Oswell.

ON MR. PAINE'S PAMPHLET, ON PRAYER, ON PSALMODY,
AND A SHORT LIST OF BOOKS FOR THE USE OF

THE PLAIN OR UNLEARNED READER.

BY VICESIMUS KNOX, D. D.
LATE FELLOW OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, OXFORD;
AND NOW MASTER OF TUNBRIDGE SCHOOL.

HOC PHILOSOPHIE GENUS IN AFFECTIBUS SITUM EST, VE-
RIUS QUAM IN SYLLOGISMIS; VITA EST. MAGIS, QUAM
POTIUS
AFFLATUS
QUAM ERUDITI0;
DISPUTATIO;
ERASMUS.

TRANSFORMATIO MAGIS, QUAM RATIO.
TANTUM ESTO DOCILIS, ET MULTUM IN HAC PHILOSOPHIA
PROMOVISTI. IPSA SUPPEDITAT DOCTOREM SPIRITUM,
QUI NULLI SESE LUBENTIUS IMPERTIT, QUAM SIMPLI-
CIBUS ANIMIS. AT RURSUM ITA NON DEEST INFIMIS UT
QUID AUTEM ALIUD
SUMMIS ETIAM SIT ADMIRABILIS.
EST CHRISTI PHILOSOPHIA, QUAM 1PSE RENASCENTIAM
VOCAT, QUAM INSTAURATIO BENE CONDITE NATURE.
ERASMUS.

"This kind of Philofophy is founded on the feelings of the heart " rather than on fyllogifms; it confifts in the actual conduct of life, ❝rather than in difputatious theories; it is infpiration more than "erudition; it is the refult of a total CHANGE produced in the mind "fupernaturally, rather than of a man's unaffifted reason."

ERASMUS.

"Only be teachable; and you will have made a great proficiency "in this PHILOSOPHY. It fupplies its own inftructor, even the "SPIRIT, who imparts himself to none more readily than to men of "fimple and artless minds. On the other hand, while it conde"fcends to the wants of the lowest among mankind, it is an object "of admiration to the higheft. And what else is the Chriftian "Philofopby, (which Chrift himself calls the New Birth,) but the "renewal of that nature in us, which was originally well constituted "by its Author?"

ERASMUS. I COR. XV. 45.

PREFACE

ΤΟ

THE FIRST EDITION.

A on as A$ s every attempt to illuftrate and recommend fuch opinions on RELIGION, as oppose pride and prejudice, is peculiarly obnoxious to the mifconceptions of the ignorant, the mifreprefentation of the malevolent, and the rafh cenfure of the thoughtlefs; (who rudely and haftily 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 confider the AUTHORITIES, humán as well as fcriptural, on which it is founded; and not to reject doctrines in which their own happiness is most deeply concerned, till they fhall have invalidated those authorities, and proved themselves fuperior in fagacity, learning, and piety, to the great men whose fentiments I have cited in fupport of my own. Let the firm phalanx of furrounding authorities be first fairly routed, before the opponents level their arrows, even bitter words, at a book which recommends a doctrine, unfafhionable indeed, but certainly the doctrine of the Gospel.

There is no doubt but that my fubject 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 ftake, a difpaffionate and unprejudiced attention.

A 3

The