on which we tread, all nature demonstrates,
with a power which we cannot put away from us, the great
incomprehensible One, a being of boundless perfections and infinite
wisdom. In regard to his moral attributes, also, he has not left himself
without a witness; for a sense of these he has impressed upon us in the
clearest manner in that wondrous part of our constitution,--the moral
principle or conscience. From these two sources may be derived a
knowledge of the character of the Deity, and of our relation to him as
moral beings;--and the man is left entirely without excuse who fails to
direct to them his most earnest attention, and to make the impressions
derived from them the habitual rule of his volitions, and the guide of
his whole character. "He hath the rule of right within," says Butler,
"all that is wanting is,--that he honestly attend to it."

Similar observations apply with equal or greater force to the truths of
revealed religion. These are supported by a weight of miraculous
evidence, and are transmitted to us by a chain of testimony, carrying
absolute conviction to the mind of every candid inquirer. They are
farther confirmed by a probability, and a force of internal evidence,
which fix themselves upon the moral feelings of every sound
understanding with a power which is irresistible. The whole is addressed
to us as rational beings; it is pressed upon our attention as creatures
destined for another state of existence; and the duty is imposed upon
every individual seriously to examine and to consider. Every man is in
the highest degree responsible for the care with which he has informed
himself of these evidences, and for the attention with which he has
given to every part of them its due weight in the solemn inquiry. He is
farther responsible for the influence of previously formed prejudice, or
that vitiated state of his moral feelings, which prevents him from
approaching the subject with the simplicity of a mind which is seriously
desirous of the truth. From the want of these essential elements of
character, it may very often happen, that a man may fancy he has formed
his opinions after much examination, while the result of his prejudiced
or frivolous inquiry has been only to fix him in delusion and falsehood.
Among the singular sophistries, indeed, by which some men shut their
minds against inquiries of the highest import, is a kind of impression,
not perhaps distinctly avowed in words, but clearly recognis