Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

propagation of it by a few illiterate tent-makers and fifher. men, through almost every part of the world, " by demonftration of the fpirit and of power;" without the aid of eloquence or of force, and in oppofition to all the authority, all the power, and all the influence of the opulent and the great.

The EPISTLES, that is, the letters addressed by the Apoftles and their affociates to different churches and to particu lar individuals, contain many admirable rules and directions to the primitive converts; many affecting exhortations, expoftulations, and reproofs; many explanations and illustra tions of the doctrines delivered by our Lord; together with conftant references to facts, circumstances, and events, recorded in the Gofpels and the Acts; in which we perceive fuch ftriking, yet evidently fuch unpremeditated and unde figned coincidences and agreements between the narratives and the epiftles, as form one moft conclufive argument for the truth, authenticity, and genuineness of both.*

The facred volume concludes with the Revelation of St. John, which, under the form of vifions and various fymbol. ical reprefentations, prefents to us a prophetic history of the Christian religion in future times, and the various changes, viciffitudes, and revolutions it was to undergo in different ages and countries to the end of the world.†

Is it poffible now to conceive a nobler, a more comprehenfive, a more ufeful fcheme of inftruction than this; in which the uniformity and variety, fo happily blended together, give it an inexpreffible beauty, and the whole compofition plainly proves its Author to be divine?

"The Bible is not indeed (as a great writer obferves‡) a * See the Hora Pauline of Dr. Paley.

A fuller and more detailed account of the contents of the feveral Books of Scripture may be found in Mr. Gray's Key to the Old Tef tament, Bp. Percy's to the New, and the Bishop of Lincoln's late excellent work on the Elements of Chriftian Theology. That part of it which relates to the Scriptures has been lately re-printed for the accommodation of the public at large, in a duodecimo volume, which I particularly recom❤ mend to the attention of my readers.

Archbishop Secker, V. 6.

plan of religion delineated with minute accuracy, to inftruct men as in fomething altogether new, or to excite a vain admiration and applaufe; but it is fomewhat unfpeakably more great and noble, comprehending (as we have feen) in the .grandeft and most magnificent order, along with every effential of that plan, the various difpenfations of God to mankind, from the formation of this earth to the confummation of all things. Other books may afford us much entertainment and much inftruction; may gratify our curiofity, may delight our imagination, may improve our understandings, may calm our paffions, may exalt our fentiments, may even improve our hearts. But they have not, they cannot have that authority in what they affirm, in what they require, in what they promife and threaten, that the Scriptures have. There is a peculiar weight and energy in them, which is not to be found in any other writings, Their denunciations are more awful, their convictions ftronger, their confolations more powerful, their counfels more authentic, their warnings more alarming, their expoftulations more penetrating. There are paffages in them throughout fo fublime, fo pathetic, full of fuch energy and force upon the heart and confcience, yet without the least appearance of labour and study for that purpose; indeed, the defign of the whole is fo noble, fo well fuited to the fad condition of human kind; the morals have in them fuch purity and dignity; the doctrines, fo many of them above reason, yet so perfectly reconcileable with it; the expreffion is fo majeftic, yet familiarized with fuch eafy fimplicity, that the more we read and study these writings with pious difpofitions and judicious attention, the more we fhall fee and feel of the hand of God in them."*

That accomplished scholar and diftinguifhed writer, the late Sir William Jones, chief justice of Bengal, at the end of his Bible wrote the following note; which, coming from a man of his profound erudition, and perfect knowledge of the oriental languages, customs, and manners, must be confidered as a moft powerful teftimony, not only to the fublimity, but to the divine inspiration of the facred writings.

"I have (fays he) regularly and attentively read these Holy Scriptures, and am of opinion, that this volume, independently of its divine origin; contains more true fublimity, more exquifite beauty, more pure morality, more important hiftory, and finer ftrains both of poetry and eloquence, than can be collected from all other books, in whatever age or language they may have been compofed.

But that which ftamps upon them the highest value, that which renders them, ftrictly speaking, ineftimable, and diftinguifh them from all other books in the world, is this, that they and they only, "contain the words of eternal life."* In this refpect, every other book, even the nobleft compositions of man, must fail us; they cannot give us that which we moft want, and what is of infinitely more importance to us than all other things put together, ETERNAL LIFE.

This we must look for no where but in Scripture. It is there, and there only, that we are informed from authority, of the immortality of the foul, of a general refurrection from the dead, of a future judgment, of a state of eternal happiness to the good, and of eternal mifery to the bad. It is there we are made acquainted with the fall of our first parents from a state of innocence and happiness; with the guilt, corruption, and mifery, which this fad event brought · on all their pofterity; which, together with their own perfonal and voluntary tranfgreffions, rendered them obnoxious to God's fevereft punishments. But, to our inexpreffible comfort, we are further told in this divine book, that God is full of mercy, compaffion, and goodness; that he is not extreme to mark what is done amifs; that he willeth not the death of a finner, but rather that he should turn from his wickedness, and fave his foul alive. In pity therefore to mankind, he was pleafed to provide a remedy for their dreadful ftate. He was pleased to adopt a measure which should at once fatisfy his juftice, fhew his extreme abhorrence of fin, make a fufficient atonement for the fins of the whole world, and release all who accepted the terms proposed to them from the punishment they had deserved. This was nothing less than the death of his fon Jefus Chrift, whom he fent into the world to take our nature upon him, to teach us

"The two parts, of which the Scriptures confift, are connected by a chain of compofitions, which bear no refemblance, in form or flile, to any that can be produced from the ftories of Grecian, Persian, or even Arabian learning: the antiquity of those compofitions no man doubts; and the unftrained application of them to events long fubfequent to their publication, is a folid ground of belief that they are genuine predictions, and confequently inspired."

[blocks in formation]

moft holy, pure, and benevolent religion, to reform us both by his precepts and example; and lastly, to die for our fins, and to rife again for our juftification. By him and his evangelifts and apoftles we are affured, that if we fincerely repent of our fins, and firmly believe in him and his Gofpel, we fhall, for the fake of his fufferings and his righteousness, have all our tranfgreffions forgiven and blotted out, fhall be justified, that is, confidered as innocent in the fight of God, fhall have the affistance of his Holy Spirit for our future con duct; and if we perfevere to the end in a uniform (though, from the infirmity of our nature; imperfect) obedience to all the laws of Chrift, fhall, through his merits, be rewarded with everlasting glory in the life to come.

Since then the utility, the abfolute neceffity of reading the Scriptures is fo great, fince they are not only the best guide you can confult, but the only one that can poffibly lead you to heaven; it becomes the indispensable duty of every one of you most carefully and conftantly to peruse these facred oracles, that you may thereby "become perfect, thoroughly furnished to every good work."* They who have much leisure fhould employ a confiderable share of it in this holy exercise, and even they who are most immersed in business have, or ought to have, the Lord's Day entirely to fpare, and should always employ fome part of it (more particularly at this holy feafon) in reading and meditating on the word of God. By perfevering fteadily in this practice, any one may, in no great length of time, read the Scriptures through, from one end to the other. But in doing this, it would be adviseable to begin with the New Testament firft, and to read it over most frequently, because it concerns us Chriftians the most nearly, and explains to us more fully and more clearly the words of eternal life. But after you have once gone regularly through both the Old Teftament and the New, it may then be most useful, perhaps, to felect out of each fuch paffages as lay before you the great fundamental doctrines, and most effential duties, of your Christian profeffion; and even amongst thefe, to dwell the longest on fuch as exprefs these things in the moft awful and striking manner, fuch as affect and touch you most powerfully, fuch

2 Tim. iii. 17.
D

as make your heart burn within you, and ftir up all the pious affections in your foul. But it will be of little ufe to read, unless at the fame time alfo you reflect; unless you apply what you read to those great purposes which the Scriptures were meant to promote, the amendment of your faults, the improvement of your hearts, and the falvation of your fouls.

To affift you in this most important and neceffary work is the defign of thefe Lectures: and in the execution of this defign I fhall have these four objects principally in view:

First, to explain and illuftrate thofe paffages of holy writ, which are in any degree difficult and obfcure.

2dly. To point out, as they occur in the facred writings, the chief leading fundamental principles and doctrines of the Chriftian religion.

3dly. To confirm and ftrengthen your faith, by calling your attention to those strong internal marks of the truth and divine authority of the Chriftian religion, which present themselves to us in almost every page of the Gofpel.

4thly. To lay before you the great moral precepts of the Gospel, to prefs them home upon your confciences and your hearts, and render them effectual to the important ends they were intended to ferve; namely, the due government of your paffions, the regulation of your conduct, and the attainment of everlasting life.

Thefe are all of them objects of the very laft importance; they are worthy the attention of every human being; and they will, I think, be better attained by a familiar and practical explanation of the facred writings, than by any other fpecies of compofition whatever.

The plan of inftruction adopted by our blessed Lord was unquestionably the very beft that could be devifed. It was not a regular fyftem of ethics, delivered in a connected feries of dry effays and differtations, like thofe of the ancient heathen philofophers; but it confifted of familiar difcourfes, interefting parables, fhort fententious maxims, and occafional reflections, arifing from the common occurrences of life,

« AnteriorContinuar »