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have been set at rest for ever. You have also just asserted, that many eminent men have written against it now if they could thus have proved Christianity to be false, would they not have done it?

BEATRICE.

Certainly; for by their writing against it, they shewed their wish to prove it false.

MR. B.

Yes; and by their not writing against it in those particulars where their peculiar knowledge best enabled them to detect falsehood, they have given us the strongest proof that there it was invulnerable.

BEATRICE.

So that the very fact you adduce is against

you.

MR. B.

But there are other eminent men besides the Deists; and what do you say to the testimony which they give on the points where they were best able to determine the truth or falsity of these propositions? Why, those very men whose names stand the highest in each department are defenders of Christianity, and that because they knew, in what they were most immediately concerned with, the proof was decisive. Now, take these two facts together, and you will see there is

sufficient ground for belief that the professed proofs are real proofs. But if any one is disposed to doubt further, let him examine; the whole is open to examination; but not condemn others for looking upon such points as proved, which those most inimical to Christianity, and peculiarly fitted to examine, have not disproved, as well as resting satisfied with the researches of its friends, who believed in consequence of those researches, and whose testimony in any other case would have been believed in such subjects as they were most conversant with.

EDWARD.

This, however, is placing the belief of many upon a lower ground than that of others.

MR. B.

It is, and in the nature of things it must be so. Men are placed in such an infinite variety of situations, that the great Creator of all can alone be the judge as to where guilt attaches, and where it does not. All that I contend for is, that no sufficient reason can be adduced on behalf of actual infidelity, scepticism, or latitudinarianism, to militate against the language of the New Testament. The Judge of all the earth shall surely do right; and every circumstance of birth, education, and situation in life, will have its due weight with him but the result of much reading and reflec

tion on the subject has led me to a conclusion which you may at present think harsh,-that the real cause of infidelity lies in the heart more than in the head; in the will more than in the circumstances of the individual

CONVERSATION III.

EDWARD.

I FEAR I have wearied both you, sir, and my sister by my former objections; but my anxiety to have my mind at rest upon all preliminary points previously to entering upon the actual examination of the evidences themselves, induced me to press the doubts I have already expressed; and for the same reason, I should wish to consider one more and very serious objection, which appears to me to lie at the threshold of all further investigation, viz. that the whole proof of Christianity depends upon the veracity of those in terested in its defence.

Not all, brother.

BEATRICE.

EDWARD.

Yes, all, directly or indirectly. It is from Christians that we have our accounts of the origin and history of Christianity. It is from them we have received the Scriptures which contain its precepts; from their hands, also, have we received the works of those who rejected this religion, and which may have been garbled to serve its cause. If even their own statement be correct, for fifteen hundred years every thing has

been in their own power. Its defenders, in later ages, have been evidently interested in supporting it of those who lived at an earlier period we know nothing but through the accounts of their These defenders also have been the

successors.

priests of this religion, and had therefore a further interest in maintaining it. How, then, can we rely upon any proof derived from such sources?

BEATRICE.

This is, indeed, a strong charge; can you overthrow it, sir?

MR. B.

As far as is necessary. I must, however, take it for granted that you are acquainted with what is generally believed to be the true history of Europe during the period you have alluded to. I must also beg you to give some attention to the present state of the Christian world.

EDWARD.

It is divided into a great number of sects, all at variance with each other.

MR. B.

You will not dispute, I suppose, the truth of those facts which are acknowledged by persons of all parties, infidels as well as Christians.

Certainly not.

EDWARD.

MR. B.

And, I suppose, you will acknowledge that the

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