strate things; that hypothesis and theory and objections are of no force against undoubted experiment, from which alone we are to infer, by cautious induction, the general laws of nature. It is the same, so far as the case will allow, in the philosophy of mind; the phenomena only are attended to. The intellectual and active powers, their relations, their objects, the laws by which they operate, are to be deduced from experiments carefully conducted, reported with fidelity, compared with each other in a sufficient variety of cases, and distinguished from hasty, partial, inconclusive observations, by their proper effects. Hypothesis, opinion, abstract reasonings, are of no avail against well-established phenomena. On these principles of common sense we are acting every day. Are the objects of our inquiry things without us?-we judge by the sensible phenomena, by the tangible results of external experience. Are the objects of inquiry things within us?-we judge by internal observation, by inward consciousness, by what passes in the interior theatre of the mind, attested by its proper fruits. In each case we accumulate experiments, and conclude only after a sufficient number of clear and well-attested trials has united in bringing out the same results. All our knowledge comes originally from these two sources—the examination of things without us, by the medium of the senses; and the examination of things within us, by internal consciousness, and their effects on the temper and conduct: the first is sensible observation, the second is internal observation; the first we call physics, the second the science of the mind— and in both if we cannot make the necessary experiments ourselves, we take them upon credible testimony. How, then, stand the facts as to this inward witness to Christianity; which is of course a spiritual and interior process, taking place in the receptacle of the buman heart? What are the internal observations? What the phenomena ? effects? 1. There are, then, THOUSANDS AND TENS OF THOUSANDS OF WITNESSES, in various ages, from the first dawn of Revelation after the fall of Adam, to the present moment, who humbly but firmly testify that the peculiar effects of the divine grace, as stated in the Holy Scriptures, have been produced in them; that they have tried, and that their trial was successful; that they have made the experiment of the divine promises of illumination, pardon, strength, consolation, and have found those promises verified. More especially, since the promulgation of the glorious gospel, and the larger effusion of the grace of the Holy Spirit, there is a cloud of witnesses of all ranks, all ages, all casts of character, all previous habits, who declare that they have put the truth of Christianity to the test of experiment, and have found that the peculiar effects, stated in the New Testament to be inseparable concomitants of a lively faith in Christ, have been produced in them." Let us examine any number of these facts. Begin where you please. Take the first age after the apostolic. What do Clemens Romanus, Polycarp, Irenæus, Justin Martyr, tell us in every page of their writings? Do they not assert that they found a divine excellency and glory in Christianity, and especially in the doctrine of the person and work of Christ? Do they not assert that Christianity changed their whole character, and produced the very same effects, and gave the very same inward experience and consolation of which the apostolic converts partook ? Go to the series of succeeding ages. Read the Fathers. See what Cyprian, and Chrysostom, and Ambrose, and St. Austin, and Claudius of Turin, and Anselm, and Bernard, testify as to the experiment they made of Christianity. Is not the love of Christ, which inflamed their hearts, the grand excellency and the redeeming quality of their writings; that which remains as the uniform result, after all the passing controversies, errors on many incidental points, and superstitions and false devotions are deducted? There is nothing, perhaps, in modern divinity to be compared with the confessions of St. Austin, as a testimony to the reality of experimental Christianity. And what did the great leaders at the period of the blessed Reformation say? What are the facts in the case of Luther and Melancthon, Zuingle and Ecolampadius, Cranmer and Latimer and Ridley? Did they not find the same experiments issue in the self-same results? Were not the phenomena precisely similar? Ask the thousands and hundreds of thousands of pious Christians in the present day. They make the same reply. They declare with one mouth, that they have found all the promised blessings of Christianity realised, all the concomitants of a lively faith produced, all the peculiar testimony of grace in the heart and conscience afforded. In a word, the discoveries made by the light of Scripture; the promises fulfilled, especially that of the Holy Spirit; the prayers answered; the abiding effects produced on the judgment, affections, habits, and conduct; the comfort derived from the communion of the soul with Christ; the superiority and conquest obtained over the world and its allurements;27 the hope of heaven, which gilds the moments of sorrow and cheers under the approach of death: these are the solid, clear facts of the case, taking place in the interior receptacle of the heart, and attested to others by the proper credentials of numerous, calm, undeviating fruits. These constitute a body of phenomena which any one may put, in his own case, 27 Scott. to the test of experiment, and on which the most secure inductive proof may be built. 2. For it is to be observed, that there is AN IDENTITY in the result of all these experiments which affords the utmost safety to those who reason from them; just as the identity of physical facts, or of phenomena in the operations of mind, guard the philosopher from practical errors in science. We allow that the utmost caution is required in this case, because the operations are internal, seated in the conscience, not subjected to the perception of the senses, not capable of being projected and thrown out. But then they are not the less real, when ascertained by a comparison of a sufficient number of wellattested cases. We separate and lay out of the question all doubtful phenomena, as the natural philosopher puts aside doubtful facts. We take away also, as he does, all that may be produced by other causes. We then reduce, after his example, all the experiments to that which agrees in each. We go with him to the appropriate and discriminating marks of the specific effects to be ascertained. We likewise proceed cautiously in collecting our facts and inferring any general laws. And then we assert that there is an identity, a peculiarity, an uniform and grand and perceptible effect on the heart of man, produced by the Christian doctrine, and by the Christian doctrine only, which may be established in proof, which is found no where else but in true Christians, which is found always in them, and which is wholly distinct from a mere moral conviction of the truth of Christianity and a mere formal admission of its creed. 3. We assert, moreover, that these phenomena are in Agreement with the written word of God, and exactly what that word declares shall take place in all who become its disciples. This is a confirmation which the philosopher does not possess. He has no divine system of the creation, attested by external proofs, to which he can refer his individual experiments and check his conclusions. The Christian philosopher has. 4. Then we produce multitudes who can trace out, in themselves and others, SOME OF THE MAIN STEPS OF THE PROCESS of this experience-just as the naturalist can sometimes follow the successive changes in the progress of his experiments. Many Christians can well remember the time when every thing was contrary in them to what it now is when they dis-. liked and disrelished spiritual things; when they supremely loved the world; when they had no hatred of sin or humiliation on account of it; when they were so far from perceiving an excellency or glory in the doctrine of Christ, that they despised and contemned it; when they were so far from knowing any thing of the experience of the divine grace, that they did not believe there was such a thing; when they were so far from loving true Christians because they bore the image of Christ, that they hated and avoided them in proportion as they bore that image. But they were led to inquire-they were led to seek humbly into the truth of the Christian doctrine; and they became themselves step by step the witnesses of its grace. Nor in their own cases only; they have been able, as ministers and parents and friends, to trace the process of this experiment in those committed to their care; whose spirit, affections, and conduct, they have daily had the opportunity of watching; and in whose cases they have discerned with joy the life and feelings of true Christianity gradually appearing. Not that the process can be traced in all instances. The improvement may be, and frequently is, imperceptible under the means of instruction, the sacraments, education, the example of friends, the public ministry of the word, the discipline of affliction, the |