is good," an advice which breathes nothing of that narrow, jealous, sectarian spirit, which hath so long and so generally prevailed among christians of all denominations, and hath proved the greatest pest of the cause. Or in case one's situation exposes him to the attacks of wranglers, it may be necessary also on this account to furnish himself with armour where he soonest can, that he may neither be seduced by their sophisms, nor give them the appearance of a triumph at the expense of truth. But where neither of these is the case, I am not satisfied that this summary way of proceeding is the best. Would you then have the theological student to neglect this most important question, concerning the truth of revelation, the foundation of all the rest? By no means. I dissuade only from his taking this hasty way of overloading his memory with the productions of others, and with all the trash that has been hatched in disputatious idle heads, I only dissuade from this, that I may indicate the method whereby he may be enabled to search the cause itself to the bottom, and if possible to produce some. thing of his own.

It was observed, that some of the arguments against revelation were of a philosophic nature, deriving, or at least pretending to derive their efficacy from the sources of pneumatology, logic, ethics, and natural theology; others of an historical nature, and others critical. Let us therefore become acquainted with these several sources, pneumatology, history, criticism, and we shall not need to see with other's eyes, and to retail by rote the answers that have been given by others. We shall be qualified to see with our own eyes, and to give answers for ourselves, arising from

our own knowledge and distinct apprehension of the subject. But this, it will be said, is assigning us by much the harder task of the two. The streams are open and at hand, the fountain is often remote and hidden from our view. True indeed, and therefore without doubt it will be longer before we reach it, but when we have reached it, our work is done ;whereas the streams are numberless, every day discovers some unknown before, and to examine them all severally is endless. And though the task were possible, it would not be near so satisfactory to the mind.

It has been the error of ages, and still is of the present age, that to have read much is to be very learned. There is not, I may say, a greater heresy against common sense. Reading is doubtless necessary, and it must be owned, that eminence in knowledge is not to be attained without it. But two things are ever specially to be regarded on this topic, which are these. First, that more depends on the quality of what we read, than on the quantity; secondly, more depends on the use, which by reflection, conversation, and composition we have made, of what we read, than upon both the former. In whatever depends upon history, or the knowledge of languages, the materials indeed can only be furnished us by reading; but if that reading be properly conducted and improved, its influence will be very extensive. Whilst therefore it is by far the too general cry, " Read, read, commentators, systematists, paraphrasts, controvertists, demonstrations, confutations, apologies, answers, defences, replies, and ten thousand other such like;" I should think the most important advice to be, "Le, voutly study the scriptures themselves, if would

you

understand their doctrine in singleness of heart." Get acquainted with the sacred history, in all its parts, Jewish, canonical, ecclesiastic. Study the sacred languages, observe the peculiarities of their diction. At-. tend to the idiom of the Hebrew, and of the ancient Greek translation, between which and the style of the New Testament there is a great affinity. Study the Jewish and ancient customs, polity, laws, ceremonies, institutions, manners, and with the help of some knowledge in natural theology and the philosophy of the human mind, you will have ground to believe, that, with the blessing of God, ye shall in a great measure serve as commentators, controvertists, systematists, and in short, every thing to yourselves. Without these helps, you are but bewildered and lost in the chaos of contradictory comments and opposite opinions. On the contrary, overlooking all cavils for a time, pursue the track now pointed out, and as the light from its genuine sources above mentioned breaks in upon you, the objections, like the shades of night, will vanish of themselves. Many of those objections you will discover to be founded in an ignorance of human nature and of the nature of evidence, many in an ignorance of that which is the subject of debate, the genius, the doctrine, the precepts of revelation. You will find, that many doughty combatants, who have imagined they have been performing wonders for the subversion of the cause of Christ, have been wasting all their ammunition against the traditions and inventions of men, and that the pure institution of Jesus is not one jot affected by their argument. Patience therefore we would recommend to the young student in regard to particular cavils against religion, till once

he is provided of a fund of his own from which he may be enabled to perceive their futility and to refute them. The only just exceptions to this rule are those already mentioned. When objections are obtruded on him, which tend to unsettle his own mind, or which, if he is incapable of answering or eluding, may afford matter of triumph to infidelity, then it is proper to recur to the nearest methods of removing them.

But some perhaps will be ready to urge, Is not this method of yours rather preposterous? Ought we not first to be satisfied of the truth of revelation, and then enter on the examination of its contents? Its divine origin therefore is doubtless the first question, its particular doctrines come next. This to a superficial inquirer must appear plausible, but it is by no means just. It was observed already, that one principal source of evidence, either in favour of revelation or against it, is its own character, and this we call the intrinsic evidence. To take the most effectual methods therefore of coming at the knowledge of its character, that is, of discovering what it contains, is in fact to take the most effectual method of studying one principal fund of evidence, either for or against it. Again, in regard to the attacks that are made upon christianity, it is impossible we should judge, whether they be just or unjust, till we have gotten some notion of what christianity is. This is the more necessary as we see under this identical name, things in many respects widely different, are in different places attacked. The infidel has not quite the same object in England as in Spain, nor in Sweden as in either, nor in Switzerland as .in any of the three. The case is, every assailant attaches to the name all the religious opinions generally received

in the place where he resides. But if it is the institution of Christ, of the truth of which we are anxious to be ascertained, and not the glosses of our rabbies; if it is the commandments of God which excite our zeal, and not the traditions of the elders or the establishment of our legislators, it is necessary we should know before we enter on the controversy, how to make the distinction between the one and the other. This is not the only cause, though indeed it is the chief one, wherein a great deal of time and pains is worse than idly wasted, which would have been spared, if the parties had understood sufficiently the subject in debate. I shall illustrate this by a familiar example. Suppose one should undertake to prove to you, that the constitu. tion of Great Britain is a very bad constitution in every respect. Could you imagine yourselves qualified for judging of the validity of his arguments, if you were yourselves quite ignorant, what that constitution is? You might be liable to be imposed upon by the grossest falsehoods and the vilest misrepresentations, which the bare study of that constitution itself might be sufficient to detect, and might serve abundantly to supply the place of every refutation. The method I recommend, therefore, is in fact the simplest and the most natural. It will at once, and by the same exertion on your part, instruct you in the contents and in some of the principal evidences of revelation, and thus it will both facilitate and shorten your inquiries.

To this, let me add, it is the method which I have, in my own experience, found to answer best. I very early endeavoured to become acquainted with the scriptures, which, from my first perusal, I saw merited a very close attention, though viewed in no higher light