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T H K , 
 
 AGE 
 
 OF 
 
 I .N F I-JO ]S I. I T 'F, 
 
 IN ANSWER TO 
 
 THOMAS PAINE' s 
 
 AGE OF REASON. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 BY A LAYMAN. 
 
 THIRD EDITION, CORRECTED. 
 
 '' Wrong not the Christian, think not Reason yoHrs : 
 '- ris Reason our great Master holds so dear. 
 
 " To give lost REASoy life, he pour'd his o^ra. 
 
 *' Believe, and skew the R«ason of a Man; 
 
 " lie]ieve, and taste the Pleasure of a G-od'; 
 
 " Beliere. .nd Innk- ..;m, Triumph on the Tomb." 
 
 YODHG. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 frintcd by V/. S. BETHAM,.F«rDival',^nn-co«rt. Holbor,. 
 rOR BUTTON AND SON, PATERNOSTER RQw. 
 
 1803. 
 
 ONE SHILLING ^TlXPENCE. 
 
BUaTiO 
 
 V/5 
 Ilt2> 
 
 THE 
 
 AGE OF INFIDELITY, 
 
 Xn an age like this, it is no wonder that infidelity 
 has its champions. The genuine gospel of Christ is 
 a system too pure and divine to meet the cordial ap- 
 probation of men of vicious hearts and corrupt prin- 
 ciples ; and such have hitherto composed the majo- 
 rity of mankind. Nor are the friends of Christianity 
 alarmed for its safety — " Great is the truth, 
 AND WILL PREVAiL.^^ Although deistical princi- 
 ples may be expected to spread among the young, 
 the gay, and the voluptuous ; yet hath truth ever 
 gained more than it hath lost by ^ such attacks ; to 
 them we owe the masterly defences of a Locke, an 
 Addison, a West, and many ijiore, in ancient as well 
 as modern times. 
 
 *' Sir Isaac Newton had a very sagacious conjec- 
 ture, which he told Dr. Clarke, from whom ( says Mr. 
 
 B Whiston'^)^ 
 
 M342016- 
 
C 10 ) 
 
 U^histon'^), I received it, That the overbearing tyran- 
 ny and persecuting power of the antichristian party, 
 which hath so long corrupted Christianity, and ensla- 
 ved the christian world, must be put a stop to, and 
 broken to pieces, by the prevalence of Infidelity 
 fo7^ some time, before primitive Christianity could be 
 restored ; which seem to be the very means that are 
 now working in Europe for the same good and great 
 end of Providence. Possibly (continues Mr. W.) 
 he might think that our Saviour's own words implied 
 it : When the Son of Mayi cometh^ shall he find faith on 
 the earth P — Or, possibly he might think no other 
 way so likely to do it in human affairs ; it being, I 
 acknowledge, too sadly evident, that there is not at 
 present religion enough in Christendom to put a 
 stop to such antichristian tyranny and persecution, 
 upon any genuine principles of Christianity.^^ 
 
 So far Mr. Whiston. We have seen the event: 
 The unhallowed hands of infidelity have pulled down 
 idolatry and superstition, with a vengeance that bet- 
 ter men would have trembled at. I cannot express 
 jtiy feelings on this event better than in the speech 
 '( real or supposed ) of a French Cure to the late 
 National Assembly of France, on the resignation of 
 his ecclesiastical character and salary, together with 
 the treasures of his churchy. *' 1 rejoice in this day 
 (said he) not because I wish to see religion degraded ; 
 tut because I wish to see it exalted and purified. 
 By dissolving its alliance with the state, you have 
 
 * On the Revelation of St. John, 4to. 2d cd. p. 321. 
 t Morning Chron. Nov. 29, 1793. 
 
 given 
 
{ H y 
 
 given it dignity and independence. You have done 
 it a piece of service w^hieh its well-wishers would, 
 perhaps, never have had courage to render it ; but 
 which was the only thing wanted to make it appear 
 in its genuine beauty and lustre. Nobody will now 
 say to me, that I am performing the offices of my re- 
 ligion as a trade. — " He is paid for telling the peo- 
 ple such and such things — He is hired to keep up 
 a useless piece of mummery/^ They cannot now 
 say this, and therefore I feel myself raised in my own 
 esteem » and shall speak to them with a confidence 
 and frankness, which, before this, I never durst ven- 
 ture to assume. We resign, without reluctance, our 
 gold and silver images and embroidered vestments, 
 because we have never found that gold and silver 
 made the heart more pure, or the affections more 
 heavenly : We can also spare our churches ; for the 
 heart that wishes to lift up itself to God will never be 
 at a loss for room to do it in ; but we cannot spare our 
 religion, because, to tell you the truth, we never had 
 so much occasion for it. I understand that you ac- 
 cuse us priests of having told the people a great many 
 falsehoods. — I suspect this may have been the case; 
 but till this day we have never been allowed to in- 
 quire whether the things which we taught them were 
 true or not. You required us formerly to receive 
 them all without proof; and you would have us*now 
 reject them all without discrimination : neither of 
 these modes of conduct become philosophers, such 
 as you would be thought to be, I am going to em- 
 
 B 2 ploy 
 
( 19 ) 
 
 ploy myself diligently, along with my parishioners, 
 to sift the wheat from the bran, the true from the 
 false: If we are not successful, we shall be at least 
 sincere/' — Who can refrain from wishing such a 
 man good success in the name of the Lord ? 
 
 But it is time to announce the object of this pam- 
 phlet, which I shall do in premising, 
 
 I. That I intend no personal abuse of Mr. Paine. 
 Ill language is no weapon of the christian's warfare. 
 Nor do I intend a mere attack on his pamphlet. My 
 object is rather to provide an antidote against the 
 growing Infidelity of the Age. I have found nothing 
 new either in Mr.P.'s arguments,or objections, against 
 Christianity and the Bible. The same things have 
 been often said with as much wit, and more plausi- 
 bility. 
 
 li. I meddle not with Politics ; and am happy 
 that Mr. P.'s pamphlet gives no occasion. The 
 subjects can never be kept too distinct; but, as the 
 celebrity of his Writings among a numerous class 
 of readers, will doubtless introduce his theological 
 notions to many, who, perhaps, have neither read 
 nor thought much about religion; to them I beg 
 leave to drop one caution — not to let their admira- 
 tion of his abilities in the one subject, warp their 
 udgment on the other. A man may be an adept 
 in one science, who in others is a mere dunce. The 
 case often happens ; and in general, perhaps, those 
 who know most of politics, know least about reli- 
 gion. 
 
 III. I 
 
( 13 ) 
 
 III. I am the advocate of Christianky only — ^Not 
 of ecclesiastical establishments, religious tests, or hu- 
 man systems. The Bible is my creed, and Christi- 
 anity my sect. Neither do I plead the cause of one 
 party of christians against another: so for as they 
 harmonize with the Bible, " Peace be unto them :^^ — 
 where they disagree, away with them — '' What is 
 the chaff to the wheat ? saiththe Lord of Hosts. 
 
 IV. I beg leave to explain what 1 mean by C/inS' 
 tianitif, I mean that system of divine and practical 
 truth, taught by Jesus Christ and his apostles, and 
 faithfully recorded in the writings of the New Tes- 
 tament ; but which, to be of real benefit to us, must 
 be received, not only in the head, but in the heart. 
 True Christianity is not merely theoretical ; it is vital, 
 experimental, practical. Every thing short of this is 
 children's play^ or something worse. A Pagan, a 
 Jew, or a Mohammedan, has less to answer for than 
 such christians as believe only in Jesus Christ and 
 the scriptures, as they do in Julius Csesar or Taci- 
 tus^ / 
 
 V. I have said Christianity is faithfully recorded 
 in the scriptures. When I say, " faithfully record- 
 ed,'^ I mean not to give up the inspiration of the sa- 
 cred writings. I believe, not only that the writers 
 were faithful and impartial in recording facts which 
 .came within their own knowledge and observa- 
 tion J but also, that they were super-naturally as- 
 sisted in recording facts, which otherwise they could 
 not have ascertain«d— in delivering predictions of 
 
 € vents 
 
( J4 ) 
 
 events the}^ could not have else foreseen— and in en- 
 diting those sublime devotional pieces, which have 
 been the basis of the religious worship both of Jews 
 and Christians, even to this day. Under the term 
 scriptures^ I include all the usual books ,of the Old 
 and New Testament, exclusive of the Apocrypha. 
 
 VI. And lastly. I do not intend to compliment 
 the enemies of Revelation with a surrender of the pe- 
 c\xY\2iX doctrines dindi wy^/m^^ of Christianity. I know 
 that some are willing to give up, perhaps the best 
 part of Christianity, to secure the rest: but I believe 
 the whole tenable. Nor do I conceive it worth any 
 exertions to procure proselytes to such a mutilated 
 system ; for if Christianity be reduced to the standard 
 of natural religion, and mere morality,- it matters not 
 by which denomination it is called. 
 
 These things premised, what I have farther to of- 
 fer to the reader's attention will divide itself into two 
 parts: A Sketch of the Evidences of Chris- 
 tianity — and A Review of Mr. P.'s Objec- 
 
 tions TO it. 
 
 SKETCH 
 
 or THE 
 
 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 J. HAT there was such a person as Jesus Christ — 
 that he was born in Judca, in the time of Augustus — 
 
 that 
 
( 15 ) 
 
 that he gathered disciples — taught the multitude- 
 performed many wonderful works, and at last suf- 
 fered death through the malice of the Jews— are facts 
 better attested than the most notorious actions of the 
 heroes and orators of antient Greece and Rome. 
 For, 
 
 1st. We have the same authority for these as for 
 those ; namely, that of Tacitus, Suetonius, Pliny the 
 younger, and other heathen historiansof those times. 
 
 2d. We have the circumstantial narratives of the 
 Evangelical historians, most of whom were eye-wit- 
 nesses of the facts they relate, and (with a thousand 
 others) confirmed this testimony with their blood* 
 These writings also m?iy be proved not only to have 
 been written; but also dispersed, and read in pub- 
 lic assemblies of christians, during the very age in 
 which these events happened. 
 
 3d. The principal facts (the resurrection excepted) 
 were never denied by the early enemies of Christian- 
 ity, among either Jews or Heathens. It is true they 
 attributed them to wrong causes, and endeavoured 
 to evade the inferences naturally deducible from them 
 — with what success we shall have occasion to 
 observe. 
 
 4th. The very being of Christianity, and the exis- 
 tence of its institutions, as in particular, the chris- 
 tian sabbath and sacraments, are incontestable mo- 
 numents of the facts to which they refer. These 
 hints may suffice to shew the credibility of the lead- 
 ing facts on which Christianity is founded ; especially 
 
 as not even Mr. Paine himself denies them. 
 
 The 
 
( 16 ) 
 
 The credibility of the facts will, in a great measure, 
 establish the authority of the writers. For if tiie facta 
 which they assert upon their own knowledge, are in 
 themselves credible, it only remains to show that 
 they were persons of common sense, and sincere in 
 their testimony, to establish it so far as is necessary 
 to our present purpose. 
 
 For the former, we may appeal to- the writings 
 themselves ; for assuredly, no man who does not 
 wish his own capacity to be called in question, will 
 venture to deny them a sufficient degree of under- 
 standing to relate the things of which they were both 
 «ye and ear witnesses. And for their sincerity, we 
 may appeal to the simplicity, harmony and candour 
 of their narrations, to the disinterestedness of their 
 conduct, the unwearied assiduity of their labours, 
 and their constant and severe sufferings in the cause 
 of their divine master. And indeed it is utterly in- 
 conceivable that such a number of men should con- 
 spire in an imposture, not only at the expence of 
 every thing dear in this life, and in the immediate 
 prospect of death itself; but in the apprehension of 
 being treated as impostors by posterity, and answer- 
 ing for their impositions in a future world. 
 
 Having thus far established the credibility of the 
 authors of the New Testament, we proceed to in- 
 quire into their account of the divine character and 
 mission of Jesus Christ, which will lead us at the 
 same time to review some of the grand evidences on 
 which Christianity is founded. 
 
 Their 
 
( 17 ) 
 
 Their professed design then, is, to shew that Jesus 
 Christ was the Messiah, the Son of God, and the Sa- 
 viour of mankind ; that he came into the world in 
 consequence of a divine mission ; and that he fulfilled 
 that mission in his life, doctrine, sufferings, death, 
 and resurrection. 
 
 I. In order to demonstrate this, they represent 
 him as foretold by the Hebrew prophets, and 
 as exactly answering all their sublime predictions, 
 both in his life and death. This is an extensive 
 subject ; we can only observe a few particulars. — 
 They pointed out the place of his birth, namely, 
 Bethlehem, an obscure village, but to be made illus- 
 trious by this event*; and restricted l\\e,timeo^ it 
 during the existence of the second temple, and 
 within a period which by every reasonable mode of 
 calculation must have expired at its destruction f . — 
 His tribe and family are exactly marked J ; his con- 
 ception of a virgin ||, and the circumstance of his be- 
 ing preceded by a forerunner § (namely, John the 
 Baptist) are foretold with equal plainness. — The very 
 manner of his preaching, that it should be meek and 
 affectionate ; the nature of his doctrine, that it should 
 be full of divine wisdom and righteousness, and se- 
 vere only to the hypocritical and impenitent ; the 
 miracles with which his doctrine should be confirmed, 
 
 * Micah V. 2. compared with Matt. ii. 1 — S. 
 
 t Gen. xlix. 10. Haggai ii. 7. Dan. ix. 24 — 27. 
 
 J Jcr. xxiii. 5, 6. |1 Isaiah vii. 14. 
 
 § Isaiah xl. 3. 
 
 C the 
 
( 18 ) 
 
 the healing thediseased, recovering the blind and deaf, 
 and other works of kindness and benevolence.*—* 
 The purity of his life; and, above all, the nature, de- 
 gree, and variety of his sufferings, his accursed death, 
 and glorious resurrection f, arc described by the pro- 
 phets, in terms little less particular arid exact than 
 were used by tlie evangelical winters, after the ac- 
 tual accompUshment of the events themselves. 
 
 It is further observable, that these very pro- 
 phesies Vfere, most of them, applied to the expected 
 Messiah by Jev^ish doctors, who preceded the time 
 of his appearance; to these prophesies Jesus Christ 
 himself appealed ; and from them his aposths con- 
 stantly reasoned with the Jews ; and by this preach- 
 ing, accompanied by the promised effusions of the 
 Spirit, thousands were convinced and converted, 
 and became the disciples and martyrs of a crucified 
 Messiah. 
 
 To give all conceivable strength to this evidence, 
 and cut off the only pretence that future adversaries 
 could raise, .namely: That these predictions were 
 forged subsequent to the events, the providence of 
 God had so ordered it, that they were not only transla- 
 ted into Chaldee, but into Greek ; whence many parti- 
 culars became known to the Gentile philosophers, 
 were interwoven with the Sibyline oracles, and even 
 incorporated into the sublime numbers of Virgil; 
 and all this before the New Testament was written. 
 
 ♦ Isaiah xlii. 1 — 8. t Isaiah lii. 13 — 15. liii. 
 
 Thus 
 
( 19 ) 
 
 Thus a general expectation was formed at this tim« 
 of a great deliverer, and the eyes of all men directed 
 to look for his appearance. 
 
 " O, son of mighty Jove ! from heaven appear ; 
 
 *' Come to thine honours — lo, the time draws near! 
 
 *' The barren hills proclaim the Deity ; 
 
 ** A God ! a God ! the vocal rocks reply ♦J 
 
 >y 
 
 II. Let us review th^ Redeemer's moral charac- 
 ter. Take a summary of it, in the language of the 
 elegant but sceptical Rousseau -f . 
 
 ** I will confess to you, that the majesty of the 
 scriptures strikes me with admiration, as the purity 
 of the gospel hath its influence on my heart. Pe- 
 ruse the works of our philosophers, with all their 
 pomp of diction : how mean, how contemptible are 
 they, compared with the scripture! Is it possible that 
 a book, at once so simple and sublime, should be 
 merely the work of man ? Is it possible that the sa- 
 cred personage, whose history it contains, should be 
 himself a mere man? Do we find that he assumed 
 the tone of an enthusiast, or ambitious sectary? 
 What sweetness, what purity in his manners ! what 
 an affecting gracefulness in his delivery ! What 
 sublimity in his maxims ! What profound wisdom 
 in his discourses! What presence of mind, what 
 
 * Virgirs Pollio. compared with Mr. Pope's Mcgsiah. 
 •f See \ui Letter to the Archbishop of Paris. 
 
 C 2 subtlety, 
 
( 20 ) 
 
 subtlety, what truth in his replies ! How great the 
 command over his passions 1 Where is the man, 
 where th^ philosopher, who could so live and so die, 
 without weakness, and without ostentation ? — When 
 Plato described his imaginary good man with all the 
 shame of guilt, yet meriting the highest rewards of 
 virtue, he describes exactly the character of Jesus 
 Christ : the resemblance was so striking, that all the 
 [christian] fathers perceived it. 
 
 " What preposession, what blindness must it be, 
 to compare [Socrates] the Son of Sophronicus to 
 [Jesus] the son of Mary! What an infinite 'dis- 
 proportion is there between them? Socrates, dying 
 without pains or ignominy, easily supported his cha- 
 racter to the last ; and if his death, however easy, 
 had not crowned his life, it might have been doubted 
 whether Socrates, with all his wisdom, was any 
 thing more than a vain sophist. He invented, it is 
 said, the theory of morals. Others, however, had 
 before put them in practice ; he had only to say there-, 
 fore what they had done, and to reduce their exam- 
 ples to precept.— — But where could Jesus learn, 
 among his competitors, that p^ire and sublime mora- 
 lity of which he only hath given us both precept 
 and example? — The death of Socrates, peaceably 
 philosophizing with his friends, appears the most 
 agreeable that could be wished for ; that of Jesus, ex- 
 piring in the midst of agonizing pains, abused, insul- 
 ted, and accused by a whole nation, is the most hor- 
 rible 
 
( 21 ) 
 
 rible that could be feared. Socraes, in receiving the 
 cup of poison, blessed the weepi g executioner who 
 administered it ; but Jesus, in tie midst of excruci- 
 ating tortures, prayed for his nerciless tormentors. 
 Yes ! if the life and death of Scrates were those of 
 a sage, the life and death of Jens were those of a 
 God. Shall we suppose the evargelic history a mere 
 fiction ? Indeed, my friend, it bears not the marks 
 of fiction; en the contrary, the history of Socrates, 
 which nobody presum«s to doibt, is not so well at- 
 tested as that of Jesus Christ. Such a supposition, 
 in fact, only shifts the difficulty, without obviating 
 it: it is more inconceivable that a number of per- 
 sons should agree to write such an history, than that 
 one only should furnish the subject of it. The Jewish 
 authors were incapable of the diction, and strangers to 
 the morality contained in tlie gospel, the marks of whose 
 ti'uth are so strikinor and inimitable that the inventor 
 
 o 
 
 would be a more astonishing character than the hero." 
 III. Let us consider the doctrines and precepts 
 which form the substance of our Lord^s Discourses. 
 We have already seen the concessions of a freethink,er. 
 Wcmay add, that both his doctrines and precepts had 
 infinitely the advantage of the greatest sages in the 
 schools of heathen philosophers,jn several respects. 
 As to tlie doctrines, they were clear and express, 
 not clothed in the ambiguity of tne schools ; they 
 were wortiiy the nature of God, and important to 
 mankind ; instead of the shameful inventions of the 
 poets, or the idle inquiries of the different philoso- 
 phic 
 
' ( 29 ) 
 
 phic sects, they poiitout the perfectioiis of the Deity 
 —^ the miseries of oulown state, and a way of accep- 
 tance with God her^ and admission into the beatific 
 vision hereafter. — l\ey discover the nature and im- 
 portance of the Reieemer's character,' as mediator 
 between God and nan. — They are expressed with 
 the greatest certaint)^ and confirmed with the fullest 
 evidence : '' God is ^-acious to sinners : I, who came 
 from the bosom of the Father, declare it. — Man's 
 heart is corrupted ; t, who reveal men's thoughts, 
 assert it. — There is afuture state of rewards and pu- 
 nishments, I, who no^ raise the dead, and am ap- 
 pointed to judge the ^orld, aver it.*' 
 
 The moralitu of the gospel has equally the advan- 
 tage of the heathen ethics, particularly in two re- 
 spects : — It is universal. Scarce a philosopher can 
 be referred to, however severe in his manners, who 
 had not some favourite vice to excuse or palliate ; 
 and scarce a sin so abominable, but it had some phi- 
 losopher for its apologist. But what sin did Jesus 
 tolerate.^ — Again, the »2o//:;^^ he used were infinitely 
 better adapted to the state of human nature, than 
 those of Gentile moralists. They address our fear^ 
 God is just, and will punish impenitent sinners: — 
 our /i ope; God is gracious, and will reward those 
 that fear him : — owr gratitude ; God hath loved the 
 world, and given his Son to save it : — our interest ; 
 he gives "an hundred fold in this life, and, in the 
 world to come, life everlasting *.*' 
 
 * Mark x. 39. 
 
 It 
 
{ 23 ) 
 
 It may not be impert'nent here to add, what Jesus 
 taught in relation to ihe Old Testament oeconomy, 
 and its relation to the gospel dispensation. So far 
 from speaking contenptuously of Moses and the pro- 
 phets, as some deistiml writers ha\^e pretended, he 
 constantly refers to 'heir writings as divine, and ap- 
 peals to them as Wtnesses of his mission. "Search 
 the scriptures, foi/n them ye think ye have eternal 
 life, and they are/hey which testify of me*.^^ 
 
 IV. The mirdles of Jesus Christ command our 
 attention ; partlailarly, as they were wrought in con-- 
 firmation of hisJoctrine and mission. " A miracle 
 (says Dr. Claj^e) is a work effected in a manner dif- 
 ferent from the common and regular course of Pro- 
 vidence, by /he interposition either of God himself, 
 or some intelligent agent superior to man.f^^ 
 
 The miriicles of Jesus were frequent, numerous, 
 instantaneous, public, lasting, benevolent, and such 
 as evidently required the interposition of Omnipo- 
 tence. He healed the incurably sick ; gave sight to 
 those born blind ; recovered demoniacs, lunatics, 
 and cpilep!ics : he raised the dead from their graves 
 by his word; and performed many other works 
 equally astonishing. It also particularly merits our 
 attention, that he performed these wonderful works 
 in his own name, and constantly appealed to them 
 as evidences of his character and authority. 
 
 What said the Jews to this ? '* He casteth out de- 
 vils by Beelzebub, the prince of devils. ^^ Is this ra- 
 
 * John T. 39. 
 
 t Evidence! of Nature and Revealed Feligion, p. 2 19. 
 
 lional ? 
 
( S4 ) 
 
 tlonal? Is Satan a stranger to his own interests? 
 Or would infernal spirits employ their powers in 
 works of benevolence to mei ? — or to establish the 
 brightest system of divinity, md the purest morals, 
 that ever were delivered ? 
 
 What say the descendants o\ those Jews at this 
 day ? That Jesus found the inefable name, Jeho- 
 vah, in the temple, where it hac been secreted for 
 ages, and that by virtue of this ciarm he was able 
 to perform all his miracles, and mi^ht have wTought 
 yet more. But will common senselisten to such an 
 idle tale? Or why was it not told sooner? Credai 
 Judceus Appella ! 
 
 What said the heathen philosophers? What said 
 those grand enemies of primitive christimity, Celsus, 
 Porphyry, and Julian ? They pretendid that Jesus 
 Christ was a magician and a juggler — that Vespa- 
 sian, Apollonius Tyaneus, and other pophcts of 
 their own, wrought tlie like. But what a croud of 
 unanswerable queries force themselves upon us ?— 
 What is Magic? If it be a diabolical art, devils would 
 never have interested themselves to pron.ote such a 
 cause : if Magic be a cheat only, it never could have 
 produced such effects. What were the heathen 
 miracles ? If false, how can they affect the truth of 
 Christ^s miracles? And if true, how can they be 
 com.pared with them? For a prince like Vespasian 
 to be flattered by his courtiers, or a philosopher 
 like Apollonius, by his scholars, are neither new nor 
 strange events. But all their few, obscure, and 
 
 suspicious 
 
( 25 ) 
 
 suspicious wonders, be compared with the miracles 
 of Jesus Christ? No man dare openly maintain it. 
 Beside there is very good reason to believe these 
 stories were forged afterwards in prejudice of Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 But if miracles are to be attiftuted to mao^ical arts 
 and diabolical agency, it requires no great sagacity 
 to decide which ought rather to be attributed there- 
 to, those wrought in support of idolatry and super- 
 stition ; or those wrought in express opposition to 
 to those arts and follies, and in support of the pure 
 doctrines and morality of the gospel. Indeed, the 
 cause in support of which they are wrought, is a 
 material circumstance in the test of miracles. The 
 Jews were forbid to follow the prophet who enticed 
 them to idolatry, whatever wonders he might per- 
 form*. 
 
 But there are two circumstances which set the 
 miracles of Jesus far above competition, even with 
 those of Moses himself. The one is that they were 
 wrought in exact fulfilment of antient predictions, 
 in which the very nature and circumstances of them 
 (far different from those of the Jewish lawgiver) are 
 pointed out to mark the character of the Messiah. 
 The other still more extraordinary circumstance is, 
 that the very persons who witnessed the miracles of 
 Christ were able to do the same, or even greater, in 
 his name, and actually did them to confirm their 
 evidence ; nay, still farther, they had delegated to 
 
 * Duet. xiii. 1 5. 
 
 D them 
 
( 26 ) 
 
 them the authority of conferring the same miracu- 
 lous powers on others, by imposition of hands ; and 
 this power was continued for ni any years to the ut- 
 ter confusion of their adversaries, and the destruc- 
 tion of Paganism. It was in vain to dispute with 
 men, who could apj^al to a surrounding throng of 
 "blind, diseased, and lame, who had been healed by 
 a word spoken in the name of Jesus— with men 
 who spoke all languages by inspiration, and had the 
 wonderful ability of communicating these gifts to 
 others. 
 
 V. These observations lead our attention to two 
 particular facts on which Christianity is, in a great 
 measure, founded. I mean the Resurrection of 
 Christ, and the Descent of the Holy Spirit 
 already hinted at. 
 
 The former of these is of indisputable importance : 
 *' If Christ be not raised our faith is vain.^^ This 
 is related by the very persons who used to converse 
 with him during his public ministry, and who saw 
 him repeatedly after he was raised from the dead, 
 cc)nverged with him, and received a commission from 
 him to publish this fact, and proselyte all nations to 
 his faith. — This is confirmed in some measure by 
 the suspicious story of his enemies, that his dis- 
 ciples stole his body while the guard slept, which 
 they had placed to w'atch the sepulchre*. But 
 how dare the guard to sleep at the hazard of their 
 
 * Matt, xxviii. 11 --- 14. 
 
 lives ? 
 
( 97 ) 
 
 lives? and if they did, how should they know who 
 stole his body ? and if they did not sleep, how was 
 it possible that a few unarmed fishermen should 
 force a military guard ? 
 
 But the grand evidence of Christ^s resurrection, 
 and indeed of the truth of Christianity, is the De- 
 scent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. 
 Our Lord had promised this previous to his death *, 
 and the accomplishment of it was the strongest evi- 
 dence possible, both to Christ's resurrection, and 
 the divine origin of Christianity. 
 
 VI. Once more, let us consider the effects and 
 consequences of this effusion of the Holy Spirit. 
 They are principally three. 
 
 1 . The rapid and universal spread of the gospel, 
 even, " before the destruction of Jerusalem (Bishop 
 Newton observes f ) the gospel was not only preach- 
 ed in the lesser Asia, and Greece, and Italy ; the 
 great theatres of action then in the world ; but was 
 likewise propagated as far northward as Ethiopia, 
 as far eastward as Parthia and India, as far west- 
 ward as Spain and Britain." And in the following 
 century, notwithstanding all the opposition and 
 persecution it met with, Tertullian$ boldly tells the 
 Roman government-^" We are but of yesterday, 
 and by to-day are grown up, and overspread your 
 empire ; your cities, your islands, your forts, towns^ 
 assemblies, and your very camps, wards, companies, 
 
 * John xiv. 16, ^c. f On the Prophecies, vol. ii. p. 9,^7^ 
 % Apology, ch. 38. Reeve's Tr, vol. 299. 
 
 palace 
 
( 28 ) 
 palace, senate, forum, all swarm with Christians. 
 Your temples indeed we leave to yourselves, and 
 thcj are the only places you can name without 
 Ciiristians.^^ 
 
 3, It is to be ob5erved, that Christianity not only 
 proselyted men to the belief and outward profession 
 of Christianity, but had a visible and moral effect 
 on t.lieir lives and conduct. Never was any other 
 cause supported wdth such irresistable evidence. 
 Wherever it. came it w^as received by multitudes, at 
 the expence of their property, characters, and lives: 
 many of these 'who had hitherto lived debauched, 
 impious, and idolatrous hves, became now sober, tem- 
 perate, honest, and religious. This was not indeed 
 tmivcrsally the case, because all were not sincere in 
 their profession ; but it was so, to an extent that no 
 other religion could boast. Nay the Pagan religion 
 generally made men morally worse, in proportion to 
 the zeal with which they professed it. 
 
 3. The remaining effect of the Spirits effusion was 
 the constancy and readiness with which men suffered 
 the loss of all things, and even martyrdom itself in 
 its most terrible forms. 
 
 , "I cannot omit (says Mr. Addison*) that 
 which appears to me a standing miracle in the three 
 first centuries, I mean that amazing and superna- 
 tural courage or patience, which was shewn by in- 
 numerable multitudes of martyrs, in those slow and 
 painful torments which were inflicted on them. I 
 
 * Evidences of the Christian Religion, Sect. vii. 
 
 cannot 
 
( 29 ) 
 
 cannot conceive a man placed in the burning iron 
 chair at Lyons, and the insults and mockeries of a 
 crouded amphitheatre, and still keeping his seat ; 
 or stretched upon a grate of iron, over coals of fire, 
 and breathing out his soul among the exquisite suf- 
 ferings of such a tedious execution, rather than re- 
 nounce his religion or blaspheme his Saviour. — 
 Such trials seem to me above the strength of hu- 
 man nature, and able to overbear duty, reason, faith, 
 conviction, nay, and the most absolute certainty of 
 a future state. Humanity, unbiassed in an extraor- 
 dinary manner, must have shaken off the present 
 pressure, and have delivered itself out of such dread- 
 ful distress, by any means that could have been sug- 
 gested to it. We can easily imagine that many per- 
 sons in so good a cause might have laid down their 
 lives at the gibbet, the stake, or the block; but to 
 expire leisurely among the most exquisite tortures, 
 when they might come out of them, even by a men- 
 tal reservation, or an hypocrisy which was not with- 
 out a possibility of being followed by repentance and 
 forgiveness, has something in it so far beyond the 
 force and natural strength of mortals, that one can- 
 not but think there was some miraculous power to 
 support the sufferer.'^ 
 
 *' It is certain, that the deaths and sufferings of 
 the primitive christians had a great share in the con- 
 version of these learned Pagans, who lived in the 
 ages of persecution, which with some intervals and 
 abatements, lasted near SOO years after our Saviour. 
 Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Lactantius, Arnobius, 
 
 and 
 
( 30 ) 
 
 and others, tell us, that this, first of all, alarmed 
 tlieir curiosity, roused their attention and made them 
 seriously inquisitive into the nature of that religion, 
 which could endue the mind with so much strength, 
 and overcome the fear of death, nay, raise an car- 
 nest desire of it, though it appeared in all its ter- 
 rors. This they found had not been effected* by all 
 the doctrines of those philosophers, whom they had 
 thoroughly studied, and who had been labouring at 
 this great point. The sight of these dying and 
 tormented martyrs engaged them to search into the 
 history and doctrines of him for whom they suffered, 
 Th« more they searched, the more they were con- 
 vinced ; till their conviction grow so strong, that 
 they themselves embraced the same truths, and 
 either actually laid down their lives, or were always 
 in a readiness to do it, rather than depart from 
 them.'^ 
 
 I might add, though this fact is m.ost remarkable 
 in the three first centuries, it was not confined to 
 them. The same constancy is observable in those 
 that suffered for tlie same faith under the popish and 
 other persecution. God forbid that there should be 
 occasion for any more suck demonstrations of the 
 powxr of divine grace and truth ! 
 
 I have now finished the proposed sketch of the 
 evidences of Christianity,, which I hope the sceptic 
 reader has had the patience to peruse with some at- 
 tention, as I consider a connected view of them but 
 just and necessary to form an estimate of its truth, 
 
 A REVIEW 
 
A REVIEW 
 
 Of Mr. PAINE's 
 
 OBJECTIONS TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 A O follow Mr. P. through all his desultory ob- 
 servations would much exceed the limits of this 
 pamphlet ; but I shall endeavour to reduce what is 
 most material and pertinent to the subject under 
 three classes; Objections against any Revelation''^ 
 against the Christian Revelation — and against 
 '* the thre» principal means employed (as he says) to 
 impose upon mankind ;^^ viz. Mystery, Miracle, 
 and Prophecy. 
 
 We begin with, 
 
 I. Mr. P^s objections against any Revelation. 
 *• Revelation (says he) when applied to religion, 
 means something communicated immediately from 
 God to man. No one will deny or dispute the 
 power of the Almighty to make such a communi- 
 cation if he pleases. But admitting, for the sake 
 of a case, that something has been revealed to a cer- 
 tain person, and not revealed to any other person, 
 it is revelation to that person only. When he tells 
 it to a second person, a second to a third, a third 
 to a fourth, and so on, it ceases to be a revelation 
 
 to 
 
{ 32 ) 
 
 to all those persons. It is a revelation to the first 
 person only, and hearsay to every other ; and conse- 
 quently, they are not obliged to believe it.*^^ The 
 w^hole of this reasoning depends upon the impertinent 
 word ^^ immediately^ ^' wich Mr. P. has marked in 
 Italicks, to shew its importance, certainly, if reve- 
 lation means somthing immediately communicated 
 from God, tlien must it be limited to the first or ifu- 
 mediate communication. But may I not reveal a 
 truth to a third person, through the medium cff a se- 
 cond of such established veracity, as to demand belief? 
 Is this possible with men, and impossible with God? 
 Surely no one will assert it. It is no more essential 
 to a divine Revelation that it he immediate^ than that 
 it be in a voice of thunder, or with the sound of a 
 trumpet. 
 
 An established character for integrity always chal- 
 lenges credit, unless the assertion to which our assent 
 is required, be in itself absurd, and very improbable. 
 I am well persuaded that if the narratives, by 
 which Mr. Bruce provoked the incredulity of man- 
 kind, had been related by Mr. Howard, Infidelity 
 would have blushed at denying them . 
 
 But let us examine the case stated to illustrate this 
 position. 
 
 When Moses told the children of Israel that he had 
 received the two tables of the commandments from 
 the hand of God, they were not obliged to belive him, 
 because they had no other authority for it than his tel- 
 
 * 
 
 Pase 3. 
 
 ling 
 
( 33 ) 
 
 ling them so, the commandments. carrying no internal 
 evidence of divinity v^ith them*,^' — Let us state ano- 
 ther case parallel to this. 
 
 When an ambassador is sent from a foreign prince 
 to our court, offering terms of amity gnd friendship 
 we are not obliged to believe his master sent him mere- 
 ly because he tells us so ; nor is there any thing in the 
 message itself, but what he might be capable of in- 
 venting ; how then is he to ensure credit ? — By Jus 
 credentials. 
 
 The credentials of Moses were the miraculous 
 powers with which he was endowed, and, of which 
 the Israelites had been repeatedly eye witnesses. 
 
 As to the succeeding prophets, they neyer required 
 implicit credit, till such time as their prophetic 
 characters were sufficiently established to demand it, 
 either by the performance of some miracle, or the 
 accomplishment of some clear and unequivocal pre- 
 dictionf . Tlie apostles, when they challenged public 
 confidence, healed the sick, raised the dead, and 
 spake all languages by intuition. 
 
 The scripture revelation then, is the discovery of 
 divine truth through the medium of persons evi- 
 dently inspired and employed by the Deity. 
 
 To compare the propagation af Mohammed^s sys- 
 tem with that of Judaism or Christianity, is weak 
 and unjust in the extreme. Mohammed wrought no 
 miracles, delivered no predictions ; but on the con- 
 
 * Page. 4. 
 t 1. Sam. iii. 19. 20. 
 
 ' E ti-ary 
 
( 34 ) 
 {j-ary founded his dominion on the sword. There is, 
 therefore, no comparison. 
 
 U. Let us now consider Mr. Paine^s most conside- 
 rable objections against the CHRISTAIN revelation. 
 
 Of this, however, I consider the Old Testament 
 as an essential part *; for Mr. P. is perfectly right in 
 asserting that Jesus Christ did not come " to esta- 
 blish a new religion f:'^ — "That he founded no 
 new system J. '^ The New Testament is only a fuller 
 and clearer revelation of what was taught in the Old. 
 Judaism and Christianity are so connected, that 
 they must stand ot fall together. 
 
 We shall therefore begin where Mr. P. begins, and 
 and trace his objections through both Testaments; 
 but as he is particularly bitter against divines and 
 expositors. I shall trouble him with neither, the 
 Scriptures alone shall be our text, and Common 
 Sense our commentator. 
 
 *' As to the account of the Creation, (says our 
 author) with w^hich the book of Genesis opens, it 
 has all the appearence of being a tradition which the 
 Israelites had among th^m, l)efore they came into 
 Egypt§.^^ Supposing the account to have been ori- 
 .ginally traditionaiy, this will not prove it false. It 
 is reasonable to believe that, before the invention of 
 writing, traditions were preserved with greater care ; 
 and the longevity of the Patriarchs was peculiarly 
 
 * See above, p. 17. t Age of Reason, p. 16. 
 
 :|: Page 17 § P. 12. 
 
 favourable 
 
( 35 ) 
 
 favourable to this. Adam might converse with La- 
 mech — Lamech with Shem — Shem with Abraham, 
 or perhaps, Isaac — and another generation would 
 be sufficient to hand down a tradition to the time of 
 Moses. If we trace back the tradition however as 
 far as Adam, still it must have comxeto him by reve- 
 lation. But as Moses enjoyed so intimate commu- 
 nion with the Deity, and was favoured with so plen- 
 nary communications from him, it is most reasonable 
 to suppose, that he received the substance of this 
 account from Heaven, during his residence for forty 
 days upon the mount. 
 
 But the stile of this account is also, it seems, par- 
 ticularly exceptionable. /' It begins abruptly. It 
 is nobody that speaks. It i« nobody that hears. It 
 is addressed to nobody. It as neither first, second, 
 nor third person. — It has no voucher *.''^ The cele- 
 brated Longinus^ however, in his Treatise of the 
 Sublime, judged differently. Speaking of the Jew- 
 ish Lawgiver, he calls him " an extraordinary man, 
 who conceived and spake worthily of the power of 
 God, when he writes in the beginning of his laws, God 
 spake — what } Let there be lights and there was light, 
 — Let there be earth ; and it zoas so,'' — Let the reader 
 form his own judgment. I can conceive nothing 
 more worthy, of the Supreme than speaking worlds 
 into existence. " He spake,, and it was done ; he 
 commanded, and it stood fast.^^ To exhibit the 
 beauty of Moseses cosmogony to the best advantage, 
 
 * Age of Reasqn p, 12. 
 
 it 
 
( 3C ) 
 ir sliould be compared with the wretched and un- 
 intelligible reveries of the heathefi philosophers*. 
 Compared with them, he is as light to chaos. 
 
 But let us pass on. — " Though it is not a direct 
 article of the Christian system, that this world, that 
 we inhabit, is the whole of the habitable creation ; yet 
 it is so worked up therewith, from what is called 
 the Mosaic account of the creation, that to believe 
 otherwise, renders the christain system of faith at once 
 little and ridiculous." — Here are more mistakes than 
 one. 
 
 Had the scriptures asserted ours to be the only ha- 
 bitable world, I know not any proper evidence we 
 could have opposed to that assertion, and I Jo not 
 think human conjecture ought to be placed in compe- 
 tition with their authority. I know it has been com- ^ 
 monly supposed that the Mosaic creation includes the 
 whole universe; but I concieve it extends no further 
 than what we call the solar system. We have busi- 
 ness ;with no more; and the scriptures where not writ- 
 ten to gratify idle curiosity.' Let us, however, review 
 the account, as we have it in the first chapter of 
 Genesis. 
 
 The first state in which our world existed was that 
 of a chaos of various elements. The first work of di- 
 vine power upon it, j)laced it in a state of commotion, 
 or rather fermentation. From this the almighty ^a/ 
 produced light, and by the separation of this from 
 
 * See Grotius de verit. — Stillingfleet's Orig. Sac. — and 
 Cumberland's Sanchoniatho. 
 
 darkness 
 
( sr ) 
 
 darkness effected the first revolution of our sphere 
 from west to east, and marked the period of a natural 
 day, beginning with the evening. — On the second 
 day, 2i jirmament ^ expanse, or atmosphere was formed, 
 and became the agent for separating the waters which 
 covered the earth from those intended to float on high. 
 * — On the third day the earth was formed into cavi- 
 ties and eminences: the former held the waters and 
 the latter became fertile, and were crowned with vege- 
 tables. — On the fourth day were formed other spheres 
 connected with ours; — " the sun, the moon, and the 
 stars ;^^ that is, as I conceive, the planets and satel- 
 lites of our system. — 
 
 The fifth day produced all the original species of 
 animals, except man. — The sixth day was devoted 
 to the formation of our first parents, and God having 
 ended his work " by the seventh day *,^^ on that 
 rested; not because he was weary, but that man, who 
 is an imitative creature, might follow his example. 
 
 And this sabbath, I have no doubt but iVdam ob- 
 served in innocency and happiness ; though perhaps 
 no other. 
 
 This I take to be the simple narrative of Moses, 
 compressed and a little modernised. Now in what 
 particular, give me leave to ask, does this contradict 
 the latest discoveries of philosophy and astronomy? 
 
 Say you, that besides our system, there are innu- 
 merable others of equal magnitude in the universe ? 
 
 Suppose { if you please ) the fixed stars to be all suns, 
 
 * So chap. III. should be rendered, or to that effect. 
 
 around 
 
( 38 ) 
 
 around which revolve an infinite variety of planets.— 
 Where do the scriptures contradict it ? But, says 
 Mr. P. this " renders the christian system at once 
 little and ridiculous. ^^ — God of innumerable imrlds! 
 how doth thy greatness aggrandize thy mercy and 
 benevolence ! — As Mr. P. has favoured us with part 
 of one psalm, I will venture to insert part of another, 
 which at the same time may give the reader some idea 
 of the nature of Hebrew poetry . It seems to have 
 been an evening hymn for the time of vintage. 
 
 PSALM VIII. 
 
 *' Jehovah our Lord ! how excellent is the name in all 
 
 «' the eartli ! 
 «* Who hast displayed thy glorious majesty above the Heavens I 
 
 *' When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, 
 
 ** The moon and stars which thou hast ordained, 
 
 " What is mortal man that thou rememberest him ? 
 
 *« Or the son of man that thou dost visit him? 
 
 " P'or thou hast. made him (but) a little inferior to the angels ; 
 
 *« And hast crowned him with glory and honour. 
 
 <« Jehovah, our Lord ! bow excellent is thy name in all the 
 *« earth!" 
 
 But if we admit a plurality of worlds, " From 
 whence then could arise the solitary and strange con- 
 ceit that the Almighty, w^ho had millions of worlds, 
 equally dependant on his protection, should quit the 
 care of all the rest, and come to die in our world, be- 
 cause they say, one man and one woman had eaten 
 
 an 
 
{ 39 ) 
 
 an apple, And, on the other hand, are we to suppose 
 that every world in the boundless creation had an Eve, 
 an apple, a serpent, and a Redeemer ? In this case, 
 the person who is irreverently called the Son of God, 
 would have nothing else to do than to travel from 
 world to world, in an endless succession of death, 
 with scarcely a momentary interval of life *!^^ — 
 
 Here is Don Quixote and his windmill, with a 
 witness! Who ever formed one of these strange con- 
 ceits, before Mr P. ? what Christians ever supposed 
 the deity confines his care, to this world only ? 
 Whoever imagined Jesus Christ to liave suffer- 
 ed in other worlds ? or, that they were guilty, 
 and needed a Redeemer ? — No : we hope and believe 
 that all other habitable worlds, if there are others, 
 are the residence of holy and happy beings, which 
 therefore need no redemption. And consequently, 
 we hope, that though the number of unhappy 
 creatures rendered miserable by sin both here and 
 hereafter, 'may be very considerable in itself, yet 
 that it may bear a very small proportion to the 
 infinitude of holy and happy beings the Almighty 
 has created. 
 
 We now proceed to the next incredible history 
 of the Old Testament, viz. The Fall. Here 
 Deists trumph; and even many of the friends of Re- 
 velation, esteeming the literal sense indefensible, 
 have turned the whole into an allegory on the origin 
 of evil. This appears to me dangerous and unne- 
 
 * Pa^e 46, 
 
 cessary 
 
X 40 ) 
 
 cessary. Dangerous, because if we begin to allego- 
 rize plain narration, we know not where to stop : — r 
 unnecessary, because, if we admit man to be fallen, 
 (and that appears to me unquestionable) I can con- 
 ceive nothing more probable, or more rational than 
 this account — Let us hear it. 
 
 When God had created our first parents, he 
 placed them in the most delightful part of the globe, 
 and called it Paradise. Here their employment was 
 to dress the garden, and their food its fruits. That 
 Adam was endued with considerable natural know- 
 ledge appears from the original names he bestowed 
 on his domestics — the animal creation*. In addi- 
 tion to this he was favoured with the sublimest com- 
 munion with Deity of which flesh and blood seems 
 capable f. Here every thing conspired to make 
 him happy, except a single instance of restraint 
 upon his appetite, as a test of his obedience : — he 
 was not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and 
 evil, and this on pain of losing both his happiness 
 and life. He ate and died. Say not, it was hard 
 to die for tasting fruit : the smaller the circumstance, 
 the less the temptation, the easier obedience, and the 
 more aggravated the transgression. 
 
 As to the fruit itself, Mr. P. calls it '' an apple.'' 
 He might as well have said it was a pear, an orange, 
 or a bunch of grapes-. Moses is silent, and I sup-* 
 pose, for this reason, that it was a fruit, of which 
 no child of Adam ever tasted, for it grew in Para- 
 
 * Gen. ii. 20. t See Gen. ii, 8—10, 
 
 dise 
 
( 41 ) 
 
 disc where none of his children ever entered. But, 
 whatever was the fruit, it seems to have possessed 
 very pernicious qualities ; perhaps intoxicating and 
 poisonous; for it immediately produced irregular sen- 
 sations, and the shame which follows them ; in fact, 
 to borrow Milton's language. It 
 
 '' Brought death into the world, and all our woe/' 
 
 Mr. P. (as others havp done before) much diverts 
 himself with the Jewish system of pneumatology and 
 doctrine of daemons, and that, as usual, without ap- 
 pearing to understand them. The following scheme 
 is the result of inquiry and reflection, and will, I 
 hope, stand the test of critical examination. 
 
 The ancient Hebrews believed, partly on the au- 
 thority of Scripture, and partly from tradition, the 
 existence of innumerable spiritual beings, called 
 angels, that is, agents, messengers, or servants of 
 the great Supreme. Prior to the existence of man, 
 they believed a part of these angels to have fallen 
 from their integrity, through pride and vain glory, 
 and become devils, at the head of whom they place 
 Satan, originally, as they suppose, a mighty arch- 
 angel. At the head of the elect and holy angels 
 they place Michael (whom the christians explain of 
 the Son of God) ; and believe that Jehovah governs 
 the. moral world by the intermediate ministry of 
 these spiritual existences. To them they attribute 
 various events, calamitous as well as happy : parti- 
 cularly storms, pestilence, and sudden death. They 
 
 F also 
 
( 42 ) 
 
 also introduce the agency of evil spirits, whose dis- 
 positions incline them to mischief, and who are per- 
 mitted to exert their power and malice, so far as 
 comports with the plan and designs of Providence ; 
 but the Almighty controuls these, just as he does the 
 raging billows — " Hitherto shalt thou come, but no 
 farther, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed/' 
 
 To these evil angels they likewise attributed the 
 infliction of diseases of all kinds, particularly epi- 
 lepsy and lunacy, which in many cases they consi- 
 dered as possession. Nor does this contradict the 
 notion that evil spirits are in a state of punishment. 
 The hell of a spirit is guilt, anxiety, terror, and 
 despair : and whatever gratification such beings may 
 be supposed to find in doing evil, must have more in 
 it of pain than pleasure, and rather increase than alle- 
 viate their misery ; so that there is no need of Mr. 
 P/s device of shutting them down in a pit with a hill 
 over it. 
 
 Mr. P. is particularly offended with what he calls 
 the " omnipresence" of the devil ; which notion, like 
 many others he combats with, is of his own invention. 
 The fact is, that the Hebrews often attribute to Satan 
 individually the mischiefs of a whole legion, just as] we 
 refer to a commander in chief the various actions of a 
 campaign, in many of which he could personally "have 
 no concern. 
 
 Now, if the reader sees any thing laughable in this 
 ssytem, whether true or false, let him indulge his le- 
 vity; only let him know what it is he laughs at. For 
 my part, I am not ashamed to own that I believe it, 
 
 and 
 
( 43 ) 
 
 and if I am wrong have at least the happiness to err 
 in company with the immortal Milton *, the philo- 
 sophic Baxter'\y and other writers of equal celebrity. 
 
 But to return to the history of the fall. Satan, the 
 chief of these depraved spirits, plotted the ruin of our 
 first parents; and the Almighty, for wiser and better 
 ends than we may be aware of, saw fit to permit it. 
 No doubt, had Satan possessed the sagacity of some of 
 his modern apologists, he might have formed some 
 deeper plan; his, however, such as it was, but too 
 well succeeded. He enters the most sagacious of all 
 animals, inspires him with reason, at least with 
 sophistry, draws in the woman first as the weaker 
 vessel, and then, I suppose, it is no great wonder 
 that she drew in her husband- 
 
 But what most provokes the risibility of some per- 
 sons is the devils choice of a serpent for his agent. 
 They think it the most unlikely creature in the world 
 to be a tempter, and pemaps that might be the very 
 reason which determined the choice of our grand ene- 
 my : for I believe it will be granted, we suffer most 
 from temptations, where we least suspect them. There 
 is, however, strong reason to believe that the serpent 
 was originally a much more amiable creature than at 
 present—^ that it went in some measure erect— tha 
 it inhabited the trees, and lived, like man, upon its 
 
 fruits J: — and if it had no power of imitating speech, 
 
 < 
 
 * Sec Parad. Lost, 
 •j* Enquiry into the Nature of the Human Soul, 
 X See Gen. iii. 14. 
 
 F t there 
 
( 4* 3 
 there was still the more reason to insinuate (as Milton 
 makes him *) that this capacity was the consequence 
 of tasting the forbidden fruit. 
 
 Having obviated some of the terribly ridiculous 
 circumstances of this story, I must leave the rest on 
 the credit of the historian. If the reader continues 
 dissatisfied, let him try if he can find or invent any 
 more rational hypothesis to account for the introduc- 
 tion of moral evil into our world. 
 
 I know that some attempts have been made to rob 
 Moses of the honour of writing the Pentateuch, and 
 to give it to some unknown hand; but they have been 
 so weak, and answered so ably, that I shall still ven- 
 ture to attribute these books to the Hebrew legislator; 
 especially as the contrary, if proved, would notmatc- 
 rially affect our cause. 
 
 I have already pointed out the credentials of Moses, 
 namely, the miracles he wrought, both in the pre- 
 sence of the Egyptians and before all Israel. But they 
 had, if possible, yet stronger proofs of his divine 
 mission. They saw him enter the thick cloud, where 
 the divine presence was terribly manifested ; they saw 
 him descend after forty days residence, where they 
 did not think it possible he could have survived ; they 
 saw his countenance so irradiated with glory, that 
 they could not stedfastly behold it without a veil ; 
 nay farther, they heard the same words which he 
 brought to them on tables of stone, denounced from 
 
 » 
 
 * Far. Lost, Book ix. 
 
 Heaven 
 
( 4^ ) 
 
 Heaven in a voice that nothing on earth could imi- 
 tate*. So far is it from true, as Mr. P. pretends, 
 that they had no other authority for believing their 
 law came from heaven, than his telling them so f/* 
 Still however, our author will insist, that though the 
 ten commandments " contain some good moral pre- 
 cepts,^' yet do they carry " no internal evidence of 
 divinity with them:'' on the contrary, he is confi- 
 dent that one clause, that of" visiting the sins of the 
 fathers upon the children," is " contrary to every 
 principle of moral justicej." The fact,. however, is . 
 indisputable, that both blessings and calamities are 
 often intailed from one generation to another, and 
 that in private families as well as nations; if Mr. P. 
 can account for the fact upon his principles, we shall 
 not find it hard to account for the threatening upon 
 
 our's- 
 
 But the whole difficulty may be cleared up by 
 one observation, namely, that it is only when chil- 
 dren copy and improve on the crimes of their wicked 
 parents, that they draw down upon their own heads 
 redoubled vengeance : so that the innocent never suf- 
 fer for the guilty, except in such temporal calamities 
 as necessarily result from their parents' crimes : as 
 when the profligacy of one generation involves the 
 next in poverty, or the like. On the contrary, so 
 benevolent is the God of Israel, that the eminent 
 piety of one man is sometimes rewarded with bles- 
 sings on thousands of his descendants ; as was the 
 
 * Ex. XX. 18— 22. t Page 4. :^ Ibid. Note. 
 
 case 
 
{ *6 ) 
 
 case with Abraham and his children. This is the 
 God whom deists represent as cruel and vindictive! 
 With respect to the rest of the Old Testament 
 history, I shall only drop a few general hints, and 
 leave them to the reader^s reflection to enlarge and 
 improve. 
 
 I. It is unquestionably the most ancient history 
 in the world ; and gives the only account of the 
 earliest ages which has the least pretensions to pro- 
 bability!' 
 
 II. The most ancient historic monuments in the 
 world harmonize with scripture in the most material 
 facts, and where they disagree have much less claim 
 to credit. 
 
 III. The candid manner in which the sacred wri- 
 ters, as Moses, David, &c. record their own faults, 
 and the crimes of their own nation, is a strong in- 
 ternal evidence in their favour, such as no other an- 
 cient historian can pretend to. 
 
 IV. There are a great number of incidental mat- 
 ters to be found in these books, relating to geography, 
 natural history, the progress of the arts, &c, which 
 would make the inventor of the Bible a prodigy of 
 genius and learning, not to be equalled in ancient 
 or modern times. 
 
 V. The Jews were rather incredulous than other- 
 wise, to their own prophets, and strongly biassed 
 in favour of the idolatry of other nations. So that 
 in all ages there were a number of persons who 
 
 would 
 
( *7 ) 
 
 would have willingly discovered, or encouraged any 
 discoveiy of imposition. 
 
 VI. The moral character of that nation was by 
 no means so uniformly bad as Voltaire and some 
 other writers of the same stamp have pretended. In 
 some ages their morals were much purer, and their 
 piety proportionably more fervent, than in others. 
 Such was the generation which first entered Canaan 
 with Joshua. 
 
 VII. The sacred writers, like other historians, 
 are answerable only for facts, not for their morality. 
 If the Jewish history is stained with blood and cruel- 
 ty, so is that of all other nations, and without the ad- 
 vantage of being relieved by such histories of piety 
 and virtue as abound in scripture. 
 
 VIII. Though many of the events of sacred his- 
 tory are strange and miraculous, yet the occasion of 
 them is generally great and becoming. Many of 
 the circumstances seem, indeed, at this distance of 
 time, unaccountable, and are perhaps greatly misun- 
 derstood ; partly through the conciseness of the sa- 
 cred records, and partly through the fruitful com- 
 ments of learned and unlearned annotators. This is 
 perhaps, particularly, the case with some particulars 
 in the History of Sampson, at which Mr. P. so plea- 
 santly sneers. 
 
 There is one little history, however, that of Jonah, 
 with which he is so prophanely merry, that I cannot 
 help remarking it, especially as he admits the story to 
 be at least possible; for he owns, that the whale was 
 
 ** large 
 
( 48 ) 
 
 "large enough^' to swallow Jonah, though he thinks 
 it would have been better to have reversed the 
 story, and made Jonah swallow the whale, as it would 
 certainly afford more ample room for merriment*. 
 To such a miserable shift are the enemies of revela- 
 tion reduced, that they are obliged toalter and reverse 
 the sacred records to find room for ridicule and cen- 
 sure ; and yet these men are ever complaining of the 
 absurdities of revelation ! 
 
 The other parts of the Old Testament are either 
 devotional , moral, or prophetic. In the former 
 class the book of Psalms is particularly conspicuous, 
 and has often excited the admiration of persons, who 
 paid little regard to almost any other book of the He- 
 brew code. Here, however, Mr. P. can recollect 
 but one psalm, which he thinks any way worth com- 
 mendation, and which he esteems a "true deisticaP^ 
 composition ; but he is certainly very unlucky in fixing 
 on the nineteenth, since the one-half of that is ex- 
 pressly composed in commendation of the scriptures. 
 " The law of the Lord is perfect— the statutes of 
 the Lord are right,'^ &c. The only excuse I can 
 make for him is that he keeps no Bible, as himself con- 
 fessesf, and knew nothing of the psalm but from Mr. 
 Addison^s version^ which is only of the former part. 
 Indeed, the best apology I can make for many things 
 in Mr. P. is his ignorance of the Bible; and yet what 
 apology can we make for a man who writes against 
 a book he knows little or nothing of? 
 
 • P. 52. t P' 25. 
 
 A» 
 
( 49 ) 
 
 As to. the prophets^ here our champion of infide- 
 lity lays " the axe at once to the root '' of revelation, 
 by demonstrating that the term prophet meant ori- 
 ginally a poet or musician ; which it does most irre- 
 fragably from the following striking text — " An 
 evil spirit of God came upon Saul, and he prophe- 
 sied ! — that is,^^ says our author, " he performed his 
 part badly,^* as a " musician or poet.'"* Here is 
 certainly demonstration ; but if the reader should in- 
 qinire from whatbookis this quotation taken ? Ireply, 
 from the book of — Thomas Paine, whose, and whose 
 only, is both the text and comment: so that there is 
 the greatest propriety in the triumphant note he 
 subjoins in the margin — " divines and commentators 
 
 are very fond of puzzling one another I 
 
 keep to MY text V^ 
 
 With submission to so great authority, I beg 
 leave to say, that having examined every text in 
 which this term has been supposed to signify poet 
 or musician (for the notion is not new, though the 
 proof is) I am convinced, and, would my limits ad- 
 mit of it, should endeavour to convince the reader, 
 that, however connected or introduced, the term 
 prophet^ in every instance, includes the idea of in- 
 spiration, real or pretended ; so that when it is ap- 
 plied to a musician or a poet, it always means an 
 inspired one. 
 
 It would be a painful task to run over all the 
 abuses Mr. P. bestow^s on the sacred writings, in calling 
 them " trash — paltry and contemptible tales— ob- 
 scene stories, ^^ &c. which language can only 
 
 G shew 
 
( .50 ) 
 
 shew that an author is angry, and obliged to substi- 
 tute words for arguments. 
 
 We now close the Bible, in Mr. P.^s sense of that 
 term, who restricts it to the Old Testament, as dis- 
 tinguished from the New. — Let us open the New 
 Testament. " The new Testament ! (says Mr. P.) 
 that is, the new Will, as if there could be two wills 
 of the Creator*.'* 
 
 I believe it is pretty well agreed that the Greek 
 term rendered Testament^ being ambiguous, would 
 have been better rendered Covenant, Supposing, 
 however, Testament to be the proper import of the 
 term, where is the absurdity of two testaments? the 
 Old Testament was that of God in his antient cha- 
 racter, as God of Israel ; the Neii) is that of Jesus 
 Christ, our Redeemer and Mediator. 
 
 We cannot attend to all the mistakes and absurdi- 
 ties of " The Age of Reason :*' a few of the most pro- 
 minent must be selected. The first circumstance 
 on which I shall animadvert, is that *' whaleof a mi- 
 racle,-^ as Mr. P, calls it, '' the Devil flying away with 
 Jesus Christ f."'^ Mr. P. however, commits ano- 
 ther mistake in saying this is related in the New Tes- 
 tament, for I can find nothing like it in either of the 
 evangelists, nor any thing upon the subject that a 
 wise man need be ashamed of believing. 
 
 The evangelic history is simply this J ; that after 
 Jesus Christ had spent forty days in prayer and fas- 
 ting in the desert, preparatory to his public work, 
 
 * P, 16. t 3P. 52, } See Mat. iv. 
 
 Satan 
 
( 51 ) 
 
 Satan, who had deceived our first parents, appeared 
 to him, not with a long tail and a cloven foot, but, pro- 
 bably, as an angel of light, sent to attend him, and 
 insinuated, in different situations, the three grand 
 temptations, he has found so successful among man- 
 kind — despair, presumption, and ambition. 
 
 The proper scene for the first of these temptations 
 was the desert. Jesus was an hungered, and that 
 situation affording no food, the tempter suggests the 
 necessity of working a miracle to procure some; in- 
 sinuating at the same time, that his forlorn situation 
 afforded ground to doubt of his divine character. 
 This repelled, he takes our Lord, not flying through 
 the air, but doubtless, by the proper way of the stairs 
 to the highest part of the temple, from whence the 
 valley below appeared stupendously deep; in this 
 dizzy situation the tempter persuaded him to cast 
 himself down, insinuating, if I mistake not, that he 
 was commissioned as a guardian angel to secure him 
 from danger by the fall — " he hath given his angels 
 charge to keep thee.*^ In the last instance, he con- 
 ducts the Redeemer to the highest mountain in the 
 neighbourhood, which presented a scene of terrestrial 
 grandeur. Mr. Maundrell was, as he supposed, on 
 the very mountain, and describes it as exceedingly 
 high and steep, and commanding an extensive and 
 delightful view of the mountains of Arabia, the Dead 
 sea, and the plains of Jericho. St. Matthew says, the 
 devil from tliis mountain shewed our Lord "all the 
 kingdoms of the world and the glory of them,^^ from 
 whence it has been concluded that,, being *^ the prince 
 
 Q% of 
 
( ^^ ) 
 
 of the power of the air*/^ he formed an aerial hori- 
 zon around the mountain, in which he exhibited a 
 grand display of royalty and magnificence. But as 
 the Jews used the terms '* kingdoms" and " world" 
 in a very contracted sense f, I am not certain any 
 thing more is intended than might be seen without 
 a miracle.* 
 
 Passing all inferior objects, we now come to the, 
 two most important facts on which Christianity is 
 founded — the death and resurrection o^ ^^^m^ Christ. 
 The first of these is, indeed, admitted, but in terms 
 that throw reproach upon his sacred character. 
 
 After asserting that Jesus Christ was " npt more 
 than eighteen months ^^ a preacher, and that during 
 the latter part of this time he kept himself as pri- 
 vate as possible, and lived " concealed, " — Mr. P. 
 adds " the idea of his concealment not only agrees 
 very ill with his reputed divinity, but associates 
 with it something o{ puslUanlmltij ; and his being be- 
 trayed, or in other words, his being apprehended on 
 the information of one of -his followers, shews that 
 he did not intend to be apprehended, and conse- 
 quently that he did not intend to be cruciiied J." 
 
 The time of our Lord's ministry is usually, and 
 I believe justly, reckoned to be three years and an 
 half, during which he preached and wrought mira- 
 cles in the most public manner: during this period 
 
 * Ephes, li. 2. 
 t Sec Gen. xxxvii. 31. — Mutt. ii. 1 — John xli. ll>, hz, 
 % P^ge 17. 
 
 also 
 
( 58 ) 
 
 also he repeatedly foretold both his ^eath and the 
 manner of it, and that it was the great end of his 
 coming into the world*. As the time drew nearer, 
 be declared its approach f , surrendered to the first 
 inquiry of the officers J, forbade his disciples to make 
 any attempt of rescue §, and himself never offered 
 to escape — now, if all these circumstances do not 
 amount to a sufficient proof that the Saviour of men 
 suffered voluntarily, I know not what can, and yet 
 all these are related by the evangelists, and there 
 can be nothing opposed to them but mere unwar- 
 ranted assertion. 
 
 But the grand attack is upon the resurrection, 
 *' The resurrection and ascension, supposing them to 
 have taken place, admitted of public and ocular de- 
 monstration, hke that of the ascension of a balloon,- 
 or the sun at noon day, to all Jerusalem at least. 
 A thing which every body is required to believe, re- 
 quires that the proof and evidence of it should be 
 equal to all, and universal ; and, as the public visibi* 
 lity of this last related act was the only evidence 
 that could give sanction to the former part, the 
 whole of it falls to the ground, because that evidence 
 was never given ||. '' 
 
 Admit for a moment, that God were pleased to 
 make a divine revelation of his will to mortals, or to 
 require our assent to a series of historical facts, it is 
 certainly very becoming for such creatures as we. 
 
 * John iii. 14. viii. 28. x. 11, 15, 17, 18. f Joiin xiii. 
 J Johnxviii. -\ — 0. § Ver. U, ji Age of Reason, p. 6\ 
 
 are. 
 
( 64: ) 
 
 are to dictate, d priori^ the kind and degree of evi- 
 dence on which we chuse to believe them ! Sup- 
 posino;, however, that Jesus Christ had arose and 
 ascended in the sight of all Jerusalem, let us see 
 what better evidence this would have afforded us of 
 the fact. All the inhabitants of Jerusalem are long 
 since dead ; that they did see it, therefore, we could 
 r.ot possibly have any other evidence than that of 
 a few historians of those ages, and these historians 
 would lie open to the same cavils and objections as 
 the evangelical writers. Mr. P. would still tell us 
 that it rested upon the credit of eight or nine, (per- 
 haps not so many) witnesses, who say they saw it, 
 and that the rest of the inhabitants saw it, whence 
 ** all the rest of the world are called upon to beheve 
 it.^^ And, if he could meet with but one unbeliev- 
 ing Thomas^ who bemg absent from Jerusalem, hap- 
 pened not to see it, he would add, " Tiiomas 
 did not believe the resurrection ; and, as they say, 
 would not believe, without having ocular and ma- 
 nual demonstration himself. So ii either will I ; and 
 tlie reason is equally as good for me, and for every 
 other person, as for Thomas." So that the objec- 
 tion to the small number of witnesses of this event 
 is reduced to a mere cavil, for if '' ocular and ma- 
 nual demonstration " be necessary^ then no historic 
 evidence can be sufficient. 
 
 And that it would not be thought so, is evident 
 from a comparison with other parallel facts. For 
 instance, the supernatural darkness and earthquake 
 vthich accompanied the crucifixion must have been 
 
 vvitnesiied 
 
C ^^ ) 
 
 witnessed by, not only all Jerusalem, but all the in- 
 habitants of Judea at least * ; and yet I dare aver 
 Mr. P. and my infidel readers, believe as little of this 
 as they do of the resurrection. So true is the asser- 
 tion of Jesus Christ, that, if men " hear not INloses 
 and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded 
 though one (even) arose from the dead l.-"^ 
 
 The witnesses of the resurection, however, were 
 more than Mr. P. is willing to admit. Besides 
 Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalen, and se- 
 veral other women, " he was seen of Cephas, [ i. e. 
 Peter] then of the twelve ; after that he was seen of 
 above five hundred brethren at once ; of whom the 
 greater part remain unto this present time, [ i. e. 
 about A. D. 56,'] but the rest are fallen asleep. Af- 
 ter that he was seen of James ; then of all the apos- 
 tles. And last of all, says St. Paul, was seen of me 
 also J.^^ — These are " the small number ©f persons, 
 not more than eight or nine,^^ who witnessed the re- 
 surrection ! 
 
 But we are told '* the best surviving evidence we 
 now have respecting this affair is the Jews, they 
 are regularly descended from the people who lived in 
 the times this resurrection and ascension are said to 
 have happened, and they say, // is not true §.^^ They 
 are also regularly descended from the people before 
 whom Moses and the prophets wrought their mira- 
 •clesi and they say that they are true : — from the 
 
 * Matt, xxvii. 45, 51 — 54, t I.iike, xvi. 31. 
 
 i I Cor. XV, 5-^9 § Age of Reason, p. 6. 
 
 people 
 
( 36 ) 
 
 people of whom we read so many extraordinary his- 
 tories, w^liich they also aver to be true : — from the 
 people " to whom were committed the oracles of 
 God, '^ and they assert that these likewise are true ; 
 in all these things, however, it seems they deserve no 
 credit, because their testimony is in favour of Reve- 
 lation : — but when they witness against Christianity, 
 and say the resurrection is not true^ then their^s is 
 the '' best evidence we now have/^ But why ? hear 
 the Reason of the Age ! 
 
 " Jesus Christ ( says he) preached most excellent 
 morality, and the equality of man ; but he preached 
 also against the corruptions and avarice of the Jew- 
 ish priests, and this brought upon him the hatred 
 and vengeance of the whole order of priesthood. 
 The accusation which these priests brought against 
 him, was that of sedition and conspiracy against the 
 Jloman government, to which the Jews were then 
 
 subject and tributary; between the two 
 
 [the Jews and the Romans] this virtuous reformer 
 and revolutionist lost his life*.^^ That is, in short, 
 the reason why the Jews in this case, and in this only, 
 deserve credit, is because their fathers hated and mur- 
 dered Jesus Christ, in the most cruel and unjust man- 
 ner! ! ! This I mustjconfess, to borrow Mr. P.^s expres- 
 sion, '' for absurdity and extravagance is not to be 
 exceeded by any thing^^ I ever met with. 
 
 As to the apparent variations among the evangel- 
 lists, they are by no means important or u naccoun- 
 
 Agc of Reason, p. 7. 
 
 table, 
 
( 57 ) 
 
 table. Several persons at different times, and for dif- 
 ferent purposes j visited the sepulchrejand found things 
 indifferent situations. This is perfectly natural and 
 consistent, and might be demonstrated if we had 
 Toom to be minute : at present I can only refer the 
 inquisitive reader to the masterly treatises of Gilbert 
 West, Esq. and Mr* Ditton, observing that neither 
 of them were clergymen, nor wrote for interest. 
 
 " All the other parts of the New Testament ex* 
 cept the book of enigmas, called the Revelations, 
 are a collection of letters under the name of epistles; 
 and the forgery of letters has been such a common 
 practice in the world, that the probability is, at least, 
 equal, whether they are genuine or forged*/' The 
 same may be said of other epistles, those of Pliny 
 and Cicero for instance, as of those of the New Tes- 
 tament. A pretty method this of getting rid of his- 
 toric evidence 1 and which may be applied with equal 
 propriety to every other species of records, as to the 
 epistles. Histories, lives, and poetic compositions, 
 have all been forged under the most respectable 
 names, therefore none of them are to be depended 
 on, and in the next century it may become a query 
 whether Thomas Paine himself ever existed. Such 
 is the tendency of infidel principles ; and some wri- 
 ters would, I believe, sooner reduce the whole his- 
 tory of former ages to a mere blank, than admit the 
 truth and authority of the sacred writings. 
 
 To the book of Revelations Mr. P. would not per- 
 
 ♦ Age of Reason, p. 10, 
 
 H 
 
 ut 
 
( ^s ) 
 
 haps have so strongly objected, had he been aware 
 tliat it predicted the French Revolution * ; at least 
 it is certain, that Jurieu, in France f, and Flemings 
 in England^, to name no more, foretold such an 
 event at the very period in which it happened : how- 
 ever, the best evidence to the divine authority of 
 this book, is to be found in the last volume of Bishop 
 Newton's Dissertations on the Prophecies. 
 
 III. We now come in the last place to consider 
 what Mr. P. calls " the three principal means that 
 have been employed in all ages, and perhaps in all 
 countries, to impose upon mankind. Those three 
 means are, Mystery^ Miiacle^ and Tropitecij. The 
 two first ( he adds ) are incompatible with true reli- 
 gion, and the third ought always to be suspected §/' 
 
 1 . *' With respect to Mystery, every thing we be- 
 hold, is, in onesense, a mystery:to us the whole vegeta- 
 ble world is a mystery. Wecannotaccounthowitisthat 
 an acorn when put into the ground, is made to develope 
 itself, and become an oak, Weknownothowit is that 
 the seed we sowunfolds and multiplies itself, and returns 
 to us such an abundant interest for so small a capital . 
 
 *' The fact, however, as distinct from the operating 
 cause, is not a*mystery, because we see it ; and we 
 know also the means we are to use, which is no 
 other than putting the seed into the ground. We 
 know, therefore, as much as it is necessary for us to 
 
 * Rev. xi. 13. t The Fulfilment of Scrip. Proph. 
 
 X Rise and Fall of Popery. § Age of Reason, p. 4T. 
 
 know ; 
 
( 59 ) 
 
 know ; and that part of the operation that wc do not 
 know, and which, if we did, we could not perform, 
 the Creator takes upon himself, and performs it for 
 us. We are therefore better off than if we had been 
 let into the secret, and left to do it for ourselves*.^' 
 
 In these observations I have the happiness perfect- 
 ly to agree with Mr. P. and thank him much for so 
 ably answering his own objections. Let us apply 
 this reasoning to the mysteries of natural and reveal- 
 ed religion. The existence of God is a mystery. 
 *' The facthowever, as distinct from^' the manner of it 
 " isnota mystery,because we see^^ the fullest evidence 
 of it in everything around us. '* We know, therefore, 
 as much as it is necessary for us to know^^ in or- 
 der to dictate the duties we owe to our Creator. 
 
 Again, the doctrine of ^Wmt omnipresence is itself a 
 mystery. " The fact, however, as distinct from ^* the 
 mode " isnota mystery, because^^ Reason strongly in- 
 dictates it must be so, and Revelation positively as- 
 serts it. * 
 
 Lastly, the doctrine of a Trinittj — that is, that 
 " there are three that bear record in heaven, the Fa- 
 ther, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three 
 are one f ^^ — is a mystery, not that th^Jact itself is so, 
 because it is revealed, but the manner in which the 
 three are one, or the one is three, is still a mystery, for it 
 is not known, and perhaps never will be. But we 
 " know as much as is necessary for us to know,^^ and 
 have therefore no business to push our inquiries farther. 
 
 ♦ Age of Reason, p. 47, 48. , f 1 John v. 7. 
 
 H2 *' But 
 
( 60 ) 
 
 '^ But (says our Philosopher) the word mystery 
 cannot be applied to moral truth ; ^^ that i§, if I un-^ 
 derstand the proposition, there is no mystery in 
 our moral duties, because they are all obvious 
 or revealed. This is granted ; but the following in« 
 ferences have no relation to these premises. 
 
 *^ The God in whom we believe is a God of mo- 
 ral truth, and not a God of mystery Religion, 
 
 therefore, being the belief of a God, and the practice 
 of moral truth, cannot have any connection with 
 mystery. The belief of a God, so far from having 
 any thing of mystery in it, is of all beliefs the most 
 easy, because it arises to us, as is before observed, 
 out of necessity. And the practice of moral truth, 
 or in other words, a practical imitation of the mo- 
 ral goodness of God, is no other than our acting to- 
 wards each other, as he acts benignly towards all*/^ 
 Here are several mistakes of considerable importance. 
 If by " the belief of a God,'' Mr. P. intends only 
 a believing that there is a God, this indeed is not 
 mysterious, but then it is a very small part of reli- 
 gion: the worst men in the world generally admit 
 this. If he means to include a belief of the divine 
 perfections, as omnipresence, omniscience, &c. these 
 subjects are full of mystery, as already observed. 
 But the most striking defect in Mr. P/s religion, 
 is, that it admits no kind of religious worship, pri- 
 vate orsocial : for he comprehends the whole in faith 
 ^nd morals. What then, is the boasted religion 
 
 ♦ A'gt of Reason, p, 48, 
 
 of 
 
( 61 ) 
 
 of nature reduced to this? Are no grateful ac- 
 knowledgements to be made to our bountiful bene- 
 factor ? No prayer to be offered for his blessings, fa- 
 vours, or protection ? Alas ! it should seem not : for, 
 in another part of his work, Mr. P. condemns and 
 ridicules every thing which bears the appearance of 
 piety or devotion, " Humility" he stiles " ingra- 
 titude ; ^^ — Prayer is, with him, a presumptuous 
 *' attempt to make the Almighty change his mind*/* 
 i— O Socrates ! O Plato ! by what indignant name 
 wouldst thou have called this religion ? 
 
 But the mysteries of Redemption are, it seems, 
 peculiarly offensive to our author, as they have ever 
 been to the proud children of human science. The 
 following passage is indeed shocking to a serious 
 mind, but the quotation may afford some useful re- 
 flections. '^ From the time says our author I was 
 capable of conceiving an idea, and acting upon it 
 by reflection, I either doubted the truth of the chris- 
 tian system, or thought it to be a strange affair ; I 
 scarcely knew which it was : but I well remember, 
 when about seven or eight years of age, hearing a 
 sermon read by a relation of mine, who was a great 
 devotee of the church, upon the subject of what is 
 called Redemption by the Death of the Son of God, 
 After the sermon was ended, I went into the garden, 
 and as I was going down the garden steps ( for I 
 perfectly recollect the spot ) I revolted at the recol- 
 lection of what I had heard, and thought to myself 
 
 Age of Reason, p. 21, 
 
 that 
 
( 62 ) 
 
 that it was making God Almighty act like a passion- 
 ate man, that killed his son when he could not re- 
 venge himself any other way ; and, as I was sure a 
 man would be hanged that did such a thing, I could 
 not sec for what purpose they preached such 
 
 sermons*/^ 
 
 From this passage, I cannot help remarking, and 
 it is a remark of some consequence, that what are 
 called the doctrines of Redemption and Grace ap- 
 pear very evidently to deistical writers to be the 
 doctrines of the Bible, though some nominal chris- 
 tians cannot find them there. And it appears from 
 Mr. P. and other writers of the same principles, 
 that this is their grand reason for rejecting them. So 
 it was in the first propagation of Christianity. The 
 preaching of the cross was " to the Jews, a stum- 
 bling block, and to the Greeks, foolishness : ^^ but, 
 blessed be God ! it is to '' them that believe,'^ of 
 every nation, " the wisdom and the power of 
 
 Godf.'' 
 
 It may be possible to represent the evidences of 
 Christianity with such strength and perspicuity as 
 to force conviction upon the mind of an objector, or 
 at least silence him : yet, unless the heart of man 
 be truly humbled under a sense of guilt, and he is 
 brought to see his need of such a Saviour as tlie 
 gospel exhibits, he will never truly receive him: 
 for " the natural man receiveth not the things of 
 
 * Age of Rea^n, p. 38. . i I Cor. i. 18—24 
 
 the 
 
{ 65 ) 
 
 the Spirit of God, neither indeed can he^ for they 
 are spiritually discerned *.^^ 
 
 I shall conclude this article with noticing a misre- 
 presentation of the christian doctrine, for which I 
 want a proper epithet. " The christian mythology 
 (says Mr. P.) has five deities : there is God the Fa- 
 ther, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, the God 
 Providence ^*2Lnd the Goddess Nature J*^ O shame on 
 common sense and candour I not only to misrepresent 
 the doctrine of the Trinity, but to make christians 
 worshippers of the Goddess Nature! to say nothing 
 of the absurdity of making a God of Providence. 
 
 The two following articles, having been partly 
 considered already, shall be touched wdth all pos- 
 sible brevity. 
 
 2. Miracles in every point of view appear to 
 Mr. P. both" improbable'^ and " unnecessary.'* 
 He raises this question, whether, " is it more pro- 
 bable that nature should go out of her course, or 
 that a man should tell a lie? ^' and determines it 
 " at least millions to one, that the reporter tells a 
 lie.^* This may be true enough, for ought I know, 
 of some men ; but there is a great difference in cha- 
 racters ; and the madness of this way of reasoning 
 is evident by applying it to another case. Mr. P. 
 mentions the power of electricity — suppose he w^as 
 to tell an illiterate countryman, that by an electrical 
 machine he could extract flashes of fire from the 
 human body, and that without giving, any painful 
 
 * 1 Cor. ii. 14. 
 
 sensations 
 
( 64 ) 
 
 sensations, might not the clown reply, ** milhons 
 of lies have I heard told, but such a thing I never 
 saw ; it is therefore millions to one that you tell a 
 lie. '' 
 
 But, to bring the question to a closer issue. It 
 is allowed on all hands that Jesus Christ did pre- 
 tend to work miracles.— Mr. P. says Jesus Christ 
 was " a virtuous and an amiable man^'—- that " the 
 morality he preached and practised was of the most 
 benevolent kind *." — " He preached most excel- 
 lent morality, and the equality of man," and was, 
 it is said, " a virtuous reformer and j-evolufion" 
 ist t," which I suppose is the highest term of pa- 
 negyric in Mr. P/s vocabulary. — Now, if mi- 
 racles are all tricks of legerdemain, as he repre- 
 sents them J, how can he reconcile the conduct 
 of Jesus Christ with his own character of him ? 
 Is it not, in his own words, degrading '* a vir- 
 tuous reformer " to represent him as *' a shew-man 
 playing tricks to amuse and make the people stare 
 and wonder § ?'^ If Jesus only imposed on vul- 
 gar credulity, he must have been an impostor, and 
 consequently not " virtuous and amiable : " If he 
 w^as " virtuous and amiable," he was not an impos- 
 tor, but really wrought the miracles he pretended to. 
 
 3. Lastly, we must add another word respecting 
 prophecies. Mr. P. here adverts to what he had 
 already said respecting the change of import in 
 
 ♦ Age of Reason, p. 5. f lb. p. 7. 
 
 X lb. p. 49. § lb. p. 51. 
 
 the 
 
i 66 ) 
 
 the meaning of the word prophet, We h^v 
 already examined his proof of this ; but ^^^ 
 of his arguments escaped us. It is this, that th^ 
 prophets are distinguished into " greater and les- 
 ser: ^^ now, as he supposes there cannot be degrees 
 of inspiration, the term must refer to poetry; i. e. 
 they were major and minor poets. To the confu- 
 sion of this argument, however, the term, which is 
 not scriptural, was only intended to distinguish the 
 larger books from the smaller, as I should suppose 
 almost every child must know. 
 
 To get rid of the evidence of prophecy, ke re- 
 $olves it into wild guess and conjecture, which I 
 can compare to nothing so properly as to Epicurus's 
 wild notion, that all the beautiful creation we behold 
 originated from an accidental confluence of atoms. 
 
 I cannot here pursue the subject minutely; but, 
 for the satisfaction of such readers as wish to exa- 
 mine for themselves, I shall only point out three re- 
 markable prophesies with their accomplishment, 
 and then with a short anecdote leave the reader 
 to his own reflections. 
 
 Jeremiah 1. and li. compared with Dan. v. 
 
 If. lii. 13, to the end of liii. compared with 
 Matt, xxvii. xxviii. 
 
 Matt, xxiv. compared with Josephus's History 
 of the Destruction of Jerusalem. 
 
 The whole of these, with many more, may be 
 found beautifully illustrated and explained in Bi- 
 shop Newton on the Prophesies^ and Lowth upon 
 Isaiah. I shall conclude this subject with an anec- 
 dote, referring to the second of these passages. 
 
 K Tho 
 
( <56 ) 
 
 The y^ty and profligate character of fVilmot^ 
 ^^j.j ^r Rochester, is but too well known from his 
 .^orks. Few men ever exceeded him in debauchee 
 ery, :yet it pleased God to honour his own grace in 
 the. conversion of this chief of sinners, during his 
 last illness; and then those scriptures, . which had. 
 before so often been the subject of his sport and ri- 
 dicule, became the only ground of his hope and 
 comfort. The above fifty- third chapter of Isaiah, in 
 particular, greatly excited his admiration and devo- 
 tion. He had it repeatedly read to him, and de- 
 scanted much upon it, as beautifully fulfilled in the 
 suflferings, death, and resurrection of the Redeemer. 
 
 I have now gone through what was proposed. 
 There are many other things in Mr. P. which me- 
 rit severe animadversion ; but my limits oblige me 
 to forbear. I shall therefore take leave of the reader, 
 with observing, from the close of the pamphlet be- 
 fore us, the sum total of all the discoveries of modern 
 philosophy in religion — namely, that, by reducing 
 ..all, religion to one simple article, the belief of a God, 
 it cuts off every improvement in divine knowledge 
 from the days of Adam — throws us back into the 
 darkest ages of heathenism — levels us,, in this 
 respect, with the most illiterate barbarians — and all 
 ,the comfort it leaves a g^Dod man, as to futurity, is, 
 that " the Power that gave us existence is able to 
 continue it.^' — ^To such writers I would take up 
 Jt^b's parable, and say—" Miserable comforters are 
 .ye. ^11, and physicians of no value. ^^ 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 W. S. Betham, Printer, Furnivars-inn Court^ Holborii. 
 
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