POSSESSING THE SACRED SCRIPTURES. A SERMON, BY THE REV. JOHN HARRIS. PREACHED AT SION CHAPEL, ASHBOURNE, ON LORD'S DAY EVENing, "Because that unto them were committed the oracles of God."-Romans iii. 2. THAT God in the distribution of His favours, both in providence and in grace, gives to some a greater portion than others, is evident, both from the Scriptures and by common observation. One, hath ten talents; another, one talent. Some are doomed to labour with the sweat of their brow for the bread that perisheth; others live in splendour and affluence. One has an abundance of spiritual blessings; another is living in gross darkness, scarcely, if ever, hearing of the plan of salvation. But according to our favours bestowed upon us, so is our corresponding responsibility enhancUpon this principle the apostle argues in this chapter-"What advantage, then, hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way; chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God." ed. May not this text be justly applied to us as a nation? Yes. To us is committed that precious treasure, in the defence of which many of our forefathers have suffered, bled, and died. We shall therefore invite your attention I. To the treasure committed to our care "The oracles of God." II. The solemn responsibility of so invaluable a blessing. vine wisdom. oracle he prepared in the house within, to set the ark of the covenant of the Lord; and the whole altar that was by the oracle he overlaid with gold, and within the oracle he made two cherubims of olive tree, each ten cubits high.' Many other passages may be advanced upon this subject; but enough has been said to show, that the term "oracle" was at first used to denote that sacred spot, whence God communicated His will to His church of old, because there He gave forth the intimations of His holiness, justice and truth, and because there He communed with His people from off the mercy seat, and from between the cherubims of glory. In after ages, the term "oracle" was applied to all the several communications of God's will to the children of men, in whatever way imparted; whether by the mouth of the prophets, or by the office of the Jewish high priest, or by any other method in which the Most High revealed Himself to His erring creatures. Thus, when the word is used in the plural number-and it is generally so used-it denotes the revelation contained in those sacred writings, of which the nation of Israel were made the depositaries. We are therefore justified in applying the term "oracle," to denote the whole 1. The treasure committed to our care of that sacred Volume, in which we have "The oracles of God." truth without any mixture of error, and of An "oracle" denotes something deli- | which alone it can be said, that it is vered in the form of revelation, by Di-" able to make us wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus." The word "oracle" is first employed These "oracles" are Divine in their in Scripture, to denote the most holy origin. "All Scripture is given by inplace, from whence the God of Israel re-spiration of God." Holy men of old vealed His will to His ancient church. spake as they were moved by the Holy It is recorded of Solomon-(1 Kings Ghost." The Bible is the only Divine chap 6.)--that "against the wall of the oracle which God has given us to consult. house he made chambers round about, both of the temple and of the oracle." And again in the same chapter-" The 66 They are sure oracles. The Bible is no cunningly devised fable; but he who binds this precious Volume to his heart may well "give a reason of the hope that | period, with the exception of their capis in him, with meekness and fear.' These are perfect oracles. "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." The source from whence it emanates is perfect, and so is the matter it contains. They stand alone, as the monuments of God's truth, holiness and grace. As nothing can be added to this standard, so nothing must be taken from it. Its Divine author has said,, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My Word shall not pass away." They are lively oracles. Inasmuch as they contain a life giving message; they make known the way of life to a race of creatures ready to perish. They have in them a living and a quickening power; they have been as the voice of God, to arouse the attention of a slumbering and sin-stupified world to their eternal interests. They are the instruments, not only of converting men, but of building them up in faith and holiness. To these lively oracles also, we are indebted for the preservation of the church from fatal error, and for a fixed standard by which we have been enabled to recover lost truth. Hence our blessed Lord's injunction" Search the Scriptures; for in them ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of Me." tivity in Babylon, numerous copies were made from time to time; and as the Jews held this Book in the most profound veneration, various officers were appointed to transcribe these copies under the most rigid regulations; and the religious observation of these regulations was strictly enjoined, and has contributed to the preservation of the purity of the Holy Bible. Some of these regulations were as follows :— "The copies of the law must be transcribed from ancient manuscript of approved character, with pure ink, on parchment prepared from the hides of pure animals, for this express purpose, by a Jew, fastened together with a string made from clean animals. Every skin must contain a certain number of columns of prescribed length and breadth, each column comprising a given number of lines and words. No word must be written by art, without being first orally pronounced by the copyist. The name, God, must be written with the utmost devotion and attention; also the writer must wash his pen, previous to his writing it. The want of a single letter, or the redundance of a single letter, the writing of prose as verse, or verse as prose, respectively, vitiates a manuscript. The Hebrew language, in which the When a copy has been completed, it Old Testament is written, with the ex- must be examined and corrected by the ception of a very few words and passages most learned Rabbis, who are appointthat are in the Chaldee dialect, is gene-ed for this express purpose, within thirty rally allowed to have derived its name from Heber, one of the descendants of Shem. This language is by most philologists supposed to be the one, in which Jehovah spoke to Adam in Paradise, and is the most ancient of all languages in the world. It is supposed to have been the We are not only indebted to the Jews unvaried language of our first parents. for the preservation of the sacred ScripIt is a language that has neither been im-tures of the Old Testament, in regard to proved nor debased by foreign idioms. the purity of its language, but also for The period from the time of Moses to the careful preservation of the Book itthat of David, has been considered the golden age of the Hebrew language; it being at that time more generally and purely spoken. The Jews have always been strenuous and particular advocates for the purity of the Hebrew text. The Scriptures were at first rolled manuscripts, which were kept for the use of the synagogue; and square manuscripts for private use. As the Scriptures have been read in he Jewish synagogues from the earliest days after the writing had been finished, in order to determine whether it is approved or rejected." These rules are observed to the present day, by persons who transcribe the sacred writings for the use of the synagogue. self, while many celebrated human productions have been lost in oblivion. The miraculous preservation of the Holy Bible, is a strong proof of the care of Divine providence over this invaluable treasure. Whence comes it, that while the histories of the most mighty empires are lost in the waste of time, the very names of their founders, conquerors and legislators, are consigned with their bodies, to the silence of the grave-whence is it 9 that the history of a mean, insignifie people, and the establishment and settlement of God's church, should from its very beginning, which is coeval with the world itself, to this very day, remain full and complete? Whence comes it, that nothing is left of innumerable volumes of philosophy and polite literature; for the preservation of which, the admiration and care of immense numbers conspired? and that the sacred Scriptures have, in spite of all opposition, come down to our time entire and genuine? During the captivity, the Urim and the Thummim, the ark itself, and most of the glory of the Jewish church were lost; but even then, the holy Book was safely preserved. Though many complied with this san- The term, Bible, we may observe, is given to the sacred Scriptures, by way of eminence, from the Greek Bißia, or books; and no book has contributed more to the moral advancement of the human mind, than this sacred treasure. The labour bestowed by so many learned men to give a just interpretation of this Many of the Jews, have "resisted even unto blood" and deaths the most cruel, in defence of this sacred treasure, as also did a vast multitude of the primi-instructive volume, is an attestation of tive Christians. So particular were the its invaluable worth. It is divided into Jews in the preservation of their laws the Old and New Testament. The name, as contained in the Old Testament, that Old Testament, was given by the apostle when Antiochus, B.C. 167, issued an Paul-(2Cor. iii. 13)-when, speaking of edict to prohibit them from the exercise the blindness of the Jews, he says "Until of their Divine ritual, they considered this day remaineth the same vail untaken it far more glorious to die in defence of away in the reading of the Old Testatheir religion, than to suffer any infringement, which vail is done away in Christ." ment of their privileges. Upwards of a thousand, with their wives and children, who fled with Judas Matthathias into the desert, were suffocated in their caves by the soldiers of Antiochus: and others being zealous to conform to the laws of their country, and to preserve their established form of government, inflamed by the harangue of Judas Maccabeus, marched with intrepid valour against the armies of Apolonius and Seron; notwithstanding the inequality of their forces, yet so inflamed were they with zeal for the Oracles of God, that they counted not their lives dear in defence of so noble a cause. During the reign of Antiochus, whosoever was found with the book of the law, was put to death; and every copy that could be found was destroyed by fire; and yet the sacred Volume was preserved. The same impious artifice was put in practice by several Roman emperors during the persecution of the Christians; especially, by Dioclesian, who triumphed in his supposed success against them. After the most barbarous havoc, he issued an edict, commanding them, on Moses was the first of the inspired writers of the sacred Scriptures. Ezra is supposed to have been the founder of the canon, or authorized catalogue of the sacred writings: by which the Old Testament was divided into the law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms; to which our Saviour refers in His interesting interview with His disciples on their way to Emmaus-(Luke xxi. 4.) The Old Testament existed 200 years before Christ, when the Hebrew language died away and the canon of the Old Testament was closed. During the first century after Christ, both the Old and the New Testament were placed on a level, and were publicly read in Divine service by the primitive Christians. The present division of chapter and verse, is of Christian origin in the thirteenth century. In the days of St. Augustine, several translations of the sacred Scriptures existed. With regard to the English Bible, it appears that no complete translation existed in the Saxon times. They only possessed detached parts of the sacred Volume. Versions of some parts of the Scriptures in the Saxon language still remain in the British Museum. OF POSSESSING THE HOLY SCRIPTURES; BY THE REV. JOHN HARRIS. 241 At the time of the Reformation, the | work of translating the Scriptures met with considerable opposition from the Romish Church. Wickliffe, in the thirteenth century, translated and collected the whole of the sacred Scriptures into the English language; but this was never published. Wickliffe died 1385, a century before printing was introduced into England. Next in antiquity, is the translation of Tindal, a friend of Luther, by whom, it is said, he was assisted in this translation. This was printed in Cologne, in 1526; but it was bought up and burnt in England, by order of Bishop Tunstal and Sir Thomas Moore. Tindal set to work to obtain a second edition, but before he had completed his task, was put to a cruel death at Antwerp, in France. After the death of Tyndal, his friend, Miles Coverdale, and John Rogers, superintendent of an English church, in Germany, revised Tindal's translation and completed the first English Bible in the year 1535. This was dedicated to Henry the Eighth. John Rogers was the first martyr, who suffered death in the reign of Queen Mary. Coverdale and Rogers's translation was printed at Hamburgh in Germany. Licence was obtained for pub. lishing it in England, by the favour of Archbishop Cranmer, and Bishops Latimer and Shaxton; and by a royal procla- | mation, every parish church was to have a copy of the Bible set up in it, fastened to the altar by a chain, for the use of the populace, under the penalty of forty shillings per month. Two years after this, it was suppressed by the Roman bishops and was again restored by Edward the sixth. It was again suppressed by Queen Mary, and in the first year of Queen Elizabeth was again restored. In 1562, a new edition was printed at Geneva, by Coverdale, Goodman, Gilbie, Sampson, Cole, Whittingham and Knox, exiles in Queen Mary's reign. 1562. The large English Bible, or the Bishop's Bible, so called from Archbishop Parker of Canterbury, was printed in In the early part of the reign of James the first, a conference of Divines was held in Hampton Court, for settling the peace of the church. Here the King observed in very strong terms-" I wish some special pains were taken for an uniform translation, which should be VOL. XIII. done by the best learned in both Universities; these to be revised by the Bishops, presented to a privy council, and lastly ratified by royal authority." Out of this speech arose the present English Bible. Fifty four of the most learned men of the age were selected; forty seven of which undertook this arduous task; they were employed in this work three years, from 1607 to 1610; and in 1611 the present English Bible came forth, from the press of Robert Barker. This is the only one read by authority in all the churches in Britain; and the celebrated and learned Selden, says "It is the best translation in theworld, and renders the sense of the original best.” Thus we have given you a very brief history of that invaluable blessing, which we richly possess, in the sacred treasure of God's holy Word, called the Bible. This sacred Volume was not so richly enjoyed by our ancestors, as it it by us in the present day; for before the establishment of the British and Foreign Bible Society in May, 1804, the Bible was not easily to be obtained by the poorer classes; but since that period, the pious wish of our late venerable monarch, of blessed memory, George the Third, has been nearly realized, viz.-"That every poor child in these realms possessed a Bible, and was able to read it." Many millions of this blessed book are now in circulation; and the means of obtaining a copy are so very easy, that almost the poorest individual is left without excuse, in neglecting to obtain a copy of the sacred Scriptures. From the foregoing remarks it is evident, that at the present time, to us, as a nation, is committed the oracles of God; a Book which is the only infallible guide to heaven and glory-a Book full of consolation and peace-a Book full of precious promises, and, above all, a Book, if attended with the Divine influence, which is able to make us wise unto sal II. The responsibility of the trust. 1. Since a copy of the sacred Scriptures can be so easily obtained, every individual will be inexcusable, if found destitute. 2. It should not only be possessed, but carefully read. Men carefully examine their documents, stating the nature and extent of their earthly possessions; this Book fully and correctly delineates an inheritance which is incorruptible, and points to treasures, where the "moth does not corrupt, nor thieves break through and steal." 3. We should be anxious, personally, to possess the blessings contained in this sacred Volume. This Book imparts true wisdom, which is more precious than rubies; "the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour." 4. We should be anxious that the rising generation be instructed in the truth of the Bible. The most effectual safeguard to virtue, and greatest barrier to the spread of infidelity and Popery, is the diffusion of Scripture knowledge. The ancient fathers of the Church of Rome well knew this; and hence they scrupulously locked up this treasure, and keeping the tree of knowledge, taught that "ignorance was the mother of devotion." 5. By our prayers, efforts and support, let us individually circulate this Volume, and never cease, till "the whole earth be filled with the knowledge of the Lord." IMPROVEMENT. 1. As a nation, let us be grateful to the Giver of all good for our religious privileges, and evince our gratitude by correspondent exertion. 2. Inquire, Have we faithfully and fully improved the talent intrusted to our care? 3. How awful the state of those, who, living in the midst of Gospel blessings, yet regard not the Word of God, and live in wilful neglect of His commands!" He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." THE PASTOR'S REMEMBRANCER. THE CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST. "And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the Child, his name was called Jesus, which was so named of the angel before He was conceived in the womb. And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusa lem, to present Him to the Lord; as it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord; and in the law of the Lord, A pair of turtle doves, or two young pigeons.". Luke ii. 21-24. to offer a sacrifice, according to that which is said THOUGH Mary was so nearly related to Christ, yet she did not on this account claim an exemption from those duties which were required of others. When the angel was sent to her, to foretel the Saviour's birth, he said, "Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favour with God." Now, this wonderful manifestation of Divine favour laid her under increasing obligations to obey all the commands of Him, "whose kingdom ruleth over all." The goodness of God is abused when we take occasion therefrom to despise His authority. And yet this is the Antinomianism is natural to the The corrupt nature of case. human heart. But men is opposed to the laws of God, which are all holy, just and good. "Because sentence," &c.-(Eccles viii. 11). the hearts of the Saviour's parents were sanctified; hence, they not only observed the outward forms of religion, but they did this from evangelical motives. They not only knew the will of God, but they obeyed it. "This is love, that we keep His commandments." The Jews paid much outward respect to the laws of the God of Israel, but few obeyed these laws from a principle of supreme love to God. Joseph and Mary were sincere in their devotion; 'they worshipped God in spirit and in truth." The text records their conduct when the Saviour of the world was an infant, which conduct was the fruit of genuine piety.(Luke ii. 21—24). I. The circumcision of Christ. The Saviour's sufferings commenced early, but they were not the fruit of His own personal transgression. This Child suffered for sin imputed. When children read of the sufferings of Jesus, let them |