use of the ancient Hebrew, and had widely departed from its genius. The spirit of their writings was thenceforth borrowed from the Greeks on the one side, and from the Orientals on the other. Their writers could as soon have added a cubit to their stature, as have emulated by one additional work their ancient Scriptures.

If they were unable to add, they were also precluded from diminishing, their reverence for their Sacred writings on the one hand, and the Greek version of Alexandria, on the other, prevented the loss of any portion of the Old Testament. Farther, the Hebrew canon received the sanction of our Saviour, which, of itself, determines the integrity of the Old Testament.

But, if God by his providence thus secured the preservation of that covenant which was to be done away, we cannot, for a moment, suppose that less care was taken of the New. The gospels authenticate each other by their concurring testimony, while the last, recognizing the three first, stamps them with the sanction and authority of St. John and the various diatessarons, or harmonies on the four Gospels from the earliest Christian antiquity, marked out the recognized number, and secured it either from augmentation or diminution.The epistles, besides their internal evidence, were preserved in the primitive churches in their authentic form, such as they were received from the hands of the Apostles themselves. If some portions of the New Testament, were for a time, and for mistaken reasons, esteemed doubtful, the question is little affected by this transient suspension. The Apocalypse of St. John contains within itself, its own verification, and those epistles which were once doubted, being of small importance in settling disputes, are doubted of no longer, by those who receive the others as genuine.

Lastly, All the component parts of the Sacred volume possess a very high internal evidence of their authenticity,

from their forming a whole, where nothing is redundant, and nothing is deficient.

But this subject, from the great variety of particulars it might embrace, would require a separate treatise.

As the canon of Scripture has been involved in many of its difficulties from the wavering evidence of the Fathers, who embroil every question on which they are cited as witnesses, through the vagueness of their testimony, and the inaccuracy of their information; and as the question has been farther perplexed by the ingenuity of the critics, always successful in raising difficulties, but ever feeble in solving them; so the authority of Scripture has been weakened by a number of idle and scholastic questions about inspiration, and the different modes of it, as if it were not sufficient for us to know that the Bible is truth itself, that it has God for its happiness for its end.

author, and safety and

Not one of those writers who dogmatise so securely about the degrees of inspiration, and determine with precision the portion of divine assistance which each prophet or historian received, could have described the operations of our unaided faculties in the smallest matters of ordinary concern. The simple affirmation of Paul is sufficient for all practical use, "all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness ; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works."

IV. In tracing by inductive philosophy, the operations of divine wisdom, nothing is more remarkable, than the economy of means observed by divine power. Indeed, as we formerly observed, it is only by limitation of the means that the divine skill in using them is visible to men. Infinite power unrestrained would immediately arrive at every possible end, but its immeasurable energy would be

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beyond the reach of our finite comprehension. exercise of the divine attributes is therefore circumscribed, and accommodated to our humble powers, and the Deity, by the smallness, or apparent inadequacy of the means he employs, discloses by a new and unexpected, but clear opening, the excellency of his wisdom, amid the restrictions of his power.

our senses.

Again, nothing is more striking in this law of limitation, than the small means by which magnificent results are produced. The "solid globe" is built of scattered atoms; the visible creation consists of invisible parts; and all that is called sensible, by its minuteness, escapes the notice of -Not only is Divine economy beheld in the insignificance of the atoms themselves, but in the perpetual use that is drawn from them. These atoms are in continual service; no sooner are they freed from one combination, but they must enter into another; not an atom is for a moment thrown aside or unemployed. The same marks of Divine economy are observable in the works of the Saviour; "Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost." The same parsimony of creative energy that is remarkable in nature, distinguishes his miracles; though he had the power of changing stones into bread, he did it not. There was with him no waste or profuse display of omnipotence: his miracles, though supernatural, are still natural; they are conceived and executed in harmony with the resources and laws of nature which they suspend; and even where the object is to exhibit a power of controlling nature, there is a great economy discernible in the display of that power; whatever the Saviour did, met the intended end, and went no farther.

Simplicity of means, and multiplicity of results, is the Divine impress on the works of nature; and simplicity, with multiplicity, characterizes the scheme of revelation,

and the works of the Saviour. In the exercise of miraculous healing, when he benefited the individual, he benefited the world. While he gave a proof of his Divine mission, he gave a type of his healing the soul. He healed both the body and the soul through the same medium, that of faith.

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In the interior of religion the same conduct is observed; the simplest means are directed to the most important ends; no principle violent or contrary to nature is introduced, but from the ruins of our nature the materials are selected which are best fitted for its reparation.

V. Far contrary to the conduct of the Divine Being are the preconceived theories formed by human creatures concerning the mode in which it was to be expected that the Deity would reveal himself to man. "If Jupiter spoke, he would use the language of Plato," is a compliment which marks out how metaphysical and oratorical the wisest of the human race expected that the majesty of heaven would be, if ever he addressed the sons of men. And some Christian critics have been of no dissimilar opinion when they have attempted to subject the Scriptures to the rules of classical composition. Other divines imagine that writings which proceed from God must be dissimilar in all respects to writings which proceed from men. Some have conceived that the obvious sense of Scripture is not the most important sense; and that revelation is chiefly useful, as it suggests a new revelation to the mind. Others have supposed that every sense is the true sense; and that, as the Author of the Bible is infinite, so the meanings of the Bible must be infinite too.

Thus revelation has come to resemble Virgil's mystical tree at the mouth of Avernus, thickly covered with visionary leaves, and on every leaf a dream:

"Ulmus, opaca, ingens; quam sedem Somnia volgo
Vana tenere ferunt, foliisque sub omnibus haerent."

Scripture has thus been isolated from human sense and human life, as if it stood alone, and incomprehensible by the ordinary exercise of the human faculties; and it seems to have been forgotten that it was necessarily connected with this earth, conveyed as it was through the instrumentality of human minds, conceived in the finiteness of human thoughts, and clothed with the imperfection of human language.

It

VI. But not only has revelation no isolated or unearthly character, but it is stamped with the peculiarities of each of the human minds of those who were chosen to be the instruments of conveying it to their fellow-creatures. is the true, and not the supernatural,' which is the aim of the Scriptures,-truth freed from the admixture of error, impressed with the earnestness and passion of human interest, but, at the same time, with a Divine solemnity and sanction, with the impress and character of God. The minds of the sacred writers retain all their distinctive peculiarities and individuality; and their writings admit of the same illustrations which the works of other writers do, from their country and climate, from history, and from institutions.

By this simplicity of procedure in the Divine Author of our religion, we are furnished with new proofs for the authenticity of Scripture, and with new illustrations to dispel whatever difficulties there may be in its contents. While the humanity of the sacred writers on all other subjects, and their being only on a level with their ancient country in worldly matters, affords most striking relief, and an invincible argument for their inspiration, when we observe them upon the subject of religion, not only rising above the level of their own faculties, but to an incalculable height beyond the soarings of the greatest men, who in all ages and nations have attempted to explore the nature and