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reservoirs of texts; or as well stored magazines of miscellaneous theological aphorisms; from which every speculative theorist, and every inventor of an hypothesis, may discover some plausible arguments to defend his peculiar opinion. No matter how absurd his reasoning; no matter how inconsistent his notions may be with the analogy of faith, with the testimony of antiquity, or with the context from which a passage is forcibly torn away. His own interpretation shall be to him as the Spirit of God. The light is kindled from within ; and though its beams are not borrowed from learning, nor sense, nor sobriety, fancy shall supply the place of an acquaintance with the original tongue, and of the decisions of the commentator, till the Scripture speaks the language of Babel, to its Babylonish consulters.

Seeing the absurdity and unreasonableness of this perversion of Scripture, the Romanist has proceeded to an opposite extreme. He rejects the oracles of God as his only religious guide, and unites with them the traditions of men, to render them useless. He substitutes the priest, for the Deity-the leaves of the sibyl," for the pages of truth-the decisions of the ages of darkness, for the well deliberated interpretations of the studious and learned. Avoiding one class of errors, he thus becomes thé advocate of others, more dangerous, and more indefensible. By closing the Scriptures to the people, the very possibility of discovering truth is done away. Error, invention, and imposture have at length been combined into one unscriptural system, where religion and liberty are alike sacrificed, at the shrine of a predicted apostacy from the spirit and power of Christianity. That superstition must indeed be a curse to mankind, which is so bitterly and so sternly condemned in the Scriptures of the dispensation of mercy and love; and which is represented also as falling into ruin, amidst the curses or the joy of the nations.

Though the evils which have been brought upon the

world by the frequent misinterpretation of the Scriptures, where they are, as they ought to be, freely perused, be infinitely less than those which have been occasioned by prohibiting their use; their value, as our infallible guides, will become more certainly evident, if we prevent, in any instance, the misapprehension of their sacred pages. This task is the more especial duty of the Clergy, as their authorized interpreters. Every attempt therefore, whether of a partial or of a general nature, to illustrate the inspired volume, and to enable the people to avoid the two extremes to which I have alluded, ought to be considered as submitted to their approbation. Their sanction must decide whether the labours of the theological student, are worthy of the favourable reception of their people. Nothing, indeed, which is stamped with the general disapproval of the Protestant Clergy, can deserve the public favour. They are too numerous to be bribed; too learned to decide erroneously; too wisely liberal to be partial or unjust. Having no false creed to support, no unworthy objects to conceal, no inferior ends to serve, they approve or condemn from their abundance of knowledge, and the soundest principles of reasoning. Their decisions are neither arbitrary, nor capricious. The public, whom they influence, may not always receive its first bias from their opinions; but its ultimate acquiescence is uniformly founded upon a conviction, that the reasonings which convince their teachers, are satisfactory in their principles, and conclusions. The Romanist priesthood may command the submission of its flocks to the arbitrary decrees of the councils of an infallible Churchthe Protestant priesthood must persuade by argument and learning, or it possesses neither influence nor authority,

Within the last few years the sacred volume, under the blessing of the Almighty Providence of God, has not only been circulated in a great number of languages, among the most remote nations; it has been distributed

to an indefinite extent in our native country. The spirit of attachment to the inspired records, has even sometimes represented the sacred Scriptures as the only means of grace. While the Bible alone is justly called the religion of Protestants; it has not been sufficiently considered, that the instructions of a Christian priesthood are no less the means of grace to the Churches of God. The Bible is the map which directs, the Christian Minister must explain its directions: and wherever the Bible is read, a better interpreter of its infinite variety of blessings, is generally required, than the devotion, the zeal, the fancy, or the good intentions, of the reader. Much of its invaluable contents may be understood without any other guide, than the desire of the reader to become holy in the presence of God: but as the perverted Scriptures are the source of all error, and therefore of much crime, the interpreter is required to prevent its perversion. All sects, all parties, all Churches, are united in asserting this truth. From the Church which acknowledges an infallible head upon earth, to the society which sits in silent homage to the Deity, waiting the descent of a divine influence from above, upon its male or female instructors; all confess the necessity of some additional guide to truth and heaven, than the perusal of the uncommented text of Scripture. To the teachers, therefore, as well as the disciples of Christianity, I am anxious to submit the attempt to fix the primary meaning of every passage in the Bible, as the best foundation of correct teaching as the surest prevention of error-the guide to all secondary interpretations—and the solid basis of that undoubted truth which is contained in the Scriptures alone; and which may be always separated from the nonsense, the falsehood, and the folly, of misapprehension, novelty, and heresy.

As the contents of the Old Testament are miscellaneously arranged, and the respective author of each book

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was left to his own language, and his own judgment, in the disposition of his writings; we might naturally have expected that the same plan would be adopted also by the writers of the New Testament. The Spirit of God, which so influenced their minds for the common benefit of mankind, that they should relate only truth to the world, did not instruct them in the rounding of periods, or the stu died arts of composition: neither were they directed to observe one order of the several events, which each has related in his inspired narrative. One consequence of the apparent contradictions which have originated in this source, has been highly beneficial to the Christian Church: greater attention to the sacred volume has been induced; and every difficulty which has been proposed by such objectors as Evanson, Priestley, Middleton, and others, to the consistency and veracity of the Evangelists, has been amply refuted. There are no real contradictions in Scrip ture. The scope and design of each writer require only to be known, and then the causes of their apparent discrepancies; of the variety of their phrases, of their omissions, their additions, and selections of particular events will be fully understood and appreciated; and the value of the inspired books will be made to appear yet more and more inestimable. Another consequence, however, has been more painful. Christianity is the enemy of vice, in all its forms, all its plausibilities, all its self-deception, apologies, and motives. The least allowed indulgence of evil, is incompatible with the demands of this pure and holy religion. Anxious to reconcile a life of negligence of God, with adherence to Christianity; the careless, the irreligious, the presumptuous, the self-opinionated, or the indifferent, look for objections to the truth of Scripture; and reject the law, to which they refuse obedience. One source of objections proposed by the enemies of Christianity has been drawn from the apparent difficulties suggested by the various order of their narratives, adopted

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by the writers of the New Testament: and the evident advantage of removing these objections, and reconciling the accounts of the Evangelists, has induced many learned or enquiring men, in the earlier as well as in the latter ages of Christianity, to compile and submit to the world various Harmonies, which have been formed on different plans, or hypotheses. An eminent critic (a) has divided these into two classes!" Harmonies, of which the authors have taken it for granted that all the Evangelists have written in chronological order; and Harmonies, of which the authors have admitted that in one or more of the four Gospels chronological order has been more or less neglected." To these might have been added a third, in which the Harmonizers have supposed that the chronology has been neglected by all the four Evangelists. The Harmonists who have adopted some one of these plans are very numerous. I refer the reader to the catalogues of Walchius (6), Michaelis (c), Pilkington (d), Horne (e), Chemnitius (ƒ), and Cave (g), for a more ample account, than it may be thought advisable to give in this introduction. They ought not, however, to be passed by without some notice.

The canon of the New Testament was closed by the author of the Apocalypse. After his death the Christian Churches admitted no addition to the inspired volume. Each book, as it had been successively given to the Churches, was carefully verified, and cautiously received. They were at first adddressed to some one particular class of men, or were composed for one express purpose; and, before their general utility was acknowledged, they were received by the persons to whom they were addressed, in the sense for which they were composed by their respective authors. Thus the Gospel of St. Matthew, as Dr. Townson and others have satisfactorily shewn, was compiled at a very early period after the ascension of

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