in decorating his cabin in the midst of a tempest, when he ought to be diligently looking into his chart, and attending to his compass! How unpitied would be the catastrophe which would certainly follow! O sinner, Scriptureknowledge is essential to thy salvation! That man is a fool, be his acquaintance with human arts and sciences ever so extensive, yea, though his mind were a library containing more knowledge than either the Bodleian or Alexandrian, if ignorant of the contents of God's holy word. On the other hand, the simple peasant, who is a stranger to all the improvements of human learning, is truly wise, if he be experimentally acquainted with gospel-truth. Are you poor? Here are riches that may be attained" without

money and without price; treasures in heaven, "where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, "and where thieves do not break through nor "steal." Are you sick? Here are sovereign "medicines to heal your sickness." If you would enjoy comfort in life or death, in time or eternity, read the book of God, "which is able "to make you wise unto salvation, through faith " which is in Christ Jesus."

In the perfect exercise of the faculty of vision two things are indispensable. Light must be diffused on the object, otherwise the eye, though exact in its construction, can be of no use, And though light be diffused on the object to be contemplated, unless the eye be capable of seeing, no information is communicated to the soul. In things of a spiritual nature, the first of these is supplied by the Scriptures, in which "the unsearchable riches of Christ" are laid open to us, if we were endued with spiritual discernment; but it is not sufficient that we have

an open Bible before us, unless the Spirit of God doth graciously remove the natural blindness which is on our understandings; for "the "natural man receiveth not the things of the

Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; "neither can he know them, because they are "spiritually discerned."* This is true, not only of the illiterate, but also of the wise and learned.

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By the natural man" the Apostle means every one who is "sensual, not having the Spirit" of God. Nicodemus was a man of learning himself and a teacher of others, and yet understood not the sayings of Christ. The Scribes and Pharisees were possessed of much human erudition, and even understood much of the letter of the Old Testament; but they were intire strangers to its spiritual meaning. Saul of Tarsus was brought up at the feet of the celebrated Gamaliel, yet" ignorantly" opposed the truth of God. Indeed human literature, when trusted to as all-sufficient for the discovery of Divine things, is so far from being advantageous, that it is highly injurious, which made our Lord say, "I thank Thee, O Father, "Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid "these things from the wise and prudent, and "hast revealed them unto babes: even so, "Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight." § Our church acknowledges this incapacity of

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* 1 Cor. ii. 14. St. Augustine speaks admirably on this subject: "Nemo glorietur se fidem ex proprio sensu genuisse; in se agnoscat, tam ante legem, quam sub lege, et post legem, fidem, quæ est in Christo Jesu, per illumi"nationem gratiæ, quæ a Deo Patre est, unicuique reve"latam ad salutem; conturbatus enim est animæ oculus per infectionem in sensualitate, per obnubilationem in "inferiori ratione, per excæcationem in ratione superiori.” † Jude 19. 1 Tim. i. 13. § Luke x. 21.

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man, without Divine grace, to understand the Scriptures in her various excellent forms of prayer for the illumination of the Holy Spirit. * The understanding is that to the soul which the eye is to the body. When the eye is so diseased as to be incapable of performing its proper office, the body is in darkness; and "he that "walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he "goeth." And unless the eye receives it, light is shed in vain. So it is with the human soul: the admission of sin into it hath so affected the understanding, that, though light is diffused on spiritual objects by Divine revelation, we are not benefited by it till Christ opens our understandings as He did those of His disciples, that we may understand the Scriptures. Till we experience this Divine illumination, we remain strangers to our state of danger, and to our true interest. A blind man would walk on the edge of a precipice, if uninformed of his perilous situation, without fear; so does the unawakened sinner. He might likewise walk amidst the blaze of diamonds by which every other person is dazzled, without admiring them, or feeling any desire of possessing them; and, if they were delivered into his hand, he would put nó more value on them than on a common pebble. Thus we treat the precious blessings of the gospel, till the change alluded to has been produced in us. Yet, though the agency necessary to produce this renewal in us be the power of God, the effect is not to be considered as the

* See the note in p. 91.

"Thou, celestial light, "Shine inward; and the mind, thro' all her pow'rs, "Irradiate; there plant eyes; all mists from thence "Purge and disperse !"-Milton's Par. Lost, b. iii, 51,

creation of a new faculty, but the restoration of one already given to its proper use; just as when the eyes of the blind were opened by the omnipotence of our incarnate God, the optic nerve was not then created, but rendered capable of performing the office for which it was intended, and to which it was before inadequate. Lest the meaning of these assertions should be mistaken, it may be proper to remark, that the Scriptures, when they treat on natural subjects, may be comprehended by a due exertion of our natural reason; but the principal subject of the oracles of God, the mystery of redemption, is so deep and spiritual, and our minds are so carnal, that the book remains sealed, till the Lion of the tribe of Judah opens it, and looses the seven seals thereof.

We

Though Scripture and experience unite to confirm the certainty of these things, yet the mode of operation remains a secret to us. are sensible of the effects, and therefore cannot doubt the reality of the work. "The wind "bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the "sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it "cometh, and whither it goeth; so is every "one that is born of the Spirit.” * The man whose eyes our Lord had opened, could not tell how it had been accomplished. All he could say was, "A man that is called Jesus made "clay and anointed mine eyes, and said unto "me, go to the pool of Siloam and wash; and "I went, and washed, and I received sight." One happy circumstance, however, he was infallibly certain of, even the effect: "One thing," says he, "I know, that whereas I

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* John iii. 8.

was blind, now I see." * As our Lord often worked by the intervention of means then, in the miracles which he performed on the bodies of men, so he does still in the more stupendous acts of His Almighty power on their souls. He honours His own word by making it the instrument of salvation to sinners. And though the word, if unattended by Divine teaching, † is insufficient to lead us to the saving knowledge of God; yet that same word, when accompanied with unction from the Holy One, acts on the heart and conscience with irresistible power. "Is not

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my word like as fire, saith the Lord?" There is a remarkable and instructive anecdote in ecclesiastical history, which may serve to illustrate this beautiful comparison. The circumstance took place at the famous council of Nice. The following account of it is copied from Milner's History of the Church of Christ. § He says, "Before the immediate business of "the Synod was entered upon, their attention "was engaged by the attempts of some Gentile philosophers who appeared among them; some "with a design to satisfy their curiosity con"cerning Christianity itself, others wishing to "involve the Christians in a cloud of verbal "subtilties, and to enjoy the mutual contradic"tions of the followers of Christ. One of them distinguished himself above the rest by the "pomp and arrogancy of his pretensions, and "derided the clergy as ignorant and illiterate. "On this occasion an old Christian, who had

* John ix. 11, 25. + Isa. liv. 13.

Jer. xxiii. 29.

§ Vol. ii. p. 60. The anecdote here related is mentioned. by various other authors; particularly by Baker in his Reflections on Learning, who refers to Sozomen and Ruffinus, as the historians who have transmitted it to us.