or believes, were guilty of no other crime than
that of being mistaken; a very common one indeed.

He hopes, therefore, that such a discussion as the one now laid
before the public, will be fairly met, and fairly answered, if
answered at all, and that recourse will not be had to dishonest and
ungentlemanly misrepresentations, and calling names, in order to
prevent people from examining things they have a right to know,
and in order to blind and frighten the public, the jury to which he
appeals. It is infallibly true, that the knowledge of truth is, and
must be beneficial to mankind; and that, in the long run, it never
was, and never can be, harmful. It is equally certain, that God
would never give a Revelation so slightly founded as to be
endangered by any sophistry of man. If the Christian system be
from God, it will certainly stand, no human power can overthrow
it; and, therefore, no sincere Christian who believes the New
Testament, ought to be afraid to meet half way the objections of
any one who offers them with fairness, and expresses them in
decent language; and no sensible Christian ought to shut his ears
against his neighbour, who respectfully asks "a reason for the faith
that is in him."

The author has been told, indeed, that, "supposing the Christian
system to be unfounded, yet that it is reasonable to believe, that the
Supreme Being would view any attempts to disturb it, with
displeasure, on account of its moral effects." But is not this
something like absurdity? Can God have made it necessary, that
morals should be founded on delusion, in order that they might be
supported? Can the God of TRUTH be displeased to have men
convinced that they have been mistaken, or imposed upon, by
Revelations pretended to be from Him, which if in fact not from
him, must be the offspring either of error or falsehood? And if the
Christian system be, in truth, not from God, can we suppose, that
in his eyes its doctrines with regard to Him are atoned for, by a few
good moral precepts? Can we suppose, that that Supreme and
awful Being can feel Himself honoured, in having his creatures
made to believe, that He was once nine months in the womb of a
woman; that God, the Great and Holy, went through all the
nastiness of infancy; that be lived a mendicant in a corner of the
earth, and was finally scourged, and hanged on a gibbet by his own
creatures? If these things be, in truth, all mistakes, can we
suppose, that God is pleased in