as having come from God, we shall at once yield submission to its declarations, and acknowledge it equally binding as the written word; but, until that be done, we have no right, after having seen the sufficiency of the written word, to receive any other rule of faith. Although, therefore, 1 am not in strictness bound to attempt any proof upon this subject, yet I shall advance some considerations from Scripture, which naturally lead to the conclusion I have

mentioned.

FIRST, let me observe, that THE WRITTEN LAW was the ONLY one which the JEWISH CHURCH had. It is true some maintained traditions, which, be it remembered, were condemned by our Lord; but the only rule the Church really had was the written word. I shall give a few passages on this subject; and the first to which I shall refer, is in the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy, sixth and following verses :--

And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thy heart; and thou shalt tell them to thy children, and thou shalt meditate upon them sitting in thy house, and walking on thy journey, sleeping and rising. And thou shalt bind them as a sign on thine hand, and they shall be and shall move between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them in the entry, and on the doors of thy house."

I beg particular attention to what is here stated. 1st, The written word of God was to be the rule of the people themselves to whom this was addressed. 2ndly, It was to be the rule by which they were to guide their children, for they were to teach these words which were written in the law "unto their children." 3rdly, It was not merely the moral law, the Decalogue, that was to be regarded by them, but the whole written law of God, because the chapter begins with the declaration "These are the precepts, and ceremonies, and judgments, which the Lord your God commanded that I should teach you, and that you should do them in the land, into which you pass over to possess it; that thou mayest fear the Lord thy God, and keep all his commandments and precepts." ver. 1, 2. likewise, be it remembered, 4thly, that the law was not to be transmitted orally, but it was to be written: "Thou shalt write them in the entry, and on the doors of thy house." (ver. 9.)

And

The next passage is found in the 11th of Deuteronomy, 16th and following verses :—

'Beware lest perhaps your heart be deceived, and you depart from the Lord, and serve strange Gods, and adore them: and the Lord being angry shut up heaven, that the rain come not down, nor the earth yield her fruit, and you perish quickly from the excellent land, which the Lord will give you. Lay up

these my words in your hearts and minds, and hang them for a sign on your hands, and place them between your eyes. Teach your children that they meditate on them, when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest on the way, and when thou liest down and risest up. Thou shalt write them upon the posts and doors of thy house that thy days may be multiplied, and the days' of thy children, in the land which the Lord swore to thy fathers, that he, would give them as long as the heaven hangeth over the earth. For if you keep the commandments which I command you, and do them, to love the Lord your God, and walk in all his ways, cleaving unto him, the Lord will destroy all those nations before your face, and you shall possess them, which are greater and stronger than you.'

Now mark, 1st, a most important thing in the commencement of this passage. Here the Israelites were warned against falling into idolatry; and what was that which was to preserve them from it? Why it was the written word of God, because immediately after the warning contained in the 16th and 17th verses, it follows, "Lay up. these my words in your hearts and minds teach your children that they meditate on them, &c."-Then, 2ndly, there is here repeated, what was said in a former place, that they should teach them to their children, and write them on the doors of their houses. And mark, 3rdly, the blessed consequences and promises connected with adhering, not to the oral, but to the written word :-"That thy days may be multiplied, and the days of thy children, &c.-For, if you keep the commandments which I command you, and do them, to love the Lord your God, and walk in all his ways, cleaving unto him, the Lord will destroy all those nations before your face," &c. ver. 21-23. Now there is no other rule recognized here but the written law, and that law is said to be able to effect that to which I have referred, and the adherence to it is accompanied with the blessed promises I have mentioned.

Again in Deuteronomy xxxi. 11-13, we read thus:"When all Israel come together, to appear in the sight of the Lord thy God, in the place which the Lord shall choose, thou shalt read the words of this law before all Israel, in their hearing; and the people being all assembled together, both men and women, children and strangers, that are within thy gates: that hearing they may learn, and fear the Lord your God, and keep, and fulfil all the words of this law: that their children also, who now are ignorant, may hear, and fear the Lord their God, all the days that they live in the land whither you are going over the Jordan to possess it."

Here, Sir, 1st, there is a reference again to the written law. And was it to be a rule only for a certain body among the Israelites, and not for the whole of the people? Were the whole people to take the dictates of the priests of old, or were they referred to some infallible tribunal beside the written word?--not at all-for, 2ndly, we read in the 11th and 12th verses that this law was to be read "before all