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fathomed. But although, on these grounds, the Scriptures may freely be laid open to our enquiries, those enquiries must be founded on solid reasons and adduced facts. We have no right, neither can any benefit arise from wild speculations, against which God, in our utter ignorance, has placed before us an insuperable barrier. We must keep within those limits in which God, for the wisest purposes, has encircled us; and be content with that knowledge which is capable of outward demonstration.* Pur

* We have chiefly in idea the former inhabitants of the earth. In the first creation-supposing this view to be correct, "Man"

Adam-is said to have been formed-Gen. i. 26. In the second creation the same word is again used. "The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, and there he put the Man

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whom he had formed. The name, Man, or Adam, is intended to be the generic name—as, homo,-given to that species which held the dominion. This is still clearer in the 5th chap. "This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man (Adam), in the likeness of God created he him; Male and Female created he them, and called their name Adam. And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, &c." Moses therefore speaking of the dominant object of creation, even if he knew accurately his form and feature; would naturally call him by the term by which he was known to the Jews, however different in his conformation to man as he now exists. Whatever the destiny of former races, it is agreed on all sides by the geologists, that no human remains have been discovered; so much so, that Lyell states "the real difficulty to consist in tracing back the signs of man's existence upon earth to the comparatively modern period, when species, now his contemporaries, began to predominate." Vol. i. 176. We cannot easily bring the mind to believe, that the earth, for millions of years, was given up to the rule of irrational animals; but what the nature of the rational inhabitants it is utterly impossible to know ;-nor, however we may theorize, can we ever tell. It does not seem a necessary consequence, that in former states of

sued in this feeling-while facts on which we may exercise our minds are given fairly and freely-we cannot look upon the possessors of any science-let their pursuit be what it will, as dangerous to Bible Truth; neither do we fear any mode of scrutiny to which its disclosures may be subjected. In different ages, men have attempted to reduce the sacred volume within the rule and compass of their own peculiarities of belief, almost without cessation. It has been tried by almost every process which man's ingenuity could invent:-and still it rises superior to all; still stands, while both the theorist and their systems have long ceased from men's remembrance. With these facts in our mind, we cannot fear the result of any future enquiries, however singular, or however severe.

Geology is at the present day, the predominant method; its views are deep and searching; but in their exhibition of facts, we cannot regard its advocates in any other light than as men running the same race with ourselves; for it cannot be but that that Scripture, when tested, should put falsehood to silence, whose author and protector has asserted even of its enemies-that "the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it."

being, they should have fallen and become subject to Death; because Man is now its victim. But whatever the theory, one thing seems clear, that life has existed on the earth during vast anterior periods; and that no monuments of a being with organs bearing any similarity to Man in his present state have been discovered. It is utterly useless to pursue the subject; seeing that no direct and detailed Revelation has been vouchsafed to us.

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THE CHRISTIAN SCHEME.

IT has often struck me, that the system of Christianity is very imperfectly understood by the great body of professed believers. They receive it in certain parts;-acknowledge it in certain provisions; but fail to recognize in it a single unbroken revelation, which commencing at the Fall, has stretched through every intermediate age of the world, and will only be consummated at the day of Judgment. It is however only under such a view, that its true grandeur can be either seen or appreciated. The numerous sects that arose in the ages immediately succeeding the Christian æra, each of which fastened upon some particular tenet, which was esteemed the chief corner stone of redemption, upon which the whole system was made to rest, — are a sufficient evidence that men did not then understand its true bearing and greatness; and the endless, subtle, and minute points of controversy, which have engaged the attention of the world ever since that time, clearly denote, that the spirit by which men

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were actuated in those first ages, has not subsided in that in which we write. It is indeed quite frightful to a reflective mind, even to look upon the long roll of sections and parties into which that faith is broken, whose chief strength, as its chief excellence, is its perfect unity. But it is not only amongst those who have made sectarian professions of their belief, that the evil to which we have adverted may be traced; but we hear continually of discrepancies in the belief of men who avow themselves of the Church and support her ordinances; of intimations thrown out, and questions asked, which have all the force, though not the form of objections. The opinions of men on the higher mysteries and on the philosophy of Christianity in every class of society, may, I think, with great reason be characterized as vague and indeterminate; and the thought irresistibly strikes me, that there would be far less diversity of doctrine, were men's ideas better defined in their reception of its principles,

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Now the easiest and perhaps the most important mode of gaining these, appears to be this; to ascend to the source of all religion; and to scrutinize the religion of the Redeemer from the fact which made redemption necessary at all. I must own, I scarcely see by what process we are to arrive at the truth, without investigating the power, nature, and attributes of Christ from the hour in which these attributes were first called into activity for the religious benefit of our race.

Men however are often inclined to break revelation into two parts; and though admitting the connection of the two Covenants, yet to receive them as

dispensations, founded not only on different ceremonies, but on different motives, different laws, different means, and different ends. The opinion prevails under this view, that the one was administered by the Father; and the other by the Son.

It appears to us, that much of the schism, which has been so prejudicial to Christianity, has arisen from this false reasoning; or at the least, that much confusion in belief might be prevented by better defined and more correct ideas on this subject. The Revelations of God are one and indivisible. The same agency which gave the first, gave also the last; and the sole difference which has existed in each has been in the degree of light given, and not in the light itself.

It is however undeniable, that a degree of ambiguity exists in the terms applied to the Deity in the Old Testament, and especially in the earlier portions of it. An ambiguity of this nature; that the mind of the reader may in some passages be uncertain whether they are intended to apply to God, the Father; or to Christ, "the Angel of the Covenant." The language of our translation is very far indeed from clearing up this uncertainty; and our commentators, in their continual interchange of the Persons, rather increase than lessen it; so that frequently a divine intervention which, in its commencement, has been attributed to the Son, in its conclusion, without any change of person, is ascribed to the Father. For instance ;-it is universally conceded, that it was Christ who revealed himself to Moses in the bush, and directed him to appear in the presence of Pharaoh, under the promise, that He would support him in those interviews;

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