splendour, without being led to Christ by it, the use of it will be lost to us.

Perhaps it may be a good rule in the reading of Scripture, not to run from one passage to another, or suppose it a duty to read a certain portion of it every day, but to dwell upon particular passages, till they have in some measure done their office.

Every one should apply Scripture to himself, as if it were written for him only.

Scripture-reading is a feast indeed, when we find in ourselves a disposition to receive it in truth and simplicity.

"Son of man, can these dry bones live? Lord God, thou knowest." Show me a thought so interesting, so profound, so impressive, and so well expressed, in a pagan author.

Poison secretly conveyed into an antidote must be fatal, because no further cure will be looked for. How many themselves poison their great antidote, the Bible!

Look full at Scripture, especially the beatitudes ; do not be afraid of it, it is a sovereign cure for a sick soul; but then it must not be adulterated, as it is, with the spurious mixtures of human reason.

We go to commentators for the most part, because we are afraid to take Christ and his apostles upon their own word. If we had a simple faith, we should seldom want others to explain their meaning.

It is an awful, dreadful thing, to come full into the light of Scripture, and be upon a foot of sincerity with God.

Our spiritual progress is greatly hindered by running from one thing to another. When any thought, discovery, or passage of Scripture, makes a strong impression, and, as it were, seizes upon the mind, consider it as of God, and give it time and opportunity to work its effect, by excluding every thing else for a season. It would be of infinite use to keep an exact history of such inward workings, their rise,

continuance, declension, and revival; and the communication and comparison of many such histories would not only afford matter of curious knowledge, great improvement, and mutual comfort, but perhaps be one of the strongest evidences of Christ's mission, and the truth of the Scripture.

The Scriptures are so darkened with expositions, and buried under such a heap of rubbish, that it is a kind of labour even for the Spirit of God to remove it. The minds of the poor not being sophisticated by the false glosses which obscure the plain sense of Scripture, are in a much better condition for understanding it than the learned.

It is no objection to the truth of Scripture, that so many different sects find their own opinions in it; for, first, if they were all agreed in their sense of it, and submission to it, the testimony it brings against the blindness and corruption of mankind would be weakened secondly, it is no disparagement to a looking-glass, that all see something in it that is pleasing to themselves; the glass is true, the eye is partial.

It is said of Socrates, that when he believed he was divinely admonished to do any thing, it was impossible to make him take a contrary resolution. How does his example shame those who pretend to receive and believe the Scripture as a divine direction, and yet for the most part trample it under their feet!

It is the great design of the Scripture to teach the best to despair of being self-saved; the worst not to despair of being saved by Christ; and to offer to all the help they want.

The Scripture was written to be transcribed into the heart, and it has its effect when the heart is in such full consent and agreement therewith, that the Scripture might have been copied from it.

It is impossible, in the nature of things, that so burdensome and expensive an institution as that

S

of Moses, should ever have been received by the Jews, but upon sufficient evidence of its being divine. See Stillingfleet's Orig. Sac. vol. 2. c. i. p.

116.

The design of revelation is to inform mankind that they are in a state of ruin, and under the divine displeasure by reason of sin, and to propose the means of their recovery to the favour of God, and the hope of eternal life, by faith in a Redeemer, and submission to his teaching and authority.

Setting aside St. Paul, I should think Mr. Law right in his notion of regeneration; but when I look into the Scriptures, I am sure he is wrong.

Many assent to the truth of Scripture, and make use of it to paint their faces, but will not suffer it to get within them, nor come too near the heart.

How can I be discontented or low-spirited, want employment or enjoyment, when I have the Scripture to go to?

I have the writings of a most invaluable estate in my hands, made over to me as my own property; and whenever I open the New Testament, and think of the unsearchable riches of Christ therein conveyed to every believer, I may look down with contempt on all earthly possessions, and deserve to forfeit my interest in the gospel-treasure, if I do not.

There is but one kind of happiness in nature for intelligent creatures, viz. that by which God is happy. God is happy in his own will; therefore intelligent creatures can only be happy by their knowledge of, and conformity to, that will. The question, Where is this knowledge to be had? is easily answered; and the necessity of a revelation for this purpose, together with the helps it offers for bringing mankind to that conformity, appears at once.

CHAPTER III.

GOD.

ALL spiritual happiness is in God and inseparable from him, and there is no possibility of the creature's receiving any but by being in him. The gospel only teaches the necessity of this union, and the precious means and mystery of it by Christ.

The mercy of God is the first article of every man's creed; but the different manner of understanding and applying it, makes an essential, infinite difference in the characters of men, and constitutes either religion or atheism.

I believe the universal immediate presence of God; that he is the foundation, life, and essence, of all creation and of every part and particle of it; or, in St. Paul's words, that "he is above all, and through all, and in all;" but still he is absent, and infinitely removed from me, unless I find him in my own heart. The greatest knowledge of his being and attributes will avail me nothing, if I do not also know him as my Father, in Christ; and as such, favouring, loving, and blessing me, in time and to all eternity.

I do not think it is in the power of God to make any thing to be our happiness but himself.

The mercies of God, refused, aggravate guilt and draw on great ruin; but what then? Must not God

therefore make a tender of his mercy? and must none be the better for it, because some will be the worse?

Nothing but love can unite with and enjoy love. The nature of God must be in us, before it can be a good to us.

All glory is so properly and solely God's, that none can belong to any other; and whatever creature, man or angel, takes any to itself, in so doing, it discovers the nature, and falls into the condemnation, of the devil.

What do I ask of God? happiness confusedly? or himself as the only ground of it?

No rational creature can be truly happy in the enjoyment of any thing, so long as there is any thing better to be enjoyed. This thought, if true, leads directly to God.

The will of God is God; and to love one without the other is impossible.

If we look at our fellow-creatures only, we shall find or take but too many occasions of pride and self-exaltation.

The way to be humble is to look upwards to God. If we think greatly of his majesty, purity, and infinity of all excellence, it will give us such a striking view of our vileness and absolute unworthiness, that we shall think it hardly possible for any to be lower than ourselves.

The angels are swallowed up in the will of God, as their centre of rest and full enjoyment, and have not one thought out of or beyond it. If they should give their wills unto any thing else, but for a moment, they would lose their name, nature, and happiness.

Though God reveals his own character in his word, he reserves to himself the revelation of it to us by his word. Whenever he discovers himself effectually and savingly, the heart knows it is he, and not the mere word that has done it.