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wavering unsettled principles; who, therefore, came to the reading of the apostle's writings with no settled good views.

For he further remarks, that they wrested the apostle's writings to their own destruction.

The word which we translate to wrest, in the original, signifies to stretch and distort the limbs upon a rack, and therefore, in the apostle's application, beautifully expresses that' these men put an unnatural sense on St Paul's words: being men of bad dispositions, they forced them from their true meaning to countenance themselves in their evil courses, which they were resolved not to forsake; and so brought greater ruin on themselves in the end.

It was not, therefore, the fault of the apo stle's language, though there was some difficulty in it, but the fault of the men themselves, that perverted it to favour their vices.

To require that every thing should be so laid down and delivered in the scriptures as to prevent any ill use being made of them, is to require what is impossible. It is sufficient, if the divine appointment have a tendency to promote virtue and human happiness, and ac

tually

tually do promote it, though with a mixture of evil resulting from them.

There have been christians, who have so wretchedly mistaken the scriptures, as to maintain that none were to enjoy the favour of God in heaven, but those of their own opinion and persuasion :

Who have taken upon them to abridge other christians of their natural rights, and sometimes to punish them with fines, imprisonment, and death, for holding different religious sentiments from their own.

And for these things they have pretended they had countenance from the gospel: though nothing is more abhorrent to it. So that there is no just ground of exception to the gospel, from some mischiefs that have ensued from it. What good thing has not been equally liable to abuse? You may as well condemn the use of bread and wine, and of the fruits of the earth, for the excesses which men are continually guilty of in the participation of them.

II.

If there were some things in the scriptures, in the apostle's days, of difficult interpretation, and which persons unprincipled, and of volatile

change

changeable tempers, might bewilder themselves in, and turn to an ill use; the like might be expected afterwards from men of the same unvirtuous characters, and of worldly ambitious dispositions, affecting to take the lead among christians. And the history of the corruptions of christianity from the beginning to the sent day, among protestants as well as other christians, but too much verifies this account.

pre

And hence, some make objections, that truth should require so much labour and digging to fetch it out of the mine, and after all should be so nearly allied to and mixed with error; and that a divine revelation especially, should not be entirely clear and free of difficulties.

But such demands and censure flow from great ignorance and inattention to man's nature and condition in his present state, and the dealings of Almighty God with such creatures as we are. For we are not born with knowledge of any sort, but only with capacities for it. It is by slow degrees, and with infinite labour of others, that the first principles of truth and integrity are sown in our mind. And by the same care, and gradual painful process afterwards, all other valuable

acquire

acquirements are made. For knowledge cannot be infused into us all at once, like water into a vessel, but drop by drop.

The prodigious discoveries that have been made of the wisdom, the various contrivance, and usefulness of the great Creator's works, have been the result of the laborious researches, and patient inquiries, of the different generations of men in the present and in past

ages.

Toil and industry are the only means to arrive at skill in any of the common useful arts and professions of life.

Now if our gracious Creator sees fit to communicate any further knowledge to us than we are naturally capable of acquiring, relating to himself, and our duty and expectations from him, we cannot expect he should go out of his appointed course, and teach us religion in a different way than he teaches us other things. It is by labour and study, and in the diligent use and application of our rational faculties, that we are to expect to attain this, as we attain every thing else that is valuable.

It is very true, that persons of the slowest capacities and most confined improvements are deeply interested in the great subject of which

Revelation treats; and therefore it might be thought reasonable to expect that it should be delivered in such plainness, and with such simplicity of expression, as is within their level. And it is no less true, that we find every thing that is of absolute necessity and universal concern, intelligible to the most ordinary capacities that will use any diligence at all to cultivate their minds. All the great truths necessary to be known concerning our Maker in the scriptures, all the essential duties of life needful to be practised, are easy of comprehension.

But then there are other things; the grounds and reasons of the divine proceedings in his different dispensations of light and of his will to mankind; the connexion and suitableness of them; the reconcilement of the different parts of the scriptures with each other, and illustration of obscure passages; all which, though remote from common apprehension, furnish much satisfaction and improvement to the studious, who have opportunity for such inquiries, and whose business and duty it is to communicate the light they receive to others. For we are made to depend much upon one

another,

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