Now the very fact that the whole Christian world is agreed as to the reality of the inspiration of the writers of the New as well as of the Old Testament, appears to me, I own, conclusive as to the correctness of the inference, which it is my object to advocate. That the Almighty should have supplied miraculous aid to enable certain human beings to perpetuate, in writing, an infallible record of his will, seems at once sufficient to establish the assumption that such a record must be complete in all important particulars. Where is our security from error, even in the study of the Scriptures themselves, if they afford only a partial view of the Divine dealings with mankind; and if we are still left to trace out through the dizzy mazes of conjecture and orally transmitted doctrine, facts, without the aid of which the inspired writings would remain either vaguely inconclusive or hopelessly obscure? I am aware, indeed, that the existence of the Church was prior, in point of time, to that of the apostolical writings. True, also, it is, that the first preachers of Christ

ianity necessarily communicated their doctrines by oral teaching; but does it therefore follow, (is it indeed for a moment to be believed?) that when they did proceed to fix in writing, for the benefit of after-ages, those selfsame doctrines, they after all made only a partial selection of a few general principles? or even, if we can imagine them to have been so unwisely disposed, can we believe that the Holy Spirit which guided their pens, would have thus left its own work thus incomplete?

But let Scripture speak for itself. We all have the book in our possession. We all know the amount of our own spiritual wants, and the degree of information, of counsel, and of moral strength which that book is calculated to afford. Let us ask our own hearts and our own experience, " Has it left its work half done?" Is any thing by which we can really promote God's honour and service, left unnoticed and unrecommended by it? If Christianity is, indeed, what Christ has declared it to be, the worship of God in spirit and in truth, and not a mere system of external or

dinances, are the sacred writings, such as we find them, chargeable with any defects or omissions, which disqualify them from effecting this their declared object, to the greatest possible degree? Let us, for the purpose of answering these questions, state, in as few words as the subject will permit, what doctrines the inspired volume, independently of all human traditions whatever, does avowedly contain. In putting the case thus, of course I mean by "the Inspired Volume" those writings which are by general agreement deemed canonical, the text of which has undergone the ordeal of sound criticism; and I am also assuming the context to be taken, without reference to sects or parties, in its plainest and most grammatical sense.

Taking then the word Scripture under this definition, and deriving our inferences respecting its purport from the unsophisticated meaning of its language, and not from the captious renderings of interested and prejudiced partisans, we can, I think, assert positively that the Bible does contain the following doctrines.

In the first place, the Old Testament having laid down the great primary position of the moral corruption of our nature, proceeds to show how, in the case of the single nation of the Jews, God so far interfered with the natural course of events as to place in the hands of that people a perfect rule of life, accompanied by a system of ritual ordinances, for the expiation of such sins of omission and commission as might naturally be expected to result from the admitted infirmity of the human agent, when subjected to a trial confessedly above his strength. These expiatory observances, however, though established by the Almighty Himself, are still spoken of by the selfsame Scriptures as imperfect in the following particulars: in their application they were adapted to one single nation only; in their operation upon social life, they were cumbrous and inconvenient in their details; and even with regard to their moral tendency, the righteousness they led to was rather that of ceremonial obedience than the spiritual worship of the heart. They were professedly

a provisional arrangement for a definite period, and for the use of a far from advanced people. The prophetic books of the Old Testament accordingly anticipate the approach of an infinitely more fortunate period. The distinction between Jew and Gentile was one day to be removed; ritual observances were to cease, and internal holiness to be effectually cultivated: the typical sacrifices of bulls and of goats were to be done away, and one great sacrifice for sin was to be made. God was to be reconciled to the whole human race, and that reconciliation was to be a free gift to all of every nation, who should ask for it. "Ho! every one that thirsteth," was their language, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat : yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price'." It would be quite superfluous to detail other passages to the same purport. They occur again and again throughout the prophetic books of the Old Testament.

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1 Isaiah lv. 1.