habit; and if they be abridged of a little sleep by this practice, their bodies will not be injured, and their minds will be improved by it. It may also be observed, that hearing sermons, reading religious books, or joining in pious discourse, will often mislead, and seldom profit, those who do not compare the whole with the sacred Scriptures, by "daily searching them, to know whether these things are so or not."

III. Read the Bible with the express purpose of appropriating the information communicated by it from God to man.-When we have humbly and attentively considered and ascertained the meaning of any proposition; we should implicitly believe it, how contrary soever it may be to our former opinion, or that of others in reputation for wisdom. We ought to reverence the authority, omniscience, veracity, and faithfulness of the Lord, who speaks to us in his word, not doubting the truth or importance of any of his instructions, but studying the meaning of them in docility and patience. Thus deriving wisdom and knowledge from the source; through the appointed medium, we shall grow more learned in divine things, than any teachers or aged students who lean to their own understandings:* even as the bosomfriend of the prince, who learns his secrets from his own lips, will know more of his designs, than any conjectural politicians can do, though of far superior sagacity and abilities.'

* Ps. cxix. 98-100.

IV. Use helps in searching the Scriptures but do not depend on them.-The labours of pious men who have spent their lives in studying and elucidating the sacred oracles, may be very profitable to those who either have less leisure or ability, or are newly engaged in such researches; as an experienced guide may be to those who are strangers to the road: and it savours greatly of self-sufficiency to undervalue either commentators or other writers on divine things. Yet all men are fallible, and we should call no man father upon earth it must, therefore, be proper to compare all their elucidations, or inferences, with the Scriptures themselves. Above all, it behooves us "to ask wisdom of God ;" and to beg of him to give us the Holy Spirit, to remove from our minds every prejudice and carnal affection, and whatever may close them against any part of revealed truth, or indispose them to receive the illumination of heaven; as the vitiated eye cannot make a proper use of the light of the sun. He alone who inspired the Scriptures can help us to understand them and if we search them, in dependence on his teaching, and in the spirit of fervent prayer, " He will lead us into all truth," as far as it is requisite for our safety, peace, and duty.

It may be proper here to caution the reader against fanciful interpretations, which surprise and amuse, but mislead men from the practical meaning of Scripture and against those who pretend to modernize divine truth; not choosing to "speak according to the oracles of God," but as they suppose the apostles would have spoken, if they had possessed the advantage of modern improvements: a sup

position just as wise, as to attempt improving the light of the sun, by modern discoveries in astronemy! In short, every text has its proper meaning as it stands related to the context and its proper application to us: these we should seriously investigate, with fervent prayer for divine teaching, without presuming to add to, alter, or deduct from, the revealed will of God.*

V. Lastly, we should search the Scriptures as the navigator consults his chart, and makes his observations, that he may discover where he is, and what course he must steer: as any one looks into a glass, that he may both know what manner of man he is, and learn to adjust what is unbecoming: or as an heir reads his father's will, and the inventory of his effects and estates, that he may know what the inheritance is, and the nature of the tenure by which he must possess it. We should accompany our reading with impartial self-examination: both in respect of our knowledge, judgment, dispositions, affections, motives, words, and actions, in every particular, at present, and in times past; that we may learn the state and wants of our souls-and with self-application, as the persons spoken to, in every instruction, precept, sanction, counsel, warning, invitation, or promise, according to our state, character, conduct, and circumstances; pausing to inquire, whether we understand what we have read, and what we have learned from it; that, beseech

* 1 Deut. xxix. 29.

ing the Lord to pardon what is past, and to help us for the future, we may, without delay or reserve, begin to practise what we know, waiting for further light in such matters, as still continue doubtful or obscure to us. It would be easy to multiply directions: but the Scriptures, thus studied, are "able to make us wise unto salvation, by faith in Jesus Christ."

ESSAY III.

On the Scriptural Character of God.

EVERY attentive and intelligent student of the Bible will perceive, that to preserve or recover man from idolatry, by instructing him in the character and perfections of the one living and true God, and the way in which he would be worshipped and served, was, in some respects, the principal end for which revelation was vouchsafed. The jealous care of Jehovah to distinguish between himself and every idol, and to secure the glory to himself without allowing any of it to be given to another; with the terrible denunciations pronounced against idolaters, and the severe judgments executed upon them, must attract

the notice of all who are conversant with the sacred oracles, and convince every impartial person, that idolatry is the greatest of all sins, atheism alone excepted.

Yet in this, as in other things, the "wisdom of man, which is foolishness with God," has led numbers to adopt a contrary opinion: so that, whilst an elegant and admired poet has employed his facinating ingenuity to persuade the inhabitants of a christian country, that God is worshipped with equal acceptance, "by saint, by savage, and by sage," or whether he be called" Jehovah, Jove, or Lord,"* (in which connexion Lord may signify Baal ;) it is also become a fashionable principle of modern rational divinity, that all such distinctions are immaterial, and all religions very much alike, if men be only sincere in their way. Indeed, numbers seem to think that what they call bigotry, though wholly free from intolerance of persecution, is worse than any mental errors, even in respect of the object of religious worship! and that candour and liberality of sentiment are more important virtues, than the supreme love and spiritual adoration of Jehovah, as distinguished from all false gods.

But who does not perceive, that this principle, if carried to its obvious consequences, amounts to a rejection of the Bible, or at least puts it on the same footing with the Theogonia of Hesiod, or the Koran of Mahomet? Who can avoid seeing that it imputes bigotry and a contracted mind to the prophets

* Pope's Universal Prayer.