from considering the evidence to which Theism appeals, and to review the
various theories from which they spring, so as to show that they afford
no valid reason for discarding the subject, and no ground for alleging
that it is not fit _to go to proof_. It is true that we must ultimately
rely, for the establishment of our main positions, on that body of
natural and historical evidence, which depends little, if at all, on any
of the Theories of Philosophical Speculation, or even on any of the
discoveries of Physical Science; but it is equally true that the
evidence, however conclusive in itself, cannot be expected to produce
conviction unless it be candidly examined and weighed; and if there be
anything in the existing state of public opinion which leads men to
regard the whole subject with indifference or suspicion, to conceive of
it as a problem insoluble by the human faculties, and to treat Theology
as a fond fancy or a waking dream, it were surely well to examine the
grounds of such opinions, to expose their fallacy so as to counteract
their influence, and to refute those theories which prevent men from
judging of the evidence as they would on any other topic of Inductive
Inquiry. In adopting this course, we are only following the footsteps of
the profound author of the "Analogy," who finding it, he knew not how,
"to be taken for granted, by many persons, that Christianity is not so
much as a subject of inquiry," set himself, in the first instance, to
prove "that it is not, however, so clear a case that there is nothing in
it;"--this preliminary proof being designed to neutralize objections,
and to disburden the subject of all adverse presumptions, so as to be
judged on its own proper and independent merits. We are imitating, too,
the example of another sagacious writer on a kindred theme, who thought
that "Apologists had paid too little attention to the _prejudices_ of
their opponents, and had been too confident of accomplishing their
object at once, by an overpowering statement of the direct evidence,
forgetting that the influence of prejudice renders the human mind very
nearly inaccessible to both evidence and argument."[1]

If this method was ever necessary or expedient, it is peculiarly so in
the present age. Opinions are afloat in society, and are even avowed by
men of high philosophical repute, which formally exclude Theology from
the domain of human thought, and represent it as utterly inaccessible to
the huma