which he is persuaded may be concluded and proved by Holy Writ. It depends, therefore, upon the judgment of each church to decide upon what it conceives to be the essential doctrines of divine revelation. It depends in like manner upon the judgment of each Christian to decide upon those doctrines which, as a minister, he can agree to teach; or, as a member to accept, as being declared in the Bible, to be essential to salvation. In other words, it is a matter of consideration with every man to determine to what particular community of professing believers he will consent to attach himself, or continue to belong.

The separate judgment of churches and individuals being allowed to be thus far the tribunal of appeal upon the essential doctrines of revelation, it becomes of immediate consequence to discover, -First, By what mode of interpretation is each church to ascertain a repugnancy between one passage of Scripture and another to exist, so that an apparent may not be confounded with a real contradiction? Secondly, Upon what basis is each minister and member of any Christian community to build his persuasion, that the things which he teaches or is taught, are or are not openly declared by the words, or legitimately involved in the statements, of Scripture?

Now, the Scriptures are a written document, written by man for the instruction of his fellowcreatures, and conveyed in that form of language

which was then the usual medium of intercourse between man and man, whatever might be the subject upon which they wished to communicate with each other. The especial purpose for which the New Testament in particular was composed may be fairly conceived to be conveyed to us in the language of St. John, who, as he closed the canon with the Book of Revelation, so did he complete the number of the Gospels and Epistles, by adding to them his own. In his Gospel then, and in his general Epistle, he gives the same view of the end for which he, and, therefore, as we may not improperly suppose, the other evangelists and apostles wrote. That end, as he says, is this:-The gospel histories* were written that those who read them "might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God, and that believing they might have life through his name." The epistles were sent to those who already believed in the name of the Son of God, that they "might have fellowship with the Father and the Son, and that their joy might be full," that they might be guarded against such as would seduce them into errors of opinion or practice, and that they might remain in the truth, and so continue in the Son and in the Fathert. The object of the Gospels and the Epistles is, consequently, similar. Both have been communicated to us that the man of God may be perfect, and, by the due use of both, be + John i. 3, 4; ii. 21, 24.

* John xx. 31.

thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Both are calculated to bring men to the faith and obedience of Christ, that, by believing his word, and keeping his commandments, they may do those things which are pleasing in his sight, and attain unto the fulfilment of his heavenly promises. But if such be the object of the whole of the New Testament, it is impossible, with any respect for the characters of its holy and divinely-enlightened authors, to imagine that it should have been so constituted as to leave the careful, and qualified, and diligent inquirer, under any insuperable difficulty, or doubt, in ascertaining the meaning of its expressions,-at least so far as to comprehend the things which are essential for the attainment of its great end. True it is, that the New Testament, like all other Scripture, was given by inspiration. But then, like all other Scripture which is so given, it must also be allowed to be profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness. Like the other testimonies of the Lord, it must be designed to afford religious wisdom even unto the simple. Though its divine origin, therefore, may lead us to expect that it will contain truths, which it is far beyond our reason to discover or to account for upon earthly principles alone; yet the Spirit of the Almighty, as it knoweth what is in man, must undoubtedly have the power, and, as the spirit of love and wisdom, must surely have had the will, to utter its

revelations, so far as they are necessary to be known and obeyed by all, in a manner which might be intelligible to the diligent and serious inquiries of all.

The result to which we have arrived will by some, perhaps, be considered as applicable to those only who lived when the Christian Scriptures were first delivered to the Church. To those of later ages, it may be urged, that there are various and insuperable difficulties. The languages in which the Apostles wrote have ceased to be spoken. Translations, varying from each other, and commentaries, in which the most learned differ and dispute, are now the channels through which the will of God flows into the mind of the generality of the believers in Jesus. Besides all this, the modes of speaking and thinking in those countries to which the sacred penman belonged, were strongly opposed to those which prevail in our own. With them the habits of expression were metaphorical and figurative, even on common occasions. We, even on the most exalted themes, labour, if we mean to be instructive, to be literal and plain. This representation, as generally correct, it is in vain to deny; yet, amidst all these disadvantages, there is a clearness in the declarations of Scripture upon the fundamental duties and doctrines of our religion, which it must be extremely difficult to obscure or overlook. By the Word which was made flesh, we are taught that all things were

made, and that, without Him, was not anything made that was made. By Him, it is said, God made the worlds, and by Him all things consist. Christ once suffered to bear the sins of many, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God, and through his blood we have the forgiveness of sins. The Spirit helpeth our infirmities, and our heavenly Father will give the Spirit to them that ask him. These sentences are so written, that he that runs may perceive them; and when brought to his mind, either by hearing or reading, the least educated among the sons of men would confess their meaning to be plain, unless their understanding had been previously confused and misguided by the subtlety of their teachers.

But this, it may be said, is the very danger we have to apprehend; for there are, and ever have been, those, who, either by mistaking or perverting the most positive assertions of Scripture, have denied the most solemn truths of the Gospel, and fortified themselves in their denial by such arguments as no ordinary Christian can withstand or refute, and which may not improbably deceive even the thoughtful and well informed. more; some of the chief corruptions of the truth have been made plausibly to rest upon the language of Scripture itself, and been defended by the quotations of texts, which, when separated from their context, may be made to appear to support error and heresy, as clearly as those to which I

Nay,