CHAPTER I. THE POSITION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES IN THE SCHEME OF THE MEANS OF GRACE. "Abide in Me, and E in you."-JOHN xv. 4. Need of a treatise giving hints for the devotional study of Holy Scripture Distinction between such a treatise and a practical Commentary-Difficulty of reading the Scriptures so as to derive edification from them-Subject of the Chapter proposed—Union with God (the end of all Ordinances) cemented by Baptism, and maintained by the Lord's Supper-It involves the access of man to God (Prayer and Praise), and that of God to man (the Word spoken or written)—The objection, Why is not more said in the Bible about the Bible? considered and answered-The Preaching of the New Testament and Modern Preaching not co-extensiveConclusion. Of all the means of Grace, the devotional study of Holy Scripture has, perhaps, received less illustration by means of formal treatises, than any other. Manuals of private prayer, of family prayer,-treatises on Prayer, containing valuable aids for the right performance of this duty, and supplying forms (or at least outlines) for the busy, and those who, for want of practice, cannot easily collect their thoughts,-exist in abundance. Of B manuals too for the Holy Communion, containing helps for Self-Examination, and for previous, concurrent, and subsequent meditation, there is no lack. The reading of Holy Scripture alone has been treated in a cursory and meagre manner, as if the profitable use of this means of Grace were a matter so perfectly simple and obvious, as to require no introductory considerations, and no subsidiary aids whatever. I do not mean that we have no Commentaries on Scripture: of these there exists a large profusion, both critical and practical but the critical Commentary (though highly valuable in its own line) is not designed for devotional reading, and the practical Commentary virtually supersedes the operation of the mind, by thinking for us,-by offering us that food in a digested form, which in a sound and healthy state, we ought to digest for ourselves. What seems to be needed is, not so much good reflections on particular passages, as a series of elementary considerations, which may facilitate the making of those reflections for ourselves. For I think that no one, who has sufficient spirituality of mind to be aware of the vast difference between the formal looking through a Chapter and the deriving from it moral light and strength, and who has made an honest endeavour after these ends in his daily reading, will assert that he has found it easy to secure them. Perhaps, if people spoke out the whole truth, they would say that there is no religious exercise, from which they derive so little sensible edification as from this. No earnest person will allow himself to pray mechanically, or to receive the Holy Communion mechanically; but there are parts of the Holy Scripture (especially its narrative and predictive parts) which it is really very hard to read with any thing beyond attention,-which it is very hard to realize as the Voice of God communicating instruction to His People. Familiarity with the letter of the English Translation increases the difficulty. In some parts, the collocation of every sentence, and of every word in every sentence, is known to us beforehand. This deadens the impression with which haply the Truth might be received, if it now made its entrance into the mind for the first time, or if, at least, it was clothed in a new form of language, or enforced by a fresh illustration. The present Chapter shall be devoted to the consideration of that which lies at the foundation of the whole subject-THE POSITION OF THE STUDY OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURE IN THE SCHEME OF THE MEANS OF GRACE. The relations of our subject to other portions of the vast field lying around it, I will thus be better understood. What is the great end and purpose of the Dispensation under which we live? It is to make men one with God-partakers of the Divine Nature. This is the great end. All means and instruments find their fulfilment, all hopes and desires find their consummation, here. When the union of man with God, by our participation in the Divine Nature, is achieved, the object of the whole Scheme of Redemption is achieved. Christ descended from Heaven, and took our nature, and suffered in it, in order that, through His Mediation, -through the instrumentality of His Passion and Grace, we might be lifted up into a participation of the Divine Nature. - This of itself is a glorious thought—the designed oneness of us, sinful creatures of dust, with the Most High God. I must not, however, linger upon it, but pass on. The Holy Sacraments represent, and where they are duly received, effectuate this union. Baptism, duly received, grafts into Christ; so that the worthy recipient of Baptism as really belongs to Christ, is as really a part of Christ thenceforward, as an ingrafted branch becomes, by ingrafting, part of the vine. The union once cemented must be continued. In Nature, it is continued by a constant inflowing of the sap from the vinestock into the branch. In Grace, it is continued by a constant inflowing of the Holy Spirit from CHRIST into the believer's soul. This constant influx of cementing Grace is ministered, in all cases where that Holy Sacrament can be had, through a penitent and faithful reception of the Lord's Supper; the Supper is the channel through |