and plain moral precepts; while all that relates to the peculiar doctrines of Christianity, is left, as matter of mere speculative inquiry, in the hands of learned theologians.

Of the precise extent of such an error, no one individual can be an adequate judge; but that it is not imaginary--that it does prevail to a considerable degree--is a conclusion which I am convinced no one will doubt who has made extensive and careful observations. Indeed there is in the human mind a kind of indolence which tends to produce this consequence. The remark of the intelligent historian of Greece, will remain as true as ever while human nature continues the same; that "the generality of men are averse to labour in the investigation of truth, and ready rather to acquiesce in what is set before them." The Church of Rome only took advantage of, what she could not have created, this disposition of the many to leave the task of searching the Scriptures to the learned few,--to let them acquire knowledge, instead of themselves,--and to acquiesce without inquiry in whatever these should promulgate. The Roman-catholic Clergy were thence looked to, not as leaders and assistants to the laity in the study

of Scripture, but as their substitutes; and the word of God became, in consequence, a prohibited book to the great body of Christians; who were thus left to the guidance of men often themselves ignorant of Scripture, but whose ignorance the others had lost the means of detecting. This state of things, however, no priestcraft could have brought about, had not the dread of laborious investigation prepared the way for it."

That there are difficulties in many parts of Scripture-as great perhaps in St. Paul's writings as in any,--and that there is consequent danger of mischievous perversion, is undeniable; and is indeed what analogy would prepare us to expect: for if the Scriptures could be properly understood without any trouble, and were incapable of perversion to bad purposes, they would be extremely unlike the rest of God's gifts.

But the difficulties of Scripture, as well as the danger of misinterpreting it, are evidently an additional reason for diligence in the study of it. And St. Peter's implied censure of those who are

a I have treated of this subject more at large in a Sermon on the Christian Priesthood, subjoined to the second Edition of the Bampton Lectures.

unlearned (that is, ill acquainted with the religion of Jesus Christ) and (as will naturally follow) unstable, and likely to be blown about with every wind of doctrine, should operate as a caution, not against the study of the Scriptures, but against the faults which would lead us to wrest them to our destruction.

To examine into all the difficulties of Scripture, even of St. Paul's writings alone, would be a task to which perhaps the whole life of any single individual would be scarcely adequate to lay down all the rules that might be applicable in such a task, would far exceed my present limits; but it may be worth while to offer a few remarks on some of the most important, and, at the same time, most commonly overlooked, of those principles which should be kept in view in the study of the doctrinal parts of Scripture; and the neglect of which has aggravated, if not produced, many of the difficulties complained of (in St. Paul's writings especially), and has led, in many instances, to perplexity, if not to error.

§ 2. (1.) It is evidently of great importance, with a view to the right interpretation of any

author, to consider, and to understand fully, his general drift and design. If we are mistaken in this point, the utmost diligence and the utmost ingenuity may sometimes answer no other purpose than to lead us the further astray. Now it is, I conceive, not uncommon to consider Revelation as designed, in part, to convey to us speculative truths;-to increase our knowledge concerning divine things as they are in their own intrinsic nature;-in short, to teach us not merely religion properly so called, (that is, the relations between God and man,) but also what may be stiled theological philosophy,—a certain branch of abstract science. All men, it is true, acknowledge revelation to have a practical purpose; but it is conceivable that this might still be the case, though it were not confined to such purposes;-it might, conceivably, propose to our belief, both practical truths, and speculative truths also, distinct from each other; and such a notion of the christian revelation, may, without being distinctly avowed, be nevertheless practically entertained and acted upon.

(2.) Nearly allied to, and resulting from, such a view of the Scriptures, viz. as being, more or

less, of the nature of a philosophical system, is the expectation (before alluded to) of finding in them a regular technical vocabulary;---a set of terms confined, each, to its own appropriate sense, in which it shall be uniformly and precisely employed. This might indeed take place in a purely practical system; but in any case where speculative scientific truth was the object, it would be altogether requisite; and the more the Scriptures are viewed in this light, the more the student will be disposed to regard each word and phrase as bearing throughout a fixed and peculiar sense; just as might be expected in a creed,—catechism, --system of articles,--code of ethics, or any such composition.

(3.) In any scientific treatise, employing its own appropriate technical terms, any single detached passage will usually be sufficiently intelligible, to one who is familiar with the definition of those terms. It may, indeed, need others to establish its truth, or to be combined with it for the proof of ulterior truths; but not, to ascertain its meaning. In proportion, therefore, as the Scriptures are regarded as approaching to the character of a philosophical system,