AN APOLOGY FOR CHRISTIANITY, IN A SERIES OF LETTERS, ADDRESSED TO EDWARD GIBBON, Efq; AUTHOR OF THE DECLINE and FALL of the ROMAN EMPIRE. By R. WATSON, D.D. F.R.S. AND REGIUS PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY We have not followed cunningly devifed fables. CAMBRIDGE, Printed by J.Archdeacon Printer to the UNIVERSITY; M. DCC. LXXVI. English Sanders 24664 LETTER FIRST. SIR, I T would give me much uneafiness to be reputed an Enemy to free inquiry in religious matters, or as capable of being animated into any degree of perfonal malevolence against those who differ from me in opinion. On the contrary, I look upon the right of private judgment, in every concern refpecting God and ourselves, as fuperior to the control of human authority; and have ever regarded free difquifition, as the best mean of illuftrating the doctrine, and eftablishing the truth of Christianity. Let the followers of Mahomet, and the zealots of the church of Rome, support their several religious fyftems by damping every effort of the human intellect to pry into the foundations of their faith; but never can it become a Christian, to be afraid of being asked a reason of the faith that is in him; nor a Proteftant, to be ftudious of enveloping his religion in mystery and ignorance; nor the church of England, to abandon that moderation, by which fhe permits every individual et fentire qua velit, et qua fentiat dicere. |