velation rarely, if ever, proceeds to this length; and yet, until he has done so, it is certain that he has not given the grand question, which he takes upon himself to determine, the consideration which it deserves, and which it is fairly, in strict reasoning, capable of receiving. The object aimed at in the ensuing pages is, to expose the fallacy involved in this mode of argument. In so short a work, an attempt to give a general and connected view of the internal evidences of our faith must necessarily confine itself to the discussion of the more general and prominent topics. It will, however, answer its purpose if, by affording to the reader a comprehensive sketch of the main outline, it induces him to fill up the detail by pursuing that train of thought which the contemplation of so interesting a subject cannot fail to suggest. Even the most firmly grounded faith, in this life, being established rather upon a balance between conflicting difficulties than upon positive demonstration, it follows, that the wider we make our intellectual range, in examining the general system of Providence, the more we become familiarized with those astounding facts which form the basis of every possible theological theory, and the less we are in consequence disposed to be offended with what we find to be rather the result of an incurable defect in our own intellectual apprehensions than a substantial refutation of our religious creed. It is thus that in proportion as we advance in practical knowledge, the more we perceive the wisdom of that submission of the understanding in certain cases, the idea of which is so offensive to every beginner in the study of theology, but of which no person who, by laborious experience, has learned the necessity of walking by faith, will be ashamed to make his profession. Certain, at all events, it is, that the denial of Christianity affords no escape whatever from most of the difficulties with which, in the hasty judgment of mankind, it stands almost exclusively charged. To every mind endued with the vital feeling of religion, sufficient evidence has been afforded by the mercy of the Creator for every purpose of effective moral probation, however inadequate it may be for the gratification of mere curiosity: but the insatiable spirit of scepticism, if it will pursue its course rigorously and consistently to the last, has in strictness no assignable resting place or limit short of the hopeless extreme of Atheism itself. CONTENTS. The sentiments of Religion natural to the human heart- The Natural Reason unequal to the Investigation of re- mote Religious Truth-A Revelation is therefore neces- sary-The authenticity of any presumed Revelation to be determined upon according to external and internal Evidence-Christianity the only system of Religious Page |