their hearts, and who immediately discern that every thing which exists is no more than the work of that God whom they adore. To these all nature proclaims its author, and the heavens declare the glory of God. But as for those in whom this light is extinct, and in whom we endeavour to revive it, who are destitute of faith and charity, and who behold nothing but darkness and obscurity in nature, it does not seem the proper way to convert them, to point out to them, as proofs on this important subject, nothing more than the course of the moon, or the planets, or common arguments, against which they have constantly hardened themselves. The obduracy of their minds renders them deaf to this voice of nature, which has sounded continually in their

and experience shows, that so far from convincing them by this method, nothing is so likely to discourage them, and to make them despair of ever finding the truth, as to undertake to persuade them by this mode of reasoning, and to tell them that they must clearly see the truth of it.

It is not in this manner the scripture speaks, which knows so much better than we do the things which are of God. It informs us, indeed, that the beauty of the creatures makes known Him who is their author; but it does not tel us that it does this to all persons in the world. On the contrary, it declares, that whenever they

do it, it is not by themselves, but by that light ́`· which God sheds abroad into the hearts of those to whom he discovers himself by their means: That which may be known of God, is manifest in them; for God hath showed it to them. Rom. i. 19. It teaches us, in general, that God is an invisible God. Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself. Isa. xlv. 15. And that since the corruption of human nature, he has left men in a state of blindness, from which they can only be delivered by Jesus Christ, without whom we are cut off from all communion with God. No man

knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. Matt. xi. 27.

The Scripture also points this out to us, when it tells us, in so many places, that those who seek God find him; for we do not speak thus of a thing which is evident and clear; men do not search after that-it discovers itself, and compels observation.

The metaphysical proofs of a God are so very intricate, and abstracted from the common rea-* sonings of men, that they strike them with but little force; and when they do affect some, it is only for the moment in which they discern the demonstration; but the very next hour they suspect they are deceived: Quod curiositate cognoverant superbia amiserunt.

Moreover, arguments of this kind can only

lead us to a speculative knowledge of God; and to know him only thus, is, in fact, not to know him at all.

The Deity of Christians is not merely a God who is the author of geometrical truths, and of the order of the elements: that is the divinity of the Pagans. Nor is he merely a God who overrules by his providence the lives and fortunes of men, in order to give those who worship him a happy series of years: this was the portion of the Jews. But the God of Abraham and of Jacob, the God of the Christians, is a God of love and consolation; a God who fills the soul and the heart which he possesses; gives it an inward feeling of its own misery, and of his infinite mercy; unites himself to the soul, replenishing it with humility and joy, with confidence and love; and renders it incapable of fixing on any thing but himself, as its ultimate object.

The God of the Christians is a God who makes the soul perceive that he is its only good; that its only rest is in him; that it can have no joy but in his love; and at the same time he causesit to abhor those obstacles, which hinder and withhold it from loving him with all its strength. Self-love and concupiscence, which do this, are insupportable to it. God makes it feel that there is this self-love deeply rooted within it, and that He alone can remove it.

This it is to know God as a Christian. But to

know him in this manner, we must, at the same time, know our own misery and unworthiness, and the need we have of a mediator, in order to draw nigh to God, and unite ourselves to him. We must never separate these truths, .because either by itself is not only unprofitable but hurtful. The knowledge of God, without the knowledge of our own misery, produces pride. The knowledge of our own misery, without the knowledge of Jesus Christ, produces despair. But the knowledge of Jesus Christ exempts us both from pride and despair; because in him we see God, our own misery, and the only way of recovery from it.

We may know God without knowing our own miseries, or our own miseries without knowing God; or we may know both, without knowing the means of deliverance from the miseries which oppress us. But we cannot know Jesus Christ without at the same time knowing God, our own miseries, and the remedy for them: because Jesus Christ is not only God, but he is God the healer of our miseries.

Thus all who seek God without Jesus Christ, find no light which can afford them satisfaction, or be really profitable to them. For either they do not go far enough to know that there is a God; or if they do, it is of no use to them, because they frame to themselves a way of communicating without a mediator, with that God

whom they have discovered without a mediator: so that they either fall into atheism, or deism, two things which the christian religion almost equally abhors.

We ought, therefore, wholly to direct our inquiries to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, since it is by him alone that we can hope to know God, in a manner that shall be really advantageous to us.

He is the true God to us men; that is, to miserable and sinful creatures: he is the centre of all, and the object of all. He who knows not him, knows nothing either in the order of the world, or in himself. For not only do we know nothing of God, but by Jesus Christ; but we know nothing of ourselves also, but by Jesus. Christ alone.

Without Jesus Christ man must remain in vice and in misery: with Jesus Christ man is released from vice, and from misery also. In him is all our happiness, our virtue, our life, our light, our hope; and out of him there is nothing but vice, misery, darkness, despair; nothing but confusion appears in the nature of God, or in the nature of man,