It teaches very much by great facts and a few powerful principles, applicable to ten thousand particular cases, without danger of mistake from any individual; and yet it occasionally enters into the detail of the application of them, to assist the hesitating mind. The method of our Lord's teaching, as we shall see hereafter, was the best adapted to man of any ever yet discovered for conveying instruction.

The large portions of history, biography, prophecy, devotion, mixed with each other, and interwoven with doctrines the most important, go to involve truth in man's habitual feelings, and convey it clothed in its most attractive forms and applied to real life.

The human style and manner in which the divine inspiration appeared, following the cast of mind of each writer, and allowing him the freest use of his natural powers,* makes the Book the book of man--popular and affecting. The light of the natural sun is not more adapted for the human eye, than the records of Revelation for the mind and powers of man.

It is, however, important to observe, that Christianity, in all this scheme of adaptation, CONNIVES AT NO ONE VICE. It is not in agreement with the vicious inclinations and perverted will of man; but it is suited to man in the proper use of the term; to man as originally formed and destined for eternity; to man as weak and fallen, and needing restoration and grace. It never bends to him, it never flatters him. It is fitted, not to certain passions of man, for certain purposes, and in a certain way-no proof of imposture could be more sure-but to the whole character of man in all the parts of his moral constitution, with the direct view of remedying and healing what is corrupted and diseased in him. Heathenism, Mahometanism, Infidelity, are adapted to man, so far as they suit his corrupt passions and flatter his pride. Christianity is suited to him in a higher and more appropriate sense-to his original capacities, to his actual state of want and sorrow, to his eternal desti

(x) See Lect. xii. and xiii.

nies; to bring him back to the first, to deliver him from the second, to prepare him for the third.

It is to be noted, further, that THIS ADAPTATION DOES NOT STRIKE THE MIND IN ALL ITS PARTS AT ONCE; but appears after a period of consideration and reflection, and in proportion as we are in a right state for judging of it.

Some parts, indeed, force themselves upon our view at the first contemplation; for instance, as Revelation restrains man, gives him a law, reveals his relation to Almighty God, and refers him to an eternal judgment. But the main peculiarities of Revelation do not strike him at first. The principal features and many of the details of Scripture doctrine, precept and history, would not have occurred to him as proper to be made universally known. Man would not have drawn the picture of human nature so dark; he would never have dared to lay open the recesses of the human heart; he would not have left so much undiscovered of the ways of God; he would not have adopted such a familiarity of style and illustration; he would not have exposed the perverseness of the chosen nation, nor the falls and infirmities of the saints. He is revolted at much of this at first. The Revelation is not the sort of record he would have expected. Man would have preferred something more grand, more showy, more specious, more free from mystery. He would have had a Revelation more noble and elevated, according to human judgment."

Such, however, was not the wisdom of God. Regardless of human prejudice, he has given a Revelation really, though not in all its parts apparently, adapted to man. Divine wisdom leaves man to find this out by observation, by experience, by the knowledge of his own wants and weaknesses. By degrees he perceives that God is wiser than he: at length he acknowledges the adaptation of every part; the necessity of what he thought less needful; the depth of what he deemed to be superficial; the dignity and condescension of what he considered too familiar; the suitableness of what he condemned as peculiar or dangerous.

(y) Miller's Bampton Lect.

Again: this adaptation, running through the whole contexture of Revelation, was not contrived in these later ages, but is a PROSPECTIVE SCHEME FORMED BY THE WISDOM OF GOD, AND REVEALED PERFECT AND COMPLETE AT ONCE, to be developed and admired as occasion served, and new exigences brought to light its innate congruity.

Human legislation is retrospective; it is grounded on the experience of the past: when it attempts to reason a priori on the future, its plans are miserably defective, and soon become inapplicable. Divine Revelation knew what was in man from the first, and provided for it with unerring care.

The Bible was not written after the arts and sciences and civilization had opened all the sources of natural knowledge. No. You must take your stand with Moses, one thousand five hundred years before Christ, and conceive what was the prescient wisdom which adapted his writings to man living at a distance of three or four thousand years. You must go back, with David and Isaiah and Malachi, and then estimate the evidence arising from the suitableness of all their writings, not only to their contemporaries, but to men of all times. You must imagine yourselves in the company of apostles and evangelists-fishermen, tent-makers and consider whence they had that wisdom, which one thousand eight hundred years have served only to illustrate. An adaptation extending so wide, and appearing more and more as our experience enlarges, and which yet was infused into the original composition of the Revelation, ages before the occasions could arise for developing it, marks the Divine hand from which it came.

Let it be observed, finally, as THE APPLICATION of the whole subject, that as all this argument rests on the particular circumstances and wants of man-is a consideration of the suitableness of Christianity to his obvious state in this world, therefore,

THE POINT OF VIEW FROM WHICH TO BEHOLD THIS OBJECT ARIGHT, IS FROM THE MIDST OF HUMAN WEAKNESS, MISERY, AND SORROW.

The Bible professes to be a remedy for sin and guilt, for darkness and fear, for forebodings of futurity, and dissatis

faction at earthly sources of happiness. So long as you think yourself not of this number, the gospel is not capable of appearing to you in this branch of its evidence, at least in the most striking and important parts of it, as emanating from a Divine hand.

I must send you back to the external proofs, or allow you to dwell on those palpable and lower points of suitableness which the authority and the morals of the Christian religion present.

When you begin to feel aright-when, from the external evidences and the general view of the adaptation, you are led to enter practically upon the business of your salvation, to read what the Bible says of your state, your duties, your danger, your obligation to almighty God, your violation of that obligation a thousand and a thousand times—when you begin to compare those statements with your actual state, and to pray in earnest for grace and direction; that is, when you know and feel your real condition, then will this argument rise upon your view. You will feel the need of an authoritative guide to decide upon what is truth; you will feel the exact correspondence between the description of the Bible and your own state; you will perceive the magnitude and appropriateness of the remedy which it reveals. Thus you will stand in the right light to catch the beauty and perfections of Revelation, which, if you view it from a false position, will present only a confused mass of unmeaning forms.

I appeal to those devout Christians who are best capable of judging of what is suited to man in all the extent of his wants. Tell me if you do not find the Scriptures adapted to all your exigencies. Tell me if this does not give it a direct, practical authority in your judgment. Tell me if there is not a completeness in the Scriptures which meets every varied case under all imaginable circumstances. Tell me whether, as life flows on and your experience widens, this suitableness doth not appear more and more evident. Tell me whether new views of it do not open upon you, as you arrive at new points of prospect in the journey of life.

(z) Bishop Sherlock.

Tell me whether, in the seasons of affliction, in the times of awakenings of conscience, in the moments of reflection. upon your past life, in the conflicts of anxiety and the forebodings as to eternity;-tell me whether, as you ascend the hill, and approach the lofty summit, and command a wider prospect and a clearer and more unclouded horizon, you do not behold more distinctly the adaptation of Christianity to your state and wants, to the real relation of things, to your fears and sorrows, to your most importunate interests. Tell me, in fine, whether the confirmations arising from this source, do not give to the proofs arising from external evidences a softness and richness of persuasion, a power of communicating repose and peace to the mind, a perception of the excellency and fitness of the remedy of the gospel, which endears it to your heart, and raises to a demonstration your assurance that it is indeed the Revelation of God.