our mysteries, to which they can find no satisfactory answer; that, after all, the whole appears very uncertain: and that, before engaging to follow all the rigid maxims of the gospel, it would be proper to be well assured that our toils shall not be lost.
Now, my intention, at present, is not to overthrow unbelief by the grand proofs which establish the truth of the Christian faith. Setting aside that elsewhere we have already established them, it is a subject far too extensive for a Discourse, and often beyond even the capacity of the majority of those who listen to us; it is frequently paying too much deference to the frivolous objections of those who give themselves out as free-thinkers in the world, to employ the gravity of our ministry in refuting and overthrowing them.
We must take a shorter and more easy way, therefore, at present. My design is not to enter into the foundation of the proofs which render testimony to the truth of faith; I mean only to expose the falsity of unbelief: I mean to prove, that the greatest part of those who call themselves unbelievers, are not so; that almost all those sinners who vaunt, and are continually alleging to us their doubts, as the only obstacle to their conversion, have actually none; and that, of all the pretexts employed as an excuse for not changing their life, that of doubts upon religion, now the most common, is the least true and the least sincere.
It appears surprising at first, that I should undertake to prove to those who believe to have doubts upon religion, and are continually objecting them to us, that they have actually none: nevertheless, with a proper knowledge of men, and, above all, with a proper attention to the character of those who make a boast of doubting, nothing is more easy than this conviction: I say, to their character, in which are always to be found licentiousness, ignorance, and vanity; and such are the three usual sources of their doubts: they give the credit of them to unbelief, which has scarcely a share in them.
First. It is licentiousness which proposes, without daring to believe them. First reflection.
Secondly. It is ignorance which adopts, without comprehending them. Second reflection.
Lastly. It is vanity which boasts, without being able to succeed in drawing any resource from them. Last reflection.
This is to say, that the greatest part of those who call themselves unbelievers, are licentious enough to wish to be so; too ignorant to be so in reality; and nevertheless, sufficiently vain to wish to appear so. Let us unfold these three reflections, now become so important among us; and let us overthrow licentiousness rather than unbelief, by laying it open to itself.
Part I. — It must at once be admitted, my brethren, and it is melancholy for us that we owe this confession to the truth, — it must be admitted, I say, that our age and those of our fathers have seen real unbelievers. In that depravity of manners in which we live, and
