her own citadel undefended. We take her up on her own ground. We ask her, supposing her objections to be granted, and Christianity to be accounted not of divine authority, whence the religion arose? Who were the authors of it? What was its origin? Who was its founder? What gave success to the unarmed apostles? What made the weakest and most despised of causes to triumph over the most powerful and most honored? What produced the greatest revolution in the human mind which the world ever witnessed, the overthrow of heathenism, and the establishment of Christianity? What has preserved the religion, and carried on its triumphs to the present hour? What has infused into its inward frame-work such an adaptation to the state and wants of man-such a sublimity of doctrine—such a purity of morals--such a beneficial tendency? What accounts for the pre-eminent holiness and loveliness of the character of Christ? What gives the religion the actual glory and efficacy of which every humble inquirer may make a trial upon himself, and in his own case?

The credulity of unbelief is the most extraordinary of all phenomena in the moral world. It can repose on mere speculative objections, in the teeth of history and experience; and yet it can believe all the absurdities and impossibilities which the consequences of rejecting Revelation bring with them! It can reject all the mighty credentials of Revelation, on the footing of imaginary difficulties; and yet it can believe that Christianity had no founder, no origin, no cause, no author-but was the product of chance and accident!

No! such objections prove the truth of the religion which they impugn; such reasonings go to confirm the evidences they would destroy. The weapons of unbelief are thus wrested from its feeble grasp, and are turned against itself. Our foes fall by their own arms. Infidelity cannot stand, if left to its own cause. Its suicidal hand inflicts the mortal blow. Never was there such a case as that of infidelity exhibited before the eyes of mankind. Let the young and candid inquirer judge..

Christianity comes forth surrounded with facts, historical proofs, an apparatus of magnificent miracles, a series of prophecies fulfilling before the eyes of mankind, a supernatural propagation and preservation of the gospel in the world, prominent and obvious good effects as to every thing that touches human happiness: Infidelity comes forth with petty objections, speculative reasonings, vain imaginations. Christianity invites you to believe on far stronger grounds of faith than men are governed by every day: Infidelity tempts you to disbelieve, on grounds which no single human being ever acted upon in common life. Christianity draws her arguments not from human reasonings, but from God, from facts, from experience, from the plainest dictates of moral duty, from proofs tangible and level to our capacity of judging: Infidelity draws her objections from the corrupt heart of man, from theory, from conjecture, from the plainest contradictions to common sense, from reasonings out of our reach and beyond our capacities. Christianity calls on us to obey her Revelation, as the remedy of our maladies, and a stupendous salvation from eternal death; and makes all her discoveries and mysteries intelligible and simple in respect to our duties and wants: Infidelity calls us to speculation and presumption; denies the malady; concerns herself with finding fault with the mysteries which she will not apply aright, and leaves man without salvation, without guidance, without consolation, without hope-a wanderer in the wilderness of the world.

Such is the real character of Infidel objections, or rather, such are the arguments in favor of Christianity, which objections so weak and unreasonable furnish.'

What, then, practically, is the hold which such objections have of men? How is it that they still prevail with so many? Whence is it that infidelity, with such a miserable destitution of argument, still triumphs so widely amongst the young? The answer is, that the objections fix in unfurnished and vain` minds; that they follow upon vicious habits; that they are the judicial infliction of the provoked Spirit of God; that they carry off those who have no real hold of Christianity; that they are the great stratagem of the spirit

ual adversary; that they are the most fatal product of the corrupt and proud reason of a fallen creature.

Let us, in conclusion touch on these topics.

I. I say these wretched sophisms of infidelity FIX THEMSELVES IN UNFURNISHED AND VAIN MINDS. Curiosity, admiration of mere talents, the love of novelty, the prurient desire to know what unbelievers have to say, open the mind to the arts of the scoffer. Men are unfurnished with the full knowledge of the grounds of their faith, and are unequal for a contest with subtle disputants. There is no saying what havoc objections make when young people are not called to consider them; when they presumptuously, and from mere curiosity, allow them to dwell in the mind; when they begin on the side of these speculations, instead of the side of the positive evidences of Christianity. Avoid, therefore, playing with the snare. Dread exposing yourselves to the pestilence which walketh in darkness. Tamper not with temptation. This is my first caution.

II. Shun, in the next place, THOSE VICES, WHICH PREPARE FOR INFIDEL OBJECTIONS. Sensuality is the mother and nurse of unbelief. The proud, profligate youth finds Christianity stand in his way. He says, "Give me reasons against the Bible; and if there are none, I will invent some." His unbelief is the fruit of his passions and of his intellectual and moral rebellion against God. It is not the conviction of satisfied research, but the haste and presumption of an uninformed and vicious mind. We need not wonder that profligate persons of great natural talents fall into infidelity; for the main objection is antecedent to the production of any evidence; and it is not to be expected that they should have made themselves masters of the merits of the case. A natural consequence of the continued. violation or disregard of any law, is a doubt or denial of its authority. Shun, therefore, O young man, the vices which would make you desire to find some hold against Christianity. Reverence conscience-imitate the examples of your

(q) Shuttleworth's Sermons.

virtuous Christian friends-follow your Bible as the guide. of life; and your objections will presently vanish.

III. PROVOKE not, in the third place, I would entreat you-provoke not the GOOD SPIRIT OF GOD TO DEPART FROM YOU, and give you up to judicial blindness and obduracy of heart. If you go on in vain curiosity and idle intercourse with the scoffer; if you live in vice and moral evils contrary to known duty-fear lest the blessed guide. and sanctifier of man should be grieved, and should depart from you. I address you as the disciple of the Christian religion; I address you as one who knows the divine agent and author of grace; I address you as one who knows the ordinary dealings of the Almighty, whose Spirit doth not always strive with man; but who left Pharaoh to his impenitent heart; who consigned the Jews to obduracy and unbelief; and who threatens all who love not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness, with being given up to a strong delusion to believe a lie. If once given up of God, any objections will avail to turn you from Christianity; the weakest sophisms will be too strong for you; the mightiest host of facts and historical evidences will appear of no force in your view; you will go on from worse to worse-from negligence to scorn; from speculative to practical unbelief; from the trifling and indevout, to the daring and presumptuous temper, which defies God, disowns the Saviour, and rushes madly upon eternity.

IV. In order to avoid any approach to this fatal end, SEE THAT YOU HAVE A REAL HOLD OF CHRISTIANITY IN ITS SUBSTANTIAL BLESSINGS-in its actual efficacy upon your heart and life. Speculative objections have little force to perplex the practical and spiritually-minded Christian. He has the shield of faith, which quenches all the fiery darts of the wicked one. On the other hand, he who has never felt religion, and known its power, has a great disadvantage in coping with an ingenious disputant. His heart having never been affected and blessed with Christianity, he holds by it slightly; he rather hangs upon it, than embraces it; (r) Gen. vi. 3. (s) 2 Thess. ii. 11, 12.

he retains it merely by an hereditary prejudice: he sees no reason why opinions and sentiments should be thought of so great consequence; he thinks, perhaps, all opinions immaterial. Christianity has never given him an actual power against his passions; Christianity has never raised, and blessed, and consoled his heart in affliction; Christianity has never brought him to pardon, peace, and a new and heavenly life; Christianity is to him little more than a code of restraints, with certain religious ceremonies attached to them. Thus sitting loose to all that is vital in his religion, what wonder is it, if, when infidelity spreads its snares, he is taken? Let the young, then, seek for the practical influences of Christianity; let them make a trial of its promised grace; let them know it as THE POWER OF GOD UNTO SALVATION-and scientific reasonings will never overthrow their strong and well-grounded faith. For,

V. They will soon discover that the objections of infidelity are, in truth, ONE OF THE GREAT STRATAGEMS OF SATAN, THE SPIRITUAL ADVERSARY. They learn from Rev

elation the power, the malice, the artifice of that apostate spirit. They know that, from the period of his successful temptation of our first parents, he has been systematically opposing THE SEED OF THE WOMAN, who was so long promised, and who, at length, appeared to destroy the works of the devil. They know that this deadly adversary has instigated, in different ages, various instruments for hardening the heart of man, and defeating the purposes of redemption. He worked by heathen idolatry, so long as that could be sustained; he worked by superstition and spiritual bondage, during the dark ages; he works now by SPECULATIVE OBJECTIONS, the abuse of literature, a confidence in talents, education, and the reasoning powers of man. Behold, then, in this one consideration, the whole web of infidel speculations unravelled. No wonder these vain and futile fabrications, though possessing little force in themselves against positive facts, though directed to a wrong point and inadmissible, though inconsistent and contradictory and frivolous, the manifest product of human pride and ignorance; no wonder they still deceive so many-for the secret is now