perusal of awakening treatises. But the grand result -the identity of effect, is the same in all."

5. But we go further. We state that though this experience of religion is, from the nature of the case, chiefly hidden in the secret of the breast-to be known only to the possessor and to be attested to others by his consistent declarations-yet there are CERTAIN

FRUITS AND CONSEQUENCES APPEARING OUTWARD

LY IN THE CONDUCT, which are the peculiar and inseparable evidences of these internal feelings, and lie open to the observation of mankind. We appeal constantly to the holy, benevolent, useful lives of all who claim aright this inward witness of Christianity, which we constantly require as the appropriate testimony of their sincerity. We thus discern the hypocrite, the enthusiast, the mere partisan, the false religionist. If men profess to have the internal experience of Christianity, we ask for the proof; and it is only as their consistent, self-denying, blameless, and upright conduct, supports their profession, that we credit their statements. These are visible and tangible evidences. These distinguish the gem from the counterfeit. These are the king's mark, so to speak, upon the coin. Men who thus act, ought, and must, and ever will be believed, when they assert that they have those internal feelings which are described in Scripture as flowing from Christianity, and which they affirm to be the source whence their conduct springs.

Such then are the facts on which our argument rests. And here we pause to offer two remarks on these phenomena and experiments as to real Christianity.

What, we ask, is there in these internal perceptions of life, consolation, and strength, derived from the doctrines of Christianity, which should EXCITE OUR ASTONISHMENT? Would not the wonder be, if there

were no such feelings, no such inward witness to the soul? What are there excellencies in human knowledge, and shall there be none in divine? What ! is an intelligent, well-educated man allowed to have powers of expression and means of exciting our surprise and pleasure beyond those of a child, and shall not the language of apostles and prophets, and the discoveries concerning God and the soul and eternity, be admitted to awaken emotions beyond the mere trifles of human knowledge and instruction. What! are men of uncommon endowments, as Bacon, Pascal, Newton, allowed to rise above those of ordinary talents, and are they expected to take wider views and make more important communications, and excite warmer feelings of wonder, admiration, gratitude; and shall not the great and infinite God be allowed to surpass all the petty communications of man, in the mysteries of his will, in the importance of his commands, in the depths of his mercy; and in the correspondent emotions of fear, love, faith, hope, grateful joy, affiance, awakened in the heart? What do we allow that in the displays of glory and beauty in the works of creation, the natural perfections of God may be contemplated and known, and become to the pious and duly prepared mind the sources of internal peace, thanksgiving, prayer, admiration, obedience, resignation; and shall we not admit, that men may perceive the moral perfections of God in the gospel ?-Shall all his mercy and wisdom and infinite contrivance in redemption, have no effect upon the soul ?-Shall the stupendous fact of the incarnation be received with a tame indifference? What! do men allow that tidings of joy and deliverance in human things should call up proportionate affections; and that he would be thought a monster of ingratitude, who should receive with apathy the news of an immense act of royal clemency extended to him when condemned to death;

and shall we not allow that the glorious and unexpected tidings of redemption from eternal death, should awaken all the gratitude of the soul? Shall not pardon and life and adoption and the hope of heaven, overwhelm the heart with some correspondent perceptions and emotions?

Yes, it is most reasonable, that if there be such a thing as a Revelation from the great God, comprising such amazing discoveries as the gospel, affecting such all-important interests, promising such mighty aids of the Holy Spirit, laying down such grounds of faith and love and hope in Christ Jesus, delivering man from such complicated misery, and exalting him to such heights of holy peace and joy-it is most reasonable, that there should be such a thing as perceiving the excellency and glory of it, as feeling its efficacy, as having an inward witness of its fulfilment and operations in our own breasts. There is nothing to astonish us in such effects-the matter of astonishment would be, if Christianity did not assert, and Christians did not experience, them.

But we remark, also, that it is NO ARGUMENT THAT THESE THINGS CANNOT BE, BECAUSE SOME HAVE

NEVER FELT THEM. Nothing upon earth can be more unreasonable than to make my experience the standard of all that has occurred, or can occur to others, on such a subject as practical religion. No doubt, multitudes, who profess Christianity and pass as Christians, have never experienced these peculiar effects of the gospel, just as there are multitudes who call themselves admirers of the works of nature, who have never made the experiments, nor gone through the investigations, which the philosopher has done. They may be discerning men in other matters; but they are no judges of a philosophical question, nor can they ever become such, unless they will either

receive the facts of the case upon credible testimony, or go through the course of experiments for themselves.

An astonishing result in chemistry is reported to me. I know nothing of chemistry-I have not read much on the subject-the facts strike me as incredible -I neither examine the writings of the great chemists of the day, and receive their united and wellascertained testimony; nor do I enter on the business of the laboratory myself-or, if I do, it is without preparation or any knowledge of the elements of the science, and I fail; and yet I refuse to believe the facts, and calumniate and despise those who do, however carefully they have examined and verified them.

Such is the unreasonable conduct of those who reject the doctrine of the inward witness of Christianity, because they have never felt it themselves. The truth is, they may never have been in a situation to judge of it. They may never have had any religious earnestness; have never applied their minds to the gospel; have never searched the contents of the Revelation. They rashly conclude, indeed, that what they do not themselves perceive and feel, no one else perceives and feels; that what they have never experienced, is not necessary, not important, not reasonable. And yet what proof is this that other men, with another preparation of mind, and other previous tastes, and a different way of going about things, may not discover that inward excellency, and feel those sacred comforts which these men contemn? If there be a book of God, we may well suppose that the distinguishing glories of its discoveries would be of such a kind as that the corruption and self-confidence of the human heart would be incapable of perceiving them.28 "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can

28 J. Edwards,—to whom this Lecture is throughout greatly indebted.

he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." There must be the faculty, as well as the object. The natural man must be taught to renounce his false wisdom, his alienation from God, his pride, and self-consequence, and he must enter the kingdom of heaven as a little child, or he never will receive those distinguishing truths, nor feel those peculiar blessings, which are spiritually discerned. The conclusions of such a person against the experience of religion, are like the conclusions of a blind man-against the beauties of the heavens, or the glories of the rainbow; they are prejudices, not reasons; and they leave our grand position in all its incontrovertible force, that there is an inward testimony to Christianity, which is supported by the authority of sacred Scripture, confirmed by innumerable witnesses, and lying open to the examination of every humble student; by which the excellency and force of the Christian doctrine may be known from its holy consolations in the heart, in addition to the conviction produced by mere arguments, or the dictates of natural conscience.

But we pass on to consider,

IV. THE SINGULAR IMPORTANCE OF THE PROOF THUS EDUCED.

1. It is the only proof that is ENTIRELY LEVEL to the vast mass of mankind. The other proofs, indeed, are, in a certain degree, level to the common sense of man. The case made out from the miracles, the prophecies, &c. is such as strikes, upon the whole, the conscience. But then it is impossible for the great body of persons to understand fully and adequately the grounds on which the case rests. They take the facts, as it is quite reasonable they should take them, and as they take the facts in medicine, jurisprudence, public statutes, &c. upon what they are told is the

29 1 Cor. xi. 14.