but his principles may still remain unsettled and confused, in regard to many points, and there will be many more on which he will be in ignorance, or even in error. He will be, in

a word, a Christian, but no Divine.

Should I, however, leave the question here, I should incur the risk of being misunderstood. I do not mean to assert, that an improvement in piety is of no avail in theology: this would be overlooking the reciprocal influence of the principles and the affections. But that influence is in this instance altogether indirect, and, as will be presently seen, cannot be felt without something intervening.

Neither do I mean to say that the private Christian must necessarily confine himself to practice, and neglect the opportunity of arranging and extending his religious conceptions. Those, for instance, which serve to confirm his faith, are indispensable to him. Besides, there is too close a connection between principle, feeling, and action, for it to be possible, or even desirable, never to reflect theoretically upon that, to the practice of which life is devoted. It

is plain and undeniable, that he who reads the Word of God to obey it, of necessity reads it also to understand it; and the more he understands, the better he obeys. It has been my design only to show what is the peculiar tendency of Scripture to point out the effect which it especially aims at producing; and, as a consequence, to indicate the direct and principal object which the believer is bound to keep in view.

I will even grant more. The serious Chris tian can seldom be quite indifferent to the science of theology. In the midst of the intellectual and religious activity at work in society, it is impossible but that men who are at once enlightened and pious, must wish to render their religion in some sort learned. Nor are they to be blamed for this. Let us rather, on the contrary, rejoice in it, as affording proof of earnestness, faith, and spiritual growth; still hey must bear to be told that this is not exactly the task assigned them, nor the immediate and main effect of revelation; that they would find it hard to give themselves. up with any consider able degree of ardour to this pursuit, without

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diverging from the prudent line marked out by God himself, perhaps without losing themselves altogether. I know not even, whether faith still more profound, and love more humble and devoted, would not destroy the taste for religious speculation, by merging it in the ardent desire of resembling Christ, of pleasing him, and of being" raised from the dead, and set at his right hand in heavenly places."

We may at least assert, that no sooner does any one begin to apply to the theory of religion, than he feels the need of methods and means, rarely, it must be confessed, within the reach of worldly men. In order to become a theologian, he must go through the discipline needful to form a theologian, and above all, he must acknowledge to himself the difficulty of the undertaking. He must learn to distrust the certainty of his conclusions, the justness of his interpretations, the probability of his conjectures: to acquire this temper, is no easy duty for the man who thinks himself learned, still less for him who has no pretension to become so. To return, however, from a digres

sión, not perhaps, unnecessary:

Let us now

consider the minister of Christ, in his cha

racter of Theologian.

2. Scripture is, no doubt, the same for him as for the private Christian; but the task it imposes on him is different.

It is the business of the Theologian to teach and to defend, and consequently TO KNOW. He is bound to cultivate knowledge, not only with a view to his own benefit, but to that of others of the community of which he is a member, the parish over which he presides, the individuals, whether believers or unbelievers, ignorant or instructed, whom Providence may bring in his way, and to whose service he has beforehand devoted himself. In pursuing the study of the Scriptures, therefore, let him labour TO KNOW EVERY THING, and TO KNOW EVERY THING EFFECTUALLY.

First, I say, to know every thing; because every thing may be of use,-because in religious, as in every other science, all facts hang together, and mutually explain each other; a single opaque part throws a shadow over the

rest, as on the other hand one luminous point To the man

helps to light up the whole mass.

whose object is not study, but practice, such knowledge of particulars is of no importance; but it becomes in the highest degree necessary for the professional student, whose business it is to comprehend things in their principles, tendencies, and aggregates. By what other means can we arrive at a knowledge of these, than by an examination of the particulars which compose them? than by that which is recognized as the only wise and logical method in all science, the observation of facts? In religious matters, moreover, can there be a single fact pointed out but what has its importance, and may be necessary, either for answering an objection, or correcting an error, or preventing a mistake? The Theologian ought, therefore-I do not say to succeed in acquiring-human infirmity forbids the wordbut, to aim at acquiring, universal knowledge, and to labour in the attempt, as if he expected to succeed. He ought to be animated in this enterprise with that zeal which gives assurance of victory, and extends the bounds of possible

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