ON - MATTERS OP BELIEF. IOI 



juftice, to alledge againft it, belongs not here : fuffice, 

 that, with conftantly increaling light, we cannot fail of 

 being, fooner or later, apprized, that a book, how in- 

 fallible and divine foever, can only then be competent 

 as a dec ill ve judge in matters of faith, when, like the 

 elements of geometry, it mould be fo framed, as that 

 all mankind, who read it, mould not only think of it 

 perfectly alike, but alfo be fo thoroughly and intimately 

 convinced of the truth of its contents, alike intelligible 

 to all men, and liable to no difference of interpretation, 

 that it would be abfolutely impoffible for them to doubt 

 of it, or to be of various opinions concerning the fenfe 

 and import of this or die other paffage. Whether 

 fetch a book be poftible, is a queftion which I need not 

 pretend to anfwer, as it does not belong to my purpofe : 

 this, however, no man will pretend to deny, that the 

 Bible is not that book ; — that a man muft underftand 

 a great deal of Hebrew and Greek, muft have read 

 an infinite number of other books, muft poffefs a vaft 

 fund of hiftorical and philofophical, critical, antiqua- 

 rian, chronological, geographical, phyfical, and a va- 

 riety of other fcientific knowledge, for being abb to 

 read it to any purpofe, — and that, even for readers, 

 who are furnifhed with all thefe branches of knowledge 

 in the requifite degree, yet it contains in almoft every 

 page, paffages, that will be differently underftood, and 

 differently expounded by different perfons ; to fay no- 

 thing of thofe paffages which are fhrouded in fuch an 

 inexplicable incomprehenftbility, that all the pains and 

 labour that have hitherto been employed only to gain 

 fo much light upon the articles of faith that have, 

 notwithftanding, been drawn from them, as is neceftary 

 to a belief not directly contradictory to reafon ; that is, 



H 3 only 



