duction, of fact. As he had abundant means for making the experiment, he determined to test it in his own personal experience. And so we find him (according to his own account of the matter, as recorded in the book before us) turning this way and that, chasing first this phantom and then that, and pronouncing one after another to be "vanity and vexation of spirit."

"I said in my heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth; therefore enjoy pleasure. And behold, this also is vanity." Chap. 2: 1.

Again, "I sought in my heart to give myself unto wine, and to lay hold on folly. I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards,” etc. "And whatsoever mine eyes desired, I kept not from them. I withheld not my heart from any joy. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on all the labour that I had la boured to do; and behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun." Chap. 2:

3-11.

Still another experiment Solomon tells us of. "I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness. And I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands. Behold, this have I found, saith the Preacher, counting one by one, to find out the account: one man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found." Chap. 7: 25-28.

In describing the workings of his mind, amid his various experiments and observations, Solomon tells us of the vain and sinful thoughts, which he occasionally indulged. At one time he said in his heart, "As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me; and why was I then more wise? This also is vanity." Again, he said, "There is

Solomon's harem of outlandish women was no place to look for a virtu ous wife, a confiding and faithful bosom companion.

nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labor." Chap. 2 15, 24.

When he "considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun, and the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter," then, says he, "I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive." Chap. 4: 1, 2.

"All things have I seen in the days of my vanity. There is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness; and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness." In view of instances of this sort, Solomon gave way to reflections such as these: "Be not righteous overmuch, neither make thyself overwise. Why shouldst thou destroy thyself? Be not overmuch wicked, neither be thou foolish. Why shouldst thou die before thy time?" Chap. 7: 15-17.

Again, when Solomon saw that "there be just men, unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked, and that there be wicked men, to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous; then," says he, "I commended mirth; because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and drink, and to be merry; for that shall abide with him of his labour, all the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun." Chap. 8: 14, 15.

On one occasion, Solomon expresses the following strange opinions: "All things come alike to all. There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked; to the good, to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not. As is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath." Chap. 9: 2. At another time, he was so much beside himself as to believe and say, "That which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them. As the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that man hath no pre-eminence above a beast. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again." Chap. 3: 19, 20.

THIRD SERIES, VOL. II. NO. II.

28

I have presented these extracts from the book under consideration, to illustrate what was before said, as to the nature and design of the discourse. We have here Solomon speaking in the language of experience. He is narrating the operations of his own mind, his thoughts, feelings, reflections, purposes, at different periods of his life, and more especially during the melancholy season of his religious declension. And if it be thought strange that a good man should ever have such thoughts-thoughts better becoming an Epicure or Atheist, than a wise and pious Israelite-and more especially that he should record them, in narrating his experience; I have only to reply, that other good men have done the same, and done it almost in our own times. The following is from the experience of the pious John Bunyan, as related by himself: "Whole floods of blasphemies against both God, and Christ, and the Scriptures, were poured upon my spirit, to my great confusion and astonishment. These blasphemous thoughts were such as stirred up questions in me against the very being of God, and of his beloved Son; as whether there were, in truth, a God, or Christ; and whether the holy Scriptures were not rather a cunning story, a fable, than the holy and pure word of God."*

So the late Dr. Payson, in detailing his exercises, says, "O the temptations that have harassed me for the last three months! I have met with nothing like them in books. I dare not mention them to any mortal, lest they should trouble him, as they have troubled me. But if I should become an apostate, and write against religion, it seems to me that I could bring forward objections which would shake the faith of all the Christians in the world. What I marvel at is, that the arch-deceiver has never been permitted to suggest them to some of his own scribes, and have them published. They would, if I mistake not, make fearful work with Christians for a time, though God would doubtless enable them to overcome

Ivimey's Life of Bunyan, p. 64.

in the end." Again, Payson says, "My difficulties increase every year. All the atheistical, deistical, and heretical objections which I meet with in books are childish babblings, compared with those which Satan suggests, and which he urges upon the mind with a force which seems irresistible. Yet I am often obliged to write sermons, and to preach, when these objections beat upon me like a whirlwind, and almost distract

If it be said that the expressions here quoted are but occasional, in the private writings of Christians, and are manifestly contrary to the general sentiment of their minds, and feeling of their hearts, I admit it. And the same was true of Solomon. The infidel expressions quoted from him are but occasional with him, and were doubtless forced upon him, by the suggestions of Satan and of his evil heart, during the dark period of his wandering from God. Mingled up with these, not only in the same book, but often in the same chapter, are noble sentiments-excellent moral precepts-lessons of Divine and heavenly wisdom; and if it be asked, how we are to distinguish the good from the bad, the true from the false; I answer, just as we should do, in any other case. We are to refer to the standard of an enlightened reason and conscience; and more especially to the unerring standard of the Bible, taken as a whole. We are to be guided, in such cases, by the general current of Scripture; or by what has been denominated the analogy of faith. How are we to distinguish, in the writings of Bunyan and Payson, between the important truths of religion, and what may be regarded as the suggestions of Satan? Or, to adduce a case more strictly in point, I may refer to the book of Job. Here are several speakers, frequently uttering contradictory sentiments, all of which cannot be true; and how are we to distinguish between what is true, and what not? He who can answer

* Memoirs of Payson, p. 434. Similar expressions may be found in the recorded exercises of Richard Baxter, of Increase and Cotton Mather, and of other excellent Christians.

this question, can tell us how to make a similar distinction in the book of Ecclesiastes. In both cases, as I said, we are to be guided by an enlightened understanding and conscience, and by the general current of Scripture testimony, in reference to the same subjects. We have no right so to interpret any single passage, as to contradict the general current of Scripture. And we have no occasion in the books referred to, to do violence to any particular passages, in order to make them harmonize with the rest of Scripture. Job's three friends, and perhaps Job himself, in connexion with much that was true and important, gave utterance to improper things; things which are not to be approved or justified. And so did Abraham, when he denied his wife. So did Jacob, when he deceived his father, and secured his blessing by artifice and falsehood. So did Peter, when he dissembled at Antioch, and Paul withstood him to his face. And so did Solomon, during the dark period of his worldliness and declension. He had many vain, sinful, improper thoughts. He formed sinful purposes, and sometimes carried them into execution. And in the book of Ecclesiastes, he has confessed all this; has told of the pain which his errors and wanderings occasioned him; and has faithfully warned all those who come to a knowledge of his case, not to follow in his steps.

There is hardly a more important distinction, in reference to the Bible, than that between revelation and inspiration. Revelation is a direct and supernatural communication of truth from God to man. Inspiration has respect to the assistance which the writers received in penning the sacred volume. We can conceive of God's making revelations to men, which have never been committed to writing at all; or if written, may have been recorded without special inspiration. On the other hand, the Bible contains many things, written under a Divine inspiration, which cannot be regarded as the revealed truth of God. For example, the declaration of the serpent to our first mother, "Ye shall not surely die," was written under a Divine inspiration; but so far from being revealed truth, it was the first and greatest lie that was ever