think his feelings unreasonable and exaggerated; he knows them to be rational and even inadequate. This is not the result of any hallucination or mistaken apprehensions of God or of his own character. It is the natural effect of an enlightened mind and of an awakened conscience. The ease and frequency with which the indifference of men to their guilt in the sight of God, is destroyed, is of itself a proof that their insensibility is not based upon truth; that it is the effect of a darkened understanding and a hardened heart, and that though it may increase as sin gains the ascendency, it vanishes the moment the light and power of truth are let in upon the soul.

Besides this general cause of the indifference of men to the declarations of God regarding their sinfulness, there are others which ought to be specified. When the prophet contemplated the impenitent unconcern of the people, he exclaimed, Israel doth not know, my people do not consider. And when God would rouse them to a sense of their guilt, he says, Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. It is this want of consideration, more than any difficulty in arriving at the truth, which sets men in such opposition to God in their judgments of themselves, and which hardens them in their indifference. This inconsideration indeed is but an effect of the more general

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cause already referred to, but it becomes in its turn a cause both of ignorance and unconcern. Men learn little upon any subject by intuition, and the knowledge of their own hearts is not to be obtained without painful self-examination. This self-knowledge is the subject to which men generally devote the least attention. They are engrossed by the cares or pleasures of the world. quietly down the stream of life, or are hurried along its troubled course, with scarcely an hour given to serious reflection. That under such circumstances men should be ignorant of themselves and indifferent to their character in the sight of God, is not only natural but unavoidable. It is however a lamentable thing that they should make a judgment of themselves formed without consideration, the ground of their conduct, and confide in it in opposition to the judgment of God. If they will judge, let them at least consider. If they will act on their own conclusions respecting themselves, let them at least examine and decide deliberately, and not venture every thing on a hasty, unconsidered estimate of their character, which, it may be, could not stand, even in their own judgment, a moment's inspection.

Men, however, are not merely inconsiderate, they often make direct efforts to suppress the rising conviction of guilt and danger. The testimony of God

against them is so plain; the authority of his law is so obvious; their want of conformity to it is so glaring, and the influences of the Spirit are so general and frequent, that the conviction of sin can hardly fail to obtrude itself even upon those who in general are the most unconcerned. It is, however, a painful conviction, and therefore, instead of being cherished, it is disregarded or suppressed. The mind refuses to dwell upon the subject, or to examine the evidence of guilt, but either turns to other objects, or, by some act of levity or transgression, grieves away the Spirit of God and hardens itself in unconcern. This is a frequently recurring experience in the history of most men. They have more anxious thoughts than they allow their most intimate friends to suspect; they often mask an aching heart with a smiling face. They have a quick foresight of what such feelings must lead to, if cherished. They see, at once, that they cannot cultivate such sentiments, and live as they have been accustomed to do. There are pleasures, and

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may be sins, which must be abandoned. There are companions who must be avoided. There is the opposition of friends, the ridicule of associates, the loss of rank, to be encountered. All the hor rors of a religious life present themselves to the imagination, and frighten the half awakened from considering their ways, which they know to be

but the first step in what appears a long and painful journey. They therefore struggle against their convictions, and in general master them. This struggle is sometimes short; at others, it is protracted and painful. Victory however comes at last, and the soul regains its wonted unconcern. Such persons little know what they are doing. They little suspect that they are struggling to elude the grasp of mercy; that they are striving against the Spirit of God, who would draw them from the paths of destruction, and guide them into the way of life.

SECTION II. Sophistical objections against the doctrine of the Bible.

Another cause of the indifference of men may be found in the objections which they urge against the truth. Such objections indeed are more frequently and effectually urged to perplex the advocates of religion, than to quiet the uneasiness of conscience. Still men endeavour to impose upon themselves as well as to embarrass others. And the objections referred to, doubtless are often obstacles in the way of the inquirer; or opiates to the consciences of those who desire to be deceived. It is objected that we are what God made us; that our character is determined either by our original

constitution, or by the circumstances in which we are placed, and therefore we cannot be responsible for it; that inasmuch as neither our belief nor our affections are under the control of the will, we cannot be accountable for either; that it is useless to use means to escape the judgment of God, since what is to be, will be; that we must wait till God sees fit to change our hearts, since it is declared in Scripture to be his work.

It will be observed that these and similar objections relate to the reconciliation of different truths, and not to their separate validity or evidence. The proposition that men are responsible for their moral character, taken by itself, is so capable of demonstration, that all men do in fact believe it. Every man feels it to be true with regard to himself, and knows it to be true with regard to others. All selfcondemnation and self-approbation rest on the consciousness of this truth. All our judgments regarding the moral conduct of others are founded on the same assumption. It is, therefore, one of those truths which is included in the universal consciousness of men, and has in all ages and nations been assumed as certain. Men cannot really doubt it, if they would. On the other hand, it is no less certain that our character does depend in a measure upon circumstances beyond our control; upon our original constitution, upon education, upon prevalent