Evidence leaves two classes in

213. And yet there is, in relation to these evidences, much unbelief both among inquirers and professed Christians. Among inquirers there is unbelief, doubt. for want of candour and teachableness: a fact, The uncandid which is itself an evidence of the truth of Scripture, inquirer. and in harmony with the general dealings of God. In common life, levity, or prejudice, or carelessness will often lead men astray, and even make them incapable of ascertaining what is really wise and true. And Scripture has expressly declared, that those who will not love truth, shall not understand it. So deeply did Grotius feel this consideration, that he regarded the evidence of Christianity as itself an evidence of the Divine origin of the gospel, being divinely adapted to test men's character and hearts.

De Verit, ii. § 19. See also Dan. 12. 10: Isa. 29. 13, 14: Matt. 6. 23: 11. 25: 13. 11, 12: John 3. 19: 1 Cor. 2. 14: 2 Cor. 4. 4: 2 Tim. 3. 13.

Among professed Christians, too, there is want of confidence in the fulness of the Christian evidence, and conse

And the careless Christian,

quent want of inquiry. Baxter has acknowledged, that while in his younger days he was exercised chiefly about his own sincerity, in later life he was tried with doubts about the truth of Scripture. Further inquiry, however, removed them. The evidence which he found most conclusive, was the internal: such as sprang from the witness of the Spirit of God with his own. "The spirit of prophecy," says he, " was the first witness: the spirit of miraculous power, the second; and now," " he adds, 66 we have Remedy. the spirit of renovation and holiness." "Let Christians therefore," he concludes, " tell their doubts, and investigate the evidence of Divine truth, for there is ample provision for the removal of them all."

Most of the doubts which good men feel may be thus dispelled. Others, chiefly speculative, may in some cases remain, and are not to be dispelled by the best proofs. Even for these, however, there is a cure. Philosophy cannot solve them; but prayer and healthy exercise in departments of Christian life to which doubting does not extend can; or, failing to solve them, these remedies will teach us to think less of their importance, and to wait patiently for stronger light. Ours is a complex nature, and the morbid excitability

of one part of our frame may often be cured by the increased activity of another. An irritable faith is a symptom of deficient action elsewhere, and is best cured by a more constant attention to practical duty. Difficulties which no inquiry can remove will often melt away amidst the warmth and vigour produced by active love.

CHAPTER III.

PECULIARITIES OF THE BIBLE AS A REVELATION FROM GOD.

"A man's love of Scripture at the beginning of a religious course, is such as makes the praise, which older Christians give to the Bible, seem exaggerated: but after twenty or thirty years of a religious life, such praise always sounds inadequate. Its glories seem so much more full than they seemed at first."-DR. ARNOLD.

"To seek Divinity in Philosophy, is to seek the living among the dead: so to seek Philosophy in Divinity, is to seek the dead among the living."-BACON, Advancement of Learning.

The Old and New Testaments contain but one scheme of religion. Neither part can be understood without the other.. They are like the rolls on which they were anciently written.. It is but one subject from beginning to end: but the view which we obtain of it grows clearer and clearer as we unwind the roll that contains it."-CECIL.

Sec. 1. A Revelation of God, and of Human Nature.

214. THERE are various aspects in which Scripture may be regarded. The most important, is that which represents it as a revelation of God and man: of God in relation to man, of man in relation to God: and of both in relation to the work and office of our Lord.

215. Scripture is a revelation of God, of his character and Scripture, a will. That will is indeed written on the works of revelation of his hands, and more clearly on the constitution of God, and of man but in the Bible alone is the transcript complete, and there alone is it preserved from decay.

man.

216. Or with equal accuracy, the whole may be described as the exhibition of human nature, in individuals and in nations under every form of development; holy, tempted, fallen, degenerate, redeemed, believing, rejecting the faith, struggling, victorious, and complete. The Bible begins with man in the garden of Eden, his Maker as his friend; and after a wondrous history, it exhibits him again in the same fellowship, though no longer on earth or in paradise, but in heaven: the whole of his forfeited blessedness won back by the incarnation and suffering of the Son of God.

217. More generally still, the Bible may be described as the

great storehouse of facts and duties, and of all A storehouse of spiritual spiritual truth. It gives authentic information on truth. the history of the world, from the remotest times on which all human writings are silent, or filled with fables; the occasion and immediate consequences of the first sin; the origin of nations, and of diversity of language. We thus trace the progress, and mark the uniformity of those principles on which men have been governed from the beginning, all bearing their testimony to the wisdom and holiness of God, and the mercy of the Divine administration. We trace the progress and development of human nature, and of the plan of redemption: the first, shown in every possible diversity of position, and the second, influencing all the Divine procedure, perfected in Christ, and exhibited in the gospel. In a word, we find all the great questions (whether of fact or duty), which have occupied the attention of the wisest men, settled by authority, and on principles which neither need nor admit of appeal. We have given to us the decisions of the infinitely wise God as the ground of our opinions and practices, and his promise as the foundation of our hope.

218. In no part of the Bible, therefore, are these questions inappropriate :

Appropriate questions in reading it.

What does it teach concerning man? or concerncerning God? or concerning the grand scheme of redemption? or concerning the restoration of human nature to its primeval dignity and blessedness?

Sec. 2. The Bible, a Revelation of Spiritual Religious Truth. 219. If this view of the subject of the Bible, be kept in Scripture, a mind,-God in relation to man, and man in relation revelation of to God, and God and man in relation to the work and office of our Lord,—one peculiarity of Scripture (as to its fulness and brevity), will be explained.

spiritual truth, on God, man, and salva

tion.

It gives the history of the world, as "God's world," and as destined to become the kingdom of his Son. It tells us of its origin, that we may know by what God has done, the reverence due to him: what is his power whose law this book has revealed: whose creatures we are, that we may distinguish him from the idols of the heathen, who are either imaginary beings, or parts of his creation.

All the subsequent narrative of the Bible, seems written on

the same principle. It is an inspired history of religion (of man in relation to God,) and of other things, as it is affected by them. Idolatrous nations are introduced, not as independently important, but as influencing the church, or as influenced by it: and thus narrative and prophecy continue from the first transgression, through the whole interval of man's misery and guilt, to a period, spoken of in a great diversity of expressions and under both economies, when the "God of heaven shall set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed."

That these historical disclosures supply ample materials for inquiry, and (had the narrative been false), for refutation, and that as they have never been refuted, their antiquity and extent are strong presumptive evidence of the truth of Scripture is obvious: but it is the principle of selection, and the clear scope of the whole which are now noticed. To convey religious truth is clearly the author's design. Whatever is revealed must be studied with this fact in view, and whatever is withheld, may be regarded as not essential to the accomplishment of this purpose.

220. Let it be remembered, too, that it is God as holy in relation to a man as a sinner, and God and man in relation to Christ as the Redeemer, who form the great theme of Scripture: and that what is told us, has reference to the relation of such Beings.

A revelation of God, as holy.

Take for example, the history of the first sin. The object of the narrative of the fall is clearly moral. It shows the progress of temptation, and directs our thoughts to the Saviour. We mark the conviction of duty, the contemplation of the pleasure which sin may produce, the consequent obtuseness of conscience, and the hope that desire may be indulged and yet punishment be averted, desire becoming intenser, passion stronger, conscience feebler, till at length the will consents and the act is done. Such is all transgression. The moral lesson of the fall is thus complete, though much is concealed.

Subsequent portions of Scripture are written on this same principle. In the history of Cain, and in the rapid progress of wickedness, we notice the consequences of sin, and from the Deluge learn how deeply man had fallen. And yet each expression of God's displeasure is so tempered with mercy, as to prepare us for the double truth, that God had provided a Redeemer to restore us to Divine

See these remarks illustrated in Bishop Butler's Analogy, 2nd Part.

favour, and a Sanctifier to renew us to holiness, and that man needed them both. Hence it is, that amidst all this wickedness, facts are recorded, which hold out the prospect of recovery, and even foreshadow the means of securing it. In Abel and Seth, and Enoch and Noah, we find faith in the Divine promise, and consequent holiness. They "called upon the name of the Lord." They "offered a more excellent sacrifice" than their ungodly neighbours, expressive at once of their obligation and their guilt; they “walked with God."

As the world was repeopled, human sinfulness is seen in other forms. Men are scattered over the earth, and ultimately, the plan of the Divine procedure is changed. A particular family is made the depository of the Divine will, and its history is given. Of that family, the son of the promise is chosen: and of his sons, not the elder and favourite, but the younger. The history of his descendants is then given with a double reference, first to their own faith and obedience, and then to the coming of the Messiah. There is both an ultimate and an immediate purpose, and both are moral. The institutes of this people illustrate the doctrines of the cross, and we have moreover, the record of their sins, for our warning, and of their repentance, for our imitation and encouragement. Concerning all these narratives, much might have been told us, which is withheld. Difficulties might have on this prin- been solved: important physical, or historical or ciple. ethical questions might have been answered. But we have to seek the solution of these questions elsewhere.

All written

Of Assyria, for example, we read in a single passage of the book of Genesis, (Gen. 10.11, 12,) but not again for 1500 years, till the time of Menahem (2 Kings 15. 19): and of Egypt we have no mention, between the days of Moses and those of Solomon. The early history of both nations is exceedingly obscure, perhaps impenetrably so. But the knowledge is essential neither to our salvation nor to the history of the church, and it is not revealed.

In the prophetic Scriptures, this peculiarity is equally obSo of provious. They are all either intensely moral, or phecy. evangelical, or both. It might have been otherwise, without injury to prophecy as an outward evidence of Scripture. The gifts of prediction and of moral teaching, might have been disjoined: but in fact they are not. What might have ministered to the gratification of natural curiosity only, is enlisted on the side of practical holiness. The prophet is the teacher, and the history of the future (which