which difference of opinion exists. Thus supplying a simple corrective of that very common and pernicious habit of neglecting or undervaluing some portions of revealed Writ, because they do not exactly square with our favourite systems, while we attach undue importance to others which harmonise more with our opinions. Sufficient, we trust, has been said to explain the plan we intend to pursue, and the care we intend to exercise in establishing and applying this important and interesting feature of Divine Truth; which would not only be productive of the extensive and salutary results to which we have alluded, but obviate many of those evils which so frequently arise from discussing points of difference, and prove a wholesome discipline to the mind; for if, as it has been observed, "In the Scriptures every truth has its proper place in the system and its proper use; if one encourages, another humbles; if one inspires confidence, another stimulates to activity: true wisdom will lead us to assign to every truth that place, and that measure of importance which seem to be given to it in the Sacred Volume. Were this mode of investigating the Holy Scriptures more generally adopted, there would be an end of almost all the controversies which agitate and distract the Christian world. The very disposition of mind which would be exercised in such endeavours, would go far to rectify our judgments, and would divest error of more than half its evils." As the plan adopted in the following Chapter to prove that every subject, as far as it practically concerns us, is prominent in proportion to its importance, differs from the general plan adopted in the remaining Chapters, it will be well to observe, that while the main principle has been kept in view, the examination of the subject has been conducted so as to shew not only the sufficiency of Scripture as the rule of faith and practice, but its satisfactory nature; and thus silence the cavils of the sceptic, encourage the serious enquirer in the investigation of truth, and endear to him the "Lively Oracles of God." CHAPTER II. THE NATURE OF REVELATION SHEWN BY CONTRASTING WE have in our possession a Book which all admit professes to come from the God of Grace, to lead back fallen man to the God of Glory; and the more attentively we examine it the more abundant cause we shall have to be thankful, not only that God has given us a Revelation, but for the nature of the Revelation He has given. What would have been our condition if we had not been favoured with the light of Revelation? We must either have been left in all the darkness of nature's night, ignorant of our present state and future destiny, not only unmindful of the Rock of our Salvation, but ignorant of the God that made us; or, could we have groped our way in the midst of so much darkness, and have discovered there was one Supreme Being, an absolute God, this discovery, so far from being satisfactory, would only tend to involve us in fresh difficulty and embarrassment. For never could unaided reason inform us, with any degree of certainty, whether we were the objects of our Maker's favour or displeasure. If we were to judge from the dealings and dispensations of God towards us, we should find ourselves bewildered in a labyrinth of perplexity. In the bright sunshine of prosperity, when the candle of the Lord shone round about us, we might infer we were the objects of our Maker's favour; but then in the dark and trying hour of adversity, when the tide of sorrow had rolled in upon our habitation and swept away our sweetest joys, and blighted our dearest hopes, judging from the sufferings of life and the inflictions of death, we should infer we bore the sad marks of His displeasure; and thus at the very time we needed the consolations of religion most, we should find them least, and our very sorrows and sufferings would darken our prospects for the future, being regarded as so many indications of God's wrath. Here, where nature is darkest, Revelation shines brightest ; unravelling the mystery by informing us of the cause of all our sufferings and proposing a remedy for every ill we endure. Oh! then what an awful and gloomy system is infidelity! which would rob us of our dearest hopes and sweetest comforts when most we need them, and cast a darkening shroud around the character of our gracious and forgiving God. Nay, what an unfair system is infidelity. "The Scriptures have diffused the light, sceptics have insensibly imbibed it, and finding it accord with reason, they flatter themselves their reason has discovered it." And thus, with the glimmering taper which they lighted at the torch of Revelation, would they endeavour to obscure the clearer light from whence they derived their own; and having stolen from the treasury of Divine Truth the knowledge of certain facts, these they would pawn upon the world as their own discoveries, and then endeavour to assail the bulwarks of our faith and sap the foundation of our hopes. Nay, further, what an unreasonable system is infidelity, for it would reverse the very order of things: Moses the servant of God informs us," The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law." Deut. xxix. 29. The infidel, while he wilfully neglects the things which are plain and practical and professedly belong to him, occupies his mind about those things which are secret and do not belong to him ; and because he finds in them heights too vast for the intellect to grasp, and depths too deep for the mind to fathom, he rejects with cold contempt, or proud disdain, those important and practical truths which belong |