Yet though it were no overweening arrogance, which should consider the ecclesiastical order as the main channel of traditional instruction for the good of the whole Christian Church in every age, even this is not asserted here; it has only been assumed that, as a provision from the first for the perpetuity of traditional instruction, the appointment of the ministerial succession may well be conceived to have been intended. There are offices indeed confided to the clerical orders alone; but they are by no means the sole depositaries, or sole vehicles, of unauthoritative tradition, although upon the whole they have been efficient guardians of it:* here, however, the laity of both sexes will be guilty, if they also do not in this acknowledge the blessing of their inheritance, and the consequent duty imposed upon them of transmitting their trust to all, who have a natural, or civil, right to instruction from them.

Every Christian, who receives the doctrines of his faith, becomes by the very nature of the case the keeper of tradition, so far as he knows the Christian doctrines; and it is not more his duty,

enunciations or corollaries in the same work with the demonstrations would be matter of no consequence to him, provided he could readily meet with them in any other quarter: he allows the statements or inferences no authority by themselves, he admits no proposition without proof; but neither would he refuse to acknowledge the utility of correct statements or corollaries, although they should be by any chance intermixed with others either untrue or not proved: much less would he conceive that these invalidated the true propositions, however other persons might have confounded the true with the false, or admitted the propositions equally with proof or without it.

See some remarks to this purpose in Leslie's Letter to a Converted Deist.

than his glorious privilege, to assist in spreading wider the blessings which he has received. It were devoutly to be wished that every guardian, every master or mistress of a family, every mother, felt how much was due from them in this particular; for thus it surely is that Christ would have every one of His faithful servants both interested, and engaged, in the great work of spreading the elements of Christian truth; and thus also did He probably intend a great advantage to every succeeding period, by providing instruments of instruction accommodated to all ages and all characters. Thus may we discover two important advantages inherent in the just use of traditional instruction. For although the Deity might undoubtedly have supplied mankind with written authority accommodated to the first teaching of every human being; such a method would not have harmonized with the general plan of His providence, either in the simplicity of the design, or in the provision which runs through all the economy of life, for making human beings perpetually dependent upon one another for happiness and improvement. There will be another opportunity for enlarging upon this topic. But little insight can he have into the general plan of God's dealings with mankind, who is not pre-disposed to admire a system, which supposes the intervention of human agency, wherever it can be effectual, for human good;* still less of Christian feeling must

Quoniam (ut præclare scriptum est à Platone) non nobis solum nati sumus, &c., atque ut placet Stoicis-homines hominum causâ esse generatos, ut ipsi inter se aliis alii prodesse possent &c. Cic. de Off. i. 7.

he possess, who does not rejoice in being required to bear a part, however humble, in promoting the progress of Christianity.

We should not fail to observe, moreover, and with gratitude, that in perfect harmony with this design, and as if to secure the conveyance of religious instruction to persons of that age, when the great natural requisite for the reception of all instruction, an humble and docile spirit, may with the most reason be expected, has the baptism of infants been appointed; that they may not want a claim, so soon as they can catch the first glimpses of truth, to that divine assistance also, without which all teaching must be vain.

After all it may be allowed, that some may be little capable of obtaining by any means a very systematical view of the Christian doctrines; and it may be true, that a more exact, and systematized, understanding of Scriptural truths is sometimes demanded by men, than the Divine Inspirer of the faith requires from all believers;—there may, in a word, be a practical and saving faith, with a very unsystematic knowledge of its leading doctrines; as many a peasant practically observes the rules of physic, or mechanics, who yet knows nothing of their respective sciences; and as many men observe numerous moral precepts, who could give no tolerable account of an ethical system. And what is this but another point of comparison between the methods of Providence respecting the principles of faith and of morality, whilst the analogy between the two cases would, if this argument were admitted, appear complete? For admitting the intention concerning tradition, which has been contended for, it

supplies an introduction to the Christian doctrines, analogous to that which reason, or the moral sense, affords towards acquiring the principles of moral duty; but neither of these aids is entitled to definite authority; from both the appeal must be perpetually made to the tribunal of the Scriptures: with exact systems again either of duties or of doctrines the Scriptures do not present us; and a very unsystematic knowledge of both may often be consistent with a true practical faith, and conduct truly Scriptural.†

Perhaps the original difficulty, so far as it respects the want of system in the Christian Scriptures, may have been occasionally exaggerated, where persons have entertained too strict and exact ideas of the degree of systematical acquaintance with the doc

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* "That position" (viz. that of Socrates, who held that the 'seeds of all truth lay in everybody')" will not hold in Christianity, because it contains things above nature: but after that "the Catechism is once learned, that which nature is towards "philosophy, the Catechism is towards divinity." Herbert's Country Parson, c. xxi. See also Bp. Wilson's Charge, 1747, p. lxxxvii. ed. 4to. 1781.

†There are those whom affliction will have taught to apply these sentiments with a painful but lively interest, whilst they mourn for the amiable and the virtuous snatched away from life not untried, yet after a short probation. Believing that there is no certainty of eternal happiness to accountable human beings except through "faith working by love," they will, however, feel convinced, that persons in early youth, before they could apprehend the evidences of Christianity, or could receive the Bible itself as authentic, except upon the authority of those at whose hands nature had taught them to expect every goodthey will feel convinced, that the youthful mind upon that authority, under Grace, might have acquired a sufficient faith, a faith in Christ, active, fruitful, and without doubt sufficient to lead to the promised happiness.

trines of Christianity requisite on the part of every believer. However this may be, the admission just adverted to ought not to be made without the insertion of a reasonable caution, much more obvious than generally regarded. What may be to one an all-sufficient knowledge, may in another be a criminal ignorance: to be unacquainted with the principles even of various human arts, which the unlearned may practise by nature or by habit quite sufficiently, may to educated persons be accounted disgraceful; but what in these cases may be merely unbecoming, in respect of religious knowledge will be hazardously sinful.

The degree indeed of systematic acquaintance with the articles of Christianity befitting different individuals involves a question foreign to the present argument, if not impossible to be determined by men; yet how greatly would the standard of religious knowledge be advanced, did men admit, and act upon a principle, to all appearance no less just, than obvious; did they perceive themselves bound to aim at a proficiency in religious knowledge correspondent to that which they can severally attain in human learning or science! How manifestly then, for example, would it appear the personal and positive duty of every student in a British University, and not merely his transient and academical interest, to acquire a clear and systematic knowledge of the Christian codes of duties or of doctrines!

To return, however, to the subject before us, and draw the argument to a close, which will already perhaps appear to many minds more than sufficient to its proposed purpose. Let us suppose then for a moment that the reasonable use of tradition here