unintelligible without the facts of the great remedy of salvation in its moral working—all is clear and consistent with them. 5. Once more. The remedy we are considering, both in its stupendous features, and in its method of operation, is calculated to DRAW OUT TO THE UTMOST ALL THE POWERS AND FACULTIES OF MAN. It addresses his heart; it works upon him by the discovery of immense love in Almighty God giving his own Son for him. It presents God as a father in all his benignity, his grace, his pity, his long-suffering.

Now, nothing can fully unlock the powers of the human heart but love-whatever addresses powerfully man's affections, in connection with the discovery of elevating truth to the understanding, raises him to the utmost effort-terror drives him in upon himself-gratitude and love draw him out into voluntary and persevering enterprise.

Now, the remedy of the Bible restores man by presenting God as a father, a friend, a compassionate and gracious sovereign, stooping with infinite condescension to succor and save his creature.

Thus all the faculties of man are carried out to the utmost. He has the very thing proposed to him which suits his nature, which excites his whole soul, which makes him most active and energetic in the noblest of all pursuits.*

6. Thus it CARRIES HIM ON TO HIS TRUE END-an end, not narrow and earthly and debasing-but the highest, the most pure, the most ennobling that can be conceived-an end which man never could have discovered, and which nothing but the divine condescension and grace in redemption could have devised or made practicable. It makes the ever-blessed Creator the end of his creature-it presents God as the centre of felicity. It sets before man the pursuit of God's favor, the preparation for the enjoyment of God, the hope of a state permanent, exalted, glorious-as the end to which he must direct all his powers; and, in doing so, the gospel falls in exactly with his nature and its capacities as originally formed by the divine wisdom.

What an adaptation, then, appears in this peculiar discovery of revelation! A remedy of any kind, and working in any way, would make the Bible suited to man-suited is too weak a term-a remedy would make the Bible the glorious, joyful tidings of salvation to man. But the remedy is yet enhanced in all its bearings upon him, when, though stupendous

* Erskine.

in some views, it yet, in others, meets his reasonable and responsible nature, works by motives, places him in a state of probation, proposes a system of means, corresponds with his actual situation in the world, draws out all his faculties, and carries him on to his highest end.

IV. But further, the Bible is adapted for man, because it is

CALCULATED FOR UNIVERSAL DIFFUSION UNDER ALL THE ENDLESS DIVERSITIES OF HIS STATE AND CHARACTER; and this as well in matter as in manner.

For when we turn from considerations like the preceding ones, which relate to the Christian religion in its most general aspects, as speaking with a tone of decision and authority, as unfolding all the difficulties of our situation, and as discovering an adequate and surprising remedy for our misery; when we turn from all this to a view of Christianity in the form of its communications-when we ask, Is the religion suited to man generally; man in all ages, man under all circumstances? in a word, is it meant for universal diffusion ?—we find that, both in the MATTER and MANNER of revelation, there is a remarkable correspondence with the state and wants of the whole race.

1. For as to the MATTER, it has little in it that is peculiar, exclusive, local, temporary. Its last dispensation, the Christian, is not, like the religion of paganism, or the imposture of Mahomet, modelled for a particular people, and the vices and habits prevalent amongst them. It is not even like the limited and introductory religion of Judaism. It is adapted for man, as man, in the essential powers and faculties of his nature. It is suited for him every where, and under all circumstances, by the authority of its dictates, by the discovery of all his wants, by the magnitude and efficacy of its salvation, by the clearness and force of its evidences, by the simplicity of its worship, by the brevity of its records.

It especially consults the case of the poor-that is, of the vast majority of mankind; the class most pressed by affliction, most in need of means of instruction, most numerous, most neglected, and even scorned by all preceding religions-which philosophy overlooks, because it has nothing essentially beneficial to propose, and no plain and important discoveries to offer. To the poor the Saviour came; amongst the poor he conversed; to them he preached the gospel; their state he consulted. The Bible elevates the intellect, enlarges the powers, increases the happiness of the poor, without flattering their vices or con

cealing from them their duties, or lifting them out of their station. The institution of a day of repose after the interval of six days' labor, for the worship of God, for the contemplation of his spiritual, and the preparation for his eternal, relations and destinies, is an unspeakable blessing, displays the suitableness of revelation to the powers of man, needing recreation and rest both for body and mind. No attempt was ever made for raising the character and situation of the poor, without inspiring pride or relaxing the bonds of domestic and civil subjection, but by the gospel.

The Bible is suited to all orders of intellect; like the works of nature, where the humblest artisan can trace some of those wonders, which the greatest philosophers cannot exhaust. The child meets with what suits his opening capacities; the old and experienced, that which gives tranquillity and peace to age.

Then it follows all the improvements of mankind in learning and science, in philosophy and the arts; and keeps above and beyond them all-opens its treasures as man advances in capacity for searching them out; is illustrated and confirmed by every solid acquisition in human knowledge; meets and suits the mind of the savage emerging into civilization; and yet soars far above the intellect of the scholar and the divine in the most refined advances of society. Like all the works of God, it is adapted to men in every stage of improvement; and the more it is studied, the more do the topics of admiration multiply.

There is also a completeness in the Bible for its proper end. All that man's necessities, as to practical knowledge and present aid, require, you find there; all the circumstances, all the duties, all the emergencies, of man are consulted. It is completely fitted for him; having no omissions, no redundancies, no defects, no provisions nor directions forgotten or left

out.

And yet, with all this suitableness to mankind in all ages, and under all circumstances, it seems to address each individual in particular. The truth of the description, the exact fitness of the doctrines for man, are such that every one thinks his own case consulted. "The Bible," says Mr. Boyle, "like a well-drawn portrait, seems to look every beholder full in the face." In fact, it is the book made for man; not for man in this or that age, of this or that class, of this or that order of intellect, but man universally, on the footing of those capacities, wants, feelings, which are common to the whole race.

2. Nor is the FORM in which God communicates truth in the Scriptures, less fitted for us than the matter.

The style is plain and simple. There is nothing of science, nothing of human research, nothing of artificial eloquence. It is above all this. It abounds with figures and metaphors the most simple, the most beautiful, the most intelligible, the most congruous. Medicine and agriculture, as Lord Bacon observes, are the chief sources of the Scripture images-sources open to man universally.

The perspicuity of the Bible makes it level, in its main instructions, to the most untutored mind, as well as the most refined; whilst the depths contained in its mysteries, and the occasional difficulties of its allusions, exercise and surpass the greatest powers. The variety of matter in the Bible is such as to excite and reward the diligence of every inquirer.

It is the most brief, and yet the most full and copious of writings; the most brief, because it passes over, for the most part, all inferior matters; the most copious, because it dwells at great length on important ones. Two thousand years are compressed into fifty short chapters; whilst that abridged history expands into the most minute details of the family scenes of some of the patriarchs.* Indeed, it delights in domestic narratives, and thus touches the very heart of man in his earliest youth. Who has not wept over the history of Joseph, and felt the deepest compassion at the affliction of Job?

It teaches very much by great facts and a few powerful principles, applicable to ten thousand particular cases, without danger of mistake from any individual; and yet it occasionally enters into the detail of the application of them, to assist the hesitating mind. The method of our Lord's teaching, as we shall see hereafter, was the best adapted to man of any ever yet discovered for conveying instruction.

The large portions of history, biography, prophecy, devotion, mixed with each other, and interwoven with doctrines the most important, go to involve truth in man's habitual feelings, and convey it clothed in its most attractive forms and applied to

real life.

The human style and manner in which the divine inspiration appeared, following the cast of mind of each writer, and allowing him the freest use of his natural powers,† makes the Book the book of man-popular and affecting. The light of the

* Genesis-Abraham, Jacob, Joseph. † See Lect. xii. and xiii.

natural sun is not more adapted for the human eye, than the records of revelation for the mind and powers of man.

It is, however, important to observe, that Christianity, in all this scheme of adaptation, cONNIVES AT NO ONE vice. It is not in agreement with the vicious inclinations and perverted will of man; but it is suited to man in the proper use of the term; to man as originally formed and destined for eternity; to man as weak and fallen, and needing restoration and grace. It never bends to him, it never flatters him. It is fitted, not to certain passions of man, for certain purposes, and in a certain way-no proof of imposture could be more sure-but to the whole character of man in all the parts of his moral constitution, with the direct view of remedying and healing what is corrupted and diseased in him. Heathenism, Mahometanism, infidelity, are adapted to man, so far as they suit his corrupt passions and flatter his pride. Christianity is suited to him in a higher and more appropriate sense-to his original capacities, to his actual state of want and sorrow, to his eternal destinies; to bring him back to the first, to deliver him from the second, to prepare him for the third.

It is to be noted, further, that THIS ADAPTATION DOES NOT STRIKE THE MIND IN ALL ITS PARTS AT ONCE; but appears after a period of consideration and reflection, and in proportion as we are in a right state for judging of it.

Some parts, indeed, force themselves upon our view at the first contemplation; for instance, as revelation restrains man; gives him a law, reveals his relation to Almighty God, and refers him to an eternal judgment. But the main peculiarities of revelation do not strike him at first. The principal features, and many of the details of Scripture doctrine, precept and history, would not have occurred to him as proper to be made universally known. Man would not have drawn the picture of human nature so dark; he would never have dared to lay open the recesses of the human heart; he would not have left so much undiscovered of the ways of God; he would not have adopted such a familiarity of style and illustration; he would not have exposed the perverseness of the chosen nation, nor the falls and infirmities of the saints. He is revolted at much of this at first. The revelation is not the sort of record he would have expected. Man would have preferred something more grand, more showy, more specious, more free