fullest and the most authentic testimony of the declarations of Jesus Christ.

It is a little remarkable, that doctor Bruce has selected the texts of eight of his fourteen sermons from the acts of the apostles and from the epistles, those parts of the New Testament, which he has wholly proscribed, as insufficient to afford authority to any doctrine, and of three others from the gospel of John, which more than any other gospel contains communications not common to the rest, the remaining three texts having been taken from the Old Testament, and not referring to any particular doctrine of christianity. This seems to be a practical abandonment of the very rule of selection, which he has himself laboured to establish.

Doctor Bruce has however endeavoured, in his fourth sermon, to support his rule, by showing that some doctrines have been revealed, which are, as he has stated, merely speculative. But it is obvious that Moses, from whom he has taken the text of this sermon, has made no such distinction. "Secret things," says Moses, "belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed, belong unto us and to our children, for ever, that we may do all the words of this law." Secret things, in the language of Moses, are not mysteries or things imperfectly revealed, but those which have not been at all revealed. To secret things accordingly he has opposed those which have been re

vealed, and among the latter he has distinguished no classes, but has represented all as alike belonging to that generation and to their posterity, and this for the practical purpose of doing all the words of the law. Could it indeed have been the will of the Deity, that speculative men should receive amusement from any part of his communications? When the apostle was addressing the idle and speculative Athenians, such parts of revelation, if any such existed, might have been very appropriately selected, and would doubtless have been received with eager attention. The apostle however appears to have discovered none of this nature in the divine communications, but when he had stated the great truths of natural religion, urged upon his hearers the duty of repentance, enforced by the doctrines of a resurrection and a future judgment, which are certainly not speculative. He did not enter into speculative discussions with the two parties of philosophers, the stoics and the epicureans, by whom he was encountered, but at once pressed upon his hearers the unreasonableness of the idolatry by which all were corrupted, and the necessity of preparing themselves to abide the great day of trial. They were not prepared for receiving the practical details of the christian faith, and the apostle could not tell them of any particulars, which might serve merely to occupy a vacant curiosity. Christ having come into the

. world for the salvation of men, the communications which he has made, must all have a practical relation to our spiritual interests.

This distinction of doctrines into speculative and practical has indeed been extended by doctor Bruce much further than that, which rejects so large a portion of the scriptures of the New Testament from the rank of doctrinal authorities, for in the class of speculative doctrines he has placed the intimations, which we have received of the attributes, character, and nature of God, of every thing beyond the mere knowledge of his existence. "The knowledge of the existence of God is," he has remarked, "communicated to us by design, as a truth of prime importance to our well-being and improvement. But this could not be done without giving us some intimation of his attributes, character, and nature." Doctor Bruce appears thus to have conceived that he could penetrate into the secret counsels of the Deity, and ascertain what communications he has made voluntarily, and what others he found it impracticable to withhold; and by this extraordinary discovery he has been enabled to ascertain, what divine communications may be safely and properly neglected, as not intended to be disclosed.

It is perfectly true, that whosoever presumes to work upon the materials furnished by divine revelation, and to frame for himself systems of the

ology exceeding the measure of the divine communications, is not only very foolishly, but even very mischievously employed. Does it however follow from this, that we should not attach importance to these communications, so far as they have been made, but should regard the greater portion of them as imparted only incidentally, and because they could not be withheld? Who is competent to say, that any communication has been made by the Almighty unintentionally, and to no purpose? Who shall say, what that communication is, which he had made by design, and what that is, which has thus been made without design? Doctor Bruce, who has protested against enquiring into the purposes of the divine mind, has himself, in his anxiety to preclude all such enquiries, pro- * nounced a very decisive, but surely a most unaccountable judgment, concerning the purpose of that great Being in communicating a knowledge of himself.

When we have been directed to neglect, as incidental and undesigned communications, those intimations which have been given concerning the attributes, character, and nature of God, it cannot be supposed, that much attention should be permitted to the agency employed in the redemption of man. This subject is indeed wholly excluded, not merely as speculative and unimportant, but even as not at all disclosed. "The natures and relations of the

spiritual agents employed in redemption" are accordingly mentioned by the author, in an enumeration of the secret things, which have not been revealed. If this be once assumed, there can be little difficulty in establishing the arian doctrine, for the reality of any communication, which might contradict it, is excluded from the discussion. Still however it might be demanded, why should even the arian doctrine be inculcated as necessary, since this also treats of the natures and relations of those agents, and therefore, by the application of the same rule, ought to be rejected, as not authorised by any divine communications. The religion of Christ is thus cut down to mere unitarianism, differing from deism only in this, that it would admit the testimony of revelation, to prove the existence of a God. The difference indeed is not very important, since the existence of a God must have been acknowledged, before any testimony could be received as a divine revelation.

So much having been done for excluding mysteries and narrowing the faith of a christian, it does not appear why the work should have been prosecuted further. No man, who admits a divine revelation, can refuse to acknowledge the existence of its author; and every enquiry into the nature of God has been referred to the class of mere speculation, every consideration of the character and office of our