For we hesitate not to assert, that the internal perception of the blessings of Revelation, is the most satisfactory of all reasons to the mind of the sincere believer, and is capable of being so certified by numerous and undoubted testimonies to others, as to invite them to make a similar experiment, and seek for and obtain the like conviction.

To this division of our subject we approach as by far the most important, practically speaking, of all that we have treated, because it brings us directly to the END of the Revelation, the salvation of our souls.

And may it please God by his Holy Spirit so to assist us in opening this great topic, that it may conduce to the glory of his holy name and the establishment of our faith in the divine authority of his gospel!

Let us then in the present Lecture state THE NATURE of this argument-ITS AUTHORITY from holy Scripture-THE FACTS by which it is sustained, and the SINGULAR IMPORTANCE of the proof educed. In the following Lecture, we shall proceed to offer some DIRECTIONS to those who are desirous of entering upon the inquiry.

I. We first consider the NATURE OF THE ARGUMENT. I address the young, the uninformed, the inquiring, the serious; and I say that as Christianity is in so many parts of it a practical thing-a remedy to be applied to our moral maladies-of course it is capable, in these respects, of being known, just as any other practical matter may be known.

For what is Christianity? Is it a revelation of abstract truths? Is it a theorem of mathematical science? Is it a discovery in any of the branches of metaphysics? If it were, there could then, indeed, be no internal test of its benefits. But Christianity is none of these things. Nor is it a mere system of

speculative opinions about religion, like those of the different sects of philosophers. If it were, it would then also admit of no practical experiment-we might grow old, as they did, in disputation; and at last lie down to die in uncertainty.

Nor, again, is it merely a pure code of morality, with certain doctrines attached to it. In this case likewise, an appeal to an inward observation of its excellency in the heart might be out of the question. The morality might be common, or nearly so, to many who reject, as well as to those who receive, the religion. Accordingly, those who consider Christianity as chiefly a code of morals, overlook or despise this argument from experience.

Or, again, if the effects of Christianity were to take place exclusively in a future state, and did not touch on any of the intervening circumstances of man, we could not, in this life, have that personal conviction of which we are about to treat.

But if Christianity be, as it is, an actual deliverance of man from the greatest moral evils-if it be a deliverance from ignorance, the slavery of sin, the bondage of disordered appetite, the alienation of the heart from God, the guilt and terror of an accusing conscience, and the fearful apprehensions of death and eternal judgment-if Christianity illuminate the understanding, renew the affections, bestow the joy of pardon and acceptance with God, enkindle an ardent desire after holiness, and raise up the soul to the love of Christ-if Christianity inspire a delight in spiritual things, a superiority to this world, an anticipation of the glories of another-if, further, Christianity reveal a divine Saviour and a sanctifying Spirit as the objects of trust, reliance, expectation-if, as a consequence of all this, Christianity carry on its front a promise of grace of the Holy Spirit to them that sue for it— if it declare that God will hear the prayers and satisfy the desires of them that seek him-if it promise to

the

calm the conscience, to sustain the heart under affliction, to strengthen with internal might the fainting spirit, and heal all the diseases and sicknesses of the soul;-if all this, and much more, be actually promised by Christianity, then of course something of it will be known and observed in our own hearts, in proportion as we obey the gospel-then something of this divine glory and efficacy of truth will be perceived and felt, not surely by those who do not, but by those who do, make a trial for themselves, and bring to the test of experience this part of the pretensions of Revelation.

And an argument drawn from such experience is by no means in contradiction to the external or internal proofs of Christianity, but in addition to them; something which goes further; something which confirms them; something of a different and much higher kind, increasing the persuasion of the truth to those who are in possession of other arguments, and supplying their place to those who are not. The evidences of Christianity are one thing; the experience and trial of its blessings are another. Nothing, indeed, but the extraordinary perversion of human nature could make this matter at all questionable.

How do men act in other practical cases? A celebrated preservative against poisons, Mithridate, is still in use. It is said to have taken its name from its inventor, the king of Pontus, whose history is known in the records of ancient Rome. The medicine is common in many parts of the civilized world. The receipt is said to have been found in the cabinet of Mithridates, written with his own hand, and to have been carried to Rome by Pompey. It was translated into verse by a famous physician, named Damocrates, and hence called Confectio Damocratis; and was afterwards

1 He died about sixty-four years before the Christian æra.

translated by Galen, from whom it has come down to our days.3

Now it is clearly one thing for a critic to arrange the external and internal evidences of this preparation, to vindicate the claims of its inventor, to trace its transmission from one age to another, to discuss the various elements of which it is composed, (it consists of a great variety of drugs,) and to reply to the objections which might be raised upon all these points: and it is quite another thing for a sick person to make a trial himself of its efficacy, by applying it as a remedy in his own case.

Such is the difference between the external evidences of Christianity, and the actual trial of its virtues, to which I am now inviting the sincere inquirer.

Or, to take another example, about two centuries since, the Jesuits in Peru are said to have cured the Countess del Cinchon, the lady of a Spanish Viceroy, of a dangerous fever, by means of the medicinal preparation now known by the name of Peruvian bark, the use of which had long been familiar to the inhabitants of the American continent. This first brought the celebrated medicine (cinchona is the technical name) into reputation. A Jesuit, in the year 1649, imported a considerable quantity of it into Italy, which was distributed by the fathers of that order. Its fame spread. It long remained a lucrative article of commerce to the Jesuits. It encountered considerable opposition at first from the regular practitioners of medicine. It conquered all resistance. Its use has extended and its reputation has been increasing to the present day; so that it is now univer

2 Who died about A. D. 201.

3 Chambers in A. Fuller; Rees; the Pantalogia in voce Mithridatium.

sally esteemed as one of the most safe and powerful remedies in various classes of diseases.*

Now a modern reasoner might take it into his head to object to the authenticity of this origin of the medicine; he might allege that the preparation, as it is vended in Europe, had passed through so many hands before it reached his, and that there was so much uncertainty about it, that no dependance could be placed upon it, and that it had better be rejected altogether from the list of remedies. But of what account would such objections be in the estimation of him who could reply, "I have tried the bark, I have found it to be effectual, and that under a disease which threatened my life, and when all other means failed. I know nothing of the historical objections, nor the answers to them; this I know, I was near to death-I took the medicine-it restored me to health and comfort."

Such is the nature of the argument, so far as any illustrations can explain it; for the historical evidences of Christianity, the miraculous attestations to it, its supernatural propagation, and internal excellency, are inconceivably superior to any thing that can occur as to the tradition of human medicines. In like manner, then, we appeal to facts and experience in the case before us. We assert that Christianity is the medicine of the mind; we assert that the disease for which it is a specific is sin and its consequences, spiritual death; we assert that the effects of this divine remedy are the recovery of spiritual health, pardon, and holiness; we assert that the validity of these effects is established by universal experience; we assert that this is a test to which every one may bring the truth of this part of the revealed doctrine; we assert that this inward witness, while it is an indirect evidence to others, is a most positive and conclusive one to the Christian's own heart, an evidence which supersedes

4 Rees, and Pantalogia-sub voc. Cinchona.