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towards sustaining the more important points I had undertaken to establish.

A little reflection on the subject convinced me of the correctness of these remarks, but I delayed to undertake a task of such magnitude, until after having experienced a great personal bereavement by the death of the one to whom I was the most attached to divert my attention from sad remembrances I commenced to make the recast which my friends had recommended. My interest in the matter was afterwards increased, by the circumstance that a disastrous fire broke out in my publisher's warehouse, by which the larger portion of the edition of my previous work was totally consumed, not even a single copy having been saved.

But before I began to seriously undertake this recast, I had become fully convinced that the greatest cause to which the fallacies of deductive reasoning are referrible, arises from the abstract nature of the principles upon which our systematic treatises on Logic are constructed. These abstractions every one uses from his own views on the subject whether correctly or not, from the simple circumstance that no rules or limitations can be laid down for restricting them to an impartial or judicious application, As the only remedy that I could perceive against the licentiousness of deductive reasoning as ordinarily conducted, I carefully studied the rules laid down by Courts of Law on the subjects of evidence and proof; as being capable of practical application to all questions of intellectual investigation and controversy, and which do furnish rules and limitations for reasoning correctly, which cannot be found elsewhere. The reader will be able to appreciate this matter when he sees the frequent applications I have made of these rules of courts in the ensuing pages, an abstract of which he will find in the Appendix to this volume.

In consequence of this new mode for reconstructing the present work, I arrived at some important conclusions which were overlooked in my former publication and which has required me so nearly to re-write the whole subject as now offered to the reader, that it may virtually be consided to be a new work.

In concluding this preface I regret that I must make some apology to the reader for the greater or less amount of blemishes and deficiences that I am conscious will present themselves to him in the present work, but for which I offer the following statement in extenuation. I was barely able to write it out, such as it is, from notes and references a few weeks previous to completing my seventy-fifth year. Under that consideration, in connection with some of the infirmities attending such an age, it seemed presumptuous for me to look forward for the time necessary for making a fair copy, and any sufficient revision of it afterwards. Therefore, after reading the MS. over twice, and making at the same time continual amendments and corrections, it was sent to press with its innumerable erasures and interlineations, anticipating the opportunity of making further improvements when reading the printer's proofs. I found, it however, impossible to effect any thing more than mere verbal corrections, though fully realizing the force of Dean Trench's remark of the great difference between "the confusion of manuscript, and the painful clearness of print." I trust, however, the expositions I have made and the conclusions I have sustained, are all clearly expressed, which is after all, the great matter to be accomplished by a printed book.

I shall not, however, cease from work, and if it please God to prolong my life and health, I shall endeavor to amend and improve what has been now published, for an improved edition if it should be called for after I may have passed away.

BALTIMORE, December, 1866.

CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

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INQUIRY

HOW THE

CREDIBILITY OF THE WRITERS OF THE SCRIPTURES IS TO BE ESTABLISHED.

CHAPTER FIRST.

INVESTIGATION CONCERNING THE CORRECT MODE BY WHICH THE QUESTION OF THE CREDIBILITY OF SCRIPTURE CAN ONLY BE FAIRLY DISCUSSED.

WHOEVER adverts to the opposite opinions, that mankind in every age have maintained on all subjects interesting to our common humanity, must at once perceive that no one can commence the investigation of any controverted question with any expectation of ascertaining truth or of refuting error, but by proceeding from principles or data which all reasonable men at least, will admit to be correct.

If such be the case with all intellectual subjects of mere human investigation, how much more important is it that we should ascertain the correct mode by which the question of the credibility of the Scripture writings ought to be investigated; for it is nothing less than the attempt of mankind, as creatures of a very limited and imperfect capacity, to determine on the character and purposes of the omnipotent and infinitely perfect Creator of the Universe. Whether men receive or reject the Scriptures as being a revelation from Him, it amounts to the same thing. The first assert that the revelations in the Scriptures are perfectly consonant with the divine attributes, the last insist that they are inconsistent with or contrary to them.

It must be manifest to the least reflection, that we have no means by which we can come to any conclusions concerning the existence,

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