mind and surround you with a defence, which, whilst it affords you light and security for your work, preserves you from the fatal dangers to which an unprotected heart might be exposed, and sends you up again in safety, to the ordinary discharge of your Christian calling in the cheering light of day.

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LECTURE XXII.

THE LIVES AND DEATHS OF INFIDELS COMPARED WITH THOSE OF SINCERE CHRISTIANS

PSALM XXXvii. 35-37.

I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay-tree. Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not; yea I sought him, but he could not be found. Mark the perfect man and behold the upright; for the end of that man is peace.

HAVING shown the vanity and futility of the speculative objections raised against Christianity, we proceed now to consider the lives and deaths of those who advance them. For if the general character of infidels should be found to be utterly inconsistent with truth and sincerity in a religious inquiry, and the general character of sincere Christians entirely consistent with them; we shall have an additional proof that objections against the Bible are the mere offspring of human corruption, and that the Christian faith is indeed of God.

By their fruits ye shall know them," is an adage not only of revealed, but of natural religion. We shall bring before you, then, the two classes; those who give way to speculative infidel objections; and

those who devoutly believe and obey the Christian Revelation. We shall summons the body of sceptics who have imbibed and followed out into practice the cavils of infidelity; and contrast them with the body of sincere Christians, who have received and followed out into practice the doctrines of the Bible. We shall not select doubtful, ambiguous cases which hover between faith and unbelief, but decisive characters on each side-the thorough infidel, and the thorough Christian; and we shall contrast them as to THE TENOR OF THEIR LIVES; their WRITINGS AND PUBLIC LABOURS; and their DEATHS AND PREPARATION for an eternal state of being.

Let us,

I. Contrast the two classes as TO THE TENOR OF THEIR LIVES.

In doing this let us consider their respective maintenance of their common principles of morals and religion-their discharge of the duties of domestic and social life-and their measure of benevolence and good-will to their fellow-creatures.

1. Let us contrast the infidel with the true Christian, as to the MAINTENANCE OF THE PRINCIPLES

OF MORALS AND RELIGION HELD BY THEM IN COM

MON. I say, held by them in common, because I wish to concede all that is asked. Allow the infidel his professed principles of natural religion; and then contrast the manner in which he maintains them with the conduct of the sincere believer.

1

And here a very few words will suffice. We have already shown the absence of any thing like a candid and devout temper in the inquiries of infidels, and their inability to sustain or restore the principles of natural religion when unaided by Revelation. We have noticed likewise that entire want of any real intention

1 Lecture II.

2 Lecture III.

of carrying into effect the principles of morals, which marks their conduct.3 The fact is, they seem to have no principles, except those of a general scepticism and contempt of all religion. Grant them all they ask in a moment of controversy, and trace out afterwards the way in which they maintain their principles, and you will see that they leave no foundation to build upon. They profess to believe in one living and true God, to admit some of his essential and moral attributes-his omnipresence and omniscience, and his government of the world-they profess to hold the moral and accountable nature of man, his obligations to virtue and piety, to the worship of his Maker, and to the duties of repentance, prayer, and thanksgiving, for the divine benefits. They profess to admit the principles of morals as held by the Heathen sages, and improved by modern philosophy. But the very enumeration of these topics has the appearance of sarcasm, when applied to infidelity. Contradictions without end, as we mentioned in our last Lecture, seem purposely scattered in all they say, as it were with the view of sapping all the elements of morals and religion. They now appear for an instant to favour Christianity; and now, by opposing all religion generally, they show that their hostility is merely a feeling against it, as included in the common mass. They are continually making efforts to oblige themselves to think after a certain fashion, which violates conscience, and those remains of natural light which nothing can altogether obliterate from the heart of man, whilst a real fear of the other side is still lurking within. The infidel maintains little more, in point of principle, than a vague knowledge of God, adopted from a blind deference to the public sentiment, and a general profession of the obligation of virtue, to spare the pains of examination, or from fear of making himself too sure

3 Lecture XVI.

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4 Lecture XXI.

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about it. Where is there a single example of the essential principles of religion and virtue being really and bona fide maintained in the face of the world, by infidels? There are many nominal Christians, indeed, who sink down into natural religion from want of acquaintance with the peculiarities of their faith ; but where is the example of an unbeliever acting up to his own principles, low and general as those principles are ?

Now contrast with all this the manner in which every sincere and pious Christian maintains, and maintains at all hazards, and, if needs be, in the face of persecution, exile, and death, the primary elements of religion and morals. In infidelity we find no one principle firm, permanent, uniform; in Christianity it is all principle. Every thing is what you would expect in a true religion-it is first cordially believed, and then boldly and perseveringly avowed.

In the bosom of every real believer, there is not merely a profession of the knowledge of God, his unity, his perfections, his sovereignty, his providence, his law; but there is an honest, straight-forward purpose to maintain them in all their extent and purity.

It is true, that the contrast here is not always immediately visible. The want of principle in infidels is easily seen in their avowed spirit, in their public opinions, in their open blasphemies, in their contradictory statements the case is notorious. But the inward piety and reverence for God, in the breast of the true Christian, are not so apparent; these are hidden guests, to be judged of cautiously by their appropriate fruit. And the name of Christian being now too often assumed, where there is no one characteristic of real Christianity, it is easy to evade the force of our reasoning. But to those who will examine the subject with candour, the difference is plain. Most of the young persons, whom I have especially in view in these Lectures, know the broad distinction