rally sit at his feet, but in every portion of scripture . which we read, in every faithful sermon which we hear, in every pious book which we peruse, in every visit to a poor believer in Jesus in his affliction, in every part of the Christian's life, we are, as it were, going to the Saviour and sitting at his feet. Man's teaching, where faithful, is not an obstacle to our being taught by Christ, but a means by which he teaches. All other Christian Instructors are sent by him as undershepherds; he is the chief Shepherd and Bishop of our souls. We are not indeed to receive from them any instruction but according to his mind. What says the Master? should be our constant sentiment with reference to Christ, as others used it with reference to human authorities. If a Heathen could say, 'Plato is my friend, and Socrates is my friend, but truth is more my friend,' well may a Christian say, 'Christ is the truth, and Christ is dearer to me than all the world.' We should indeed infinitely prefer his word before that of any earthly relation, or we are not worthy of him. He has also multiplied figures, parables, and lessons, by which we may, as it were, ascend step by step, every day and every hour, to constant communion with him. Where can we be without a constant memorial of him? He is the Sun of Righteousness that illuminates the world, the bread which nourishes to everlasting life, the door by which we enter the sheepfold, the habitation wherein we dwell, the way in which we journey to heaven, and the true vine, united to which we bear fruit. In short he is our light, our life, and glory. To the end of our days we must always remain learners at his feet, and while we act up to knowledge already given, he will continually give us fresh lessons of his love (Ephes. iii. 18, 19). Let us then day by day bring all our perplexities to him, and constantly seek his guidance, and follow his will, so shall we assure our hearts that we are under his teaching.

CHERISH A JOYFUL EXPECTATION OF PERFECT KNOWLEDGE through Christ hereafter. On a large scale he shall not fail, nor be discouraged till he have set judgment in the earth, and the isles shall wait for his law. Every individual believer may say, thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. He is with his people in their life, and all through the valley of the shadow of death, and when on the borders of the eternal world, he stands ready, as it were, to receive and welcome them home. (Acts vii. 25.) If indeed we be Christian Students, we are going to the land of light, we are on our way to those blessed regions where there is no night, and no darkness. It is the glorious description of our residence above, the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof; and the nations of them that are saved shall walk in the light of it. Let us have a realizing anticipation of the day when we shall behold the great Teacher, and know as we are known. A transforming and assimilating influence shall accompany the beatific vision; we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. The Lamb is the light of the heavenly city; all the communications of light will therefore proceed from him. The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters. We may well suppose that he who has said, What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter, will remove the veil which now prevents our beholding the beautiful form and proportion of many a sacred truth, and the light and glory of many a dispensation at present hid in the clouds and darkness that are round about him.

Christian Students, rise then to your high vocation. Here is a Teacher incomparably excelling every other Instructer; here is a school infinitely beyond the highest and most renowned school and college here below;

the science is good not only for time, but for time and eternity; the honors are not fading, but durable; the rewards are not merely earthly and temporal, but also heavenly and everlasting; like godliness, his teaching is profitable for all things, having the promise of the life that now is, as well as that which is to come. All may here attain the great prize, and the pursuit of it shall not be full of anxiety and toilsome labor, or the attainment of it leave an aching void in the soul. It is heaven upon earth to live with Christ here below, and to rejoice in hope of the glory of God, and we shall find hereafter in his presence fulness of joy. Christian Students, cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward; for ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise; for yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.

In the meantime, then, and till that great Teacher come, and in his light we see light, we conclude with the apostle's charge to Timothy

GIVE ATTENDANCE TO READING.

APPENDIX.

Eight chapters of the English Edition, beginning with the eleventh and ending with the eighteenth, are omitted in the body of this work. The subjects of these chapters are as follows: "XI. Outlines of the History of Divinity," containing remarks on "the Fathers, the schoolmen and their contemporaries, the Reformers, Successors of the Reformers, the Nonconformists, the Divines of the Restoration and Revolution, Modern writers; XII. Reflections on the preceding outlines of the History of Divinity; XIII. Brief courses of the study of Divinity; XIV. Religious Libraries for persons in various classes of Society; XV. Parochial Religious Libraries and diffusing of Religious knowledge by tracts; XVI. The Minister's Library; XVII. The Missionary's Library;" and "XVIII. Hints for the advancement of Theology." These chapters, though not of a character to interest the generality of American readers, are too valuable to be entirely separated from the work. It has been thought proper, therefore, to abridge them, and to publish the more interesting parts in the form of an Appendix.

OUTLINES OF THE HISTORY OF DIVINITY.

It will be necessary to divide the subject under different heads, or classes of writers. We propose to consider therefore, in distinct sections, the Fathers, the Schoolmen, the Reformers, their Successors, the Nonconformists, the Divines at the Restoration and Revolution, and those of Modern Times.

The Fathers.

The title of Fathers is variously extended or limited, and is made to include by some, only writers to the fourth or fifth century, and by others, writers to the twelfth or thirteenth. We would here take it in its largest acceptation.

We have but few remains of the first ages of the church; as it has been beautifully remarked 'to believe, to suffer, to

love,-not to write, was the primitive taste.' Yet those remains which we have, are too valuable to be neglected. Milner, one well competent to judge, observes, 'Ecclesiastical antiquity has been too much depreciated in our times, and students in divinity have been discouraged from the study of the Fathers. In truth, a selection of them ought to be made: to praise or dispraise the primitive writers in general, is obviously absurd.'

It is a sad mistake to give the Fathers a kind of divine authority, of which their often fanciful interpretation of the scriptures, and grossly contradictory explanations, renders them unworthy. The Hon. Robert Boyle justly observes of them, 'Generally they were worthy men, and highly to be regarded as the grand witnesses of the doctrines and government of the Ancient Churches; most of them very pious, many of them very eloquent, and some of them (especially the two critics, Origen and Jerome) very learned; yet so few of the Greek Fathers were skilled in Hebrew, and so few of the Latin Fathers either in Hebrew or Greek, that many of their homilies, and even comments leave hard texts as obscure as they found them; and sometimes, misled by bad translations, they give them senses exceeding wide of the true. So that many times in their writings they appear to be far better divines than commentators, and in an excellent discourse upon a text you will find but a very poor exposition of it.'

Witsius, in his True Theologian, speaking of some of the Fathers as widely shining lights of the primitive church, adds, 'Whose knowledge consisted not in acute subtleties of curious questions, but in devout contemplation of God and His Christ whose simple and chaste manner of teaching will not sooth prurient ears, but impressing on the mind the character of sacred things, will inflame the soul with the love of them: whose blameless innocence of manners, answering to their profession, and praised even by their enemies, fortified their doctrine with irrefragable evidence, and was an evident sign of their familiar intercourse with the most holy Deity.' În his Essay on the efficacy of the Baptism of Infants, he thus farther expresses his sentiments, in his usual spirit of Christian love and wisdom: 'I am not pleased to discuss their errors with severity, which I see is the manner of some writers now, who labor with so mad an itch and so varied an outcry of condemnation, that they defile their paper on every occasion, and even without occasion, with the faults of the Fathers. I think that that reverence is due to the Fathers of the Church, eminently merited by their diligence, zeal, and example, that we should pass by their blemishes in their other virtues. At the same time, it is not to be dissembled,