§ 1. Twofold relations in which the condition of Chris- tians is analogous to that of children; viz: the relation of children to their parents; and to § 2. Our analogy to children in respect to knowledge, § 3. Difficulty of explaining, from human causes, why some more systematic instruction was not super- § 4. Objection against Christianity thence raised, p. 341; § 7. Inspired Compendium of Faith, not desirable § 9. Self-distrust distinguished from universal scepticism 366 ON THE ABSENCE OF A PRIESTHOOD. Christian religion without a priest in the ordinary sense, p. 379; equivocal use of the word, p. 381; Romish corruption in this point, p. 382; and importance of the peculiarity in question, ibid. Christianity exempt INTRODUCTION. THE greater part of the substance of the Essays contained in this volume was delivered in a Series of Discourses before the University of Oxford, on the first occasion of my holding the office of Select Preacher. They were not originally designed for publication; but I was induced to entertain the idea, at the suggestion of some friends, whose opinions are entitled to deference, and who thought that the views contained in them might have the effect on some minds,-not, indeed, of introducing new doctrines,—but of awakening attention to some important points which are very frequently overlooked and that the chain of argument would appear to more advantage, and would be likely B to be more justly estimated, when comprised in a volume, than when delivered, as was necessarily the case, at considerable intervals, from the University-pulpit. It is hardly necessary to observe, that I have not entertained the design of noticing all the peculiarities of the Christian religion; which would indeed amount to little less than a complete system of theology; nor even all the principal ones; but those only which appeared to be the most frequently overlooked, or depreciated. That the unbeliever should rank Christianity along with the various systems of superstition which human fraud and folly have produced and maintained, keeping out of sight every circumstance that forms a distinction between the true coin and the counterfeit, is not to be wondered at; but to oppose decided infidelity (though it is hoped some of the arguments adduced may be employed with effect for that purpose) has not been made the primary object of these Essays. I have had in view the case of those who regard Christianity with indifference, rather than of those who reject it. It is a more common, and not a less pernicious error, to regard Christianity as little else than the Religion of Nature, proclaimed by a special mission, for the benefit, chiefly, of those whose feebleness of intellect, ignorance, or depraved disposition, unfits them for discovering its truths by the light of Reason. The Gospel accordingly, while praised as a beautiful system, and highly extolled for its utility, is praised, in fact, for what does not belong to it, viz. its containing nothing of importance which a philosophical mind might not discover by its own unaided powers: and it is thence regarded as useful only for the less intelligent and less cultivated; in short, for the vulgar. There are others, again, whose veneration for the Gospel is more real, but who erroneously think to honour and support it by laying a foundation which, in fact, tends to weaken and degrade the superstructure. Beginning with Natural-Religion, they attribute to that, much of what properly belongs to Christianity, and much that belongs to neither; and thus often lead to the perversion of some parts of the Gospel, and to the depreciation of others. In fact, the study of natural-religion ought properly to follow, or |