for that end, by Almighty God. The reading of the holy Scriptures, the public and private worship of God, the sacraments, the formation of habits, abstinence from scenes of temptation, the society and converse and example of the pious; these, and similar things, are the means which Christianity sets before him. Into the design of this system of means he must fall. He can obtain no grace, no divine aid, no relief, no pardon, no renewal of mind, no direction, no comfort, except as he heartily and humbly places himself in the attitude of a diligent disciple. This is altogether and most remarkably adapted for such a creature as man, and precisely agrees with all the dealings of God with him in his general providence, where little is accomplished but by the intervention of means.

God, indeed, acts according to his own merciful will, in the ways of religion as in the operations of nature and the works of providence. He gives grace, he awakens the minds of men, he disposes of events as he pleases. But all this is designed to bring us to use the means of religious improvement, which we were neglecting. Every extraordinary operation of mercy falls into the system by which God ordinarily works.

4. These methods of Almighty God in the application of the gospel, entirely agree with THE OUTWARD CIRCUMSTANCES OF MAN, IN THIS WORLD. Every thing around us corresponds with this particular plan.

The world is so presented to man, his duties so arise, his trials so embarrass, his social affections so excite him; he is exposed to that interchange of peace and trouble, of dissatisfaction and repose, of solicitation and forebodings— that he is manifestly in a state of things adapted to this probationary operation of the gospel and this system of means. All is unintelligible without the facts of the great remedy of salvation in its moral working-all is clear and consistent with them.

5.Oncemore. The remedy we are considering, both in its stupendous features, and in its method of operation, is calculated to DRAW OUT TO THE UTMOST ALL THE POWERS AND FACULTIES OF MAN. It addresses his heart; it works upon

him by the discovery of immense love in Almighty God giving his own Son for him. It presents God as a father in all his benignity, his grace, his pity, his long suffering.

Now nothing can fully unlock the powers of the human heart but love-whatever addresses powerfully man's affections, in connection with the discovery of elevating truth to the understanding, raises him to the utmost effort-terror drives him in upon himself-gratitude and love draw him out into voluntary and persevering enterprise.

Now the remedy of the Bible restores man by presenting God as a father, a friend, a compassionate and gracious sovereign, stooping with infinite condescension to succour and save his creature.

Thus all the faculties of man are carried out to the utmost. He has the very thing proposed to him which suits his nature, which excites his whole soul, which makes him most active and energetic in the noblest of all pursuits."

6. Thus it CARRIES HIM ON TO HIS TRUE END-an end, not narrow and earthly and debasing-but the highest, the most pure, the most ennobling that can be conceived-an end which man never could have discovered, and which nothing but the divine condescension and grace in redemption could have devised or made practicable. It makes the ever-blessed Creator the end of his creature-it presents God as the centre of felicity.-It sets before man the pursuit of God's favor, the preparation for the enjoyment of God, the hope of a state permanent, exalted, glorious-as the end to which he must direct all his powers; and, in doing so, the gospel falls in exactly with his nature and its capacities as originally formed by the divine wisdom.

What an adaptation, then, appears in this peculiar discovery of Revelation. A remedy of any kind, and working in any way, would make the Bible suited to man-suited is too weak a term-a remedy would make the Bible the glorious, joyful tidings of salvation to man. But the remedy is yet enhanced in all its bearings upon him, when, though stupendous in some views, it yet, in others, meets his reasonable and responsible nature, works by motives, places him in a state of probation, proposes a system of means, corresponds

(v) Erskine.

with his actual situation in the world, draws out all his faculties, and carries him on to his highest end.

IV. But further, the Bible is adapted for man, because it is CALCULATED FOR UNIVERSAL DIFFUSION UNDER ALL THE ENDLESS DIVERSITIES OF HIS STATE AND CHARACTER; and this as well in matter as in manner.

For when we turn from considerations like the preceding ones, which relate to the Christian religion in its most general aspects, as speaking with a tone of decision and authority, as unfolding all the difficulties of our situation, and as discovering an adequate and surprising remedy for our misery; when we turn from all this to a view of Christianity in the form of its communications-when we ask, Is the religion suited to man generally; man in all ages, man under all circumstances; in a word, is it meant for universal diffusion?-w —we find that, both in the MATTER and MANNer of Revelation, there is a remarkable correspondence with the state and wants of the whole human race.

1. For as to the MATTER, it has little in it that is peculiar, exclusive, local, temporary. Its last dispensation, the Christian, is not, like the religion of Paganism, or the imposture of Mahomet, modelled for a particular people, and the vices and habits prevalent amongst them. It is not even like the limited and introductory religion of Judaism. It is adapted for man, as man, in the essential powers and faculties of his nature. It is suited for him every where, and under all circumstances, by the authority of its dictates, by the discovery, of all his wants, by the magnitude and efficacy of its salvation, by the clearness and force of its evidences, by the simplicity of its worship, by the brevity of its records.

It especially consults the case of the poor-that is of the vast majority of mankind; the class most pressed by affliction, most in need of means of instruction, most numerous, most neglected and even scorned by all preceding religions-which philosophy overlooks, because it has nothing essentially beneficial to propose, and no plain and important discoveries to offer. To the poor the Saviour came; amongst the poor he conversed; to them he preached the

gospel; their state he consulted. The Bible elevates the intellect, enlarges the powers, increases the happiness of the poor, without flattering their vices or concealing from them their duties, or lifting them out of their station. The institution of a day of repose after the interval of six days' labor, for the worship of God, the contemplation of his spiritual, and the preparation for his eternal, relations and destinies, is an unspeakable blessing, displays the suitableness of Revelation to the powers of man, needing recreation and rest both for body and mind. No attempt was ever made for raising the character and situation of the poor, without inspiring pride or relaxing the bonds of domestic and civil subjection, but by the gospel.

The Bible is suited to all orders of intellect; like the works of nature, where the humblest artizan can trace some of those wonders, which the greatest philosophers cannot exhaust. The child meets with what suits his opening capacities; the old and experienced, that which gives tranquillity and peace to age.

Then it follows all the improvements of mankind in learning and science, in philosophy and the arts; and keeps above and beyond them all-opens its treasures as man advances in capacity for searching them out; is illustrated and confirmed by every solid acquisition in human knowledge; meets and suits the mind of the savage emerging into civilization; and yet soars far above the intellect of the scholar and the divine in the most refined advances of society. Like all the works of God, it is adapted to men in every stage of improvement; and the more it is studied, the more do the topics of admiration multiply.

There is also a completeness in the Bible for its proper end. All that man's necessities, as to practical knowledge and present aid, require, you find there; all the circumstances, all the duties, all the emergencies, of man are consulted. It is completely fitted for him; having no omissions, no redundancies, no defects, no provisions nor directions forgotten or left out.

And yet, with all this suitableness to mankind in all ages, and under all circumstances, it seems to address each in

dividual in particular. The truth of the description, the exact fitness of the doctrines for man, are such that every one thinks his own case consulted. The Bible, says Mr. Boyle, like a well-drawn portrait, seems to look every beholder full in the face. In fact, it is the book made for man: not for man in this or that age, of this or that class, of this or that order of intellect, but man universally, on the footing of those capacities, wants, feelings, which are common to the whole race.

2. Nor is the FORM in which God communicates truth in the Scriptures, less fitted for us than the matter.

The style is plain and simple. There is nothing of science, nothing of human research, nothing of artificial eloquence. It is above all this. It abounds with figures and metaphors the most simple, the most beautiful, the most intelligible, the most congruous. Medicine and agriculture, as lord Bacon observes, are the chief sources of the Scripture images-sources open to man universally.

The perspicuity of the Bible makes it level, in its main instructions, to the most untutored mind, as well as the most refined; whilst the depths contained in its mysteries, and the occasional difficulties of its allusions, exercise and surpass the greatest powers. The variety of matter in the Bible is such as to excite and reward the diligence of every inquirer.

It is the most brief, and yet the most full and copious of writings; the most brief, because it passes over, for the most part, all inferior matters; the most copious, because it dwells at great length on important ones. Two thousand years are compressed into fifty short chapters; whilst that abridged history expands into the most minute details of the family scenes of some of the patriarchs. Indeed it delights in domestic narratives, and thus touches the very heart of man in his earliest youth. Who has not wept over the history of Joseph, and felt the deepest compassion at the affliction of Job?

(w) Genesis-Abraham, Jacob, Joseph.