386.

It is the design of the Gospel to reduce men to the obedience of those eternal laws of righteousness under which we were made. - Dr Whichcote.

387.

It is necessary to know what God hath revealed concerning the way of pardon by Christ: it is impossible to know more than He has revealed. If men would forbear to explicate further, there would be more Christianity and less controversy. --Dr Whichcote.

388.

All reasoning on divine subjects will be found to fall short of its mark, if it is not founded on the authority of the Scriptures. - W. Danby.

389.

If we attend to the expression of opinions that are at variance with the Scriptures, we shall génerally find, that they are asserted without any reference to, or comparison with, the latter; -a proof that the comparison is shrunk from. - W. Danby.

390.

It is a part of the perfection of the Gospel that it is attractive to all those who love truth and goodness, as soon as it is known in its true nature, whilst it tends to clear away those erroneous views and evil passions with which philanthropy and philosophy, so long as they stand aloof from it, are ever in some degree corrupted. -Dr Arnold.

391.

There is no solid satisfaction, but in a mental reconciliation with the nature of God and the law of righteousness.-Dr Whichcote.

392.

In doctrines of supernatural revelation, we shall do well to direct our apprehensions and to regulate our expressions by words of Scripture. Dr Which

393.

It does not follow, that because God doth not enforce, therefore he doth not enable. That God should force agrees neither with the nature of God, nor with the nature of man; but that God should enable agrees with both, as he is the Creator, and we, creatures. - Dr Whichcote.

394.

The true and grand idea of a Church is a society for the purpose of making men like Christ, -earth like heaven, -the kingdoms of the world the Kingdom of Christ. - Dr Arnold.

395.

When human institutions enjoin anything as a necessary and essential part of religion, which God has not made so; or when they impose such rites, as through their number, or nature of them, cherish superstition, obscure the gospel, weaken its force, or prove burdensome to us, they are to be rejected, and not complied with. - Dr T. Fuller.

396.

No man is to make religion for himself, but to receive it from God: and the teachers of the Church are not to make religion for their hearers, but to shew it only as received from God.-Dr Whichcote. 397.

I am very deeply persuaded that the main cause of the prevalent departures from sound doctrine is, that men take their sentiments from each other, instead of deriving them from the Bible.-Bp. Shirley.

398.

If there were in one steeple two bells in unison, would not the striking of the one move the other more, than if it were of another note?

399.

Knowledge of the Scriptures seems to consist in two things, so essentially united, however, that I scarcely like to separate them even in thought,

the one I will call the knowledge of the contents of the Scriptures in themselves; the other the knowledge of their application to us, and our own times and circumstances. - Dr Arnold.

400.

A clergyman's profession is the knowledge and practice of Christianity, with no more particular profession to distract his attention from it. While all men, therefore, should study the Scriptures, he should study them thoroughly; because from them only is the knowledge of Christianity to be obtained.

-Dr Arnold.

401.

One mistake in principles of action is of worse consequence than several false opinions which end in speculation.-Dr Whichcote.

402.

To interpret the literal parts of Scripture allegorically, and the prophetic or figurative parts literally, betrays the same qualities of mind, namely, dissatisfaction with simple truth, and a predilection for the marvellous or imaginary.-W. B. Clulow.

403.

The written word of God is not the first, or only discovery of the duty of man (Rom. ii. 15, 29). It doth gather together, and repeat, and reinforce, and charge upon us, the scattered and neglected principles of God's creation, that have suffered prejudice and diminution, by the defection and apostacy of man, who has abused his nature and has passed into a contrary spirit. - Dr Whichcote.

404.

It is not scriptural, but fanatical, to oppose faith to reason. Faith is properly opposed to sense, and is the listening to the dictates of the higher part of our mind, to which alone God speaks, rather than to the lower part of us, to which the world speaks. Dr Arnold.

405.

Jest not with the two-edged sword of God's word. Dr T. Fuller.

406.

There are things in the Sacred Writings which are above the reach of our comprehension; but there are none which are above the reach of our feelings; and if our reason is unable to judge of the things (mysterious as they are) themselves, it is very well to ascertain the justness of those feelings which are excited by them. - W. Danby.

407.

In the adaptation of the Word of God to intellects of all dimensions, it resembles the natural light, which is equally suited to the eye of the minutest insect, and to the extended vision of man. -W. B. Clulow.

408.

In matters of weight, wherein the honour of God, and the safety of men's souls are concerned, Scripture is punctual, clear, full, and particular; that our faith may be better directed, and we ourselves preserved against cheats and imposture. But as to other matters, they are left to Christian prudence, discretion, and fidelity.-Dr T. Fuller.

409.

It would be no slight service to the cause of Christianity, to trace the influence of experimental religion on intellectual character and happiness. It would also be curious, and not uninstructive, to reverse the process, by considering the operation of intellectual peculiarities, especially of the imaginative faculty, on religious character and experience. -W, B. Clulow.

410.

Were a plain unlettered man, but endowed with common sense, and a certain quantum of observation and of reflection, to read over attentively the four

Gospels, and the Acts of the Apostles, without any note or comment, I hugely doubt whether it would enter into his ears to hear, his eyes to see, or his heart to conceive, the purport of many ideas signified by many words ending in ism, which nevertheless have cost Christendom rivers of ink, and oceans of blood. Lacon.

411.

The apotheosis of error is the greatest evil of all, and when folly is worshipped, it is, as it were, a plague spot upon the understanding. Yet some of the moderns have indulged this folly with such consummate inconsiderateness, that they have endeavoured to build a system of natural philosophy on the first chapter of Genesis, the book of Job, and other parts of Scripture; seeking thus the dead amongst the living. - Bacon. 412.

Many expositions of Scripture have been constructed on a false principle, namely, that the whole of the Bible requires elucidation; whereas the greater part is perfectly simple, and easy of comprehension. The only effect of these attempts to explain what needs no explanation is, that you get the same sentiment in different words, but generally so impaired by amplification, that it has lost half its majesty and beauty. Akin to this mode of dealing with Holy Writ, are endeavours to clear up what is impenetrable. Many seem reluctant to admit that any phrase or proposition in Scripture can defy interpretation; while of passages which have baffled the keenest wits, they will tender a solution, or rather a number of contradictory solutions, which every unsophisticated judgment would reject with contempt. If scepticism is an evidence of impiety, facility in adopting the glosses of critics and expositors would in many instances involve an abandonment of reason. The crudities that have been