not diftinguish, between the mad and the fober, will acquit himself but ill. He will not inftruct, but he certainly will miflead.'

ART. X. An Apology for Chriftianity, in a Series of Letters, addreffed to Edward Gibbon, Efq; "Author of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," By R. Watfon, D. D. F. R. S. and Regius Profeffor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge. 12mo. 3 s. 6d. fewed. White, &c.

HOUGH very little variety or novelty is now to be expected from the advocates of Chriftianity, yet the Apology before us cannot fail of recommending itself to every reader, who looks upon the subject as important, by the very beral and fprightly manner in which it is written. Obfervations, it must be acknowledged, are repeated, which have been often repeated, but for this the apologift cannot reasonably be blamed. While deifts continue to urge old objections, they have no right to expect new anfwers; when they make their attack upon different ground, it is furely time enough for their antagonifts to alter their mode of defence. It is obvious with refpect to this fubject, that, excepting a few metaphyfical fubtleties and refinements, modern deifts have advanced very little that is new; nay, farther, it must be apparent to those who have carefully ftudied the evidences of Chriftianity, that most of them feem to have been ignorant where the real difficulties lay, and have drawn their objections chiefly from the creeds and fyftems of fallible men. And here we cannot help lamenting that so excellent a fyftem of religion as that which is contained in the New Teftament, fo well fuited to our nature and our circumstances, so admirably calculated to promote the happiness of individuals, and the welfare of fociety, fhould have its native beauty defaced, and its influence obftructed by unintelligible and abfurd doctrines, established and fupported by human authority. While this continues to be the cafe, the clergy may multiply Apologies for Chriftianity, but infidelity will increase, and it is impoffible indeed it fhould be otherwife. We are fenfible that there are other caufes which contribute to the growth of infidelity; but daily experience convinces us, that there is no cause fo fruitful as that which we have mentioned; it is indeed fo very obvious, that it is fcarce poffible it fhould escape the most superficial obfervation.-But, to our author.

Dr. Watson introduces his first letter in the following liberal

manner :

SIR,

It would give me much uneafinefs to be reputed an enemy to free inquiry in religious matters, or as capable of being animated into any degree of perfonal malevolence against thofe who differ from me

in opinion. On the contrary, I look upon the right of private judg ment, in every concern refpecting God and ourfelves, as fuperior to the control of human authority; and have ever regarded free difquifition, as the best mean of illuftrating the doctrine, and establishing the truth of Chriflianity. Let the followers of Mahomet, and the zealots of the church of Rome, fupport their feveral religious fyftems by damping every effort of the human intellect to pry into the foundations of their faith; but never can it become a Chriftian, to be afraid of being asked a reafon of the faith that is in him; nor a Proteftant, to be ftudious of enveloping his religion in mystery and ignorance; nor the church of England, to abandon that moderation, by which the permits every individual et fentire quæ velit, et quæ fentiat dicere,

It is not, Sir, without fome reluctance, that, under the influence of these opinions, I have prevailed upon myfelf to address these letters to you; and you will attribute to the fame motive, my not having given you this trouble fooner. I had moreover an expectation, that the talk would have been undertaken by fome perfon, capable of doing greater justice to the fubject, and more worthy of your at tention. Perceiving however, that the two laft chapters, the fifteenth in particular, of your very laborious and claffical hiftory of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, had made upon many an impreffion not at all advantageous to Chriftianity; and that the filence of others, of the clergy efpecially, began to be looked upon as an acquiefcence in what you had therein advanced; I have thought it my duty, with the utmost respect and good-will towards you, to take the liberty of fuggefling to your confideration, a few remarks upon fome of the paffages, which have been efteemed (whether you meant, that they fhould be fo efteemed, or not) as powerfully militating again that revelation, which ftill is to many, what it formerly was to the Greeks, Foolishness; but which we deem to be true, to be the power of God unto falvation to every one that believeth.

To the inquiry, by what means the Chriftian faith obtained fo remarkable a victory over the eftablished religions of the earth, you rightly anfwer, By the evidence of the doctrine itfelf, and the ruling providence of it's Author. But afterwards, in affigning for this aftonishing event five fecondary causes, derived from the paffions of the human heart and the general circumstances of mankind, you seem to fome to have infinuated, that Chriftianity, like other Impostures, .might have made it's way in the world, though it's origin had been as human as the means by which you fuppofe it was fpread. It is no wifh or intention of mine, to faften the odium of this infinuation upon you; I fhall fimply endeavour to fhew, that the causes you produce, are either inadequate to the attainment of the end propofed, or that their efficiency, great as you imagine it, was derived from other principles than thofe you have thought proper to mention.'

The firft caufe affigned by Mr. Gibbon is, the inflexible and intolerant zeal of the Chriflians, derived from the Jewish religion, &c.-Dr. Watson allows that the zeal of the Chriftians was inflexible, neither death nor life, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things prefent, nor things to come, could bend it into a feparation

from

1

from the love of God, which was in Chrift Jefus their Lord. He allows likewife, that the zeal of the Chriftians was intolerant, for it denounced tribulation and anguifh upon every foul of man that did evil, of the Yew firft, and also of the Gentile; it would not tolerate in chriftian worship thofe who fupplicated the image of Cæfar, who bowed down at the altars of paganifm, who mixed with the votaries of Venus, or wallowed in the filth of Bacchanalian feftivals.

But though the historian and the divine are agreed, with regard to the inflexibility and intolerance of chriftian zeal, yet as to the principle from which this zeal was derived, they are toto calo, divided in opinion. The former deduces it from the Jewish religion; the latter, refers it to a full perfuafion of the truth of Christianity, as being a more adequate and a more obvious fource. It is a matter of real aftonishment to him, he fays, that any one converfant with the hiftory of the first propagation of Chriftianity, acquainted with the oppofition it every where met with from the people of the Jews, and aware of the repugnancy which must ever fubfift between its tenets and thofe of Judaifm, fhould ever think of deriving the zeal of the primitive chriftians from the Jewish religion. In a word, he thinks, that such a zeal as Mr. Gibbon defcribes, from whatever principle it may be fuppofed to have proceeded, could never have been devifed by any human understanding, as a probable means of promoting the progrefs of a reformation in reli gion; and, particularly, that it could never have been thought of, or adopted by a few ignorant and unconnected men.

In his fecond letter, our Author confiders the doctrine of a future life, which is the fecond of the caufes to which Mr. Gibbon attributes the quick increase of Chriftianity.

• Now, fays Dr. Watfon, if we impartially confider the circumftances of the perfons, to whom the doctrine, not fimply of a future life, but of a future life accompanied with punishments as well as rewards; not only of the immortality of the foul, but of the immortality of the foul accompanied with that of the refurrection, was delivered; I cannot be of opinion that, abftra&ted from the fupernatural teftimony by which it was enforced, it could have met with any very extenfive reception amongst them.'

It was not that kind of future life, which they expected; it did not hold out to them the punishments of the infernal regions, as aniles fabulas: to the question, Quid fi poft mortem maneant animi? they could not answer with Cicero and the philofophers, -Beatos effe concedo;-because there was a great probability, that it might be quite otherwife with them. I am not to learn, that there are paffages to be picked up in the writings of the ancients, which might be produced as proofs of their expecting a future ftate of punishment for the flagitious; but this opinion was worn out of credit, before the time of our Saviour: the whole difputation in the first book of the Tufculan Questions, goes upon the other fuppofition: nor was the ab

furdity of the doctrine of future punishments confined to the writings of the philofophers, or the circles of the learned and polite; for Ci. cero, to mention no others, makes no fecret of it in his public pleadings before the people at large. You yourfelf, Sir, have referred to his oration for Cluentius; in this oration, you may remember, he makes great mention of a very abandoned fellow, who had forged I know not how many wills, murdered I know not how many wives, and perpetrated a thousand other villainies; yet even to this profigate, by name Oppianicus, he is perfuaded, that death was not the occafion of any evilt. Hence, I think, we may conclude, that fuch of the Romans, as were not wholly infected with the annihilating notions of Epicurus, but entertained (whether from remote tradition, or enlightened argumentation) hopes of a future life, had no'manner of expectations of fuch a life, as included in it the feverity of punishment, denounced in the Chriftian scheme against the wicked."

Nor was it that kind of future life, which they wished; they would have been glad enough of an Elyfium, which could have ad mitted into it men who had spent this life, in the perpetration of every vice, which can debafe and pollute the human heart. To 2bandon every feducing gratification of fenfe, to pluck up every latent root of ambition, to fubdue every impulfe of revenge, to diveft themselves of every inveterate habit, in which their glory and their pleasure confifted; to do all this and more, before they could look up to the doctrine of a future life, without terror and amazement, was not, one would think, an eafy undertaking; nor was it likely, that many would forfake the religious inftitutions of their ancestors, fet at nought the gods, under whofe aufpices the Capitol had been founded, and Rome made miftrefs of the world, and fuffer themselves to be perfuaded into the belief of a tenet, the very mention of which made Felix tremble, by any thing lefs than a full conviction of the fupernatural authority of thofe who taught it.

The feveral schools of Gentile philofophers had difcuffed, with no fmall fubtlety, every argument, which reafon could fuggeft, for and again the immortality of the foul; and thofe uncertain glimmerings of the light of nature, would have prepared the minds of the learned for the reception of the full illustration of this fubject by the gofpel, had not the refurrection been a part of the doctrine therein advanced. But that this corporal frame, which is hourly mouldering away, and refolved at laft into the undiftinguished mass of elements, from which it was at firft derived, fhould ever be clothed with immortality; that this corruptible fhould ever put on incorruption, is a truth fo far removed from the apprehenfion of philofophical research, fo diffonant from the common conceptions of mankind, that amongst all ranks and perfuafions of men it was efteemed an impoffible thing. At Athens the philofophers had liftened with patience to St. Paul, whilst they conceived him but a fetter forth of ftrange gods; but as foon as they comprehended, that by the avaradis, he meant the re

+ Nam nunc quidem quid tandem mali illi mors attulit? nifi forte ineptiis ac fabulis ducimur, ut exiftimemus apud inferos impiorum fupplicia perferre; ac plures illic offendiffe inimicos quam bic reliquiffe-qua fi falfa fint, id quod omnes intelligunt, &c.

furrection,

furrection, they turned from him with contempt. It was principally the infifting upon the fame topic, which made Feftus think, that much learning had made him mad: and the questions, how are the dead raifed up? and, with what body do they come? feem, by Paul's folicitude to answer them with fullness and precifion, to have been not unfrequently propofed to him, by those who were defirous of becom ing Chriftians.

The doctrine of a future life then, as promulged in the gospel, being neither agreeable to the expectations, nor correfponding with the wishes, nor conformable to the reason of the Gentiles, I can difcover no motive (fetting afide the true one, the divine power of its first preachers) which could induce them to receive it; and in confequence of their belief, to conform their loofe morals to the rigid ftandard of gofpel purity, upon the mere authority of a few contemptible fishermen of Judea. And even you yourself, Sir, feem to have changed your opinion, concerning the efficacy of the expectation of a future life in converting the Heathens, when you obferve in the following chapter, that "the Pagan multitude referving their gratitude for temporal benefits alone, rejected the ineftimable prefent of life and immortality, which was offered to mankind by Jefus "of Nazareth."

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Montefquieu is of opinion, that it will ever be impoffible for Christianity to establish itself in China and the east, from this cir cumftance, that it prohibits a plurality of wives: how then could it have been poffible for it to have pervaded the voluptuous Capitol, and traversed the utmoft limits of the empire of Rome, by the feeble efforts of human industry, or human knavery?'

This letter likewife contains many pertinent obfervations concerning the doctrines of Chrift's fpeedy appearance, the millennium, &c. In his third letter, the Doctor confiders whether the miraculous powers, afcribed to the primitive church, and mentioned by Mr. Gibbon as the third of the fecondary causes of the rapid growth of Chriftianity, were in any eminent degree calculated to fpread the belief of Chriftianity among a great and an enlightened people.

Caft your eyes, Sir, fays he, upon the church of Rome, and ask yourself (I put the question to your heart, and beg you will confult that for an answer; ask yourself), whether her abfurd pretensions to that very kind of miraculous powers you have displayed as operating to the increase of Chriftianity, have not converted half her numbers to Proteftantifm, and the other half to Infidelity? Neither the fword of the civil magiftrate, nor the poffeffion of the keys of heaven, nor the terrors of her fpiritual thunder, have been able to keep within her pale, even those who have been bred up in her faith; how then fhould you think, that the very caufe, which hath almost extinguished Chriftianity among ft Chriftians, fhould have ettablished it amongst Pagans? I beg I may not be mifunderstood; I do not take upon me to fay, that all the miracles recorded in the history of the primitive church after the apoftolical age, were forgeries; i is foreign to the prefent purpofe to deliver any opinion upon that fub. ject; but I do beg leave to infiit upon this, that fuch of them as REV. Dec. 1776.

Hh

were