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know the meaning of a friend ' s communications . You cast about in your own mind , putting all the suppositions which occur to you , arising out of your friend ' s condition , your own resources , or the general principles of human nature , putting these several suppositions , and practically asking , * what can he mean ?' till , at last , your researches are rewarded with light , and the internal monitor proves a better index of truth than those very
characters which were designed to be the channel of its communication . An enlightened mind and a good heart are the best of commentators on the Scriptures . Nature and revelation bear the relation one to another of twin sisters ; and the obscurity which is in the language of the one , the intelligence that beams from the countenance of other may clear up . It is obvious ,
however , that the light of the mind will vary in brightness according to the peculiarities of each individual . Darkness is the invariable concomitant of vice ; for he can know little of the essential laws of his own existence , whose life is a practical contravention of the will of God , and , therefore , a process of opposition to his own nature afnd his own welfare . Rectitude of heart is , in consequence , essential to rectitude of judgment , and the good will know of * the deep things of God ; ' for , in the ' light * of their own excellence ' shall they see light ; ' so that knowledge , which leads to goodness ,, will itself be multiplied by the very goodness it has
occasioned . As , however , goodness can be asserted of no one but with much allowance , it is desirable , if possible , to find another aid in the work of exposition ; and this is presented to us in the evangelical histories . In them , Christianity is set forth in facts , in narratives , in lucid parables , in express declarations , in pregnant intimations , and in inferences which the dullest mind can
hardly miss . In the Gospels , and what are termed the Acts of the Apostles , he who runs may read the essential truths of Christianity ; and these we may , therefore , take as the obvious and the clear , —the certain and the tangible , by which to expound the remote , the dark , the ambiguous , and the transcendental . And the rather should we make them our primary and chief guides , inasmuch as they profess to give direction . They were
written expressly to transmit to posterity a history of Jesus , of things done and taught in consequence of his mission ; and may well , therefore , be believed to contain all that is essential to make wise unto salvation , while the Epistles of Paul rather take for granted the ground-work laid by the Gospels , and make applications of its principles suited to casual and transient
circumstances * Not one of the aids which have now been recommended may prove perfect of itself ; to each objections may be taken , and in the use of each , separately , small satisfaction may be found ; but we are mistaken if the honest use of all conjointly , leave any serious difficulty on any serious question respecting Qod , duty ,
Untitled Article
576 On the Study cf St . Paul ' s Epistles .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1832, page 676, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1822/page/28/
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