ages ago. It can meet every present inquiry: it can console under every present loss: and it can become, in God's hand, a daily exciting cause of growth and comfort. But, on the supposition that we had not such firm footing for our hope and comfort as has been stated; yet even then, a man, who was not tied and bound by depraved habits or inveterate prejudices, would surely avoid the edge of a precipice. He would "In order that I may not say, make a mistake which cannot afterwards be rectified, I will keep as far as possible from danger. It surely becomes me to act in matters of the last importance, with the precaution which I use in matters of the least importance. In matters of such moment, I must avoid even hazard." Fools make a mock at sin: but sin appears, from experience as well as from the Scripture, to be an infinite evil. I see it now convulsing the nation. I am shocked with its cruelty and outrages as I pass the streets. It deranges my family. It disorders my worship. It pollutes and torments my heart. I can form, indeed, no right judgment how it may become infinite justice to treat this evil; but I can take the JUDGE'S OWN ACCOUNT. I can take warning when he declares repeatedly that he will bring the impenitent to a state where the worm dieth not, and where the fire is not quenched. I can take divine counsel how to avoid these awful consequences. I can take the safe side: and, in so doing, I am sure of losing nothing, even if it could be proved that I should gain nothing. We cannot avoid perceiving a distinct class of men, who, from the beginning of time, were taught and disposed to serve the living and true God: we cannot help marking the identity of their character, and the superiority of their views; their zeal for truth, and their daily anxiety to improve under its direction. Nor can we avoid perceiving the rest of mankind, drowned in cares or pleasures; either casting off all fear of God, or becoming the blind dupes of some contemptible superstition. Now can we hesitate a moment to which of these two divisions of mankind we should join ourselves? As a foolish youth, who knows not how to prize the privileges of his father's house, care, and counsel, seeks the friendship of some dangerous stranger: thus, on taking umbrage at something met with in the Church, I have petulantly walked into the World for relief. Happy for me! what I met there soon convinced me that I must make the best of my way back again. I found hypocrisy and farce in the Church: in the World I found nothing else; and pure truth and solid consolation, only in the Bible. Happy also for us, if by any means we are brought to receive the truth in time. On my first coming into our neighbourhood, one, who possessed a considerable estate in it, was not satisfied with jocosely expressing his own infidelity, but thought he complimented me by insinuating, that, secretly, I was of his sentiment. A mortification in his bowels soon after made him serious, and then he discovered his fatal mistake. He sent for me in the greatest anxiety, but too late for conversation. The agony, however, of his mind when dying reminded me of that observation, "Hell is truth seen too late.” . And is this all that the god of this world can give his servants for believing his lie? One thing more, perhaps, he may add:-the opiate of a stupid conscience to make them die quietly. But I cannot be content with such wages. Annihilation, which is the Unbeliever's best hope, is the Christian's worst fear. He alone stands a candidate for an enduring substance: the Bible alone purposes it: and what has the world to offer, in its sophistries or satisfactions, which should dissuade him one moment from thus standing? On the other hand, I see a wild fanatic mangling the Scriptures, till some are ready to call them in question: but I see no question arise from hence. Had this deluded creature ceased to follow his imagination, and trod the humble and practical path of his guide, he would have ceased to be a fanatic. Nor am I a whit more stumbled at the hypocrite: Like Simon Magus, I see him paying homage to excellence, while he has no part nor lot in the matter. Like a spurious miracle, he derives all his credit from those that are true; as a counterfeit coin or note would deceive none, if true had never existed. “Tell me not," said your old friend Mrs. to her relation, "how many hypocrites you find in the Church. I tell you I know I am not one myself; and that is enough for me." To set before you the objections which have been made to Revelation, and the satisfactory answers which have been repeatedly given and are in every body's hands, would be but to trifle with your time. And, indeed, were not such solutions at hand, we know that a well-founded fact is not to be overthrown, because objections may be started against it, which we are not prepared to answer. Many of us, who have been objectors, know also that the carnal mind, which is enmity against God, lies at the root of such objections; and that those, who receive not the love of the truth, are in the way to be punished with that strong delusion of believing a lie. Hear the just laws, the judgment of the skies! In this way, Madam, has God hitherto to examine my foundation. enabled me Or, if I may be allowed at the conclusion to change the metaphor, I stand like one, who, for a long time, has been imposed upon by toys and tinsel; but, at length, feels satisfied that he has found gold. Some, indeed, try to persuade me that I am still imposed upon, and that what I take for gold is but base metal. I therefore proceed to prove my gold, by every method of trial which I can devise: I put it into the scale; I try it in the fire: I bring it to the touchstone: I place it under the hammer: and I find it still pure gold. After all this, shall I regard their cry who have never thus tried it; and whose fears and lusts oppose the trial? At your request, I have now put down the substance of my unconnected remarks; and since, in that form, they afforded you relief in discourse, I have avoided giving them a more regular one on paper. I have also been sparing of practical inferences from the truth thus established; as I need not demonstrate to You, what Reasons for Action must necessarily arise from these Reasons for Repose. You are also fully aware that the Truth before us must be infinitely momentous, or nothing: that it cannot be nothing, we have full proof in our own breasts: infinitely momentous therefore it must remain, and such may we ever feel it! But, after all these considerations, I cannot expect you will ever have so strong a conviction of the energy of divine truth as our venerable friend Mr. N or as myself. Like the demoniac Legion, we must needs sit with more |
