of the Epistles, will also offer some useful hints. Bishop Van Mildert's Bampton Lectures treat generally on the Interpretation of Scripture; and in the Introduction to the Scriptures by the Rev. T. H. Horne, (vol. ii. pt. 2,) fuller information may be found, and references to other sources of knowledge, should the student be anxious to carry his inquiries farther.

But whether any attempt is made at this method of interpreting Scripture by itself, or no; there are some books to be named which would be essential to its success, from the information they afford respecting the several parts of Scripture ; and which are hardly less necessary to one who merely aims at a general knowledge of the Bible. Among these may be named Gray's Key to the Old Testament, and Bishop Percy's Key to the New, as books which give, in comparatively small space, an abundance of useful knowledge. Besides these general introductions, Graves on the Pentateuch must be

named as a book of first-rate importance to the study of the Old Testament; with which, Faber's Hora Mosaicæ, and Owen on the Scripture miracles, may he read with advantage.

Fleury on the Manners of the Israelites, translated by Dr. A. Clarke, is a pleasing and useful illustration of the early books of the Bible; and Prideaux's Connection of the Old and New Testament supplies almost all the information that can be wanted with regard to the later history of the Jewish people. From sources like these a general knowledge of the component parts of Scripture should be gained before any inferences are attempted from the comparison of their language; and the character of the Bible should be thoroughly understood, before it is made its own interpreter.

Bishop Lowth's Lectures on Hebrew Poetry must not be omitted in a notice of works essential to the interpretation of Scripture. No person seems to have

caught the peculiar character of the sacred writers with so much accuracy of taste as he did; and though his notes upon Isaiah are marked by a boldness of conjecture, which can neither be justified or defended, he has probably done more than any English writer to the illustration of the Old Testament, by his remarks on the stile and spirit of its writers. All the other information which the young student may require, he will find collected in Mr. Horne's Introduction to the Scriptures; a work, the result of very extensive and laborious reading; and which, while it offers in a very clear and lucid arrangement the elementary knowledge that is wanted, enables the reader to prosecute his inquiries further, and to judge for himself, by the copious references it gives to the original sources of information. It is hardly requisite now to recommend a book, which has gained such extensive circulation; but it is important to convey to every student the intelligence of the

120 HELPS IN THE INTERPRETATION, &c.

resource which it is in his power to obtain. That knowledge of Jewish antiquities which used to be sought in Reland, Jennings, and other similar works, is now condensed in a few pages of this valuable summary. The results of Lardner's laborious investigations, of the researches of Michaelis, and other eminent divines, are comprised in the introductory descriptions of the different books in the Bible; and information which could hardly be found in any work whatever, is presented in the bibliographical notices which are introductory to the study of Scripture criticism.

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CHAPTER VI.

The Study of the Evidences of Religion. Its necessity and extent.

HITHERTO We have been engaged in considering the studies and the means of knowledge, which seem necessary to the minister himself, or which supply the materials of his usefulness among those, whose hearts God has opened, and whom his grace has prepared to receive with meekness the engrafted word. Another description of knowledge succeeds, which must be devoted to a different object, and addressed to a different class of hearers: a description of knowledge which may be called

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