucified and impaled for having endeavoured only to defend themselves and their country. The lives of new-born infants were then intirely at the disposal of their parents, who were at liberty to bring them up, or to expose them to perish by cold and hunger, or to be de­voured by birds and beasts; and this was fre­quently [Page 62]practised without punishment, and even without censure. Gladiators were employed by hundreds to cut one another to pieces, in public theatres for the diversion of the most polite assemblies; and though these combatants at first consisted of criminals only, by degrees men of the highest rank, and even ladies of the most illustrious families, enrolled themselves in this honourable list. On many occasions human sa­crifices were ordained; and at the funerals of rich and eminent persons, great numbers of their slaves were murdered as victims pleasing to their departed spirits. The most infamous obscenities were made part of their religious worship, and the most unnatural lusts publicly avowed, and celebrated by their most admired poets. At the approach of Christianity all these horrid abomi­nations vanished; and amongst those who first embraced it, scarce a single vice was to be found: to such an amazing degree of piety, charity, temperance, patience, and resignation were the primitive converts exalted, that they seem literal­ly to have been regenerated, and purified from all the imperfections of human nature; and to have pursued such a constant and uniform course of devotion, innocence, and virtue, as, in the present times, it is almost as difficult for us to conceive as to imitate. If it is asked, why should not the belief of the same religion now produce the same effects? the answer is short, because it is not believed: The most sovereign medicine can perform no cure, if the patient will not be persuaded to take it. Yet notwithstanding all impediments, it has certainty done a great deal towards diminishing the vices and correcting the [Page 63]dispositions of mankind; and was it universally adopted in belief and practice, would totally eradicate both sin and punishment. But this was never expected, or designed, or possible, because, if their existence did not arise from some necessity to us unknown, they never would have been permitted to exist at all; and therefore they can no more be extirpated, than they could have been prevented: for this would certainly be incompatible with the frame and constitution of this world, and in all probability with that of another. And this, I think, well accounts for that reserve and obscurity with which this religion was at first promulgated, and that want of irresist­ible evidence of its truth, by which it might possibly have been enforced. Christ says to his disciples, ‘To you it is given to know the mys­tery of the kingdom of God; but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables; that seeing they may see, and not perceive, and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them. ^*’ That is, to you by peculiar favour it is given to know and understand the doctrines of my religion, and by that means to qualify yourselves for the kingdom of heaven; but to the multitude without, that is to all mankind in general, this indulgence cannot be extended; because that all men should be exempted from sin and punishment is utterly repugnant to the universal system, and that constitution of things, which infinite wisdom has thought proper to adopt.

[Page 64] Objections have likewise been raised to the divine authority of this religion from the incre­dibility of some of its doctrines, particularly of those concerning the Trinity, and atonement for sin by the sufferings and death of Christ; the one contradicting all the principles of human reason, and the other all our ideas of divine justice. To these objections I shall only say, that no argu­ments founded on principles, which we cannot comprehend, can possibly disprove a proposition already proved on principles which we do under­stand; and therefore that on this subject they ought not to be attend to: That three Beings should be one Being, is a proposition which cer­tainly contradicts reason, that is, our reason; but it does not from thence follow, that it can­not be true; for there are many propositions which contradict our reason, and yet are de­monstrably true: one is the very first principle of all religion, the being of a God; for that any thing should exist without a cause, or that any thing should be the cause of its own exist­ence, are propositions equally contradictory to our reason; yet one of them must be true, or nothing could ever have existed: in like manner the over-ruling grace of the Creator, and the free-will of his creatures, his certain fore-know­ledge of future events, and the uncertain con­tingency of those events, are to our apprehensi­ons absolute contradictions to each other; and yet the truth of every one of these is demonstra­ble from Scripture, reason, and experience. All these difficulties arise from our imagining, that the mode of existence of all Beings must be similar to our own; that is, that they must all exist in [Page 65]time, and space; and hence proceeds our em­barrassment on this subject. We know, that no two Beings, with whose mode of existence we are acquainted, can exist in the same point of time in the same point of space, and that there­fore they cannot be one: but how far Beings, whose mode of existence bears no relation to time or space, may be united, we cannot com­prehend: and therefore the possibility of such an union we cannot positively deny. In like manner our reason informs us, that the punish­ment of the innocent, instead of the guilty, is diametrically opposite to justice, rectitude, and all pretensions to utility; but we should also re­member, that the short line of our reason cannot reach to the bottom of this question: it cannot inform us, by what means either guilt or punish­ment ever gained a place in the works of a Cre­ator infinitely good and powerful, whose good­ness must have induced him, and whose power must have enabled him to exclude them: It can­not assure us, that some sufferings of individuals are not necessary to the happiness and well-being of the whole: It cannot convince us, that they do not actually arise from this necessity, or that for this cause, they may not be required of us, and levied like a tax for the public benefit: or that this tax may not be paid by one Being, as well as another; and therefore, if volun­tarily offered, be justly accepted from the in­nocent instead of the guilty. Of all these cir­cumstances we are totally ignorant; nor can our reason afford us any information, and there­fore we are not able to assert, that, this measure is contrary to justice, or void of utility: for, [Page 66]unless we could first resolve that great question whence came evil? we can decide nothing on the dispensations of Providence; because they must necessarily be connected with that undiscoverable principle; and, as we know not the root of the disease, we cannot judge of what is, or is not, a proper and effectual remedy. It is remarkable, that, notwithstanding all the seeming absurdities of this doctrine, there is one circumstance much in its favour; which is, that it has been univer­sally adopted in all ages, as far as history can carry us back in our inquiries to the earliest times; in which we find all nations civilized and barbarous, however differing in all other religi­ous opinions, agreeing alone in the expediency of appeasing their offended Deities by sacrifices, that is, by the vicarious sufferings of men or other animals. This notion could never have been derived from reason, because it directly contradicts it; nor from ignorance, because ig­norance could never have contrived so unac­countable an expedient, nor have been uniform in all ages and countries in any opinion whatso­ever; nor from the artifice of kings or priests, in order to acquire dominion over the people, because it seems not adapted to this end, and we find it implanted in the minds of the most remote savages at this day discovered, who have neither kings or priests artifice, or dominion amongst them. It must therefore be derived from natural instinct, or supernatural revelation, both which are equally the operations of divine power. If it is further urged, that however true these doc­trines may be, yet it must be inconsistent with the justice and goodness of the Creator, to re­quire [Page 67]from his creatures the belief of propositi­ons which contradict, or are above the reach of that reason, which he has thought proper to be­stow upon them. To this I answer, that genuine Christianity requires no such belief: It has discovered to us many important truths, with which we were before intirely unacquainted, and amongst them are these, that three Beings are some way united in the divine essence, and that God will accept of the sufferings of Christ as an atonement for the sins of mankind. These, con­sidered as declarations of facts only, neither con­tradict, or are above the reach of human reason: The first is a proposition as plain, as that three equilateral lines compose one triangle; the other is as intelligible, as that one man should discharge the debts of another. In what manner this uni­on is formed, or why God accepts these vicari­ous punishments, or to what purposes they may be subservient, it informs us not, because no in­formation could enable us to comprehend these mysteries, and therefore it does not require that we should know or believe any thing about them. The truth of these doctrines must rest intirely on the authority of those who taught them; but then we should reflect that those were the same persons who taught us a system of religion more sublime, and of ethics more perfect, than any which our faculties were ever able to discover, but which when discovered are exactly consonant to our reason, and that therefore we should not hastily reject those informations which they have vouchsafed to give us, of which our reason is not a competent judge. If an able mathemati­cian proves to us the truth of several propositi­ons [Page 68]by demonstrations which we understand, we hesitate not on his authority to assent to others, the process of whose proofs we are not able to follow: why therefore should we refuse that cre­dit to Christ and his Apostles, which we think reasonable to give to one another?

Many have objected to the whole scheme of this revelation as partial, fluctuating, indetermi­nate, unjust, and unworthy of an omniscient and omnipotent author, who cannot be supposed to have favoured particular persons, countries, and times, with this divine communication, while others no less meritorious have been altogether excluded from its benefits; nor to have changed and counteracted his own designs; that is, to have formed mankind able and disposed to ren­der themselves miserable by their own wicked­ness, and then to have contrived so strange an expedient to restore them to that happiness, which they need never have been permitted to forfeit; and this to be brought about by the unnecessary interposition of a mediator. To all this I shall only say, that however unaccountable this may appear to us, who see but as small a part of the Christian, as of the universal plan of creation, they are both in regard to all these circumstances exactly analogous to each other. In all the dispensations of Providence, with which we are acquainted, benefits are distributed in a similar manner; health and strength, sense and science, wealth and power, are all bestowed on indivi­duals and communities in different degrees and at different times. The whole oeconomy of this world consists of evils and remedies; and these for the most part administered by the in­strumentality [Page 69]of intermediate agents. God has permitted us to plunge ourselves into poverty, distress, and misery, by our own vices, and has afforded us the advice, instructions, and exam­ples of others, to deter or extricate us from these calamities. He has formed us subject to innumerable diseases, and he has bestowed on us a variety of remedies. He has made us liable to hunger, thirst, and nakedness, and he supplies us with food, drink, and cloathing, usually by the administration of others. He has created poisons, and he has provided antidotes. He has ordained the winter's cold to cure the pestilential heats of the summer, and the summer's sunshine to dry up the inundations of the winter. Why the constitution of nature is so formed, why all the visible dispensations of Providence are such, and why such is the Christian dispensation also, we know not, nor have faculties to comprehend. God might certainly have made the material world a system of perfect beauty and regularity, without evils, and without remedies; and the Christian dispensation a scheme only of moral virtue productive of happiness, without the in­tervention of any atonement or mediation. He might have exempted our bodies from all diseases, and our minds from all depravity, and we should then have stood in no need of medicines to re­store us to health, or expedients to reconcile us to his favour. It seems indeed to our ignorance, that this would have been more consistent with justice and reason; but his infinite wisdom has decided in another manner, and formed the sys­tems both of Nature and Christianity on other principles, and these so exactly similar, that we [Page 70]have cause to conclude that they both must pro­ceed from the same source of divine power and wisdom, however inconsistent with our reason they may appear. Reason is undoubtedly our surest guide in all matters, which lie within the narrow circle of her intelligence: On the subject of revelation her provine is only to examine into its authority, and when that is once proved, she has no more to do, but to acquiesce in its doctrines, and therefore is never so ill employed, as when she pretends to accommodate them to her own ideas of rectitude and truth. God, says this self-sufficient teacher, is perfectly wise, just, and good; and what is the inference? That all his dispensations must be conformable to our no­tions of perfect wisdom, justice, and goodness: but it should first be proved, that man is as per­fect, and as wise as his Creator, or this conse­quence will by no means follow; but rather the reverse, that is, that the dispensations of a per­fect and all-wise Being must probably appear un­reasonable, and perhaps unjust, to a Being im­perfect and ignorant; and therefore their seeming impossibility may be a mark of their truth, and in some measure justify that pious rant of a mad enthusiast, "Credo, quia impossible." Nor is it the least surprising, that we are not able to understand the spiritual dispensations of the Al­mighty, when his material works are to us no less incomprehensible, our reason can afford us no insight into those great properties of matter, gravitation, attraction, elasticity, and electricity, nor even into the essence of matter itself: Can reason teach us how the sun's luminous orb can fill a circle, whose diameter contains many milli­ons [Page 71]of miles, with a constant inundation of suc­cessive rays during thousands of years, without any perceivable diminution of that body, from whence they are continually poured, or any aug­mentation of those bodies on which they fall, and by which they are constantly absorbed? Can reason tell us how those rays, darted with a velo­city greater than that of a cannon ball, can strike the tenderest organs of the human frame without inflicting any degree of pain, or by what means this percussion only can convey the forms of dis­tant objects to an immaterial mind? or how any union can be formed between material and im­material essences, or how the wounds of the bo­dy can give pain to the soul, or the anxiety of the soul can emaciate and destroy the body? That all these things are so, we have visible and indis­putable demonstration; but how they can be so, is to us as incomprehensible, as the most abstruse mysteries of Revelation can possibly be. In short, we see so small a part of the great Whole, we know so little of the relation, which the present life bears to pre-existent and future states; we can conceive so little of the nature of God, and his attributes, or mode of existence; we can compre­hend so little of the material, and so much less of the moral plan on which the universe is con­stituted, or on what principle it proceeds, that if a revelation from such a Being, on such subjects, was in every part familiar to our un­derstandings, and consonant to our reason; we should have great cause to suspect its divine au­thority; and therefore, had this revelation been less incomprehensible, it would certainly have been more incredible.

[Page 72] But I shall not enter further into the conside­ration of these abstruse and difficult speculations, because the discussion of them would render this short essay too tedious and laborious a task for the perusal of them, for whom it was principally in­tended; which are all those busy or idle persons, whose time and thoughts are wholly engrossed by the pursuits of business, or pleasure, ambition, or luxury, who know nothing of this religion, except what they have accidentally picked up by desultory conversation or superficial reading, and have thence determined with themselves, that a pretended revelation founded on so strange and improbable a story, so contradictory to reason, so adverse to the world and all its occupations, so incredible in its doctrines, and in its precepts so impracticable, can be nothing more than the im­position of priestcraft upon ignorant and illiterate ages, and artfully continued as an engine well­adapted to awe and govern the superstitious vulgar. To talk to such about the Christian religion, is to converse with the deaf concerning music, or with the blind on the beauties of painting: They want all ideas relative to the subject, and therefore can never be made to comprehend it: to enable them to do this, their minds must be formed for these conceptions by contemplation, retirement, and abstraction from business and dissipation, by ill-health, disappoint­ments, and distresses; and possibly by divine in­terposition, or by enthusiasm, which is usually mistaken for it. Without some of these prepara­tory aids, together with a competent degree of learning and application, it is impossible that they can think or know, understand or believe, any [Page 73]thing about it. If they profess to believe, they deceive others; if they fancy that they believe, they deceive themselves. I am ready to acknow­ledge, that these gentlemen, as far as their in­formation reaches, are perfectly in the right; and if they are endued with good understand­ings, which have been intirely devoted to the business or amusements of the world, they can pass no other judgment, and must revolt from the history and doctrines of this religion. ‘The preaching Christ crucified was to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolish­ness; ^*’ and so it must appear to all, who, like them, judge from established prejudices, false learning, and superficial knowledge; for those who are quite unable to follow the chain of its prophecy, to see the beauty and justness of its moral precepts, and to enter into the wonders of its dispensations, can form no other idea of this revelation, but that of a confused rhapsody of fictions and absurdities.

If it is asked, Was Christianity then intended only for learned divines and profound philoso­phers? I answer, No: it was at first preached by the illiterate, and received by the ignorant; and to such are the practical, which are the most ne­cessary parts of it, sufficiently intelligible: but the proofs of its authority undoubtedly are not, be­cause these must be chiefly drawn from other parts, of a speculative nature, opening to our inquiries inexhaustible discoveries concerning the nature, attributes, and dispensations of God, which cannot be understood without some learn­ing and much attention. From these the gene­rality [Page 74]of mankind must necessarily be excluded and must therefore trust to others for the grounds of their belief, if they believe at all. And hence perhaps it is, that faith, or easiness of belief, is so frequently and so strongly recommended in the gospel; because if men require proofs, of which they themselves are incapable, and those who have no knowledge on this important subject will not place some confidence in those who have; the illiterate and unattentive must ever continue in a state of unbelief: but then all such should remember, that in all sciences, even in mathe­matics themselves, there are many propositions, which on a cursory view appear to the most acute understandings uninstructed in that science, to be impossible to be true, which yet on a closer examination are found to be truths capable of the strictest demonstration; and that therefore in disquisitions on which we cannot determine with­out much learned investigation, reason uninform­ed is by no means to be depended on; and from hence they ought surely to conclude, that it may be at least as possible for them to be mistaken in disbelieving this revelation, who know nothing of the matter, as for those great masters of rea­son and crudition, Grotius, Bacon, Newton, Boyle, Locke, Addison, and Lyttelton, to be deceived in their belief: a belief, to which they firmly adhered after the most diligent and learn­ed researches into the authenticity of its records, the completion of the prophecies, the sublimity of its doctrines, the purity of its precepts, and the arguments of its adversaries; a belief, which they have testified to the world by their writings, without any other motive, than their regard for [Page 75]truth and the benefit of mankind. Should the few foregoing pages add but one mite to the treasures with which these learned writers have enriched the world; if they should be so fortu­nate as to persuade any of these minute philoso­phers to place some confidence in these great opinions, and to distrust their own; if they should be able to convince them, that notwith­standing all unfavourable appearances, Christia­nity may not be altogether artifice and error; if they should prevail on them to examine it with some attention, or, if that is too much trouble, not to reject it without any examination at all; the purpose of this little work will be sufficiently answered. Had the arguments herein used, and the new hints here flung out, been more largely discussed, it might easily have been extended to a more considerable bulk; but then the busy would not have had leisure; nor the idle in­clination to have read it. Should it ever have the honour to be admitted into such good com­pany, they will immediately, I know, determine, that it must be the work of some enthusiast or methodist, some beggar, or some madman. I shall therefore beg leave to assure them, that the author is very far removed from all these charac­ters: that he once perhaps believed as little as themselves; but having some leisure and more curiosity, he employed them both in resolving a question which seemed to him of some import­ance,—Whether Christianity was really an im­posture founded on an absurd, incredible and obsolete fable, as many suppose it? Or whether it is, what it pretends to be, a revelation com­municated to mankind by the interposition of [Page 76]supernatural power? On a candid inquiry, he soon found, that the first was an absolute impos­sibility, and that its pretensions to the latter were founded on the most solid grounds: In the fur­ther pursuit of his examination, he perceived, at every step, new lights arising, and some of the brightest from parts of it the most obscure, but productive of the clearest proofs, because equally beyond the power of human artifice to invent, and human reason to discover. These arguments, which have convinced him of the divine origin of this religion, he has here put together in as clear and concise a manner as he was able, thinking they might have the same effect upon others, and being of opinion, that if there were a few more true Christians in the world, it would be beneficial to themselves, and by no means detrimental to the public.