design of it, and to what sort of persons it is more particularly addressed, as an Argumentum ad homines; which, if it should not succeed so often as might be wished and expected, no harm is done. All the common arguments remain, and may serve to keep plain Christians in the way of truth, as they have done hitherto: and as to those philosophers, who are unhappily disaffected to it, we must leave them to go on in their own way; producing a new crop of hard words every year; till they shall be brought to a better understanding of things: and then they will do as much good, as they are now disposed to do mischief. For, suppose twenty persons to be persuaded, in the ordinay way of reasoning, that Christianity is not false; one single man, who is brought over to love and admire the wisdom of it, will probably be worth them all: and I look upon this as the certain effect of my argument, where it has any effect at all.

Soon after the papers which contain it were printed off, it was reported, that a copy of them had been handed, without the Author's consent or knowledge, to Dr. Priestley; with what success he never heard. But what that learned Gentleman published soon afterwards,

in his Address to his Friends, the French philosophers, who are extirpating Christianity as fast as they can, leaves us utterly without hope that any good effect is to be expected from that or any other application of the kind. Many years ago, that excellent Controversialist, Mr. Charles Leslie, published his Short Method with the Deists; originally composed for the private benefit of the Duke of Leeds; the design of which was to give a demonstration of the facts of Christianity. For, argued he, no man can possibly deny the doctrines, if he admits the facts, by which those doctrines were first proved to the world. But in Dr. Priestley, we see a melancholy example of what Mr. Leslie thought impossible, he having actually borrowed (or stolen) that Author's singular Demonstration of the Facts of Christianity, without any mention of his name, (of which you should have given your readers some notice) while he denies the doctrines which those facts were intended to prove. Mahomet did the same, as the learned Mr. Bryant hath of late very well observed. This impostor allowed so many of the facts, that he ought to have taken the doctrines with them: but, like our philosophical doctor, he denied them all, and published a new set

of

of his own manufacture.

Mahomet's view

was to raise a party against the Christian world; and the doctor makes no secret of it, that he is actuated by a like spirit of proselyting. While such a person is so busy in working upon others, nothing can be done. upon himself; and I am one of those who always considered his case as a hopeless one. I have watched the ways of mankind very attentively; and I find, they reject many things, not because they doubt of them, or conceive them to be false, but because they do not like them. Judas always knew that his Master was the true Messiah; he only discovered, that he was not such a Messiah as would do for him. The philosophical Leaders in France are not so bereaved of their wits as to disbelieve the Being of a God: they have only discovered, that anarchy, murder, and sacrilege, will not consist with the worship of him, so they cast off him, till he shall cast off them; which will happen in its time, as it did to the Jews.

I think it highly proper, that in a popular undertaking, as yours is, all appearance of singularity in judgment should be avoided, and the temper of the age submitted to, so far as it may be done, without any mean arts of adulation

adulation on the one hand, or suppression on the other; for which your enemies would hold you cheap, and your best friends would be afraid of you. Every sincere reformer of the times in which he lives, must consider himself as a physician to squeamish patients, who will touch no medicine unless it is palatable or fashionable he must do good to the world against its will; and persevere, as well as he can, under the honest encouragement of the sanguine, the cold approbation of the prudent, the contempt of adversaries, and the silence of many who think rightly, but are afraid to speak. That you may always be mindful of those reasonable expectations, with which the friends of this church and government, at a very critical time, have given you such ample encouragement, is the hearty wish of your constant reader, and humble servant,

The Author of the Short Way to Truth....

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