4. It is through the possibility of misinterpreting

Scripture that our intellectual probation is

CHAP. I.

NATURE OF THE SUBJECT.

THAT we are answerable to God for our religious belief, no Christian will be so hardy as to deny. Correctness of doctrinal faith is as much required of every man by his Maker, as purity of heart and uprightness of life. It is the fashion, indeed, with those who follow their own fancies, rather than sound reason and the word of God, to maintain that a man is in no way the better or the worse for his religious opinions, either in the sight of God, or in the regards of all his enlightened fellow-creatures. The cold latitudinarianism of the world approves the maxim of the poet, who dared to write in the face of the declarations of the Most High,

For modes of faith let senseless zealots fight;
His can't be wrong, whose life is in the right.

This very notion, however, is but an example of the great truth which it contradicts. That

B

an irreligious person should assert that all creeds are alike acceptable in the judgment of God, is but an illustration of the principle revealed by God himself, that mistake and falsehood are the natural offspring of sinful passions. The very error is an instance of the maxim contravened. The heart that loves not and serves not God, brings darkness and ignorance upon the intellect; and it sanctions amongst other delusions the dream, that so that we live an upright life, God cares not what we believe.

The Christian mind, on the other hand, regards itself as responsible to its Judge for every article in its creed. We must quench the light that shines forth from the book of God, before we venture to deny that errors in faith are repeatedly produced by sin in the heart, and are consequently to be judged as strictly moral delinquencies. An unbiassed course of reasoning upon common experience would alone make this truth highly probable. We must shut our eyes upon the facts of our own personal experience, if we would persist in asserting that man's judgment is not continually warped and guided by his hopes, his desires, and his affections. But more than this, the Bible must be trodden under foot, before we forget our responsibility for the doctrines

which we draw from God's revelations.

There

are solemn sayings in the holy Scriptures, which make the humble believer shrink from error as from that guilt which is commonly called moral. Christ has said, "He that believeth not, is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God"." The apostle Paul declares, that ignorance of the nature of the Deity is the consequence of depraved hearts and lives; They are without excuse," he says of the heathen world; "because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves wise, they became fools"." God has plainly taught us, that we are diligently to strive after truth as much as after holiness, and that where the means for learning the pure doctrines of Christ are available to us, ignorance and error are to be regarded as the results of evil dispositions and unholy prejudices.

"How then," asks the believer, "shall I become acquainted with the true faith which Christ has made known? I accept the Bible as the word of God, and I learn at the very outset of my enquiries, that I am answerable for the Rom. i. 20, 21, 22.

a John iii. 18.