172 ILL EFFECTS CY Bible with the aid of the soundest corn-, mentators, both accompanied with fer- vent prayer for that light they profess to seek ; - without consulting able minis- ters, - without taking this straight and obvious road, on their own very slen- der stock they set up for teachers them- selves. Instead of looking to the ex- perienced and the wise, they collect a little group to look up to them, thus inverting the Apostle's observation - for they. " wheri for the time they seek to be teachers, have need to be taught themselves, which be the first principles of the oracles of God." If this spiritual vanity should flourish, we shall soon have none left to learn ; all will be teachers. Thus the raw and rash Christian, con- fidently jumps over all the intermediate steps between the enquirer and the in- structor, and despising the old gradual Approach to the sacred temple, despising the study of books, of men, and of him- self, starts up at once a full-grown di- vine ; the novice seizes the professor's
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