records and the honesty and sincerity of its founders—showing that they could not have constructed such a system if they _would_, and _would not_, supposing them impostors, if they _could_—is stronger than that for any fact in history. ‘In consequence of this position of the argument, Butler’s book, to large classes of objectors, though practically an _argumentum ad hominem_, not only proves Christianity _may_ be true, but in all logical fairness proves it _is_ so. This he himself, with his usual judgment, points out. He says: “And objections which are equally applicable to both natural and revealed religion are, properly speaking, answered by its being shown that they are so, _provided the former be admitted to be true_.”’ No one can deny the ingenuity of this line of reasoning, but we can only account for the great assent which it has received, by supposing that the goodness of the cause for which it is commonly brought forward has not unnaturally led to an undue approbation of the argument itself. From the amount of authority in its favour we feel some diffidence, but otherwise we should have said, without hesitation, that it was open to several objections. In the first place, so far from its being probable that Revelation would have contained the same difficulties as Nature, we should have expected that it would explain those difficulties. The very term Supernatural Revelation implies that previously and by nature man is, to a great extent, in ignorance; that particularly he is unaware of some fact, or series of facts, which God deems it fit that he should know. The instinctive presumption certainly is, that those facts would be most important to us. No doubt it is possible that, for incomprehensible reasons, a special revelation should be made of facts purely indifferent, of the date when London was founded, or the precise circumstances of the invasion by William the Conqueror. But this is in the highest degree improbable. What seems likely (and the whole argument is essentially one of likelihood), according to our mind, is that the Revelation which God would vouchsafe to us would be one affecting our daily life and welfare, would communicate truths either on the one hand conducing to our temporal happiness in the present world, or removing the many doubts and difficulties which surround the general plan of Providence, the entire universe, and our particular destiny. These are the two classes of truths on which we seem to require help, and it is in the first instance more probable that assistance would be given us on those points on which it is most required.