treatise which proves divinity superior to philosophy. He was so filled with admiration of the Scriptures, that he composed a work on the excellency of their style: and at his own expense procured translations of the Bible in various languages, and often printed them to distribute among the poor; and after having passed his life in doing good, to combat error after his death, he left a considerable sum of money for the purpose of preaching annual sermons on the truths of the Christian religion.

"LOCKE is so well known, as a profound metaphysician by his Essay on the Huma: Understanding, that any praise of him as a philosopher is unnecessary. He has proved that Christianity accords with reason, and has even composed a paraphrase on some of St. Paul's epistles; having consecrated the latter part of his life to the study of the Bible.

"NEWTON was so great a mathematician, that a learned man said, If we consider philosophy and the mathematics as composed of ten parts, we may regard him as the inventor of nine of those parts.' He spake of the Supreme Being with that respect which becomes a sage. When he regulated the chronology of the ancient empires, it was always according to the light with which we are furnished by the Holy Scriptures: and by his observations on the prophecies of Daniel, and of St. John, he demonstrated that the word of God was the object to which all his labours tended; and having begun with philosophy, he acted like all the truly wise in finishing with religion."

M. BONNET was a celebrated philosopher of Geneva, a member and correspondent of many academies and royal societies. His philosophical researches into the truth of Christianity, organized bodies, regeneration, &c, have procured him the respect and admiration of Christian philosophers, as well as his Contemplations of Nature, in which we every where behold the judicious observer of the universe, and the humble adorer of the Supreme Being.

M. DE LUC was a companion of M. Bonnet, and with him trod the paths of the greatest philosophers of the Christian persuasion. He was a member of the Royal Society of London, of the Batavian Society, and a correspondent of the Royal Academies of Paris and Montpelier. His Letters, Physical and Moral, on the History of the Earth and of Man, which he published in five volumes, are an additional proof of the agreement of Christianity with sound philosophy. The reader will doubtless find a pleasure in reading what he says upon these articles.

After having compared an incredulous philosopher to a person found upon an immense ocean, without pilot, helm, or anchors, and having no hope of finding any port, he adds, "Being warned betimes by a wise pilot, my Father, I was fortunate enough to avoid the dangers, in the seasons of illusion, which every where surround the studious youth. I was in a measure captivated by the first attack, but restrained by a happy education, and by this recalled to reflection, I resisted, ere it was too late, the cruel hands that would have consigned me to the merciless

waves.

66

Who are you? I demanded of those who wished to allure me into their dangerous path. In whose name do you speak? In the name of nature. And in what manner has she spoken to you? We have studied her oracles, and are become her interpreters. Have you the credentials VOL. IV.

2

of your mission? Credentials! fine demand! Do you then listen to these vulgar opinions? Do you believe in a revelation? Open your eyes, and behold how nature contradicts your fables! &c. If you have made these discoveries in nature by your own faculties, I will examine also, for I have faculties similar to yours, and shall be very cautious in fixing my opinion upon the authority of any man, whoever he may be, concerning objects of this vast importance.

"Hence," continues M. de Luc, "arose my great inclination for this science, which the schools call the knowledge of nature. I was determined to know for myself what man could discover there. No, said I to myself, no, I will not relinquish, on the authority of any person, those laws which hitherto have appeared conformable to all the feelings of my heart, or that hope of future bliss which, amidst all the innocent pleasures resulting from society, are, in my esteem, more valuable than existence. I will not, upon the credit of any man, render myself offensive to this Being, on the belief of whom I rest as upon a centre, and who through the universe unfolds to my sight the most admirable harmony; by whose existence I am restrained from the commission of the evils too prevalent in society, nor am I alone in the lonely desert!

"They do not credit, they say, the facts which have been transmitted from Moses to the first Christians, and from the primitive Christians down to us! These form, however, the basis of all revelation, the most glorious display of light upon the universe, and the first foundation of human hopes. But if some of these facts be true, such, for instance, as the universality of the deluge, and the destruction of the earth by water, would there not remain some traces of them on the face of the globe? I will then go in pursuit of them, I will study the phenomena, and I will see how they explain them who reject the sacred text.

"I undertook to observe the moral and physical world; I read what these philosophers said upon these subjects, and I soon suspected that those who abandoned Moses, saw but darkly, or reasoned without examination. The farther I carried my researches in this manner, the more was I convinced of their error; and chcerful serenity returned to my mind.

"Nor was I less struck with the deplorable effects produced by this system among certain individuals, and through them to society at large; the schemes of Atheism, of Fatalism, and of Materialism, children of impatience and false learning. There I beheld a morality withou. principle, politics separated from their true design, and a happiness without any durable source. I observed a number of unfortunate persons, victims to opinions which they did not comprehend, and repeating ruinous creeds to which they had no other attachment but the force of fashion, and the confidential tone with which they were supported; and I saw that they were unable to extricate themselves from these shackles; because a single word produced a doubt, and it required deep study to dissipate the darkness.

"Hitherto I have only spoken of myself, and have done it with this view, to discover the internal history of man; and the progress of his ideas on a subject which contains so much happiness: and this man is none but myself, merely because I am the best acquainted with him. But I must associate my brother with me, who, next to myself, is the

best known to me. Thirty years we studied the principal subject of this work, and we never took one step but in concert. When we were persuaded by the study of the phenomena, that the Mosaic history of our globe was the only system to be depended on, we formed the design of instructing those who either did not, or could not examine these subjects themselves; but we will not conceal the difficulties, &c.

"At present a certain class of infidels, with a labyrinth of arguments, constitute the fashion. The more feeble their reasons, the more decisive. They never hesitate, they deny and ridicule. In a word, one knows not which is the most wonderful, the boldness of their attacks, or the supercilious air which is manifested in the weakness of their means. One would think they imagine that religion is on the point of destruction, and that they have only to mingle with the crowd of assailants, to obtain some small branch of laurel. But they deceive themselves; religion has her foundation in nature, &c.

man.

"Religion in general seizes the hearts of men. What conclusion should the observing philosopher draw from this? Must we not change the nature of man before we can destroy its influence? &c. In the whole system of morality, religion merits the regard of every honest And what religion has such strong reasons for its support as ours, that is impressed with such striking characters of truth, and so firmly established, whose morality is so beautiful, whose motives to practice are so powerful, whose promises are so sweet and so conformable to our desires, and so well calculated to support us under the inevitable evils of the present life? A religion, in one word, which whoever announces in its proper form and beauty, and with pure intentions, obliges the idolater to renounce his false deities, because he feels the purity of primitive

notions.

"I return to my general proposition. Since, in the study of the universe, man seeks to discover what is agreeable, that he may conform his conduct thereto, his first step should be to inquire if the FIRST CAUSE, to whom he owes his existence, has not manifested his will concerning man; and if he has not given him a rule of conduct. This is what has at all times determined a number of philosophers, whose example I think it an honour to follow, to examine the proofs concerning the certainty of a Divine revelation, and to publish such proofs when they had found them substantial, &c.

"To examine if revelation be certain, it is requisite, in the first place, to be well assured of the facts which I have collected, and to examine their consequents with respect to the ancient history of the earth; then to see if they be conformable to what Moses has said, and by what means he could gain a knowledge of these things. And if you are too feeble to run from country to country, or too much engaged with other concerns, even to examine the account which I have given in my labours of thirty years, you cannot be in a condition to decide upon these facts; I beseech you, at least, for the sake of justice and humanity, to abstain from spreading such perplexing opinions, which at the best are only chimerical."

Such is the decision of a philosopher after having pursued his inquiries for a great number of years in different parts of the world, and who pushed his researches to the summits of the most lofty mountains, to the

bottom of the deepest valleys, and down the most terrible precipices. But I refer the reader to the work itself, where he will find himself both amused and profited; and I will conclude this extract with a sketch of the character which M. de Luc gives of his celebrated compatriot, J. J. Rousseau.

"This haughty, but honest man," says he, "knowing the weakness of human reason in the pursuit of truth, sensibly felt the despotism which was exercised in the bosom of the Church, even by those who ought to have made revelation respectable. He was grieved to see the most essential part of religion falling a victim in the great world, through the unskilfulness of its defenders; and believing that he ought to hasten to its succour, and at least to give some support to the morals and hopes which are drawn from reason, he ranked himself on the side of those philosophers, who seek only in this way for a foundation of morality to combat, more certainly, the monstrous systems of Atheism and Materialism, which leave man without hope and without restraint.

"He too much doubted the influence of religion in herself, and being entangled in the heat of the contest, he went farther than he at first intended. He respected Christianity from the bottom of his heart: this I know, and this he has declared. But wishing to put an end to the persecution exercised on those who may, in sincerity, seek for the foundation of morality out of the Bible, he undertook to prove that the characters rising from this source were not sufficiently authentic, to affix the charge of impiety upon those who sought them elsewhere. But in attempting to prove this he wanted evidence, and sunk into doubts. He was deceived concerning the force of these objections to Christianity; for the most part they are only such difficulties as men meet with in their examinations of any subject, and those which appear more formidable are easily solved."

A LETTER FROM THE REV. MR. FLETCHER,

TO

THE REV. MR. PROTHERO,

IN DEFENCE OF

EXPERIMENTAL RELIGION.*

MADELEY, July 25, 1761.

REV. SIR,-The elegant sermon you preached at the visitation, got you, no doubt, the thanks of your known hearers. Permit an unknown one to add his to theirs, and to pay to merit a just tribute. It gave me exceeding great satisfaction to see you stand up so boldly in defence of revealed religion against Deists and infidels, and, by ingenious observations and cogent arguments, force them out of their strong hold, a blind confidence in reason. I could not help wishing that they did every where meet with opponents so able to fight them with their own weapons. Were this the case, there would not be so much room to lament the overflowings of Deism among men of reason and learning.

The second part of your discourse, wherein you endeavoured to guard the truth from the other extreme, superstition and enthusiasm, deserves no less to be commended, on account of the goodness of your design. It is the duty of a preacher to keep the sacred truths committed to him, as well from being perverted by enthusiasts, as crushed by infidels. The rocks on which both split are equally dangerous, and we see daily that nothing exposes so much the mysteries of Christianity to the scorn of freethinkers, as the words and behaviour of those who suppose themselves under the inspiration of God's Spirit, when, it appears, that they are led only by the weakness of their mind and nerves, by spiritual pride and the warmth of their imagination. Boasting of communion with God, and

*We find this letter referred to in a letter of Mr. Fletcher to the Rev. Charles Wesley, dated August 18, 1761, and recorded in page 73 of his life, octavo edition, in the following words: "I do not know whether I mentioned to you a sermon preached at the archdeacon's visitation. It is almost all levelled at the points which are called 'The Doctrines of Methodism,' and as the preacher is minister of a parish near mine, it is probable he had me in his eye. After the sermon, another clergyman addressed me with an air of triumph, and demanded what answer I could make? As several of my parishioners were present, beside the churchwardens, I thought it my duty to take the matter up; and I have done so, by writing a long letter to the preacher, in which I have touched the principal mistakes of his discourse, with as much politeness and freedom as I was able: but I have as yet had no answer. [And, it seems, he never had any.] I could have wished for your advice before I sealed my letter; but as I could not have it, I have been very cautious, entrenching myself behind the ramparts of Scripture, as well as those of our homilies and articles."