A SHORT AND EASY METHOD WITH THE DEISTS.

BY THE

REV. CHARLES LESLIE, M.A.

THE REV. CHARLES LESLIE, M. A., the celebrated author of the following Tract, was the son of an Irish Bishop, and was himself appointed to a charge in Ireland, during the trying period of 1687, when Popery was fast gaining the ascendancy in Great Britain. He was a determined Protestant, and held repeated public discussions with Papists. He published nearly thirty different tracts and pamphlets, chiefly controversial. Indeed, so highly was he reputed as a polemic, that he was sent over to the Continent by some gentlemen of England, to endeavour to convert the son of James II. to the Protestant faith, an undertaking, however, in which he failed. The most celebrated of his works is his Short and Easy Method with the Deists. The following interesting account of the origin of the publication is taken from the preface to the edition published by the Rev. Mr Jones of Nayland. It need scarcely be added, that the work has gone through a great variety of editions, though still it is far from being so generally known or possessed, as its value justly claims.

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Every reader, to whom the Short Method is new, will be induced to think more highly of it, if I tell him its history, as I received it from Dr Delany, Dean of Down, in Ireland; who told me he had it from Captain Leslie, a son of the author. It was the fortune of Mr Leslie to be acquainted with the Duke of Leeds of that time; who observed to him, that although he was a believer of the Christian religion, he was not satisfied with the common methods of proving it; that the argument was long and complicated; so that some had neither

'Behold, the acceptable year of the Lord is come! Liberty is proclaimed to the captive, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. They shall rest from their sorrow, and from their fear, and from the hard bondage wherein they were made to serve.'

"

The abolition of domestic slavery was the occasion of another change in the manners of men, which is no less remarkable. Captives taken in war, were, in all probability, the first persons subjected to perpetual servitude; and when the necessities or luxury of mankind increased the demand for slaves, every new war recruited their number, by reducing the vanquished to that wretched condition. Hence proceeded the fierce and desperate spirit with which wars were carried on among ancient nations. While chains and slavery were the certain lot of the conquered, battles were fought and towns defended, with rage and obstinacy, which nothing but horror at such a fate could have inspired; but, by putting an end to the cruel institution of slavery, Christianity extended its mild influence to the practice of war; and that barbarous art, softened by its humane spirit, ceased to be so destructive. Secure, in every event, of personal liberty, the vanquished resisted with less obstinacy, and the triumph of the victor became less cruel. Thus, humanity was introduced into the exercise of war, with which it appears to be almost incompatible; and it is to the merciful maxims of Christianity, much more than to any other cause, that we must ascribe the little ferocity and bloodshed which accompany modern victories. Even where the passions of men are fiercest, and most highly inflamed, the powerful genius of our religion interposes, restrains the fury of war, and sets bounds to its destroying rage. The benevolent spirit of the gospel delivereth the captive from his fetters, "looseth those who were appointed to death;" "and

saith to the sword that is ready to devour, Return to thy scabbard, and be still."

It hath become a fashionable topic among political reasoners, to celebrate the mildness and humanity of modern manners, and to prefer the character of present times, in that respect, before the ancient. To what cause shall we ascribe this important revolution in the sentiments and dispositions of mankind? Not to the influence of better instituted governments; for in legislative wisdom the ancients far excelled us; not to the effects of a better directed education; that duty, shamefully neglected by us, was, among them, an object of chief attention; nor to our superior refinements in elegant and polite arts; there we must be content to equal, without pretending to surpass the ancients. The Christian religion, hid from ages, but now manifested to the world," is the only cause capable of producing so great an effect: "That wisdom which is from above, is pure and peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy." Genuine Chris

tianity is distinguished above all other religions by the mildness of its spirit; the enemy of every practice which hardens the heart; the encourager of every virtue which renders the character humane. Whereever it hath been established in purity, and practised with zeal, "kindness, long-suffering, meekness, charity," are the graces which accompany it. Even the vices and inventions of men, which have mingled themselves with the truths of God, have not been able entirely to destroy their effects. Under all disadvantages, the genius of the gospel exerts itself, civilizing the fiercest and most barbarous nations, and inspiring a gentleness of disposition, unknown to any other religion. Together with the best spiritual blessings, the most valuable temporal mercies have been communicated to the world by Christianity. It not only sanc

leisure nor patience to follow it, and others were not able to comprehend it; that as it was the nature of all truth to be plain and simple, if Christianity were a truth, there must be some short way of showing it to be so; and he wished Mr Leslie would think of it. Such a hint to such a man, in the space of three days, produced a rough draught of the Short and Easy Method with the Deists; which he presented to the Duke, who looked it over, and then said, 'I thought I was a Christian before, but I am sure of it now; and as I am indebted to you for converting me, I shall henceforth look upon you as my spiritual father.' And he acted accordingly; for he never came into his company afterwards, without asking his blessing. Such is the story; very nearly as Dr Delany himself would tell it, if he were now alive. The circumstances are so memorable, that there must have been something very extraordinary at the bottom to account for them. And so thought Dr Middleton; though the work affected him in a very different manner. Feeling how necessary it was to his principles that he should some way rid himself of Mr Leslie's argument, he looked out for some false fact, to which the four marks might be applied, and this he did for twenty years together, without being able to find one. This I learned from the late Dr Berkeley, son to the celebrated Bishop of Cloyne, who conversed much with the world, and I believe would not have reported such a thing, but upon good authority.

"To those who take Mr Leslie's tracts into their hands, I have only this short advice to give. I beseech them to remember, that if Christianity be true, it is tremendously true. All the great things this world can show are as nothing in comparison of it. Heaven and hell are the issue. Its facts yet to come are as certain as those that are past. The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised; the heavens shall

be on fire, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the angels shall gather the elect of God from the four winds; all men shall be called upon to give an account of their words and actions; and they who now deny Jesus Christ, and hold him in defiance, shall see the heaven and earth fly away before his face. A man must be stuipfied if he can think on these things, without fleeing from the wrath to come; and there is no way but in the belief of Christianity, which this book teaches."

SIR,

I. IN answer to yours of the 3d instant, I much condole with you in your unhappy circumstances, of being placed among such company, where, as you say, you continually hear the sacred Scriptures, and the histories therein contained, particularly of Moses and of Christ, and all revealed religion, turned into ridicule, by men who set up for sense and reason. And they say that there is no greater ground to believe in Christ, than in Mahomet; that all these pretences to revelation are cheats, and ever have been among Pagans, Jews, Mahometans, and Christians; that they are all alike impositions of cunning and designing men, upon the credulity, at first, of simple and unthinking people, till, their numbers increasing, their delusions grew popular, came at last to be established by laws; and then the force of education and custom gives a bias to the judgments of after ages, till such deceits come really to be believed, being received upon trust from the ages foregoing, without examining into the original and bottom of them. Which these, our modern men of sense (as they desire to be esteemed) say that they only do, that they only have their judgments freed from the slavish authority of precedents