not be in vain. The honour commonly paid to the Scriptures is, to a very great extent, the hollow homage of prescription and conformity. We cannot but remark the absence of a cordial, intelligent sense of their worth. The common mode of commenting on them is technical, petty, childish. They are handled as if it were feared that they would break, were they submitted to a thorough examination; as if, though made of 'true Asbest,' they could not bear the searching fires of free inquiry. This thing ought not so to be. This treatment of the sacred volume, our anxiety on its account, is narrow, needless, and insulting. Vain is the fear of what man can do unto it. It owes not the slightest advantage to the forbearance of his boasted intellect, and holds all such protection as beneath disdain. Charged with the inspiration of immortal truth, it shall in due time receive due regards, and be treated with the generous respect and fearless confidence which must accompany the recognition of its true character. In the meanwhile, amidst much unbelief, and much indifference, cheering signs are visible. The moral reforms in which men are becoming interested, are incidentally disclosing the incompetency of the common methods of scriptural interpretation. For his own part, the present writer abides in the belief that the world is breathing a little more freely every day; and, if he may refer to his own limited experience, he knows not which has been most gratifying, the cordial assent which has been given by some to his modes of viewing certain scriptural subjects, or the candour with which he has been judged by others, who could not agree with him, and for which he takes this opportunity of making his thankful acknowledg

ments.

August, 1838.

PART I.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION.

"The first condition of success is, that in striving honestly ourselves, we honestly acknowledge the striving of our neighbour; that with a Will unwearied in seeking Truth, we have a Sense open for it, wheresoever and howsoever it may arise."-Edinburgh Review.

ALL denominations of Christians appeal to the Christian Records to determine what Christianity is. Here we are all united. But so numerous and discordant, so narrow and unworthy are our representations of the religion, which we insist to have come from Heaven, that serious doubts have arisen as to the possibility of knowing what the scriptures really do teach, and the worth of their meaning, even were it ascertained. In the confusion of opinions doubt has become denial; and whatever outward conformity may appear, it is not to be concealed that numbers of intelligent and not ill-disposed men are all but fixed in the conviction, that the Christian scriptures, like the creeds and dogmas which they have occasioned, are the offspring of ignorance, delusion or fraud, and that the study of them is labour thrown away.

And yet, amidst “the discordant voices of wrangling theologians," tones of a celestial melody have fallen on the ears of the most heedless, and through the clouds of doubt, raised by contending sects, traits of truth have beamed out from the New Testament, so bright and significant as to be recognised at the slightest glance