Tacitus were written and published in the fame circumftances; becaufe the people among whom they were publifhed equally received them as genuine, and thereby gave their teftimony to the general truth of their contents. And at no period of time would it have been more easy to procure them the reception they obtained in the one cafe, than in the other.

As human nature was the fame at all times that it is at prefent, we may form a judgment of the difficulty of impofing upon any nation, or people, such histories as those of the fcriptures by a fuppofition refpecting ourselves. Let any person then endeavour to perfuade the people of this country, that their anceftors, in fome remote period, paffed from Calais to Dover, by walking through the fea, which divided to make them way, and let him produce books containing a circumftantial account of the event, as written at the time. Would he be able to procure any credit to the narrative? He would certainly be laughed at for his pains. In fact, it would be no lefs difficult

difficult for him to do this, than to divide the fea, as he had related. He would find the one to be as really impoffible, as much contrary to the established course of nature, as the other.

In like manner, let any perfon produce books fimilar to thofe of the New Teftament, and see if he can gain fuch general credit to them, as to induce thousands of all defcriptions of men to undergo the greatest hardfhips, and even lay down their lives, for their faith in them, even in circumstances far more favourable to his purpose than those in which the evangelifts wrote; he would find it as easy to raise the dead, as to effect any fuch thing.

It requires only a due attention to facis, fuch as no person who has any faith in hif tory can deny, and to the well known principles of human nature, to perceive this. But few unbelievers in revelation have been difpofed to pay this due attention to either; and in confequence of this they really believe things more extraordinary in their nature, and

therefore

therefore more truly incredible, than the Jew or the Chriftian.

Study, then, with particular attention the history of the times in which Chriftianity was promulgated. The narrative is as circumstantial, and as open to inquiry, as that of Cæfar and Pompey, or that of any other period of antiquity; and you will find indubitable facts, and innumerable of them, abfolutely inconfiftent with your hafty and random hypothefis.

You will find men of all descriptions, and of all nations, many of them as cool and fenfible as yourselves, and who had as much at ftake, with respect to character, or fortune, as you can have; men who had every means of informing themselves on the subject, and who evidently fpared no pains in doing so; so impreffed with the perfuafion of the reality of the great events on which the truth of Christianity is founded, that they perfifted through life in giving the fulleft evidence of their conviction.

And

And it is particularly to be obferved, that this was not a perfuafion concerning metaphyfical opinions, of which few persons are competent judges, but things that were the objects of the fenfes; fuch as the instant cure of diforders well known to be the most incurable, raising the dead to life, and other works equally miraculous and ftupendous, in which there could be no fufpicion of fallacy, and of which all perfons are equally judges.

But fome of your writers have given fo little attention to this fubject, though it is merely an historical one, that they have denied the very existence of Jefus Christ, have afferted that the very term Chrift was borrowed from fome Eaftern language, having the fame origin with Chriftnou, one of the gods of Hindoftan, and that Chriftianity is only a particular modification of the worship of the fun.

Serious as the subject is, it is not poffible to forbear fmiling at fuch palpable ignorance. I fhall expect that the fame writers will foon attempt to allegorize the hiftory of Julius Cæfar,

8

Cæfar, and maintain that no fuch perfon ever exifted. For there is not a hundredth part of the evidence for the existence of Julius Cæfar, that there is for that of Jesus Christ. Hereafter the hiftory of France itself may be allegorized, the very names of Lewis, Demourier, and Pethion, may be derived from ancient languages, and the prefent war of your republic against the defpots of Europe, may be faid to mean nothing more than the war of the elements of nature.

If I had not feen fo much of the

power of

prejudice, I fhould wonder that so many men, of unquestionable good fenfe among you, and even able writers, fhould have given fo little attention as they have done to natural probability, in judging concerning an historical fubject.

The letter of Pliny the younger is well known to all the learned, and its genuineness was never called in queftion; and yet one would think that fome of your writers against Christianity had never heard of it. He wrote

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