instructions of St. Paul. And such is most remarkably the case in respect of the system I have now been considering. It is a favourite point of attack to the infidel, and especially the Socinian; who pretend, and probably believe themselves, to have exposed to contempt the great doctrines of the Atonement and the Divinity of Christ, by exposing the chimerical pretensions of doctrines which are taught in conjunction with these, and represented as parts of the same system. And in others, the tooprevailing neglect of St. Paul's writings, as neither intelligible, nor safe, nor a profitable study, to any but theologians of the most profound learning and wisdom, is fostered, by attributing to him doctrines more likely to bewilder and mislead, than to be applicable to any practical benefit. Mysterious, no doubt, it is that the sacrifice of "the innocent blood" should be accepted as an atonement for sin; but in this case we know that the sacrifice was voluntary;--" I lay down my life; no man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself." Christ, of his own accord, offered his life as "a ransom for many;" but when we are told of eternal punishment

denounced against men for the actual sin of Adam, and this, not by their own voluntary choice, or by any act of their own, but by the absolute decree of the Almighty Judge, our ideas of the divine justice, whether drawn from reason or from Scripture, cannot but be shocked. When again we find Christ spoken of as suffering for us and in our stead, so that "by his stripes we are healed," though we cannot comprehend indeed, this act of mysterious mercy, we do comprehend that "there is now, therefore, no condemnation for them that are in Christ Jesus," but that his suffering in our stead exempts his faithful followers from suffering in their own persons. But when men are told that the righteousness of Christ's life is imputed to believers, and considered as their merit, they are startled at the want of correspondence of this doctrine with the former, and its apparent inconsistency with the injunctions laid upon us to " bring forth the fruits of the Spirit" unto everlasting salvation; because "God worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure," while we are told that Christ has already fulfilled all moral obligations in our stead. The Antinomian system

is unhappily the only one which surmounts this incongruity; and its advocates accordingly have availed themselves of the advantage :---Since, say they, Christ suffered for us, and in our stead, so as to exempt us from suffering ourselves, by parity of reasoning, the good works which He performed,--the personal holiness He possessed,--being imputed to us, as performed for us, and in our stead, must, in like manner, exempt us from any such performance of our own.

I do not, however, mean to contend that the generality of those who maintain the system in question are tainted, or are even in danger of tainting the minds of others, with the Antinomian heresy. It is enough to say, that if they bring St. Paul's writings into disrepute or disuse, by attributing to him, without sufficient grounds, doctrines which appear to lead to such pernicious consequences, they are answerable for the evil thence resulting. Whenever we teach for gospel-truths any thing which the Gospel does not warrant, we are answerable for the effects produced, not only on those who adopt our opinions, but also on those who dissent from them.

Let St. Paul, as well as the rest of the Sacred Writers, be studied with diligence and candour, and without any bias in favour of an ingenious and consistent theory, the offspring of our own speculations; let the student "prove all things, and hold fast that which is right;" and to this end, let him observe the wise maxim of admitting no conclusion which is not, itself, as well as the premises it is drawn from, agreeable to the word of God: and let the general tenor of each work in particular, and of the Scriptures in general, be carefully attended to, instead of dwelling exclusively on detached passages; and then we may boldly and constantly maintain every doctrine which we find to be really revealed, however mysterious, or however unacceptable.

We are, in reality, not preaching the Gospel, unless we both preach the whole Gospel, and, likewise, nothing but the Gospel; nor can we hope for St. Paul's consolatory trust of being

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pure from the blood of all men," unless, like him, we declare to men "all the counsel of God," and (as a part of the christian faith) nothing but the counsel of God."

ESSAY VII.

ON APPARENT CONTRADICTIONS IN SCRIPTURE.

§ 1. It has been above remarked (Essay II.) that the expression of St. Peter relative to the "things hard to be understood," in St. Paul's writings, has been employed to furnish an excuse at least, if not a reason, for neglecting and keeping out of sight those writings; as being, to the generality of Christians, both too abstruse to be studied with any profit, and too liable to perversion to be approached with safety. And the principle of avoiding altogether whatever is hard to be understood, or liable to be wrested to a destructive purpose, naturally extends itself, as indeed the passage in question cannot but seem to warrant, to other parts of Scripture as well as to St. Paul's Epistles; till the result ensues of an exclusive attention to certain narratives of fact