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cause, we are scattering it abroad? Bre-art and long experience to sail upon the thren, there was a time when the greatest seas, what knowledge and prudence does adversary this country ever had prepared it call for, to pass over, happily, the sea his armies and his flotilla, and lifted up of this world, where tempests never cease! his hand, and declared that our rights, our Alas! who can think, without sensible property, and all that we had, should be- grief and bitter tears, that the helm of come his prey; and that he would feed the these vessels, which contain such preavarice and cupidity of his followers in cious wares as cost no less than the blood this very city. You remember,-many of Jesus Christ, should be committed, of you are old enough, I remember well, ordinarily, to men of so little experience, that one of the finest pictures that was that they are not only ignorant of the temever seen was then presented to view. pests, shelves, and banks of this terrible Nearly the whole population of the coun- sea, but even have not the strength or try declared that it should not be, and industry to guide their own little vessel stepped with eagerness into the ranks, to back to the road! And these inestimable prepare themselves for repelling Eng- riches are frequently intrusted to those land's foe. Well; but some did not do so. whom they will not trust with a purse of What then? Were they against England? fifteen or twenty pieces. And when the Yes; they were: they were against pilots are able, who would not even then her constitution-against her rights- lose their courage to see themselves sailagainst her comforts-against her pri- ing amidst so many hazards, and with so vileges against her happiness-against little success? How many stupid ones the interests of her children. And had all fall out of the vessel! how many impru been left to them, and had all acted as dent ones get out to sail apart in shalthey did, England had fallen a prey to lops! how many desperate ones throw her haughty foe. Brethren, Christ is themselves over, and abandon themselves engaged against a powerful foe; and to the fury of the waves! What disquiets, those who gather not with him, scatter; what griefs, and what trouble for the and those who do nothing, are injuring poor pilot! He must run on all sides to his cause. Neutrality here, is OPPOSITION. reach out his hand to those that fall. He It is laid upon us all to do something for must exhaust his lungs, in trying to call the honour of our divine Lord. We may those who flee away. He must even not all be able to engage equally, or with frequently throw himself into the sea, the same effect; but we must all take to recover those whom the waves swalour stand, and do something for the great low up. If he watch not, the fall of the first will be imputed to him. If he be silent, he will have to answer for the flight of the second. If he fear labour and

cause.

THE MINISTER'S CHARGE COMPARED TO A SHIP'S travail, he will be accused of the other's

CREW.

PARISHES are holy ships, whose curates are the pilots, and eternity the port they must guide them to. If it need so much

despair. If, in a word, he want vigilance, strength, and courage, he will be guilty of as many bloodsheds as he lets souls perish.-Entretiens de l'Abbe Jean, &c.

SERMON XXVI.

THE SACRED ORACLES.

PREACHED WITH REFERENCE TO THE CIRCULATION OF THE SCRIPTURES BY THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY.

BY THE REV. W. JAY.

"Then took Jeremiah another roll, and gave it to Baruch, the scribe, the son of Neriah: who wrote therein, from the mouth of Jeremiah, all the words of the book which Jehoiakim, king of Judah, had burned in the fire: and there were added likewise to them many like words.”—Jer. xxvi. 32.

into the fire that was on the hearth." Vain rage! would this hinder the execution of the threatenings ? Nay, it could not prevent the infliction of them. Jeremiah is ordered to take another roll, "after that the king had burned the roll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying, Take thee again another roll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll which Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, had burned." Nor was this all; the roll, instead of being eventually destroyed or injured, was even enlarged and improved.

"SURELY," says David, "the wrath of man shall praise thee, O Lord." This is, indeed, far from being the natural design and tendency of it. In this sense the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. But his wisdom and power are infinite; and by his overruling providence he causes the expressions of human rage to conduce to the display of his own glory, and thus turn the curse into a blessing. The Bible abounds with instances of this; and a very striking exemplification comes before us this morning. Jeremiah was commanded to write in a roll all the words which had" Then took Jeremiah another roll, and been denounced against Israel and Judah. This he did by means of Baruch, who not only transcribed the roll, but read it in the court of the temple of the Lord, the people standing underneath. Michaiah heard him, and related the substance to the princes who were assembled in the scribes' chamber, in the house of the king. They therefore sent for Baruch to read it to them. They heard it with trembling and fear, and agreed to tell the king. The king immediately ordered Jehudi to go and fetch the roll. "Now the king sat in the winter-house in the ninth month; and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him. And it came to pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, and cast it

gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah; who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim, king of Judah, had burned in the fire; and there were added besides unto them many like words." Let us rise from hence to some general reflections, observing,

First, The importance of having the word of God committed to writing.

Secondly, Taking some views of those who would destroy the Scriptures. And, Thirdly, Showing how many things which seem likely to injure revelation, have even proved its advantage.

Many of you will remember that a year ago, I promised to preach on a Scripture, bearing on the importance of the British

and Foreign Bible Society, the Sabbath | perly the true meaning of a case. It is immediately preceding the annual meet- proverbially said there is no believing one ing. Now this is the very Sabbath; and half of what we hear. What should we by divine permission and assistance I have known of the history of our own shall endeavour to redeem the pledge. country without written documents? A None, unless by perverseness of mind, number of facts may have reached us can view this as an act of hostility and orally, but then they might have been controversy, when it is only the fulfilment altered in the lapse of years; and thereof an engagement, announced when I could fore the earliest part in the history of have no apprehension from a system con- every nation, previous to the acquisition taining so much of active opposition to an of written records, is always deemed fainstitution which millions of my fellow bulous. countrymen agree to be the glory of the land, and which I consider (for I need not be ashamed of my country) to be the glory of the country in which I live.

"All scripture," says the apostle, "was given by inspiration of God." "Holy men," says Peter, "spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." But says Dr. Watts,

"The prophets' pens succeed their breath, To save the holy words from death."

Let me place another illustration before you which comes nearer our subject. All mankind once had a divine revelation. The family of Noah saved from the flood was the original of all the nations of the globe; but this family possessed divine qualifications, and, therefore, as the members spread they carried along with them these discoveries. Hence, long after their dispersion, we find, not only in Judah but in other places, some knowledge of the true God; as we see in the

But we have only to do with THE COM-case of Balaam, who came from MesopoMITTING OF THE MIND AND WILL OF GOD tamia. And hence, to this day, there are TO WRITING. This is important for two found in all countries some obscure relipurposes. First, because the knowledge gious rites. These are not, as some imaof them must be preserved and extended. gine, the result of reason, but they are Without the knowledge of them they the remains of revelation, the lingering cannot be felt, they cannot be acted upon, beams of the sun that has gone down; they cannot become the rule of our con- and, therefore, it is remarkable that, in duct, nor the source of our consolation. proportion as you go back and trace the Therefore says the apostle, "How can time of its setting, you find these beams they believe on him of whom they have more clear and strong. The remains of not heard?" Therefore says God, "By the original revelation are thus found in his knowledge shall my righteous servant the heathen world-not only in some apjustify many." Therefore prays the prehensions which they have of a Supreme church, "That thy name may be known Being above them, and of something like on earth, thy saving health among all a future state, but peculiarly in the article nations." And, secondly, because there of sacrifice, (an institution which is perwas no way of preserving and extending this fectly unaccountable unless we suppose knowledge to be compared to this. Thus, an original appointment,) and also in the both with regard to extensiveness and division of time by sevens. The obsersecurity, Scripture surpasses oral tradi-vations of the moon would lead people to tion. We all know, in the common distinguish times into months, and the affairs of the world, how a thing is altered by repeated relation. There are some persons who never regard accuracy at all; others seem incapable of it. Some from lack of memory, and others from fervency of feeling, add circumstances: and it is well known how a single turn will express too much or too little to define pro

observation of the sun would lead them to distinguish it into days and years; but there is no one conceivable thing from which it can be imagined why people divide time by sevens, unless it is the divine institution of the Sabbath.

But now what was derived from this source? Where it was unrecorded it

became more and more indistinct and have been obtained from the pen, a huncorrupt. This was natural and unavoid-dred or a thousand can be obtained from able but in the family of Abraham, and the press. Thus the sacred volume has in the nation of the Jews, it was other- become the property of thousands and wise. There revelation was, after a millions who otherwise must have been while, committed to writing: thus it be-devoid of it. came fixed and certain; thus appeals could But to pass on to the second thing. be made to it, and mistakes could be cor- WHAT THINK YOU OF THOSE WHO WOULD rected by it. The original copy was DESTROY THE SCRIPTURES? You seem kept in the ark of the Lord. Every king to shudder at the very proposal: you of the Jews, when he came to his throne, wonder that any person should be capawas commanded to transcribe it for his ble of such an action as Jehoiakim, who own use. At every public festival it was cut to pieces the divine roll and threw it brought forth and read in the audience of into the fire. About one hundred and all the people. This would keep up an seventy years before Christ, Antiochus acquaintance with it. The pious would caused all the copies of the Jewish Scripof course soon multiply copies, and they tures he could find to be burnt: and three would lend or read these transcriptions hundred and three years after, Dioclesian, to their relations, and neighbours, and by an edict, ordered all the Scriptures to friends. You see we do not know at be committed to the flames; and Eusepresent the origin of alphabetical charac-bius, the historian, tells us he saw large ters. This seems very easy and familiar, heaps of them burning in the marketto you who use it without reflection; but place. I knew a man a few years ago, to those who think, and have been accus- very near Bath, who had a pious wife tomed to account for things, it has proved fond of reading the Scriptures. This so difficult and wonderful, that Gilbert offended him; and one day he snatched Wakefield has written an essay to prove it from her hand, and thrust it into the that it must have been originally a divine fire, and consumed it to ashes. This communication. shocks you: but did you never hear of VolBut we have only to do now with the taire, and Paine, and Taylor, (the devil's uses. Writing has answered a thousand chaplain,) and other lampooners and revaluable purposes. It has been the re-vilers of the Bible, who have, by their source of friendship-it has been the en-deeds, more than betrayed the wishes of larger of commerce-it has enriched the their hearts? Men may be restrained world with the spoils of time-it has multiplied innumerably the treasures of knowledge: by means of it men have secured and communicated their acquisitions, and made the discoveries and improvements of one age and nation available for those of another. The highest honour that can attach to writing is that by means of it the words of eternal life have come down to us unimpaired. And as Dr. Watts says, in the words we have been singing,

"The bright inheritance of heaven Is by the sweet conveyance given." We shall only add that this blessed instrumentality was completed by the discovery of printing; by which, machinery becoming a substitute for manuscript, where one copy of the Scriptures could

from burning the book; but every wicked man on earth, be assured, is an enemy to it. Men make the book their enemy, and then they are enemies to the book, and hate it because it does not prophesy good of them, but evil. Mr. Wilberforce told me that when he called on Carlile in the prison, and took out the Scriptures, he said, "I'll hear nothing from that book. How can you suppose that I can bear that book? For if that book be true, I am miserable."

Let us take four views of those who are enemies to the Bible.

The first regards the taste of those who deny its authenticity. Without referring immediately to its doctrines, how much is there in the very writing itself that deserves admiration! What sublimity is there in some passages-what unity in

tested, and thrown on the very dregs of society, who is only suspected of the abominations, in the practice of which the most admired characters in heathen lands avowedly indulged! What has raised this tone of morals? How has the system itself been changed? Captives and prisoners are now not put to death in cold blood. How they are attended to and provided for! If after a battle a single common soldier now was put to death, or maimed, or sold into slavery, every nation would resound with earnest protestations against such shameful inhumanity. Where now are the bloody gladiatorial rites which furnished such delicious entertainment, not only for the men, but the women in Rome? When we look around us, (blessed be God!) we see asylums for indigence, and disease, and all kinds of wretchedness; here for the groping blind-there for the deaf and dumb; here for helpless orphanism—there for wrinkled age. What benevolence was seen in the pagan world? Produce one instance in which the philosophy of Greece or Rome ever established an infirmary or an hospital.

others-what nature and tenderness in-in banishing polygamy, and confining all! I wish I had time to furnish you divorces only to cases of adultery? How with specimens, but we have not: you is the wretched being shunned, and demay find enough of them in Simpson's Plea for Religion. But let me ask if ever there was a person who could read, without being deeply affected, the narrative of the history of Joseph, of the resurrection of Lazarus, and the farewell of Paul to the elders of Ephesus? Here we are supplied with articles to be derived from no other source. We are led back to periods much earlier than other historians reach. Here we see earth rising out of chaos; we see the earth drowned; we see it renewed and re-peopled. Surely those precious pieces of antiquity which are found in the book of Genesis-who would not wish to admire and preserve them? But the Vandalism of infidelity would fling them all into the fire, and fix our eyes on the darkness and dreariness of two thousand years ago. One would imagine that the description which the Bible gives man of his soul, of his capacity for endless improvement, of his immortality, of his being the peculiar care of Deity, might fall in with his love of greatness: one might suppose that men would wish they were true-that they would be sorry to learn they had no higher destination than to eat, and to drink, and The Bible also describes all social and to sleep. But no; such is the self-abase- relative duties, and enforces them by the ment and voluntary degradation of those most awful sanctions. It denounces the wretches, that they would strip man of his wrath of God upon unkind husbands and nobler part, and throw into the flames all upon scolding wives-upon negligent that would render it important and glori-parents and upon disobedient childrenous, that they might feel in them the upon grinding masters and upon unfaithbrute triumphant, and that they might ful servants. It damns the prince that graze by their brethren in the field, say- becomes a tyrant, and it damns the subing, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow | ject that dares to be a rebel. Thus it we die."

provides for the welfare of all in the community; and it is easy to see that if all were to imbibe its spirit, there would be no complaining in our streets; all would be order and subordination; the wilderness and the solitary place would be glad, and the desert would rejoice and blossom as the rose. What can we think of men that would destroy a system that thus conduces in every way to the public weal? When Hume himself was asked whether he thought it better for servants,

Secondly, let us view these men as to their patriotism, or their regard to public good. Now I am authorized to say that the advantages of civilization are principally to be ascribed to the influence of revelation. Wherever the Scriptures have prevailed, they have stemmed the fierceness of the population, and the malice of the multitude, far more than all civil ordinances. What have they not done in purifying and blessing the very spring-head of society-I mean marriage and children, and tradesmen, and the VOL. I.-31

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