caution applies with equal force to the varieties of unbelieving thought in our days, as to the Gnosticism of the first century. "O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called, which some professing have erred concerning the faith." What "babblings" can be more "profane and vain" than those of Positivism with its "new Supreme Being;" or of Agnosticism, which places an algebraical x, THE UNKNOWABLE, on the throne of the universe? What can be more falsely named science than the audacious conjectures which have been of late repeatedly dignified with the name of scientific theories? Such as the constant generation of the unlike from the unlike, through infinite ages of geological time, before there existed a single man who could witness this prodigious inversion of the countless experiences of all real science for the last six thousand years? One great duty of Cambridge at this crisis, is in the study of nature to abide stedfastly by the inductive principles of the philosophy of Bacon and Newton, so well carried out by many Cambridge students of these later times. But this implies the further duty to refrain from that unbridled license of imagination in scientific subjects, which leads many to dignify plausible or even unplausible conjectures with the name of science. Conjectures in science have a great use, but this depends on our never confounding them with proved facts. Their magnitude to the senses of casual observers, like that of the tails of comets, is sometimes in inverse propor tion to their solid mass. Yet even when their solid substance is small and almost evanescent, it is often possible that by their means, when carefully examined, weighty scientific conclusions may be attained. A second great duty is to apply this same principle of careful and inductive search to the study of the sacred Scriptures. The word of God will else be overlaid with ambiguities, uncertainties, and partial misconceptions, human traditions, distortions and corruptions of its genuine meaning, which not only obscure its heavenly brightness, but are liable to become a great encouragement to the assaults of open unbelief. There is scarcely any revealed limit to the apprehension of the beauty, truth and harmony of the Holy Scriptures which may be attained by those who study them with prayer, humility and perseverance, not as if they were isolated and accidental compositions, but as one comprehensive whole. The neglect of such study by too many Christians, is one great cause of the many controversies by which the church has been disfigured, and its peace and unity disturbed. There is a promise in the word of God, not only of the increase of natural knowledge in the last days, but of the increase of spiritual knowledge also. In the great day of the Lord, "at eventide there will be light." we know if we follow on to know the Lord." "The path of the just is as a shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." "Then shall May the University of Cambridge, by this double work, the inductive study of all nature, and the induc tive and persevering study of all Scripture, fulfil in fuller and still fuller measure its true office and calling, as a seminary both of sound learning and religious education. The present work, while endeavouring to clear away some of the mists of unbelieving philosophy, is intended, if life be spared, to be followed by others, in which I would attempt, in reliance on the promised help of the Holy Spirit, to unfold some of the manifold harmonies of truth in the sacred Scriptures, the "lively oracles" of the Living God. CAMBRIDGE, February, 1879. CONTENTS. 66 Series of ten attacks on revealed religion in the present century, p. 2. Strife among the assailants, 5. Supernatural Religion." Bearing of 'and centripetal, 16. Negative creed of the author, 18. By which he judges the apostles, 19. The Being of a Personal God is said to be a mere assumption, on the authority of Christian Divines, 20. Thesis of the Book, 22. First necessary condition of the duty of inquiry, 24. "Is Christianity a Divine revelation or not?" 27. in its favour from the number of believers through fifteen centuries, 27. The Greek and Latin Churches, and a portion of the Anglican Church, have renounced the principle of free inquiry. How far does this weaken their testimony? 28. Protestant Christians affirm the duty of free inquiry, 30. The claim of Free-thinkers to be the only honest seekers after truth, 31. The work now examined not an unbiassed inquiry. Protestantism not a negation, 34. What honest inquiry implies, and what it does not imply, 34. Neutrality impossible, 35. The promises of Scripture to seekers after Truth, 35. The perfect truthful- The author constructs a puzzle by combining three different statements of various Divines. (1) That Miracles and Prophecy are necessary creden- tials of revelation. (2) That there may be false as well as true miracles. (3) That the only truths proper to a revelation are "beyond reason,” 38. The two first are truths affirmed by Scripture, the third an ambiguous statement, 39. How far any knowledge rests on pure reason, 39. How far on observation and testimony, 40. These have narrow limits both of time and place, 41. The problem which reason has to solve is to construct a theory that will account for the facts of human experience as a whole, 41. Eight solutions which have been attempted, 42. The latest conclusions of H. Spencer and Mill, 43. Does Christianity claim abso-> lutely to solve this problem? Its claim is quite different. It is to supply fresh facts, with full evidence, centering in a unique Person, 44. In what sense the words and acts of such a Person are supernatural, 44. The facts of the Gospels illustrated by the first voyage of Columbus and the Misrepresentations of the doctrines of Christianity, 49. Frustration of the supposed Divine design in Creation, contrasted with the "glorious invariability of Nature," 50. Scriptural account of the Divine foreknow- ledge of evil, 51. Dr Mozley quoted to convey a meaning the reverse of his own, 51. concerning the true Christ, and a false Antichrist, 52. Consilience of |