to be doing something towards acquiring, or retaining, or improving our knowledge, it is then only, that that knowledge makes the requisite practical impression on the heart and on the conduct.*

§ 8. To the Church then has her all-wise Founder left the office of teaching, to the Scriptures, that of proving, the Christian doctrines;1 to the Scriptures he has left the delineation of Christian principles; to each Church, the application of those principles, in their Symbols or Articles of Religion,-in their Forms of Worship, -and in their Ecclesiastical regulations."

Against such compositions (for some of which there must always be need) drawn up by unin

* See the present Essay, § 2. p. 333. note.

1 Hawkins on Tradition, p. 52.

m"Why may it not have been the general design of Heaven that by early oral, or traditional, instruction, the way should be prepared for the reception of the mysteries of faith; that the church should carry down the system, but the Scriptures should furnish all the proofs of the Christian doctrines; that Tradition should supply the Christian with the arrangement, but the Bible with all the substance of divine truth?"-Hawkins on Tradition, p. 18.

spired writers, the objections which would have existed against their forming a part of Scripture, do not lie: First, because we need not scruple to alter them from time to time, as occasions may require; and, secondly, because the very circumstance of their being not inspired, calls on us diligently to search the Scriptures, and affords a wholesome exercise to our minds in comparing the compositions of fallible men with the records of inspiration. How admirable do the provisions of Divine Wisdom appear, even from the slight and indistinct views we obtain of it! It has supplied us by revelation, with the knowledge of what we could not have discovered for ourselves: and it has left us to ourselves precisely in those points in which it is best for us that we should be so left."

n "In the present instance the want of system in the delivery of the Christian doctrines in Scripture-besides its extreme use, (before insisted upon,) in placing the proofs of those doctrines above the suspicion of corruption-may no doubt be useful as a mode of trying our humility and our faith; and evidently also answers a great purpose in promoting research, and raising the curiosity of learned men especially, who might have slighted a study less intricate and arduous; whilst the very disputes and errors consequent upon obscurity have kept

We may however perversely refuse to take advantage of these wise provisions, by exalting, like the Romanists, (and, I am sorry to say, some Protestants of these days,) the Creeds, Formularies, &c. which are sanctioned by Tradition, and by the enactments of a Church, to a level with the Scriptures. Then indeed we incur the evils already spoken of, with the additional one of

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teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." Such a system accordingly, tends to foster that neglect of the study of Scripture, that averseness to labour in the investigation of truth, --that indolent, uninquiring acquiescence in what is ready prepared for acceptance, in the lump,to which man is by nature so much disposed," and which the structure of the Christian Scriptures seems to have been expressly designed to guard against.

And all this evil is incurred by

alive the spirit of Christianity upon the whole; and, however hurtful frequently to the individuals conversant with them, (through their own fault,) have been eminently instrumental in spreading wider, or rooting more deeply, the great truths of Revelation in other minds."-Hawkins on Tradition, pp. 15, 16.

ἀταλαίπωρος τοῖς πολλοῖς ἡ ζήτησις τῆς ἀλήθειας, καὶ ἐπὶ τὰ ἕτοιμα μᾶλλον τρέπονται.—Thucyd.

reliance on an infallibility (either of some particular Church, or of some undefined universal Church,) which after all is only imaginary. When we inquire what we are to receive as sanctioned by the unerring judgment of the Universal Church, the answer usually given, is, "whatever has been believed always, everywhere, and by all" (quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus): but if those who give this answer are requested to make out a list of the Articles of faith which fulfil these conditions, and to prove them to be such, they do not find it easy. They do however often find it easy to make an unlearned Christian believe that what their Church and their party hold, is to be received by him as possessing this claim.

If we would be Protestants, in spirit, and not merely in name, we must be careful to keep each class of compositions to its own proper use: let Catechisms, Homilies, in short, works of Christian instruction, be employed for instruction ;-Liturgies and other devotional works, for devotional purposes;-Symbols or Articles of Faith, for their proper purpose, to furnish, in conjunction with the others, (for all the authorised Formularies of a Church partake, in some degree, of the

character of these,) a test of any one's fitness to be received as a member, or a minister, of each Church, respectively: and let the Scriptures, and the Scriptures only, be appealed to for a decision on questions of doctrine. It is their peculiar province to furnish proofs. We may call in indeed the aid of learned and judicious, but uninspired authors in cases where doubts have been raised as to the true sense of Scripture; but we must always appeal to these, along with, in connexion with, and in subservience to, the sacred writings.

"And whenever we refer, in proof or disproof of any doctrine, to the Articles or Liturgy, for instance, we not only should not appeal to them alone, but we should also carefully point out that we refer to them not as the authorised formularies of a Church, but simply as the writings of able and pious men, which would be deserving of attention, supposing them to be merely private sermons, &c. To refer to them as backed by the Church's sanction, adds to them no legitimate force in respect of the abstract truth of any position.

"Such an appeal may indeed, in practice, be decisive, (and justly so,) as far as regards members