Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1849, by

JOHN A. GURLEY,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Ohio.

PREFACE.

THE writer of the following pages is aware, that the subject of which they treat has been often and ably discussed by others; but he is also aware, that their works for the most part, are of too voluminous or too critical a character, to engage the attention of that numerous class of readers who might be induced to go through a less labored and less imposing volume. The works of Lardner, the most valuable ever written in defence of the Christian religion, are not probably seen, much less read, by one in five thousand of the great mass of the people. And nearly the same remark may be made in relation to the works of Macknight, Leland, Stackhouse, Gregory, Newton, Horne, and even those of Watson and Paley. It is well known that Paley's volume is more extensively circulated and read than any other work on the same subject, and yet it cannot be doubted that a large majority of Christian believers have never so much as seen the book.

The object aimed at in the present volume is, the throwing together in as small a space as possible an out line of the Christian argument; not with the expectation of making it a substitute for the works mentioned, but with the hope that it may serve as a kind of introduction to them. Some may perhaps be persuaded to read this volume because it is small; and having read this, we trust they will be sufficiently interested in the subject to pursue it farther, and enter into a thorough investigation of the

argument in all its bearings. It is not expected that those who have made themselves familiar with the valuable productions which have been named, will give these pages a perusal for such they were not intended.

It may be well to say here, that no claims are advanced on the score of originality. The very nature of the subject is such as to show that any very formidable pretensions in this respect would be unfounded. The writer has availed himself of all the materials within his reach, and only regrets that he had not access to more. It is believed that due acknowledgements are made for debts contracted in this respect. As to the style but little need be said. It has been the aim throughout to state every proposition in plain and intelligible terms, without any seeking for superlatives.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

IN the present edition important additions have been made, enlarging the volume to almost double its former size. Nearly the entire body of the matter embraced in chapters ix-xii, is new; and as the reader will perceive, it has been prepared mostly in reference to the present phases of scepticism, which claims now, once more, to be specially philosophical and rational. The theory of Strauss has been examined more at length, because, though known by name only as the mythic theory, the work embodies in fact, the essence of all possible forms of unbelief. Of course the limits within which we are confined would not allow of detail; and our review, therefore, is based on a few leading features of the system.

Beside the above additions, the first chapters of the argument have been considerably improved. The Introduction has been much enlarged; and several sections of the work have been re-written and new ones added, and large portions of new matter inserted in the body of other sections. Chapters i. sect. 3; ii. 3; iii. 1, 2; vi. 3, 5; vii. 1; viii. 1; &c. are examples.

In justice to the writer, it should be stated here that the work having been put to press in Cincinnati, he could not of course read the proof. In consequence, some errors have crept into the pages, mostly in the notes, and in the spelling of proper names; as Horace for Horne, p. 75; Newton for Norton, p. 167; &c. There are a few others,

b

as physical for pshycical, p. 12; the omission of "not" after "could," p. 16, four lines from the bottom; which, of course, reverses the meaning of the sentence. So the capital OF, p. 246, should be italic. Those who know the difficulties of being exact, even when one reads his own proof, will pardon these errors, without farther apology.

And now, humbly asking the blessing of God on our labors, we give the work to the perusal of those for whom it was originally designed, viz: such as have neither time nor means to devote to a more thorough investigation of he historical argument for the truth of Christianity. Brooklyn, N. Y., April, 1849.