much fidelity and exactness as he was master of; and, as they had a very strong effect on himself, he hopes the present abstract has not so entirely obscured their force, or tarnished their beauty, but that they may yet have some influence on others. At least, he is disposed to flatter himself, that thus some persons may be induced to give the argument a fair hearing, and, where they find it here deficient or obscure, to apply for farther information elsewhere; which, if they are once disposed seriously to attend to it, they will certainly be at no loss to discover. 66 As the subject was introduced into the Society, or at least supported, on the infidel side, by an appeal to two pamphlets in answer to Bishop Watson's Apology; the one entitled, Watson refuted, by SAMUEL FRANCIS, M. D." and the other, "The Apology for the Bible examined, by A. MACLEOD," which were then just published; it was the Editor's wish, to bring the following little work forward immediately, in order to serve as an antidote to the poison of those publications. He accordingly had prepared, and nearly transcribed it for the Press, by the middle of January: The publication, however, has been thus long delayed by a variety of circumstances, which it was impossible to foresee, and which, as they are entirely of a private nature, it is unnecessary to detail. The delay, indeed, might have been advantageous, had the Editor had leisure to direct his attention to the improvement of the work; or could he have prevailed on the Member chiefly concerned, to take it under his own care. One advantage, however, he thinks it has derived by the delay, from the two Letters in the Appendix; an addition which, he is inclined to think, will prove agreeable and useful, and which, as they were written several months after the whole was finished, were only communicated to him about a fortnight ago, with leave to make use of them. The Editor has also had an opportunity, whilst the work was lying by, to hear the opinions of some of his friends, respecting the propriety of publishing it at all. On one hand, he was told, that the works, the effect of which it was intended to defeat, were too contemptible to attract attention, and too glaringly absurd to mislead, if they should; that, in fact, they had already fallen into the oblivion they merited; insomuch that the second part of one of them, said to be in the Press in September, had never yet appeared: that, therefore, it would be paying them a higher compliment than they deserved, to publish any confutation of them; and that any such confutation might rather do harm than good, by bringing them again into notice, and by making it be thought that they were more important than is really the case, and even, by provok ing more such unworthy attempts to mislead the understanding and to corrupt the heart. On the other hand, it was argued, that the attempts of infidels had of late been more than ordinarily numerous that they appeared in every shape that was calculated to confound or to mislead; under the artful mask of Christian charity; under the shadow of a liberal defence, of reason, philosophy and virtue; and sometimes they came forward with the boldness of avowed atheism. It was therefore contended, that as their assiduity was so great, and unfortunately so successful, it became the duty of every sincere Christian, to do his utmost to check the growth of an evil so fatal to the peace and happiness of society; to restrain, if possible, those who had already been deluded; to direct and assist those who were coming into the world, against the artful attacks to which they would certainly be liable; and to confirm those who were as yet unseduced. By these, and such like arguments, the Editor was led to think that his efforts might do some good; and he trusts they are so conducted that at least they can do no harm. Of controversy he is well aware there is no end; for there ever have been, and probably ever will be, men who, when it is likely to serve a purpose, or to gratify a restless spirit of singularity or contradiction, will controvert and misrepresent the most certain facts. He is equally well convinced, that as controversy is generally carried on, especially with respect to religion, against which objections are urged age after age, and year after year, in spite of confutation, improved in nothing but in their futility and boldness, it is far from being a desireable thing for a quiet man, to enter into it :-nor is he ignorant that the following little work, when viewed by persons less interested, may be thought liable to objections which he does not at present perceive. As, however, he by no means pretends to hold it out as a complete or perfect treatise, from its nature. and origin this could scarcely be expected, he trusts he may lay claim to some degree of candid interpretation, on account of his intentions. The objections of the petulant, or the sneer of the infidel, he hopes he has fortitude enough to disregard; but the approbation of the candid scholar and sincere Christian, no honest man would wish to forfeit. On the whole, the Editor trusts, that, as his intentions, in making this use of the materials afforded him, are good, the errors which may be thought to attach to his part of the execution, will be the more readily forgiven; and that, on the whole, the ef fects of the publication may be beneficial. Of one thing he is certain, that, could he command a serious, unprejudiced, and unimpassioned attention to the subject, his pur |