forsooth should prejudice his mind? It is not surely necessary, that he must be prejudiced in favour of one or other of the contending systems of Ptolemy and Copernicus, who had heard them stated and explained, before he considered for himself the phænomena of the heavenly bodies. Why is that termed prejudice in an enquiry into the truths of Revelation, which is plain sense and honesty in the pursuit of natural philosophy? And yet the absurdity is much less in the illustration, than in the actual case to be determined for the Scriptures themselves presuppose tradition; the New Testament implies a previous acquaintance with the outline of its doctrines. Be it allowed, that they might, in some instances at least, be learnt originally from the sacred Volume alone; yet the task of so extracting them is not imposed upon any individual, nor has it been imposed upon mankind from the very earliest periods of Christianity. Let no one expect more from the Scriptures than they were designed to afford, or spurn at that assistance which they themselves imply.

This appears to be that just use of unauthoritative tradition which they must make, who labour in sincerity to correct the deficiencies of early instruction in the Christian doctrines; and this is in fact the use which has been ever made of it, where religious education has been conducted upon the genuine dictates of Scripture and of common sense. Nor is there aught in such a method, which can with any propriety be said to restrain the freedom of the human understanding, or to forbid that a Christian, who acquiesces in the established religion of his country, should yet have ascertained its truth

by the most enlarged exercise of his faculties. It seems but too probable that much of the prevalence of schism is to be ascribed to the neglect of these simple principles; and melancholy indeed has been its increase, until by strangely confusing the analogies of the natural and the moral world, and the permission of evil with the appointment of it, men have proceeded so far as to praise and celebrate schism itself, as such, and to suppose the divine Author of truth to be most pleased with varieties of error.

Those, we may gratefully observe, in conclusion, have been eminently favoured, who have been led from earliest infancy through the plain and rational course which leads, and was intended to lead, to the knowledge of genuine Christianity; who have met with no preliminary obstacles to the acceptance of divine truths, and whose path has been perplexed with those difficulties alone, which were doubtless appointed to be trials of their humility and constancy.

See the accounts of a meeting in London in 1817, to commemorate the era of the Reformation. But the sentiment had been in verse a century before, having then indeed been put into the mouth of a Tartar Prince and a Mahometan.

no law divine condemns the virtuous

For differing from the rules your Schools devise.
Look round, how Providence bestows alike
Sunshine and rain, to bless the fruitful year,
On different nations, all of different faiths;
And (tho' by several names and titles worshipp'd)
Heaven takes the various tribute of their praise;
Since all agree to own, at least to mean,
One best, one greatest, only Lord of all.
Thus when He viewed the many forms of nature,
He found that all was good, and blest the fair variety.
Tamerlane, Act iii., sc. 2.

F

SUPPLEMENTARY EXTRACTS

FROM

THE BAMPTON LECTURES

FOR THE YEAR MDCCCXL.

BY

EDWARD HAWKINS, D.D.,
Provost of Oriel College.

I.—WHILE We hear so much of the "Religion of the Bible," and of" God's Word," as opposed to human creeds and human teaching, it is exceedingly remarkable that not only the history and circumstances of the various books of the New Testament, but their very form and structure, tend to establish an opposite conclusion. Instead of the Christian. Scriptures excluding human teaching, they imply

it ; instead of teaching Christianity in the first instance, they are addressed to Christians previously instructed in the faith; instead of being composed after the manner of works designed to impart the rudiments of knowledge, they are indirect and unsystematic thus, even of themselves, going far to negative the assumed propriety of an independent study of the sacred volume, and to demonstrate the use, and, in general, the need of human uninspired teaching, in conjunction with that of the inspired word of God.

B

It is obvious that all the several books of the New Testament were addressed to Christians, and presuppose an acquaintance with Christian doctrine.

The first verse of almost every Epistle states the fact. They were addressed, for example, "to all "that were at Rome called to be saints, whose faith "was spoken of throughout the world; " "unto "the Church of God which was at Corinth; "unto the Churches of Galatia;" "to the Saints "which were at Ephesus; at Philippi; at Colosse; "unto the Church of the Thessalonians;" by St. Paul, again, to Timothy, Titus, Philemon, his own sons in the faith;" by St. Peter to those who were "elect according to the foreknowledge of "God the Father, through sanctification of the "Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the "blood of Jesus Christ; " to those, again, who had "obtained like precious faith with him through "the righteousness of God, and our Saviour Jesus "Christ;" by St. John to the "elect lady and her "children; " or, to "the well-beloved Gaius, whom "he loved in the truth;" by St. Jude to "them "that were sanctified by God the Father, and pre"served in Jesus Christ, and called."

In every instance where the Gospel was planted, a Society was also established; Teachers were appointed; and, in addition to those strong natural and religious obligations by which Christian parents and Christian masters are required to teach the truth of salvation to their children and households, over and above all this, express provision was made from the very first for the religious instruction of the whole community, by the selection and appointment of Ministers of the Word, who were "to give