the strongest possible testimony, and resting upon the firmest grounds the reason of man can conceive. Before, therefore, you come to the thorough investigation of the Doctrines therein contained, you should be settled in the belief, that, although it was written by men, it was written by men under the immediate direction of the Holy Spirit of God.

It is easy to say, that the Scriptures are false,-that God was not concerned in dictating them to the holy men who wrote them, and that they were the work of human ability alone. But assertion is no proof. Although a few, through an invincible prejudice, or a love of sin, may be induced to avow their disbelief of Holy Writ; yet it has always been found impracticable, to erase characters so evidently impressed by the finger of God. Receive this, therefore, as a fundamental

tion, and are as plain, as pure, and as intelligible, as in the Original. It would be well, if some men were less difficult and precise about non-essentials; and more anxious to ascertain the spirit of a passage, than to contend and cavil about the unimportant niceties of the letter.

C

principle, as an undoubted and incontrovertible truth, that the Scriptures are the Word of God, that they contain Doctrines to be believed in, and Precepts to be obeyed, and that it is your duty to regulate your Faith and Practice according to the directions therein laid down. For if God has condescended to instruct you, you cannot but allow, that it is highly impious and ungrateful to refuse to be instructed. If he has required the obedience of your understandings to what he has been pleased to reveal, you cannot stand justified or excused in transgressing his commands, and in setting up your own reason in opposition to his will.

Having satisfied yourselves of the heavenly origin of the Holy Scriptures, you have prepared the way for the admission of those great and sacred truths therein contained. Believing in God, you are next called upon to believe in Christ. Now comes the grand trial of your Faith. Now you enter upon that very important and sublime doctrine, in which both body and soul are so deeply interested, the Salvation of Mankind by the All-suffi

cient and Meritorious Atonement of the Son of God. Having been received by Baptism into the Church of Christ, and having by the sacred rite of Confirmation taken upon yourselves the holy profession of Christianity, and ratified "with your own mouth and consent, openly before the Church," the promise and vow made in your names at your Baptism, it is your part to beware, that you break not the Covenant into which you have so solemnly entered with Almighty God, and that you * "walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called."

You are to believe, that God, knowing how impossible it was for man, by reason of his fallen nature and of his proneness to evil, to offer up a spotless sacrifice, and perform a perfect obedience, both of which were necessary for the expiation of sin, and the satisfaction of offended justice, sent his only-begotten Son into the world," in the likeness of sinful flesh," to remedy the mischief which the first Adam had occasioned, to make a Cove

* Eph. iv. 1.

+ Rom. viii. 3.

nant of Grace with his creatures, to propound to them terms of salvation, to obey for them the entire law of righteousness, and to be a propitiation, through the shedding of precious blood, *"not only for Original Guilt, but also for Actual Sins of men."

You are to believe, that this only-begotten of God is personally, though in a manner inconceivable by us, united with the Father, and is *"of one substance, power, and eternity" with him; that he *took man's nature in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, of her substance, so that two whole and perfect natures, the Godhead and the Manhood, were joined together in one person, never to be divided, whereof is one Christ, very God and very Man" that he suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried," to "bruise the Serpent's head," and "reconcile the Father to us;" that, after having descended with his soul into the abode of departed spirits, he arose again from the dead on the third day*" and took again

*"

* Vide Articles 1, 2, 3, 4.

his body, with flesh, bones, and all things appertaining to the perfection of man's nature, wherewith he ascended into Heaven, and there sitteth at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for transgressors, until he return to judge all mankind at the last day."

You are likewise to believe in the Holy Ghost; that he *" is of one substance, majesty, and glory with the Father and the Son, very and eternal God;” that he is so far concerned in the great work of Redemption, as he supplies the place of a departed Saviour, and is ready, if we be willing, and pray for his assistance, to dwell in and sanctify our hearts, and unite us with the Holy Church of Christ, and the pious body of Saints, to establish the Kingdom of Grace within us, and to bring us, through obedience to his godly motions, to the heavenly Kingdom of Glory and Immortality.

You are, moreover, to believe, that, even if you faithfully fulfil the conditions of salvation, your sins will be forgiven

* Vide Article 5.