fuch hints as thefe were more agreeable to that plainnefs and fimplicity of fpirit which, on all occafions, become a minifter of Chrift; and I fincerely hope that, to a perfon of your excellency's good sense, they will not afford a lefs expreffive teftimony of that true and unfeigned esteem and regard with which I am,

SIR,

Your most faithful,

moft devoted, and

moft obedient

humble fervant,

HUGH KNOX.

PRE F A C E. REFAC

TH

HE prefent growth and progress of infidelity, and the great difingenuity of infidels in repeating old objections, which have been long ago anfwered and confuted, and in coining new ones, which have more of few than of fubftance, render the defence of Christianity of almost perpetual neceffity in every age and in every corner of the Chriftian world: And I am perfuaded that no hearty and intelligent Chriftian will ever imagine, that works, which have a tendency to illuftrate and confirm the great arguments for the truth of ChriStianity, can be too much multiplied, even although they should have no great share of originality.

The first feven difcourfes, or (as perhaps they may be more properly termed) effays in this collection, are upon a fubject of confeffedly great importance. If there is a GOD; if he is the moral governor of the rational world; if mankind are his moral fubjects, and accountable to him for their moral conduct; if their fouls are immortal, and will be either rewarded or punished in a future ftate, according to their moral conduct in the prefent, and I believe that no fenfile, intelligent deift will difpute the truth of any of these propofitions, then religion is a ferious thing, a matter of infinite and univerfal

univerfal concernment among men! If the five articles of the celebrated Lord Herbert, the prince of modern deifts, are conceded to and allowed; first, that there is one fupreme GOD; fecondly, that he is chiefly to be worshipped; thirdly, that piety and virtue is the principal part of his worship; fourthly, that we mutt repent of our fins, and that if we do fo God will pardon them; and fifthly, that there are rewards for good men and punishments for bad men in a future ftate of exiftence: Ifay, if thefe five articles are granted, and even Lord Herbert himself affirms, that these articles have been univerfally believed by mankind, in all ages and nations of the world, no creature, poffeffed of a rational foul, can poffibly have any juft foundation for ridiculing or defpifing religion; but, on the contrary, if he thinks justly, must confider himself as having an intimate and perfnal

concern in it.

Now all the particular religions, or rather modes of religion, which have ever appeared in the world may be reduced to the following, viz. Paganifm, Judaism, (to which may be joined the patriarchal religion) Chriftianity, and pure deifm, or what fome chufe rather to te m, the religion of nature. These have divided the world amongst them Since the earlift accounts of antiquity; and feeing, there is fuch a thing as true religion in the world, and that this true religion is fome where or other to be found among thofe already mentioned, and that it is a matter of great moment to know where this true religion is to be found, the investigation of this concerning truth is certainly a labour worthy the noble powers and faculties of the human foul.

Paganifm is, doubtless, wholly out of the queftion, and can have no plaufible pretenfion to be the

true

true religion. Whatever a late nobleman may have advanced in favour of its being the primitive religion, it bears upon it all the marks and characters of error, ignorance and the blindeft fuperftition. And whilft the knowledge of the unity and perfection of the divine nature continues among a civilized people, there is little danger of its ever finding a figle advo.ate, unlejs in juch a writer as Mr. H- e.

As for Mahometifm, it is fuch an arrant and bare-faced inpofiure, fuch a jumbled and confused medley of Fedaifm, Gentilifm and Christianity, of truth and falfbord, of fenfe and non fenfe, of probabilities, and a fund and blafphemous puerilities, that there is little danger of its ever extending beyond the confines of flavery and ignorance. The life of its funder, notwithstanding what Mr. Sale and fome others have ventured to say in favour of his moral character, is not only a contradiction to all his bold and blasphemous pretenfins, but even a difgrace to human nature itself. Ignorant, bold, daring, infolent, rapacious, cruel, oppreffive, tyrannical, fenfual, libidinous, vain, ambitious, deceitful and intolerably impious and profane, are epithets peculiarly appropriated to that crafty Arab, who fift breached and propagated that religion which now bears his name. And if we examine the Koran or Alcoran, the book of his pretended revelations, we fhall find, that (excepting a few juft notions and found morals, pilfered from the Jewish and Chriftian revelations by Mahomet's co-adjutors in his imposture) it contains nothing but abfurd doctrines, corrupt morals, and childi falles, and is indeed, upon the whole, so monfoufly incredible and unworthy of GOD, that it is greatly amazing how it ever gained credit with the