believing, and it sets before me a crown of glory which fadeth not away.

"And as to the holy influence of Christianity, is it not already apparent in me? Am I not more virtuous, more contented in my mind, more diligent in my calling, more tender in my family, more subdued in my tempers and conduct than I was before?

"And as to the prospects of the future, have I not a dawn of hope? Is not something of the peculiar glory and excellency of the gospel apparent to me, and is it not inviting me onwards? Have I not support under afflictions here, and a humble expectation of beholding my God in peace hereafter?

"What more, then, do I need? I formerly talked of the evidences of Christianity; but I never sought to be satisfied upon safe grounds. I formerly inquired, but with a wish not to find the religion true. I formerly scorned the devotional spirit, and the distinguishing doctrines, and the pure morals of Christianity: I had my reward. I found no peace; I found no satisfying conviction; I remained a proud, careless, discontented, unhappy creature; I was living in the practice of many vices, and in the omission of many duties. But now I am at peace; now I pursue after holiness; now I acquiesce, at least I desire to do so, in the will, the whole revealed will of God; now I ascribe it to the undeserved goodness of God, that I was led in earnest to make this inquiry, which I trust will issue in salvation.

"I am now only ashamed of my former perverseness and rebellion of heart; I mourn that I should so long have resisted truth, hardened my conscience, grieved the blessed Spirit, and provoked God. I lament also over my present weakness of faith, irresolution, inconsistency. But I feel that Christianity has fulfilled, and more than fulfilled, all its promises to its disciples. I feel that it makes me a better man ; that it keeps me from sin; that it urges me to duty; that it provides me with resources of pardon and strength; unites me to my Saviour; makes my heart a temple of the Holy Ghost, and gives me an anticipation of eternal glory. Whatever others may do, I shall hold by the Christian doctrine: whatever others may say, I shall declare the inward testimony to its truth, of which I am a partaker; however others may depart from the profession of Christ, it will be my desire to say, 'Lord, to whom shall I go? Thou hast the words of

everlasting life; and I believe and am sure that Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.'"

Such is some inadequate sketch of the feelings of one who is in earnest about Christianity, and makes a trial of its grace.

The cases of individuals are so various, that a thousand differences will arise in each; but the main features will be the same; and the directions and the result are, therefore, easily rendered applicable. Let the inquirer study the Bible with an application to his own heart; let him pray for divine aid; let him use the means of grace; let him believe in the Saviour, and pray for the Holy Spirit; let him mark the complete adaptation of Christianity to all his wants; and he shall find a gradual effect produced on his heart, which is the seal and inward witness of the truth of the promises on which he relies.

And what shall I further say, in concluding these Lectures, on the inward test of Christianity? What shall I add after the remarks made in the last discourse on the NATURE of the argument, its SCRIPTURAL AUTHORITY, the FACTS on which it rests, and its SINGULAR IMPORTANCE? What, after the DIRECTIONS offered in the present?

Let every one before me enter for himself upon this momentous question of the practical experiment of the Christian promises. Take the preparatory steps at least. Consider

all the admissions you are compelled to make, as believing in the being and attributes of God. Remember the primitive and indissoluble obligations which chain you to the throne of the Almighty. Call to mind the responsibility you are under for all you know and all you might have known.

Recollect, especially, these two things: Unless you make a practical trial of Christianity, your historical faith will only increase your condemnation; and, if you do make a trial, you will have no need to put to an experiment any thing else relating to religion.

I. I say, UNLESS YOU MAKE A TRIAL OF PRACTICAL RE

LIGION, YOUR MERELY HISTORICAL FAITH WILL ONLY INCREASE

YOUR CONDEMNATION. For you will not have to plead that you did not know Christianity; you cannot say you had not received it as a divine revelation; you can never assert that you were not warned and admonished of your duty,

your danger, your remedy. Your historical faith, then, if it do not result in submission of heart to the yoke of the gospel, will turn your accuser. It brought you up to the throne of mercy-before which you refused to bend; it compelled you to admit the truth of a religion-against which you closed your heart; it made known the claims of a heavenly Father, and placed you before his feet—and you spurned his grace and salvation; it presented to you a way of making an experiment of his promises-and you rejected the offer. What, then, will be your condemnation, if you persist in your rebellion of heart before God? Ó, dare not his vengeance! O, provoke him not to take his Holy Spirit from you! harden not your heart, like Pharaoh of old, but yield yourselves unto God. Unknow what you have learned of truth you cannot. Escape from its obligations you cannot. But you may yet seize the advantages offered you; you may yet enter on the practical duties of the religion which you profess; you may yet turn your historical knowledge to its proper purposes, by considering the argument we have been enforcing, and following the directions which we have given.

0,

II. Remember, also, that if you once make a trial of real Christianity, YOU WILL HAVE NO NEED OF PUTTING TO THE EX

PERIMENT ANY OTHER FORM OF RELIGION OR IRRELIGION EVER

KNOWN for this important reason that you have already been trying, in fact, all your past life, one or other of the pretended religious systems which are abroad in the world.

INFIDELITY makes fair promises. You need not try it; you know already too much of " the evil heart of unbelief."* The tendency to infidelity is the cause of all your reluctance, coldness and misery.

Will you try IDOLATRY? The first converts to Christianity, and the converts from heathenism in every age, have tried it; and your own natural propensity to idolize the creature is surely painful enough to convince you that idolatry has nothing to offer.

Will you make an experiment of MAHOMETANISM? What! when it flatters all those principles of pride, and sensuality, and contempt of others, and love of voluptuous pleasures, which you have too much tried?

There is nothing left untried by you, but real Christianity. Enter, then, upon this important experiment. While none

*Heb. iii. 12.

but the true Christian can form a just opinion of divine revelation, every true believer can form a sufficient judgment of every other religion. We know quite enough of all other pretended remedies for man's miseries, to make us sure that their professions are fallacious. The little experience we have of Christianity makes us daily more and more sure that it is true; that all its "promises are yea and amen;" that not a thing hath failed of what was proffered. Every fellow believer whom we meet affords us a new evidence of its divine power. Every trial we pass through, every storm we encounter, every day we live, increases our conviction; every sermon we deliver or hear augments our admiration of Christianity: our whole history, since we have known the gospel, has been a putting its claims to a practical test.

If questioned concerning its truth now, or in after life, or in the solemn hour of death, let our humble, yet thankful, declaration concerning it invariably be, "WHEREOF WE ALL

ARE WITNESSES.

Acts ii. 32.

179

LECTURE XXI.

THE VANITY AND FUTILITY OF THE OBJECTIONS BROUGHT AGAINST THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.

2 PETER III. 3, 4, 8, 9.

Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the

creation.

But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

It is impossible to pass over entirely, in a work like the present, the objections which unbelievers advance against the Christian faith. So holy and humiliating a revelation must, of course, meet with much resistance in the pride and passions of erring man; and this resistance will be in proportion to the magnitude of the discoveries, the incomprehensibility of the mysteries, and the purity of the precepts which the religion contains.

We might, perhaps, in strict reasoning, dismiss these objections with a very few remarks; for we have, from the first, required in the student of the evidences, a docile and candid mind; and the faith with which the revelation is to be received, as we shall show in a following Lecture, implies a victory over interposing doubts. But we rather prefer entering upon the subject, both because Satan, the great spiritual adversary, chiefly works by the injection of difficulties into the mind, and because, in an age of literary and scientific t Lect. xxiii.

• Lect. ii.