MR. B. And still less in rejecting it without examination, as some do. EDWARD. But many have not the means of instituting an investigation into its truth; and what are we to think when told, that "he who believeth and is baptised shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned?” MR. B. Do you not see how you are confounding things that are unconnected with each other? Belief necessarily implies a knowledge of the subjcet to be believed in the case of ignorance, there is neither belief nor unbelief. Wilful ignorance you have before seen to be criminal: you must know that the doctrine of Christianity is, that we shall be judged according to our works, -the motives which influenced us, and the means put in our power. EDWARD. Yet still if full conviction cannot be obtained without inquiry, and the bulk of mankind cannot inquire, from the very nature of the subject, and yet the defenders of Christianity allege, that the most serious consequences will ensue in a future state to all who reject it; do not these circumstances, taken together, constitute an argument of considerable force against it? If full conviction cannot be obtained without inquiry, and the bulk of mankind cannot so inquire, can we suppose God requires an impossibility? Must not the tenet be given up, or Christianity itself fall to the ground? BEATRICE. But if the tenet be given up, it ceases to be a matter of importance whether Christianity be true or not, and it becomes merely a matter of curiosity whether mankind have been imposed on or not. MR. B. But upon what authority do you assume that the peculiar nature of the evidences in favour of Christianity is of that kind, that it can only be examined so as to carry conviction to the minds of a few? : EDWARD. It is generally regarded as the province of the learned the bulk of mankind are altogether incapable of receiving and judging of the evidences of Christianity. MR. B. But with regard to all, can you not conceive the possibility of Christianity's possessing a certain degree of evidence sufficient to produce conviction? EDWARD. Yes; but that which is false may, upon a par tial view, and for a time, appear true. And how can the illiterate Christian be sure he has not "followed cunningly devised fables?" MR. B. Out of the thousands that make use of the common rules of arithmetic, and well-known results of geometry, how many do you suppose ever investigated the truth of those rules,how many are there able to investigate them? EDWARD. Very few indeed. Almost every mechanic knows the forty-seventh proposition of the first book in Euclid, and confides in it implicitly in fact: but I suppose not one in a thousand of those who make use of it could prove it. MR. B. Yet the universal use made of it proves that the evidence for it is to their minds irresistible. What then is that evidence? whence does it arise? EDWARD. I should suppose from experience: they find it always true in practice, and therefore conclude it. must be so in theory. MR. B. And may not the unlearned Christian find Christianity so invariably true in the excellency of its precepts and knowledge of human nature, as to draw a similar conclusion? So far as his knowledge went, he might have every reason to believe it true (the Christian asserts that he would), and no reason to believe it false, and would therefore be bound in conscience to obey it. BEATRICE. This would, however, suppose belief founded on erroneous principles, with regard to many. MR. B. Not on erroneous principles, but what to others would be defective principles. But all moral obligation must depend on the situation in which we are placed, and the means put into our power, Now one distinguishing feature of the evidences of Christianity, as of its precepts, is, that whilst it includes the greatest, it descends to the least; nor is there any intermediate stage in which it leaves the mind unsatisfied; at least so the Christian asserts; nor can he be confuted without that very examination which it is his object to obtain. EDWARD. But nothing is easier than making assertions, and threatening awful consequences: all religions do the same. The evidences of all, to the votaries of each, appear irresistible; yet all cannot be right; all, except one, must be false, nay, perhaps even all are false; yet all profess to be divine revela tions, and, according to your argument, are entitled to examination. BEATRICE. But examination of all is impossible, in the nature of things. MR. B. It is so, nor is it necessary. You forget that I limited my assertion as to the necessity of inquiry to those cases "where there was no such evident absurdity as to render inquiry needless." BEATRICE, This restriction is certainly reasonable, and will greatly shorten the inquiry. EDWARD, But is it not objected to all pretences to revelation, that if God had revealed his will to mankind, he would have put the matter out of all doubt made it fully apparent to all nations and every age? MR. B. But what have we to do with suppositions? We have to inquire into what has been done, not to speculate on what might have been done. Nothing can be more absurd or unphilosophical than to form mere hypotheses of the manner in which it may please God to act towards mankind. Without revelation we are almost wholly in the dark: we know nothing of God but by his works and |