never intended to speak; and going by their false and erroneous interpretations, are plunged into fatal errors--and ruined forever--go down to the grave with a lie in their right hand--are left of God, in his sovereign pleasure, a prey to their own chosen blindness, and perish eternally in their heresies and delusions. Happy those who keep clear of such perverters of scripture!--To wrest the word of God to our own destruction, is to misinterpret and misconstrue it to such a degree--as to deduce from it fatal errors--or essentially false principles, and to live and practice according to such misinterpretations and misconstructions. The end of all this, is final ruin--or misery in a future world. How affecting the idea, that the scriptures, which were given to man for his only INFALLIBLE GUIDE through a world of sorrow and tears, and to meeten him for a full and perfect blessedness in heaven, should by a corrupt and perverse mind, be turned to his destruction! But alas! so they often are--have been in past ages, and will be in future. After thus introducing and opening the words selected for present meditation, it is proposed in dependence on divine strength, to enumerate and explain the various ways, in which _unlearned_ and _unstable men_ pervert the scriptures to their own destruction. They were given to us on purpose to teach and instruct us in the right way of worshipping and serving God in time, and preparing us for the glorious services and employments of the heavenly state. Our best good, here and hereafter, are aimed at, in that Revelation of the divine will, which we enjoy. Indeed our felicity, in subordination to the divine honour, is consulted in that manner, in which it ought to be, according to reason, and the nature of man, both in Creation and Providence, as well as in the sacred Volume. On the part of the Maker of all things there is no want either of wisdom to contrive our happiness, of grace to prepare us for it, or of goodness to effect it. Consequently, if we, at last, fail of life, the fault is alone imputable to ourselves. We are left to act out our own hearts, in regard to things divine: whether we will chuse the way of life or of death. Hence it comes to pass, that the scriptures are wrested or turned to our own destruction. That which was ordained for our good, is, by the amazing corruption and depravity of our hearts, turned into poison, misapprehended and misapplied. It may here be remarked, as worthy of special attention, that the reason why the word of God, in the writings of the old and New Testament, is so frequently and so grossly perverted, is not because these writings are not wisely composed and properly expressed; for they are plain--perspicuous--beautiful--and sublime to admiration; but because of the perverseness, wilful blindness, and vile prejudices of mankind. Had we a good and honest heart, or a single eye to the truth, we should not fall into any fatal or essential errors. Much of