nature in all its forms, and unerringly foresees all the occurrences that ever will befal it, he cannot fail of his design; but can as easily form his revelations on particular occasions, to suit all cases and all ages, as if he had made those revelations without a respect to those immediate occasions of them. When our Lord sent his apostles on a special commission into Judea, he said unto them," Behold, I send ye forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." This, which was spoken on that particular occasion, was as full, and suitable to their case, and as good a rule for their conduct, all the days of their lives afterwards. And whoever considers the temper of the world, with respect to Christ's disciples and servants ever since, down to these days, must own, that this maxim ever has been, and still is as useful to them, as any that could be given in the present circumstances of things. The same might easily be observed in numberless other instances.

And this method that God has taken to indite the Scriptures, or to move the holy men of old to speak and write them, is admirably suited to make them useful to us. The various forms in which it was proper they should be written on the different occasions that called for them, fit them to strike with the greater advantage on different sorts of minds. Some are most impressed with historical narratives; others with epistolary writings; others with examples; others with records of experiences; and others with prophetic discourses. Some are most touched with close and rational argument, and others with the holy fire of strong devotion; some with beautiful turns of thought and expression, and others with plain and authoritative applications to conscience; some with familiar, obvious truths, and others with doctrines more sublime, and out of the common road; some with the sweet insinuations of meekness and love, and others with the amazing terrors of threatened resentments.

Now, the different occasions of writing the Scriptures, and the different circumstances of those to whom they were first written, naturally led to all these methods of address; and this is wonderfully ordered by the wisdom of God to subserve their greatest usefulness to us, according to his design by them; which is not only to inform, but likewise to move and influence us, according to our different tempers and capacities, unto suitable dispositions and actions; to work upon the minds and consciences, and affections of men; and to strike upon all the springs of human conduct. This method of communicating

them to us, is thus so far from destroying their usefulness, that it tends to make them, in some respects, the more "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works."

CHAPTER II.

GENERAL RULES REGARDING THE USE TO BE MADE OF THE SCRIPTURES.

I SHALL now lay down a few general Rules about the use we should make of the Scriptures, as they are delivered to us.

I. We should make use of these things we find in Scripture, according to their varied importance and advantage to us. Though all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is some way or other profitable to us; yet all its parts are not alike profitable, nor of a like importance to us. What it says of Christ, and of the method of God's grace about the salvation of sinners by him, and of the great doctrines and duties of faith, repentance, love, and evangelical obedience, is of much greater advantage to us, that we be acquainted with it, than what it says concerning genealogies of families, situation of places, Jewish rites and ceremonies, meats, and days, and the like.

Some things made known in Scripture are necessary to the glory of God, the good of others, and our own everlasting happiness; but God might be glorified, the good of others promoted, and we eternally saved, though some other things in Scripture had never been made known to us. And yet these, likewise, are useful, in their places, to subserve those high designs, and they help to make up the perfection and beauty of the Scripture in some lower proportions. As in the frame of our bodies, God, in his infinite wisdom, hath so ordered it, that there are some parts vital, or absolutely necessary to this present life; such as the brains, the heart, the lungs, the stomach and bowels: other parts are necessary to the comfort and easy operations of life; such as the cuticula, or outward skin, the eyes, the hands, and feet: and other parts are subordinately useful to these ends, and ornamental to the body; such as the number of our fingers and toes, our hair and nails, and the numerous

little hairs that spire out in the greater part of our bodies. Now, though some of these are of much greater use and importance to us than others, yet they all have their use in their proper proportions, and unite to make up the perfection and beauty of the whole body. The like may be said of the several parts of Scripture; though we are not fully acquainted with the particular use of them all, any more than we are with the use of all the parts of our bodies.

But as our greatest regard is to such parts of the body as are most vital and necessary, so our highest regards should be to such parts of Scripture as most nearly concern the glory of God, our own everlasting salvation, and the good of others. These should sit uppermost on our hearts, should engage our closest study, and most familiar acquaintance; these should command our chief esteem, and determine our most earnest pursuits after them-not to the neglect of other parts of Scripture, but in preference to them, which are to be used as beneficial in their proper places, and with all due care and reverence in subservience unto these. This our blessed Lord intimated to the Jews, when he said, "Ye pay tithe of mint, anise, and cummin (obligations which might be supposed to be included in the law of tithes, Lev. xxvii. 30), and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone." And something like this the apostle seems to have in his eye in his prayer for the Philippians, where he says, "This I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge, and in all judgment, that ye may approve things that are excellent, that ye may be sincere and without offence, till the day of Christ: being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God." "The things that are excellent" might have been rendered "the things that are more excellent;" that is in comparison with other things: and so it is translated in Rom. ii. 18. Accordingly, this apostle preferred the knowledge of a crucified Christ to all other knowledge. "For," says he, “I determined not to know any thing among you save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." And at another time, "Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law; but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith; that I may know him, and the power

of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death."

II. We should make useful observations and reflections on such passages of Scripture as represent things peculiar to former persons and times.

Some things in Scripture were suited to one state of the church, which do not agree to another, as is manifest with respect to a numerous train of observances enjoined under the Old Testament dispensation, which are so far from obliging us to the practice of them now, that it would be an interpretative denial that Christ is come in the flesh, for us to return to the practice of them again; for they were only "figures for the time then present, and imposed till the time of reformation," which was to be wrought by the coming of Christ our great high priest, Heb. ix. 9, 10, 11, &c. Other passages of Scripture relate to persons and things that anciently were, but will never appear again in the world, of which we have many instances in the histories and genealogies of the Old and New Testament, and in the extraordinary appearances of God to some, and immediate inspiration of others.

All things of this kind should be read and considered, with careful observation and improving reflections, to the glory of God and our own advantage. We should consider what of God, of his perfections, will, ways, and works, appears in them; what moral and divine instructions we may learn from them, to adjust our thoughts about the measure of his government, and to direct our own dealings with him, and walk before him; and what examples we may meet with for our imitation-what above our reach, and what to be avoided. We should observe how far some things of this sort may be accommodated to some circumstances that we either are, or may be placed in, and what allowances must be made for particular differences of circumstances in other things; how much better or worse we are; and how much better or worse the dispensation, and the state of it is, as to light, grace, and efficacy, under which we live. We ought not to read these things like children, without concern to understand them, or profit by them; but should read them like men in understanding, with the observations, reflections, and improvements, that may arise from them, to stock our minds with useful knowledge, to mend the temper of our hearts, and to order our thoughts and behaviour, to exalt God, and humble ourselves before him, and to keep our dependencies on God in Christ, our expectations from him,