found to have one hundred and sixteen errors, including this sin gular oversight, Rev. xviii. 22. after the words "no more" the following sentence is omitted

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at all in thee; and no craftsman of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more."

These were the errors of a la borious and accurate editor; but it is a fact of sufficient notoriety, that some of the common Oxford editions have more than 1200 errors! From one printed at the Clarendon press in 1807, I select the following strange mistakes, from amongst many others, which are fully equal to any committed by that " great forger, Field." Romans xvi. 8. "Great Amplias, my beloved in the Lord"-for greet. In 2 Thess. 2 chap. and 17 verse, "Comfort your hearts and stablish you in every good work and work”

for word. Heb. ix. 14. "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God, purge your consciences from good works, to serve the living God" for dead! What do the reviled "sectaries" say to these mistakes? That they are proofs of excessive and culpable negligence ; that they should teach the University not to maintain so high a tone respecting its privilege, lest the accumulation of such errata from various editions, which I believe would be no difficult task, should prove it unworthy of public confidence, and of the trust which has been assigned it. But where is the Dissenter who would charge the Vice-Chancellor, and heads of houses, with voluntary omissions interpolations-variations, or forgeries, for sectarian, licentious, or blasphemous purposes? Nothing but malignant dislike could induce a man to wander thus far in search of motives to account for these blunders, when charity and common sense alike suggest, that in

the hurry of the press, perhaps, to meet the sectarian demand for Bibles, the editors did not revise with sufficient care the respective proofs committed to them. Why then should not Field, who printed some beautiful editions of the Sacred Scriptures, be treated with the like candour? It is certainly most unjust to exhibit him to posterity as the base tool of men yet more base, on evidence so truly worthless as that our author has produced.

As Mr. D'I.'s former work was much read, I expect this "Second Series" may also enjoy an extensive circulation, and have, there fore, sent you these remarks, reserving some observations respecting the Westminster Assembly for another letter.

B.'

ON THE IMPORTANCE OF RIGHT DISPOSITIONS IN THE PURSUIT OF TRUTH.

"Buy the truth and sell it not.” SOLOMON.

IT is obviously one of the first principles of the human economy, that every thing valuable must be acquired, in the order of Divine Providence, by the use of suitable exertions and proper means. Though the Author of nature has endowed us with vast capabilities, and strewed around us an immense proportion of desirable objects, yet he has subjected us to the task of reducing them to purposes of real utility and enjoyment, by the use of our mental faculties, or bodily powers. Though it is a fact never to be forgotten, "that every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights;" yet it is equally to be remembered, that the fruits of his munificence do not drop like manna from the clouds, or come to us by an immediate and supernatural communication, but are obtained through a medium of divine ap

pointment, and by the voluntary exertion of our own talents. It is, indeed, wisely arranged in the divine economy, that the proper use of our natural faculties, and the benefit resulting to society, from the improvement of our mental and moral powers, should arise, in the first place, from the necessities of nature, and the ordinary impulse of sensation and self-love; and be afterward matured and perpetuated by the pleasures of improvement, the dictates of benevolence, and the sanctions of religion.

Hence it is evident, that in connexion with a natural capability of acquiring extensive religious knowledge, we are liable to fall into error and deception, and can obtain the truth only by proper application and well-directed study. Though truth may, in many respects, be compared to the light, yet it does not force itself upon the understanding, as the light of nature does upon the eye, but is receivable alone by the voluntary exercise of our rational and moral powers. Truth, it was said by the ancients, is buried in a deep well, and can be discovered by those only who dive to the bottom. It is like gold and silver hid in deep mines, or jewels buried among the sand, which require labour and perseverance, quick discernment, and great sacrifices in the discovery. A person seeking the truth, therefore, should be "like a merchant seeking goodly pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it." Wherefore, saith Solomon, "buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding."

Though a knowledge of the source whence the truth may be procured, combined with an earnest desire for the acquisition of it, qualifies a person to enter upon this pursuit, yet its actual percepCONG. MAG. No. 62.

tion, instead of resulting from latent wishes and ineffectual resolves, can be obtained solely by proper means and well-disposed exertions. The laws of trade, or the customs of civil policy, are in no respect more certain, or more indispensable, to the honourable and successful result of a commercial engagement, than the rules of sound reason are in the pursuit of truth. We must hear and read, study and consider, pause and deliberate, that, by a judgment accustomed to discriminate, we may distinguish truth from error, and the realities of things from fiction. To this course we are invited by our Lord himself, when he said, "Why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right. Judge not according to the appearance" of things, "but judge righteous judgment."

Let us then, in the first place, pursue our inquiries with a steady determination to submit to the test of truth, and to reason alone upon sound and indubitable principles. If in ordinary concerns it would be deemed the height of folly for a person to determine the value of things by a random guess, or a doubtful conjecture, instead of referring to the known standard of proper valuation; how absurd and delusive must it be, in estimating the realities of religion, to receive the conjectures of “imagination as determined truths, while the standard of right and wrong, the test of sound reasoning, is either seldom appealed to, or wholly disregarded. If, indeed, we had the power to create realities, or possessed an intuitive infallibility, we might give imagination full scope, or, instead of trying them by a given test, might receive or promulgate the whole series of its creation, as fixed and indubitable principles. But, as the object of our inquiries is to find out the realities of things, in the spiritual and moral system, and

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corroborated,

not to make them, the perceptions we form in our minds of those realities, must be brought to some standard, by which alone their agreement or disagreement with the things themselves may be tried and known. Though the field of inquiry, therefore, be extensive, and its objects infinitely diversified, yet we are not left in uncertainty, without a compass to direct our course, a guide to preserve us from dangerous labyrinths, or a rule of discernment by which one thing may be distinguished from another. In the study of nature, it is laid down as a fixed principle, that every effect must be traced, through secondary causes, to the first cause, and that every cause must be equal to the effect produced by it, and every agent to the work effected by his agency, In the review of history it must be admitted, that human testimony, properly corroborated, should be received with the same confidence, as though the facts affirmed had been witnessed by ourselves, and be admitted in the freeness of our inquiries, as the basis of sound reasoning, and the standard of historical belief. In the study of scripture, also, it must be laid down as an axiom of Christian verity, that, if the truth and authority of the sacred writings, as the depositions of divine revelation, be confirmed by sufficient evidence, it is incumbent upon us to receive, with undoubting confidence, the whole of their contents. And in all our attentions to human illustrations of Christian doctrine, it must be remembered, that, as the wisest and most faithful are the subjects of unavoidable fallibility, their reasonings and opinions, instead of being received implicitly as sacred truth, must be appealed to alone as means of information, and useful auxiliaries in judging for ourselves what is truth. If, then, we pursue our inquiries with a steady

determination to act upon these preliminaries, and to try every opinion, and every course of reasoning by its proper test, the delusions of error will be detected, and the realities of truth be discovered.

But in all our inquiries we should, secondly, be influenced solely by the love of truth, and a desire to embrace the truth alone, whatever it may be, unmixed with error and invention. If we adopt a hypothesis, or form in our minds a set of pre-conceived opinions upon any subject, and then prosecute our inquiries with a view to confirm those opinions, or to provide arguments in their support, our object and motive will be victory more than truth, and self-flattery more than right principles. It is, indeed, impossible to divest the mind of all prejudice and prepossession, since the ideas we have formed, or the modes of thinking to which we have been accustomed from our earliest years, will, on almost every subject of Christian inquiry, give the mind å bias in favour of one point more than another, and cause the desire to anticipate the judgment. It is manifest, however, that a predilection, deeply rooted, will magnify the evidence in favour of an opinion which we are willing to believe, while it will diminish the proofs and magnify the difficulties of an opposite hypothesis. But when the mind is deeply imbued with the love of truth, and for the truth's sake is willing to renounce every prejudice which is found to be erroneous, and to embrace every doctrine which is proved to be a truth; the subject which engages our inquiries will be considered with candour and impartiality; and every argument and evidence will have its due weight upon the mind. Knowing, then, that we are naturally liable to mistake, and have frequently in the course of life, even in common affairs, viewed things in a

wrong light, and adopted notions which were afterwards found to be untrue; it is necessary, in seeking after divine knowledge, to remember that our firmest persuasions may be wrong, while the doctrines which appear to us erroneous and incredible, may, in reality, prove to be the truth. No man, indeed, in the sober exercise of reason, can wish to impose upon himself a system of delusions, knowing them to be untrue, nor would any man, in fact, cherish a disposition hostile to a single truth, however repugnant it might be to his own ideas, were it not for the perversity of pride, and the secret influence of wrong affections. Let us, therefore, be open to conviction, that the light of truth may beam upon our judgments, and the result of our inquiries be sound wisdom.

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But in seeking after truth, we should, thirdly, cherish a spirit of patience and perseverance, suspending our judgment till the subjects have been well considered and deliberately investigated. Nothing can be more unfavourable to sound principles, or more productive of erroneous ones, than hasty decisions; though the first ideas which strike the mind, in viewing a complicated subject, may possibly be correct, there is every probability of their being otherwise; and though a person of an extraordinary understanding, may at once penetrate the greatest obscurities, or solve the most difficult problems, or bring the most intricate trains of reasoning to a prompt conclusion; the comprehensiveness of mind and rapidity of discernment necessary for that purpose, evidently exceed the reach of mankind at large, and could not be assumed and acted npon without great vanity and presumption.

It is a fact, however, that few persons have patience or perseverance sufficient to find out truth in all its bearings, or to avoid the

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plausibilities of error and deception. Instead of suspending their judgments, men in general satisfy themselves with first impressions; and resting upon the accuracy and clearness of their discernment, come precipitately to those conclusions which they imagine to be just. Many, in their inquiries after truth, resemble persons climbing to the summit of a mountain, in order to contemplate or describe the vast, diversified, and attract scenery which it presents to human eye. One, having ap proached the eminence, no sooner obtains a glimpse of the hills and valleys which open to his view, then, enchanted with the discovery, he sits down and sketches upon his canvass a few prominent objects in the landscape, and then presents it to his companions, or bequeaths it to his friends, as a true picture of the whole scene. Another takes a wider range, and extending his views from the near to the distant, hastily groups together every thing that he observes; and perceiving, toward the boundaries of his landscape, an appearance of hills and valleys, covered with thick mists and sombrous shadows, he conjectures, in imagination, their form and aspect, and then exhibits them on the canvass, as objects seen and known. But a mind, more cautious and enlightened, having broken the spell of first impressions, and surveyed dispassionately the hills and vales, the groves and rivers, the towns and villages which form the landscape; he delineates every part in its due interest, magnitude, and proportion, and presents to the world a true resemblance of the realities which he beheld in the mountain scenery. In climbing to the temple of divine wisdom, therefore, let this be our model, that, in looking around on the infinite varieties of divine truth, our views may be clear, and our descriptions accurate.

But in connexion with these

feelings, it is requisite, fourthly, to prosecute our inquiries with humility, accompanied with earnest prayer for divine illumination and assistance. As the highest attainments of which we are capable, bear no proportion to the whole compass of truth, it is incumbent on the greatest philosopher to study every subject with the same teachableness of disposition, which we require in children who are learning the first rudiments of knowledge. Pride and self-confidence unfit the mind to examine fairly, and are, in many respects, highly prejudicial to the truth; while modesty, and a willingness to be informed, are the harbingers of wisdom. When the mind is well disposed, difficulties in the way of truth are easily overcome; means of information are desired and accepted, the strong holds of prejudice are relinquished, and true principles, however humiliating or unpalatable, find their way to the understanding and the heart. But divine truth is a preceptress which admits to the benefit of her instructions none but docile scholars. The proud and the self-sufficient, who come to dictate, and not to learn, are dismissed from her tuition, and left to the delusions of their own vanity; for, said the faithful and true witness,

except a man receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall in no wise enter therein.' But the meek will he guide in judgment, the meek will he teach his way.

If, then, our minds be imbued with humility, we shall feel our dependence on the God of truth, and the fountain of all wisdom, and, in the true spirit of faith and piety, shall cherish a prayerful solicitude for divine teaching; though there is a spirit in man, it is the inspiration of the Almighty that giveth him understanding. The same intelligence which formed our reason, and placed around us the sources and means of know

ledge, can likewise strengthen and elevate the mental powers, and, by the laws of the spiritual and moral system, can facilitate our inquiries, and expand our views, increasing the clearness of our perceptions, and the firmness and accuracy of our decisions. As the bodily energies are known to be invigorated by their frequent contact with different parts of the material world, so will the mental frame be improved and perfected by its repeated intercourse with nobler minds, and by a devout and elevated converse with the Author of light, and the fountain of universal intelligence. promise of sacred writ, therefore, which assures us that God will give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him, is founded upon truth, and verified by experience.

The

Would we, finally, be successful in our researches, let us be prepared to maintain with firmness, purity, and candour, and adorn by the rectitude of our lives, the truths that we receive as divine principles. The majesty of truth is dishonoured by indifference, the mildness of its spirit is wounded by intolerance, and the holiness of its nature shrinks from the touch of impurity and guilt. There have, perhaps, been a few individuals, who combined great knowledge and sound principles with proffigacy of character; but the union is unnatural and short-lived. When the light of truth enters the mind of the dissolute, it either renovates their character, and assimilates their taste to its own purity; or else, by the corrupt elements of depravity, it is soon extinguished and destroyed. In all our inquiries respecting either the evidences and authority of the Christian faith, or the peculiar doctrines and duties which it inculcates, purity of heart and character, in connexion with the virtues before specified, will be found in the highest degree suitable, ne