SECTION V. 309 of what they taught, and the rest of the sacred writings are authorised and confirmed by men who wrought miracles. Ac- quaint yourselves with some of those books which have been written, especially within these last thirty years, to prove and establish the truth of the religion of Christ, in opposition to the deists and infidels of our age : And furnish yourselves with just and rational answers to the chief cavils of our adversaries *, that you may not be surprizedon a sudden by the stcbtilty of menwho lie in wait to deceive, and be robbed of the richest treasure of yoursouls, and of your everlasting hope. Remember the sacred advice of the apostle ; 1 Pet. iii. 15. Be ready to render, to every wean that asketh yon, a reason of the hope that is in 'you. Be ready furnished to give every man an account why you are a christian. IL as have a careof mingling the pure religion of Christ with any human additions, either of doctrine or duty: For this corrupt mixture will give the'adversaries of our faith a vast ad- vantage against you :" When you shall have framed or received such articles of faith, or rites of worship, as the gospel does not contain, and you call this the christian religion, you disgust an unbeliever, and tempt him to renounce the whole, becauseof the vanity, folly, or absurdity of youradditions. Doubtless, this has been the case frequently in some chris- tian countries. The papists have added so large a medley of their own to the pure religion of Jesus, that the more rational and thinking men, in Italy, are generally supposed to be deists ; for they cannever think that such sort ofchristianity as is practised among them, can be a religion that carne from God. And I wish there had never been any reason to complain in protestant na- t lions, that such inconsistent schemes of doctrines, or of ceremo- nies, or both, have sometimes been vended for true christianity, as has given an unhappy occasion to infidels to suspect the truth of the gospel itself. Learn therefore to distinguishwell, what is pure and simple christianity, from all the additional matters which have been mingled with it: For pure christianity will bear a much better defence, and you will stand more stedfast in the belief of it. Now, to this end, I would advise you to converse much with the wordof God, and especially with the New Testament, which is more eminently the rule of our holy religion. It is there you read the doctrines and duties of the gospel, free from all the additions of men, delivered in the language of unquestionable * Doctor Nichols in his 't Conference with a Theist;^ iu five parts, in two volumes octavo, has many solid solutions of their cavils, and their proposed diffi- culties, though perhaps, in order to humour the deists, and give them fair play, he has dressed up their arguments in a little too ludicrous or facetious a style. And he dwells too long and too learnedly on many of them Or the use of com- mon christian,.
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