gations, and whose easiest and most ordinary exercises reach far, far beyond our most laborious projections of thought. It has the consenting testimony of these. It wants not ours. Let the great men of the world, (how little they are, I say not when compared with God, but when compared with the least, and last-created angel,) do as they please about believing the Christian religion. It is willing to save them, but it wanteth not their testimony. It cares not to receive any thing from them, though it has much to give them, if they will accept it. It is not dependant for its glory on any man, or any number and order of men. There is a feeling of commiseration in some hearts towards Christianity, in view of the multitude and might of its enemies; but pity was never so inappropriately exercised. It is mightier through God than all its foes. Many it has conciliated and many destroyed, and all that remain must submit to its sway, or perish by its sword, for God himself is pledged for its triumphing.

I said a little while ago that I was not surprised there should be so many distinguished infidels. Iam not, for the reason mentioned in the text; "How can they believe, who receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only?" Proud men, men ambitious, swollen with self admiration, and seeking with supreme desire the admiration of others, and caring less for the approbation of God, than for the applause which mortals can give, how can these believe? The politician that does all his sacrifices at the shrine of popularity, and obeys the will of the people rather than that of God, and to party

sacrifices conscience, and justice, and humanity; the man of honor who dreads more the sneer of the world than the power of the Almighty, and will rather run the risk of dying and being damned, than encounter the certainty of being despised by a few, whose approbation is the deepest disgrace; the hero who tramples on the laws of God and man, in the hot pursuit of military glory, and the woman of fashion, who, to that fickle goddess, pays her daily adorations, and he who, whether he writes or speaks, or whatever he does, has human distinction for his object; how can these believe, how can they admit the claims of a meek and lowly Saviour, how can these supreme lovers of the world become the subjects of him whose kingdom is not of this world, and who has not one secular honor or terrestrial distinction to confer, how can these who live on admiration consent to run the risk of being, what all his followers may expect to be, despised of men? How can they embrace a system which not only forbids them to court the applause of others, but even requires them to abhor themselves? How abhorrent to the proud must be a system whose first object is to mortify pride, and superinduce humility! How can these believe? That they should be real Christians, while such moral dispositions predominate in them, is impossible; and it is on many accounts surprising that they should be even speculative believers.

But how is this? you say. If the evidence in favor of Christianity is sufficient for conviction, how should their courting honor one of another, be any hindrance to their believing? Is not faith the invol

untary assent of the mind in view of testimony? And can the moral feelings of a man interpose to hinder that assent, when the testimony is satisfactory? Has a man power to believe that to be false which he wishes to be false? Are we not involuntary in our belief, and therefore irresponsible for it? This is the current opinion, I know; and among no class of men has it gained greater currency than among the more distinguished. Often has it been proclaimed from lips esteemed oracular; and I have seen it reported as having been expressed on the floor of Congress, that we have no sort of control over our belief. It is true to some extent; but as a universal proposition there is nothing more false; and there is nothing more pernicious than to receive it as true. It is to adopt infidelity at once. The sentiment is abhorrent to the Scriptures, and he who embraces this very common opinion, is an infidel, whether he knows it or not. How can he intelligently adopt a system which suspends salvation on the exercise of faith, when such are his views of faith? But I would not have you reject a notion simply because I say it is unchristian. Let us look at it.

Evidence is of several kinds, sensible, mathematical and moral. If the evidence in support of any truth or fact be sensible or mathematical, we confess that the control we have over our convictions is very slight. It extends no farther than we can restrain the exercise of our senses. We can shut our eyes and stop our ears, but that is all. If the evidence is presented, we cannot help believing according to it. In the case of a proposition supported by mathemati

cal evidence, our only power is to refuse to pursue the chain of reasoning to its completion. If we do trace it through, we arrive at the demonstration, and that is irresistible. We may hate the conclusion, but we must admit it; however much we may wish not to believe, yet we cannot help believing. It is quite different, when the evidence is moral, of that kind on which Christianity claims our belief. In this case, our power over our convictions extends much farther. In the first place, we can decline, and this much more easily and effectually than in the other cases, to contemplate and weigh the evidence. And this is what the majority of infidels do. They do not believe in the truth of the Christian religion. How should they? They have never studied its evidences; they have never examined its credentials. Peradventure they have never read the book which gives an account of this religion. Some distinguished deists, among whom was Hume, have acknowledged that they had never read the New Testament through; and, I doubt not, candor would draw forth the same confession from very many. They have too much to do to undertake the regular perusal of the Bible, and the careful examination of the documents of Christianity. They are too much taken up with the pursuits of ambition; too intently occupied with their schemes of self-aggrandizement, or with their devoirs to fashion. Yet these are they who tell us there is no truth or sense in Christianity; and the mightiness of their intellect is considered as a good reason why it must be as they say, and they lead astray many, when, in fact,

the subject has never been submitted to their intellect.

But even when the moral evidence is brought before the mind, our control over our convictions does not cease. When the thing to be proved is what we do not like, and would wish not to be true, who knows not in how many ways the mind may resist the force of the evidence presented to it, and how easily it may prevail to remain unconvinced in view of what amounts to absolute moral demonstration; how ready it is at making and magnifying objections! how keen to discern and invent difficulties, and how prone, when they fall in with its prejudices, to lay an undue stress upon them. Take any literary production of antiquity, about the authorship and credibility of which there exists now no doubt, and suppose its contents to be as objectionable and abhorrent to us, as the statements of the Bible are to many; suppose it to contain the same sombre description of the human character, and to indulge in the same gloomy prediction of wrath and ruin, so that we should feel ourselves deeply interested to make it out untrue, and do you suppose that we should be at any loss in imagining objections to it, and that we should find any very great difficulty in persuading ourselves of its incredibility? We do not give the Bible the same fair chance to work conviction in us, that we do other books. We come to the examination of its credentials, if we come at all, with a host of prejudices against its contents. We are not merely indifferent to its truth or falsehood; we are We positively wish it may not be true. I

more.