PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

01 Reverencing the Dei1fmanagement
an~ disingenuousness in th~ form un~er
"'hich they arc di'perscd among the public. InfidelIty
is ~erved up in every shape, that is likely to allure, surprise,
or beguile the imagination; in a fable, a tale, a
novel, a pcem: in intersper~ed and broken hints, remote
and obliqu~ surmises; in books of travels, of philosophy,
of natural history; in a word, in any form,
ratherthan the right one, that of a professed and regular
disquisition. And because the coarse buffoonery, and
broad laugh of the old and rude adversaries of the
Christian faith, would offend the taste, perhaps, rather
than the virtue of this cultivated age, a gravel' irony, a
more skilful aild delicate banter is substituted in their
p~ace.. An eloquent historian, beside his more direct,
and therefore fairer attacks upon the credibility of the
evanSelic story, has contrived to weave into hi~ narration
('!le continued sneer upon the cause of Christianity,
~illd upon the writings and characters of its ancient patrons.
The knowledge\ihich this author possesses of ttle
frame and conduct of the hllman mind, mllst have led
him to observe, that such attacks do their ~xecution
without inquiry. 'Vho can refute a sneer? Who can
ccmpu!e the Dum.her ,m'lch les3, one by one, scruttn;ze
th~ justice of those disparaging in.;inuatLms. which
crowu iii\: p:lh~~~f this elaborate history? \Vhat reader
suspend ~ his curiosity, or Lall ~ otl- his 3trelltiull iroill tile
principal narrative,to exanline references, to search in.
to the foundation,or to weigh the re;lSOD, propriety and
tor~e of everf transient sarcasm, and ~ly allusion, by
which the Cl1ristian testimony is depreciated and trad
uced ? and by which, nevertheless, he may find
his per~ua5ioll afrerwards 'Jnsettled. and perplexed?
But the enemies of Christi ani ty pave pursued her Nirh
poi~oned arr()\vs. ()bscenit}T itself i~. nlade the vehic.le of
iI1fiddity. The awful doctrines, if we be not permitted
to call them the sacred truths, of om· religion, together
with all the adjuncts and appendages of its worshi? and;
external prof\~:,,,ion, have been sometimes impudently
profaned by an unnai nra t conjunction with impure and
la~civi()l.IS il11age~. 'l'hc fiJllllncss for ridicule is almost
:..l!l1v::rn! ~ anli ri(licnlc, to many minds!,is n