Rom. iii. 3, 4. What if some did not believe ? shall their un- belief make the faith of God without effect ? God forbid : yea, let God be true, but every man a liar.
IN every age of the world man has been prone to disbelieve the testimony of God : our first parents fell by questioning the prohibition which God had given them, and doubting the penalty with which it was enforced. Their posterity, born in their fallen image, have but too faithfully copied their example. By un- belief, the antediluvian world were overwhelmed : by unbelief, God's chosen people the Jews have been
despoiled of all their privileges. The same malignant principle pervades also the Christian church. We profess indeed, like the Jews of old, to venerate the sacred oracles ; but there is scarcely a truth contained in them, which is not practically, and almost univer- sally, denied. Yet is this no reason for questioning their divine authority : for God is as immutable in his word, as he is in his nature ; and, as his existence would not be affected, though the whole world should be atheists, so neither will one jot or tittle of his word fail, though the world should be infidels. This is the very point on which St. Paul is insisting in the passage before us. Having observed that the Jews were highly privileged in having the oracles of God committed to them, he anticipates the objection which might be urged against him from their unbelief; and allowing the truth of the fact, That they were very generally disbelieved, he denies and refutes the infer- ence that might be drawn from it, by declaring, That their unbelief, however general it might be, could never invalidate the truth of God.
From his words we shall be led to consider,
I. The prevalence of unbelief —
It is not our intention to expose the errors of infi- delity, or the sophistry with which the truth of God has been assailed ; but rather to point out that secret unbelief which works in the minds of all, even with respect to the most acknowledged truths. That such unbelief prevails, cannot possibly be doubted, if we observe,
1. How general is men's neglect of the word of God—
[The sacred volume lies by us : we have it in our own language, that all may read it; and it is statedly read and explained to us in public. But how few study it ! how few regard it ! how few are there who do not give a decided, yea, an exclusive preference to books of human science, and even to any worthless novel, or ephemeral compilation ! And what is the cause of this ? Could they be thus indifferent, if they believed it to be the word of God ; the word of God to them ? Would any one manifest such indifference towards a will in