that all the religious articles fhould be compil-
ed by learned and orthodox divines. Particular
care was taken in the compilation of the fir ft
volume, not to alarm the friends of religion j
referving a clearer expreflion of their fentL-
ments for fucceeding^ volumes.
40 Proofs of the Exi/icnce

Among the many artful means adopted to
communicate the fecret infection, one was, to
infmuate error and infidelity, not where it
w^ould have been expecled, but into thofe arti-
cles deemed ihe leaft fufceptible of them ; fuch
IS Hiilory, Natural Philofophy, and Chym-
iRry.*

Another was that of references, by which,
after being prcfented with fome religious

I ruths, the reader is invited to fcek further
information in articles of a different caft.
II )mctimes the ixferencc wouU direct to asi
epigram, or forcafm. After having treated a
icligious fubjecT; with all poffible refpeft, it
vvould be fimply added, See the article Prcju,^
dlce^ or SiipeyjViiifyn^ or Yanaiidjnu\

The following may ferve as a fpeclmcn of
the artful ufc of references, in this work, for

* Mr. P;iley, in his Syflem of Moral Philofophy, has
noticed, and very juftly defcribed, the fubtle arts of modern
impiety. " Infidelity is now ferved up In every fhape that
is likely to allure, furpnfe or beguile the imagination ; in
a. fable, a tale, a novel, a poem, in interfpcrfcd and broken
hints J remote and oblique furmifes 5 in books of travels,
of philofophy, of natural hlftory ; in a word, in any form
rather than that of a profefled and regular difquiiition.**
Paley, Bofton Edit. 1795, p. 302.
