An Apology for the Bible

Excerpt from An Apology for the Bible: In a Series of Letters, Addressed to Thomas Paine, Author of a Book Entitled, the Age of Reason, Part the Second, Being an Investigation of True and of Fabulous Theology A fever, which you and thofe about you ex peéled would prove mortal, made you remember with renewed fatisfaélion, that you had written the former part of your Age of Reafon - and you know therefore, you fay, by experience, the confcientious trial of your own principles. I admit this declaration to be a proof of the {ince rity of your perfuafton; but I cannot admit it to be any proof of the truth of your principles. What is confcience? Is it, as has been thought, an internal monitor implanted in us by the Su preme Being, and diét-ating to us, on all occa lions, what is right or wrongp Or is it'mercly our own judgment of the moral reżitude or tor pitude of our own aétions? I takothe word' (with lvir. Locke) in the latter, as in the only intelligible fenfe. No'w, wl'o fees not that our judgments of virtue and vice, right and wrong, are not always formed from an enlightened and difpażionate ufe of our reafon, in the invelliga tion of truth? They are more generally formed from the nature of the religion we profefs; from the quality of the civil government under'which. We live; from the general manners of the age, or the particular manners of the porfons With whom we aciate; from the education we have had in our youth; from the books we have read at a more advanced period; and from other accidental caufes. (who fees not that, on this account. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.