might argue with a keenness and a shrewdness which left me quite overmatched. There might be an ingenuity in his historic doubts with regard to the existence of the physician; and there might be an apparent science in his analysis of the medicine, and his exposure of its worthlessness; and I, on my part, might be quite unable to meet him on his own ground, to show the fault and the falsehood of his reasoning. But you can never suppose that my incapacity to refute argument would lead me to the giving up a matter of fact. I should just be in the case of the man in the Gospel, to whom Christ had given sight, and whom the Pharisees plied with doubts, derived from the presumed sinfulness of the Savior, in regard to the possibility of the miracle. I should answer with this man, only varying the language, so that it might square with the form of objection: Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not; one thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see. And precisely, in like manner, a believer, with no other resources at his disposal, can throw himself unhesitatingly on his own experience; and this, rendering christianity to him all matter of fact, makes him proof against the subtleties of the most insidious infidelity. So that we require of you to learn from the subject under review, that God hath woven into true religion all the elements of a successful resistance to cavil and objection, leaving not the very poorest, and the most illiterate of his people open to the inroad of the enemies of christianity; but causing that there rise up from their own experience such ramparts of strength, that if they have no artillery with which to battle at the adversary, there is at least no risk of their own citadel being stormed.

And though we have not time to follow out at greater length the train of thought which this portion of our subject originates, we commend to your attention, as worthy of being most carefully pondered over, the provision which is made in experience against infidelity. We may have been accustomed to regard the evidences of christianity as lying out of reach of the poor and the illiterate; and we may have looked with a peculiar dread on the descend

ings of the agents of scepticism to the lower and less equipped ranks of society. And beyond all question, if you just take the uneducated mass of our population, there is a far greater risk than with the well educated, that the diffusion amongst them of infidel publications will issue in the warping them from the faith of their fathers. There may be something like stamina of resistance in the higher and the middling classes; for if indifferent to religion, they may be idolaters of reason, and they will therefore require something better than worn-out and flimsy objections before they throw away as false, what has been handed down to them as true. But when infidelity goes down, so to speak, to the inferior and less cultivated soils, there is certainly a fearful probability that it may scatter, unmolested, the seeds of a dark harvest of apostacy; and that men who have no reason to give why they are even nominally christians, will be wrought upon by the most empty and common-place arguments, to put from them christianity as a scheme of falsehood and priestcraft.

We are thoroughly alive to this danger; and we think it not to be disputed, that the incapacity of the lower classes to meet infidelity on any fair terms exposes them, in a more ordinary degree, to the risk of being prevailed on to exchange nominal religion for no religion at all. But this, we would have you observe, is the sum total of the risk. We have no fears for any thing, excepting nominal christianity. And though we count that the giving up even of nominal christianity would just be equivalent to the overspreading a country with ferocity and barbarism, there being none of the charities of life in the train of infidelity-yet we think it a cause of mighty gratulation, that real christianity has so much of the vis inertie in its nature, that we are quit of all dread of its being borne down even in a wide-spread apostacy. Is it not a beautiful truth, that the well equipped agents of infidelity might go successively to the library of the pious theologian, and the hovel of the pious laborer, and make not one jot more impression on the uninstructed subject of godliness, than on the deep-read mas ter of all the evidences of our faith?

Oh, we take it for an exquisite proof of the carefulness of God over his people, that the poor cottager, in the midst of his ignorance of all that external witness which we are wont to appeal to as gloriously conclusive on the claims of christianity, is not to be overcome by the most subtle or the fiercest assault; but that whilst men of a higher education will lay empires and centuries under a rigid contribution, and sweep in auxiliaries from the disclosures of science, and walk with a dominant step the firmament, gathering conviction from the rich assembling of stars; this child of poverty, but at the same time of grace, shall throw himself upon himself; and turning experience into evidence, be inaccessible to the best concerted attack; and make answer, without flinching, to every cavil and every objection, I know whom I have believed. His faith, whatsoever it be at first, becomes soon a faith built upon knowledge; and then, if not skilful enough to show his adversary wrong, he is too much his own witness to give harborage to a fear that he himself is not right.

But enough on the first fact which we proposed to investigate, the fact that a believer obtains a knowledge of Christ. The second fact is almost involved in the first,—so that the slightest reference to truth already made out, will show you THAT THE KNOWLEDGE THUS OBTAINED IS SUCH AS TO GE

NERATE CONFIDENCE.

You observe that, in the case of St. Paul, knowledge was accompanied by a most thorough persuasion, that Christ was able to keep safe the deposit which he had given into his guardianship. We infer, therefore, that the knowledge, since it produced this persuasion, must have been knowledge of Christ as possessing those attributes which insured the security of whatsoever might be intrusted to his custody. And this is precisely what we have proved to hold good in regard generally to believers. The knowledge which their experience furnishes of Christ is knowledge of his power, of his faithfulness, of his love. So far as they have yet made trial of Christ, they can apply to themselves the words of Joshua to Israel, Not one thing hath failed of all the good things

which the Lord your God spake concerning you. And certainly, if the result of every experiment is a new witness to the joint ability and willingness of the Mediator to succor and preserve his people, you cannot well avoid the conclusion, that knowledge must produce confidence; in other words, that the more a believer knows of Christ, the more persuaded will he be of his worthiness to be intrusted with all the interests of man. If our knowledge of Christ prove to us that, up to the present moment, Christ hath done for us all that he hath promised, it is clear that this knowledge must be a groundwork for confidence, that what remains unfulfilled will be accomplished with an equal fidelity. Already has the believer committed every thing to Christ. Faith-saving faith-whatever other definitions may be framed-is best described as that act of the soul by which the whole man is given over to the guardianship of the Mediator. He who thus resigns himself to Jesus avouches two things; first, his belief that he needs a protector; secondly, his belief that Christ is just that protector which his necessities require. And though you may resolve saving faith into more numerous elements, you will find that these two are not only the chief, but that they include all others out of which it is constituted; so that he who believes in Christ, gives himself up to the keeping of Christ. And forasmuch as experience proves to him, that heretofore he has been safe in this custody, assuredly the acquired knowledge must go to the working in him a persuasion that hereafter he shall be kept in an equal security.

We thus trace the connection between the knowledge of the first, and the persuasion of the second part of our text. We show you, that a believer will gather from his own experience of Christ the material of confidence in Christ's ability to preserve all that is committed to his keeping. Experience being his evidence that Christ hath never yet failed him, is also his earnest that the future comes charged with nothing but the accomplishment of promise. And therefore is he confident. Oh, if I deceive not myself,-if I have actually been enabled, through the aid of God's Spirit, to fasten my faith up

on Him who died for me, and rose, and lives to intercede,-why should I not stay myself on this persuasion of St. Paul, that Christ is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day? Soul and body-the believer commits both to the Mediator. The soul-she must be detached from the tabernacle of flesh, and go forth alone on an unexplored pathway. Who shall tell us the awfulness of being suddenly launched into infinity? Who shall conceive the prodigies of that moment, when, shaking itself free from the trammels of the body, the spirit struggles forth, solitary and naked, and must make its way across unknown tracts into the burning presence of an unseen God? Terrible dissolution! Who ever saw a fellow-man die without being almost staggered at the thought of that mighty journey upon which the unclothed soul had just been compelled to enter? But shall the believer in Christ Jesus be appalled? Does he not know Christ as having ransomed the souls of his people, washed them in his blood, and covered them with his righteousness? Has he not found a witness in himself, that precious is his soul in the sight of the Redeemer? What then? Shall he be otherwise than persuaded that Christ will watch over the soul at the instant of separation from the body; and putting forth that authority which has been given him in heaven and earth, send a legion of bright angels to convey the spirit, and lead it to himself? Then safely lodged in Paradise, the soul shall await reunion with the body, unspeakably, though not yet completely blessed. To all this is Christ Jesus pledged; and knowing from his own experience that Jesus makes no pledge which he does not redeem, the believer commits his soul to Christ, persuaded that he is able to keep that which he hath committed unto him against that day. The body -it must be spoiled of life, and bound up for burial, and left to corruption. It is a mysterious destiny, that of this frame-work of matter. Its atoms may be scattered to the four winds of heaven. They may go down to the caverns of the great deep,-they may enter into the construction of other bodies. And certainly, unless there be brought to the agency a power every

way infinite, it might well be regarded as an absurd expectation that the dissevered particles should again come together, and that the identical body, with all its organs and all its limbs, which is broken up piecemeal by the blow of death, should be re-formed and re-moulded, the same in every thing, except in the being incorruptible and imperishable. But the believer knows that there is a distinct and solemn promise of Christ which has respect to the bodies of his people. I will raise him up at the last day, is the repeated assurance in regard to the man who believes upon his name,-so that the Redeemer is as deeply pledged to be the guardian of a believer's dust, as of a believer's soul. He ransomed matter as well as spirit; and descending himself into the sepulchre, scattered the seeds of a new subsistence, which, germinating on the morning of the judgment, shall cover the globe with the vast harvest of its buried population. And, therefore, the believer can be confident. Overwhelming in its greatness as the achievement is, it surpasses not the energies of the Agent unto whom it is ascribed. Christ raised himself-an unspeakably mightier exploit than raising me. Can I not then take share in the persuasion of St. Paul? Let darkness be woven for my shroud, and the grave be hollowed for my bed, and the worm be given for my companion-with thee, O Christ, I intrust this body. I know whom I have believed. The winds may disperse, the waters may ingulf, and the fires may rarify the atoms which made up this frame; but I know that my Redeemer liveth, and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. Thus, body as well as soul, the believer commits himself wholly to Christ,-and experience witnessing to Christ's power and Christ's faithful ness, he can exclaim with the apostle, I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. That day-we need not tell the believer what day. His thoughts and his hopes are on the second advent of his Lord; and though no day has been specified, yet speak of that day, and the allusion is distinctly understood; the mind springs forward to meet the descending pomp of the Judge,

and that august period is anticipated, when, vindicating before the universe the fidelity of his guardianship, Christ shall consign his followers to glory and blessedness; and, apportioning noble allotments to both body and soul, prove that nothing has been lost of that unmeasured deposit, which, from Adam downwards to the last elect, has accumulated in his keeping.

Oh, that we all had the persuasion of St. Paul! rather-oh, that we all, like the apostle, would resign ourselves to Christ. Able to save to the uttermost, Lord, to whom shall we go; thou hast the words of eternal life. Thou who hast abolished death, upon whom else shall we suspend our immortality? Thou who hast spoiled principalities

and powers, whom else shall we take as our champion? whom else confide in as our protector? May God, by his Spirit, lead you all to the one Mediator between God and men,—the man Christ Jesus: and may we all be enabled so completely to resign ourselves into the hands of Christ, that we may look forward without dread to the hour of our departure; assured that those black and cold waters which roll in upon the dying shall sweep nothing away out of the watchfulness of our guardian; but just bearing us within the sphere of his peculiar inspections, give us up to his care as children of the resurrection, as heirs of that inheritance which is incorruptible and undefiled.