mechanic-and the result is beautiful and surprissing.

But if I take a single wheel of a watch, as men take a single doctrine of Revelation. If I assert that the wheel is really a part, a constituent part of the curious machine; as men affirm that the doctrine, Predestination for example, is a real and constituent part of the infinite scheme of redemption-what avails such an insulated affirmation? I ask where are the other wheels, where the combination fixed by the presiding hand of the maker, where the main spring, where the practical result in the indication of the hour of the day and the regulation of human affairs-as I ask where are the doctrines which surround the one in question; where is the combination of truths fixed by the inspiring Spirit, where are the main principles, where is the practical indication of my feelings and duty ? The whole Bible-the whole doctrine as stated in the Bible-the whole bearing and influence of the doctrine--the whole relative position of it as to other doctrines-all the inferences and deductions from it, must be sought for in the same divine records where the principle itself is revealed, in order to entitle our statements to the high commendation of being scriptural and authoritative.

But we pass on to observe,

6. That we must not FORCE THE SIMPLE MEANING OF SCRIPTURE, EITHER TO EXPRESS OR EXCLUDE

MYSTERIES according to our turn of mind. Man is fond of extremes. But all the parts of Scripture are to be received. They are all of equal authority, though not all of equal importance. They all proceed from infinite wisdom; and that wisdom fixes their respective importance, as well as makes them a part of the Revelation. In a state of incipient faith, men are apt to pass over all the peculiar doctrines of the gospel, which they do not strongly feel the need of, or do not know how to apply. In a state of warm Christian

feeling and advanced familiarity with truth, men are apt in some degree, perhaps, to omit and pass by the doctrines which rest on natural religion, and the primary duties which immediately flow from conscience and the accountableness of man. They consider them as not only subordinate-which they are-but useless, which they are not. All Revelation takes for granted the religion of nature, and cannot be understood nor applied without that religion being admitted either explicitly or implicitly. It is generally admitted implicitly, conscience is followed, reason is taken as a minister, the responsible nature of man is acted upon without controversy, and without direct reflection. But it is important to remember, that Scripture is not to be forced either to express or exclude mysteries. All the truths in Scripture are of equal authority. The subordinate are to be received so as not to exclude the highest; and the highest so as not to omit the subordinate. No one truth is to be so interpreted or so employed, as to contradict any other truth.

It is especially necessary, in the present day, to remember that we are not to search for the highest mysteries of Scripture, where they were never intended to be found, but to be content with the different matters of the divine Revelation as they are simply set before us. Some of the most fatal errors in the church have arisen from a desire to find the loftiest discoveries of Revelation concerning Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, in the Patriarchal history, and in the plainest parts of the Books of Kings. The mischiefs arising from Origen's fanciful scheme of old; the errors of Cocceius, in modern times; the forcible application of every part and portion of the Psalms to the Messiah, and the eagerness to find out what is called a spiritual sense, in opposition to the literal meaning of God's word, have all their origin in a discontent with the proportion in which the mysteries of Scripture are found in that divine book, and in the wild notion of

VOL. II.

A A

imposing unheard of, and new and remote and unnatural senses upon the plainest narratives or most devotional parts of the divine Records. The effect is to take away all meaning from the whole Bible, to open the door for every extravagance, and to destroy that fine and beautiful variety which now characterises the inspired book of God.

The Holy Spirit has in every part of Scripture, one grand meaning, and conveys one leading instruction, though others may by fair inference be deduced. This is the real spiritual meaning, that is, the meaning of a book which relates to spiritual things, and comes down from God to man. But some call the spiritual meaning a new meaning put on Scripture by a lively fancy. Types, prophecies, parables have, of course, a meaning beyond that which they express. But in all these, judgment is the interpreter, according to the established rules of language. Those parts of Scripture which are not of this character, have only one meaning, and that is the literal; and our concern is not to hunt for a new meaning which we call the spiritual, but to deduce useful instruction from the plain sense of the passage. Otherwise we may make the Scriptures mean what we please; we may impose a sense of our own; and there will remain no certainty in Revelation, but we may prove from it error as readily as truth. The Papist, the Arian, the Socinian, the Neologian, applaud the suggestion, and employ it but too successfully to their own purposes. And the piety and good intentions of some who first propose such senses, do not lessen the mischief of the scheme on which they proceed, but render it more plausible and dangerous.9

7. But I observe, lastly, that the peculiar character of Inspiration belonging to the Bible should prevent our attempting TO REDUCE TRUTH TO A TOO MI

9 Scott.

NUTE HUMAN SYSTEM, WHICH PERHAPS GOD HAS NEVER INTENDED WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO. Some plan of truth, in its great outlines, is, indeed, essentialthe apostles continually give such schemes. The deduction of consequences is also necessary, for the purposes of discipline and good order in Christian churches. Confessions and articles of faith have therefore their use. But to frame a detailed and minute system of truth in the way of what is termed systematic Theology, is to forget the majesty and simplicity of truth, to forget the limits of the human understanding, to forget all we have remarked so frequently on the ignorance of man, to forget the author and infinite perfections of the inspired Volume. The premises are not all revealed. We know in part only. The mind of the interpreter is soon biassed in the exposition of particular passages, when the trammels of a system hang around him. The frankness and simplicity of truth is lost. Many of the most important addresses to the consciences of sinners are weakened, and much of the cautionary instruction designed for true Christians is omitted. Our system becomes our Bible. We start from its propositions as our first principles, and the authority of the all-perfect word is virtually undermined. 10 Faith itself is contracted and enfeebled.

10" For the obtaining of the information, it resteth upon the true and sound interpretation of the Scriptures, which are the fountains of the waters of life. The interpretations of Scripture are of two sorts: methodical, and solute or at large. For this divine water, which excelleth so much that of Jacob's well, is drawn forth much in the same kind as natural water useth to be out of wells and fountains; either it is forced up into a cistern, and from thence fetched and derived for use; or else it is drawn and received in buckets and vessels immediately where it springeth; the former sort whereof, though it seem to be more ready, yet in my judgment is more subject to corrupt. This is that method which hath exhibited to us the scholastical divinity; whereby divinity hath been reduced into an art, as into a cistern, and the streams of doctrine of positions fetched and derived from thence.

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Certainly as those wines which flow from the first treading

Indeed this is the one point which we have been endeavouring to illustrate and to which we return. Our whole subject is involved in a true and lively faith. The direct suggestions and aids it furnishes the helps which it derives from common sense and sound laws of language, and the considerations arising from the peculiar character of inspiration attached to the divine records, are only so many methods which the principle of faith employs in her exercise on the testimony of God. The more simple and vigorous that principle is, the more will it apply itself to the devout study of the Scriptures in all their extent, in all their variety of matter, in all their authority upon the conscience. In short, the reception of the Christian religion, as of divine origin, will carry with it all the details of that Revelation, and lead to all the means of ascertaining what it is which they include.

But here an objection meets us. A diversity of interpretation is said to exist among sincere and devout Christians, and to render the tenor of the Scripture so far uncertain, and embarrass the mind of the sincere inquirer.

To this we reply, that the fact itself has been exag. gerated that, whatever these differences are, they are not chargeable upon Christianity-that they fall on subordinate matters for the most part-that they may be avoided in practice-and that the universal church has presented but one front of truth to mankind. I say THE FACT HAS BEEN GREATLY EXAGThere have been divers interpretations

GERATED.

of the grapes, are sweeter and better than those forced out by the press, which gives them the roughness of the husk and the stone; so are those doctrines best and wholesomest which flow from a gentle crush of the Scriptures, and are not wrung into controversies and common place. And this ourselves we set down as wanting, under the title of, THE FIRST FLOWINGS OF SCRIPTURE."-Lord Bacon.