doctrine of the DIVINE INSPIRATION of the scriptures, which leaving every thing human as to the form, renders every thing infallible as to the matter of the revelation which it conveys; and thus unites the highest emanations of the wisdom and power of God with the most compassionate exercises of his condescension and grace. 15

And yet the whole of these evidences form but one division of the great subject. Those arising from the intrinsic excellency of the revelation itself, and its suitableness to the state and wants of man, are yet to be considered, and will constitute a body of proof, as complete in its kind, and as powerful in its demands upon our faith, as what we have been now reviewing. But we conclude,

1. It is surely not too much to say, that on any subject of worldly prudence, such a mass of evidence would be considered as rising to a moral demonstration which no reasonable man could resist it would be considered as an act, not so much of faith, as of coMMON SENSE, to follow such proofs-the man who refused so to do, would be condemned by all the rules of conduct which he is compelled to follow every day of his life. We might more reasonably ques

15 Lect. XII. and XIII.

tion the existence of Julius Cæsar, Alfred, or Charlemagne the authenticity and credibility of the histories of Thucydides, or Bede, or Davila, or Clarendon-or all the facts and history in the world, than we could deny the facts and miracles and truth of the Christian religion. We must reject the evidences of our senses, we must spurn the testimony of all past history, we must throw into confusion the elements of all knowledge, we must dig up the foundations of civilization and law and science and jurisprudence, we must extinguish conscience and put off our whole intellectual and moral nature, before we can reject the evidences of Christianity.

I rely not on one or two minute points. I press not the accuracy or force of all the particular facts and arguments I have adduced. I proceed on the broad and commanding features of a divine religion, which present themselves on whichever side we view it. It is not one thing only, but every thing, that converges and concentrates its light on the Christian doctrine.

And yet such is the obvious excellency of that doctrine in itself, that it requires but little external proof. Any one of the points we have been reviewing, is enough, and more than enough, to form the credentials of a religion, bearing on its very surface all the impress of

the holy and gracious Creator and Preserver of mankind. It wants, so to speak, no historical evidence; and yet it possesses every species of it in the highest degree. Its purity challenges of itself the reverence and obedience of mankind; and yet it comes surrounded with all the splendour and attraction of miraculous powers and predictive inspiration.

2. Whence is it, then, that men are so backward to receive this divine guest? Whence is it that with no one solid reason to be advanced against it, objections and difficulties are continually urged? Whence is it that men who act on infinitely less evidence every day of their lives, refuse to act upon the evidence of the Christian revelation? Whence is it that the cause of infidelity, unsustained by a single argument, survives and is propagated? 16

The answer to these enquiries is, the simple fact, that when the rules of ordinary judgment are applied to Christianity, we have to overcome the reluctance, the corrupted appetites, the self-will of the human heart. reception of Christianity is a joint act of the

The

16 Not one of the chief works on the Evidences of Christianity was ever answered. Who answered Lardner-Michaelis-Paley-Porteus-T. H. Horne?—Or even the brief and select arguments of Lyttleton and Leslie? Gibbon's vapid objections against Christianity received thirty or forty eplies at once!

understanding and the will. Men assent readily enough to the slightest external proofs, when a thing meets their inclinations, and falls in with their taste and habits. Men assent readily enough to the highest and most incomprehensible doctrines of mathematical science, and venture every thing upon the truth of the practical consequences of them, because these things touch not their passions and vices and moral inclinations. But in religion the same men start aside, reason inconclusively, act the most absurd part, deny their own convictions, and violate all the dictates of prudence and truth. The fall of man, and the disorder of all his powers is such, that he is credulous to excess, can believe without proof, and follow without enquiry, when his affections lead the way; whilst no force of evidence can win his heart, if he dislike the inferences to which he knows his assent must conduct him.

3. It is to lead you to break through this unreasonable opposition of the passions; it is to determine you by the grace of God (without which we can do nothing aright) to yield to the force of conscience, and the claims of true reason early in life, before vice has hardened your hearts, and converse with the wicked has emboldened you to resist evidence--that we have addressed this course of lectures to you.

To the candid and sincere mind all is light in the Christian doctrine. To the heart preoccupied with vice and irreligion, all is darkness. Christianity is a probation of the state and feelings of all to whom it is addressed. If it be examined with any thing of simplicity, its evidences shine forth brightly upon the view, they convince the understanding, they awaken the force of conscience, they bow the will; and the enquirer prostrates himself at the footstool of the divine majesty, revealing his grace to his dependent and sinful creatures. The whole soul receives the impression of the glory and wisdom and foreknowledge and power and mercy of God. The discoveries of revelation fall in with the wants and miseries and forebodings which visit every heart. The remedy proposed suits precisely the fears of the guilty mind, and the apprehensions, which natural religion, illuminated by the Christian. revelation shining around it, injects into the

stoutest breast.

Especially, young persons who have been educated in the Christian doctrine and have observed its holy effects in those who obey it, cannot but be sensible of the claims which religion has upon their faith and obedience. Most of those whom I address are in this state of mind at least. They know that the