trine; 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 RELIGION,

YOUR MERELY HISTORICAL FAITH WILL ONLY IN

CREASE 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 religionagainst 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? O, dare not his vengeance! O, provoke him not to take his Holy Spirit from you! O, 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.

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

THE EXPERIMENT ANY OTHER FORM OF RELIGION OR IRRE

LIGION 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."

(a) Heb. iii. 12.

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 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.b

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(b) Acts ii. 32.

a

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 inquiry like the present, the young are peculiarly open to the shafts of ridicule and scorn.

We enter, therefore, on the subject; and we hope to prove that the slightest review of the main objections of unbelievers, and of their lives and deaths, as compared with those of sincere Christians, will not only leave the evidences in favor of our religion untouched, but will furnish a strong subsidiary argument in support of them. We shall be enabled, we trust, not only to defend our own fortress, but to storm that of the enemy-to take possession of his arms -turn them against himself, and complete his overthrow by the means of his own weapons.

In the present Lecture we shall consider THE OBJECTIONS THEMSELVES; in the following, THE LIVES AND DEATHS of those who advance them.

In both, we shall most especially need the aid of Almighty God, to remove prejudices from our understandings, and to sway our hearts; for nothing can convince a prejudiced mind; the medium of persuasion is wanting. Unless, therefore, we humbly implore the influence of God's grace in our study of this subject, it will be impossible for us to attain any solid satisfaction.

How, then, shall we best treat the question of THE OBJECTIONS THEMSELVES? We cannot, perhaps, do better than by acting as we did in the case of the Tendency of Christianity. We then adverted to the subjects most nearly allied to the one which was before us; and considered how a tendency was demonstrated in the instances of reason, of (b) Lect. xxiii.

(a) Lect. ii.

(c) Lect. xviii.