be established; and the arguments advanced in support of Christianity must be viewed in the light of objections to its validity. Here, then, is a feeble, and almost solitary argument, provoking opposition from what must be universally admitted as a host of solid weighty difficulties, urged against it with an overwhelming force: or, on the lowest supposition, and independently of the comparative weight or number of the arguments; here is a proposition assailed by difficulties which cannot be rejected as frivolous and unreal. The same principle, therefore, which gave way to the old objection, and allowed it to displace the original proposition; must, to be consistent, a second time reverse the order of things; and reinstate the original proposition in its pristine strength and power;-or a perpetual vacillation must destroy the stability of every truth; and the mind will "be tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive." (Ep. iv. 14.) I will only add, that if it be thought that an enlarged capacity might have been given to man, commensurate with the lofty truths embodied in the revelation; such a degree of spiritual discernment is actually promised and provided for all who will seek it in God's own appointed way, on all matters which it concerns man to know; (1 Cor. ii. 10, 12. 1 John. ii. 27.) and that, were this carried to an extent beyond what is there provided, it would in fact be taking man out of himself, in order that he might comprehend a revelation intended for his use as man.

Thus much concerning difficulties arising out of the nature of the subjects on which a revelation may be expected to dwell. It must be owned, however, that there are also some which do not spring from the intellectual incapacity of man; though they may have had their origin in other imperfections of his nature; and which, therefore, cannot be disposed of as necessarily inseparable from the subject. All objections founded on the partial reception of the Gospel, on the misconduct of its nominal professors, or on the sects to which it has given rise, are of this kind; for, so far as we can see, they might have been provided against, and avoided. There ought, however, to be a full and clear understanding of the nature and design of Christianity before difficulties of this class

can be properly disposed of; for if they have arisen notwithstanding an expressed determination on the part of the founder of the religion and his associates to prevent them; and despite of a divine pledge that they should not occur, Christianity cannot ward off the imputation of a signal failure; and its advocates must be at once confounded and put to shame. If, on the other hand, it can be made to appear, not only that this state of things was foreseen and foretold, but that it was actually pointed out as an intended consequence of the provisions of the dispensation under which we live, and a part of the discipline of its followers; then the imputation of failure, whether of purpose, or of foreknowledge, vanishes into air; and there is left only, what I shall venture to call, the minor, and by no means insuperable obstacle; that it may seem strange that such a system should emanate from God. Of this hereafter. Let us first remove the more serious impeachment of failure, because the system itself is thought to have fallen short of its avowed and predicated ends.

The declared purpose of Christianity, it is most true, is to break down all opposition, and to fill the earth "as the waters cover the sea." (Is. xi. 14.) But it has never been said that this its final victory was to crown its first infantile struggles. On the contrary, the whole tenor of Scripture represents man's estate on earth, from its very beginning, as one of probation; and a belief in Christ, as encompassed by perils on every side. The state of Adam in paradise was obviously one designed to test his obedience. Abraham was commanded to offer up his son, in order to make trial of his faith. The declared object of the wanderings of the Israelites was, “to prove them." Hezekiah was left to his own pride, "to try him." "There must be also heresies among you," says St. Paul, "that they which are approved may be made manifest among you." St. Peter speaks of the "trial of faith" as "being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire;" and the angel of the Church of Philadelphia was reminded of "the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." (Gen. ii. iii. xxii. 1. Deut. viii. 16. 2 Chron. xxxii. 31. 1 Cor. xi. 19. 1 Pet. i. 7. Rev. iii. 10.) These are a few of the many passages which might be adduced to show in express words, what is indeed sufficiently manifest from all

Scripture, that its purpose is, to set before men "life and good, and death and evil:" that they may choose between the two. (Deut. xxx. 15, 19.) Christianity, then, is not a charm, whose mere outward possession is to drive away every evil; but a moral system to work on the heart and affections of men. It provides a universal remedy; but the application of the remedy is not forced on men:-the reception or rejection of it constitutes their trial.

The reception of it, moreover, is made a matter, not of knowledge, but of faith; "The just shall live by his faith:" "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." (Rom. i. 17. John iii. 36.) But faith is necessarily personal; and must be the result of inquiry, of thought, and of conviction. The trial, therefore, is an individual one; and it may easily happen that one whom the mere accident of birth has made a nominal professor, has never given his thoughts to the subject, and never personally embraced it, or understood it as a whole; and therefore, from ignorance of its provisions, or, perhaps, from casting off its obligations, he fails practically to exemplify its precepts, or inwardly to enjoy its consolations. He passess through the ordeal, he is weighed in the balances, and is found wanting. (Dan. v. 27.) Most unquestionably incalculable injury is done to Christianity by the errors, to use no harsher term, of its professors; and as incalculable an accession to the strength of its evidences would accrue, did they bear continually in mind their master's precepts: "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." (Matt. v. 16.) "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit." (John xv. 8.) But it should never be forgotten, nor kept in the back ground, that the final proof of Christianity is nowhere put upon the lives of its professors; and could not have been so put, while they are in a state of probation themselves. "The works that I do in my Father's name," said Jesus, "they bear witness of me." (John x. 25.), and we have found the apostles also relying on the same appeals. (pp. 219, &c. 294.) The evidence of miracles and prophecy was firm and certain ground to build upon; a stable foundation, and independent of the wavering inconstancy of frail humanity. But nothing could, in common prudence, have been staked on the uniform steadfastness of believers unless the same divine power which wrought

the miracles, were universally to constrain every individual member of the rising Church.

Now it is obvious that were such constraining power universally applied, so that without hesitation and without scruple each should, at once and by an irresistible impulse, receive the Gospel in all its fulness; this freedom of choice, this exercise of faith, this probationary state, would be interfered with, to the extent of entirely changing the character of the religion, and giving a new aspect to all its enactments. How far any are enabled to choose life and good, uninfluenced by the preventing grace of God, (Art. x.) need not be canvassed here. And to how great an extent this grace may be exercised, hereafter, in the glorious ages of Christ's kingdom, it skills us little, for the purposes of this argument, to inquire. A universally constraining power is obviously incongruous with the requirements of the present dispensation, for the Church is yet "militant here on earth;" and must look for enemies on every side.

The same reason, again, which precludes the idea of a universal exercise of irresistible grace, precludes also such a full measure of overflowing evidence, as must at once force conviction, without thought or enquiry, upon every mind. It might be hard for one dissatisfied with existing proofs, to say with what measure of attestation he would be contented. When the mind is steeled against conviction, it is more often because it will not, than because it cannot, see the force of evidence. "If they hear not Moses and the prophets," said Jesus, "neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." (Luke xvi. 31.) And in truth, the men of that generation did resist the evidence, both of reiterated miracles, of the testimony of those whom Jesus had raised, and of his own resurrection from the dead. But whether such an overwhelming flood of evidence as must be absolutely irresistible, could be found or not, it is foreign to the design of God, as declared in the volume which we receive as indicating his will. Inveterate enemies without, and "false brethren" within; tares among the wheat; wolves in sheeps clothing; "Scoffers walking after their own lusts," men who "shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;" can take us by no surprise, for we have been forewarned that they "shall come.” (2 Pet. iii. 3. 1 Tim. iv. 1. &c.) "Strait is the gate,"

said Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, "and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it;" and St. Paul, when assigning a reason why the wise, the mighty, and the noble, had not been called, reminds us "that in the wisdom of God" it seemed good to him to permit that "the world by wisdom knew not God," in order, "by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." (Matt. vii. 14. Luke xiii. 24. 1 Cor. i. 21, 26.)

So long, then, as the state of man is one of probation, there must be some room for testing the sincerity of his obedience and some scope for the excercise of his faith:-and so long as the "enmity of the world" retains the prominence now given it in our Scripture system, it is fair to suppose there will remain some points on which it may be emboldened to expend its strength. I am far from admitting that these are really weak points; but they are ostensibly so; and perhaps by design. For the blindest impetuosity of the most fool-hardy, will seldom be satisfied without some show of reason to justify its desperate assaults; and will, at least, look out for some apparently neglected corner, whose weakness may seem to render it assailable, and to invite attack.

But to say only that such a state of things is in perfect accordance with the avowed design of Christianity, is to stop short of the full statement of the case. The presence of opposition, indifference, and gross perversion is rendered indispensable as a condition of its truth: for whether in the nature of things it must be so or not, it has become so under existing circumstances; or else the truth of God will fail. We justly mourn over the sad dissensions which divide the visible Church of Christ, and deplore the vice that reigns among her members. But perhaps sometimes, from the painfulness of the thought, and from our utter inability to dive into the secret councils of God in search of a reason for a dispensation, to us so strange, we do not sufficiently remember that even these calamitous departures from "the truth as it is in Jesus," (Ep. iv. 21.) instead of being an objection to the divine original of our Scriptures, are in fact a powerful evidence in its favour. It will have been remarked, and may perhaps have been thought an omission, that I have made no use of the striking prophecies concerning Antichrist, and the great apostacy of the latter days. (2 Thess. ii. 1 Tim. iv. Rev. xiii, xvii, &c.) I was unwilling to do