cause of this fact was not to be sought either in the nature of the gospel, or in the mode of its exhibition, but in the state and character of those who rejected it. The sun does not cease to be the sun although the blind do not see it. And if any man cannot see the sun on a clear day at noon, he must be blind. So Paul does not hesitate to say that if any man does not receive the gospel when clearly presented, he is lost. If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, iv rots aTToXXv/AcVots, among, or before them who are lost, ^^^ee 1 Cor. 1, 18, where it is said that the gospel is foolishness to them that perish. ) The lost are those who are in a state of perdition and who are certain (if they continue to reject the gospel) to perish forever. Nothing can be plainer than the doctrine of this passage. A man's faith is not a matter of indifference. He cannot be an atheist and yet be saved. He cannot reject the gospel and yet go to heaven when he dies. This is not an arbitrary decision. There is and must be an adequate ground for it. Atheism implies spiritual death, the absence of all that constitutes the true life of the soul, of all its highest and best aspirations, instincts and feelings. The rejection of the gospel is as clear a proof of moral depravity, as inability to see the light of the sun at noon is a proof of blindness. Such is the teaching of the Bible, and such has ever been the faith of the church. Men of the world cry out against this doctrine. They insist that a man is not accountable for his opinions. He is, however, accountable for the character by wliich those opinions are determined. If he has such a character, such an inward moral state, as permits and decides him to beUeve that there is no God, that murder, adultery, theft and violence are right and good, then that inward state which constitutes his character, and for which he is responsible, (according to the intuitive perception and universal judgment of men,) is repro- bate. A good infidel is, according to the Bible, as much a contradiction as good wickedness or sweet bitterness. It is not for nothing that infinite truth and love, in the person of our Lord, said, *' He that believeth not shall be damned."(^
4. In whom the god of this world hath bUnded the minds of them which beheve not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.