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    ralive strangers , and to one or two among others , of whom , as we elsewhere ' learn , he had not a very high opinion . Here , and perhaps here only , we discover the , traces of a weakness which would probably have pervaded his character , if strength and dignity had not been infused into it by the principles of religion . By these principles his gentle virtues were supported , and

    through their influence his views bfecame enlarged , and his spirit catholicized to an extent of which some of his followers are perhaps not aware , and which they would do well to contemplate . Some admirers of Doddridge , who are ready to class liberal Christians with Deists , may learn a lesson from one whose name was never coupled with infidelity . He thus writes to a friend who entertained some doubts of the divine origin of

    Christianity : " It does not e terrify' me to hear , that a person whom I sincerely love , and for whose character I have the truest regard , has entertained some doubts which he cannot entirely get over , concern ins : a book which his earliest instructors recommended to him as the word of God . It is certainly the duty of every rational creature to bring his religion to the strictest test , and to retain or reject the faith in which he has been educated , as he finds it capable or incapable of a rational defence . I perfectly agree with my Lord Shafteshury

    in Ms judgment , that religion has not so much to fear from its weighty adversaries , who give it exercise , as from its fond nurse , who overlays it out of an excess of tenderness . I therefore do not oaly allow , but entreat you to urge all your strongest objections against Christianity , and to represent them in the most forcible light ; and if , then , upon the whole , I am convinced in my judgment that they are more than a balance to those arguments which support it , I will be a Christian no longer , but will frankly confess myself a Deist , and rather throw myself on Providence , and the charity of my new

    brethren , than purchase the most comfortable maintenance at so dishonourable a price as contradicting the conviction of my conscience , and speaking lies in the name of the Lord . On the other hand , I must entreat you , Sir , to enter on the inquiry with a solemnity and composure of mind answerable to its awful importance ; remembering that we are searching into a matter in which our views for immortality are concerned ; those pleasing or dreadful views , before which all the hopes and fears that relate only to this transitory life , fade away and disappear , like twinkling stars in the blaze of the meridian

    JBim : considering also , that if it be really true that God has sent his own 8 on into the world to recover a race of degenerate creatures at the expense of his own blood , and to fix them in a state of everlasting perfection and glory , it must be infinitely fatal to desert his religion , and to treat him like an impostor , without the most serious and impartial examination of the cause . Nay , though , after all , Christianity should prove only an agreeable dream , yet , as it pretends to the authority of the Supreme Being , and is supported with arguments which have , at least , some plausible appearance , it will argue a want of reverence to him , and consequently will expose us to his high displeasure ,

    to reject it lightly , before we clearly see into the falsehood of its pretensions . Persist , therefore , in your resolution of weighing the question in an impartial balance , and avoid a precipitate judgment . Above all , let me indulge my friendship to you so far as to remind you of what a person of your wisdom cannot but know , that our faculties are weak , and that we are exceedingly apt to be imposed upon by false representations . Let that fact engage you

    to humility , and so to depend upon divine illumination , and earnestly to pray to- the God of truth that he will not suffer you to fall into error ; but will guide your reason in such a manner as may establish your mind in an unshaken tranquillity . —Every sober and rational Deist must own there is no enthusiasm in suck advice ; and if it be pursued , and the whole tenour of yoiir life be agreeable to such principles , I am confidently persuaded you Wili ttever be widone by speculative mistakes / 7 —Vol . II . p . 423 .

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    24 jDoddridge ' s Correspondence and Diary .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1830, page 24, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2580/page/24/