Thus will your submission to Christianity be a matter of choice. Thus it will be, not a fit of devotion, but the fixed purpose of the soul touched by a divine hand, aware of what it is about, sensible of the dangers and temptations before it, and yet resolved in the strength of God to abide by its determination. "He

that putteth his hand to the plough and looketh back, is not fit for the kingdom of God." The obligations of the Christian faith will never terminate till the struggle of life is over. The snares and seductions of the world will never cease to solicit. The malice and powers of Satan will constantly embarrass and annoy. You must be well resolved then. If you have seen the majestic truths of the Christian doctrine, and the crumbling ruins in which the infidel ramparts lie, do not tempt God by hesitation and tampering with conscience; but boldly and determinately take your stand. Enter the sacred building; abide under the shadow of the Almighty; dwell in the glory of his temple; persevere in your worship and obedience there, till you are summoned from this lower and preparatory scene of duty to that upper and more glorious place, where the Lord God and the Lamb shall be the light thereof— " and you shall remain as a pillar in the temple of your God, and go out no more." 21

RECAPITULATION OF INTERNAL EVIDENCES.

We have now completed that rapid and popular view of the evidences of Christianity, which we proposed.

After having led our youthful inquirer around the

21 Rev. iii. 12.

bulwarks of the heavenly city, and shown him that the number and strength of the fortifications were not only impregnable to the forces of the enemy, but were such

as to give full repose and sense of security to the inhabitants; we have taken him and brought him within the sacred defences, we have led him into the heart of the citadel, and pointed out the strength of the walls, and the proportion and design of the several buildings. We have shown him that the internal constitution of the place is equally excellent with the external bulwarks. We have made him go through the divisions and mark the uses of the various edifices, compare their parts, observe their suitableness for the especial purposes for which they were projected; and have thus aimed at filling his mind with high conceptions of the wisdom of the divine Architect.

We have led him, above all, to the sanctuary, which adorns and protects the city, which is "the joy of the whole earth-the palace of the great and eternal King."

We were sure, indeed, beforehand, that a fortress framed by the hand of the Almighty, would concur in its outward and inward character. And though we did not, and could not, allow our young inquirer to sit in judgment with presumptuous confidence on what he might think ought to be the arrangement of the parts, nor to suspend his loyal obedience on their agreement with his preconceived notions; yet we assured him that if, in a simple reliance on the skill which devised the exterior fortifications, he would examine the internal arrangements, with the view of confirming his faith and elevating his idea of the glory of his King, he would be astonished at the proofs of contrivance and foresight in every part.

This, then, he has done. The result has surpassed his expectations-the harmony and strength of the interior itself, the divisions of the city, the beauty of the chief places of concourse, the glory and sanctity of

the temple, have filled him with admiration. Some things, indeed, have exceeded his comprehensionfor no human mind can have the furniture or experience requisite for judging of such extensive and complicated details-but he has understood enough to allay his fears, to raise his gratitude, and to induce him to rely with confidence on the successful issue of the combat.

In other words, the internal evidences of Christianity have appeared as admirable as the external.

This leads us, then, BRIEFLY TO REVIEW THE

ARGUMENT ARISING FROM THE INTERNAL PROOFS

OF CHRISTIANITY, which have formed the subjeci of this division of our course, as we reviewed the argument from the external at the close of our last volume.

In doing this, let us notice the general nature of the argument-the particular topics into which it divided itself its remarkable agreement with man's probationary state--and the inseparable unity of the whole.

1. You will remember that the GENERAL NATURE of the argument springs from those various marks of excellency in the inward frame-work of Christianity which serve to confirm our faith in its divine original. They are the internal characters of divinity which strike every considerate inquirer, the more he studies the religion, and compares it with the powers, and tendencies, and wants of such a creature as man, and with the confessed dealings of Almighty God in his natural providence and moral government of the world.

For the main features of Christianity are not in all respects unknown to man; but rather fall in with his purest notions of God and conscience and moral duty on the one hand, and with his uniform experience of weakness and depravity on the other. They confirm every thing which natural religion guessed at, rather than knew; enlarging, purifying, correcting, elevating the remains of the original Revelation, and

the dictates of that moral nature, which, though darkened and corrupted by the fall, is not wholly obliterated and lost. They contain, besides, a new and mysterious dispensation of mercy in the incarnation and sacrifice of the Son of God, which gives energy to the dormant principles of essential religion, makes them practicable and delightful, and carries them on to all the ends for which they were first implanted.

Accordingly, in tracing out these effects and bearings of the Christian Religion, we discovered innumerable marks of design, of contrivance, of divine sublimity and harmony, of agreement with the wants and necessities, the desires and anticipations of man.

These are the internal evidences; and they furnish a most conclusive argument in support of those external credentials of the religion by which its reception is first secured. They add the test of experience and observation to the historical testimony of authenticity, credibility, divine authority, miracles, prophecy, supernatural propagation, prominent good effects. And when these internal proofs are still further confirmed by the inward witness of Christianity to the heart, in its answers to prayer, in its fulfilment of all its promises, in its communication of the grace of the Holy Spirit, in its actually changing and elevating the whole moral character of man, there seems to be every imaginable species of evidence combined.

All the faculties and feelings of man's nature are brought to bear testimony to the truth of Christianity. His common sense and ordinary capacity of judgment in the EXTERNAL evidences: his heart and affections, his faculty of tracing out final ends, his perception of harmony and beauty, in the INTERNAL proofs: an inward consciousness of moral health and peace and joy communicated to the mind; and an experience of the highest practical good effects produced in him, in the INTERIOR WITNESS.

Let us suppose a case, to illustrate the force of the

internal argument. If a philosopher had a revelation made to him of the system of the creation, he would begin by considering the historical proofs of the divine authority of the communication. Here he would rest

at first. Afterwards, when he found there was nothing in it directly contradictory to the fixed laws of nature apparent in the small portions of matter which he had before subjected to his experiments, but that every thing went to confirm the results of his narrow observations, whilst all seemed intended for his convenience, relief, assistance, in many important respects, of which he was before ignorant, this would exceedingly confirm his faith in the truth of the revelation. He would not be surprised to find much in it that was new, much unthought of, many uses and plans which he had never been able to conceive or conjecture; a vast enlargement of the field of vision; many causes of things laid and much declared to him that was mysteopen; rious, incomprehensible, beyond and above his finite powers. But if, in the midst of all this, he constantly found that the facts in nature, as they had lain before his view, were confirmed, that every thing agreed with his previous experiments and observation; and if, moreover, he found that the practical results of the whole were some most important benefits to himself, these convictions would raise his faith in the divine origin of the communication to the utmost height.

22

Such is the nature of the argument from the internal evidences.

2. It is not necessary for me to RECAPITULATE THE DETAILS of this evidence. It is not necessary for me to do more than refer you to the ADAPTATION 23 to the state and wants of man, which we found to pervade Christianity-as contrivance and provision for his necessities pervade the visible creation.

Nor need I do more than refer to that plan of re

22 Verplank.

23 Lect. XIV.