Bible, and his one hundred and
forty other rules for darkening his mind, and confounding his soul, the
Bible will ruin him still quicker. A better book for trying a man, and
for rewarding his honesty, and piety, and charity, if he has those
virtues, and for making them ever more; or for punishing a man's vanity,
and pride, and selfishness, and perversity, if he be the slave of such
passions, God could hardly have given. And to try and to bless men are
the two great objects of all God's revelations.

My opponent was fond of saying that the Bible was an infallible guide.
The statement was not true in any strict and rigorous sense of the
words. And it was foolish for him to make it in an eager debate, for he
could never prove it. And he was not long in finding this out. A few
plain questions set him quite fast. The Bible is an infallible guide,
you say. We ask, Which Bible? The common version? No. John Wesley's
version? No. Dr. Conquest's? No. The Unitarian version? No. _Any_
version? No. Is it some particular Greek or Hebrew Bible then? No. Is it
the manuscripts? No. But these are all the Bibles we have.

The Bible is an infallible guide, you say. What to? Uniformity of
opinion? No. Uniformity of worship? No. Uniformity of life? No.
Uniformity of feeling, of affection, of effort? No. It does not even
require uniformity in those matters. It supposes diversity. It asks only
for sincerity, honesty, fidelity. But it is an infallible guide to all
truth and duty, you say. Has it guided you to all truth and duty? No.
Whom _has_ it guided to those blessed results? You cannot say.

But it is an infallible guide to all that truth which is necessary to a
man's salvation, you say. But there is no particular amount of truth
that _is_ necessary to a man's salvation. The amount of truth necessary
to a man's salvation differs according to his powers and privileges.
That which is necessary to my salvation may not be necessary to the
salvation of a Pagan. It is sincerity in the search of truth, and
fidelity in reducing it to practice, which is necessary to a man's
salvation, and not the acquisition of some particular quantity of truth.

The Bible is an infallible guide. To whom? To the Catholics? No. To the
Unitarians? No. To the Quakers? No. To the Church of England people? No.
To Methodists and Calvinists? No.

That the Bible is a trusty guide enough, I have no doubt, if we will
faithfully and prayerfully follow it; but to talk as if