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Obody who has read history with

N attention, but muft have obferved,

that there have been certain difpofitions which have reigned in certain periods of the world; owing perhaps to some great genius, in whom that difpofition has been firft kindled and fhone, and by whom it has been communicated to others; till at length it has spread fo far as to become the prevailing humour of the age.

NOR is there any one, who has but curfotily examined our own times in particular, but must have taken notice, that a very inquifitive turn has prevailed in them, efpeVOL. I. cially

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cially in Philofophy, and in Natural and Revealed Religion; and that likewise a happy temper has grown up along with it, of bearing with one another in the refult of our enquirics.

As thefe are in themfelves fome of the best difpofitions that can have place in mankind (the one being the feed-plot of all truth and virtue, and the other that which, like warmth and moisture, cherishes them wherever they fpring); and being both of them the only promifing fymptoms (I mean, of a moral nature), among a great many threatening appearances, that a curious obferver will find among us; there is no man, who has been bleffed by God with having had any share in exciting or advancing this happy temper, but has found reafon for the highest fatisfaction in his own breaft, as well as for the greatest thankfulness to God, the Author of every good and perfect gift, on that account; and that, notwithstanding all the neglects, the difappointments, and the ill ufage, which he may have met with at any time, for his attempts or fuccefs this way, from the powerful, the ftupid, the lazy, and the corrupt part of mankind.

SUCH treatment is what must be generally expected from the great and the powerful,

who

who have their views too much fixed on power, wealth, and honours, to take them off, in order to purfue truth or virtue. Inftead of looking after these spiritual poffeffions themselves, they are generally afraid, left the pursuits that are made after them by others fhould difturb them in their daily acquifitions of another kind; and therefore feldom fail to raise a cry of danger to fome thing or another that really is, or that is thought to be, valuable, by the ftupid, the lazy, and the corrupt; the conftant tools and confederates of the mighty, and who are at the fame time the fworn enemies of all enquiries; hating to be disturbed in their fentiments, especially in those that tend to their worldly ease and advantage. Thus the men of power generally keep the most jealous eye on thefe honest and diligent enquirers, and worry them by the others; apprehending a fpeedy difcovery of their own fecret ways of corruption from their penetration and integrity, and perhaps fome trouble and oppofition of one kind or other by that means; were it no more than their making it appear to the world, that fometimes when the powerful are doing what are, or are thought to be, high acts of justice, or even endeavouring to procure fome confiderable advantage to the public, it is but as a neceffary part of their private scheme, beyond which they feldom run the risk, or give themfelves

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felves the trouble, fo much as to aim at the good of fociety.

WHAT is faid in fuch general terms can never offend any that are not confcious they are applicable to themfelves; fo that it would be impertinent to take pains to caution my reader against miftaking me, by applying that to one age and country that has too generally belonged to all others, to be underftood to be pointed in particular at our

own.

BUT whatever is generally to be expected from men in power, and from those who are in a combination with them, yet there is no good man but will endeavour to feed and cherifh thefe happy difpofitions in all the ways he can. And as this inquifitive turn has brought men to look more curiously into the fcriptures, from feeing that they alone muft be the ftandards of truths which are not difcoverable by the light of nature; and to judge of the books of the Old and New Teftament more according to the rules of criticism, from a better tafte that obtains; they will contribute all the help they can to affift others in reading them with greater advantage.

GOD had, no doubt, the wifeft ends in ordering the hiftorical parts of the New Testa

ment

ment to be written in the way they are. The truth of them, on which the truth of the whole is built, is better attefted by the method in which they are compofed, than they could poffibly have been by a difpofition, in which the order of time and place had been more carefully obferved. But every body muft allow, that a great deal of light may be caft on the hiftorical as well as on the other parts of the New Teftament, by putting them in that order. This has engaged many learned men to take great pains in forming harmonies, hiftories, and chronological accounts, by which that order might be given them, to the great advancement of Christian knowledge.

WHEN I reflected on this, and found the advantage that the gofpels (or the history of Jefus) had received by that method of treating them; I thought that, as the Acts (which may be confidered as the hiftory of the Holy Ghoft) contained the chief account that we have in the New Teftament of the method of propagating the Chriftian religion in the times of the apoftles, it would be of great ufe to have that hiftory carefully digested in the fame manner. With this view I fet about it, as I had leifure. After I had made fome progrefs in it, I thought it would be neceffary to begin the hiftory of the apoftles a little higher, and carry it up to the first time of

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their

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