ON MR. PAINE'S PAMPHLET, ON PRAYER, ETC. BY VICESIMUS KNOX, D. D. LATE FELLOW OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, OXFORD; Hoc Philosophie genus in affectibus situm est, verius quam in syllogismis; vita est magis, quàm disputatio; Afflatus potius quam eruditio; transformatio magis, quam ratio. ERASMUS. Tantum esto docilis et multum in hâc Philosophia promovisti. Ipsa suppeditat Doctorem Spiritum, qui nulli sese lubentius impertit, quàm simplicibus animis. At rursum ita non deest infimis, ut summis etiam sit admirabilis. Quid autem aliud est Christi Philosophia, quam ipse Renascentiam vocat, quam instauratio 1 COR. XV. 45. bentè condie naturæ. ΠΝΕΥΜΑ ΖΩΟΠΟΙΟΥΝ, FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, IBID. WITH A TRANSLATION OF ALL THE GREEK, LATIN, ETC. PHILADELPHIA: PUBLISHED BY EMMOR KIMBER, NO. 170, * 1804. PREFACE. As every attempt to illustrate and recommend opinions on RELIGION, which oppose prejudices, is peculiarly obnoxious to the misconceptions of the ignorant, the misrepresentation of the malevolent, and the rash censure of the thoughtless; (who rudely and hastily condemn, what they scarcely allow themselves even time to understand;) I think it proper to entreat all who honour this book with any degree of their attention, duly to consider the AUTHORITIES, human as well as scriptural, on which it is founded; and not to reject doctrines in which their own. happiness is most deeply concerned, till they shall have invalidated those authorities, and proved themselves superior in sagacity, learning, and piety, to the great men whose sentiments I have cited in support of my own. Let the firm phalanx of surrounding authorities be first fairly routed, before the opponents level their arrows, even bitter words, at him who, in these papers, ventures to en 39 force a doctrine, unfashionable indeed, but certainly the doctrine of the Gospel. There is no doubt but that my subject is the most momentous which can fall under the contemplation of a human being; and I therefore claim for it, as the happiness of mankind is at stake, a dispassionate and unprejudiced attention. The moral world, as well as the political, appears at present, to be greatly out of order. Moral confusion, indeed, naturally produces political. Let all who love their species, or their country, calmly consider whether the neglect or rejection of Christianity may not be the real cause of both: and let those who are thus persuaded, co-operate with every attempt to revive and diffuse the TRUE SPIRIT OF THE GOSPEL. "Let us meekly instruct "those that OPPOSE THEMSELVES,"* (if God, peradventure, will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, "not being overcome of evil, but overcoming evil with "good."t Nor let a private clergyman, however inconsiderable, be thought to step out of his province, in thus endeavouring to tranquillize the tumult of the world, by calling the |