Sacred Writings* might have any consideration with such of my readers as are deistically inclined, I could produce many of the first characters of the age, from among all the contending denominations of Christians. The present JACOB BRYANT, Esq. who is unquestionably one of the deepest inquirers into the originals of things now living, and NO PRIEST, hath not only written a treatise professedly to prove the authenticity of the New Testament, but hath also, in another of his learned investigations, made the following declaration in favour of these incomparable and invaluable writings: "This investigation" (a work written to prove that Troy never existed) " I more readily undertook, as it affords an excellent contrast with the Sacred Writings. The more we search into the very ancient records of Rome or Greece, the greater darkness and uncertainty ensue. None of them can stand the test of close examination. Upon a minute inspection, all becomes dark and doubtful, and often inconsistent: but when we encounter the Sacred Volume, even in parts of far higher antiquity, the deeper we go, the greater treasure we find. The various parts are so consistent, that they afford mutual illustration; and the more earnestly we look, the greater light accrues, and consequently the greater satisfaction. So it has always appeared to me, who have looked diligently, and examined; and I trust I have not been mistaken†." Various * It becomes every objector to the Sacred Writings to reflect, that " the moral and natural evils in the world were not introduced by the Gospel; why then must the Gospel be called upon to account for them, rather than any other Religion, or sect of philosophy? If there never had been an Old Testament, never a Neru one, mankind would have been at least as corrupt and miserable as they are at present. What harm then have the Old and the New Testament done to you, that you per*petually challenge them to account to you for the evil you suffer? You mislike perhaps the story of ADAM and Eve, and can by no means digest the account of the Serpent's tempting, and prevailing against our first parents: very well; let this account be laid aside, and what are you now the better? Is there not the same Evil remaining in the world, whether you believe, or believe not the story of the Fall? And if so, what account do you pretend to give of it? For if you pretend to any Religion, you are as liable to be called to this account, as any professor or teacher of the Gospel. No body is exempt in this case, but the Atheist; and his privilege comes from hence, that he has no account to give of any thing; for all difficulties are alike upon his scheme." SHERLOCK on Prophecy, p. 233. t " When I was in camp with the Duke of MARLBOROUGH," says this truly learned and respectable man, in another place, " an officer of my acquaintance deeducated 1 Various similar testimonies have been adduced in the course of the following little work. Mr. ERSKINE's name is there mentioned with honour. But as he hath since come forward in a manner more direct and full in behalf of Religion and the Sacred Writings, I cannot do the religious reader a greater pleasure, or render the deistical one a more important service, than by presenting him in this place, with the substance of the SPEECH which this celebrated ORATOR delivered upon the trial of WILLIAMS, in the Court of King's Bench, for publishing ТноMAS PAINE'S Age of Reason, on the 24th of June 1797, before Lord KENYON and a Special Jury. " GENTLEMEN! the Defendant stands indicted for having published this book, which I have only read from the obligations of professional duty, and which I rose from the reading of with astonishment and disgust. For my own part, GENTLEMEN, I have been ever deeply devoted to the truths of Christianity, and my firm belief in the Holy Gospel is by no means owing to the prejudices of education (though I was religiously educated by the best of parents), but arises from the fullest and most continued reflections of my riper years and understanding. It forms, at this moment, the great consolation of a life, which, as a shadow, must pass away; and without it, indeed, I should consider my long course of health and prosperity (perhaps too long and too uninterrupted to be good for any man) only as the dust which the wind scatters, and rather as a snare than as a blessing. Sired me, upon my making a short excursion, to take him with me in my carriage. Our conversation was rather desultory, as is usual upon such occasions: and among other things, he asked me, rather abruptly, what were my notions about ReligionI answered evasively, or at least indeterminately, as his enquiry seemed to proceed merely from an idle curiosity: and I did not see that any happy consequence could énsue from an explanation. However, some time afterwards he made a visit at my -house, and stayed with me a few days. During this interval, one evening he put the question to me again; and at the same time added, that he should be really 'obliged, if I would give him my thoughts in general upon the subject. Upon this I turned towards him, and after a short pause told him, that my opinion lay in a small conipass: and he should have it in as compendious a manner as the subject would permit. Religion, I said, is either true, or false. This is the alternative: there is no medium. If it be the latter-merely an idle system, and a cunningly devised fable, let us eat and drink, for to-morroru que die. The world is before us, let us take all due advantage, and choose what may seem hest: For we have no prospect of any life to come; much less any assurances. But if Religion be a truth, it is the most serious truth of any with which we can possibly be engaged; an article of the greatest importance. It demands our most diligent enquiry to obtain a knowledge of it; and a fixed resolution to abide by it, when obtained. For Religion teaches us, that this life bears no proportion to the life to come. You see, then, my good friend, that an alternative of the utmost consequence lies before you. Make, therefore, your election, as you may judge best and HEAVEN direct you in your determination!-He told me that he was much affected with the crisis, to which I brought the object of enquiry: and I trust that it was attended with happy consequences afterwards." " This Publication appears to me to be as mischievous and cruel in its probable effects, as it is manifestly illegal in its prin ciples; because it strikes at the best, sometimes, alas! the only refuge and consolation amidst the distresses and afflictions of the world. The poor and humble, whom it affects to pity, may be stabbed to the heart by it. They have more occasion for firm hopes beyond the grave, than those who have greater comforts to render life delightful. I can conceive a distressed but virtuous man, surrounded by children looking up to him for bread when he has none to give them, sinking under the last day's labour, and unequal to the next, yet still looking up with confidence to the hour when all tears shall be wiped from the eyes of affliction, bearing the burden laid upon him by a mysterious Providence which he adores, and looking forward with exultation to the revealed promises of his CREATOR, when he shall be greater than the greatest, and happier than the happiest of mankind. What a change in such a mind might not be wrought by such a merciless publication ?" 'But, it seems, this is an Age of Reason, and the time and the person are at last arrived, that are to dissipate the errors which have overspread the past generations of ignorance. The believers in Christianity are many, but it belongs to the few that are wise to correct their credulity. Belief is an act of reason, and superior reason may, therefore, dictate to the weak.' " In running the mind along the long list of sincere and devout Christians, I cannot help lamenting, that NEWTON had not lived to this day, to have had his shallowness filled up with this new flood of light. "But the subject is too awful for irony. I will speak plainly and directly. NEWTON was a Christian ! NEWTON, whose mind burst forth from the fetters cast by nature upon our finite conceptions 1 1 ceptions-NEWTON, whose science was truth, and the founda tion of whose knowledge of it was philosophy: Not those visionary and arrogant presumptions, which too often usurp its name, but philosophy resting upon the basis of mathematics, which, like figures, cannot lie-NEWTON, who carried the line and rule to the utmost barriers of creation, and explored the principles by which, no doubt, all created matter is held toge ther and exists." But this extraordinary man, in the mighty reach of his mind, overlooked, perhaps, the errors, which a minuter investigation of the created things on this earth might have taught him, of the essence of his CREATOR.' "What shall then be said of the great Mr. BOYLE, who looked into the organic structure of all matter, even to the brute inanimate substances, which the foot treads (on? Such a man inay be supposed to have been equally qualified with Mr. PAINE to look up through Nature to Nature's GOD. Yet the result of all his contemplation was the most confirmed and devout belief in all which the other holds in contempt, as despicable and drivelling superstition." But this error might, perhaps, arise from a want of due attention to the foundations of human judgement, and the structure of that understanding which God has given us for the investigation of truth.' "Let that question be answered by Mr. LOCKE, who was, to the highest pitch of devotion and adoration, a Christian: Mr. LOCKE, whose office was to detect the errors of thinking, by going up to the fountains of thought, and to direct into the proper track of reasoning, the devious mind of man, by shewing him its whole process, from the first perceptions of sense to the last conclusions of ratiocination, putting a rein besides upon false opinion, by practical rules for the conduct of human judge ment." But these men were only deep thinkers, and lived in their closets, unaccustomed to the traffic of the world, and to the laws which practically regulate mankind.' "GENTLEMEN! in the place where we now sit to administer the justice of this great country, above a century ago, the neverto-be-forgotten Sir MATTHEW HALE presided; whose faith in Christianity Christianity is an exalted commentary upon its truth and reason, and whose life was a glorious example of its fruits in man, admi nistering human justice with a wisdom and purity drawn from the pure fountain of the Christian dispensation, which has been, and will be, in all ages, a subject of the highest reverence and admiration." 'But it is said by the Author, that the Christian Fable is but the tale of the more ancient superstitions of the world, and may be casily detected by a proper understanding of the mythologies of the Heathens,' " Did MILTON understand those mythologies? Was he less versed than Mr. PAINE in the superstitions of the world? No; they were the subject of his immortal song; and though shut out from all recurrence to them, he poured them forth from the stores of a memory rich with all that man ever knew, and laid them in their order as the illustration of that real and exalted faith, the unquestionable source of that fervid genius, which cast a sort of shade upon all the other works of man; "He pass'd the bounds of flaming space, But it was the light of the body only that was extinguished; the celestial light shone inward, and enabled him to justify the ways of GOD to man. The result of his thinking was nevertheless not the same as the Author's. The mysterious incarnation of our BLESSED SAVIOUR, (which this work blasphemes in words so wholly unfit for the mouth of a Christian, or for the ear of a Court of Justice, that I dare not, and will not, give them utterance,) MILTON made the grand conclusion of the Paradise Lost, the rest from his finished labours, and the ultimate hope, ex pectation, and glory of the world: f A Virgin is his Mother, but his SIRE, Mr. * "Piety has found Friends in the friends ads of science, and true prayer "Has |