If it be thought, that to expect a rational being so to submit his reason to the authority of revelation, is to require a sacri- fice that is unworthy of him ; I answer, that this is the very way in which all human knowledge is acquired. What knows a child, for instance, respecting the elements of language ? You tell him, but in terms which he cannot comprehend, what gram- mar is, and what its rules are for the construction of language. What your instructions mean, he has no conception : but he takes for granted, that what you tell him is true : and from first receiving it simply on your authority, he comes, in time, to see that things are so, and must be so ; that there is, in fact, no other way of communicating any abstract idea ; and that, by that contrivance, we may open to the mind of another person the very inmost recesses of our own. Thus, in receiving the mysterious truths of God, we first take them on the authority of our Divine Teacher; then, gradually finding that they cor- respond with our own experience, we see that they are precisely as they have been represented to us : then we come to find that they could not be otherwise : and, in the issue, we obtain
440 PSALMS. CXXXVIII. g. [729.
such views of their individual importance, their general har- mony, and their mutual subserviency to the glory of God in the salvation of man, that we have no more doubt of them than of our own existence.
But it is not in speculative views that we must rest : we must, if we would indeed magnify the word, take it also as the rule of our conduct. We must not take offence at any thing because it requires more than we are disposed to yield : but, instead of lowering the command to our attainments, we must endeavour to elevate our attainments to it. The very " thoughts and imaginations of our hearts must be brought into obedience to God's blessed word;'" and our whole souls be cast into it, as into a mouldk, not leaving a lineament in that unimpressed upon our souls, or retaining a feature upon our souls uncon- formed to that.
This is the way in which we are to honour the word; and to fail in any part of this, is to refuse it that entire submission which it requires at our hands.]
2. We should endeavour to circulate it to the very ends of the earth —
[This must follow as a matter of course. For, do we possess a mirror that reflects all the glory of our God; and shall we not desire that every human being may behold its light ? Have we a standard to which every thing that is in- teresting to man may be referred ; and shall we not give to the whole world the advantage of it? Have we a, fountain from whence all imaginable blessings flow ; and shall we keep it to ourselves, and not endeavour to impart its blessings to every child of man ?. Surely we must rather pant for an opportunity to make it known to the whole world. We must strive to cir- culate it through every country under heaven, whether civilized or savage : we must be readv to engage in translating it into every language in the world, in order that all men mav be able to read in their own tongue the wonderful works of God. To preach it, too, we should account our highest honour, though it be amongst the most uncivilized nations of the earth: nor let it be thought that the most transcendent talents can be applied to any better purpose than this. On the contrary, the more eminent any person's talents are, the more would we urge him to consecrate them to the blessed work of translating this sacred volume into languages in which it has never yet appeared, and of instructing his fellow-creatures who are yet sitting in darkness and the shadow of death. Even an angel from heaven accounts it an honour to carry this book through the vast ex- panse of heaven, " to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people1." Let it not then be thought an occupation