Quesnel: Moral Reflections on the Gospels Vol 1

XXV
tic, HIS HIGH REVERENCE FOR THE HoLY SCRIP-
TURES. Our Author's mind is penetrated with a
sense of the value of the Holy Scriptures, of their
divine inspiration, of their authority over the con-
science, of the peculiar virtue they possess for nour-
ishing the Christian heart. He conceives that what
God has spoken by his Spirit, is exactly adapted for
that divine life, which the same God, by the same
Spirit, creates in the human breast. He looks on
the Bible as the waters of life, flowing to assuage
the thirst which the new creature experiences. ** We
must be united to God," (says our Author on John
XV. 7.) " by a love of his truth, and a frequent medi-
tation upon his word, which is the rule of our de-
sires, as being the book of God's designs, to which
all our prayers and desires ought to be conformable.
It is not sufficient to have faith and charity, we must
continually nourish them with the word of God.
To read it carelessly and for fashion's sake, is di-
rectly contrary to that reverence which is due to it,
and to our own spiritual advantage. It must be
imprinted strongly on our minds, or, as it were, en-
graved deep on our hearts, that it may abide therein.
Nothing but love can perform this, as nothing but
love can cause us to practise it."
Such remarks are of the first order, drawn from
the very unction of the Holy Spirit— golden observations,
the fruit of deep meditation on the blessed
Scriptures.
6. But there is a peculiarity in our <strong>Quesnel</strong>'s
reflections, still more important to ministers—he has
especial regard in his book to the duties, the
TEMPTATIONS, AND THE SUCCESS OF MINISTERS.
Vol. I. b 57