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CONVERSATION II.

MR. B.

HAVING seen the necessity of an inquiry into the truth of the Christian religion, we are naturally led to ask by what means we can ascertain it.

EDWARD.

We are here under great disadvantages, in that so long a period has elapsed since its first promulgation.

MR. B.

But, in consequence, we have no reason to believe that any further discoveries relative to the subject will hereafter be made.

EDWARD.

From the disagreement of its partisans among themselves, we are also deprived of the benefit of immediately ascertaining what is Christianity, and on what foundation it rests.

BEATRICE.

Yet this secures the certainty that there is no collusion.

EDWARD.

And from the rejection of it by many eminent men, we have some reason to fear that all inquiry will prove fruitless.

MR. B.

Their exertions against it have, however, been of the greatest use in eliciting truth, which is the great object we have in view. - Let us now see whence we can obtain information on the subject, confining ourselves strictly to facts which all acknowledge. We have, then, the existence of three religions, a good deal connected with each other, but of which the advocates of each maintain that the followers of the other two are deceived. We have the records to which these parties respectively appeal as containing the sum of their religions, and for which they claim a divine origin. We have, lastly, an immense mass of controversial writing upon the subject, which the advocates of each party regard as decisive. But Mohammedism overthrows itself; and hardly the shadow of a proof remains in behalf of Judaism: so that our attention is only directed to the works of their advocates, so far as they may be likely to overthrow Christianity.

EDWARD.

We have also to consider the works of those who have rejected all revealed religion, as the modern Deists, and those who rejected Christianity at its first appearance among the Pagans.

MR. B.

At present I assume nothing, however, relative

to the first appearance of Christianity; that is a matter for future consideration. Now the truth of the religion, independently of what internal evidence of a divine origin its sacred records may furnish, evidently depends upon the truth of those records, and that upon the writings of those who have defended them. These writings also must be considered in two classes. We either refer to them for arguments or for facts. With reference to the former, it is of no consequence when they were written, as truth is invariable; with reference to the latter, it is of the greatest consequence in some cases, and in all of considerable importance to determine their origin.

BEATRICE.

Will you give us a sketch of the history (if I may so call it) of the controversies which have taken place on the subject, and which have given birth to the writings which form the materials in question?

MR. B.

You will find an admirable outline already traced by the hand of a master in the first volume of Bishop Van Mildert's Boyle Lectures, and in the notes to it abundant references to the best sources of information. An historical survey of this kind, however, implies some knowledge of the subject itself in the reader, as otherwise it is a mere recapitulation of disputes about names, to which no distinct

ideas are attached. You must, therefore, for the present content yourselves with references to the works which give an account of the various defenders and opponents of Christianity. The best of these is Leland's View of the Deistical Writers, which is very valuable, from giving a fair statement of their writings in detail, and a temperate reply to each, though rather tedious, from the nature of the subject.

BEATRICE.

The name of Deist only refers to modern writers against Christianity, I believe.

MR. B.

"The name of Deists, as applied to those who are no friends to revealed religion, is said to have been first assumed about the middle of the sixteenth century, by some gentlemen in France and Italy, who were willing to cover their opposition to the Christian revelation by a more honourable name than that of Atheists. One of the first authors, as I can find, that makes express mention of them, is Viret, a divine of great evidence among the first reformers, who, in the epistle dedicatory prefixed to the second tome of his Instruction Chrétienne, which was published in 1563, speaks of some persons in that time who called themselves by a new name, that of Deists.". LELAND'S View, &c. Letter I.

Baruel's Memoirs of Jacobinism will give you sufficient information with respect to the French authors on the subject, and you will find a great deal of useful information in Nichol's Literary

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Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century. Hartwell Horne's Introduction to the Critical Study of the Scriptures, and Orme's Bibliotheca Biblica, also give references to some of the more important works; and the Bibliotheca Britannica of Dr. Watt, under the articles of Scepticism, Infidelity, &c. &c. will direct you to many more. To you, Edward, I may also recommend the Bibliotheca Theologica Selecta of Walchius, and the Delectus Argumentorum et Syllabus Scriptorum, &c. of Fabricius. It may be as well to mention here, that some very valuable articles, either directly upon some branch of the evidences, or intimately connected with them, have appeared in various reviews, particularly the British Critic and the Quarterly Review, which you will find well deserving of your attention, after you have acquired further knowledge of the subjects most agitated in controversy. The Boyle, Bampton, Warburtonian, and Hulsean Lectures, together with various essays for prizes given at the Universities and elsewhere, must not be forgotten; and, lastly, as the original Encyclopédie contains almost all that can be insinuated against Christianity, our English Encyclopædias in general are well worth consulting on its behalf, both for the intrinsic value of the articles, and the references they give to the authors from whose works they are compiled.

BEATRICE.

Must not a distinction be drawn between those

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