to be teachers by office; but in one form or other, all should aspire to communicate the knowledge of Christ. Every Christian is required to be ready to give a reason of the hope that is in him with meekness and fear; and if all the members of our churches did but possess this readiness, besides the advantages that would accrue to themselves and others, there would be less scarcity than there is of able and evangelical ministers.

The leading sentiment which runs through the passage, and comprises the whole, is, THE IMPOR

TANCE OF A DEEP AND INTIMATE KNOWLEDGE OF

DIVINE TRUTH. To this subject, brethren, permit me to call your attention. In discoursing upon it, I shall first inquire wherein it consists, and then endeavour to shew the importance of it.

1. Let us inquire, what a deep and intimate knowledge of divine truth includes.

That the oracles of God contain deep things, requires but little proof. The character of God; our own depravity; and that great mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh, &c are deep and interesting subjects. The prophets had to search into the meaning of their own prophecies. 1 Peter i. 10.-The riches of Christ, with which the apostles were entrusted, were denominated unsearchable, Eph. iii. 8; and even the highest orders of created intelligences are described as looking into these things for their farther improvement.

1 Peter 1. 12.

It may seem presuming for any person, in the present imperfect state, to determine on subjects of such magnitude; or to talk of a deep and intimate knowledge of things which surpass the comprehension of the most exalted creatures. And if these terms were used either absolutely, to express the real conformity of our ideas of divine things to the full extent of the things themselves, or even comparatively, if the comparison respected saints

on earth and saints in heaven, it would be presumption. But it is only in reference to one another in the present state, that these terms are intended to apply. Compared with the heavenly inhabitants, all of us are babes: even an inspired apostle was no more. When I was a child, said he, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face: now I know in part, but then shall I know even also as I am known. Cor. xiii. 11, 12. There are such degrees, however, amongst good men in this life, as that, compared with each other some may be said to possess only a superficial knowledge of divine truth, and others a more deep and intimate acquaintance with it.

It is the importance of the latter of these that I wish to have impressed upon our minds. To attain it, the following, amongst other things, require our attention.

1. Though we must not stop at first principles, yet we must be well grounded in them.

No person can drink deeply into any science without being well acquainted with its rudiments: these are the foundation on which the whole structure rests. The first principles of the oracles of God, as specified by our apostle, are repentance from dead works, faith towards God, the doctrine of baptisms, and laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. Whatever may be meant by some of these terms, whether they refer to things peculiar to Judaism, or to the early times of Christianity; it is clear from scripture, and the nature of things, that others of them are expressive of principles, which, in every age, are of the first importance. Though the apostle speaks of leaving them, yet he does not mean that we should give them up, or treat them with indifference, but go on unto perfection;

as a builder leaves his foundation when he raises his walls, and advances towards the completion of his building.

Repentance was the first lesson inculcated by John the baptist, and Christ, and his apostles; and that not merely on profligate sinners, båt on scribes and pharisees. All that they had hitherto learned, required, as it were, to be unlearned; and all that they had done, to be undone, and utterly relinquished.

The knowledge which carnal men acquire of divine things, puffs them.up: and while they think they understand great things, they know nothing as they ought to know it. All the works too, which have been wrought during a state of unregeneracy, are dead works; and, instead of being in any degree pleasing to God, require to be la mented with shame and self-abhorrence. Repentance is a kind of self-emptying work it includes a renunciation, not only of those things for which our own consciences at the time condemned us, but of what we have been in the habit of reckoning wisdom and righteousness. Hence the propriety of the order in which the scriptures place it with regard to faith, repent and believe the gospel. Mark i. 15. Acts i. 38. xx. 21. 2 Tim. 11. 25. Renounce your own ways, and embrace his : He that will be wise, must first become a fool that he may be wise,

Faith towards Ged, or believing v ews of the be ing and glory of the divine character, are reckoned also amongst the first principles of the doctrines of Christ. If we have just ideas of this very important subject, we have the key to the whole system of gospel truth. He who beholds the glory of the divine holiness, will, in that glass, perceive his own polluted and perishing condi tion; and, when properly impressed with a sense of these things, he will naturally embrace the doc

trine of a Saviour, yea, and of a great one. Salvation, by mere grace, through the atonement of Jesu, will appear the very object of his soul's desire. And, with these principles in his heart, other scripture doctrines will appear true, interesting, and harmonious. There are but few erroneous sentiments in the Christian world, which may not be traced to a spirit of self-admiration, which is the opposite of repentance, or to false conceptions of the divine character,

To these the apostle adds, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment; or the doctrine of a future state of rewards and punishments, of endless duration. These are principles, which tho' they occupy almost an ultimate place in the sacred sys em, yet, as every other important truth respecting man proce ds upon the supposition of their truth, they may properly enough be reckoned among the first principles of the oracles of God. If these principles were given up to the infidel, the spirit of whose creed amounts to this, Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die; or if the latter of them were given up to the universalist, who, though he admits of a judgment to come, yet not of an eternal one; we should soon find the whole fabric of truth fallen to the ground.

2. We must not content ourselves with kn wing what is truth, but must be acquainted with the evidence on which it rests.

Christians are required to be always ready to give a reason for the hope that is in them, with meekness and fear and this supposes not only that every part of religion admits of a rational de fence, but that it is necessary for Christians to study, that they may be able to defend it; or at least, to feel the ground on which they rest their hope.

The truths contained in the may be distinguished into two

racles of God,

kinds :

which approve themselves to our ideas of wisdom or fitness; and those, which utterly surpass our understanding, but which require to be believed as matters of pure revelation. The former chiefly respect the councils and works of God, which are exhibited to our understanding, that God in them may be made manifest; the latter more commonly respect the being and inconceivable glories of the God-head, the reality of which we are concerned to know, bat on their mode or manner are forbidden to gaze.

It is exceedingly desirable to trace the wisdom and harmony of evangelical truth: it is a source of enjoyment superior, perhaps, to any thing with which we are acquainted. All the works of God are honorable and glorious, and sought out by all them that have pleasure therein; but redemption is his great work, wherein appears glory to himself in the highest, and on earth peace and good will to men: here, therefore, must needs be the highest enjoyment. Prior to the revelation of redemption, the holy angels shouted for joy over the works of nature; but having witnessed the incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, they desired to look into other things. Nothing tends more to establish the mind, and to interest the heart in any truth, than a perception than it is adapted at once to express the glory of the divine character, and to meet the necessities of guilty creatures. The more we think of truth, therefore, in this way, the more we shall be rooted and grounded in it.

But what reason have we to give for embracing those doctrines, which we consider as above reason, of the finess of which we consequently pretend to have no ideas? We answer, they are con tained in the oracles of God. Nothing is more reasonable than to give implicit credit to HIM, who cannot lie. On this ground we believe that