cial guidance of the Holy Ghost; (2 Pet. i. 21;) and no indignity or disgrace must be thrown upon the Divine Spirit, through any blasphemous insinuations of their incompleteness. The moral character, godly doctrines, clear credentials of these holy men of God, supported by miracles, and accomplished promises of both Testaments, raise them a perfect standard of unsullied truth.

They teach heavenly doctrines, grounding our principles.

They give heavenly directions, governing our lives. The heights, the depths, the lengths, the breadths, of immortal truth, stretch to all beings, conditions, capacities, and concerns, that we may live in the true fear of God, and walk in true happiness. Whatever a Christian is in this world, as respects his standing among men, or in his own person individually, or relatively, he has the all-sufficient aid of divine instruction holding him up in, and bearing him through the spiritual determinations of his soul, enabling him to maintain his station, and with a firm mind endure his allotted portion, to the credit of religion, and honour of its great Author; whether he be high or low, rich or poor, old or young, magistrate, minister, master, husband, father, child, or servant: they furnish him with all necessary knowledge of divine rules, which God himself hath adapted for his condition, circumstances and sufferings, as a perfect guide of life, in spiritual, social, civil, and domestic society; in apparel, appetite, affections, dealings, and desires; raising our minds, refining our judgments, restraining what is unruly, reforming what is wrong, resolving what is doubtful, rejecting what is erroneous, resisting what is rebellious, and rewarding what is praise-worthy: with the enviable eulogium of, "Well done, good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make

thee ruler over many." This is the warrant of the written word of God, suited to, and suitable for all. Are any delighted with history, poetry, prophesy, parables; any with arithmetic, music, logic, rhetoric, astronomy, astrology, chronology, geography; any with natural and moral philosophy; with matters ecclesiastic and national? the statesman, general, and judge, however excellent their qualifications, may here exercise themselves to the extent of their powers. A learned divine of the sixteenth century, says, concerning the use of the Scriptures

I would send a worldling to read Ecclesiastes, a devout person to peruse the Psalms, an afflicted man to the writings of Job; a preacher to study Timothy and Titus, a backslider to the Hebrews, a legalist to the Romans and Galatians, a libertine to James, Peter, and Jude; a man who studies providence to Esther, and those who go about with great undertakings to Nehemiah.

Every particle of Scripture is eternally valuable; what else can proceed from the great mind of the Great JEHOVAH, but great and valuable things, stampt with perfection, excellency, and clearness; and must needs be divine, heavenly, pure, perfect, wise, sure, infallible and glorious. I shall here consider the divine author, the divine mysteries, the divine composition, and the divine end of the Scriptures.

1. The Divine Author, is the only wise God, deserving all credit and respect, for which cause they are named the Sacred Scriptures, the Book of Life breathing forth the spirit of their great author, in most expressive likeness of their infinite original; out of the holy oracles, the heart of God is learned: it is the divine balance weighing all beings and characters; it is immortal truth speaking, whose original is eternal, whose essence is incorporeal, whose knowledge is life,

whose writings are indelible, whose doctrine is easy, whose knowledge is sweet, whose depths are unsearchable, whose words are innumerable, and in one word all. Sacred treasuries, inviting christians to scripture study, helping them to scripture understanding, without which we are strangers to God, to grace, and everlastingly lost; no saviour, no sanctifier, no hope, no heaven, they being the light of our lives, and life of our souls; divine bread, divine water, divine oil, divine wine, only for which we must perish.

2. The Divine mysteries: scripture mysteries are profound and hidden mysteries, (1 Tim. iii. 16.) The great mystery of godliness, the mystery of JEHOVAH ; one indivisible essence, subsisting in three distinct persons, Father, Word, and Holy Ghost, (Col. ii. 2.)

The mystery of Christ's person, two natures, God and man, infinitely differing, hypostatically united in one person, Immanuel, the mystery of the Gospel, (Col. i. 27,) a glorious mystery.

How Christ alone saves, how faith alone justifies, how graces alone glorifies, how sin is punished to the full, and the sinner finally saved; how the guiltless suffers for the guilty, how the shepherd dies for his flock, how the captain is slain for his soldiers, how the physician falls for his patients, how the king is crucified for his subjects, how the Creator is exposed for his creatures, how God gives up himself for man. A mystery no natural man can conceive. A mystery angels admire, and devils hate.

A mystery atheists impugn, but must be punished by A mystery of which Christ is the marrow of the whole.

Christ is the yea and amen of all its excellent promises.

Christ the alpha and omega of all its infinite certainties.

Christ the life and substance of all its unfading glories.

Christ the eternal essence of all its endless blessings.

Christ the same yesterday, to day, and for ever, is the total of all its opinions, conclusions, dictates and determinations, of all the holy secrets of these truly divine mysteries.

3. The divine composition:-The peremptory style of the Scriptures, is agreeable to, and correspondent with the high and sovereign state of the most high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity; who is glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, infinite in majesty, eternal in power, and endless in life; whose will is his law, and whose word is ours: the sacred eloquence of whose divine oratory bends us under the sublime temper of the majesty and simplicity of the truth of God. Take the Scriptures altogether in their frame, form, and firmness, of their most divine and excelling style, they are as unrivalled, as their author is unequalled, incomparably transcending all books and writings in the world. Here is language as old as the creation; the paradisaical, the antediluvian tongue, the undisguised, primitive plainness of the patriarchal speech we learn from them the origin of nations, the creation of the world, the birth of time itself.

The great achievements of God's ambassador in Egypt, the field of Zoan, the journey of Israel from the Red Sea to Canaan, the heroic exploits of the Judges, of David and his worthies, the fundamental laws of the universe; all facts inserted in the Sacred Scriptures, composed and connected with exact precision, and indisputable sanctity of truth; none can describe the excellency and dignity of the whole composition of the divine word. The New Testament

explains the Old, the Old confirms the New, and the Divine Redeemer is the substance of both.

They are an entertaining subject of speculation. They are a commanding rule of conversation. They are a convincing testimony of salvation. How the Most High varies the mode of his style, in the illustrious composition of the Scriptures.

How sympathetic the narrative of the patriarchs. How wonderful the descriptions of Job; solemn, grand.

How fine and poetical the odes of Moses.

How eloquent the eucharistic hymn of Deborah. How high and deep the strains of prophecy :awful.

How beautiful and holy the style of devotion in the Psalms.

How wise and experimental the style of characters by Solomon.

How inimitable the style of grief in the suffering servants of God.

How awful the style at the publication of the law at Sinai.

How majestic the style at the creation of the world.

How harmonious the style of the Gospel.

How evangelical the style of the Epistles.

They are in their compact body, originally from heaven, were dictated by divine wisdom, and ennobled with all the consummate excellence of God's mind; and speak immortal truth, that strikes with awe, and transports with joy, possessing beauties no paraphrase can heighten, wisdom that renders interpretation needless, and force which all the awakened happily feel, they are JEHOVAH's own understanding, the exact pattern of his divine idea, his matchless composition and