fellow-christians, whose approbation, next to that of his Divine Master, he is solicitous to obtain, he shall be thought to have at all succeeded even in his limited object, and so to have done any effectual service to the cause of TRUTH. There are two things which the Title presupposes, or considers as assumed, -the existence of God, and the authority of the Scriptures as a revelation from Him. The former evidently lies at the foundation of all religious principle,of all moral obligation. Deny a God, and you annihilate both. Creatures, indeed, (if we may speak of creatures, when we are supposing no Creator,) finding themselves in possession of existence, whencesoever they may have received it, and experiencing association to be in a high degree conducive to their mutual benefit, might consult and come to agreement respecting the rules by which their reciprocal conduct should be regulated- - and, having so agreed, they might be said to have come under obligation to one another for the observance of these rules. But there could neither be any will or authority superior to their own, nor any previous source or principle of obligation, by which they could be at all bound in framing the laws of their intercourse. The obligation, such as it is, would be entirely self-originated and self-imposed. And, as to personal obligation, independent of the social compact, it is manifest there could be nothing of the kind. No individual could be bound to - act in one way rather than in another. There could be no law but his own will, choosing and determining according as circumstances might dictate what was most for his own interest, or his own enjoyment.—I have no argument, then, in the following disquisitions, with the atheist. But neither, strictly speaking, have I any argument with the infidel. In assuming the authority of revelation, I occupy no common ground with him who denies it. It is to the believers of its authority,-it is to fellow-christians, that I make my appeal; and especially to those amongst them, to whom Divine providence has assigned situations of influence, in disciplining the minds, nurturing and maturing the principles, and forming the personal or official characters, of the rising youth. I dare hardly avow my heart's wish, lest the avowal should be interpreted into a presumptuous expectation of contributing to its fulfilment-that the science of our land were more generally and decidedly "baptized into Christ." Would it were so ! Would that Christians were more on the alert in looking to their principles !--more sensitively alive to the danger arising from the intrusion of an insidious philosophy, in adulterating the purity, obscuring the simplicity, lowering the tone, and paralyzing the authority, of the truths of God!-When I say, however, that I have no argument with the infidel, let me not be misunderstood. I mean not, that there is nothing in the following pages bearing any relation to the controversy between him and the believer. On the contrary, I conceive the just exhibition of the moral principles of the sacred Volume to form a very important and interesting branch of the internal evidence of its truth. I believe the Bible to be its own best witness. Like all the other works of God, it bears upon it the impress of its Author; and being, more than all the rest, if I may so express myself, a moral work, it bears the special impress of moral character. It is obviously, however, no part of my province, in such a series of Discourses, to establish the authority of the sacred record, but only to bring to the test of its principles the varieties of human theory. In attempting, with all diffidence, this weighty task, it would have been interminable to bring forward in systematic order and duly proportioned prominence, and to defend by their respectively appropriate modes of argument, the various distinguishing doctrines of revelation; thus presenting, in regular form, an entire system of divinity, as an introductory basis for a superstructure of morals. What the doctrines are which I regard as constituting the peculiar truths of revealed religion, I have chosen rather to leave to be discovered from the tenor of the discussions :—and, as a minister of the word of God, I should be ashamed and grieved to have ever so expressed myself, as that any attentive reader should for one moment be at a loss to apprehend the views of those doctrines which I entertain. The first Lecture will sufficiently show the light in which I regard all trimming, on such subjects, between the wisdom of God and the wisdom of men.-There is only one point, on which, since the delivery of the Lectures, I have at times felt a rising and lingering regret that I had not insisted somewhat more formally and at large: - I refer to the present state and character of human nature. In the Lectures, the position has, to a great degree at least, been hypothetically assumed, that the nature of man is not now what it originally was ;-that it is fallen, and in a state of alienation from God. And yet, after all, in assuming this position, what more have I done than assume the authority of revelation? The doctrine stands out in the divine record with prominent notoriety, by frequent, unequivocal statement, by manifest and pervading implication, and by the whole bearing of its peculiar discoveries, respecting the Divine provision for the restoration of this apostate nature to its original principles,-for bringing it back to God, and to the purity and the bliss from which it fell. Nor is there any doctrine in support of which, on the principle of the inductive philosophy, an appeal might be made, to a more overwhelming multiplicity of facts in the history, and more especially in the religious history, of the human race. I refer, in a particular manner, to the fact of the early, universal, and permanent loss of the knowledge of the true God,although originally possessed, and although kept incessantly before the mind by remembrancers the clearest and the most impressive in every department of creation, and the substitution in his room, of all the varieties of polytheistic idolatry, the most fantastic, cruel, and impure,-in every respect "a lie" against the only Deity. This one fact I cannot but regard as of itself decisive ;-affirming it, with all confidence, to have been impossible in a world where God was loved,—nay, in any world where there was not, in the nature of its inhabitants, an inveterate and fearful tendency to forget and to depart from him. And to this might be added a no less confident appeal, amongst all classes and descriptions of society, to present and universal observation, experience, and consciousness. Let these bear witness whether this be a world in which the love of God is the dominant principle, in which piety bears the sway! Bring the question to the test of all the ordinary modes in which affection is accustomed to express itself. Were it tried by this criterion, there could be but one conclusion in every unprejudiced mind,-that we are not in a world of loyalty and love, but of fearful disaffection and rebellion. And the question of human depravity ought to turn on this one point,-the state of the heart towards God. There is no |