nor only of fuch as had a refemblance and agreement in their turn and language, with those in that treatife which I at first proposed to consider, (though these are not few, because he repeats the fame false accounts or unjust gloffes, in different pieces, again and again,) but even of some where the abuse was wholly new and diftinct from any I had there met with. Befides, upon this determination, I affigned to his injurious reflexions and cavils against the authenticity of this or that canonical book, in general, a separate place, and bestowed upon them a more full and accurate examination than before, when only fome flight attention had been fhewed to two or three of them, in laying open his unfair reprefentations of the sense of Scripture.

I have been abundantly fenfible, while employed in meditating this criticism on Mr. Voltaire's works, that I could not write in his entertaining and sprightly manner; far lefs enliven my fubject with his ftrokes of humour and raillery; nevertheless, I have not been difcouraged by the strongest consciousness of this inequality. For it seemed to me, that it was a man's duty, to ufe fuch talents of reafon and learning as God had conferred upon him, for promoting the cause of truth and piety, though he might fall short of an adversary to it, in a lively and animated way of expreffing his sentiments: the more, that numbers of mankind will hearken and yield to found argument, tho' it may not be recommended by elegance in its delivery. It occured to me, likewife, that if I wanted abilities for ridicule and wit, I would be more likely to escape the charge which hath been brought against fome advocates for Chriftianity, of wandering

far from the mark, and be lefs in hazard of irritat ing Mr. Voltaire's admirers to fuch a degree, as to fteel them against the force of the evidence I offer, to evince his great neglect of veracity and fairness where religion is concerned.

I have further been aware, that fome perfons who may exceedingly need a caveat and prefervative againft the pernicious tendency of this author's writings, are apt to be disgufted when they fee a book written in oppofition to thefe irreligious fallies which he hath interfperfed in his publications fwell to fuch a fize as the prefent, and merely on that account to treat it with contempt. For, impatient of much · attention of mind to moral and spiritual fubjects, and equally averfe to much expence of time and leifure upon them, however lavish they may be of both about fome things that are trifling and infignificant when laid in ballance therewith, they would always have the defences for truth and Chriflianity as fhort and concife as the fneers and objections that are fquirted out against them. But neither have I hereby been disheartened from giving the offenfive articles in Mr. Voltaire, upon the heads abovementioned, a more ample and large difcuffion; though, indeed, I have had a fovereign regard to perfons of that caft of mind in ftudying brevity upon every fingle exception and mifreprefentation, and, where the fame could not be observed in consistence with the juftice I owed to the matter in hand, in providing paufes, or ftops for them, within the extent of a fection, where they might reft, if tired, till they were difpoled to proceed with fresh fpirit in the perufal of it. Such perfons fhould reflect, if they would be guid

ed by fober intelligence, that a cavil may be propofed with ease in a few words, either against the genuine, nefs of a book, or the truth of a hiftorical fact, or the equity of a statute, especially if they are of great antiquity; and yet, a juft refutation of it, far from being capable of being brought within the fame fmall compass, may require a great number of pages. In like manner they fhould attend, a disadvantageously false account of a writer's meaning may be couched with facility in a sentence or two, wherein his words are either mifquoted or misinterpreted; and yet it will be needful for his vindication to be much more prolix, at least in the latter cafe, because it must be fhewed from fuch circumftances as there is reafon to take in, that the fenfe put upon his words is the refult of a wild and perverfe explanation of them; and that another conftruction, which furnishes no handle to derogate from his praife and worth, is the only true and genuine one which they can receive. They ought not therefore to be prepoffeffed against an anfwer on the fide of religion, purely because it occupies more room than the objection or mifreprefentation to which it is opposed; and the lefs, because the words thereof must be recited, that there may be no complaint of wrong done by the apologift, which muft always increase in fome measure, and often very confiderably, the length of his performance. Befides, I herein intend a fervice to many who are of a much nobler and better temper. Being fatisfied upon good grounds that the scriptures contain a revelation from God, they are defirous, according to their ability, to acquaint themselves with the vanity and weakness of the pleas of fcoffers, that they may be

better fortified against any bad impreffion by the allegations of fceptics, into whofe company and conversation they may fall, or into whose works they may caft their eyes; nay, they even wish, by fuch knowledge of their futility and falshood, to be enabled to put to filence gainfayers, who deride the authority, or traduce the contents of the facred books.

6

Hitherto I have not feen any publication which could fuperfede the propriety of this attempt to fhew Mr. Voltaire and the public thefe capital faults which I have prefumed to accufe him, and thereby to frustrate the aim of the pernicious parts of his writings. Only in the Chriftian's Magazine, or Treasury of Divine Knowledge, for November, 1766, and four fucceeding months, I met with A Confutation of those Paffages of Scripture produced by Mr. Voltaire in the 12th and 13th chapters of his Treatife on Religious Toleration, whence he endeavours to prove that idolatry was • tolerated by God amongst the Jews.' But here, as is plain from the title of the piece which I have mentioned, the design of its anonymous author, even in reference to the justification of fcripture from Mr. Voltaire's abuse or wrong expofition, was far more contracted and circumfcribed than that which I had formed. Nor did fome of the paffages which he wrests to support his affertion feem to have received fo accurate and thorough a confideration there, as they merited; for which reafon I have also bestowed my care and pains upon fixing their real import, where they fell within my plan. And as I have not seen any publication which could render the prefent improper and fuperfluous, no more

have I learned from any literary journals which I have looked into, that any work hath been printed against Mr. Voltaire, at home or abroad, of fuch a nature as to afford any argument for fuppreffing it; though I have endeavoured to get informatin*, that I might forbear troubling the world, fo far

The refult of my enquiries here is fhortly this. In Bibliotheque des Sciences et Beaux Arts, tom. 18. 1762. is mention of a book, entitled, Obfervations fur les Savans Incredules, &c. that is, Remarks on Learned Infidels and fome of their Writings, by Francois de Luc. But all I find there is, that this author attacks Mr. Voltaire among feveral others, upon fome historical articles, but chiefly upon that of Julian the apoftate, and, after expofing the faults of this emperor whom, he observes, fome modern unbelievers have idolized, prays Mr. Voltaire to reconcile his own affertions concerning him in different places; feeing in one place he hath pronounced him falfe to faith, faithful to reafon, (Infidele a la foi, Fidele a la Raifon ;) and in another place he hath affirmed, that he difgraced or difparaged his reafon by his attachment to Theurgy or fuperftition.In the Appendix to the 36th volume of the Monthly Review, which ends with June 1767, is an account of another foreign book, whofe French title fignifies, A Supplement to 'the Philofophy of History of the deceased Monfieur L'Abbé Bazin (a ⚫ fictitious name for Mr. Voltaire) neceffary for those who would read ' that work with advantage,' and which was printed at Amsterdam in the beginning of that year. But, according to the authors of that Appendix, while he depreciates Mr. Voltaire as unacquainted with any of the learned languages except the Latin, as one of the greatest plagiaries that has appeared fince the revival of literature, as ignorant of the first principles of criticism, as guilty of falfe citations, he leaves the defence of religion exprefsly to thofe whofe bufinefs it is to watch over the precious depofitum of the faith, and confines himself profeffedly, where he produces his proofs of these reproaches with which he hath loaded Mr. Voltaire, within the bounds of erudition. In the Appendix to their 38th volume, again, it is faid, there was published at Avignon, in the fame year, the Antiphilofophical Dictionary, which is intended as a commentary upon, and antidote againft, Voltaire's Philofophical Dictionary, and other works against Christianity. And the reprefenta