THE

MODERN UNBELIEVER.

BY EMMA NEWTON,

AUTHOR OF

DIFFICULTIES OF A YOUNG CLERGYMAN, IN TIMES OF

DIVISION, &c.

LONDON:

SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, AND Co.

SOLD ALSO BY JOHN MASON.

MDCCCXLVII.

ΤΟ

HER FATHER AND MOTHER,

THE REV. DR. NEWTON, AND MRS. NEWTON,

PREFACE.

THE subsequent volume is designed as a familiar delineation of the unhappy tendency of "an evil heart of unbelief." It is scarcely necessary for the Author to say that it is not intended as anything in the shape of a controversial assault upon the principles of Atheism, Rationalism, Trancendental-Idealism, or any other ism that, under the mask of philosophy, may have exalted itself against the religion of the New Testament. In the following pages, she has simply attempted to trace the influence of such principles upon the heart and life. It is enough for her, that, if brought to the test of experience, they are found inadequate to the spiritual wants of fallen creatures-that although some, to whom novelty is as a Gospel, may gladly embrace sentiments, which afford them a pretext for dismissing from their minds the Divine authority of a religion which condemns the irregularity or frivolity of their lives, none has ventured on the rough journey of life, trusting to find the transcript of Truth within his own breast, and looking for no other support in the day of sorrow or of conflict, but the law