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A

PLEA FOR RELIGION

AND

The Sacred Writings;

Addressed to the Disciples of

THOMAS PAINE.

AND

AULFING CHRISTIANS OF EVERY PERSUASION:

WITH

AN APPENDIX,

CONTAINING

The Author's Determination to have relinquished his Charge in the
Established Church, and the Reasons on which that

Determination was founded.

TO WHICH IS ADDED, A

DISCOURSE ON STAGE ENTERTAINMENTS,

AND

On Breams and Night-Visions.

BY THE

LATE REV. DAVID SIMPSON, M.A.
MINISTER OF CHRIST'S CHURCH, MACCLESFIELD,

WITH

NUMEROUS ADDITIONAL NOTES,
BY THE REV. THOMAS WOOD.

DOEL

Manchester:

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY J. GLEAVE,

No. 191, Deansgate.

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WHEN the pious Author of this Valuable Work had put

the second Edition of it to the press, he wrote to the Editor as follows:-"I have put my Plea for Religion to the press again, in London, with great enlargements. I lately read, somewhere, that Sir Isaac Newton wrote over one of his latest publications sixteen times with his own hand: I admire his patience, but find myself incapable of imitating his example. He, indeed, wrote for eternity; I, for a few fleeting days only.”—Though the worthy Author expressed his views of this Work in these humble terms, yet we see it has obtained a very extensive patronage; this being the seventh Edition which is now offered to the public.

The mind of the reverend Author was deeply impressed with the state of Religion in this country. He not only lamented the apathy and supineness of mere nominal Christians, but observed, with deep concern, the combination and vigilance of Infidels to overthrow the Christian faith. He sounded an alarm in Zion, to rouse the fears of the

careless, and to call the powers of the indolent into action; as well as opposed with great skill, and manly fortitude, the enemies of our holy Religion. He presented to the eye of Britons, and to the world, the Christian and the infidel; not only as travelling the important journey of life, but in' the awful crisis of death:-the former as walking through the dreary vale triumphant in God! while the latter becomes ghastly with horror, and expires without hope.

The present Edition contains the whole text of the Author, and his valuable notes; with numerous additional notes by the Editor, political, theological, and biographical. In these notes the Editor does not even glance at the Author's peculiar views of the ecclesiastical government of the Established Church, or his reasons for leaving her communion: On this ground some of his heartiest friends differed from him. The work has a very superior claim to the attention of the public, as containing an able Defence of the Christian Religion, and the Truth of the Holy Scriptures. EDITOR.

Stockport, May 25th, 1812.

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IT hath been said by the late excellent Bishop

Horne, that, "in times when erroneous and noxious tenets are diffused, all men should embrace some opportunity to bear their testimony against them." It will be allowed by every dispassionate observer, that, if erroneous and noxious tenets were ever diffused among men in any age, they are eminently so in the present. I am so far, however, from considering this in the light of a misfortune to the general cause of truth, that I am persuaded purposes of the most important nature are to be answered by it, in the course of Divine Providence. But, notwithstanding this persuasion, I have thought it my duty, in the following pages, to bear a decided testimony against some of the most pernicious of those errors which prevail among us, and to stand forward as an advocate in behalf of Religion in general, and the Sacred Writings in particular. If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?

One might suppose, prior to experience, Infidelity was a thing of so gloomy and uncomfortable a nature, that no man of the least decency of character could be found, who would embark in the desperate scheme. But, when we consider the many

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