who fucceeded the apoftles, were confeffedly fallible, and confequently unworthy of equal regard with them: nor did they attempt to make any additions to the rule of faith and manners, comprehended in the bible. On the contrary, they held, as we do, that all effential articles are to be found there: and fo did the following ages too: till at length the rulers of the church of Rome, having fet up notions and practices, which the scripture did not warrant, were obliged to pretend, (but very falfely) that they were taught by the ancient fathers, or delivered down by memory. And they decreed in the council of Trent, 200 years ago, that fuch traditions were to be received with the same respect as holy writ. But let us reft on furer ground build on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jefus Chrift himself being the chief corner ftone * ; and on all occafions appeal to the law and to the teftimony: for if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. Eph. ii 20. † If. viii. 23. 302 SER SERMON XLI. ON THE DUTY OF READING THE SCRIPTURE. 2 TIM. iii. 16, 17. All feripture is given by infpiration of God: and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for inftruction in righteoufnefs: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. IN difcourfing on these words, I have already proved, 1. That fcripture is of divine authority: II. That it completely answers every purpose of religion. And therefore I now proceed to the next head, proposed in the beginning, which is III. That we ought to read and ftudy it diligently. This duty follows with the cleareft evidence, from its infpiration and usefulness. For if we may neglect what was written under fo peculiar a direction of God, for our guidance to eternal happiness, to what can we poffibly ever be bound to attend? And yet I fear the confciences of many, if not most of us, can too easily inform us, how little we regard, how feldom we look into, thefe books. We exclaim against it per-. haps as the wickedeft tyranny in the church of Rome, that it prohibits them to be read without licence. But do we ourfelves make much more ufe of our bibles, in the midst of the fulleft liberty, than if they continued to be locked up from us? Do we not spend a very small share of our time, of our leisure time, in looking into them, compared with what is wafted in the idleft occupations and amufements? The hours which we allot allot to reading, do we not more commonly, and with far more pleasure, employ them on any other fort of reading, the most infignificant, the moft corrupting and pernicious, than on this? Are there not multitudes, who can hardly name the time, when, even on the Lord's day itself, they read a chapter, with the serious intention of improving their fouls? Nay, the few, (and very few'l doubt they are at present) who think of religion in earneft, do they not ufually apply to other books chiefly for inftruction in it, and ftudy the facred volumes far less than the compofitions of fallible men? These are facts as notorious as they are lamentable. And therefore I fhall 1. Confider, in order to remove the causes, from which fo wonderful a contempt of God's word hath arisen. 2. Produce his commands for paying it a very different regard. 3. Shew what evils follow from disobeying these commands. 1. I fhall confider the causes, from which this wonderful contempt of God's word hath arifen. Now the more general causes doubtless are, the original corruption of our nature, indifpofing us to every thing good; (againft which, if we value our interefts in a future life, we ought to watch continually :) and our confequent acts and habits of fin, which we very abfurdly fuffer to drive us from the fcripture, that we may be easy in them, instead of having recourfe to the fcripture, which would excite us to an effectual reformation of them. Another very extenfive caufe is the wrong education of our youth. They are very little taught, in comparison of what they fhould, (if they are taught at all) either by their parents at home, or their mafters or tutors afterwards, to be reverently converfant in the facred writings, and yet lefs inftructed how to profit by them. Hence they are unacquainted with their history, their doctrines, their language have no early impreffions made on them in favour of what they contained and fo, when they are grown up, ignorantly flight them, fin without any reftraint from them, and are easily induced to join with fcoffers in ridiculing them. All this might be much otherwife, if they, who educate children, were but near fo careful about it, as true piety, or even common prudence, would lead them to be. : Other Other causes, or excufes, for neglecting to read fcripture are, the various objections made against it, many of which you have heard confuted; and the disagreeableness arifing from the peculiarity of its ftyle, of which also I have spoken. But fuch as can read it only in a tranflation, (and the reft are a very fmall number in proportion,) will be tempted to complain of it still more than others: whereas they ought to acknow. ledge, that they are lefs qualified to judge, and therefore lefs intitled to find fault. For all tranflations, efpecially from writtings of diftant countries and ages, lofe a great deal of the spirit, the ftrength, the elegance, and often the clearness too, of the original. Befides, ours is a literal tranflation. Even the most figurative and poetical paffages, and the remotest from our whole common manner of expreffion, are almost always rendered word for word, without aiming at beauty, but merely at faithfulness. It is incredible, to any but men of skill in these matters, how great a disadvantage this must be. Scarce any other ancient book could appear tolerable in fuch a dress, but the bible and that fuffers by it extremely. Yet if this method had not been chofen, if any fine paffages had been brought into a fairer light, any harsh ones foftened, any dark ones explained, any turn of a fentence made more forcible or more pleafing, by taking only fuch freedoms, in a moderate. degree, as are taken, to a very great one, in most or all other authors, that we tranflate; the fame perfons who complain of flatness or obscurity now, would have complained of artifice and unfairness then. And furely the fcrupulous fidelity, which hath been fhewn on this occafion, well deferves in return the candor of making all due allowances. Amongft these, a very great one is to be made on the following account, that even this tranflation was published above 1 50 years ago; when multitudes of texts were not near so well understood, and confequently could not be fo rightly expreffed, as they have been fince: when alfo our language was different, in feveral particulars, from what it is at prefent; and therefore, though it hath been happily fecured, by the common ufe of our bible and prayer-book, from changing fo faft as it did before, yet some phrases in both are become lefs intelligible, and a great many lefs proper and graceful, than they once were not to fay, that the utmost propriety and accuracy was not in those days very strictly regarded. Befides, every book of the bible hath, for the con venience venience of quotation, been divided, many ages after it was written, into chapters, not always quite fo judiciously separated, as they might have been; and these chapters again into very fhort verfes, which perfons are too apt to confider as independent sentences; and thus often mistake the meaning, but oftener ftill overlook the otherwife plain connexion and force of argument in the facred writings: perhaps imagine that there is none, and that studying them is to little purpose. Nay, laftly, the very expofitors of fcripture, whofe profeffion is to affift men in reading it, and whofe utility for that purpose, upon the whole, is very confiderable, yet fometimes discourage them from it. For commentators, in all books on which they labour much, and therefore above all in the bible, on which they have laboured moft, frequently perplex what without them would be clear enough; either from partiality to their own notions, or vanity of finding out fomething new, or defire of feeming to differ from others where they do not, that they may not seem to copy them when they do. All these things contribute to leffen the esteem of the bible with fome, perhaps more than is imagined for though they may feldom be propofed as direct formal arguments against its usefulness, yet they are fecretly and artfully thrown into the scale, so as to weigh a great deal on that fide of the queftion. And many, who will not allow, or, it may be, do not perceive, that they think the worse of scripture for them, yet are kept by them, more or lefs, from the serious reading of it. But evidently both forts of perfons act very unreasonably. For the original is not in the least answerable for the defects of tranflations, or for any other human imprudences. And though it cannot, by the besttranslation, appear in all its primitive splendor; yet in the worst (and ours is far from being fuch,) it exhibits every thing neceffary to the obtaining of eternal life, which alone might sufficiently recommend it to our most reverent refpect and diligent meditation. However, befides this, under its greatest disadvantages, if we attend to it judiciously, we fhall find in it, (as critics, by no means prejudiced in its favour, have confeffed) far nobler and more striking beauties, and in far greater plenty, than in any or all the writers of heathen antiquity. But the internal hindrances, (if I may call them fo) of ftudying fcripture, have not been the only, or perhaps the chief ones. |