discover, but which, when discovered, are exactly consonant to our reason, and that therefore we should not hastily reject those informations which they have vouchsafed to give us, of which our reason is not a competent judge. If an able mathematician proves to us the truth of several propositions by demonstrations which we understand, we hesitate not on his authority to assent to others, the process of whose proofs we are not able to follow: why therefore should we refuse that credit to Christ and his apostles which we think reasonable to give to one another." Footnote 71: Soame Jenyns. We know that the first preachers of the gospel were generally illiterate men, and that the first converts were among the unlearned and ignorant; and it was sufficiently intelligible to them because the practical parts were then taught; which, if not the only, are certainly the most essential portion of it. Its intrinsic excellence is perhaps the best evidence of its divine origin; yet it cannot be denied that proofs of its authority may sometimes be drawn from the speculative inquiries of learned and pious men. But a very little reflection must convince us how little the reasoning of uninformed men can be depended on; and that when they are so unwise as to habituate their minds to such speculations, their ignorance must continually involve them in error and contradictions: and it surely would be prudent in these to pause, before they reject a revelation which does not accord with their crude notions of reason and the fitness of things, when they recollect that the diligent and learned researches of the master minds of such men as Grotius, Bacon, Newton, Locke, and Paley, have ended in convincing them of its truth. There are in the Scriptures, allusions to mysteries which it seems not given to us to comprehend in this state of being; and, consequently, all inquiries into them are vain: is it not, therefore, reasonable to believe, that such is not our proper business, and that our concern is with those truths only, which have a practical operation on the minds and conduct of men, and which are clearly revealed: and if we examine the consequences to many of those who are engaged in these theoretic inquiries, must we not conclude that they tend little to righteousness, and less to their own peace. LETTER X.