CHAPTERVIII. 215 into any error, when they are directed and advised to read a treatise that would set them right, read it with, a sort of dis- gust which they' have before entertained ; they skim lightlyover the arguments, they neglect or despise the force of them, 'and keep their own conclusion firm in their assent, and thus they maintain their error in the midst of light, and grow incapable of conviction. But if we would indeed act like sincere searchers for the truth, we should survey every argument with a careful and un- biassed mind, whether it agree with, our former opinion orno : we should give every reasoning its full force, and weigh it in our sedatest judgment. Now the best way to try what force there is in the arguments which are brought against our own opinions is, to sit down and endeavour to give a solid answer, one by one, to every argument that the author brings to support his own doctrine ; and in 'this attempt, if we find there some ar- guments which we are not able to answer fairly to our own minds, we should then begin to bethink ourselves, whether we have not been hitherto in a mistake, and whether the defender of the con- trary sentiments may not be in the right. Such a method as this, will effectually forbid us to pronounce at once against those doc- trines, and those writers, which are contrary to our sentiments; and we shall endeavour to find solid arguments to refute their positions, before we entirely establish ourselves in a contrary opinion. Volatillis had given himself up to the conversation of the freethinkers of our age, upon all subjects; and being pleased with the wit and appearance of argument, in some of our mo- dern deists, had too easily deserted the christian faith, andgone over to the camp of the infidels. Among other books which were recommended to him to reduce him to the faith of the gospel he had Mr. John Reynold's Three. Letters to a Deist put into his hand, and was particularly desired to peruse the third of them with the utmost care, as being an unanswerable defence of the truth of christianity. He took it in hand, and after having given it a short survey, he told his friend he saw nothing in it, but the common arguments which we all use to support the religion in which we had been educated, but they wrought no conviction in him ; nor did he see sufficient reason to believe that the gospel of Christ wasnot a piece of enthusiasm, or a mere imposture.. Upon this the friend who recommended. Mr. Reynold's Three Letters to his study, being confident of the force of truth which lay there, entreated of Volatilis that he would set himself down with diligence, and try to answer Mr. Reynold's Third Letter in vindication of the gospel ; and that he would show under every head, how the several steps which were taken in the propagationof the christian religion, might be the natural effects
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