THE HE business of the Christian priesthood, like that of every secular occupation, consisting in two branches, the speculative, and the practical; if any of us, by a particular blessing of Providence attending our temporal fortunes, are released from the necessity, to which the greater part submit, of a severe and constant toil in the practical branch of the profession, as the labour by which they have to earn their daily bread; it seems to be our particular duty to consecrate the leisure we enjoy, if I may borrow an expression from the profane sciences, to the theory of religion. And in the present state of religious learning in this country, it should seem that the cultivation of that branch A of it, which is called sacred criticism, and particu larly the elucidation of the text of the Old Testament, by a diligent use of the materials which the unwearied industry of a learned critic, supported by the munificence of the best of Princes, hath supplied, is the study in which, of all others, our talents and our industry might be best employed. It is, however, to be remembered, that the writings of the Old Testament are only of a secondary importance; for the evidence which they afford of the truth of our Lord's pretensions, and for the light which they throw upon the doctrines of the gospel which is indeed so great, that an inattention to these more ancient parts of the code of revelation, is likely to be one principal cause of the scepticism which unhappily prevails among our modern sectaries, concerning the original dignity of the Redeemer's nature, and the expiatory virtue of his sufferings. But in whatever degree the Jewish Scriptures may be useful for the general confirmation of Christianity; it is from their relation to the gospel, to which, we have been told by the highest authority, the Mosaic dispensation was but a prelude or preparative, that they derive the whole of the importance which they yet retain. A profound and critical acquaintance with them, is useful only as means conducive to an end: and in this, as in other cases, every solid advantage will be lost, that might be reaped from the improvement of the means, if, in the too assiduous pursuit of these, we lose sight of the end to which they should be made subservient. The theology of the Christian revelation is the great object, to which every other branch of sacred literature is naturally subordinate. To extract it from the writings of the apostles and evangelists, connected with the earlier revelations; to assert and defend their genuine doctrine; to preserve it entire; and to maintain it in its native purity, unadulterated by the additions of superstition, undebased and undiminished by the refinements of philosophy; this is the great business to which those of us, who feel themselves at ease and in affluence, and masters of the leisure which affluence affords, should consider their talents and their studies to be solemnly devoted. 2. My Reverend Brethren, I would be understood to speak with sentiments of respect, of those whom I shall take the liberty to call the labouring part of the parochial clergy: of those whose lives are spent in a constant attendance on the public ceremonies of external worship, or in the charitable and necessary business of instructing the people of the lower ranks in the first principles of the doctrine of Christ. Of these venerable men, of their godly labours, and honourable occupations, I would be understood to speak with reverence and respect. Of all the departments of the sacred office, the business of that which it is their lot to |