"Ordo Temporum" was published in 1741; his "Gnomon," in 1742; his "Cyclus," in 1745; his "Age of the World," in 1746; his "Sixty Practical Addresses on the Apocalypse," in 1747 ; his "Testimony of Truth," in 1748; the "German New Testament," in 1752; and the "Vindication of the Holy Scriptures," in 1755. As we cannot thus notice his expository works in the order of their publication, without repetitions and interruptions, therefore, to bring the subjects as nearly as we can to that order, we shall notice first, his chronological and apocalyptical writings; and then such as relate to the New Testament generally. As introductory to both, we shall exhibit a few lineaments of his character as an expositor, by referring to remarks scattered in his writings, and particularly to his essay "On the right Way of handling Divine Subjects," which he prefixed to a volume of sermons by J. Chr. Storr, published in 1750, on the Liturgical Portions of the Apostolical Epistles.* In this essay, he draws a striking contrast between his own views of scriptural exegesis, and those of the Neologians; † and observes, "that the most important, best, and greatest thing that can befall us in this transitory world is, not the most eminent and permanent possession of science, talent, riches and power; much less the most plenary gratification of sense and appetite; but such grace and strength as will enable us to live faithfully, and meekly submissive to the holy and blessed will of God in Christ Jesus, so as to find ourselves in the way of attainment unto life everlasting. On the part of God, it is HIS WORD which is the means of substantiating this; and on our part it is FAITH; by the combination of which simple means we are brought into communion with God, and of course to endless happiness. Whatever, therefore, He tells and teaches us in his word, we are to suffer ourselves to be told and taught. Though there can be no doubt that our first parents were originally endued with the knowledge of God, of human nature, and of all creatures, and with ability to use this knowledge for their happiness, even then God gave them his word for the exercise of their faith. The patriarchs too, and the people of Israel, were led on by the word of God. It was for the assistance and support of faith, that He caused his word to be committed to writing by Moses, by prophets and apostles. During the sundry

*The essay was reprinted in the second edition of his German version of the New Testament; (p. 1000, &c.)

+ Compare his Letter (given above), addressed to a Young Civilian.

times in which these testimonies were committed to writing, God gave such witness of himself, by stupendous public miracles, and by glorious public manifestations of his power and presence, that no Israelite could entertain any doubt of the truth of such written testimonies. This confirmed assurance of Israel's faith was continued on to the faith of Christians; and thus He, who had named himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, was now called the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; whose manifestation in the flesh, and whose written testimonies of that manifestation, are confirmed and established by their accordance with all the Scriptures of the Old Testament; by his own exalted declaration; by incontrovertible witnesses who saw, heard, and wrote accounts of all; as well as by a multitude and variety of stupendous public miracles. The Scriptures, moreover, carry in themselves independent and convincing evidence of the truth, validity, and sufficiency of all the narratives, doctrines, promises, and threatenings they contain. Truth is its own witness, and exacts our assent. I recognise the hand-writing of a friend, without needing to be told who has written to me. We want not the stars, much less a torch, to show us the sun; it is only the blind that cannot see it.

"By the written WORD then, must every thing stand or fall. If the word of a fallible mortal is sometimes so much to be accounted of, what inestimable value must be attached by the Almighty himself to His own word, to all and every part of it; though the ruin of heaven and earth should be required to bring it to pass! It also possesses a supernatural efficacy. Sometimes it is beforehand with us; its power is felt, as it were, unawares, especially by persons who have never been familiar with it; it takes men captive, and kindles faith within them, before they have even thought what faith is, or considered whether they will believe, or why they should believe. This is a very different thing from conviction by moral, historical, or mathematical inference. Still we are bound to use the word of God as a means; worthily of itself, and suitably to the purposes for which it is given—namely, for our conviction and persuasion to believe and obey it. And in order to do so, we must inwardly reverence and attend to it; carefully investigate and prove all things; humble ourselves always more and more before God; receive the truth as truth, grace as grace, justification and salvation as in the highest degree desirable and welcome; yield obedience to the Divine will in every thing, to the best of our knowledge;

earnestly and diligently call on the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for the aid of his Holy Spirit; seek to make his way known upon earth, and acceptable to others; not rest in fair and promising beginnings, but perpetually endeavour to grow in the grace and knowledge of God our Saviour. They who are thus disposed, will certainly have the heart established with grace. (John vii. 17; viii. 31, 32; Rom. xii. 2.) They, and they only, attain the true wisdom, fellowship with Christ Jesus, and communion with his saints; are sealed by his Holy Spirit of promise unto the day of redemption; and gain an earnest and foretaste of that fulness of joy which they shall possess at his right hand for evermore.

“It is of unspeakable advantage for all ranks and conditions to enjoy together public exercise of the word of God in their assemblies, and hereby to grow familiar with it. The simple text of Scripture ought, therefore, to be more diligently read in our churches. But there is likewise great advantage in scriptural exposition, and in experimental and practical applications of Scripture by preached sermons and printed works: whereas mere productions of the imagination, however ingenious-mere elaborate and elegant compositions-bold and daring inferencesswollen, forced, and fiery words, which after all have no vital warmth such impertinences are any thing but to the purpose. When edification is made to consist in feeling that we admire fine invention, excellent reasoning, or beauty of language—which, alas! is all the edification which seems to belong to or to be sought after in many pulpit discourses, as they are called,—the whole amounts to nothing better than what St. Paul styles making the cross of Christ of none effect.' It is a destruction that wasteth at noon-day, in these reputedly enlightened times. "The Scriptures supply us with many precious things, over and above the fundamental truths of salvation. The books of the whole sacred canon, such as we now have them, were not handed down to us by chance or accident; neither are we to regard them only as a manual of sayings and examples, or as isolated relics of antiquity, from which no perfect whole, no comprehensive and finished plan, can be educed; but as a matchless, regular account of God's dealings with man through every age of the world, from the commencement to the end of time, even to the consummation of all things. They indicate together one beautiful, harmonious, and gloriously connected system. For though each scriptural book is in itself something entire, and

though each of the inspired penmen has his own manner and style of writing, one and the self-same Spirit breathes through all; one grand idea pervades all. Surely, then, it becomes us to accept with reverence, gratitude, vehement desire, and teachableness, ALL AND EVERY THING which God here lays before us; and not of vain conceit to reject or strike out any portion or particle as useless. For, in the word of God, one thing ever serves to illustrate and confirm another: what God effects in individual saints, and what he effects for his people at large, are mutually and marvellously interwoven; and a single glance at that vast economy which stretches itself out over all, is of infinitely more personal consequence to us than to know the most interesting cabinet secrets of all earthly potentates.

"Many a forced interpretation of Scripture is incurred by making haste to clear up every difficulty that lies on one side of a subject, and stumbling upon greater difficulties on the other. These should be distributed, as nearly as possible, to either side alike; which would leave us certainly a narrower space between them, but would serve the more to keep us in the middle and straightforward, that is, in the safest and shortest, direction.

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Experience, especially in these times, shows how dangerous it is to contract the attention to any point of Scripture apart from the whole. Thus we may err by a factitious glorying in grace, or dwelling upon one matter of faith to the disparagement of the rest (in the way that some really christian brethren have treated the subject of our Saviour's passion); or we may attribute too much to fallen nature's light, by adopting only such Scripture statements as we can explain and vindicate by human reason. The latter of these errors distinguished a sect in Italy before the Reformation, which was then very small, but which has now fearfully extended itself over France, England, and Germany. Numbers have hereby come to deny the very existence of God; while those who would make the best of it consider religion as nothing more than decency and propriety of conduct; and will not even hear of an atoning Christ, or of our righteousness in him, or of the work of the Holy Spirit (on the heart), or of any thing taught exclusively by revelation and above natural reason. Those who have settled down into the desperate resolution of not referring to the word of God as their standard of inquiry, it is better always to let alone; not a pen should be put to paper on their account. Persons of this stamp will hardly ever be set right by argumentative deductions, however legiti

mately inferred. The great work of true illumination and conversion, when it takes place in such persons at all, begins rather by a ray from the word of God at once, or upon occasion of some sudden affliction of a temporal or spiritual nature. But we ought to guard others against them, for the preservation of those who are more worthy the name of God's human creatures. This, however, is best done by applying his written word in its own simplicity. There are others, who, with all their respect for revelation, are still for carrying the exercise of our limited reason beyond its legitimate bounds; which necessarily leads to a multitude of errors. To such persons the following plain

thoughts may be of service:

"1. Reason is a noble and invaluable faculty of the soul; it is an instrument for perception of things spiritual and physical within us and around us. 2. Nevertheless, all the properties of this faculty are become most affectingly deranged and corrupted, so as now to be subject to very great ignorance; yes, to many doubts and errors. 3. But, notwithstanding this perversion and corruption of the reasoning faculty, we human beings still retain a high preeminence in the visible creation; we are not sunk to the grade of horse or mule, but remain men, and retain the capacity of perceiving and understanding things presented to us. 4. The things which reason perceives, are many and various; some of them are also of a mysterious nature, but have nevertheless been known to the wiser sort among the heathen. 5. Some truths reason perceives of itself; such, for instance, as a heathen, finding them in the Scriptures, may easily assent to, without regarding the Scriptures as Divinely inspired; others it perceives by scriptural revelation alone, and accepts them upon the authority of that revelation, by the exercise of a property which is very familiar to it upon common natural subjects, and which is called belief. 6. Therefore, in perceiving truths out of its own natural reach, but brought to it by Divine revelation, reason is to be regarded as merely instrumental: whereas, in perceiving truths which are within its own natural reach, it is to be considered as principal; for in these it makes and employs its own inferences; but in the others it is to us nothing more than a transmitting medium. 7. There are some truths which, though reason can of itself perceive to a certain extent, it is helped much more clearly to perceive by the Holy Scriptures; here, then, also it is rather instrumental than principal.

The truths I advert to are those which relate