then, the Scriptures are written throughout according to that Doctrine, and this affords the true Rule for their interpretation.

And it may be illustrated thus: Suppose a book were found, written in the English tongue, but in characters grown obsolete by antiquity. The mode of decyphering it, of course, would be, by ascertaining what letters of the present alphabet answer to those in which the book was written. It is evident that if, in attempting to assign the corresponding letters, we fixed upon wrong ones, though we might appear to make out a word here and there, the sense of the series of words would be as much hidden as ever. Suppose, for instance, I assume the letter which is indeed a G to be an M, the O to be an A, and the Dan N; and instead of God were to read man, wherever that combination of letters occurred: although I should thus have got a single word, which, for aught that appeared in that instance alone, might be the true one, yet perhaps I might not find another case in which my misconstrued alphabet would make any word whatever; and certainly I should never find two or three words, so made out, that would read together in a coherent series. Until, then, the really corresponding letters were discovered, all would be doubt and conjecture: we might dispute whether the book were written in the English or in any other language: and probably many would contend,

that it was not intended to have any series of meaning at all; just as is now generally affirmed with respect to the spiritual sense of the Scriptures. If, on the contrary, on applying any system of interpretation to the supposed mysterious book, it should be found to decypher, not one or two words only, but the whole;-if the whole might be read in order, definite words and a coherent sense being found in every part; the truth of the proposed system of interpretation would be incontestable; there could be no doubt that the unknown characters really answered to the common ones which the proposed system substituted for them. Now this case, I venture to affirm, is exactly parallel to that of our proposed interpretation of the Word of God by the Rule drawn from the Doctrine of Analogies. If the signification assigned from this Doctrine to any term used in Scripture were not the true one, did not give the properly corresponding idea,—though a colourable interpretation of one or two passages might perhaps be offered, yet the application of the same sense to the same term wherever else it occurred would yield nothing but a chaos of confusion. But when we find that the contrary is the case with the system we have proposed; when it is seen, that this explains one passage as readily as another, and the whole as completely as a part; when the sense assigned by it to any individual term is

found to afford a luminous meaning in every instance where that term occurs*; the conclusion is irresistible, that the system is correct. On this ground we rest the claim of the Doctrine of Analogies to be received as the true key for the interpretation of Holy Writ; assured that in this will be found the true alphabet for decyphering the Divine Style of writing. Let us take this for our guide, and begin with the books of Moses; and we fear not to say; Behold, their mysteries unfold. Let us proceed through the Prophets; and nothing so recondite will present itself, as will not, on the right application of this key, expand full to the view. Let us continue our researches through the Gospels and Apocalypse, and still we shall find that this Doctrine affords the universal talisman, by which the veil of the letter is every where laid open, and the wonders of God's law,—all that man can comprehend of the wisdom of Omniscience,-are revealed.

The two conclusions then, of our proposition above, hence result:

First, That the Doctrine of Analogies, being thus applicable to the decyphering of the natural images composing the letter of the Divine Word from one end of it to the other, affords the true rule for its interpretation.

Secondly: That the Divine Word, being thus

* See this exemplified, with respect to the term clouds, in the fourth Lecture, p. 348, &c. and Appendix No. IV.

universally capable of being interpreted by the Doctrine of Analogies, must have been intentionally written according to it.

2. Let us extend this argument by the following supplement: How can it be accounted for, that writings composed by a great number of different authors, who were scattered over a period of sixteen hundred years, and were thus without any possibility of settling a plan in concert, should be written throughout by a uniform principle of so remarkable a kind;—especially when it is certain, that at least the greater number of the penmen were quite unconscious that their productions were governed by this principle, and were entirely unacquainted with the spiritual contents, which, by virtue of this law of their construction, their writings contained?

From this circumstance, alone, then, we surely are again intitled to infer, that the style in which the Scriptures are composed, following every where the Law of Analogy, is the truly Divine Style of Writing; and that nothing short of Plenary Divine Inspiration could be adequate to the production of Compositions so extraordinary. Truly, therefore, are they denominated, "THE WORD OF GOD."

LECTURE VI.

THE WHOLE FABRIC OF INFIDEL OBJECTIONS SHEWN TO BE WITHOUT FOUNDATION.

I. General View of the System and Arguments of the preceding Lectures: Important additional Testimony. II. The four classes of Infidel Objections stated in the first Lecture resumed, and examined by the view which has been developed of the nature of the Holy Word, and of the means of decyphering its true signification. 1. Imputed Inconsistencies with Reason and Science considered: Style of Writing in the first part of the book of Genesis. 2. Imputed Contradictions considered: Why four Gospels were written. 3. Imputed Violations of Morality considered: David not a pattern, but a type. 4. Imputed Insignificance considered. General Reply confirmed;-That all such Objections arise from taking a merely superficial view of the Sacred Scriptures, and from an utter Ignorance of their true Nature. III. Address to Christians, on the Necessity of taking higher ground in their Controversy with Deists. IV. Address to Deists, on the internal causes of Scepticism Conclusion.