as to impart a high degree of originality to the abridgment. We never feel, in reading it, that we are reading a mere abridgment.

Paley has been censured for omitting altogether what has been called the "experimental evidence" of Christianity. But it is not easy to see how it could have come within the scope of his work. As defined by those who have treated of it, it consists in a spiritual perception of the adaptation of the Gospel to the wants of human nature, or of the Divine origin of Holy Scripture. We feel ourselves to be sinners, the Gospel presupposes the fact; we crave an atonement, the Gospel reveals a perfect one. When we devoutly read the Scriptures, their Divine origin makes itself irresistibly felt. Christianity, in fact, shines by its own light, and proves itself from heaven by its effects upon the heart and life. However true this may be, it is obvious that the doctrine of spiritual influence on which it depends is a Christian doctrine, and as such cannot in argument be presented as evidence to those who are outside the pale of Christianity. Personal experience of the salutary effects of the Christian faith may be, and often

is, the highest evidence of its truth; but this experience presupposes a reception of Christianity, it belongs only to the Christian believer. To him it may be decisive; but, like many of our deepest convictions, the conclusion rests not on the logic of the understanding, nor is it capable of transference into the minds of others. Hence it can hardly be ranked among evidences proper; that is, evidences which are intended to convince the unbeliever. But this latter object is what Paley proposed to himself; and in pursuance of it he dwells only on the external and the internal evidence; the former comprehending the argument from miracles and prophecy, the latter the various topics treated of in Part II., such as the morality of the Gospel, the singularity of Christ's character, the undesigned coincidences of Scripture, &c. For a due appreciation of this internal evidence it is not necessary to take more for granted than that the inquirer is able to distinguish between truth and falsehood, candour and hypocrisy, virtue and vice. The moment he opens the Christian Scriptures he discovers in them a system of morality which commends itself to his best in

stincts, and finds himself in company with men in whom no trace of improbity or sinister design has ever been discovered. To render men sensible of the excellence of Christ's precepts, or capable of appreciating the character of the Apostles, the co-operation of Divine grace needs not to be presupposed; but simply that the moral sentiments should be in a state of healthy activity. A virtuous Deist is, or ought to be, as good a judge of these points as a Christian, and the Deistical tendencies of the last century it was that Paley, like Butler before him, had mainly in view in the composition of his treatise. Hence we must not look for more in it than what is appropriate to the author's object, or deem it defective because it omits what he regarded as simply irrelevant. As a summary of what (to borrow a term from German philosophy) we may call the "objective" evidences of Christianity, it holds its own against all competitors.

Even if we admit that the most convincing of proofs is that which Christianity itself, received and practised, furnishes, it must be remembered that the most advanced religionist

has his moments of weakness, or depression; when the experimental evidence becomes clouded over, and no longer suffices to sustain faith. At such times the external, or objective evidences come to the rescue, and form an entrenchment to which the believer retires, and within which he takes refuge until his own peculiar ground of conviction assumes its former stability and influence.

The state of theological opinion in the present day invests the study of the external evidence for Christianity with a renewed and paramount importance. It has been too much the fashion in certain quarters to depreciate this branch of inquiry. The opposition to it has been prompted by different motives, and proceeds equally from schools of thought which wage an internecine war with each other. One school, which exalts the authority of the Church and of tradition beyond its just limits, instinctively disparages the study of evidence, because it seems to place reason above faith, and if men are once encouraged to exercise their reasoning powers on religious subjects, there is no saying where they may stop. Another school, of

its

more recent date, displays the same tendency, because its aim is to divest Christianity, as much as possible, of its supernatural character, and miracles and prophecy especially stand in way. Between the two, such works as that of Paley had fallen into some disrepute. So much the more is it necessary to recall men's attention to the reasonable grounds of the Christian faith, and to promote a branch of study which, properly conducted, forms an antidote both to superstition and to scepticism - a branch of study, too, which may be called the peculiar glory of the Anglican Church, her divines standing foremost amongst those of Christendom for the excellent Apologetic treatises that have proceeded from their pens. It is sufficient to mention the names of Baxter, Leland, Leslie, Lardner, Butler, Paley, and Davison.

In the present Edition some notes have been added, containing explanations and corrections where they seemed to be needed. The state of Biblical and Ecclesiastical criticism is not now what it was when Paley wrote, and he would himself have been the first to omit or to amend