of the doctrine whether it be of God." And in like manner the Apostles, after proving by all reasonable evidences their sacred authority, thus address the obdurate, Beware lest that come upon you which was spoken in the Prophets; Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish, for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.

18

I

I am aware that it may be said, that by this course of reasoning I am undermining the very foundations of the unbeliever's fabric. I avow it; and I appeal to the reason and conscience of men, whether that edifice can be secure, which sinks before the first assault. appeal to the common sense of mankind, whether that religious system is likely to be true, which cannot bear the trial of calm, unbiassed, and patient enquiry. I appeal to the honest judgment of every hearer, whether what I have been requiring is in fact any concession whatever, except upon the supposition of deism being opposed to the meekness, seriousness of mind, spirit of prayer, and purity of morals, which it professes to cultivate?-Did I say, professes to cultivate? I retract that expression for scepticism, after all its boasts of its

17 John vii. 17.

18 Acts xiii. 41, 42.

admission of natural religion, knows little of meekness and lowliness of heart, proceeds on the assumption of the sufficiency of human reason, seldom even pretends to piety-and by these very defects marks her origin, and betrays the wrong temper by which she is actuated.

In fact, Unbelief condemns herself, if she be once calmly considered. She may make some way, if her spirit and temper be overlooked, and her objections and cavils and loud claims to a higher exercise of intellect, be first listened to. But view her in the temper which she breathes, and you see at once, before you enter upon her particular arguments, the brand of error upon her forehead; you see in the resistance to all evidence, and in the scorn and levity which mingle with her reasonings, in the impiety and even atheism which disgrace her doctrines, and in the vice which is excused, defended, inculcated in her code of morals, the undeniable proofs and evidences of a bad cause.

And most unfavourable for the Christian argument has been the neglect of this capital point. A consideration of the spirit and temper in which unbelievers conduct their enquiry, should never have been separated from a consideration of their particular objections. We

should have exhibited to the young the obvious want of a right temper of mind, in those who doubt of revelation, as the key to their scepticism. We have received the statements of unbelievers with too much indulgence; we have paid empty compliments; and made various concessions to the adversaries of the Christian faith. We have relied too much on the irrefragable historical evidences of our religion, and have forgotten to insist on the temper of mind in which they should be studied, and without which the strongest external evidences fail to persuade, whilst the internal are incapable of being appreciated. We have failed to urge, in the first place, and upon all persons, the docility and seriousness and practical desire to know the will of God, which alone can make any religious enquiry successful. Nor have we sufficiently held up as a just warning to mankind, the fearful obduracy and want of moral principle, which sometimes animate the opponents

of revelation.

If there were, indeed, generally amongst the ranks of unbelievers a manifest spirit of piety and subjection to God, something like what natural religion professes to enjoin-if there were a prevailing earnestness to know the will of God-if there were a pain and grief of heart under the unwilling pressure of molesting fears

66

-if we saw these men, as the inimitable Pascal remarks, groaning sincerely under their doubts, regarding them as their greatest misfortune, sparing no pains in order to be freed from them, and making it their principal and most serious occupation to search for truth," then, indeed, we should feel a sincere respect and concern for them.

19

But their negligence and indifference, their pride and levity, their total disregard of the dictates of natural conscience and of the spirit of prayer, in the very outset of their enquiries, save us the trouble of further examination, and explain to us at once all the phenomena of their state. There seems, in the divine providence, a beacon erected on the confines of scepticism, to warn the traveller of the dangers before him. But I must conclude,

I. Are there, then, any now in this sacred temple, in danger of being shaken in their faith? Are there any who are almost bewildered at times with the sophistry of the wicked? Are there those who are cast by circumstances into the society and exposed to the arts of the unbelieving? Are there any whose peculiar character of mind leads them to doubt and hesitate upon every great subject, and therefore on

19 Pensées 2de Partie, Art. 2.

the subject of the Christian argument, and who in the moments of temptation are harassed by suspicions and fears? Let me entreat them to follow the main principle of this discourse, and calmly ask themselves, what is the temper of mind in which unbelievers treat the most momentous subject that can be brought before a dying and accountable creature? Let them not plunge into disputation; let them just ask the previous question, Are unbelievers entering the kingdom of heaven as little children? Do they even pretend to do it? Do they not object to the demand? And if this be so, is it possible for them to have attained to truth?

I may go further, and urge those before me. who are in danger of being seduced by the scoffer, to consider what is their own temper of mind when they are most disposed to listen to such suggestions. Is it not, young man, when you are living without prayer, without teachableness of heart, without purity of conduct, without practical concern for religion, that these objections have the greatest weight with you? Whereas when you were modest and unassuming and devout and virtuous, (that is, when you were in a right temper of mind,) you disregarded the flimsy sophistry of the ungodly.