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"Search the scriptures."-Jesus Christ.

"O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord."-Jeremiah.

Second edition, enlarged and revised.

BOSTON :

CROCKER & BREWSTER:

ISAAC WILCOX, PROVIDENCE: M. W. DODD, N. Y.

1844.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1844, by

CHARLES SIMMONS,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Rhode Island.

R. W. POTTER, PRINTER,
No. 12, Dorrance Building, Mill Street, Pawtucket, R. I.

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PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

The SCRIPTURE MANUAL is intended to aid those who are sincerely inquiring after Bible truth. The method of questions and answers has been adopted, both because it is the best adapted to awaken inquiry, and the most convenient. In the selection of questions, I have aimed to propound those which have a prominence in the scriptures, and which have always been considered as highly important, and worthy of inquiry. Such manifestly are those which respect the existence, perfections, prerogatives, designs, government and word of God-the character, rights and destiny of man-the economy of grace, or way and terms of salvation-the distinctive features of the true gospel, and of false systems of religion-the various relations, duties, and dangers of our race the ruinous vices which prevail-and civil and religious institutions. And on subjects where there has appeared to me a prevailing disposition to overlook important truths, and to run into religious, political and moral errors, disorders and delusions, there I have aimed to be the more particular in collecting the testimony of the inspired writers, that the Manual may be a book for the times in which we live.

In selecting answers, I have studied to find such as appear to me to have a real bearing upon the questions, either directly or indirectly, and to reflect the greatest light upon them. But whether they answer the questions in the affirmative, the negative, or neither, is for others to judge. For this purpose, I have referred to chapter and verse, and in the order of the books of the Bible, that the connection of the passages may easily be seen.

In respect to the arrangement of subjects, I have endeavored to balance the convenience of alphabetical order, and the importance of system. Experience and observation have taught me to pay much more regard to the latter, than appears in my first edition, though I have retained so much of the alphabetical order; that few

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