fissed believers of the established doctrine, and would therefore naturally give that sense to the words of every passage which was most favourable to their own tenets. I am no scholar; but when I admit this to be the case, I would not be understood to consider want of learning as any daqualification for a task like the present. On the contrary, it is perhaps an advantage, by suppressing all presumptuous desires which learning might create to correct the established translations of particular texts, and thereby attempt to bias the opinions of others from slight and inconclusive differences. Good intentions, a clear common understanding, and the absence of those acquirements which naturally impose an authority over the judgments of men, are the best qualifications for such an undertaking.

The most liberal clergyman of the various established churches, and, thank God! there are many such, could scarcely, with the purest intentions, remain unconstrained by the reproach he might incur, and still more by the pain he would inflict, in collecting portions of Scripture that would to many appear unfriendly to the community to which he belonged. Indeed, he would feel that, in doing so, he would by many be

considered a latitudinarian, unfit for the charge committed to him; and that, so considered, his means of being useful to his parochial flock would be greatly abridged. It is to an unlearned lay person of no authority to whom a task of this nature reasonably belongs; and, as far as these qualifications go, there is surely no vanity implied in supposing myself in some degree competent to it.

We cannot, I should think, be far wrong in believing that the simplest and most obvious meaning of the words, when not inconsistent with the general scope of the context, is the real meaning of any passage of the Gospels or Epistles; for, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the writers were commissioned to instruct the simple and ignorant. Now, this would have been very imperfectly done, had matters important to our faith been left by them to be only deduced, by ingenious processes of reasoning, from their words, by the Christian teachers who should follow them in succeeding ages, and teachers, too, not guided by divine inspiration. If, to avoid this difficulty, we suppose the Holy Spirit to have guided also the successive fathers of the church, who in many points differed from one

another materially, how shall we get out of the labyrinth? One teacher, of honest character, is as well entitled to call himself inspired as another, and we should then be forced to take refuge from confusion and discord in an infallible earthly guide; which, to the great misfortune of Christendom, was at last actually done. Nay, we must own, that something near akin to it was also done by the leaders of the Protestant church, enlightened as they comparatively were, when they asserted that such and such of their own explanations of Scripture must necessarily be believed.

I shall no longer occupy the time of the reader with further observations, but reserve what else I would offer to his consideration till the end, when he shall have perused the following ex

tracts.

SAINT MATTHEW'S GOSPEL.

Matt. chap. II. v. 11. -" And when they were come into the house (viz. the wise men of the East), they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him : and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh."

Chap. III. v. 16, 17. —" And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water; and lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

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Chap. IX. v. 2. to 6. -"And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee.. And, behold, certain of the Scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth. And Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? For

whether is easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk? But that ye

may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house."

Chap. X. v. 40.-" He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me."

Chap. XI. v. 25, 26, 27.-" At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him."

Chap. XII. v. 5, 6.-" Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless? But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple."

Again, from the 15th to the 29th inclusive."But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself