plans are miserably defective, and soon become inapplicable. Divine Revelation knew what was in man from the first, and provided for it with unerring care.

The Bible was not written after the arts and sciences and civilization had opened all the sources of natural knowledge. No. You must take your stand with Moses, one thousand five hundred years before Christ, and conceive what was the prescient wisdom which adapted his writings to man living at a distance of three or four thousand years. You must go back, with David and Isaiah and Malachi, and then eştimate the evidence arising from the suitableness of all their writings, not only to their contemporaries, but to men of all times. You must imagine yourselves in the company of apostles and evangelists-fishermen, tent-makers-and consider whence they had that wisdom, which one thousand eight hundred years have served only to illustrate. An adaptation extending so wide, and appearing more and more as our experience enlarges, and which yet was infused into the original composition of the Revelation, ages before the occasions could arise for developing it, marks the Divine hand from which it came.

Let it be observed, finally, as THE APPLICATION of the whole subject, that as all this

argument rests on the particular circumstances and wants of man-is a consideration of the suitableness of Christianity to his obvious state in this world, therefore,

THE POINT OF VIEW FROM WHICH TO BEHOLD THIS OBJECT ARIGHT, IS FROM THE MIDST OF HUMAN WEAKNESS, MISERY, AND SORROW.

The Bible professes to be a remedy for sin and guilt, for darkness and fear, for forebodings of futurity, and dissatisfaction at earthly sources of happiness. So long as you think yourself not of this number, the gospel is not capable of appearing to you in this branch of its evidence, at least in the most striking and important parts of it, as emanating from a Divine hand.'

I must send you back to the external proofs, or allow you to dwell on those palpable and lower points of suitableness which the authority and the morals of the Christian religion present.

When you begin to feel aright-when, from the external evidences and the general view of the adaptation, you are led to enter practically upon the business of your salvation, to read what the Bible says of your state, your duties, your danger, your obligation to Almighty God, your violation of that obligation a thousand and Bishop Sherlock.

Christianity sets before him. Into the design of this system of means he must fall. He can obtain no grace, no divine aid, no relief, no pardon, no renewal of mind, no direction, no comfort, except as he heartily and humbly places himself in the attitude of a diligent disciple. This is altogether and most remarkably adapted for such a creature as man, and precisely agrees with all the dealings of God with him in his general providence, where little is accomplished but by the intervention of means.

God, indeed, acts according to his own merciful will, in the ways of religion, as in the operations of nature and the works of providence. He gives grace, he awakens the minds of men, he disposes of events as he pleases. But all this is designed to bring us to use the means of religious improvement, which we were neglecting. Every extraordinary operation of mercy falls into the system by which God ordinarily works.

4. These methods of Almighty God in the application of the gospel, entirely agree with

THE OUTWARD CIRCUMSTANCES OF MAN, IN THIS WORLD. Every thing around us corresponds with this particular plan.

The world is so presented to man, his duties so arise, his trials so embarrass, his social affections so excite him; he is exposed to that in

arrive at new points of prospect in the journey of life. Tell me whether, in the seasons of affliction, in the times of awakenings of conscience, in the moments of reflection upon your past life, in the conflicts of anxiety and the forebodings as to eternity;-tell me whether, as you ascend the hill, and approach the lofty summit, and command a wider prospect and a clearer and more unclouded horizon, you do not behold more distinctly the adaptation of Christianity to your state and wants, to the real relation of things, to your fears and sorrows, to your most importunate interests. Tell me, in fine, whether the confirmations arising from this source, do not give to the proofs arising from external evidences a softness and richness of persuasion, a power of communicating repose and peace to the mind, a perception of the excellency and fitness of the remedy of the gospel, which endears it to your heart, and raises to a demonstration your assurance that it is indeed the Revelation of God.

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LECTURE XV.

THE EXCELLENCIES OF THE DOCTRINES OF

CHRISTIANITY.

1 JOHN IV. 8-10.

God is love; in this was manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love; not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

HAVING Considered the general suitableness of the Christian Revelation to the obvious state and wants of man, we come now to point out the excellency of its doctrines; that is, of the leading truths which are made known to us on the authority of the religion. Some of these relate to the being and perfections of the Deity, and others to a stupendous scheme which he has been pleased to reveal for the redemption of man.

Here, then, the propriety of the limits to