farther from Antinomianism as a whole.

It condemns sin in every part, and most of all in the mode of our deliverance from sin. After the richest displays of sovereign grace, it goes immediately to the good works, and the holy life, which are the fruit of that grace. Nothing has any pretence to the claims of scriptural divinity, which consists with the allowed indulgence of one evil thought. How vivid the blaze of its threatenings against all iniquity! How awful their execution in the person of the Surety, the Son of God himself! How alarming the state of those going on in sin under the Christian dispensation! He that despised Moses' law perished without remedy; of how much sorer punishment shall they be thought worthy!

4. ITS INEXPRESSIBLE TENDERNESS AND AFFECTION. No book is so full of tender feelings, of pathetic addresses, of heart-touching statements, as the Bible. It is not mere abstract truth, even in its most terse sentences; and its history is full of exquisitely affecting incidents. See Joseph's history, read Jeremiah, witness our Lord weeping over Jerusalem, notice the account of the Prodigal Son; mark Paul's character; observe him at Miletus; hear him addressing the Corinthians. Through the Bible, what tender expostulations, what affectionate entreaties, what earnest invitations! Scriptural divinity is truth, stated so as to win the heart by love. There is no self-exultation and vain display of learning in the teacher. No harsh requirements; no crabbed and bitter opposition. The very air of Bible truth is LOVE.

How charming is divine Philosophy,
Not harsh-and crabbed-

But musical-as is Apollo's lute-
And a perpetual feast.-

-MILTON.

5. THE SPIRIT OF DEVOTION BREATHES IN ALL THE SCRIPTURES. God walking with man, and man walking with God, is the high privilege to which it

tends throughout. It begins with this holy communion in Paradise, it exemplifies it in the character of God's servants in every part, it shows the full restoration of perfect and heavenly communion in eternity. You see the most lively exhibition of the very interior of this communion in the Psalms. You have it manifested in the midst of active life. You behold it all realized in one glorious character, Jesus Christ. Fine bursts of prayer are continually breaking forth from the Apostles in their letters to the churches; and you have the enraptured praises of the heavenly host of Revelation. No divinity is scriptural, that is not devotional.

6. THE PECULIAR DOCTRINES OF THe Bible are MADE THE SPRING OF PRACTICAL OBEDIENCE.

You have in the first part of several Epistles, the doctrines; and in the last part the duties to be drawn from, and to follow such doctrines. When a precept is given, you will very generally find it connected with some one or other of the peculiar principles of the Scriptures. Thus the introduction to the decalogue is, I am the Lord thy God, who brought, &c. The principles are evangelical and spiritual. You may observe in every part of the Bible the utmost freedom in insisting on duties, without any fear of thereby weakening doctrines which might have the appearance of an opposing view. Men are in all cases called, if they would not perish, to give up their sins and turn to God; and yet the worst sinners are offered a free pardon. Our plan is not Scriptural unless we can readily act thus.

Yet TRUTH IS STATED IN MANY DIFFERENT FORMS. There is an advantage in this, as it is adapted thus to the various characters of men. God gives to each of his servants their proper gift. There are varied gifts in the sacred writers; the meek Moses, the devotional David, the eloquent Isaiah, the plaintive tender Jeremiah, the fervent Paul, the practical James, and the seraphic John, vary much in the character of their writings; but they deliver the same

truths, and the common features of Christianity are still preserved by each. There may be very different gifts, and yet all be scripturally used. There may be much diversity of statement without any departure from the analogy of faith.

And thus it is in human writers in our day. There is the practical holiness of Walker of Truro, and the evangelical glow of Hervey; yet both according to the same analogy of faith. There is the doctrinal clearness of Perkins, and the devotion of Thomas a Kempis; and yet both built on one foundation.

It is not therefore, the mode of expression arising from the natural character of the writer, but the mode of its statement in connexion with Christ Jesus, and harmonizing with the general features of the gospel, which constitutes the character of scriptural divinity.

We conclude with a practical remark: HOW MUCH SHOULD WE STUDY THE SCRIPTURES, that our mind may be embued with the train of thought and the very spirit of the sacred writers. Erroneous and unscriptural views arise from leaning to our own understanding and the love of sin. Let us then read the Bible more with earnest petitions for the aid of that Holy Spirit, under whose inspiration this holy book was first written, so shall we leave beneath us the littleness of human systems, and ascend to the majesty, and see the glory, and taste the sweetness, of the Divine Word.

CHAPTER VI.

ON THE STUDY OF PRACTICAL WORKS.

THE influence of practical holiness on the acquisition of religious knowledge, has already been pointed out in the second chapter of this work, and all that was there said will tend to show the importance of studying those works, the direct aim of which is to promote personal religion. The knowledge which is directly and immediately connected with our duty and our salvation, is the first thing which, as Christian students, we have to learn.

The Scriptures in this, as well as in every other respect, justly claim precedence, as the best book of devotions, and the most practical work that can be read. Next to the Scriptures, the most heart-moving, and spiritual, and evangelical treatises that we can procure, treatises which many of the older writers furnish on such practical topics as conversion, prayer, temptation, death, the Saint's Rest, the Saviour, the Christian armour, contemplations on the Scriptures, &c. &c. should be daily read.

To furnish his mind with knowledge is but one part of the work of the Christian student. If this be all his aim, it may qualify him to shine among men, and to dispute, and, with some advantages, contend with those around him; but its result will only be to inflate him with pride, and disqualify him for the indispensable exercise of humility and love.

To affect the heart aright, is the more important part of study, and for this end, after prayer for the Holy Spirit and study of the Divine records, such books as I have mentioned must be read, and read in the spirit of seriousness, self-examination, and prayer, and thus we may be brought nearer to God.

It is the fault of many systems of divinity, and many plans of study, that they leave out this more important part. Whether it be from overvaluing knowledge, or thinking this less needful for immediate use, it is, however, evident that students have not frequently had pressed on their attention, the great importance of studying practical and devotional works. The pious Ludolf has observed that the learned generally read authors, more out of a vain itch to fill their heads with knowledge and a party scheme, than with intent to improve their hearts in love, wisdom, humility, and meekness.'

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Such studies are in truth eminently needful for our real happiness and daily usefulness. If the heart be raised to communion with God, there is the best preparation for a spiritual discernment of the nature and value of the various sentiments, which in the course of other studies are brought before the mind.

Those books are mainly useful, those studies of prime importance, which directly tend to regulate the heart, to raise the flame of inward devotion, which make us more spiritually-minded, more holy, and more heavenly. This course of study is most calculated to discover to us that interior truth of God's word which is often least of all revealed to those who are learned in critical disputation, and wholly engaged in verbal niceties. Indeed all the accomplishments of human learning may leave a man utterly devoid of spiritual knowledge, and under the full power of a corrupt heart.

We are ready to think that time lost which is devoted to practical studies. By no means. It is not a loss, but a gain of time to read pious and devout works. Very often we shall find even the very doctrines of the gospel more usefully, more wisely, and more soberly stated, than in direct controversial treatises on the subject, and they help us to acquire that state of mind which is essential to the right reception of truth.