waged the bloodiest wars, and the most oppressive persecutions, persuaded that their conduct was agreeable to the will of God, and the true interests of man. But the infidel has not suffered alone. All those deemed heretics by the stronger party, have felt the effect of their pious wrath. Their bodies have been frequently burnt for the good of their souls, that they might taste the horrors of hell, before they rushed blindly into them. The spirit of persecution began and progressed with the power of christians; it ended only when their religion was divided into so many sects that no one could contend with the rest; it has begun, progressed, and fallen, with the power of every sect, and it will begin again, whenever christians shall be united, for it arises from the spirit of their religion,

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But the blood that has been shed, and the slavery that has been endured, are not the only evils which have sprung from christianity. Morals have been perverted by it. Christians have held, that falsehood was commendable when it agreed with the interest of religion, of that religion too, which has been attended with all the evils I have mentioned, which has produced a gloomy and misanthropic philosophy, which has made men the enemies of their species, hoping to merit heaven by making earth a hell.

Would it not agree well with the character of satan, to establish a religion which produces effects like these. You may say that it was the abuse of christianity, from which these evils arose, but this does not avail. The state of the argument is unaltered. Satan (with little more than human foresight) might foresee this abuse.

No one can doubt that to produce these evils, wheth er they arose necessarily, or accidentally, from christianity, satan would do the good deeds that were done, and say the good things that were said by Christ. If the saints, when it serves their turn, can maintain. abominable and destructive doctrines, shall not satan,

when it serves his, inculcate those which are good.The evil arising in this case, from the religion, which he (as is probable) has established, by inculcating those principles, are surely enough to compensate him for more disagreeable labors, without taking into account the deep damnation to be inflicted on the worshippers he has thus gained.

These, reader, are the words which an infidel might use, and 1 regret that we have taken no greater care to guard against them. It is indeed a strange perversion of reason, to make the evils which have arisen, and will still arise, from christianity, a proof that that holy religion is the work of satan. The christian

knows that these evils are necessary to disgust us with earth, and to turn our minds to God. Yet the unbeliever will hold his opinion, unless we can oppose him with incontrovertible arguments. It becomes us therefore to look to our defence. If I have endeavored to destroy the arguments which christians have used, it is because I thought them weak, and hoped to furnish others, on which we might with greater safety depend. I believed, that the weapons on which christians relied, were unfit for war; I have therefore snatched those weapons from their hands, that I might supply them with better arms.

CHAPTER V.

ANSWER TO THE THIRD OBJECTION

WITH the intention of doing this, I shall endeavor to show, from the faults and imperfections in the evidence on which christianity depends, that it was not established by satan. You may perhaps doubt the logic, by which I infer from the existence of such faults, that christianity is not the work of the devil, but if it had been established by so artful a being, if he, to make us believe it was the true religion of God, had performed a series of miracles, he would have taken care that the evidence, by which these miracles were to be proved to future ages, should be unexceptionable; since every defect in that evidence must tend to diminish his success. But says the infidel, if these miracles were performed by God, for the purpose of establishing his religion, would he not have taken as great care, that the evidence by which their performance was to be proved, should be unexceptionable? Would he, sooner than satan, have suffered any defect in this evidence?

This last question I answer in the affirmative. If christianity was given us by God, it was given us for our own benefit. God himself was not interested in its success. It harmed not him for us to worship the infernal powers, or the works of our own hands.

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as eternal misery was the consequence of our mistaking the true object of gratitude and adoration, he wished to save us, if we were willing to be saved; he therefore gave us the scriptures, to teach us the road to salvation. As we alone were to be benefited by receiving these, it could not be expected. that God would take great pains to make the evidence of their authenticity perfect he had no motive for such a labor. He gave them to us with such evidence as pleased him, in his wisdom, to give if we reject them, as wanting proof. it is our fault, and we alone are injured. Nor can we complain of God, that he has given us no more light; he might with justice have left us in eternal darkness; we must adore his name, that he has revealed to us thus much, proved as the revelation is.

But if christianity was established, and the scriptures given us by satan, his object was to ensnare our souls, and he would have used all his art and cunning, to effect his purpose. Every thing in his religion. tending to produce disbelief, had been struck from it; no defects would have been suffered in the evidence on which it was founded, for such would produce disbelief. In short, every circumstance regarding that religion, would be placed in the situation most enticing to human reason. The man who should cast meat to fish, solely for their food, would regard but little the manner in which it was thrown; but the fisher would dress his bait with the greatest possible adroitness, and put it in the form most enticing to the fish. If God should give us a religion solely for our benefit, he would pay small regard to the evidence of its authenticity; but if satan should attempt to deceive and ensnare us by promulgating a false religion, which should make the believer his worshipper, he would remove every thing which would make us suspect a deception.

That there are defects in the evidence on which christianity depends, and defects too of such a nature,

as can only be accounted for by supposing that the being by whom it was established had no interest in its success, may be easily shown The one to which I shall first direct the attention of my readers, may be discovered by examining the second chapters of Matthew and Luke.

It is said in the first of these, verse 1st. That when Jesus was born at Bethlehem. certain wise men of the east, came to Jerusalem, enquiring for him, that was born king of the Jews; for said they, we have seen his star in the east, and have come to worship him.Here let me remark, that these wise men must have possessed more astrology than we now deem consistent with wisdom.* How should they know that the star related to the king of the Jews rather than to the 'king of Britain. But we let this pass. In verse six

teenth it is said

"Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth and slew all the children, that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coast thereof, from two years old and under."

Let us enquire into the probability of this. Herod might indeed be a tyrant, but what motive could he have for such cruelty. Could it be jealousy of this new king. The friend of Antony, would hardly have believed the prophecy, upon which his fear must be founded. But if such an act of unheard of cruelty had been committed, should we not have heard of it

*The christians attempt to destroy this objection, by asserting that there was a tradition in the east, concerning a king, that was to be born of the Jews. It is not consistent with my present purpose to examine this tradition, if it was, I could draw some more powerful objections from it. It is said, that if this story of the wise men, and the murder of the innocents, was not true, it never could have passed with the Jews But we have good reason to believe that it did not pass, since it is rejected by the later evangelists. The same may be said of the story of the guard, set by the Jews, at the sepulcre of Christ.

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