THE

TRUTH AND EXCELLENCE

OF THE

Chriftian Religion Exhibited.

IN TWO PARTS.

PART I.

CONTAINING

SKETCHES OF THE LIVES OF EMINENT
LAYMEN, WHO HAVE WRITTEN IN DE-
FENCE OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.

PART II.

CONTAINING

EXTRACTS FROM THEIR WRITINGS.

BY HANNAH ADAMS.

There never was found in any age of the world, either philofophy, or
fect, or religion, or law, or discipline, which did fo highly exalt
the public good, as the chriftian faith.-LORD BACON.

BOSTON:

PRINTED BY DAVID CARLISLE,

For JOHN WEST, No. 75, CORNHILL.

HARVARD

COLLEGE

APR 29 1940

LIBRARY

Duplicate money

United States of America.

DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, to wit:

Bit remembered, that on the third day of July 1804, in the

twenty eighth year of the Independence of the United States of America, Hannah Adams, of the said district, hath deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof she claims as author, in words following, to wit: The Truth and Excellence of the Christian Religion Exhibited. In two parts. Part I. Containing sketches of the lives of eminent laymen, who have written in defence of the chriftian religion. Part II. Containing extracts from their writings. By Hannah Adams. "There never was found in any age of the world, either philosophy, or fect, or religion, or law, or difcipline, which did so highly exalt the public good as the christian religion.” LORD BACON.. -In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, “All A for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books to the authors and proprietors of fuch copies, during the times therein mentioned;" and also to an Act, entitled, “An Act supplementary to an Act, entitled, An A& for the encouragement of learning, by fecuring the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned; and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of defigning, engraving, and etching, historical, and other prints." SClerk of the Distric

་་

NATHAN GOODALE,

of Massachusetts.

Atteft, N. Goodale, Clerk.

THE

TRUTH AND EXCELLENCE

OF THE

Chriftian Religion Exhibited.

PART 1.

CONTAINING

SKETCHES OF THE LIVES OF EMINENT LAYMEN, WHO HAVE WRITTEN IN DEFENCE OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.

PREFACE TO PART I.

IN the following pages

the reader is prefented with the outlines of the lives of those eminent laymen, who have distinguished themselves by their zealous exertions in defence of the chriftian religion. The account commences foon after the important era of the reformation, when there was a general freedom of religious inquiry; and many of the great men, who are the fubjects of these biographical sketches, lived at a time when the deifts exerted all the force: of fophiftry and delufive reasoning, to overturn the facred edifice of revealed religion.. The narrow limits of this work will not admit of giving a particular narration of the various incidents of their lives, or a discrimi nating characteristic of their peculiar virtues and defects. The principal object is to exhibit one prominent trait, by which they were distinguished, namely, their full coviction of the truth of chriftianity; notwithftanding they might differ widely from each. other in their view of particular doctrines,

1