4. Then faith leads us to SEEK THE ASSISTANCE of God's BLESSED SPIRIT in rightly understanding the Scriptures. It is by this aid we attain that actual experience of many of its blessings which we have just been adverting to. The Christian finds the Bible to be a Revelation, with an accompanying proImise of the Holy Ghost, to dissipate that mental darkness which the same Revelation declares to be the effect of the fall. He implores, therefore, the grace of God, the illuminating power, the aid which removes prejudices, which shows the force and harmony of doctrine, which opens the meaning, and demonstrates the necessity, and points out the adaptation, and gives the beauty of truth. Thus he calls to mind the Saviour's last act when he discoursed with his disciples, over whose minds the notions of a temporal Messiah had thrown a cloud, and whose love to their masvery ter, being ill-directed, interfered with their just conceptions of his kingdom; he remembers that our Lord "opened their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures ;" he remembers that the apostle prayed for the Ephesians, that they might have" the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ, the eyes of their understanding being enlightened." And thus he unites prayer for these blessings with every effort of his judgment in the interpretation of the Scriptures; he leans not to human wisdom, but seeks of God divine teaching and grace.

5. Faith also guards us against THE DANGER OF HAZARDOUS INTERPRETATIONS, OR A FALSE USE OF DIFFICULT PASSAGES.

3

The will of man is deeply concerned in all departures from the truth. No fundamental principle rests upon one or two difficult texts. If there be that singleness of heart which is involved in a lively faith, no

2 Luke xxiv. 45. Eph. i. 17, 18.

3 Bishop Van Mildert, to whom this lecture is much indebted.

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danger will arise from the misunderstanding of such passages-and they are but few. The peril arises, not from the existence of such passages in Scripture, but from the "wresting them, when we are unstable and unlearned, to our own destruction." Whereas, if faith meets these texts, she either wholly leaves them, or else uses them to the purposes for which the entire Revelation of Christ was communicated. The perverse disputings" which the apostle guards us against, are "of men of corrupt minds." 5` Men of humble minds, endued with true faith, fall not into perverse disputings; if controversies arise, they will not be perverse, they will not be of men who corrupt the word of God, they will not be of men who handle the word of God deceitfully. Thus faith shapes her course safely amidst the shoals and quicksands, where human presumption would make shipwreck.

6. Finally, the same principle of submission to God's testimony will DISPOSE US TO RESORT TO ALL NECESSARY HELPS, according to the nature of the different cases which arise. A possession of the main blessings of Christianity and reliance on the assistance of the Holy Spirit, will guard the Christian against material error; but will not exempt him from the necessity of various subordinate helps for attaining a more adequate knowledge of truth in all its bearings and proportions. Divine Revelation is indeed perfectly distinct from human science, as emanating from the fountain of wisdom; yet it has this in common with ordinary science, that it flows through the channel of human instruction. We must receive it "not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God;" but we must nevertheless examine it as it is delivered, clothed in the language of men, and subject to the general rules of composition. This is the pro

51 Tita. vi. 5.

4 2 Peter iii. 16.

61 Thess. ii. 13.

vince of human learning; the matter being still unreservedly submitted to, as coming from God himself, and infinitely superior to the mere petty arts of human criticism. Superstition blinds the eyes of men, forbids them to study the Scriptures, and enjoins an implicit obedience to the traditions of the church. Enthusiasm rejects all human aid, and professes to rely exclusively on the illuminating Spirit. A wellinformed faith avoids each extreme. It relies simply on the divine aid for the matter of truth; but for the form she consults all those helps which a good providence places within her reach; the labours of commentators the writings of the fathers; the confessions of particular churches; the general consent of the universal church in all ages and places; the aids of travellers, historians, and naturalists; all the lights cast on the study of the original languages, and the kindred dialects; the continual elucidations of living students; together with the deductions of reason as to the relative bearing of the things laid before us. Only these aids will be consulted not as primary, but subordinate; not as masters and lords over faith, but servants and ministers to her; not as permitted to meddle with the matters revealed, but in order to arrive at the fact, what really are the matters revealed.

In these various respects, then, a just exposition of the meaning of Scripture springs directly from faith, because the true and living faith which receives divine Revelation, receives the particulars of which that Revelation consists.

But whilst a right interpretation has this source, it will be materially aided by,

II. COMMON SENSE AND THE ORDINARY LAWS OF

HUMAN LANGUAGE.

Faith having laid the foundation of a just understanding of Scripture, hands us over to the general dictates of conscience, and the rules by which lan

guage is ordinarily interpreted. To teach by human language, is to teach by ideas which already form a part of the stock of human knowledge. If terms are used in a new sense, they will be found to be explained by the sacred writers. If divine grace is necessary to the reception of spiritual things, this also will, as we have frequently observed, be fairly avowed in the Revelation itself. But the language will, after all, be human, and be subject to the usual laws by which ideas are conceived and expressed. There is, indeed, a poverty in all language; and translations, and distance of time and place, may throw an ambiguity over certain passages of ancient authors; yet, in point of fact, there is only one true sense to be attached to any word, in any writer, ancient or modern; which sense is indicated by the connexion and series of the discourse, by its subject-matter, by the design of the speaker or writer, or by some other adjuncts.

In common life, no prudent and conscientious man intends that a diversity of meanings should be assigned to what he writes or says. And if books are handed down to us, as of authority and credit, it is because they were composed with integrity of purpose. Now, if this be the practice in all fair and upright intercourse between man and man, much more is it so in the Book of God. The perspicuity of Scripture, the plainness and simplicity of the style, the artless form of the narrative parts, its brief and diversified hymns and psalms, the gospels and epistles penned by the Evangelists and Apostles, for popular instruction; the manner in which truth is generally conveyed, surrounded with practical uses, and as occasions served to develop it-all this assures us that the ordinary common-sense laws of human language, are our safe guide in the interpretation of the sacred Records. The design of God in his Revelation would be lost to his creatures, if an endless multiplicity of senses were once admitted.

Some chief rules, however, may be laid down, which are nothing but the application of these principles: but which still may be of use in a day like the prescnt, when novelties of all kinds are afloat, and the very grounds of an honest interpretation are disputed.

1. THE SIMPLEST SENSE IS GENERALLY THE TRUE ONE. The Bible is the most popular book in the world. "Where the simple and obvious sense will stand," says the judicious Hooker, "he that departs from it, goes farthest from the real mind of the Spirit." The methods of obtaining this sense are not arbitrary, any more than in any other book; but fixed by laws drawn by experience and observation from the nature of language. All important truth lies on the surface of the Scriptures, recurs again and again, is stated in a variety of forms, and presented in many different lights. No man can mistake it, so far as the comprehension of it depends on the terms employed. It is not interpretation, but faith which is wanting. It is the passions of men, not the difficulties of Scripture, which corrupt our decisions. The vast bulk of mankind are quite as capable of understanding all its main statements, as the learned few, though these can combine truth better into a system, and defend it more successfully against the arts of sophists. This one rule embraces nine hundred and ninety-nine parts out of a thousand of the doctrinal and preceptive parts of the Bible.

2. If the sense of certain passages be not obvious, then consult more at length THE OCCASION Of the BOOK BEING WRITTEN, the time when it was published, the persons to whom it was addressed, the context by which it is surrounded. This is what an honest man does as to any human writing. Generally the sense is simple, and he follows it. If difficulties occur, he pauses, he reads the passage again, he looks to the preceding and following sentences, he considers the occasion, the persons, the time, the general sub