_ comparable to that of our
calling[35]"--"Which is Christ in us, the hope of glory[36]?" Can there
be a _trust_ to be preferred to the reliance on "Christ Jesus; who is
the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever[37]?" Surely, if our Opponent
be not dead to every generous emotion, he cannot look his own objection
in the face, without a blush of shame and indignation.

SECTION III.

_Consideration of the Reasonableness of Affections towards an invisible
Being._

But forced at last to retreat from his favourite position, and compelled
to acknowledge that the religious affections towards our blessed Saviour
are not unreasonable; he still however maintains the combat, suggesting
that by the very constitution of our nature, we are not susceptible of
them towards an invisible Being; in whose case, it will be added, we are
shut out from all those means of communication and intercourse, which
knit and cement the union between man and man.

We mean not to deny that there is something in this objection. It might
even seem to plead the authority of Scripture in its favour--"He that
loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he
hath not seen[38]?" And it was indeed no new remark in Horace's days,

Segnius irritant animos demissa per aures,
Quam quae sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus.

We receive impressions more readily from visible objects, we feel them
more strongly, and retain them more durably. But though it must be
granted that this circumstance makes it a more difficult task to
preserve the affections in question in a healthful and vigorous state;
is it thereby rendered impossible? This were indeed a most precipitate
conclusion; and any one who should be disposed to admit the truth of it,
might be at least induced to hesitate, when he should reflect that the
argument applies equally against the possibility of the love of God, a
duty of which the most cursory reader of Scripture, if he admit its
divine authority, cannot but acknowledge the indispensable obligation.
But we need only look back to the Scripture proofs which have been
lately adduced, to be convinced that the religious affections are
therein inculcated on us, as a matter of high and serious obligation.
Hence we may be assured that the impossibility stated by our Opponent
does not exist.

Let us scrutinize this matter, however, a little more minutely, and we
shall be compelled to acknowledge, though the conclusion may make
again