dence; but they wish that some other things also should be believed, which will not stand that test. They wish men to give credit to some medieval legends of miracles, and unsupported traditions, and new dogmas of human device; and they would rather not encourage them to cultivate the habit which the Apostle Peter recommends, of being 'ready to give a reason of their hope.' He who is trying to pass a large amount of coins, some good and some counterfeit, will be alarmed at seeing you apply a chemical test to the pure gold, lest you should proceed in the same way with the rest.

Others, not belonging to the party just alluded to, have publicly and very strongly proclaimed their conviction that any inquiry into the evidences of our religion is most likely to lead to infidelity. Many thanks!' an infidel might reply, 'for that admission! I want nothing more. That all inquiry, while it will establish a belief in what is true, will overthrow belief in Christianity or any other imposture, is just what I think. But nothing coming from me could have near the force of such an admission from you.'

One is loth to attribute to writers who are professed advocates of Christianity an insincere profession, and a disguised hostility, and yet, supposing them sincere, the absurdity of their procedure seems almost incredible. 'Save me from my friends,' we may say, 'and let our enemies do their worst.' Let one of these writers imagine himself tried in a court of justice, and his counsel pleading for him in a similar manner: 'Gentlemen of the jury, my client is an innocent and a worthy man, take my word for it: but I entreat you not to examine any witnesses, or listen to any pleadings; for the more you inquire into the case, the more likely you will be to find him guilty.' Every one would say that this advocate was either a madman, or else wilfully betraying his client.

In confirmation of what I have now said, I subjoin extracts (to which many more might have been added) from writers of different schools, to show the coincidences between an avowed Atheist and professed favorers of Christianity, of different parties, and the contrast they all present to the New Testament writers.

'Upon the whole,
we may conclude
that the Christian
Religion not only
was at first attend-
ed with miracles,
but even at this day
cannot be believed
by any reasonable
person without one.
Mere reason is in-
sufficient to con-
vince us of its ve-
racity; and whoever
is moved by Faith
to assent to it, is
conscious of a con-
tinued miracle in
person,
his Own
which subverts all
the principles of his
understanding, and
gives him a deter-
mination to believe
what is most con-
custom
trary to
and experience.'-
Hume's Essay on
Miracles (at the
end).

.. we are to be censured for having 'shifted the ground of our belief from testimony to argument, and from faith to reason.'

In answering the question why our religion
is to be believed, the poor, ignorant, unin-
structed peasant will probably come nearest
to the answer of the Gospel.' He will say,
Because I have been told so by those who
are wiser and better than myself. My pa-
rents told me so, and the clergyman of the
parish told me so; and I hear the same
whenever I go to church. And I put con-
fidence in these persons, because it is natural
that I should trust my superiors. I have
never had reason to suspect that they would
deceive me. I hear of persons who contra-
dict and abuse them, but they are not such
persons as I would wish to follow in any other
matter of life, and therefore not in religion.
I was born and baptized in the church, and
the Bible tells me to stay in the church, and
obey its teachers; and till I have equal au-
thority for believing that it is not the church
of Christ, as it is the Church of England, I
intend to adhere to it.' Now, such reason-
ing as this will appear to this rational age
very paltry and unsatisfactory; and yet the
logic is as sound as the spirit is humble.
And there is nothing to compare with it,
either intellectually, or morally, or religious-
ly, in all the elaborate defences and evi-
dences which would be produced from Paley,
and Grotius, and Sumner, and Chalmers.'
British Critic.

'The sacred writers have none of the timidity of their modern apologists. They never sue for an assent to their doctrines, but authoritatively command the acceptance of them. They denounce unbelief as guilt, and insist on faith as a virtue of the highest order. In their catholic invitations, the intellectual not less than the social distinctions of mankind are unheeded. Every student of their writings is aware of these facts, &c. . . . They presuppose that vigor of understanding may consist with feebleness of reason; and that the power of discriminating between religious truth and error does not depend chiefly on the culture or on the exercise of the mere argumentative faculty. The special patrimony of the poor and illiterate-the Gospel-has been the stay of countless millions who never framed a syllogism. Of the great multitudes who, before and since the birth of Grotius, have lived in the peace and died in the consolations of our Faith, how small is the proportion of those whose convictions have been derived from the study of works like his! Of the numbers who have addicted themselves to such studies, how small is the proportion of those who have brought to the task either learning, or leisure, He who lays or industry, sufficient, &c. the foundation of his faith on such evidences will too commonly end either in yielding a credulous and therefore an infirm assent, or in reposing in a self-sufficient and far more hazardous incredulity.'-Edinburgh Review.

'This beginning of
miracles did Jesus in
Cana of Galilee, and
manifested his glory,
and his disciples be-
lieved on Him.'

'We know that thou
art a teacher sent from
God; for no man can
do these miracles that
thou dost except God
be with him.'

If I had not done
among them the works
that none other man
did, they had not had
sin.'

The works that I
do in my Father's
name, they bear wit-
ness of me.'

'Him God raised
up, and showed Him
openly: not to all the
people, but to wit-
nesses chosen afore of
God, even to us,' &c.
To him bear all the
Prophets witness.'

'Be always ready to
give to every one that
asketh you, a reason
of the hope that is in
you,' &c.

The charge of 'timidity' brought against those who court inquiry, appeal to evidence, and defy refutation, reminds one of the anecdote told of some North-American Indians, who on one occasion, when acting as allies with our troops, were attacked by an enemy. The Indians, as their custom is, fled, and sheltered themselves behind trees, while the English soldiers stood firm under a heavy fire, and repulsed the assailants. They expected that their Indian friends would have admired their valor. But the interpretation these put upon it was, that the English were too much frightened to run away;—that they were so paralyzed by terror as not to have had sufficient presence of mind to provide for their safety!

There is another class of persons who take a different view, but I cannot think a right one, of the study of Christian evidences. They acknowledge its use and necessity; but they dislike and deplore that necessity. They view the matter somewhat as any person of humane disposition does the arming and training of soldiers; acknowledging, yet lamenting, the necessity of thus guarding against insurrections at home, or attacks from foreign nations; and though, when forced into a war, he rejoices in meeting with victory rather than defeat, he would much prefer peaceful tranquillity. Even so, these persons admit that evidences are necessary in order to repel unbelief; but all attention to the subject is connected in their minds with the idea of doubt; which they feel to be painful, and dread as something sinful.

Far different, however, are men's feelings in reference to any person or thing that they really do greatly value and admire, when they have a full and firm conviction. No one in ordinary life considers it disagreeable to mark and dwell on the constantly recurring proofs of the excellent and admirable qualities of some highly valued friend-to observe how his character stands in strong contrast to that of ordinary men; and that while experience is constantly stripping off the fair outside from vain pretenders, and detecting the wrong motives which adulterate the seeming virtue of others, his sterling excellence is made more and more striking and conspicuous every day on the contrary, we feel that this is a delightful exercise of the mind, and the more delightful the more we are disposed to love

1 Cautions for the Times.

and honor him. Yet all these are proofs, or what might be used as proofs, if needed,—of his really being of such a character. But is the contemplation of such proofs connected in our own mind with the idea of harassing doubt, and anxious contest? Should it not then be also delightful to a sincere Christian to mark, in like manner, the proofs which, if he look for them, he will continually find recurring, that the religion he professes came not from Man, but from God,-that the Great Master whom he adores was indeed the way, the truth, and the life,' that 'never man spake like this man ;'-and that the Sacred Writers who record his teaching were not mad enthusiasts, or crafty deceivers, but men who spoke in sincerity the words of truth and soberness which they learned from Him? Should he not feel the liveliest pleasure in comparing his religion with those false creeds which have sprung from human fraud and folly, and observing how striking is the difference?

And so also, in what is called Natural Theology-the proofs of the wisdom, goodness, and power of God-how delightful to a pious mind is the contemplation of the evidence which it presents! What pleasure to trace, as far as we can, the countless instances of wise contrivance which surround us in the objects of nature,-the great and the small-from the fibres of an insect's wing, to the structure of the most gigantic animals-from the minutest seed that vegetates, to the loftiest trees of the forest-and to mark everywhere the work of that same Creator's hand, who has filled the universe with the monuments of his wisdom; so that we thus (as Paley has expressed it) make the universe to become one vast Temple!

It is not for the refutation of objectors merely, and for the conviction of doubters, that it is worth while to study in this manner, with the aid of such a guide as Paley, the two volumes -that of Nature and that of Revelation-which Providence has opened before us, but because it is both profitable and gratifying to a well-constituted mind to trace in each of them the evident handwriting of Him, the Divine Author of both.

Some passages in several Works by different Authors, which illustrate some of the points treated of by Paley, I have thought it better to reprint, than merely to give references to them, which might cause trouble and inconvenience to the reader.