Και μοι δοκει μεγισην θεον τοις ανθρωποις ἡ φύσις αποδειξαί LONDON: Printed for T. BECKET and P. A. DE HONDT, in the BS 2327 434 A TRANSLATION of the Motto from Polybius. HE greatest DIVINITY, in my opinion. which NATURE ever discovered to mortals is TRUTH; and she appears to be endowed with the greatest power. For notwithstanding all combine to overwhelm her, and every art and artifice are employed on the fide of errour, to effect this conquest, yet I know not how it is that by her own native force, through all these difficulties, fhe makes her way into the human mind; and sometimes fhe immediately difplays her omnipotence, fometimes after having been enveloped in darkness for a long time, fhe at laft, by her ef fential energy burfts forth, furmounts every oppofition, and triumphs over errour. THE PREFACE. I Deliver this work to the world with a mind deeply penetrated with a conscious fense of human fallibility and imperfection. I can only fay, it was fincerely intended to do good, that for this the application of Some years hath been expended upon it, and that I have had nothing for my object, but the promotion of truth, liberty and righteoufnefs. The AGE, in which we live, is in a very eminent manner propitious to the study of Religion and Literature. The prefent BISHOPS and DIGNITARIES of the church of England are the distinguished patrons and ornaments of this facred CAUSE, and feveral of them have immortalized their names by learned and elaborate defences of our divine religion. The two UNIVERSITIES of Oxford and Cambridge are adorned with perfons who are not more illuftrious for their fuperior knowledge and erudition, than they are for their amiable candour and moderation. The feveral UNIVERSITIES in Scotland can boast of gentlemen of the first distinction A 2 in |