Secondly, The remembrance of this will also be a means, on one hand, to hinder well-meaning people from being misled by the vain boasts of our modern pretenders to reason; and, on the other hand, to check the inclination of the wicked and vicious to be misled, when both of them have before their eyes such fresh and eminent instances of sound reasoning and a firm faith, joined together in one and the same mind. Thirdly, Farther, as these were persons generally esteemed for virtue and goodness, and notwithstanding their high attainments, remarkable for their modesty and humility; their examples shew us, that a strong and clear reason naturally leads to the belief of Revelation, when it is not under the influences of vice or pride. Fourthly,-And finally, as they are all laymen, there is no room for the enemies of revealed religion to allege that they were prejudiced by interest, or secular considerations of any kind,— a suggestion that has really no weight, when urged against the writings of the clergy in defence of Revelation, since they do not desire to be trusted upon their own authority, but upon the reasons they offer; and lawyers and physicians are not less trusted, because they live by their professions: but it is a suggestion that easily takes hold of weak minds, and especially such as catch at objections, and are willing to be caught by them. And, considering the diligence of the adversary in making proselytes, and drawing men from the faith of Christ, equal diligence is required of those who are to maintain that faith, not only to leave men no real ground, but even no colour or pretence, for their infidelity. The following Discourses, except that concerning the Evidences of the Christian Religion, were all published in separate papers some years ago, and afterwards collected into volumes, with marks of distinction at the end of many of them, to point out the writers. Mr. Addison's are there distinguished by some one of the letters of the word CLIO; and the same marks of distinction are here continued; as are also the rest, where any letter was found at the end of the discourse. In those volumes they stand according to the order of time in which they were at first separately published, without any connexion as to the matters contained in them; but here, the several discourses on the same subject, which lie dispersed in those papers, are reduced to their proper heads, and put into one view, that the whole may be more regularly read, and each head may leave a more lasting impression upon the mind of the reader. Advantages of Revelation above Natural Excellency of the Christian Institution Dignity of the Scripture Language INTRODUCTION. IT were to be wished that the enemies of religion would at least bring themselves to apprehend its nature before they opposed its authority. Did religion make its boast of beholding God with a clear and perfect view, and of possessing him without a covering or veil, the argument would bear some colour, when men should allege, that none of the things about them do indeed afford this pretended evidence and this degree of light. But since religion, on the contrary, represents men as in a state of darkness and of estrangement from God; since it affirms him to have withdrawn him, self from their discovery, and to have chosen, in nis Word, the very stile and appellation of Deus absconditus; lastly, since it employs itself alike in establishing these two maxims, that God has left in his church certain characters of himself, by which they who sincerely seek him shall not fail of a sensible conviction; and yet that he has, at the same time, so far shaded and obscured these characters as to render them imperceptible to those who do not seek him with their whole heart; what advantage is it to men who profess themselves negligent in the search of truth, to complain so frequently that nothing reveals and displays it to them? For this very obscurity under which they labour, and which they make an exception B |