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as the last and only refuge for the sorrowing, suffering, and unhappy children of men! This it is which is to rescue them from all unworthy prejudices, which is to dissipate the mists of ages, which is to bring back the golden period of wisdom and reason, which is to convert the whole earth into a paradise, and which is to make men happy as angels under its mild and benignant sway!! There is no cant so disgusting as that of infidelity. Though most of its advocates have been libertines, though its footsteps may be traced in the blood which it has spilt, though it has trampled on all the laws of personal property and of individual right, though it pollutes and degrades wherever it touches, yet are its advocates ever and anon boasting of its sublime virtues, and its blessed achievements. One thing we may be quite sure of, that no one will listen to their vain and empty declamations till he has lost a certain portion of self-esteem, and till he wants to find an excuse for his conduct in the laxness and uncertainty of his belief.*

* "The natural bias of the heart is to sin, and consequently to infidelity, the excuse and covering for sin."-See the Rev. Charles Bridge's Life of Miss M. J. Graham, p. 22.

Looking at both the literary and vulgar part of modern infidels, we are constrained to say of them, in the words of the great apostle, "There is no fear of God before their eyes."

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CHAPTER I.

THE VIEWS WHICH INFIDELS HAVE ENTERTAINED RESPECTING THE MORAL CHARACTER OF GOD.

GOD cannot be duly feared, as the proper object of religious homage, where his moral attributes and perfections are lost sight of. If we disconnect his wisdom and power from his holiness and goodness and justice, it is impossible to conceive of him with reverence, or to think of him with complacency. In the Christian Scriptures, God's natural attributes are invariably represented as the ministers of his benevolence, integrity, and faithfulness. They declare him to be

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a God of truth, and without iniquity; just and right"* in all his ways. They proclaim him to be "the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and in truth; keeping mercy for thousands, for

*Deut. xxxii. 4.

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giving iniquity, transgression, and sin, and yet by no means clearing the guilty."* They describe him as "of purer eyes than to behold evil," and tell us that "he cannot look upon iniquity."t They exhibit him as "righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works." They teach us, that he is "not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with him."§ Such is the God of Revelation;-a Being infinitely wise and powerful indeed, but one, at the same time, "glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, and ever doing wonders;''|| a Being before whom the highest orders of created intelligences prostrate themselves and exclaim, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory."¶

How unlike are these descriptions of the eter nal and immutable God, to the vague, contradictory, and even wicked representations of infidelity. "We cannot," says Lord Bolingbroke, "ascribe goodness and justice to God, according to our ideas of them, nor argue with any cer

*Exod. xxxiv. 6. Psalin v. 4.

+ Hab. i. 13.

Exod. xv. 11.

‡ Ps. cxlv. 17. ¶ Isa, vi, 3.