I do not mean to be understood, that the particular event which led me into the above-mened enquiry, had in it any thing either supernatural or miraculous; but it was one of those remarkable or Providential occurrences, of which every man of observation, who has lived long and seen much, must recollect to have met with something like it, in the course of his own life, and which has given an entirely new turn or direction to his thoughts upon some important subject or other. In the case alluded to, my mind received a sudden impulse, which led me not only into the first and second train of inquiry and comparative process, above stated; but to read carefully, in connection with the Bible, and to compare with their adversaries, whom I had formerly read, the following works, viz: Prideaux's Connections of Sacred and Profane History-the Chevalier Ramsay's inimitable work on Natural and Revealed Religion-Butler's Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, to the Constitution and Course of NatureMichaelis's invaluable Commentaries on the Laws of Moses-Leland's View of the Deistical Writers-Berkeley's Minute PhilosopherForbes's Thoughts Concerning Religion; his Letter to a Bishop, and his Reflections on Incredulity-Watson's Apology for Christianity(in which he so completely refuted, and humbled one of the great Apostles of the Infidel School, the ingenious and eloquent Gibbon, so much so that Mr. Gibbon fairly fled from the controversy)-Campbell's Reply to Hume's Essay on Miracles-(I had read the Essay twice nearly thirty years ago, without ever, till the last year, taking the pains to read the reply)

The History of the Cosmogony of the Creation; and Biographical and Historical Sketches of Moses, David and Jesus Christ, scattered in the 1st, 4th, and 10th volumes of The Universal History, written mostly by that once eccentric, always profound, and finally pious and irreproachable Psalmanazer-the articles in the Encyclopedia Britannica, relating to the subject of Theology, and more especially to Christ and his Divine System-Campbell's Four Gospels with Preliminary Dissertations, and Notes Critical and Explanatory-Addison's brief work, entitled Of the Christian Religion-Paley's Natural Theology, and his Evidences of Christianity-Chalmers's Evidence and Authority of the Christian Revelation-Nine Essays on several of the most important topics of Christianity, which are scattered in the 1st, 3d, and 4th volumes of a London Periodical work, entitled, The Observer, and last, though not least, in point of importance and ability, Sherlock's Trial of the Witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus.*

In this course of reading, there are several small works, which I am surprised are not published by our tract societies, instead of many weak and inefficient essays which they distribute. I do not mean to insinuate a want of judgment on their part, but merely a participation in a common error; for it has been too long an axiom with statesmen, politicians, and all manner of teachers and preachers, that the multitude require to be fed with the pap-spoons of religion, literature and science but those who so judge, confound inanity or imbecility of *See Appendix, Note 19.

mind, which is not common, with ignorance, or want of information, which unfortunately is too common. I have found in the most benighted common sailor; in the rudest and most illiterate German of Schoharie; and in the most vulgar and ignorant yankee of Otsego; native intellect equal to that of a Rittenhouse, or a Franklin; and such instances are far more numerous, than is imagined by those, who, secluded in colleges, academies, and otherwise, converse mostly with books, and mingle but little, if any, with the mass of mankind. On the other hand, inanity or imbecility of mind, is not often met with. The truth is, if we would make good and useful men of children, we should treat them as rational and immortal beings from the moment they begin to lisp a syllable: banishing all frivolous prattle and nonsense from our intercourse with them, and all brutal force, such as scourging and beatingfor in his recommendation of the rod, I cannot agree with my ancient namesake, great as he was-we should use only sound reason, truth, and mild persuasion. I hardly know in which respect our Saviour appears the most amiable and interesting; whether when he says-Suffer little children to come unto me-or when he invites all who labour and are heavy laden to find rest to their souls in the consolations of his divine mission: If, then, we should thus deal with children; so, on the other hand, to make wise or, well-informed men, of ignorant ones, we should follow the same rational and manly course, and furnish them with important facts, and conclusive arguments, instead of simple stories, whether fictions or not, of pious dairy

maids, and penitent Magdalenes: it was not thus that Paul accosted the benighted and the ignorant, to whom he carried the glad tidings of salvation; on the contrary all he said, was serious, sensible, bold, energetic. Quintilian is often quoted as having said, that the unpolished human mind is like marble in the quarry; but he forgot, in making the comparison, that there is soft as well as hard marble, and whilst the latter will bear polishing, the former will not. The darkness of the human intellect may be illumined, but its weakness cannot be strengththened. Imbecility, therefore, will ever remain imbecility. "The Ethiop cannot change his skin, nor the Leopard his spots :" but the mind of the one, if not like the soft marble, may be polished and improved; and so may the fierceness of the other be tamed, at least so far as to know the hand that feeds it. With such works as Watson's Apology for Christianity-his Apology for the Bible-the small work of Chalmers-and that of Sherlock, in their handsI should not, in the least, fear to risk the controversy between Christianity and Infidelity, on the effect of these works alone upon the native good sense of our countrymen in general; and that, too, without going back to the pages of Tacitus, an opponent, to prove the existenceor to those of the early and orthodox Fathers, like Barnabas and Clement, for testimony nearly collateral or to the writings of the Evangelists themselves for intrinsic evidence-of CHRIST, and of whence he came, and of what he performed for the glory of his Eternal Father, and the benefit and the gratitude of the human race. The work of Chalmers is, of itself, conclusive-and well it may be-for

although he commenced it with his mina clouded by skepticism; yet so sure is truth to prevail, when it does come fairly in contact with minds capable of receiving it, that before he finished his work, the light burst upon him in all its divine splendor, and with such irresistible force, that his mind, his heart, all his nobler thoughts, feelings and affections, became firmly rivetted in the faith and the love of the Lord Jesus. No wonder, then, that the conviction which struck so deeply into his own mind, he imparts to the mind of his reader with equally irresistible power; for it is when mind meets mind, and heart meets heart, upon any subject, that the triumph of truth is as sure and unfailing, as the everlasting streams that fructify the earth, and sustain the animal powers of creation.

I am well aware, that my old infidel friends may sneer at all this; and that my old and inveterate political, as well as new and malignant masonic enemies, will no doubt join them. The mean and dastardly persecution, slander and abuse, that I have been, for many years, subjected to from old political foes, as well as some old, pretended and insidious friends; together with the disappointment, which my quondam brethren, in infidelity, will experience, on reading this work; all concur to admonish me of what I may, and most probably shall, have to encounter but neither their sneers, nor their jeers, will affect me in the least, in any other way than to give me real pleasure. Fortified, as I am, in my own conscience-standing, as I know that I do, in this work, and as I mean to do in all cases, on the one hand upon the ark of virtue, and of constitutional freedom; and on.