I fhall, therefore,

First, Shew, that it is every one's duty to fearch them.

And, Secondly, Lay down fome directions for you, to search ⚫ them with advantage.

1. I am to fhew, that it is every perfon's duty to fearch the Scriptures.

By the Scriptures, I understand the law and the prophets, and those books which have in all ages been accounted canonical, and which make up that volume commmonly called the Bible..

These are emphatically ftiled the Scriptures, and, in one place, the "Scriptures of Truth," as though no other books deferved the name of true writings or fcripture in comparison of them.

They are not of any private interpretation, authority, or invention, but holy men of old wrote them, as they were moved by the Holy Ghoft.

The foundation of GoD's revealing himself thus to mankind, was our fall in Adam, and the neceffity of our new birth in CHRIST JESUS. And if we fearch the fcriptures as we ought, we fhall find the fum and fubftance, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end of them, is to lead us to a knowledge of thefe two great truths.

All the threats, promises and precepts, all the exhortations and doctrines contained therein, all the rites, ceremonies and facrifices appointed under the Jewish law; nay, almost all the historical parts of holy fcripture, fuppofe our being fallen in Adam, and either point out to us a Mediator to come, or speak of him as already come in the flesh.

Had man continued in a ftate of innocence, he would not have needed an outward revelation, becaufe the law of GoD was fo deeply written in the tables of his heart. But having eaten the forbidden fruit, he incurred the displeasure of God, and left the divine Image, and, therefore, without an external revelation, could never tell how GOD would be reconciled unto him, or how he fhould be faved from the mifery and darkness of his fallen nature.

That

That these truths are fo, I need not refer you to any other book, than your own hearts.

For unless we are fallen creatures, whence thofe abominable corruptions which daily arife in our hearts? We could not come thus corrupt out of the hands of our Maker, because he being goodness itself could make nothing but what is like himself, holy, juft, and good. And that we want to be delivered from these diforders of our nature, is evident, because we find an unwillingness within ourselves to own we are thus depraved, and are always ftriving to appear to others of a quite different frame and temper of mind than what we are.

I appeal to the experience of the most learned difputer against divine revelation, whether he does not find in himself, that he is naturally proud, angry, revengeful, and full of other paffions contrary to the purity, holinefs, and long-fuffering of GOD. And is not this a demonftration that fome way or other he is fallen from GOD? And I appeal alfo, whether at the fame time that he finds these hurtful lufts in his heart, he does not ftrive to feem amiable, courteous, kind. and affable; and is not this a manifeft proof, that he is fenfible he is miferable, and wants, he knows not how, to be redeemed or delivered from it?

Here then, GOD by his word fteps in, and opens to his view fuch a scene of divine love, and infinite goodness in the holy fcriptures, that none but men, of fuch corrupt and re probate minds as our modern deifts, would fhut their eyes against it.

What does GOD in his written word do more or lefs, than fhew thee, O man, how thou art fallen into that blindness, darknefs, and mifery, of which thou feeleft and complaineft? And, at the fame time, he points out the way to what thou defireft, even how thou mayeft be redeemed out of it by be lieving in, and copying after the Son of his love.

As I told you before, so I tell you again, upon these two truths reft all divine revelation. It being given us for no other end, but to fhew us our misery, and our happiness; our fall and recovery; or, in one word, after what manner we died in Adam, and how in CHRIST we may again be made alive.

VOL. VI.

F

Hence

圈

Hence then arifes the neceffity of fearching the fcriptures: for fince they are nothing else but the grand charter of our falvation, the revelation of a covenant made by GoD with men in CHRIST, and a light to guide us into the way of peace; it follows, that all are obliged to read and fearch them, because all are equally fallen from GOD, all equally stand in need of being informed how they must be restored to, and again united with him.

How foolishly then do the difputing infidels of this generation act, who are continually either calling for figns from heaven, or feeking for outward evidence to prove the truth of divine revelation? Whereas, what they fo earnestly feek for is nigh unto, nay, within them. For let them but confult their own hearts, they cannot but feel what they want. Let them but confult the lively oracles of GOD, and they cannot but fee a remedy revealed for all their ants, and that the written word does as exactly anfwer the wants and defires of their hearts, as face anfwers to face in the water. Where then is the fcribe, where is the wife, where is the folidity of the reafoning of the difputers of this world? Has not GoD tevealed himself unto them, as plain as their own hearts could, with? And yet they require a fign: but there fhall no other fign be given them. For if they believe not a revelation which is every way fo fuited to their wants, neither will they be perfuaded though one fhould rife from the dead.

But this difcourfe is not defigned fo much for them that believe not, as for them, who both know and believe that the fcriptures contain a revelation which came from GOD, and that it is their duty, as being chief parties concerned, not only to read but fearch them also.

I pafs on, therefore, in the

Second place, to lay down fome directions, how you may fearch them with advantage.

First, Have always in view, the end for which the fcriptures were written, even to fhew us the way of falvation, by JESUS CHRIST.

"Search the scriptures," fays our bleffed LORD, " for they are they that teftify of me." Look, therefore, always for CHRIST in the fcripture. He is the treafure hid in the field,

both

1

both of the Old and New Teftament. In the Old, you will find him under prophefies, types, facrifices, and fhadows; in the New, manifefted in the flesh, to become a propitiation for our fins as a Prieft, and as a Prophet to reveal the whole will of his heavenly Father.

Have CHRIST, then, always in view when you are reading the word of GOD, and this, like the ftar in the east, will guide you to the Meffiah, will ferve as a key to every thing that is obfcure, and unlock to you the wifdom and riches of all the myfteries of the kingdom of GOD.

Secondly, Search the fcriptures with an humble child-like difpofition.

For whofoever does not read them with this temper, fhall in no wife enter into the knowledge of the things contained in them. For GOD hides the sense of them, from thofe that are wife and prudent in their own eyes, and reveals them only to babes in CHRIST who think they know nothing yet as they ought to know; who hunger and thirst after righteousness, and humbly defire to be fed with the fincere milk of the word, that they may grow thereby.

Fancy yourselves, therefore, when you are searching the fcriptures, especially when you are reading the New Teftament, to be with Mary fitting at the feet of the holy JESUS; and be as willing to learn what God fhall teach you, as Samuel was, when he said, " "Speak, LORD, for thy fervant heareth."

Oh that the unbelievers would pull down every high thought and imagination that exalts itself against the revealed will of God! O that they would, like new-born babes, defire to be fed with the pure milk of the word! then we should have them no longer fcoffing at Divine Revelation, nor would they read the Bible any more with the fame intent the Philiftines brought out Sampson, to make sport at it; but they would fee the divine image and fuperfcription written upon every line. They would hear GOD fpeaking unto their fouls by it, and, confequently, be built up in the knowledge and fear of him, who is the Author thereof.

Thirdly, Search the fcriptures, with a fincere intention to put in practice what you read.

A defire to do the will of God is the only way to know it; if any man will do my will, fays JESUS CHRIST, "He fhall know of my doctrine, whether it be of GOD, or whether I fpeak of myfelf." As he alfo fpeaks in another place to his difciples, "To you, (who are willing to practife your duty) it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to those that are without, (who only want to raise cavils against my doctrine) all these things are spoken in parables, that seeing they may fee and not understand, and hearing they may hear and not perceive."

For it is but juft in GoD to fend thofe ftrong delufions, that they may believe a lie, and to conceal the knowledge of himself from all fuch as do not feek him with a single intention.

JESUS CHRIST is the fame now, as formerly, to those who defire to know from his word, who he is that they may believe on, and live by; and to him he will reveal himself as clearly as he did to the woman of Samaria, when he said, “ I that speak to thee am he," or as he did to the man that was born blind, whom the Jews had caft out for his name's fake, "He that talketh with thee, is he." But to those who confult his word with a defire neither to know him, nor keep his commandments, but either merely for their entertainment, or to scoff at the fimplicity of the manner in which he is revealed, to those, I fay, he never will reveal himfelf, though they should search the fcriptures to all eternity. As he never would tell those whether he was the Meftah or not, who put that question to him either out of curiofity, or that they might have whereof to accufe him.

Fourthly, In order to fearch the fcriptures ftill more effectually, make an application of every thing you read to your own hearts.

For whatever was written in the book of GOD, was written for our learning. And what CHRIST faid unto those aforetime, we must look upon as fpoken to us alfo: for fince the holy fcriptures are nothing but a revelation from GOD, how fallen man is to be restored by JESUS CHRIST: all the precepts, threats, and promifes, belong to us and to our children, as well as to thofe, to whom they were immediately made known.