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a liberal education peculiarly gives access; and the knowledge of which, becoming to all, is especially necessary for those, who, as ministers of religion, have not only to preach the glad tidings of salvation to willing hearers, but to answer the cavils of the objector, and to remove the difficulties of the weak, it is most fitting that in a place of education such as this, a due knowledge of the historical and critical evidences of our faith should be made a principal means of building up that sincere and reasonable conviction of the truth of religion, which we justly consider the most essential object and valuable fruit of such an education.

But, as it is not my intention to enter upon the details of this branch of study, so neither do I propose to dwell upon its advantages; but rather to point out some respects in which it is deficient, and to urge the importance of associating with it other grounds of religious belief, and other incitements to religious feeling.

For we must not imagine, that conviction, resting solely upon these grounds, is all that is desirable for Christian faith; or allow ourselves to overlook other evidence, less scientific perhaps and technical, but not less practically useful: less capable of commanding the assent of the learned, but frequently speaking with more force to the simple mind: less imperative in subduing to itself the reasoning powers, but nevertheless often more

instrumental and efficacious in the practical conversion of the heart.

For looking first at the historical and critical evidences as applied to work conviction, or establish faith in the minds of others, we may remark, that they are capable of being usefully so employed, I do not say only among the learned, but at least only among those whose understandings are so far cultivated, as to be able to comprehend and appreciate such reasoning. And there are few congregations in which the mass of the hearers are of this class.

Again; regarding them as studied by ourselves, and those who like ourselves have the advantages of liberal education, we should not forget that this class of evidence is addressed solely to the understanding, and that the understanding may be convinced without the heart being reached. A man may have it satisfactorily proved to him that revelation is from God. He may admit the proof-he may have nothing to say against it-he may be, as it were, convinced of it; and still he may have no lively belief in it: he may not feel its truth really and indeed in the deep recesses of his heart. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness *.For that belief is alone unto righteousness, which is a practical efficient faith: and in order to action,

Rom. x. 10.

it is necessary that the will be determined, as well as the reason convinced. And in many cases, though the intellect may be made to give assent, the heart may yet rise in proud rebellion against the truth. As a sinner may be convinced of sin without being converted from it; so may he be convinced of righteousness without therefore embracing it with that hearty belief, to which alone the promises of the Gospel are made.

Of such a one it is well said somewhere, "you will not persuade him, though you should convince him:" and the truth of this is what is implied in the parable of Dives and Lazarus, where it is intimated, that, when the heart is corrupted and hardened against the truth, evidence may be accumulated to any amount in vain-In vain, I mean, as far as practical effect is concerned: for observe that our Lord in that passage is not speaking of mere conviction of the intellect, but of submission of the heart. "If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." He does not say, that they would not believe that he rose from the dead, or that they would doubt that this was done by the power of God; but that they would not thereby be persuaded to repent *.

There is perhaps an especial danger of this disconnection of the assent of the understanding from the submission of the heart, where the evidences of our religion are necessarily studied, as a matter of science, by all, whether their inclination, taste, or sense of duty lead them to seek this knowledge or not. Religious instruction is in this place wisely made an essential element of general education. And as the principle, on which this system is framed, is a high sense of the supreme importance of religious truth, so we conscientiously believe that its practical results are such, as to justify our attachment to it. But as there is no general rule unattended by some evil; so in this case, where religious instruction is given to all, it follows necessarily, that religious knowledge must be acquired by many who are little disposed to make that knowledge operative for its legitimate ends. And as the abuse of all advantages is both a sin and a danger-as that, which is the savour of life, may be made the savour of death, so, doubtless, a cold and careless familiarity with the doctrines and evidences of our faith tends as much to harden the heart, as a serious and reverential study of them does to purify and subdue it.

3 " Non persuadebis etiamsi persuaseris."

4 Luke xvi. 33.

This is a danger, the reality of which I would earnestly desire to exhibit to those, who may perhaps be thoughtlessly running into it-not from intentional profaneness, but from the carelessness natural to youth--looking to religious knowledge with reference solely to other purposes, than those which alone give it its high import, and deadening themselves to the force even of its future impressions, by disconnecting it at present from its proper effects. No one is so little likely hereafter to be awakened to a sense of religion, as the man who in youth has combined a knowledge of the doctrines and evidences of our faith with habitual carelessness of life, or, it may be, with voluntary and continued indulgence in sin. And indeed further than this-when religious knowledge is necessarily communicated indiscriminately to all, by the same instructors, in a similar manner, and acquired partly with a view to the same immediate object as other matters of mere human learning, there is with all a danger, against which it is necessary that they should be much on their guard, a danger of a tendency to receive it on the same footing as other mere knowledge-to lodge it in the memory-to practise the understanding in its use, but not to apply it efficaciously to the conscience, not to employ it for the purification of the heart.

I am speaking before those, some of whom, I can hardly doubt, must be conscious, that the case I am describing is theirs. And if this be so, I would entreat them to endeavour to bear in mind, that there is no doctrine of our religion, of which the practical effect is not infinitely more important, than the speculative truth.

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