SERMON X.

HEBREWS II. 12.

TAKE HEED, BRETHREN, LEST THERE BE IN ANY OF YOU AN EVIL HEART OF UNBELIEF.

and that it is false,

BETWEEN the two propositions, that the gospel is true, between the belief that it is the revelation of God, and the opinion that it is the work of men, the chasm is so vast that it is impossible there should not be some great difference in the minds or in the hearts of those men who, with similar advantages and means, can form different conclusions upon the subject. The question with respect to religion amounts, in fact, to this: Is there, or is there not, any satisfactory assurance that this life is not the termination of man's existence ? Are all the hopes, the fears, and the anticipations of mankind, that there is an eternity to come, merely uncertain and delusive suggestions?

The inquiry, whether the gospel be true, involves in it the question, whether God, who has given us our mental powers, our moral sense, and our anticipations of another life, has ever interposed for the salvation of this part of his creation; or whether man has always been left, upon a subject of such importance, to the weakness of his own unassisted reason, and the corruption of his actual condition. It involves the question, whether the Jewish history, at

present the most authentic in the world, is a mere fable, and, especially, whether that wonderful event of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which so many great and good men have sacrificed their lives to authenticate, is a gross delusion and imposition. In short, by the admission or rejection of Christianity, the aspect of the world is changed. If this source of hopes, fears, comforts, restraints, reasonings, and meditations, is blotted out of the human mind, its whole character must be changed.

Undoubtedly, in a fair and uncorrupted mind the bias would be altogether in favor of religion; for it makes of man a creature so much superior to what he would be without it, it raises him so much nearer heaven, and opens to him such sublime and exhilarating views with respect to God, to himself, and to society, that we should think the world would press to receive it, and that without it man would consider himself but half enlightened. Alas! it is Thousands are busy in chasing from their minds every suggestion in its favor, and stopping their ears, lest the news of the gospel of peace should gain access to their hearts.

not so.

The object of this discourse will be to explain the sources of unbelief. I fear we shall find, that, in the language of the Apostle, "If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost."

In the first place, I do not hesitate to say, that the least dishonorable source of infidelity is ignorance. Many think that to differ from the vulgar is to be superior to them; and that it is a proof of having thought deeply, to be able to start objections to the most common truths. But, of all the proofs of human weakness, I know none greater than that indolence of mind, which shows itself in the disposi

tion which is satisfied with proposing difficulties, instead of searching for truths. The truth of the gospel is a fact of which, at first, it required only the exercise of the senses, to satisfy one's self. Of course, there was no need of learning, to be a well informed Christian. But now, at this distance of time, it has become a work of superior knowledge and fairness, to understand and illustrate its true foundation, and a very superficial employment, to suggest objections, because time has already furnished them to our hands. It is no longer a test of superior sagacity, to doubt the truth of a religion which the most gifted minds have believed, relying upon great and various and impregnable proofs; though few of those, who receive it, have ever examined the whole grounds of their faith, or felt the most serious objections.

It may be remarked, without danger of contradiction, that, of those who reject the gospel, the majority are extremely ignorant of Scripture, and in this branch of necessary knowledge are very much inferior to many Christians, whom they venture to despise. Their reading has been in a different direction. Hence, all they know of the Old and New Testament is, perhaps, that there are passages in them, which are strange or unintelligible; and thus they venture to decide upon this most grand and solemn question, often without having read, much more having studied, the book which reveals the destination of the human race. I may venture yet further to assert that few of those, who reject Christianity, possess much of the knowledge which is necessary to a thorough understanding of the Scriptures. They do not consider how unreasonable it is, to expect that books written, as many of those of the Bible were, more than two thousand years ago, and in a dead

language, should be as intelligible as the books which appear every day, in their vernacular tongue. They do not consider that it would have required a perpetual miracle, to preserve the meaning, in every place, from obscurity, the text from corruption, or the pen of every translator from mistakes. In consequence of this ignorance and narrowness of mind, they are disgusted with everything which they cannot, at once, reconcile with modern opinions, language, and manners; they are overthrown by every difficulty, and find only arguments for infidelity in everything which they do not understand. They are men of business, perhaps, and have not the previous information necessary to understand their Bibles; they are men of wit, and think that everything, which is not sparkling or ingenious, is dull; they are men in office, and have no time to think deeply of these subjects, which, they are inclined to believe, are, at least, of doubtful importance; or they are men of fashion, and do not find that religion is ever thought of in polite circles. Thus they live with the reputation of superior wisdom, because they are really ignorant of what they venture to despise, alive only to objections, and only insensible to proofs.

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But it must, in the second place, be impartially granted, that another source of infidelity is found in the misrepresentations which have been made of the Christian doctrine. Subjects of doubtful disputation have been exalted into articles of Christian faith, and men have been required to believe, not merely that God has given us a revelation, but also just such a revelation as men, in language unauthorized by Scripture, have chosen to frame. One man, travelling through countries which are called Christian, meets, at every step, the mummery of unmeaning ceremo

nies, the superstition of an enslaved people and hypocritical priests, and he forgets that all this may not be Christianity. Another, of a serious and candid mind, is, perhaps, thrown into the vortex of fanaticism. He finds Christianity is made to consist in agitations of the passions, and is explained in a mysterious dialect, which to him is utterly unintelligible. He sees the effect of this mechanical excitement, for which he cannot account; he sees the influence of religious sympathy upon the minds of thousands, and he falls into this snare, that reason can have little to do with a system which encourages such follies, and that it was originally altogether the delusion of weak and wicked minds.

How few, my friends, of those who believe in Christianity, have taken their religion from the New Testament! They have received all their ideas on this most interesting subject from their nurses, their catechisms, or their preachers; and, when they have found that some of the doctrines, which they had received for Christianity, were irreconcilably opposed to the subsequent discoveries of their minds, instead of informing themselves of the real doctrines of Scripture, they have rejected the whole, as unintelligible, or absurd.

It must be allowed, also, that some men have insensibly slid into infidelity by attempts to simplify the system of Christianity. They have concluded that what was so very reasonable and intelligible could not be a subject of special revelation, and thus have they brought themselves to a refined species of deism, in which there is left nothing super'natural, nothing peculiarly proper for miraculous interposition. But they have soon found that the difficulties in mere natural religion, without that humility which is the