Chapter 3: Doubtful Actions are Sinful I. To show some reasons why a man is criminals for doing that of which he doubts the lawfulness. II. To show its application to a number of specific cases. III. Offer a few inferences and remarks, as time may allow.
I. I am to show some reasons for the correctness of the principle laid down in the text that if a man does that of which he doubts the lawfulness, he is condemned.
1. One reason why an individual is condemned if he does that of which he doubts the lawfulness, is that if God so far enlightens his mind as to make him doubt the lawfulness of an act, he is bound to stop there and examine the question and settle it to his satisfaction.
To illustrate this: suppose your child is desirous of doing a certain thing, or suppose he is invited by his companions to go somewhere, and he doubts whether you would be willing, do you not see that it is his duty to ask you? If one of his schoolmates invites him home, and he doubts whether you would like it, and yet goes, is not this palpably wrong?
Or suppose a man cast away on a desolate island, where he finds no human being, and he takes up his abode in a solitary cave, considering himself as all alone and destitute of friends, or relief, or hope; but every morning he finds a supply of nutritious and wholesome food prepared for him, and set by the mouth of his cave, sufficient for his wants that day.
What is his duty? Do you say, he does not know that there is a being on the island, and therefore he is not under obligations to any one? Does not gratitude, on the other hand, require him to search and find out his unseen friend, and thank him for his kindness? He cannot say, "I doubt whether there is any being here, and therefore will do nothing but eat my allowance and take my ease, and care for nothing." His not searching for his benefactor would of itself convict him of as desperate wickedness of heart, as if he knew who it was, and refused to return thanks for the favors received.
Or suppose an Atheist opens his eyes on this blessed light of heaven, and breathes this air, sending health and vigor through his frame. Here is evidence enough of the being of God to set him on the inquiry after that Great Being who provides all these means of life and happiness. And if he does not inquire for farther light, if he does not care, if he sets his heart against God, he shows that he has the heart as well as the intellect of an Atheist. He has, to say the least, evidence that there MAY BE a God. What then is his business? Plainly, it is to set himself honestly, and with a most child-like and reverent spirit, to inquire after him and pay him reverence. If, when he has so much light as to doubt whether there may not be a God, he still goes around as if there were none, and does not inquire for truth and obey it, he shows that his heart is wrong, and that it says let there be no God.
There is a Deist, and here a book claiming to be a revelation from God. Many good men have believed it to be so. The evidences are such as to have perfectly satisfied the most acute and upright minds of its truth. The evidences, both external and internal are of great weight.
To say there are NO evidences is itself enough to bring any man's soundness of mind into