bard, Alex. Hales, Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, and Durandus. Gill's Body of Div., Preface; Eclectic Rev. for Dec. 1805; H. Moore's Hints to a Young Princess, vol. ii, p. 267-8. SCORNER, one who treats any person or thing with contempt: "He deems," says Mr. Scott, "his own understanding equal to the discovery, investigation, and even comprehension, of every subject: he therefore rejects as false whatever he cannot account for; what he finds contrary to his preconceived sentiments, and what is out of the reach of his reason; and, indeed, all that tends to condemn his conduct, or expose his folly." SCOTISTS, a sect of school divines and philosophers; thus called from their founder, J. Duns Scotus, a Scottish cordelier, who maintained the immaculate conception of the Virgin, or that she was born without original sin, in opposition to Thomas Aquinas and the Thomists. SCRIBE. This word has different significations in scripture. 1. A clerk, or writer, or secretary, 2d Sam. viii, 17.—2. A commissary, or muster master of the army, 2d Chron. xxvi, 11. 2d Kings xxv, 19.—3. A man of learning, a doctor of the law, 1st Chron. xxvii, 32. SCRIPTURE is a word derived from the Latin scriptura, and in its original sense is of the same import with writing, signifying "any thing written." It is, however, commonly used to denote the writings of the Old and New Testaments, which are called someVOL. II. 3 G times the scriptures, sometimes the sacred or holy scriptures, and sometimes canonical scripture. These books are called the scriptures by way of eminence, as they are the most important of all writings.They are said to be holy or sacred on account of the sacred doctrines which they teach; and they are termed canonical, because, when their number and authenticity were ascertained, their names were inserted in ecclesiastical canons, to distinguish them from other books, which, being of no authority, were kept out of sight, and therefore styled apocryphal. APOCRYPHA. See Among other arguments for the divine authority of the scriptures, the following may be considered as worthy of our attention: 1. The sacred penmen, the prophets and apostles, were holy, excellent men, and would not-artless, illiterate men, and therefore could not, lay the horrible scheme of deluding mankind. The hope of gain did not influence them, for they were self-denying men, that left all to follow a Master who had not where to lay his head; and whose grand initiating maxim was, Except a man forsake all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.They were so disinterested, that they secured nothing on earth but hunger and nakedness, stocks and prisons, racks and tortures; which, indeed, was all that they could or did expect, in consequence of Christ's express declarations. Neither was a desire of honour the motive of their actions, for their Lord himself was treated with the utmost contempt, and had more "3. Reason itself dictates that nothing but the plainest matter of fact could induce so many thousands of prejudiced and persecuting Jews to embrace the humbling, self-denying doctrine of the cross, which they so much despised and abhorred. Nothing but the clearest evidence arising from undoubted truth could make multitudes of lawless, luxurious heathens receive, follow, and transmit to posterity the doctrine and writing of the apostles; especially at a time when the vanity of their pretensions to miracles, and the gift of tongues, could be so easily disco than once assured them that they || should certainly share the same fate besides, they were humble men, not above working as mechanics, for a coarse maintenance; and so little desirous of human regard, that they exposed to the world the meanness of their birth and occupations, their great ignorance and scandalous falls. Add to this, that they were so many, and lived at such distance of time and place from each other, that, had they been impostors, it would have been'impracticable for them to contrive and carry on a forgery without being detected. And, as they neither would nor could de-vered, had they been impostors ; ceive the world, so they neither could nor would be deceived themselves; for they were days, months, and years, eye and ear-witnesses of the things which they relate; and, when they had not the fullest evidence of important facts, they insisted upon new proofs, and even upon sensible demonstrations; as, for instance, Thomas, in the matter of our Lord's resurrection, John xx, 25; and, to leave us no room to question their sincerity, most of them joyfully sealed the truth of their doctrines with their own blood. Did so many and such marks of veracity ever meet in any other authors? "2. But even while they lived they confirmed their testimony by a variety of miracles wrought in divers places, and for a number of years; sometimes before thousands of their enemies, as the miracles of Christ and his disciples; sometimes before hundreds of thousands, as those of Moses." See MIRACLE. and when the profession of Christianity exposed persons of all ranks to the greatest contempt and most imminent danger. 4. When the authenticity of the miracles was attested by thousands of living witnesses, religious rites were instituted and performed by hundreds of thousands, agreeable to scripture injunctions, in order to perpetuate that authenticity: and these solemn ceremonies have ever since been kept up in all parts of the world; the Passover by the Jews, in remembrance of Moses's miracles in Egypt; and the Eucharist by Christians, as a memorial of Christ's death, and the miracles that accompanied it, some of which are recorded by Phlegon the Trallian, an heathen historian. "5. The scriptures have not only the external sanction of miracles, but the eternal stamp of the omniscient God by a variety of prophecies, some of which have already been most exactly con firmed by the event predicted." of like passions with ourselves. See PROPHECY. There we discover a vein of eccle"6. The scattered, despised peo-siastical history and theological ple, the Jews, the irreconcileable truth consistently running through enemies of the Christians, keep a collection of sixty-six different with amazing care the Old Testa- books, written by various authors, ment, full of the prophetic history in different languages, during the of Jesus Christ, and by that means space of above 1500 years.afford the world a striking proof There we find, as in a deep and that the New Testament is true; pure spring, all the genuine drops and Christians, in their turn, shew and streams of spiritual knowledge that the Old Testament is abun- which can possibly be met with in dantly confirmed and explained the largest libraries.-There the by the New. See JEWS, §. workings of the human heart are described in a manner that demonstrate the inspiration of the Searcher of Hearts.-There we have a particular account of all our spiritual maladies, with their various symptoms, and the method of a certain cure; a cure that has been witnessed by multitudes of martyrs and departed saints, and is now enjoyed by thousands of good men, who would account it an honour to seal the truth of the scriptures with their own blood. "7. To say nothing of the harmony, venerable antiquity, and wonderful preservation of those books, some of which are by far the most ancient in the world; to pass over the inimitable simplicity and true sublimity of their style; the testimony of the fathers and the primitive Christians; they carry with them such characters of truth, as command the respect of every unprejudiced reader. They open to us the mystery of the creation; the nature of God, angels, and man; the immortality of the soul; the end for which we were made; the origin and connexion of moral and natural evil; the vanity of this world, and the glory of the next. There we see inspired shepherds, tradesmen, and fishermen, surpassing as much the greatest philosophers as these did the herd of mankind both in meekness of wisdom and sublimity of doctrine.-There we admire the purest morality in the world, agreeable to the dictates of scund reason, confirmed by the witness which God has placed for himself in our breast, and exemplified in the lives of men There you meet with the noblest strains of penitential and joyous devotion, adapted to the dispositions and states of all travellers to Sion. And there you read those awful threatenings and cheering promises which are daily fulfilled in the consciences of men, to the admiration of believers, and the astonishment of attentive infidels. 8. The wonderful efficacy of the scriptures is another proof that they are of God. When they are faithfully opened by his ministers, and powerfully applied by his Spirit, they wound and heal, they kill and make alive; they alarm the careless, direct the lost, 9. To conclude: It is exceedingly remarkable, that the more humble and holy people are, the more they read, admire, and value the scriptures and, on the contrary, the more self-conceited, worldly-minded, and wicked, the more they neglect, despise, and asperse them. support the tempted, strengthen is obscure, the context must be the weak, comfort mourners, and consulted. This, however, will not nourish pious souls. always answer.-5. If it do not, consider whether the phrase be any of the writer's peculiarities: if so, it must be enquired what is the acceptation in which he employs it in other places.-6. If this be not sufficient, recourse should be had to the parallel passages, if there be any such, in the other sacred writers.-7. If this "As for the objections which throws no light, consult the New are raised against their perspicuity Testament and the Septuagint, and consistency, those who are where the word may be used.— both pious and learned, know that 8. If the term be only once used they are generally founded on in scripture, then recur to the orprepossession, and the want of un-dinary acceptation of the term derstanding in spiritual things; or in classical authors.-9. Someon our ignorance of several cus- times reference may be had to toms, idioms, and circumstances, the fathers.-10. The ancient verwhich were perfectly known when sions, as well as modern scholiasts, those books were written. Fre-annotators, and translators, may quently, also, the immaterial error be consulted.-11. The analogy arises merely from a wrong punc- of faith, and the etymology of the tuation, or a mistake of copiers, word, must be used with caution. printers, or translators; as the daily discoveries of pious critics, and ingenuous confessions of unprejudiced enquirers, abundantly prove." Above all, let the reader unite prayer with his endeavours, that his understanding may be illuminated, and his heart impressed with the great truths which the sacred scriptures contain. On the subject of the scriptures, we must refer the reader to the articles BIBLE, CANON, INSPIRATION, To understand the scriptures, says Dr. Campbell, we should, 1. Get acquainted with each writer's style.-2. Enquire carefully into the character, the situation, PROPHECY, and REVELATION. and the office, of the writer; the time, the place, the occasion, of his writing; and the people for whose immediate use he originally intended his work.-3. Consider the principal scope of the book, and the particulars chiefly observable in the method by which the writer has purposed to execute || his design.-4. Where the phrase See also Brown's Introduction to his Bible; Dr. Campbell's Preliminary Dissertations to his Transl. of the Gospels; Fletcher's Appeal; Simon's Critical Hist. of the Old and New Test.; Ostervald's Arguments of the Books and Characters of the Old and New Test.; Cosins's Scholastical Hist. of the Canon of Scrip. ; Warden's System of Revealed Reli and New Test.; The Use of Sacred History, especially as illustrating and confirming the Doctrine of Revelation, by Dr. Jamieson; Dick on Inspiration; Blackwell's Sacred Classics; Michalis's Introduction to the New Test.; Melmoth's Sublime and Beautiful of the Scriptures; Dwight's Dissertation on the Poetry, History, and Eloquence of the Bible; Edwards on the Authority, Style, and Perfection of Scripture; Stackhouse's History of the Bible; Kennicott's State of the Hebrew Text; and books under articles BIBLE, COMMENTARY, CHRISTIANITY, and REVELATION. gion; Wells's Geography of the Old not possessed of landed property, and were, on that account, deprived of what they deemed their natural right to choose their own pastors. It was also said, that this act was extremely prejudicial to the honour and interest of the church, as well as to the edification of the people; and, in fine, that it was directly contrary to the appointment of Jesus Christ, and the practice of the apostles, when they filled up the first vacancy in the apostolic college, and appointed the election of deacons and elders in the primi tive church. Many of those also who were thought to be the best friends of the church expressed their fears that this act would have a tendency to overturn the ecclesiastical constitution which was established at the revolution. SECEDERS, a numerous body of Presbyterians in Scotland, who have withdrawn from the communion of the established church. In 1732, more than forty ministers presented an address to Mr. Ebenezer Erskine, minister the general assembly, specifying, at Stirling, distinguished himself in a variety of instances, what by a bold and determined opposithey considered to be great de- tion to the measures of the assemfections from the established consti- bly in 1732. Being at that time tution of the church, and craving moderator of the synod of Perth a redress of these grievances. A and Stirling, he opened the meetpetition to the same effect, sub-ing at Perth with a sermon from scribed by several hundreds of Psalm cxviii, 22. "The stone elders and private Christians, was offered at the same time; but the assembly refused a hearing to both, and enacted, that the election of ministers to vacant charges, where an accepted presentation did not take place, should be competent only to a conjunct meeting of elders and heritors, being Protestants. To this act many objections were made by numbers of ministers and private Christians. They asserted, that more than thirty to one in every parish were which the builders rejected, is become the head stone of the corner." In the course of his sermon, he remonstrated with no small degree of freedom against the act of the preceding assembly, with regard to the settlement of ministers; and alleged that it was contrary to the word of God and the established constitution of the church. A formal complaint was lodged against him for uttering several offensive expressions in his sermon before the synod. Many of the |