s, is a position with which I am
by no means satisfied. Of the great truths of Christianity, Dr. Wayland, in
his Elements of Moral Science, repeatedly avers, "All these being _facts_,
can never be known, except _by language_, that is, by revelation."--_First
Edition_, p. 132. Again: "All of them being of the _nature of facts_, they
could be made known to man _in no other way than by language_."--_Ib._, p.
136. But it should be remembered, that these same facts were otherwise made
known to the prophets; (1 Pet., i, 11;) and that which has been done, is
not impossible, whether there is reason to expect it again or not. So of
the Bible, Calvin says, "No man can have the least knowledge of true and
sound doctrine, without having been a disciple of the Scripture."--
_Institutes_, B. i, Ch. 6. Had Adam, Abel, Enoch, Noah, and Abraham, then,
no such knowledge? And if such they had, what Scripture taught them? We
ought to value the Scriptures too highly to say of them any thing that is
_unscriptural_. I am, however, very far from supposing there is any _other
doctrine_ which can be safely substituted for the truths revealed of old,
the truths contained in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments:

"Left only in those written records pure,
Though not but by the Spirit understood." [27]--_Milton_.

CHAPTER V.

OF THE POWER OF LANGUAGE.

"Quis huic studio literarum, quod profitentur ii, qui grammatici vocantur,
penitus se dedidit, quin omnem illarum artium paene infinitam _vim_ et
_materiam_ scientiae cogitatione comprehenderit?"--CICERO. _De Oratore_,
Lib. i, 3.

1. The peculiar _power_ of language is another point worthy of particular
consideration. The power of an instrument is virtually the power of him who
wields it; and, as language is used in common, by the wise and the foolish,
the mighty and the impotent, the candid and the crafty, the righteous and
the wicked, it may perhaps seem to the reader a difficult matter, to speak
intelligibly of its _peculiar power_. I mean, by this phrase, its fitness
or efficiency to or for the accomplishment of the purposes for which it is
used. As it is the nature of an agent, to be the doer of something, so it
is the nature of an instrument, to be that with which something is
effected. To make signs, is to do something, and, like all other actions,
necessarily implies an agent; so all signs, being things by means of which
other things are represented, are obviously t