in them dark and difficult even to those, who lived at the time when they were written, and yet more so to us, who live at this distance from the age of the apostles.

III. Thirdly, by shewing you, that this carries in it no reflection, either upon the goodness or wisdom of God: not on his goodness; because though he has left some things in Holy Writ hard to be understood, yet he has left enough there easy and plain; enough to inform us clearly of the whole compass of what we are bound to believe and to practise. Not on his wisdom; because these dark parts of Holy Writ have their uses, as well as the clear ones; there being many wise ends and weighty reasons for inserting them; several of which I reckoned up to you in my last discourse.

IV. Fourthly, and lastly, I was to raise some observations from what hath been said; to prevent the wrong uses that might, and to point out the true and only use that ought, to be made of it.

The two first of these heads have been fully spoken to. The third has been entered upon, and in some measure cleared; and what remains behind of it, will fall into the fourth and last general head, the enlarging on which shall be the business of this present discourse.

And the first thing I shall observe, from what has been said on this subject, shall be the folly and unreasonableness of those men, who endeavour from the obscurity of some parts of Scripture, entirely to destroy the authority of it.

For thus they argue: the Bible, say they, is a book ordered by God to be written for the information of mankind in what they are to believe and to do. And can we think that such a book from such an author, should have any defects in it? Can it be imagined, that God would speak to man, and yet not speak so as in every case to be understood by him? Is he either not able, or not willing to express himself clearly? If neither of these can be supposed without blasphemy, how comes it to pass that this volume is so full of difficulties and

mysteries; that this revelation of his will wants a yet further revelation, to give us a plain account of its meaning?

Thus do the ungodly reason with themselves, but not aright, Wisd. ii. 1, as will appear from these following considerations.

It is a strange sort of argument, surely, that a book which comes from God, must have nothing in it obscure and hard to be understood. On the contrary, I think, it were much to be suspected, that such a book as this was not of divine authority, if it should be found to lie ready and open to the most ordinary apprehensions, in every part and passage of it. of it. It is given to us, on purpose to open to us some discoveries concerning the divine nature, its essence, and ineffable perfections; to inform us of mysterious truths, the secrets of heaven, hid from natural reason, and from former ages. And can a book, do we think, that speaks of these deep things of God, with which the natural man is utterly unacquainted, speak so as not to give us the least trouble in understanding it? Can that, like which our eyes never saw, nor our ears heard, nor hath it entered into the heart to conceive any thing before, 1 Cor. ii. 9, be told us in words as easy to be apprehended, as those by which we express the most common things, that we every day converse with? It is not so when we first set ourselves to learn any human art or science. The terms, the principles, the propositions of it are all at first sight strange and uncouth, and make no bright impression upon the mind. They amaze, they puzzle, but they do not enlighten us; till, by repeated views, we have made them familiar and easy to us. And why then should we expect that divine mysteries, and the things of another world should more easily be taught and learnt, than human arts and sciences? The obscurity of the subject, whatever it be, must needs cause a proportionable obscurity in the expression of it; and no wonder then, if Scripture be dark in some places, where it speaks of things so remote from human knowledge and apprehension.

Dark it must needs be, unless God, who miraculously enlightened the minds of the prophets and apostles, when they were to write it, should miraculously also open the understanding of every one that comes to read it. So that the difficulties occurring in some passages of a divine revelation, are so far from being an argument against its coming from God, that, on the contrary, it were not reasonable to think it to be a divine revelation, if there were nothing abstruse and difficult in it.

Should it be further objected, that the design of Scripture is, to reveal God's nature and will to mankind, to be a sure guide, and an easy rule of our belief and practice ;and it ought therefore, in order to the attainment of this end, to be in every respect plain and clear; for to no purpose would it be given us by God as a guide and a rule, if it be obscurely and doubtfully expressed ;

To this the answer is ready: that the Scripture, being intended by God, as a rule of faith and manners, must needs be, and certainly is, so far clear, as to reach the end it is intended for; so far as to enlighten our minds in all necessary saving truths, and to afford us, in plain intelligible terms, all that knowledge, that is requisite to carry us to heaven. And thus far we affirm the Scripture to be clear and easy. But it follows not, that it ought, on this account, to be plain and clear in every part and passage of it. If there be enough in it easy to be apprehended, it sufficiently answers the end for which it was designed, though there be some things in it which are not so. And therefore the objection fails in this, that it supposes Scripture to be written perfectly for this end, and for no other, the affording us an easy, familiar rule of faith and manners. This indeed was the chief,

but it was not the only end, proposed in writing it.

Besides this, it was intended (as you have heard) so to be written, as to humble the pride of men, and confound the wisdom of the wise; so as to try our probity, and to exercise our strictest attention, and to employ our industry; so as to create a reverence and awe in us of the divine Revealer; and to give us an instance of the

mighty power of God, in making those plain men, the apostles, utter such great and sublime truths, as those of the most improved understandings among the heathen, by the mere light of nature, never did nor could do. In a word, so as to give us a light taste and glimpse only of those truths, that were fully to be revealed to us in another world; and, by that means, to make us the more earnestly reach out our thoughts to, aspire after, and long for, the future and full enjoyment of them. And, in order to attain these ends, it was fit and requisite that some parts of it should be involved in obscurity; as I discoursed to you the last opportunity. And, therefore, it must not be argued that the written word of God, being designed for a rule of faith and action, must be perspicuous throughout; because there were other ends besides this, to which some parts of it were designed; and to the attaining which, the dark and difficult places in Holy Writ contribute as much, as the plain and most intelligible passages do, towards building us up in those doctrines that are necessary to salvation.

But then it is further objected, that this way of accounting for the obscurity of Holy Writ in some things supposeth it to be evident in all things necessary to salvation: a supposition which will not easily be granted by those we have to deal with. For, say they, are not the doctrines of the divinity of Christ, and the Holy Ghost, and those of the same rank with these, necessary to salvation? And yet they are not plainly and clearly contained in Scripture; for then reasonable men, upon reading Scripture, could not have doubted whether they were contained there or not; much less in good earnest believed that they were not contained there.

Now the true account of this matter is this:

First, it is not pretended, that these doctrines are plainly contained in every text of Scripture which speaks of them; but only that in some one text or more they are proposed to us convincingly, and clearly; and if a truth be once delivered so clearly, as to leave no doubt,

it is the same thing to us, who acknowledge the divine authority of all parts of Scripture, as if it were many times there repeated. For example, were there no other text for the proof of the doctrine of the holy Trinity, in the sense, in which the church of God hath always professed to believe it, but that only where our Saviour commands his disciples to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, Matt. xxviii. 19; or that where St. John speaks of the Three Witnesses in heaven, 1 John v. 7; either of these texts would be sufficient to make that doctrine an evident part of Scripture, though in all the other passages usually produced for it, it should be allowed to be expressed obscurely.

Again, neither is it pretended, that these doctrines are any where, throughout the whole Bible, expressed with the utmost degree of evidence and clearness, which words are any ways possibly capable of: but only that they are so expressed, that an honest impartial mind cannot well miss the sense of them. It might have been said, indeed, in so many words, that Christ, and the Holy Spirit, were, from all eternity, distinct from the Father, and, together with him, one God blessed for ever; and equally the objects of our religious worship and service. But though this be not said there in so many terms, it is said however in such, as an unbiassed well-meaning man cannot mistake; and he that is not so, though it should have been said in these very terms, would perhaps have found a way to have mistaken, or rather wilfully to have perverted the sense of them.

The truth is, God never designed to give us an account of the mysteries of Christianity in expressions every way so bright and clear, as should prevent all possible wrestings and misconstructions. For this had been to do too great force to our assent, which ought to be free and voluntary. This had been to rob us of the rewards due to believing, and to take away the proper test and trial of sincere and ingenuous minds.

Besides, had all points of doctrine been delivered with