not intended to gratify the curiosity, or to illuminate the speculations, of worldly wisdom; but to instruct the humble and devotional reader, and to teach the simple and the meek the way to heaven. To such as these, whatsoever be their condition in life, or their measure of mental cultivation, the Bible, as to every main doctrine and every practical principle, is explicit and intelligible. While the divine law is so accordant with the conclusions of profound reasoning that the most enlightened philosophers have yielded to it their willing homage, it is also so plain, that when it is received with simplicity and godly sincerity, "the wayfaring man, though a fool, cannot err therein.”

VI. Having thus briefly surveyed some of the principal evidences, from which the conclusion is safely deduced that christianity is true, and that the Bible contains a genuine and divinely authorized record of all its truths,—we may now proceed to enquire what things that sacred volume declares respecting God, ourselves, and Jesus Christ.

There is nothing by which the Scriptures are more eminently distinguished,-nothing by which their importance and divine origin are more clearly evinced, than by the information which they impart respecting the nature and cha

racter of God. Much light indeed, on this great subject, may be derived from the works of the Deity which surround us on every side, and which proclaim, in intelligible language, his wisdom, power, and goodness; and also from that moral sense of his own existence and authority, which, (however it may in numberless instances be depraved and perverted,) he appears to have impressed universally on the mind of man. But the knowledge which we derive from natural religion respecting God, is, in a wonderful manner, augmented and completed in the records of his revealed will. We learn from the Scriptures that there is no other God, but JEHOVAH

-that he exists from eternity to eternity-that he is the creator, governor, and preserver, of the universe-that he is omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, and perfectly wise-that in him we live, and move, and have our being—that he is the author of the moral law-that he is the source of every good and perfect gift, and more especially of everlasting life-that he is holy, just, true, faithful, righteous, long-suffering and merciful-that he is love; a tender and compassionate Father to those who walk in his fear and obey his law-that, eternal and infinite as he is, he graciously extends his immediate care to the most minute interests of his creatures

that not a sparrow falleth to the ground without him, and that he numbers the very hairs of our heads. It is more particularly to our present purpose to observe, that the Deity is ever described in the Bible as a Being of absolute purity; so that in his sight every species of iniquity, whether in thought, word, or deed, is abominable. Hence it follows, that he will by no means acquit his guilty creatures while they continue in sin; and it is piainly declared, that without holiness none shall see God.

Here I would remark, that while the inspired writers bear the most ample and decisive testimony to the unity of the Supreme Beingwhile the great principle that God is one, lies at the very foundation of their scheme of religion, and pervades it in every part-we nevertheless learn, from many of their declarations, that in that great scheme of mercy which he has ordained for our salvation, the ONE GOD has manifested himself to mankind, (with reverence be it stated,) as the FATHER, the Son, and the HOLY SPIRIT.

The mode of that distinction and of that union which we believe to subsist in the divine nature, is placed far beyond the reach of our limited comprehension, and can never be a fit subject either for speculation or for definition;

but the doctrine that there is such a distinction, and that there is such an union, will never cease to be highly prized by those persons who are aware of its practical influence and operation. 1 may confess that it has long appeared to me to be a sound and necessary deduction not only from the passages of Scripture in which the Creator, the Redeemer, and the comforter, are upheld to view as the common sources of our spiritual good, and the common objects of our faith and allegiance, but from all those also in which there is a distinct reference to the divinity either of the Son or of the Spirit; See Matt. xxviii. 19, John xiv. 26, xv. 26, xvi. 13 -15, II. Cor. xiii. 14. comp. John i. 1—3, &c. Acts xiii. 2, I. Cor. xii. 11, II. Cor. iii. 17.

Respecting ourselves, the Scriptures reveal many truths of the highest importance to us. From various declarations contained in them, we plainly learn, that man is endued not only with a frail body, but with a soul; and that when the body perishes, the soul continues to exist, Matt. x. 28, xvi. 26, I. Thes. v. 23, Heb. x. 39, Luke xvi. 19-31, xx. 38, xxiii, 42, 43, II. Cor. v. 1-8; that moreover in a day to come the dead will be raised in a body incorruptible and spiritual, John v. 28, 29, I.

Cor. xv.; that this short life is the only time appointed for our probation; and that, in another world, we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, and shall then be rewarded with everlasting happiness, or punished with everlasting misery-according to our works; Matt. xxv. 31-46, Rom. ii. 6—11, xiv. 10, Rev. xx. 12-15. The Scriptures, moreover, declare that man was created in the moral similitude of God—that, yielding to the temptations of the devil, he fell from that image-that now, being a fallen and depraved creature, he is, in his unregenerate nature, prone to wickedness -that his heart is "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked," (or diseased)—that "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God"-that "they are together become unprofitable; that there is none that doeth good, no not one," and that thus "all the world" is "become guilty before God ;" Jer. xvii. 9, Rom. iii. 1-19, 23. comp. Isa. liii. 6, Matt. xv. 19.

Such are the awful statements contained in the sacred volume respecting ourselves. Where, then, is there any hope for us who are fallen, corrupt, inclined to sin, and, in so great a multitude of particulars, sinners; and who are therefore separated in our natural state from a