In harmony with this statement, is the whole of her teaching, whether we look to her Articles, her Liturgy, her Formularies, or her Homilies. In her Litany she prays that God "would give his people grace to hear meeklynot the traditious of men, but-His holy word, and to receive it with pure affection."

In the Collect for second Sunday after Advent, she prays Him "who has caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning, that her children may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of God's holy word, they may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life."

In her Homilies, she says, "Let us diligently search for the well of life in the books of the New and Old Testament, and not run to the stinking puddles of men's traditions, devised by men's imagination for our justification.'

In the Service for "the Ordering of Priests" this question is put by the Bishop-" Are you persuaded that the Holy Scripture contains sufficiently ALL doctrine required of necessity for

* Hom. on Know. of Holy Scrip.-Ed. Ox. p. 2.

eternal salvation, through faith in Christ Jesus? and are you determined . . . to teach nothing as required of necessity to eternal salvation, but that which you shall be persuaded may be concluded and proved by the Scripture?"

Lastly, the Article before us states that "Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to Salvation"-that is, it is not deficient in any particular, and so cannot need any traditional additions. Not only is it a sufficient guide in Articles of Belief, but it comprises all other things that are necessary to salvation, such as the Sacraments, rules respecting morality, and precepts relating to holiness of life: there is nothing which it is needful for tradition to supply, even supposing we could depend upon its veracity and purity. The Scriptures acquaint us with the origin of all things-the pristine happiness of our first parents, the sad fact of man's fall, the plan of salvation, its gradual development; the advent, teaching, and the propitiatory death of the Saviour, and the final establishment of His religion. contain all things necessary to teach a Church, and all things needful to guide an individualrules for the one, so complete, that the farther

They

it recedes from them, the farther does it recede from truth and purity; precepts for the other, so full and particular, that there never was a case in human experience but something could be found answering to it in their pages. To those who are despairing of salvation on account of their many and aggravated sins, they come like a herald of hope, and tell them of Manasseh, of Mary Magdalene, of the dying thief, and of Saul of Tarsus, who all found salvation through that blood, which they declare "cleanseth from all sin." They bring an inviting and encouraging tale of consolation to the backslider, in the touching and tender narratives of David, of Peter, and the Prodigal Son; they tell the saint he can never, in this world, become so holy as not to need pardon; and the sinner, that he is not so polluted, but that, if he will, he may be cleansed; and for every shade of difference between these two opposite extremes of character, they have instruction, perfect and full.

Having thus stated the sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures in general, we proceed to investigate it more closely and particularly.

The object of a Rule of Faith is to teach how, and by what means, man may attain

B

salvation; and to this end it is necessary that it should teach him these three things:

I. His Condition;

II. His Destiny; and

III. The Way of Salvation.

Let us now briefly examine whether the Holy Scriptures are sufficient on these three points, so as not to need any assistance from tradition, And,

I. As to our Condition.-We all feel an evil principle within us, inclining us to sin; we experience much of sorrow and suffering, and we see that there is a cloud over man's moral nature, and a blight over the world he inhabits. The question then arises, What was the cause of this sad condition? To this question the extravagant and discordant hypotheses of heathen tradition afford no satisfactory answer; and without the Scriptures, we should not be able to discover. They, however, fully reveal it, and they tell us the cause was sin"by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Rom. v. 12); that, in consequence of this, we are all by nature

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the children of wrath" (Eph. ii. 3); and that "all the world is guilty before God."—Rom. iii. 19. But further, they tell us that this life is a state of probation, and that by the deeds done in the body the nature of our future existence will be determined. But what is this future existence? What are its peculiarities? Is it temporal, or is it eternal? Here, again, heathenism is blind, and the Holy Scriptures can alone satisfy us, for on this point, too, they dissipate all doubt, and clearly unfold—

II. Our Destiny.-Nature and reason might help us far to the proofs of our immortality; but still, from their disclosures (as, were it necessary, we might easily demonstrate, from the dim uncertainty of the sages of the heathen world on this point*), we could have no positive certainty. The Bible, however, takes away the

Socrates, the great luminary of heathenism, thus spake before his death:-" I hope I am now going to good men, though this I would not take upon me peremptorily to assert; but that I shall go to the gods, lords that are absolutely good, this-if I can affirm anything of this kind—I would certainly affirm. And for this reason, I do not take it ill that I am to die as otherwise I should do, but I am in good hope that there is something remaining for those who are dead, and that then it will be much better for good than for bad men." How different from the sure hope and certainty which faith gives to the dying Christian !-vide Hebrews xi. 1.