PREFACE. IN our age, Christianity has been attacked in various ways. Some, with dissembled professions of friendship, have laboured secretly to undermine its fundamental principles; while others have either boldly denied the miracles, which attest its Divine authority, or misrepresented the spirit and tendency by which it is characterized. Learning has drawn forth its resources, vain philosophy has levelled its arguments, and wit employed its ridicule, against the sacred cause in which confessors and martyrs have nobly dared to die. Nor have there been wanting men of distinguished ability and zeal, to unravel the sophistries, and confute the objections of infidelity. Such writers as Campbell, Beattie, Paley, and Watson, have doubtless contributed, in no small degree, to confirm the minds of many in the belief of Divine revelation. But, while the out-works of our holy religion are so triumphantly defended, great numbers, it is to be feared, overlook its interior excellency! Hence it comes to pass, that while there is a general acquaintance with the leading facts and moral precepts of the Gospel, its peculiar doctrines are unacknowledged, or, which is worse, branded with opprobrious epithets, and represented as the absurd opinions of some despised party of enthusiasts. The grand topic of the Christian dis+ pensation is, salvation through the blood of Christ. The doctrines, which unfold this all-important subject, are not calculated to feed the pride of man, but to subdue and eradicate it. They point out the insufficiency and danger of every flimsy refuge of selfrighteousness, and the necessity of an entire dependence on the grace of God, that no flesh should glory in his pre |