festation from God and Christ, plainly and fully announces to us such a great salvation, and to the participation of which we are most graciously invited. It requires to be received, understood, believed, and fulfilled, in deed and in reality. It is worthy of all acceptation, on account of its AUTHOR; and necessary to be received on account of its END.

1. Being delivered by so great an AUTHOR, it is worthy to be received with a humble and submissive mind; to have much diligence and care bestowed on a knowledge and perception of it; and not to be laid aside from the hand, the mind, or the understanding, until we shall have "obtained the END of it,THE SALVATION OF OUR SOULS." Why should this be done? Shall the Holy God open his mouth, and our ears remain stopped? Shall our Heavenly Master be willing to commumunicate instruction, and we refuse to learn? Shall he desire to inspire our hearts with the knowledge of his Divine truth, and we, by closing the entrance to our hearts, exclude the most evident and mild breathings of his Spirit? Does Christ, who is the Father's WISDOM, announce to us that gospel which he has brought from the bosom of the Father, and shall we disdain to hide it in the inmost recesses of our heart? And shall we act thus, especially when we have received this binding command of the Father, which says, "Hear ye him!" (Matt. xvii. 5.) to which he has added a threat, that "if we hear him not, our souls shall be destroyed from among the people; (Acts iii. 23.) that is, from the commonwealth of Israel? Let none of us fall into the commission of such a heinous offence! "For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him?" (Heb. ii. 2, 3.)

2. To all the preceding considerations, let the END of this doctrine be added, and it will be of the greatest utility in enforcing this the work of persuasion on minds that are not prodigal of their own proper and Chief Good,-an employment in which its potency and excellence are most apparent. Let us reflect, for what cause God has brought us out of darkness into this marvellous light; has furnished us with a mind, understanding, and reason; and has adorned us with his image. Let this question be revolved in our minds,"For what purpose or END has God restored the fallen to

their pristine state of integrity, reconciled sinners to himself, and received enemies into favour?"-and we shall plainly discover all this to have been done, that we might be made partakers of eternal salvation, and might sing praises to him for But we shall not be able to aspire after this END, much less to attain it, except in the way which is pointed out by that Theological Doctrine which has been the topic of our discourse. If we wander from this END, our wanderings from it extend, not only beyond the whole earth and sea, but beyond heaven itself,-that city of which nevertheless it is essentially necessary for us to be made free-men, and to have our names enrolled among the living. This doctrine is "the gate of heaven," and the door of paradise; the ladder of Jacob, by which Christ descends to us, and we shall in turn ascend to him; and the golden chain, which connects heaven with earth. Let us enter into this gate; let us ascend this ladder; and let us cling to this chain. Ample and wide is the opening of the gate, and it will easily admit believers; the position of the ladder is immovable, and will not suffer those who ascend it to be shaken or moved; the joining which unites one link of the chain with another is indissoluble, and will not permit those to fall down who cling to it,-until we come to "him that liveth for ever and ever," and are raised to the throne of the Most High; till we be united to the living God, and Jesus Christ our Lord, "the Son of the Highest."

But on you, O chosen youths, this care is a duty peculiarly incumbent; for God has destined you to become "workers together with him," in the manifestation of the gospel, and instruments to administer to the salvation of others. Let the Majesty of the Holy AUTHOR of your studies, and the necessity of the END, be always placed before your eyes. (1.) On attentively viewing the Author, let the words of the Prophet Amos recur to your remembrance and rest on your mind "The lion hath roared, who will not fear? The Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy ?" (Amos ii. 8.) But you cannot prophesy, unless you be instructed by the SPIRIT OF PROPHECY. In our days he addresses no one in that manner, except in the Scriptures; he inspires no one, except by means of the Scriptures, which are divinely inspired.-(2.) In contemplating the END, you will discover, that it is not possible to confer on any one, in his intercourse with mankind, an office of greater dignity and utility, or an office that is more salutary in its consequences, than this, by

which he may conduct them from error into the way of truth, from wickedness to righteousness, from the deepest misery to the highest felicity; and by which he may contribute much towards their everlasting salvation. But this truth is taught by Theology alone; there is nothing except this heavenly science that prescribes the true righteousness; and by it alone is this felicity disclosed, and our salvation made known and revealed. Let the sacred Scriptures therefore be your copies make these divine

-models your delight!

Night and day read them, read them day and night."

COLMAN.

If you thus peruse them, "they will make you that you shall not be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ; (2 Peter i. 8.) but you will become good ministers of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine; (1 Tim. iv. 6.) and ready to every good work; (Titus iii. 1.) workmen who need not to be ashamed;" (2 Tim. ii. 15.) sowing the gospel with diligence and patience; and returning to your Lord with rejoicing, bringing with you an ample harvest, through the blessing of God and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ: to whom be praise and glory from this time, even for evermore! Amen!.

ORATION III.

THE CERTAINTY OF SACRED THEOLOGY.

ALTHOUGH the observations which I have already offered in explanation of the OBJECT, the AUTHOR, and the END of sacred Theology, and other remarks which might have been made, if they had fallen into the hands of a competent interpreter, although all of them contain admirable commendations of this Theology, and convince us that it is altogether divine, since it is occupied concerning God, is derived from God, and leads to God; yet they will not be able to excite within the mind of any person a sincere desire of entering upon such a study, unless he be at the same time encouraged by the bright rays of an assured hope of arriving at a knowledge of the desirable OBJECT, and of obtaining the blessed END. For since the perfection of motion is rest, vain and useless. will that motion be which is not able to attain to rest, the limit of its perfection. But no prudent person will desire to subject himself to vain and useless labour. All our hope, then, of attaining to this knowledge is placed in Divine revelation. For the anticipation of this very just conception has engaged the minds of men, " that God cannot be known except through himself, to whom also there can be no approach but through himself." On this account it becomes necessary to make it evident to man, that a revelation has been made by God; that the revelation which has been given is fortified and defended by such sure and approved arguments, as will cause it to be considered and acknowledged as divine; and that there is a method, by which a man may understand the meanings declared in the word, and may apprehend them by a firm and assured faith. To the elucidation of the last proposition this third part of our labour must be devoted. God grant that I may in this discourse again follow the guidance of his word as it is revealed in the scriptures, and may bring forth and offer to your notice such things as may contribute to establish our faith, and to promote the glory of God, to the gathering together of all of us in the Lord. I pray and

beseech you also, my very famous and most accomplished hearers, not to disdain to favour me with a benevolent and patient hearing, while I deliver this feeble oration in your presence.

As we are now entering upon a consideration of the CERTAINTY of Sacred Theology, it is not necessary that we should contemplate it under the aspect of Legal and Evangelical; for in both of them there is the same measure of the truth, and therefore the manner of arriving at the knowledge of each is the same, and that is certainty. We will treat on this subject, then, in a general manner, without any particular reference or application.

But that our oration may proceed in an orderly course, it will be requisite in the first place briefly to describe CERTAINTY in general; and then to treat at greater length on the CERTAINTY of THEOLOGY.

I. CERTAINTY, then, is a property of the mind or understanding, and a mode of knowledge according to which the mind knows an object as it is, and is certain that it knows that object as it is. It is distinct from OPINION; because it is possible for opinion to know a matter as it is, but its knowledge is accompanied by a suspicion of the opposite falsity. Two things therefore are required, to constitute certainty: (1) The truth of the thing itself, and (2) Such an apprehension of it in our minds as we have just described. This very apprehension, considered as being formed from the truth of the thing itself, and fashioned according to such truth, is also called truth, on account of the similitude; even as the thing itself is certain, on account of the action of the mind which apprehends it in that manner. Thus do those two things, [certainty and truth,] because of their admirable union, make a mutual transfer of their names, the one to the other.

But truth may in reality be viewed in two aspects,-one simple, and the other compound: (1) The former, in relation to a thing as being in the number of entities; (2) The latter, in reference to something inhering in a thing, being present with it or one of its circumstantials, or in reference to a thing as producing something else, or as being produced by some other, and if there be any other affections and relations of things among themselves. The process of truth in the mind is after the same manner.-Its action is of two kinds: (1) On a simple being or entity which is called "a simple apprehension;" and (2) on a complex being, which is termed "composition."