creatures-His purposes and promises towards them and especially the communication of His all-perfect will-with the prediction of events from the commencement to the consummation of time, must be considered subjects of much higher degrees of Inspiration, than the presenting of a correct and instructive narration of facts which might be altogether cognizable by human observation. Yet even these, connected, as they were for a series of ages, with interests the most important, required an integrity and accordance, as well as a preservation from the influence of prejudice or misapprehension, which can scarcely be relied on as the product of any merely natural principle; but must be ascribed to a secret, if not a sensible interposition of Divine Influence.

The degree of this sacred Influence would, we may conclude, be varied in proportion to the occasions for which it was extended. And thus it appears to be in the present day, in the experience and observation of those who are sensible, that the gracious promises and predictions which are left on Holy Writ, are still fulfilled and fulfilling toward the Church militant; and will yet be far more generally displayed in their further accomplishment, in and through them who believe

"according to the working of His mighty power." Such individuals indeed are far from assuming, that any measure of this sacred Influence with which they are acquainted, in the distribution of the gifts which God is pleased to continue in his Church, has been equivalent to that degree of Inspiration which must have been imparted, for the working of visible miracles, or for being intrusted with an immediate and repeated Revelation of those truths and facts which had been committed to certain chosen witnesses, from the beginning of the world to the complete establishment of the Christian Church. Yet since many of the signal predictions of those highly endowed instruments, remain to be yet fulfilled, the humble believer in the manifestation or inspiration of Divine power and goodness with which he is himself intrusted, will consequently be induced to look for the progressive approach of that state, when the glory of the moon" or lesser light "shall be as the light of the sun; and the light of the sun as the light of seven days."

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Chapter V.

ON REVEALED TRUTH.

THE NATURE AND DIFFERENT KINDS OF EVIDENCE, APPLICABLE TO THE TESTIMONIES CONCERNING IT.

There are two principal kinds of evidence, on which the Divinely authorised testimonies of revealed Truth, whether written or spoken, may be received the natural and spiritual. The first is an effect of the application of the natural powers of the human intellect to the subjects of such evidence; and the latter is that Divine Influence, operating either through the medium of those natural powers, or independently of them. Our belief of such truths, may therefore be termed respectively a result of the exercise of reason, or of the influence and persuasion of faith.

Reason is that faculty of the human mind, or rather that combination of faculties, by which

it can apprehend natural subjects; compare them with each other; investigate their properties; discern their natural relations, and form conclusions concerning them.

Faith is that spiritual endowment wrought by the operation of the Holy Spirit on the mind, by which it is enabled to discern the nature of spiritual subjects; to distinguish their important character; to perceive their indissoluble relation to each other, by comparing spiritual things with spiritual; or to embrace them, from a persuasion of their congruity with that secret testimony for Truth and of its Divine authority, which is afforded to the mind of man, as a light in a dark place. Therefore he that thus spiritually "believeth hath the witness in himself."

To believe, according to the common acceptation of the term, is to admit or assent to, the truth of any proposition that can be established on rational grounds. But to believe, according to the general scriptural acceptation of the term, is to believe efficaciously, even to the saving of the soul, by receiving the pure impressions of Divine Truth in the sincere love of it, and by yielding to such impressions "the obedience of faith."

The two grand departments of natural and spiritual evidence, may be further subdivided; the first into external and internal. Thus external evidence is that which may be derived from sense -from human testimony-from analogical deductions. Internal evidence is that which requires no extraneous help, but which arises from a just comparison of the constituent parts of any whole, by which the validity of that whole, may be ascertained.

This internal evidence, as applied to the Sacred Volume, affords the most irrefragable proofs, of the authenticity, the genuineness, the veracity of its collective contents; by exhibiting their essential connexion with each other; a connexion which is the result, not of any possible human foresight or contrivance, but of a Divine purpose, progressively developed. This may be deemed the most cogent and conclusive of all natural, or merely rational evidence, that can be applied to establish the truth of the Holy Scriptures; but this may receive additional light and corroboration from that spiritual evidence which is obtained through the exercise of a spiritual faculty, even that of discerning, comparing, and appreciating the nature and the connexion of