(3 Quis tandem me reprehendat, si quantum alii tempestivis conviviis, NEW YORK: CHARLES WILEY, No. 3 WALL-STREET. --- ་ J. W. PALMER & CO. PRINTERS, 1824. OF 7819 VIRGINIA BT 1101 .V55. 1824 196600 Southern District of New-York, ss. (L. S.) BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the tenth day of August, in the forty-ninth year of the Independence of the United States of America, Gulian C. Verplanck, of the said district, hath deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as author, in the words following, to wit: Essays on the Nature and Uses of the Various Evidences of Revealed Religion. By Gulian C. Verplanck, Esq. Quis tandem me reprehendat, si quantum alii tempestivis conviviis, quantum aleæ, quantum pilæ; tantum mihi egomet ad hæc studia recolenda sumpsero.' Cic." In conformity to the Act of Congress of the United States, entitled "An Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the time therein mentioned;" and also to an act entitled, " An Act, supplementary to an Act, entitled, an Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints. JAMES DILL, Glerk of the Southern District of New-York. J PREFACE. It is not the design of this volume to present a regular and formal exposition of the Evidences of Christianity. This has already been done so often and so ably in our language, and in so many forms, from the learned collections of Dr. Lardner, and the original and profound arguments of Clarke and Butler, to the popular and perspicuous statements of Addison, Paley, Beattie, and Chalmers, that an attempt to go over the same ground in détail, seems almost presumptuous and not very useful. But, in examining these and similar works, I have frequently been struck with what, amidst much excellence, appeared to me to be serious imperfections. Some of those who have discussed the historical and critical testimony in the most admirable and ingenious manner, wholly neglect or avoid the internal evidence arising from the character of the doctrines taught, and from their probable or their observed effects; whilst |