attaching to it, so the treasures of biblical knowledge have entailed in their general possession a measure of error and danger.

The doctrine that to whom much is given of him much shall be required is universally true, but it has a special certainty in the case of religious privileges. The early churches were required to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ; not only when they hung upon the words spoken by apostolic lips, but also when left in a great measure to their own unaided resources, in connexion with the oral teaching they had received, and the gracious and constant guidance of the Holy Ghost. It is difficult to picture to ourselves the exact state of a primitive Christian community, called from heathenism by St. Paul, for instance, and then left by him to the care of a bishop or overseer, chosen from themselves. In faith and hope and charity they were, doubtless, often rich; but in what we think necessary for Christian progress they must have been comparatively poor. Literary appliances they probably had none, corresponding to our complete Bibles, our liturgies, catechisms, and hymn-books. Later in the history of the church these means of instruction and of devotion were multiplied, yet they never assumed the place they hold among ourselves, now that printing gives for sixpence what once cost many pounds, not to dwell on designing attempts to keep the people in mental darkness. It must be seen at once that a great responsibility thus rests upon ourselves for the right employment of such decided advantages; and that it behoves us to enquire in what degree we have properly used them.

tant.

The full and easy possession of the Bible is, however, only one of the talents committed to our trust; the facilities for its elucidation and comprehension constitute another, equally imporWe stand in the accumulated light of eighteen centuries, all thrown upon divine revelation, and giving to it therefore a distinctness which it probably never before possessed in minds not supernaturally illumined. History, human discovery, science, knowledge and art, have combined with the evolutions of divine providence to prevent the Bible being a sealed book, and to make the Christians of the nineteenth century specially capable of understanding its contents. There is nothing in the whole compass of human knowledge which has been so enriched with subsidiary aids for its right interpretation as this wonderful book, and, consequently, there is no subject which ought to be so well understood. Our present object is to enquire how far this completeness of biblical attainment is reached by us as a Christian people, and to enforce the temper and spirit in which our theological researches should be pursued.

It will be at once conceded that every biblical investigation should be intended to conduct us to TRUTH. The most conceited preacher, the most novelty-loving commentator, and the most bigoted private Christian will be loud in their declaration that it is truth which they have in view in all the fantastic interpretations which they put upon the Word of God; and in all the wayward and eccentric courses into which their fancy or inclination may lead them. Now, however willing we may be to give all these parties credit for sincerity, it is impossible we can concede that they either know what truth is, or that they adopt the most likely course to find it out. That which is true, means, in their vocabulary, that which they wish to be true. They are continually acting upon a foregone conclusion, and pretending to seek for that which they are quite sure they have already within their grasp. No one at all acquainted, even slightly, with the religious world, can be ignorant of the fact that the mental occupation of most professing Christians is not a search for something, but rather a battling for that which is already possessed; not a laborious and careful weighing of premises, but a dogged defence of a conclusion which has been arrived at per saltum. The Psalmist prayed, "Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law;" but with these, all is already seen, and there is nothing more to find. Another sacred writer speaks of digging for wisdom as for hid treasures, but the satisfied generation to which we are referring has no necessity for such toil, as the jewel is already in their hands.

An attachment to conventionalism is the most prominent feature of the method of biblical study in England at the present time, and has been so, with some few exceptions, ever since the Reformation. There is a popular theory, or an accustomed and fashionable mode of viewing the contents of the Holy Scriptures, which at once discourages enquiry and stereotypes mere human opinions. Here, we think, is the real danger which truth has to cope with, an obstacle in its way far more formidable than many systems which are thought seriously to militate against it. Let us, for instance, compare what we may call the Perfectionists with the Rationalists, and we shall find the former more to be dreaded than the latter; although the one class is orthodox and the other heterodox. By the Rationalists we mean those who deny, or at least doubt, whatever cannot be made to square with the deductions of their reason; by the Perfectionists those who deny the truth of whatever is not found in their pre-arranged and settled system. Now the former, vicious in theory and injurious in practice as is their theory, do good by exciting enquiry, and raising up defenders of the truth. They cannot

really injure the truth itself, but merely seem to endanger it in the estimation of such as have too little confidence in its heavenborn and immortal character; and this apprehension calls forth the resources of piety and learning in defence of the faith. St. Paul declares (1 Cor. xi. 19), "There must be also heresies (áipéσeis) among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest ;" and it is most interesting and satisfactory to know that the wildest vagaries of the heterodox have always resulted in the yet further establishment of Catholic truth. It would be a most profitable enquiry how far the low Neologism of Germany has subserved the interests of biblical science by calling forth the energies of divines and scholars. If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? Neology asserted that a buttress was defective, and led to an examination into the fact, to the satisfaction of all candid observers that its strength was firm and impregnable.

But the Perfectionists neither search for the truth themselves, nor give opportunity for the investigations of others. Some council, or divine, or body of divinity, or religious community, has defined for them how Scripture is to be interpreted, and there is an end of the matter. They say to all enquiry, but that which favours their dogmas, hitherto shalt thou come, but no further, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed. They look and utter scorn upon the careful and devout students of Holy Writ, who by deep thoughtfulness have elicited a new exposition, if with lynx-eyed jealousy they can discern any possible incompatibility between it and their creed. They have, doubtless, much truth on their side, but their views admit of no adjustment, alteration, or accretion; and (themselves being judges) being already perfect, are to be implicitly received. It may be asked, do not the Perfectionists, like the Neologists, furnish occasion for the advancement of biblical truth by the errors they entertain? But a little reflection will shew that the cases are widely different. Neology attacks the truth-Perfectionism professes to defend it, and in many respects does so. Perfectionists are in the main orthodox, and sincerely attached to what is most valuable in Christianity, and therefore cannot be treated as enemies. The consequence is that while no man in England hesitates to reprehend the wild systems of neological and heterodox writers or sects, the case is widely different when men of unblemished creed are concerned. An error of excess is more difficult to combat, in religion, than one of defect, for it is an ungracious task to be opposed to the boasted champions of a high estimate of revealed truth. Hence those whom we have called Perfectionists operate like a dead weight upon the interests of a

sound and progressive system of biblical interpretation; they defend the waters of life indeed, but by keeping from them the wholesome breezes of a free and enlightened criticism, they make them become stagnant. They are, in relation to biblical truth, in the position of many men with regard to their duties as Christians, whose virtue is wholly negative; and who, while quite free from vice, are yet injurious to Christianity by their entire destitution of any active virtue.

Conventionalism is not Catholicity, and while we deprecate the influence of the one, we would pay a marked deference to the other. Catholicity is the form taken by Christianity, doctrinally and practically, in all ages of its history, with regard to all its bold and salient features, apart from the numerous minor variations and shades of social and individual character. Even political government, although so much the creature of human inclinations and passions, takes a uniformity in its grand characteristics in all countries and ages; much more therefore is it to be expected that a system of religion directly revealed by God will have a oneness and harmony through the whole course of its existence, however moulded and fashioned it may be by the human elements to which it is subjected. God made the mountains, the rivers, and the plains, and these grand features of nature are not eradicated because the people who live among them at one time leave the soil uncultivated, and at another sow the fields and plant vineyards; now cultivate the arts of peace, and now fill the vallies with the din and desolations of war. We could not think our holy religion is divine, if a oneness did not run through its history as to essential doctrines, ordinances and practices, and therefore, under a wise and discreet controul, catholic consent is a most weighty consideration in everything relating to the Holy Scriptures. But conventionality is quite a different thing; something fashioned to the varying hour and not permanent like the everlasting mountains. It is the mere local arrangement of a plot of ground, or the occasional turning of part of a river into a new channel, in relation to the magnificent outline of the broad expanse of nature which meets and fixes every eye. What the church has thought in all ages is something to be reverenced and relied on; what religious society now receives as new and untried may be proved to be expedient and useful, but it must be weighed and tried before it is to be generally followed. Our readers, we trust, will not misapprehend our meaning, which is not to tie us down to antiquity, nor to urge to the rejection of novelty; but to give to both the place they must relatively occupy in the minds of those who study Scripture in the light of the providence of God.

We have noticed Conventionalism as a foe to an enlightened exegesis of Holy Scripture, not because it is the only one, but on account of its great and almost universal influence. It binds with adamantine chains, not only the bulk of Christian people, but also their ministers, who, as leaders and instructors of others ought to be free from its trammels. It operates in the church, as fashion does in society in relation to dress, modes of living and etiquette,-making thousands follow as a leader what has no real existence,-a phantom, a breath, here to-day and gone tomorrow, and yet powerful to compel almost all to bow to its arbitrary laws. As long as a fashion lasts, only the bravely independent dare to question its authority; and as long as some new doctrinal or practical phase of biblical interpretation is in vogue, those who will not be spell-bound by it are looked upon as mere rationalists or something worse. They may be near the mind of Christ and his apostles, and near to the opinions of the early church; but what can all that weigh against the dictum of a Luther, a Calvin, or a Wesley? Other impediments in the way of biblical knowledge will be noticed in the more preceptive and positive form which will now be given to our remarks.

1. In every enquiry concerning the contents of the Bible, a desire to discover truth should be supreme, taking the lead of all other motives and grounds of action. This indeed should influence us in all mental pursuits and investigation, even when the subject leads to no direct practical results, or has no immediate bearing on the duties of life. The love of truth, in the abstract conception of it, is a high attribute of intelligent being, and in proportion as it is felt, it approximates us to the divine nature. Whether the question is, How does the sap circulate in vegetable tissues? or, What are the revealed attributes of God? we should not be satisfied with crude or indistinct conceptions if we can obtain clearer ones. But there is a distinct peculiarity in Scriptural subjects, which raises this general principle to one of the very highest and most solemn importance; for those subjects concern our present happiness and final destiny in a way in which no other topics can possibly affect them. Our lost condition by nature, and our recovery by grace; the way in which we can be made holy on earth and happy in heaven, are the grand considerations presented in Holy Writ; the intrinsic importance of which urges us to become thoroughly acquainted with the nature of the heavenly message concerning them. It is true that the substance of the glad tidings does not reside in verbal niceties, and may be received by those who cannot read a letter of the written record; but if we can read, and in proportion as we have opportunities to study the Word, it is