: “ banner: or, as her captive, tied to her chariot wheels, if “ he has, though undesignedly, committed any offence against her.” OLINTHUS GREGORY. Oct. 11, 1811. a : P. S. That successive editions of this Work should be required is a circumstance which calls for my most grateful acknowledgments, at the same time that it has stimulated me to give the whole a very careful revisal, that it may be rendered more worthy public favour. I cannot but be highly gratified that my labours on the most interesting of all subjects should continue to be so favourably received: and still more to learn, that in various instances they have been the means of convincing persons, especially young men devoted to two of the learned professions (medicine and law), that " with the talents of an angel a man may be a - fool,” in the worst sense of the word, unless he be a wise " unto salvation.” Several have been reclaimed from the regions of Infidelity, and still more from Socinianism, not merely in England, but on the continent of Europe, in India, and in America ; by the blessing of God upon an attentive perusal of these “ Letters.” I had no other object in their publication ; and can most sincerely declare that I wish them no longer to meet with encouragement than while they shall be useful in instilling into the minds and hearts of others, the essential, immutable principles which ve always been found to work most efficaciously towards the renovation and salvation of mankind. Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. Oct. 11, 1829. CONTENTS OF I. On the Folly and Absurdity of Deism . II. On the Necessity of a Revelation of the Will of God.... 19 III. On the Opinions of the Heathens, their Poets and Philoso- phers, relative to God, to moral Duty, and a future State, 20 IV. On the Probability that there should be Mysteries in a Re- V. On the Genuineness and Authenticity of the Scriptures .. 84 VI. On the Evidence deducible from the Prophecies.... 140 VII. On the Evidence deducible from Miracles; and on the Credibility of Human Testimony..... VIII. On the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.. IX. Evidence drawn from the rapid Diffusion of Christianity, and its Triumph over Persecution ; also from the Purity and Excellency of the Scripture Morality and Theology, 230 x. On the Inspiration of Scripture.... XI. On some of the most plausible Objections urged against the LETTERS ON THE EVIDENCES, DOCTRINES, AND DUTIES, OF, THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, LETTER I. On the Folly and Absurdity of Deism. MY DEAR FRIEND, I was much gratified, on the arrival of your letter, to find that you had not forgotten me; and more gratified still to learn, that the important topic, on which we so often conversed when we were together, has as frequently occupied your thoughts since our separation. In this respect your conduct evinces your usual solicitude to inquire after truth of every kind, and I trust it will be followed by your accustomed While human existence is as much characterized by the uncertainty as by the shortness of its duration, and there is interposed between us and Heaven, or Hell, or annihilation, nothing but life, the most brittle and precarious thing imaginable ;while there is no cause for vanity in being involved in súccess. |