the end he has in view; and who has taken efpecial care, in every part, and under every circumftance, of his religious difpenfation, that 66 our Faith fhould not stand in the wif"dom of men, but in the power of God."

By fuch a METHOD of extensive and various REASONING philosophically instituted and logically conducted, and upon thefe GROUNDS, is erected a rational and fublime Theology; juft as, in its different province, a system of Natural philofophy is erected upon physical and experimental principles:-a Theology, which, as a citadel founded upon a rock, challenges, in every age, the affaults of infidelity. After the most accurate and critical enquiry, the acuteft difcernment, and the profoundest learning, which have been repeatedly exerted on the one hand; after all that the keenest acumen, the subtleft artifice, and the deepest fophiftry, could object on the other, which a subject of the greatest and most univerfal concern to men could not fail to excite : upon thefe Grounds the Chfiftian Religion has been established and confirmed, as much by the attacks of its bittereft adverfaries, as by the defences of its ableft advocates. Upon thefe

G 3

thefe Grounds it has gone on conquering and to conquer, triumphing over interest and ambition, ignorance and learning, friends and enemies, the Pope and Ariftotle. Reafon and found Philofophy are thofe allies, on whose honest and faithful service she depends.

In every age and country, where they have

come, they have erected their standard in her caufe. They banish error and fuperftition, fcepticism and infidelity, from her shrine; and rejoice to place that Faith, which is the pure offspring of heaven, in the immoveable feat of the Understanding.

SECT. II.

Of the Study of the HOLY SCRIPTURES.

WH

HEN, by establishing the infallible Principle of Theology, the Testimony of God, that facred fountain from which the mysteries of religion fpontaneously flow, Reafon has cleared the way to the foundation of our most holy Faith; the fruits

of

of the heavenly vineyard remain to be gathered with diligence and preferved with care, and to be fo faithfully and plentifully diftributed among men, that they may be enjoyed by all, who are willing to embrace and to improve them, in the easiest and most advantageous way: which opens another field for the exercise of REASON in the province of Theology, in which the industrious husbandman will find more and different employment.

The HOLY SCRIPTURES are the fole repofitory of all the mysteries of religion, doctrinal and moral, containing the whole form and substance of theològic truth. They are ftyled "the oracles of God," fpeaking and declaring his will to every age and country, in a language, which, though fometimes plain and express, is sometimes as mysterious as the truths which they reveal. They are that fole and univerfal fpring, whofe living waters are to flow pure and unadulterated for the healing of the nations," to the end of time: and the critical ftudy and analysis of every part prefent the fublimeft fubject of rational investigation to the mind of man.

1

In this part of theology, the act of Reasoning becomes an act of Interpretation, in the conduct and execution of which, the deepest learning, the matureft judgment, the ableft criticism, the most extenfive information, and, I may say, the pureft virtue, will find ample fcope for the exercise of their powers. And as, in the prosecution of every subject, the firft and the most important thing is to escape the wrong, and to get into the right, road; fo, by adopting that method of interpretation, which is philofophically and logically juft, we fhall fave much fruitless toil, and be most fuccessful in the pursuit.

That, however infinite and various in his truth," the Lord our God is one God," confiftent with himself and uniform in operation; fo that one part of his truth is every where introductory to, and illustrative of, another, is the folid foundation of that logical analogy, from which the natural fyftem of the univerfe is a key to the moral, by the use of which the divine philofopher is enabled to unlock the celeftial manfions. A right knowledge of the difpenfation of Nature will,

therefore,

us,

therefore, furnish us with a clue which will lead us to the right knowledge of that Grace: and, by putting them fide by fide in a comparative estimation, we shall see that the true method of interpreting the one will introduce us to the true method of interpreting the other. • Two books or volumes of study,' fays our great philofopher, are laid before if we would be secured from error: first, the Scriptures revealing the will of God: ⚫ and then the Creatures expreffing his power, ⚫ whereof the latter is a key unto the former. The difplay of himself, in the great volume of his Works, will open to our understanding the display of himself, in the smaller volume of his Word: and the oeconomy of the one will illuftrate and unfold the ceconomy of the other.

Impreffed upon every thing we observe in the natural system of the universe, the Power, the Wisdom, and the Goodness, of the Deity, meet the eye in fuch bold and prominent features, as to force themselves upon minds the moft torpid and uninformed. A knowledge

Baconus de Augm. Sc. lib. 1,

alfo