the word unlearned is not used in ref.erence to literature, but in refer- ence to Christi?. Paul exhorts the l?..phesiaus to "be not unwise, but undeTstanding what the will of the Lord is**' Eph. v, 17; and he speaks of. Christians as "filled with a knowledge ? the will of Sod." Every* evangelical Protestant pastor labours for this. But the nature and effect of popish teaching appear by the following answer, which a Roman Catholic once gave to some questions of a religious nature :? "Please your honour, we leave all these thin? to ?,od and the priest." 4. Wherefore this passage does not oppose, but rather con?n'rns the opinion, that the Scriptures contain clearly every truth of religion; nor does it at all go to say that they are unsafe in the hands of common people who sincerely desire to know and do the will of C_?I. And this is confirmed the more when we consider that it is those who witfully pervert the Scriptures that shall meet with destruction; but not those who sincerely endearour to learn from them the truths of religion, which they can successfully do, although they might never understand those passages hard to be understood, and ?should even mistake the meaning of some others. 7. Besides, Protestants make ample provision against the errors to which unskilful persons are liable, by their excellent modes of com- municating instruction, not merely by catechisms* but by preaching, commentaries, works on criticism, the early and constant instruction of children and ymmg persons in the true and literal sense of the Scri.p- tures. Sacred geography, the manners and customs referred to m Scripture, its style, its doctrines, its morals, &c., are made the constant themes for juvenile instruction; so that among evangelical Protestants (and none else deserve the name, for Socinians, Unitarians, Univer- salists, Shakers, &c., are not Protestants)the rising generation are instructed in the truths of Scripture to great advantage. The Sunday school libraries and Sunday school books of the present race of Pro- testants possess more real merit, and explain Scripture better, than all that ever was written on these subjects by the doctors and popes of the Church of Rome, and by all the authoritative dogmas of her councils and synods. It is true Roman (?atholics ask us, "If the Scriptures be Plain, why' do Protestants explain them, and what need have they of. sermons, creeds, articles of religion ?'* ?c. To this we answer, That these means are themselves paFts of' the system o4' religion by' which pro* vision is made in order to make plain and easy what is somewhat diffi- cult, to guard against rash inquiries into those parts of revelation which are obscure and difficult, and to ?'esert? the plainness. of what is clear in itself', so as to pr? such ?lse glosses as are current among the members of the Ohurch of Rome, or of. errsriots, such as Unitarians, Pelagians, UniversaLists, &c. The need of competent instructors in religion is no argument against the clearness of its most important truths; any more than the need of. similar instrncters in science will be an argument against the plainness of the principles and truths of science. 8. Furthermore, if we make a/?ty to u,,der:ta,,d tb $? the rule of permission to possess and ?ead them, we shall arrtve at the conclusion that the clergy of the Church of Rome ought not to poeseas or read them, for there are some puts of Scripture which her greatest VOL. I.--4 ,Goocle
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