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i^e&j ant( ^niffltm ^tfition. 
 
 ^ 
 
 THE CONGREGATIONAL LECTURE. 
 
 FIFTH SERIES. 
 
 HOLY SCRIPTURE VERIFIED. 
 
 BY G. BEDFORD, D.D., LL.D. 
 
LONDON: 
 EKED AND PAKDO^, PRIKTXRS, 
 PATERNOSTEa ROW. 
 
HOLY SCRIPTURE VERIFIED; 
 
 on, TflK 
 
 DIVINE AUTHORITY 
 
 THE BIBLE, 
 
 COXriKMED 3Y 
 
 AN APPEAL TO FACTS OF SCIENCE, HISTOHY, AND 
 HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS. 
 
 GEOEGE^tEDFORD, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 'Ou Bvvarai XvQrivo.i 'H rPA<l>H'. 
 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 LONDON: 
 JACKSON AND WALFORD, 
 
 18, ST. Paul's churchyahd. 
 
 MDCCCLiri. 
 
P E E P A C E . 
 
 Whether the Bible is true, and worthy of all acceptation, 
 or whether it is a wicked fabrication, and a clumsy im- 
 posture, is a question not merely nor mainly speculative, 
 but strictly and highly practical, involving the interests, 
 the happiness, and the obligations of all. As we believe 
 and feel upon this question, so will our conduct be affected 
 for good or evil ; and in so far as the generations coming 
 after us must take their education, their institutions, their 
 habits, and their religion, from us ; so far their moral and 
 social condition, also, to an extent scarcely appreciable, 
 will depend upon the opinions we may form upon this 
 momentous subject. 
 
 In an age when the inroads of Infidelity are feared by 
 some, and the growth of superstition by others, it cannot 
 be deemed unseasonable to attempt an illustration, under 
 a somewhat new form, of the eternal and blessed verity of 
 Holy Scripture. It is highly desirable that the young, 
 and especially the educated young, of all our Protestant 
 communities, should be fortified against errors, which will 
 
VI PEEFACE. 
 
 inevitably be urged upon them by the controversial spirit 
 of the times. The bulwark of their faith Avill henceforth 
 be found in the Bible — " the Bible only." If that cannot 
 stand before the scrutinizing temper which is now rife 
 among us, then their faith must be soon and utterly sub- 
 verted : but if that divine foundation cannot be invalidated, 
 then the faith that rests exclusively upon it, will be safe. 
 Infidelity and Popery may rouse themselves to unwonted 
 efforts, but all will be unavailing ; the former will neither 
 convince us that the Bible is a lie ; nor the latter, that, 
 though inspired, we cannot understand it. He vdio, like 
 Timothy, has known the Holy Scriptures from his child- 
 hood, and by them been made " wise unto salvation," will 
 identify both these parties in the results at which they 
 aim ; he will perceive that the}' endeavour to remove his 
 heart and conscience from under the immediate influence 
 of the divine authority; that the infidel does it by affirm- 
 ing, that there is no such authority in the Bible ; and the 
 Homan Catholic, by interposing a human authority — a 
 medium which nullifies, distorts and defiles the whole 
 revelation ; but a medium which he insists is absolutely 
 necessary, to prevent the heavenly light from becoming 
 an ignis fatuus, leading those who confide in it to destruc- 
 tion. 
 
 The best, because the only efficient, defence, against 
 these fatal extremes of credulity and disbelief, is obviously 
 to be found in that reverence for the Holy Scriptures, that 
 assured belief of their inspiration, which is the result of 
 modest and careful inquiry. Let this be universally en- 
 couraged. We fear nothing in the cause of the Bible, but 
 lukewarmness and irreverence ; we ask nothing of its ad- 
 versaries, but candour and justice. Let all search the 
 
PREFACE. VI 1 
 
 Scriptures, and the issue can scarcely be doubtful. Those 
 who had believed at the dictation of others, would then 
 say with the Samaritans, (John iv. 42,) " Now we believe, 
 not because of thy saying, for we have heard him ourselves, 
 and Imow that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the 
 world;" while objectors, by such a course, would be con- 
 vinced of its truth, or, at least, staggered and silenced. 
 
 The Bible is a universal boon to mankind ; and we who 
 believe in its inspiration should do our utmost to give it 
 extension and effect. It is not written for any particular 
 nation or age ; but for mankind in all ages. It does not 
 depend for its authority or its vouchers upon any church 
 or all churches. It stands upon its own peculiar evidences ; 
 and no more requires the endorsement of the church to 
 make it current, than the sun requires the authority of the 
 astronomers to warrant our belief in its existence, or our 
 perception of its light and heat. The Bible belongs to the 
 world, like the air, the ocean, the rivers, and the fountains 
 of water. It is a common light, a common blessing, the 
 imperishable heir-loom of humanity : our spiritual inherit- 
 ance lies there. No party can claim any special property 
 in it ; none has au}^ right to monopolize it, or dogmatize 
 upon its contents. It adequately vindicates its own claims, 
 by the light, and truth, and love which attend it. Happily 
 it has long since achieved for itself an emancipation from 
 the priestcraft which had restricted its circulation, and 
 dictated its import to the world. It has since been gradually 
 diffusing its light, and advancing towards that universal 
 dissemination which its own prophecies foreshow as cer- 
 tain, and the auguries of these times indicate as near. 
 Great and auspicious events to mankind seem to be tra- 
 vailing for their birtli-hour. But whatever character they 
 
VI 11 PREFACE. 
 
 may give to the eras which have yet to revolve, our own 
 times have received their appropriate stamp ; they can 
 hardly miss the designation of the Bible Age. Happy 
 will it prove for ourselves, if we are found as diligent in 
 studying the contents of The Book, and in imbibing its 
 spirit, as we have been zealous in promoting its circulation. 
 
 WorcestC7', November, 1837. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 THE MOSA.IC STATEMENT OF NATUEAL AND PHYSICAL FACTS HELATING TO THE 
 CREATION AND THE HUMAN RACE, COJIPARED WITH THE DISCOVERIES OF 
 SCIENCE, THE RECORDS OF HISTORY, ETC. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 General Introduction — Date of the world — Extinct races — Geological 
 epochs — Order of creation — Tlieory of light — Origin of the human 
 race in a single pair — Man's dominion over the mundane creation 
 — The social propensity of mankind — The sentence denounced on 
 the man and woman respectively after the fall 1 
 
 LECTURE IL 
 
 THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. 
 
 Traces of a universal deluge — The covenant with Noah — The Rain- 
 bow, &c. — Tower of Babel — Confusion of languages — Origin of 
 Nations — Tripartite division of mankind — Traditions of the place 
 whence the human tribes originally diverged — Principal divisions 
 of the human family — Prophecy of Noah respecting the national 
 character and condition of the races derived from his three sons,&c. . 78 
 
 LECTURE III. 
 
 ON THE MENTAL AND MORAL CONDITION OF HUMAN NATURE, AS COEROBORA. 
 TIVE OF THE BIBLICAL DOCTRINE OF THE FALL, AND ITS EFFECTS. 
 
 Adaptation of the mental and moral economy to the social relations 
 and personal interests — The doctrine of a moral apostasy — How it 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 may be expected to affect our nature — Evidenced by suffering, both 
 mental and bodily — Traces of social and individual degradation, 
 combined with vestiges of primitive excellence — Man's practical 
 aversion from moral goodness — Yet sentimental approbation — 
 Objections and speculative theories considered — Contrarieties and 
 contradictions in human nature — Notion of perfectibility — Passion 
 for immortality — Loss of the true knowledge of God — And, thereby, 
 of the Supreme Good — General review of his condition — And the 
 arguments thence derived in corroboration of the facts and doctrines 
 ofKevelation 144 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 COINCIDENCES BETWEEN THE DOCTRINES OF REVELATION AND THE GENERAL 
 PRINCIPLES OF THE DrviNE MORAL GOVERNMENT, AS DEDUCIELE FROII 
 THE FACTS WHICH APPEAR IN THE CONSTITUTION AND HISTORY OF HUMAN 
 NATURE. 
 
 General explanation and limitation of the argument — Moral govern- 
 ment explained — Efficiency and universality of its laws — Recognition 
 of the being and perfections of a Supreme Governor — Vice distin- 
 guished — attended with suffering — Tendency of virtue to well-being 
 — Doctrine of Providence — Power and universality of Conscience 
 — Instinctive propensity to Prayer — Indelible sense of future Ac- 
 countableness — Doctrine of Substitution 183 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 THE SCRIPTURAL SCHEME FOR THE UNIVERSAL RECOVERY OF MANKIND TO 
 VIRTUE AND HAPPINESS, TRIED BY ITS ADAPTATION AND ACTUAL SUCCESS. 
 
 The Bible proposes the redemption and recovery of mankind — Exbi- 
 bits the means — Assures the result — The only religion that ever 
 proposed to effect such an object — This purpose grand and worthy 
 of God — The scheme, as exhibited, displays a universal character 
 and adaptation — Perfection of its standard of morals and piety 
 
CONTEiS-TS. XI 
 
 r.VGE 
 universally admitted — Objections against its divinity — Representa- 
 tions oftlie Neoiogists — Divinity of the gospel proved from its cha- 
 racter — Corroborated by its practical application and advancing 
 ti'iumphs 225 
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 
 THE ORIGIX, TERrETUITY, A\D HISTOUV OF A SPECIAL SOCIETY, DISTINCT FROM 
 THE WORLD, UNIFORMLY CHARACTERIZED LY CERTAIN PECULIARITIES OF 
 PRINCIPLE AND PRACTICE, AND DENOMINATED THE PEOPLE, OR CHURCH 
 OF GOD. 
 
 A church now exists — Traceable to the times of the Caesars — The 
 succession of Christian believers unbroken — Origin of the Christian 
 profession in Judea — This country long the seat of the Jewish 
 Church — Credibility of their Church History — Origin of this section 
 of the church — Connexion Avith the Patriarchal — Their religious 
 and moral principles identical — What these were — Their transmis- 
 sion from Noah — Embodied and enlarged in the law — Identity of 
 revelation through all its periods — A distinct society commenced in 
 Abraham's family — Predictions respecting it — Jewish history indis- 
 putable — No conflicting evidence — Continuity of the church through 
 all its periods — General observations on this succession — Identity 
 of faith — Great events connected with this history — Preservation of 
 the church a continued miracle — An objection considered — Transi- 
 tion from Judaism to Christianity — Evidence of inspiration in this 
 — Vicissitudes of the church enhance the proof — Its adversities and 
 corruptions — Often near extinction — Christian church-history — 
 Infidel explanations — Their failure — Combinations of worldly 
 powers — The church still invincible — Severe discipline appointed — 
 Opposition foretold and over-ruled — Internal causes of decay coun- 
 teracted — Its whole history implies supernatural influence — Triumpu 
 of divine principles in the heart — The case of infidels contrasted — 
 Both classes of facts foreseen — Summary of the argument — Its con- 
 nexion with next Lecture 270 
 
XU CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE VII. 
 
 THE TESTIMONY OF THE SCRIPTTJEES COXCEHXIXG THE REJECTION OF THE 
 JEWS FROM THEIR HIGH AND HONOURABLE STATION AS THE CHURCH OF 
 GOD, COMPARED 'WITH THEIR SUBSEQUENT HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Revelation refers to the excision of the Jews and their subsequent state 
 — The Founder of Christianity predicted the fall of his nation — The 
 predictions specified — Certainty that these were known before the 
 event — General view of their accomplishment — Specific facts — Pre- 
 servation of the race, notwithstanding their calamities — Attempts 
 to preserve the temple frustrated — Total expulsion — Attempts at 
 restoration — Ever since a fallen people — Judgment always follow- 
 ing them — Marvellously preserved — Singular retetention of their 
 nationality — Arch of Titus — Protraction of the exile — Disconti- 
 nuance of sacrifice — Isolation from other nations, though mixed 
 with them — Fulfilment of prophecies by Jeremiah and Amos — 
 Their numbers appear undiminished — Great vicissitudes of the 
 nations where they have dwelt — Xo parallel case — Complete separa- 
 tion from Gentiles — Argument for the inspiration of prophecy — 
 Excision of the Jews coincident with the origin of the Christian 
 Church — Foresight of the transition, and its peculiar circumstances, 
 implies inspiration — The fact of the transition very singular — The 
 history and prophecy viewed together — Conclusion 309 
 
 LECTURE YIII. 
 
 ON THE KINGDOM OF THE MESSIAH, AS REPRESENTED IN THE ANCIENT SCRIP- 
 TURES, COMPARED WITH ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT PROSPECTS. 
 
 The Kingdom of the Messiah — Exhibited in a typical form, in the 
 sacred books and religion of the Jews — Prevalent opinions founded 
 on them — Proved from various sources — These predictions and ex- 
 pectations verified in the character of Jesus Christ — The improba- 
 bility of such a character being fabulous — Credibility of the account 
 given by the Evangelists — Probable eflects of such a real character 
 — Facts correspond — And thereby attest its realitj' — Opposite sup- 
 positions as to Christ's character — All proved untenable — The esta- 
 
CONTENTS. ^ Xiil 
 
 PAGE 
 
 blishment and success of the Christian cause — Representations of 
 contemporary enemies — Weakness of Christianity at its rise — 
 What it effected — Testimonies to its progress — Jewish and heathen 
 — Character of its triumphs — Indubitable proofs of its reality — 
 Means by which they were wrought — Explanations of infidels 
 wholly untenable — Means of detecting imposture then possessed 
 — Inspiration and miracle obvious — As clear after as during 
 Christ's life — Facts otherwise inexplicable — Supposition of pre- 
 tended miracles — Disproved — Magic alleged to explain the facts — 
 Never proved — The miracles never rivalled — Confirmation of 
 Apostolic claims — Coincidence of the document and the facts — 
 Bearing of the argument on the inspiration of the Scriptures — Con- 
 clusion 338 
 
 LECTURE IX. 
 
 ox THE DOCTEINE OF A DIVINE AND SPIEITUAL INLXTENCE, AS REVEALED IN 
 THE SCRIPTURES, AND AS REALIZED IN THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY 
 AND THE EXPERIENCE OF CHRISTIANS. 
 
 All effects traceable to spiritual or immaterial causes — Mental power 
 the source of voluntary action in ourselves— How we are led to 
 ascribe the invisible and mighty agency, operating through all 
 material causes and eflfects, to a Divine and Infinite Spirit — Probabi- 
 lity of the same influence exercised over human minds — Analogies 
 which render such agency probable — 'The direct testimony of reve- 
 lation as to its reality — Facts verifying the testimony — In the first 
 propagation of the gospel — In its continuance and success in the 
 world — In the formation of the Christian character, considered indi- 
 vidually — Abuses to which the doctrine is liaftle — Connexion with 
 an appointed instrumentality — General Conclusion of the course . 398 
 
" These are but the conclusions and fallible discourses of man upon the 
 Word of God, for such I do believe the Holy Scriptures; yet, were it of man, 
 I could not choose but say, it was the singularest and superlative piece that 
 hath been extant since the creation. Were I a i)agan, I should not refrain 
 the lecture of it; and cannot but commend the judgment of Ptolemy, that 
 thought not his library complete without it. The Alcoran of the Turks (I 
 speak without prejudice) is an ill-composed piece, containing in it vain and 
 ridiculous errors in philosophy, impossilnlities, fictions, and vanities l)eyund 
 laughter, maintained by evident and open sophisms, the policy of ignorance, 
 deposition of universities, and banishment of learning: that hath gotten foot 
 l)y arms and violence : this, without a blow, hath disseminated itself through 
 the whole earth. It is not xmremarkable, what Philo first observed, that the 
 law of INIt^ses continued two thousand years without the least alteration ; 
 whereas, we see the laws of other commonweals do alter with occasions; and 
 even those, that pretend their original from some divinity, to have vanished 
 
 without trace or memory Men's icorlcs have an age line themselve.i , 
 
 and, though they outlive their authors, yet have a stint and a period to their dura- 
 tion. This only is a work too hakd for the teeth of thie, and caknot 
 
 PERISH BUT IN THE GENERAL FLAMES, WHEN ALL THINGS SMALL CONFESS THEIR 
 ASHES." 
 
 Sir Thokas Browne. 
 
" If these Scriptures, impregnable in their strength, sustained in theu' pre- 
 tensions by innumerable prophecies and miracles ; and by the Experience 
 of the Innek Man, in all ages, as well as by a concatenation of arguments all 
 bearing upon one pomt, and extending with mu-aculous consistency through 
 a series of fifteen hundred years ; if all this combined proof does not establish 
 theu^ validity, notliing can Ije proved under the sun, but the world and man 
 must be abandoned, with all its consequences, to one universal scepticism." 
 
 Coleridge. 
 
% 
 
 HOLY SCRIPTURE VERIFIED. 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 Tlie Mosaic statement of physical facts relating to the creation and the 
 human race, compared with the discoveries of science, the records of 
 historj', &c. 
 
 GENEEAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Upon the admission that there exists a Supreme Intelli- 
 gence, the Creator of all things, it seems a perfectly just 
 and reasonable expectation, that every work of his power 
 and wisdom should contain indubitable marks of its high 
 origin. We accordingly find, that though the productions 
 of the Divine Power may be finite and frail, for the most 
 part brief in their duration, and insignificant when viewed 
 in their individuality, they nevertheless exhibit, both in their 
 creation and conservation, from the most minute to the 
 most stupendous, the inimitable signature of supreme skill 
 and power. Hereby they seem to become designedly legible 
 to human reason, as inscriptions recording the name of 
 their Divine Author, and proclaiming their origin by those 
 bright and peerless characteristics which effectually dis- 
 tinguish them from all the productions of human and 
 finite power. 
 
 It is the proper business of reason to recognise this 
 
 V. B 
 
2 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 impress of the divine hand upon all those works of the 
 Almighty which come within the range of our observation ; 
 and, moreover, it is highly gratifying to perceive how sober 
 and diHgcnt inquiry is rewarded, by the development, at 
 every stop, of a wisdom more profoundly wise, and a skill 
 more admirably skilful. The first inspection neither dis- 
 closes all, nor indeed, the most impressive and command- 
 ing proofs of the exhaustless wisdom and power of the 
 Creator. There is always something still behind. 
 
 This fact seems to be fully recognised by our men of 
 philosophy, for they never appear to tire of their in- 
 vestigations, or to think that they have ascertained all 
 that can be known of any given object. The reason 
 manifestly is, because no part of nature can be fairly said 
 to be exhausted, to have unfolded all its involutions, or, 
 revealed all its secrets. The horizon is never touched ; 
 it does but recede and widen as we advance. After the 
 most consummate genius has spent its energies on a 
 single object, or class of objects, and has brought to light 
 the hidden and beautiful laws, the mysterious properties, 
 the nice relations and extended dependencies, and a tem- 
 porary pause seems to be given to curiosity, because the 
 world is engaged in admiring and verifying these researches, 
 yet presently science is again seen pluming her wings for 
 a new flight, and aspiring to a higher summit. It is found 
 that the discoveries already made, only prepared the way 
 to more brilliant ones ; only supplied a vantage ground 
 for a wider and more glorious prospect. Fresh inquiries 
 all through nature still leading to fresh discoveries; and 
 so on interminably. 
 
 Hence there arises, in all the departments of natural 
 philosophy, a perpetual stimulus to researcli. The most 
 acute and lofty minds, through all civilized nations, are 
 thus constantly occupied in prying into nature's plans and 
 laws, seeking a deeper and yet a deeper depth ; as if they 
 would fathom the whole mystery, which yet they seem 
 
"RELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 3 
 
 conscious is practically, if not really, unfathomable. The 
 grand secret remains impenetrable. The mysterious cause 
 is hidden behind the veil of its own effects. For "who by 
 searching can find out God ? " The mass of our knowledge 
 may be augmented by the discoveries of science, but our 
 substantial ignorance remains. We remove forward the 
 boundaries of our own proper territory from time to time, 
 but we move always within the limits of the creation, 
 w'hich every where imparts its hidden treasures, and dis- 
 plays its beautiful unity, but uniformly prohibits, as by an 
 inviolable frontier, the ulterior step. The Creator, in his 
 infinit}^ is still unapproached and unapproachable by these 
 processes. In all our inquiries, we ultimately arrive at that 
 which is too subtile, or too dark, or too minute for further 
 analysis. We trace grandeur of design, and exquisite 
 adaptation, but inexplicable mystery, in all the systems of 
 nature; yet, as Paley has justly and beautifully noticed, 
 "We never get among such original or totally different 
 modes of existence, as to indicate that we are come into the 
 i:)rovince of a different creator, or under the direction of a 
 different will."- Thus a homage is rendered to the sacred, 
 seal, which the Almighty has set upon each of his works 
 The unrivalled productions of his creative wisdom and 
 power everywhere, constrain the reason of man, intention- 
 ally or unintentionally, to confess the peculiarity, to admire 
 the perfection, and to adore the inexhaustible opulence of 
 his works. These inimitable characteristics, visiblv im- 
 pressed upon his various productions, not only create a 
 line, broad and clear, between them and the works of 
 human skill, but they seem, though silently, yet trium- 
 phantly, to set at defiance all the resources of human art 
 and ability ; I need not say, to rival or imitate, but even 
 thoroughly to explore the divine workmanship. If that 
 transcends our comprehension, what wonder that the 
 
 * Nat. Tlieology, p. CiO. 
 
4 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 Infinite Author himself should be cognizable only by his 
 own light, and only so far as he may condescend to exhibit 
 himself to us ? 
 
 Let us suppose, surely no unreasonable supposition in 
 the abstract, that he has made some sort of verbal revela- 
 tion. We will not yet assume what ; but, supposing it to 
 exist, it will be fair and just to expect, that evidences 
 somewhat similar to those which avouch his works, should 
 accompany his word. We may presume that, like nature, 
 it will possess characteristics all its own; that its facts and 
 principles will be in harmony with the imiverse, wdth 
 human history, and consciousness ; and that it will not 
 simply sustain its authority by the a j^^'iori argument 
 of miracles and prophecy. And, farther, that as the a 
 posteriori argument for the being of a God is found the 
 most satisfiictory, perhaps the only efficient one, so a 
 similar argument, in behalf of revelation, may be found 
 correspondingly pow^erful and convincing. It is true, in 
 such a case, we first assume that we possess a divine 
 revelation, and then proceed to show how facts accord 
 with its statements ; but, in so doing, we merely proceed 
 according to the rational method, by which the verity of 
 any w^ritten document is ascertained. Whether it be a 
 professed narrative of events, a theory on some scientific 
 subject, or a mere seriatim catalogue of things, yet, if it 
 give a true detail, facts will tally with its statements, and 
 it Avill'be pronounced /ajf/i/?<7. 
 
 Now, if there does exist such a thing as real revelation, 
 it will doubtless bear a similar examination. The applica- 
 tion of the test may be delicate, but it must, in the main, 
 be clear and decisive ; and it is quite certain that, in no 
 case, can the document and the real fact contradict each 
 other. A true revelation cannot stand opposed to nature, 
 liistory, or the facts of liuman consciousness. The words 
 of Scripture may be misinterpreted — its facts may be mis- 
 understood — it may leave many things involved in mystery. 
 
EELVTING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 5 
 
 and quite inexplicable, owing to the imperfection of our 
 knowledge; but if it professes to give information upon 
 events that have transpired, or things that exist, there 
 must be, and be discoverable, a harmony in the main, 
 and without any positive discord. This correspondence, 
 if it can be traced to any considerable extent, will very 
 materially subserve the evidence of revelation. The one 
 will be to the other as the key that passes the wards 
 of the lock, or as the clue by which we thread a laby- 
 rinth. 
 
 We can conceive it possible for God to have made a 
 revelation upon matters concerning which neither our 
 experience, nor science, nor the course of history, might 
 have supplied any corroborative evidence. Such a revela- 
 tion might have rested solely on tlie direct proof of divine 
 authority in the method of communication. Its subject 
 matter might have been placed far beyond the reach of 
 any test we could employ ; but if we possess a revelation 
 which, besides the direct and primary proofs of divine 
 dictation, affords us the opportunity of verifying its state- 
 ments, by matters coming Avithin the sphere of our own 
 experience and observation, it must tlien, I think, be 
 admitted, that such a revelation possesses all the evi- 
 dence we could reasonably desire, perhaps all of which 
 any revelation is susceptible. 
 
 It is not, however, pretended that this view of the 
 christian evidence possesses any novelty: or that this 
 mode of testing it has not often been adopted, both by 
 friends and enemies. Yet, I think, it must be admitted 
 that the subject has generally been treated in a partial and 
 desultory manner ; very rai'ely in a distinct and separate 
 form ; usually it has constituted only a section or an item 
 of a general argument ; or has been mixed with questions 
 of prophecy and history. It has certainly been made, by 
 the enemies of revelation, a prolific source of objection. 
 It has presented a field wlierc lliey h.ave gallingly paraded 
 
b MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 their forces, and harassingly hung upon the rear of the 
 christian argument. 
 
 Now we have imagined, whether wisely or otherwise, the 
 reader must judge, that this argument from the verifi- 
 cation of ScrijDture, is susceptible of considerable expansion 
 and confirmation, in the present advanced state of human 
 knowledge, and that something should be attempted bj' 
 way of making the contributions both of science, his- 
 tory, and human experience, serviceable to the cause of 
 revelation. 
 
 Much has been elYected of late to elucidate and confirm 
 the doctrines of natural theology, by bringing to their aid 
 the valuable and important discoveries of modern physical 
 science through its various departments. So that the ar- 
 gument" for the being, perfections, and providence of God, 
 may be said to be wrought up to the imj^roved state of 
 natural knowledge. It has been, if not strengthened in 
 the nature and construction of the argument, yet carried 
 out into new illustration and reinforced by the ultimate 
 discoveries of philosophy. 
 
 Moreover, several able writers, as well philosophical as 
 theological, have shown that the discoveries which have of 
 late years been going forward in one particular and popular 
 branch of science, hitherto suspected of a hostile aspect 
 towards revelation, has brought to light no fact subversive 
 of the Mosaic cosmogony. So far scientific discoveries are 
 found, on the one hand, to subserve the defence and eluci- 
 dation of natural theology, Mhile, on the other, they are 
 shown to be at least inoffensive, or neutral towards revela- 
 tion. Everything beyond this, such as the effort to make 
 science, history, and human experience corroborate the 
 testimony, and contribute to the evidence of revelation, falls 
 within the province of the theologian. 
 
 I can, of course, have no reason to depreciate the im- 
 portant inquiries of natural theology ; but I may be jDermit- 
 ted to say there is considerable danger in reposing in 
 
RELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 7 
 
 them, complacent in tlie fundamental truths they estahhsh, 
 and satisfied with the important and interesting results to 
 which they lead. The theism which is grounded upon 
 them, apart from the discoveries of revelation, proves in the 
 issue a system of delusion and mischief. It is huilt up of 
 crude and unsubstantial materials. It does hut delude the 
 hope of its admirers, and at last crumbles into dust in the 
 rough hand of time, and before the test of experience.* 
 
 It is not imj^robable that a kind of sentimental religion, 
 scarcely a shade brighter than the gloomy deism of the last 
 centmy, may be fostered in the minds of some men of 
 science, by the eloquent and elaborate writings on natural 
 theology which have recently been given to the world. I 
 derogate nothing from the importance and value of the 
 arguments such works present, when I say, that their 
 utility is chiefly relative. They constitute but a link in a 
 chain. Apart they are of little worth. They form but one 
 
 * I trust, liowever, wlien I speak thus of the danger lest natural theology 
 should be consulted as an oracle, in the formation of religious belief, or itself 
 be mistaken for a complete system of religion, I shall not be understood as 
 reflecting, or intending to reflect, in the slightest degree, upon the eminent 
 and accomplished individuals who have lately made such valuable additions 
 to our stock of arguments for the being and government of God. It is abun- 
 dantly evident, from most of the Bridgewater Treatises, that their authors 
 had found no satisfaction in a scheme of mere theism; and many admirable 
 passages might be adduced, to show that they are devout believers in the in- 
 spiration of the Scriptures ; and further, thougli this was not their object, it 
 is evident, that they would be rejoiced to find their writings tributary, in any 
 de.gi-ee, to a similar faith in their readers. They have openly professed their 
 adherence to the sacred records, and rendered becoming homage to revelation, 
 as the only adequate and final authority in religion. Hereby they have done 
 honour to their own enlightened understandings, to their own great genius and 
 learning. This is highly satisfactoi7 as to the individual authors of thoseworks. 
 We are, moreover, quite sure they would deprecate any use of their ^n-itings 
 that might either seem directly to militate against the dictates of revelation, 
 or to supersede it by the substitution of a mere theism. But we cannot sup. 
 press the fear, that svich a misuse, as we have alluded to, may be made, and 
 lias, probably, already been made, by some who have paid little attention to 
 the wliole subject of religion, and possibly none whatever to tlie evidences of 
 revelation. 
 
8 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 of the steps to the Temple of Truth ; a step far enough 
 from being the last; and if it should unhappily be made 
 our resting j;Zrtf<r, instead of one of the stages of our ascent, 
 we shall find it but a comfortless and unsatisfactory position, 
 scarcely out of sight of the dark abyss of atheism, and far 
 below the light and security of that high abode which true 
 religion has prepared for us. 
 
 On all accounts, then, it is infinitely desirable that re- 
 vealed religion should be proved to be true. To resist fair 
 and substantial evidence on its behalf, or to thrust its divine, 
 its unrivalled benedictions from us, is to turn recreant to 
 humanity, and renounce the purest and noblest aspirations 
 of our nature. If what we hear within this temple of re- 
 vealed truth is the voice of a divine oracle, proceeding 
 from that same wisdom which designed the vast fabric of 
 the visible universe, then we may expect, that there will be 
 discoverable indubitable evidence of harmony with all the 
 other parts of the system ; and as, in natural theology, we 
 can perceive a convergence of proof, arising from the phy- 
 sical and moral systems, to one and the same point, namely 
 the identity of the author of both, so we may hope to trace 
 in revelation a still more marked, refined, and complete cor- 
 respondence with the physical system, with our universal 
 history, and with our entire nature ; and thus will be made 
 certain the momentous, the deeply interestnig proposition, 
 that the Creator of the heavens and the earth, the Founder 
 of the moral system of man's nature, and the Author of the 
 sacred volume, is one and the same Supreme and Eternal 
 Being. 
 
 There are chiefly two classes of arguments, or modes of 
 reasoning, by which the sacred Scriptures are j^roved to be 
 of divine inspiration ; they are usually denominated the 
 external and the internal evidences. The arrancrement has 
 been objected to, and it may not be strictly and critically 
 exact, but it is sufliciently so for all ordinary purposes. 
 These evidences it is not oiu* intention to discuss, further 
 
KELATING TO THE CHEATION, ETC. 9 
 
 than as some portions of them will be necessarily involved 
 in our design. 
 
 We propose to take the Bible upon its own pretensions, 
 that we may have the opportunity of comparing it with facts, 
 and thereby of showing, in case the argument shall be found 
 satisfactory, that a strong additional evidence thus arises to 
 its truth, and, consequently, to the identity of its authorship 
 with that of the material system of the universe, and of the 
 mental and moral constitution of man. This is the great 
 l)roposition, the establishment of which, even after the ad- 
 mission of the direct arguments for the inspiration of holy 
 Scripture, seems essential to the triumph of the christian 
 faith. If the other evidences are necessary to prove the 
 divine authority of the written word, this is necessary to 
 establish its truth practically. For although its veracity 
 would legitimately follow as a necessary inference, drawn 
 by our reason from the already proved fact of divine inspi- 
 ration, yet it will be an additional confirmation to our faith, 
 of incalculable value, to perceive how its statements are 
 experimentally and historically verified. In the one me- 
 thod we should infer its truth from its divine origin or 
 inspiration ; in the other we shall ascend from its accom- 
 plishment and verification to its inspiration, and its divine 
 authority will then follow as an undeniable inference. 
 
 The direct evidences are exceedingly numerous, arising 
 from different and unconnected sources, complicated in 
 their character, and continually augmenting. Virtually, 
 or relatively to us, they may be denominated boundless 
 and inexhaustible, because always progressive, thereby 
 supplying matter to engage the diligent inquiries, and re- 
 ward the fixed attention, of every successive generation ; 
 though to each, from the very first, has been afforded an 
 ample sufficiency to justify its cordial reception of that 
 measure of revelation which it possessed, and to render 
 disbelief inexcusable. It is, however, particularly in the 
 department of corroborative and historical evidence that 
 
10 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 our advanced position in science proves a vantage ground 
 for the further confirmation of Scripture. The records of 
 history, the researches of philosophers, the discoveries of 
 antiquarians and travellers, frequently make important 
 additions to the general fund, and clear up points only 
 partially known, or involved previously in doubt and rays- 
 ter}-'. All these sources are, at the present time, supplying 
 numerous verifications of the Bible, which could not have 
 been anticipated, but which are of great value in the 
 general argument. Little, however, has yet been attempted 
 in the way of collecting these scattered materials, reducing 
 them to an orderly arrangement, or displaying them so as 
 to make them bear conjointly on the evidence of inspira- 
 tion. The very scantiness of what has been hitherto done 
 in this department, while it may justify the present at- 
 tempt, wdll, it is hoped, form some apology for the de- 
 ficiency and immaturity which will doubtless be but too 
 obvious to able and accomplished judges. 
 
 Some reasons for the present undertaking might be de- 
 rived from the very nature of the argument we propose to 
 pursue. It seems to possess, at least, one special recom- 
 mendation. A very large proportion of the direct evidences, 
 both internal and external, require much time, close at- 
 tention, and some learning, duly to feel their force and 
 appreciate their value : but, if I am not deceived, the 
 argument to be adduced from the fulfilment and verifica- 
 tion of the Scripture, is one that ordinary minds may 
 more readily feel. Mankind at large display a greater 
 aptness for perceiving a conclusion that depends upon ex- 
 periment and fact, than one which rests upon abstract 
 reasoning. 
 
 I shall now proceed to the first class of revealed truths 
 or facts, which receive corroboration from our own proper 
 knowledge and experience. 
 
 They may be denominated 
 
RELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 11 
 
 THE NATURAL AND PHYSICAL FACTS RELATING TO THE 
 CREATION AND THE HUISIAN RACE. 
 
 Date of the world — Extinct races — Geological eiiochs — Order of creation — 
 Tiieory of light — Origin of the human race in a single pair — Man's 
 dominion over the mundane creation — The social propensity of man- 
 kind — The sentence denounced on the man and woman respectively 
 after the fall. 
 
 Many distinct statements, brief indeed, but yet in- 
 volving comprehensive and general principles, are laid 
 down upon these subjects in the very first pages of reve- 
 lation. From their remarkable agreement with what ap- 
 pears in the condition of man, and of this terrestrial cre- 
 ation, it seems highly improbable that they should have 
 proceeded from any source but that which fully understood 
 the nature, the laws, and the relations of all things. They 
 appear to imply a knowledge which could not have been 
 acquired by any of those means which men possess. They 
 display an insight into the laws and facts of nature, which 
 it is impossible to ascribe to the individual writer, or the 
 people among whom he had received his education. If 
 the information imparted by Moses upon the subjects 
 about to be examined shall be found to be of so peculiar a 
 character, so accurate, so comprehensive, so anticipative of 
 all that has been brought to light by science and been 
 experienced by ourselves, as to preclude the possibility of 
 attributing it to the ordinary sources of human knowledge, 
 we seem, then, to have no alternative left us, but to accede 
 to his own statement ; a statement, be it observed, sup- 
 ported by various other more direct evidences, that he was 
 a iDi'ophet sent of God. 
 
 So far as general truths and universal principles of 
 nature can be discovered by human effort, we know j^er- 
 fectly well, that great labour, cautious investigation, 
 patient research, and much time are demanded. They re- 
 quire a large induction of particulars, and a great accumu- 
 
12 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 lation of facts, before they can be securely and confidently 
 asserted. It is a rare case for such principles or truths to 
 be brought to maturity by a single mind. The first, in 
 general, merely suggests them. Others, frequently in a 
 long succession, and after elaborate investigation, verify 
 and prove them in all their bearings. When, therefore, we 
 perceive how slowly great principles and general laws are 
 discovered, even by the most com];)rehensive and accom- 
 plished minds in the present day, it must aj)pear altogether 
 incredible that Moses should have ascertained all the great 
 natural truths, which he records, by his own researches, 
 or have derived them from the wisdom of the Egyptians ; 
 for then they must have been common among all educated 
 persons, and must have descended through many other 
 channels besides the writings of Moses. 
 
 None, we presume, will attribute to him such vast at- 
 tainments in human philosophy, as to suppose that his 
 cosmogony was built upon principles which he himself 
 had scientifically wrought out. This were a supposition 
 so unsupported by any facts, and so wholly unsanctioned 
 by analogy, that it would seem to require supernatural 
 endowments, and in the issue, be found to imply scarcely 
 less than the inspiration we claim for him. It would, in- 
 deed, involve far greater difficulties than the frank admis- 
 sion of his prophetic character. But the other supposition, 
 which has been a favourite one with some adversaries, that 
 the source of his extraordinary knowledge is to be found 
 among the Egyptians, may be proved quite as untenable, 
 and may be almost as readily disposed of. 
 
 There was a time, indeed, when Bailly, Voltaire, and 
 Volney disturbed the faith of Christians, by their crude 
 speculations upon the advanced state of Egyptian and 
 Indian philosophy. They paraded their zodiacs and as- 
 tronomical calculations, and determined the existence of 
 science in those countries, to be at least ten or twenty 
 thousand years prior to the date of Moses. And then there 
 
RELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 13 
 
 were the Egyptian hieroglyphics, the hoary monuments of 
 early science, which, if they were but deciphered, would 
 not only demonstrate the inaccuracy of the sacred chro- 
 nology, but show that all the peculiarities of the Mosaic 
 narrative, the simplicity and sublimity which had so long 
 been the admiration of the Christian world, was all con- 
 tained in the amazing wisdom of the Egyptians, and bor- 
 rowed originally from them. How did these worshippers 
 of the yet unknown and mute spirit of Egyptian philosophy 
 long for the day which should unlock the hidden treasure ! 
 How did they sigh for the diviner that should expound the 
 hand-writing which Wtis destined to overthrow the Bible, 
 and prove the great Hebrew ,legislator a mean and hypo- 
 critical plagiarist ! But the day, which these vain boasters 
 were spared the mortification of living to witness, is arrived. 
 The skilful and gifted diviners have appeared. The hiero- 
 glyphics are read. The hand-writing is interpreted, and 
 the last of the savans, such as Greppo, Bovet, Rosellini, 
 Burton, Wilkinson, and Major Felix, who have, since 
 Young and Champollion, made these ancient monuments 
 the subject of their learned and laborious researches, all 
 testify that their discoveries tend uniformly and invincibly 
 to support the accuracy of the Mosaic records. We shall 
 have occasion for showing, hereafter, in reference to par- 
 ticular facts, that no such knowledge as Moses displays 
 ever existed in the schools of Egyptian Avisdom, and it 
 may, therefore, be merely observed in brief here, that if 
 the Egyptians bad possessed this knowledge, and taught it 
 generally in their schools during the early life of Moses, it 
 must have been a matter of common belief, and of ordinary 
 instruction : and, further, that it must have perpetuated 
 itself among them, or have left clear traces, identifying 
 their knowledge with that of Moses. 
 
 Moreover, the science which they possessed must have 
 passed to other nations, who are well known to have 
 copied from their system. The discoveries which have of 
 
14 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 late been made in their early histor}', must have brought 
 to light some traces of these doctrines, and proved the 
 Egyptians to have been men of true science. But nothing 
 of the sort is the case. All we have ever learned of the 
 Egyptians, places them and their opinions, at that early 
 period, or, indeed, at any period of their history, far 
 enough from any identity of opinion or belief with Moses ; 
 while their chronology is now in the main harmonized 
 with his. 
 
 But here are his writings, certainly originating at or 
 about the date ascribed to them by the Jews, as can be 
 proved by various collateral and undeniable testimonies, 
 containing a system of cosmogony, a theory of the origin, 
 condition, and laws of human nature, and affording such 
 a statement and explanation of facts and first principles, 
 as appears not merely sid generis, and peculiar to that 
 single writer, but the only ancient statement or theory 
 consistent with itself; the only one that has stood the 
 test of time, experience, and philosophy. Surely, if we 
 can make out a harmony between its statements and such 
 facts as could not have been foreseen by human wisdom, 
 nor inferred from natural laws, we shall then be entitled 
 to the benefit of an undeniable inference in favour of the 
 inspiration to which Moses lays claim. 
 
 In the first place, it is to be observed, that the order 
 of creation, as detailed by Moses, though very brief, and 
 by no means to be subjected to captious and fastidious 
 criticism, yet involves facts and statements which require 
 to be verified by sound philosophy. If Moses was the 
 inspired legislator we believe him to have been, it is im- 
 possible that his statement can be at variance with those 
 records of the divine power and skill which are imprinted 
 upon the rocks, or conserved in that splendid museum of 
 nature which the perforated earth is now everywhere 
 disclosing to us. The statement Moses has put on record, 
 brief as it is, and designed as it must have been, not for 
 
RELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 15 
 
 tlie critical eyes of philosophers, but for general and 
 poj)ulai' information, yet affords, as we conceive, a remark 
 able test of the peculiar knowledge and perfect accuracy 
 of the writer. The facts he has ventured to record, include 
 the origin of the present system of the heavens and the 
 earth, the primeval state of the latter, with the (Jate of the 
 present order of creation. 
 
 This inquiry, then, must at once bring under our notice 
 the conclusions at which our modern geologists have 
 arrived upon the same subjects. Their theory states, that 
 the j^resent surface of the earth must have been the result 
 of a protracted series of operations, involving, as we recede, 
 the creation and destruction of several systems of animal 
 and vegetable life, prior to the production of the present 
 one. In this retrogression they pass from the creation 
 that first included animal and vegetable life, to the stage 
 which shows water and air acting upon the fractured rocks, 
 to produce the soil necessary for the vegetable creation; 
 and this wearing away of the rocky surface, they show, 
 must have required an immense period of years for the 
 adequate accumulation of the separated particles. But, 
 even prior to this, they state that there must have been 
 an era when the rocky crust of the whole earth was broken 
 up into fragments, by the action of A^olcanic forces moving 
 from the interior; that still prior to this, the rocky crust 
 of the earth must have been formed by the gradual cooling 
 of the mass, which must once have been in a state of 
 fusion ; and that the whole globe may be still further 
 simplified into a fluid or gaseous sphere, which brings us 
 near to the earliest act of creative power. Thus, from the 
 first production of the original particles of matter, there 
 appears to have been a regular progression of changes; 
 each, indeed, involving the creation of something fresh, or 
 the projection of some new and grand effect from already 
 existing causes, but all still advancing onward to that 
 stage when the earth should first be fit for vecrctable and 
 
IG MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 animal life in their lowest forms, and then showing the 
 destruction of these, as necessary to prepare the globe for 
 the higher and more perfect creation, at the head of which 
 was to stand the human race. At the juncture ^Yhen all 
 was ripe for this more complicated system, and not before, 
 the human race, was produced ; so that, according to this 
 theory, there appears to have been a most marked and 
 minute correspondence in the two distinct designs : first, 
 to mature the earth gradually, by a long series of opera- 
 tions, to become a suitable habitation for mankind, and 
 a proper stage for the development of their powers ; and, 
 secondly, to bring their race into existence precisely at 
 the period when, through a long antecedent process, the 
 materials and fabric of the globe were fitted for their 
 reception ; — a state which, it appears, had not been at- 
 tained in any of the previous eras of its history. It would 
 not be suitable here to enter into a statement of the 
 grounds on which these conclusions rest. Yet I may just 
 present one instance in reference to some of the earlier 
 stages of the process I have described. 
 
 From the laws of the radiation of heat, and from the 
 ascertained nature of comets, as well as for several other 
 reasons, it is inferred that the earth must have existed 
 once in a fluid state. What is now rock is supposed to 
 have been in a state of fusion with a surrounding atmo- 
 sphere. Mathematical principles, in connexion with the 
 laws of motion, are then adduced to prove that a rotatory 
 motion would impart to such a fluid mass just the form 
 which we know the earth now possesses. Next, supposing 
 radiation of heat to commence at the surface of this fluid 
 globe, the consolidation would go on gradually, according 
 to well-known laws, till a considerable crust of rock was 
 formed around the whole exterior. At this stage geology 
 steps in and confirms the theoiy, by the strong evidence 
 that the interior of the earth still consists of such heated 
 matter; that the rocks have been formed by the process 
 
RELATING TO THE CEEATTON, ETC. 17 
 
 of cooling ; and that this being the source of the lowest 
 and first-formed rocks, all the other strata have been pro- 
 duced in consequence of the first consolidation, by various 
 subsequent processes. Further, that the ruptured state 
 of all the strata is to be attributed to the various volcanic 
 eruptions which have been caused for the purpose of 
 breaking up the rocky crust into fragments, without which 
 water could never have been collected, nor vegetation pro- 
 duced, nor any of the subsequent developments of creative 
 wisdom and power made ; because, without such disrup- 
 tions, the whole surface of the globe must have remained 
 one universal sphere of impenetrable rock. Thus it ap- 
 pears a most important work has been effected by those 
 various and violent convulsions from within, which have 
 first broken up the rocks, then given opportunity for the 
 collection of Avaters, and for the wearing away of the 
 shattered mountains by rains and by rivers, whereby vast 
 beds of alluvial matter have been borne into the seas ; 
 these again have been raised from the bosom of the ocean 
 by the internal forces, and become fit for the reception of 
 vegetation ; and after vegetation had proceeded for another 
 long era, that has been buried by similar convulsions, and 
 treasured up to form vast depositories of coal. Upon the 
 same convulsions, it is shown, depend the springs, as well 
 as the possibility and means of reaching all the mineral 
 treasures of the earth. The great characteristic of this 
 geological theory is the vast lapse of time which all these 
 successive changes have occupied, and which, upon the 
 admission of the theory, we should have to harmonize 
 with the sacred history. 
 
 It may be proper here to remark, however, that apart 
 from the question of the Mosaic cosmogony, there a2')pears 
 nothing in the theory itself, of these long eras, essentially 
 incongruous with those ordinary operations of the Creator 
 which fall under our own notice. Progression, time, and 
 growth seem to pertain to all the Creator's works, and 
 V. c 
 
18 MOSAIC state:^ent of facts 
 
 (with some license, at least as to the latter term) even to 
 the globe itself. Growth, or progressive advancement, is 
 characteristic of every animal, every mineral, yea, of every 
 rock and every stone. This analogy seems to pervade the 
 whole system of the world, and, perhaps, of the heavenly 
 bodies too ; and so far the theory of the geologists appears 
 to be sustained by the plea of an analogy so compre- 
 hensive, that we can scarcely suppose it to have been 
 violated in the production of a suitable habitation for the 
 human race. Yet, strong as the analogy is, and greatly 
 as it tends to confirm the theory of the geologists, it would 
 not be entitled to much consideration in a case which 
 might possibly be unique, and justly claim to be so, pro- 
 vided the testimony of Moses were obviously and directly 
 opposed to the notion of antecedent eras. But, should it 
 appear that this testimony can be reconciled both with 
 this general analogy of the divine operations throughout 
 nature, and with the geological theory of the earths 
 formation, and the gradual development and destruction 
 of previous systems, we shall then, I think, have attained 
 all that can be fah-ly required on this important and inte- 
 resting branch of our subject. Still, when we bear in 
 mind that this science is even yet in a very imperfect and 
 immature state ; that its history records no less than 
 eighty different theories of the earth, which have in suc- 
 cession been embraced and abandoned by scientific men ; 
 that its masters are by no means agreed in first principles; 
 that they are not yet in possession of a complete view of 
 the natural agencies which may have been in operation at 
 any given period ; and that the comparatively limited scale 
 of their observations and experiments must necessarily 
 leave them in nearly total ignorance of the effects of such 
 powers — for instance, as those of magnetism, electricity, 
 light, heat, and other yet undiscovered agencies, upon the 
 materials of which the earth is composed, or was at first 
 composed — it cannot be deemed an unreasonable demand 
 
EELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 19 
 
 that the new theories, upon the periods required to explain 
 geological facts, should be viewed with some suspicion, 
 and received with some reserve ; for it can hardly be 
 doubted, that a different combination of causes from that 
 which falls under our observation may have produced, in 
 a comparatively abridged period, all the results which we 
 might conclude could only be the effect of the causes we 
 can observe operating through a much longer period. We 
 never can be sure that we are in possession of all the 
 agencies which have been employed in states of the earth 
 different from the present one, nor of the exact relative 
 proportions and amounts of their respective influences, 
 through those vast periods which we suppose to have 
 elapsed. Some may have exhausted themselves in their 
 results and disai:)peared, as we know takes place in some 
 chemical agencies ; others may remain, but in a lowered 
 degree ; and the relative jDroportions of the present known 
 agencies may have altered greatly in the long succession 
 of ages, as it is ascertained some of them actually have 
 done. 
 
 Moreover, the admission of a creation at all presupposes 
 the production of some results perfect at once; for in- 
 stance, of man and woman, as mature in the first moment 
 of their existence as we become in thirty or forty years. 
 Any argument, therefore, from the laws of our own develop- 
 ment, made to bear upon the first man, must prove invalid 
 and deceptive. So some results in the condition of the 
 globe, which, according to our observations and calculations, 
 would require a thousand or ten thousand years, may have 
 evolved mature at once, by the efibrt of creating power. 
 We are entitled, therefore, to put in a bar against the 
 validity of any conclusion that so long a period would, 
 ill the first instance, have been absolutely required to form 
 a given specimen of primitive rock, because this would 
 imply that the effect could not have been produced in any 
 other wp.y than the theory supposes ; whereas, for aught 
 
•so MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 we know, there might exist a different combination of 
 natural causes and chemical agents which might materially 
 expedite the result, or it may at once have been produced 
 by creative power, with all the apj^earances of a gradual 
 and long travailing process, and with all the marks of a 
 venerable age. The law which regulates any department 
 or object of creation is not to be supposed in operation 
 till its object has an existence ; and that law which is 
 now efficient to its conservation has no reference whatever 
 to its original production. Conservation of objects already 
 existing is one thing, creation is another. 
 
 But, indeed, so far as ^philosophers have hitherto pro- 
 secuted their discoveries into the wonderful works of the 
 Almighty, we might safely accede to the general require- 
 ments they make, since they are not absolutely incon- 
 sistent with revelation. It seems in itself not unlikely, 
 and, judging analogically, highly probable, that there had 
 been developments of creating power and wisdom in the 
 formation of the material universe, and of the globe which 
 we inhabit, with some degrees of organization, previous to 
 that creation which Moses relates, and the origin of which 
 it was his chief object to record ; just as there had been a 
 creation of intelligent spirits, certainly prior, perhaps long 
 prior to the creation of the human soul. We conceive no 
 objection to his cosmogony can arise from discoveries 
 which are supposed to penetrate into the ages or eras 
 preceding those events which exclusively concerned the 
 human race. Let us bear in mind, that he was not com- 
 missioned to impart a system of philosophy generally, or 
 of geology in particular, but a theory of religion and 
 morals, with only so much of the history of the present 
 system as concerned ourselves, and the maintenance of 
 just views respecting the Lord and Creator of all, and w^e 
 shall then find, not merely that geology has brought to 
 light nothing whicl; invalidates his record, as a general 
 statement of first principles, but that much light may be 
 
i;i:latixg to the creatiox, etc. 91 
 
 thro"\vn upon it, and some confirmation derived to it by 
 the recent disclosures of science. For, in the first place, 
 all these discoveries tend to show, that whatever was the 
 fact as to previous states of this globe, the present races, 
 both of men and animals, cannot be placed farther back 
 than the date to which he assigns them. He affirms 
 nothing to contradict the supposition of a previous crea- 
 tion. He leaves all the antecedent duration open to the 
 discoveries of philosophers. Science, it is true, has dis- 
 closed to us numerous races of animals and vegetables 
 supposed to be extinct, all deemed referrible, from the 
 positions in which they are found, to what are called the 
 geological eras, as distinguished from the Mosaic ; but 
 no human remains yet brought to light, have been re- 
 ferred to a date so early as that attributed to the fossil 
 remains of the extinct animals.- 
 
 Secondly, it may be shown that the doctrine of periods 
 of duration antecedent to the date of the Mosaic creation, 
 is not only compatible with his statements, but seems to 
 be, if not expressly alluded to yet required by his language, 
 and that of other inspired writers. This it shall be our 
 object further to show. 
 
 We call upon you to make an important distinction here 
 between the interpretations which have been fixed upon 
 the Scripture, and the Scripture itself. When any fact 
 in nature, or a theory established by philosophy, in refer- 
 ence to any class of facts, is found to be irreconcileable 
 with any particular interpretation of Scrij^ture, it is our 
 duty to re-examine the interpretation, and not hastily to 
 infer that facts are at variance with Scripture, because 
 they are at variance with our interpretations of it. Were 
 
 * Buckland's Bi-idpf. Treatise, vol. i. p. 103. But Inimaii remains sve 
 equally absent from the highest strata, which were confessedly formed by tlic 
 general deluge. Hence this fact supplies no ground for attributing a greater 
 antiquity to tlie animal fossils tlian to the human race. See Prebendary 
 Gisborne's " Considerations on Modern Theories of Geology." p. 43. &<•. 
 
!^S5 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 Ave to rush upon such a conclusion, we must either shut 
 our eyes upon facts, for the sake of abiding by Scripture, 
 or we must give np Scripture, for the sake of the fact. 
 
 The position in which w^e are placed by the discoveries 
 of geology is of this very kind. It is thought that we 
 cannot abide by the popular notion, so long maintained 
 by many interpreters of Scripture, that Moses actually 
 records the very commencement of the earth, its pro- 
 duction out of nothing ; and, at the same time, credit the 
 facts discovered by geology. One or the other of these 
 must give way. 
 
 Now, before we call upon the geologist to yield to our 
 interpretation, and abandon what he conceives to be an 
 unquestionable deduction from his discoveries, it behoves 
 us to revert to the original document for the purpose of 
 examining whether we have not, in some respects, either 
 fallen upon a wrong interpretation, or extended its 
 meaning to matters of which it was not designed to afford 
 us information. Let us see, whether, after all, both Moses 
 and the geologist may not be credited and reconciled, and 
 whether, if this can be fairly done, and without any 
 sophistication of the sacred document, it will not receive 
 confirmation of the most important and valuable kind by 
 this harmonizing process. We must, therefore, proceed to 
 examine the statement as it stands in the sacred record. 
 
 First, we find the introductory sentences, " In the 
 beginning God created the heavens and the earth ; and 
 the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was 
 upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved 
 upon the face of the waters." 
 
 The usual construction put upon the first clause of 
 these verses is, I believe, that in the beginning of that 
 era or week immediatcl}' in connexion with the earliest 
 day of our time, God brought the earth and the heavens 
 first into being. But if we look carefully at the words we 
 shall, I think, find that the first verse relates what God did 
 
RELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. Q3 
 
 in the ber/hming, not what he did within tlie space of the 
 Jirst day. The question, therefore, here arises, have we 
 any scriptural authority for interpreting the phrase, in the 
 berjinning, in reference to any portion of duration, except 
 what it has been usually understood to mean, namely, the 
 beginning of our time? If we revert to the same ex- 
 pressions in other parts of the sacred book, I think we 
 shall perceive, that it not only cannot signify the begin- 
 ning of time, but must signify that eternal space which 
 preceded our date of time ; and, therefore, that whatever 
 is so described as being in the beghuiing, is attributed to 
 that immeasurable duration which, to our apprehension, 
 must be denominated the eternity before time, or which is 
 elsewhere called frorn everlasting. 
 
 For instance, the following places have the same ex- 
 pression ; John i. 1, "In the beginning was the Word. — 
 The same was in the beginning with God." Prov. viii. 22, 
 " The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his ways, 
 before his works of old ;" and, again, in the next verse, 
 " from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever (before) the 
 earth was." These verses clearly employ the terms, from 
 everlasting and iii the beginning as equivalents, while they 
 speak of what was before time, perhaps, before the 
 geological eras ; for it says, " before his works of old, or 
 ever," that is, " before the earth was."- Heb. i. 10, (a 
 passage referrible to the very same matters as Gen. i. 1,) 
 " Thou, Lord, in the beginning, hast laid the foundation 
 of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hand." 
 Compare Ps. cii. 25. The Psalmist says, of old, (Heb. 
 t:^:sS Sept. Kar apxas.) The apostle, quoting probably from 
 the Septuagint, says, in the beginning, but the Hebrew word 
 is not the same as in Genesis i. 1, n'-iti^'^n. 
 
 There are but two other places, in which these precise 
 
 * The whole connexion of Prov. viii. 2'2, viewed in reference to the geo- 
 logical theorie'?. is highly intci-estiiig. 
 
24 MOSAIC STATEME>'T OF FACTS 
 
 precise words occur throughout the English Bible, and 
 thev are both necessarily limited, the one bv the con- 
 nexion and the subject, (2 Sam. xx. 18,) "they were Avont 
 to speak in old time," (beginning,) and the other, (Phil, 
 iv. 15,) by a following term, thus, " in the beginning of 
 the Gospel." But, in the passages enumerated, in which 
 the simple expression stands unqualified, as in Genesis, 
 thus, "in the beginning," it not only does not mean the 
 beginning of time, but must be referred to the eternal 
 ages prior to time: and, moreover, I believe, in several of 
 these instances, orthodox interpreters have been accus- 
 tomed to understand by the phrase in question, the 
 eternal ages before time began to be reckoned, or all that 
 preceded it. 
 
 If this remark is well founded, we may then ask, why 
 should the phrase in Genesis mean the hegimiing of time, 
 v/hen every where else it signifies an indefinite space, or 
 duration ; in fact, the whole eternity past ? 
 . With this interpretation before us, then, I think we 
 ought to understand Moses as saying, " indefinitely far 
 back, and concealed from us, in the mystery of eternal 
 ages, prior to the first moment of mundane time, God 
 created the heavens and the earth," Sec. If this interpret- 
 ation be just, and I know not how it can be shown to be 
 otherwise, we shall then have in the Mosaic record, not 
 only nothing incompatible with the doctrine of preceding 
 eras, but a clear anticipation of the most mysterious and 
 sublime fact discovered b}' modern science, the actual 
 existence of the heavens and the earth, not, indeed, as 
 now, but in an incipient or progressive state of organ- 
 ization, preparing the way for what the geologists denomi- 
 nate the gradual development of systems, or organization 
 and animal life regularly advancing, till the whole system 
 was ripe for the creation of the human race. Such 
 gradual development, we have seen, finds its analog}- 
 
RELATING TO THE CEEATION, ETC. 25 
 
 througli all departments of the divine operations, evincing, 
 by the length of time required for the maturity and con- 
 summation of his great purposes, the eternity of his 
 nature, and the perpetuity of his counsel. 
 
 The mode of harmonizing the Mosaic record Avith the 
 conclusions of the philosophers now joroposed, had 
 occurred to me long since, upon comparing the analogy of 
 the language in the first verse of Genesis with the first 
 verse of John's Gospel. I was, therefore, peculiarly 
 gratified to discover Dr. Buckland presenting the same 
 view of the phrase in the following passage, — " The 
 Mosaic narrative commences with a declaration that, ' In 
 the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.' 
 These few first words of Genesis may be fairly appealed 
 to by the geologist, as containing a brief statement of the 
 creation of the material elements, at a time distinctly 
 preceding the operations of the first da}'; it is nowhere 
 affirmed that God created the heavens and the earth in the 
 first day, but in the heg inning ; this beginning may have 
 been an epoch at an unmeasured distance, followed by 
 periods of undefined duration, during which all the 
 physical operations disclosed by geology were going on. 
 The first verse of Genesis, therefore, seems explicitly to 
 assert the creation of the universe, ' the heavens,' in- 
 cluding the sideral system ; ' the earth,' more especially 
 specifying our own planet as the subsequent scene of the 
 operations of the six days about to be described. No 
 information is given as to events which may have occurred 
 upon this earth, unconnected with the history of man, 
 between the creation of its component matter, recorded 
 in the first verse, and the era at which its history is re- 
 sumed in the second verse : nor is any limit fixed to 
 the time during which these intermediate events may 
 have been going on ; millions of millions of years may 
 have occupied the indefinite interval between the be- 
 
'^6 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 ginning, in which God created the heaven and the 
 earth, and the evening, or commencement of the Mosaic 
 narrative."-:- 
 
 The learned professor supports his opinion in a note 
 from the pen of the Rev. E. B. Pusey, Professor of 
 Hebrew at Oxford, who shows that this is no new interpre- 
 tation of the phrase in question, but that it was the 
 opinion of many of the fathers and others. t 
 
 Here, 'then, upon the assumption that this interpretation 
 is the correct one, we have, in the discoveries of modern 
 science, an invaluable attestation to the truth and au- 
 thority of Moses, and that upon a subject which, it is 
 quite clear, he never could have investigated scientifically, 
 and equally clear he could not otherwise have ^understood, 
 except by inspiration. 
 
 We proceed to observe, further, that he represents the 
 earth as existing' in a state of fluidity, or semifluidity, at 
 least as to its upper surface. It can hardly be alleged 
 that the proof of this was so obvious as to have warranted 
 any careful observer in the conclusion. Because we know 
 that the most careful and philosophic observers, until 
 recent times, were, to say the least, much divided in their 
 opinions upon the point ; and many of them conceived 
 that the statement could not possibly be proved, and was 
 altogether most unlikely. What, then, is to be now said, 
 concerning his statement, when it is found, that after 
 extensive research and continued theorizing, it has become 
 a fixed and admitted conclusion, that this was really the 
 fact? Even concerning the lowest known strata of rock, 
 which the geologists term jjrimitive, their highest authori- 
 ties determine that they were formed under a fluid. I It 
 
 * Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i. pp. 20 — 24. 
 
 + He also refers to Professor Silliraan, of Newliaven ; Bishop Gleig, in- 
 his edition of Stackhouse's Bible; Dr. Chalmers, and various other eminent 
 authors, as all coinciding in this interpretation of the first verse of Genesis. 
 
 + See Cuvier's Essay, p. IS; Kcrr'x Translation, and Buckland's Bridge- 
 water Treatise, vol. i. p. 50. Mr. Fairholme states some apparently un- 
 
RELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. }i7 
 
 will hardly be said, that this was either a supposition of 
 Moses, or the result of such a process of investigation as 
 the geologists of modern times have for many years been 
 pursuing ; a result of speculation which they have evolved 
 after inventing, maintaining, and dismissing many con- 
 flicting theories. It would be a very singular case, indeed, 
 if this opinion or supposition of Moses, resting on no 
 better foundation than the mere glance of his eye over the 
 surface of the very small tract of country to which his 
 travels and inspection were confined, should be found, 
 after so many centuries of doubt and ignorance, to have 
 been a most perfect and complete anticipation of the fact, 
 which science has now, with infinite difficulty, discovered 
 in the same case. 
 
 But the inspiration of Moses will appear more clear, if 
 we proceed to observe his statement respecting the order 
 of God's works. We find that, after the creation of the 
 earth in the mass or chaotic state, the first eff'ort of divine 
 power was put forth in the production of light, then in the 
 separation of land and water, then in the production of the 
 vegetable creation, then of the sun and moon, thence pro- 
 ceeding to fishes, then to birds, afterwai'ds to quadrupeds, 
 and, finally, to man. It might have been supposed that 
 the question as to the precise succession of these different 
 orders was one which could never be determined, nor even 
 approached, and, therefore, that an impostor, or a mere 
 speculator, would not have concerned himself about the 
 order ; because he would never have suspected that it was 
 a point on which his accuracy could possibly be tested. 
 But, in the present case, the geologists have proceeded 
 quite irrespective of Moses, many of them with views, in 
 the first instance, far from friendly to him ; often, it is to 
 be feared, with an intention to confront and overthrow his 
 
 answerable objections to the igneous formation of the primitive rocks, and 
 forcibly argues that they were of exclusively aqueous origin as well as all the 
 rest. See his " New and Conclusive Physical Demonstrations." p. 20. et seq. 
 
28 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 statements. But what are now the conclusions at which 
 they have arrived hy pursuing their own independent rea- 
 sonings ? It is, that the order of creation in these various 
 particulars must have been nearly, perhaps exactly, as 
 given in Genesis. Discoveries which it was little exj^ected 
 could ever be made, have pointed out singular coincidences 
 with these particulars, and have thereby verified the scrip- 
 tural account.'!' 
 
 There appears, in the Mosaic record, a remarkable state- 
 ment in reference to light, which has often been appealed 
 to by infidel objectors, as a decisive proof of the inaccuracy 
 and self-contradiction of the writer. It is stated, in the 
 first chapter of Genesis, that God said, on the first day, 
 " Let light be," and yet it is distinctly represented after- 
 wards, that the sun and moon were not created, or made 
 to shine upon our earth, until the fourth day. It has long 
 been deemed impossible to reconcile these apparently 
 hostile and contradictory accounts. Yet it is difficult to 
 conceive that an impostor would have hazarded a state- 
 ment so obviously contraiy to probability, so apparently 
 chargeable with inconsistency, and so unlikely to gain 
 credit with those who reasoned upon appearances, and 
 judged only by their senses. But how singular is the fact, 
 that the modern discoveries of astronomy have rendered 
 it more than probable, that luminous bodies in the heavens 
 first exist as a diff'used and expanded element, before they 
 become condensed into a regularly formed and compact 
 mass. Dr. Buckland observes : — " It appears highly pro- 
 bable that light is not a material substance, but only an 
 effect of undulations of ether ; that this infinitely subtile 
 and elastic ether pervades all space, and even the interior 
 of all bodies ; so long as it remains at rest, there is total 
 darkness ; when it is put into a peculiar state of vibration, 
 
 * I do not refer to partieulai* authors, because nearly all the geologists 
 coincide in this matter with Moses. They fall into his track, because all the 
 facts point tliat way. 
 
RELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 29 
 
 the sensation of light is produced ; this sensation may be 
 excited by various causes, e. g. by the sun, by the stars, by 
 electricity, combustion, &c. If, then, light be not a sub- 
 stance, but only a series of vibrations of ether, /. e. an 
 effect produced on a subtile fluid, by the excitement of 
 one or many extraneous causes, it can hardly be said, nor 
 is it said, in Gen. i. 3, to have been created, though it 
 may be literally said to be called into action."* The dis- 
 coveries and observations of the late Sir W. Herschell, 
 continued through a long life, first made it probable that a 
 process, similar to that only briefly stated by Moses, is 
 continually going on in the remote parts of the heavenly 
 s'ystem. Herschell's observations have been confirmed by 
 his son, and many other eminent philosophers. I cannot 
 better express the bearing of these facts upon the veracity 
 and inspiration of the sacred historian, than in the follow- 
 ing words of Dr. Shuttleworth : — " From the uniformity of 
 this operation, as far as it has been remarked, and from 
 the vast multitude of instances in which it has taken, and 
 is still taking place, it seems natural to infer that a large 
 portion of those stars, whose places have been recognized 
 in the heavens from time immemorial, derived their origin 
 from the same process. But it is also the generally re- 
 ceived opinion, that the sun of our planetar}' system is a 
 star precisely of the same nature with the rest; and, if so, 
 it seems not improbable, from analogy, that it derived its 
 present form from the same cause of condensation, and 
 that its original state of existence was that of a thin, lumi- 
 nous fluid, occupying a vast portion of the orbits of those 
 planetary bodies of which it is now the centre. It is surely 
 not a little remarkable, that what might a century ago have 
 been quoted as a seeming absurdity and oversight in Scrip- 
 ture, should be found thus signally to accord with one of 
 
 * Bridg. Treat, vol. i. p. 32. 
 
so MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 the most curious discoveries of modern astronomical 
 science."* 
 
 Upon the admission of this theory we perceive a beau- 
 tiful harmony with the systems of incipient organization 
 which the geologists maintain. A long antecedent pre- 
 paration is shown to have been going on, both of the 
 heavens and the earth, for the reception of the noblest and 
 most richly endowed of all sensitive beings ; the only one 
 destined to bear, in an emphatic sense, "the image of 
 God." Moses, then, is not to be understood as saying, 
 that on the first of the six days' work the element of light 
 was called into existence ; for the previous existence of 
 light, to some considerable degree, seems now unquestion- 
 able, from the facts which geology has established; the 
 existence of vegetation, in many analogous species to our 
 present vegetation, and the provision made, in the extinct 
 races of animals, for the exercise of the faculty of vision, 
 evidently demonstrating the same, or nearly the same re- 
 lation between their optical organs and the element of 
 light, as now prevails, But at the period referred to by 
 the Mosaic statement, light may have attained that degree 
 of condensation which was requisite to constitute it a de- 
 fined orb, and the expression " let light be," may express 
 its more perfected and recommencing operation in the mun- 
 dane system, after that cataclysm which, it is supposed, 
 destroyed the previous creation of animal and vegetable 
 tribes, and marked the commencement of the new and 
 more perfect creation, which v/as to accompany the intro- 
 duction of the human race, and to indicate the adaptation 
 of all things to their use and comfort. So far, then, we 
 conceive the discoveries of our modern geology, though 
 they modify in some degi-ee our interpretation of the 
 
 * SlmtUewortirs Consistency of ricvelation, pp. 53, 54. The inquisitive 
 reader may find this hypothesis very ahly and candidly stated and examined 
 by the llev. W. Wliewell, in his Bridgewater Treatise on Astronomy and 
 General Physics, chap. vii. p. ISl. 
 
RELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 31 
 
 Mosaic account, are by no means hostile to it, but rather 
 serve to illustrate and confirm it; and especially so, by 
 demonstrating the absence of all facts that could clash 
 with the Mosaic date of the present races of living beings. 
 The declaration of Moses, that the earth in the beginning 
 or prior to the first day, was without form and void, and 
 that darkness was upon the face of the deep, seems both 
 to imply that it had a previous existence, and that it had 
 undergone an entire disruption of its surface and destruc- 
 tion of its organized contents, to make way for the new 
 and higher order of things just about to be introduced; 
 and thus it coincides with the whole theory of geology, 
 and receives most valuable confirmation from its sublime 
 discoveries. 
 
 It may be further observed of the geological theory, 
 that, by its disclosure of antecedent eras, it relieves us 
 from the necessity of expounding the days of the Mosaic 
 creation as inclusive of any longer period than a natural 
 day. Some eminent critics and philosophers had been 
 induced to adopt such an exposition, in order to meet 
 the difficulties which geology, in its earlier stages, seemed 
 to present. But these difficulties appear to be adequately 
 met by the modern interpretation of the phrase, *' in the 
 beginning." I am happy to find that Dr. Buckland per- 
 ceives no necessity for putting on the six days, specifically 
 mentioned by Moses, any but the ordinary sense. Indeed, 
 the notion of giving to these days an indefinite expansion 
 of years, always appeared to me unnatural and forced, as 
 well as irreconcilable with the mention of the " mornincr" 
 and " evening;" terms which seemed to limit the idea of 
 day to its ordinary measure. It is specially gratifying to 
 find that this view is now adopted by one who formerly 
 was strongly disposed to think that the term day, in the 
 first of Genesis, must have signified a long j)eriod of 
 years. The following note, at the end of Dr. Buckland's 
 Bridgewater Treatise (second edition), shows the cliaiige 
 
ti^" MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 which has taken place in Mr. Faber's opinion upon this 
 subject: — 
 
 •' Since the publication of my first edition, I have been 
 favoured by the Eev. G. S. Faber with a communication 
 of his opinion respecting the views propounded in my 
 second chapter, on the Consistency of Geological Dis- 
 coveries witli Sacred history, and am much gratified by 
 liis permission to state, that he is satisfied my views upon 
 this subject are consistent with a critical interpretation of 
 the Hebrew text of these verses of Genesis, with which they 
 may, at first sight, appear to be at variance. This opinion of 
 Mr. Faber is enhanced in value by his adopting it, to the 
 exclusion of a different opinion j^ublished in his Treatise 
 on The Three Dispensations (18;24), in which it was 
 attempted to reconcile geological phenomena with the 
 Mosaic History, by supposing each of the demiurgic days 
 to be periods of many thousands of years." 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE RACE IN A SINGLE PAIR. 
 
 We proceed next to consider the scriptural statement, 
 that the human race sprang originally from a single pair, 
 and that these were constituted of a material animal body, 
 and of an immaterial intellectual soul, distinctly marked 
 in its origin, as communicated by and from the divine 
 Intelligence. The human beings thus created are repre- 
 sented as differing essentially from the brute creation, as 
 placed expressly over them, and endowed with a special 
 proprietorsliip in the earth and all its contents. To 
 descent from this first i^air of human beings, the Bible 
 attributes all the successive generations of mankind, as 
 inheriting the likeness, corporeal, mental, and moral, of 
 their first parents. It hereby proclaims the doctrine of 
 a common nature, and an intimate relationship among all 
 the branches of the human family; for " God has made 
 of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face 
 of the earth." In the identity of this nature, and the 
 
RELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 33 
 
 consequent closeness of this relationship, is laid the found- 
 ation of all social duties and affections. Man is the only 
 terrestrial being capable of recognising such community 
 of nature, such intimacy of relationship ; he is the only 
 one whose conservation and happiness depend upon the 
 discharge of the duties involved in tliem. 
 
 Now, according to Moses, nearly six thousand years 
 have elapsed since the creation of the first man and 
 woman. It is a verification worth observing, in reference 
 to this point, that geologists, from principles and reason- 
 ings of their own, have arrived at the conclusion that such 
 must have been about the date of the human race. Their 
 speculations agree with Moses, that mankind have not 
 existed during a longer space. 
 
 There are nearly a thousand millions of human beings 
 on the earth ; they are divided into numerous nations and 
 tribes ; they include many varieties ; yet the whole are 
 found to harmonise so nearly in all the peculiarities of 
 humanity, as to afford no serious difficulty to the doctrine of 
 derivation from a single pair, but rather to render it, in 
 a philosophical view, far more probable than the contrary 
 theory, of different species at the commencement. 
 
 This fact, however, as stated by the Bible, has been 
 much disputed and denied. Extensive and minute re- 
 searches have been made, with the view of proving that 
 there are facts in the natural history, or anatomy, or 
 mental endowments of some tribes, irreconcileable with 
 the Mosaic theory. The recent tendency of research, 
 however, upon this subject, conducted upon scientific 
 principles, has clearly been towards tlie simplicity of the 
 scriptural statement. The philosophers have gradually 
 narrowed and nol ividened their views of original diversities. 
 Some naturalists liave divided the human race into seven 
 or eight, others into four or five distinct species. These 
 they describe under the following terms: — 1. The Cau- 
 casian ; 2. The Negro; 3. The Tartar; 4. The American; 
 
 V. D 
 
34 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 and, perhaps, as a 5th, the Malay : even these have been 
 of late further reduced to three. Each of these includes 
 many minor varieties of colour and form, which the natu- 
 ralists are constrained to admit, from well-ascertained 
 facts, may all be the work of time and physical causes. 
 This very admission seems fatal to the theory of any 
 original diversity ; for, if time and physical circumstances 
 may have produced such differences, they will find it 
 exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to prove that causes 
 somewhat " more powerful, and acting for a longer time," 
 as Sir James Mackintosh observes, " may not at length 
 have produced the wider differences."-' 
 
 In fact, it appears more in analogy with what is well 
 known of the varieties which occur among the animal 
 races, to trace all those found among men to the causes 
 alleged for some of them, than to suppose four or live 
 different originations of mankind ; especially when, after 
 ail, the human race are found to include fewer and less 
 important diversities than the animal tribes. A natural 
 and highly probable origin of these diversities can be 
 traced in the very constitution of mankind. The human 
 being possesses, physically, a far greater capacity and 
 facility of adaptation to the varying circumstances of his 
 condition than any other animal. There are no laws of 
 his nature that impose upon him what the naturalists 
 denominate a special habitat ; but he appears to have been 
 designed to live on every part of the earth's surface, and 
 upon a far greater variety of sustenance than any other 
 creature. 
 
 The varieties among the human tribes are stated, by 
 the most eminent naturalists, to bo much less consider- 
 able than are found to obtain among the animal races. 
 Between the man of the American forests in the north, or 
 the Patagonians of the south of the same continent, and 
 
 * Mackintosh's England, vol. i. Introduction, p. 4. 
 
KELATIXG TO THE CEEATION, ETC. 35 
 
 the native of Southern Africa, or of New Holland, or the 
 European, the physical differences are far less than 
 between brute animals of the same species from the same 
 places. " Nature," says the Count de Buffon, " seems to 
 have adopted a smaller scale in the formation of animals 
 for the new world, and to have formed man alone in the 
 same mould as elsewhere." Sir Charles Bell says, " Man 
 is superior in organization to the brutes, superior in 
 strength, in that constitutional property ivhich enables him 
 to fulfil his destinies by extending his race in every climate, 
 and living on every variety of nutriment. Gather together the 
 most powerful brutes from the arctic circle or torrid zone 
 to some central point, they will die ; diseases will be 
 generated, and will destroy them." ^- 
 
 Indeed, the opinions and theories of naturalists have lor 
 many years been gradually undergoing a process of simpli- 
 fication ; and, since the appearance of the elaborate work 
 of Dr. Pritchard upon this subject, which seems to take it 
 up in all its possible aspects and bearings, we should fully 
 expect, that the notion of an original diversity of races can 
 find no subterfuge in analogical reasoning, and as little in 
 historical facts. 
 
 It will, perhaps, be most satisfactory to present to you 
 the results of these extensive inquiries in Dr. Pritchard's 
 own words. He says, — " In the first book I endeavoured 
 to find a solution of the problem, whether in each par- 
 ticular species, both in the animal and vegetable creations, 
 it is probable that there exists only one stock or family ; 
 or whether, in general, it may be supposed to have been 
 tlie method of nature, if such an expression may be 
 allowed, to spread the same species at once over distant 
 countries from many different centres. This question was 
 investigated by observing the distribution of genera and 
 species over different parts of the earth. From the facts 
 
 ♦ Bell, on the Hand, p. 37. 
 
36 MOSAIC STATEMExNT OF FACTS 
 
 that plants and animals of each kind have their existence 
 chiefly in tracts whither they may have wandered, or 
 may have been conveyed by accident from certain points, 
 the common and original centres, as it would appear, of 
 particular tribes, and are elsewhere scarcely to be found, 
 it was inferred that the whole number in each species 
 respectively has probably descended from a single primi- 
 tive stock. This inference was strengthened by a con- 
 sideration of the wonderful means provided by nature for 
 the extension and dispersion of species ; means which 
 appear to be requisite only on such an hypothesis. It 
 seemed, on the whole, to result, as the most probable 
 conclusion, that Providence thought fit, in the first place, 
 to call into existence only one family or race, in each 
 particular kind, and did not at once diffuse it over the 
 world from a variety of different origins. 
 
 " This fact being estabhshed with respect to organized 
 beings in general, with what success the reader must judge, 
 it remained to enquire, whether there are among mankind 
 any specific diversities, or any physical differences of such 
 a description, that they must be looked upon as original 
 characters, and, therefore, as constituting distinct species. 
 If this question be determined in the affirmative, it obvi- 
 ously results that men are of more than one original 
 family ; but if in the negative, it must be concluded that 
 all mankind are, according to the law already shown to 
 exist through the organized world, descended from a single 
 stock. 
 
 '*This enquiry was commenced in the second book; 
 and, in the first place, the different methods of determin- 
 ing the limits of species, and of discovering what races are 
 the same, and what of distinct species, were pointed out. 
 It was observed, that there are four methods of examining 
 this question, each of which is capable of elucidating it 
 more or less. The first, or what may be termed the 
 physiological method, is founded on a comparison of the 
 
kj:lating to the creation, etc. 37 
 
 principal facts relating to the animal economy, or physio- 
 logical character of the tribes to be considered, such as 
 the term or duration of life proper to each kind, the cir- 
 cumstances connected with their breeding, the periods of 
 uterogestation, the number of progeny, the laws of the 
 natural functions, the diseases to which each tribe is 
 obnoxious, and the character of its faculties, instincts, and 
 habits. If, in all these circumstances, in respect to which 
 strongly marked differences occur between species very 
 nearly resembling each other in outward form, no material 
 difference can be found to exist between any two races 
 which are the subjects of comparison, a probable argu- 
 ment results for concluding them to be of one species. 
 A second criterion for determining on the unity or diversity 
 of species has been sought by many naturalists, in the 
 capability of propagating, or sterility of the animal which 
 is the mixed progeny of two races. Tlie validity of this 
 criterion has been called in question, and it seems, that 
 in some instances hybrid animals, properly so termed, are 
 capable of procreating. Yet there is evidently in nature a 
 principle, by which' the casual intermixture of species is 
 guarded against. It is unnecessary to repeat the remarks 
 that were made on this subject in the place referred to, to 
 which the reader may revert. It may suffice to observe, 
 that on applying both of these two first methods of 
 inquiry to the particular instance under consideration, the 
 result seemed clearly to be that, as far as the evidence 
 derived from these sources extends, we have no reason to 
 believe that there is more than one species of human 
 beings in existence. 
 
 " A third method of inquiry is the analogical or com 
 parative. It is resolved into the question, whether the 
 particular diversities we have to account for, are analogous 
 to those deviations from a common type, which are known 
 to make their appearance as varieties in the progeny of a 
 single race ? When this appears, after due investigation, 
 
38 irOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 it is fair to conclude that such diversities are analogous in 
 their nature, or resolvable into the same class of natural 
 phenomena. This inquiry, in respect to the most remark- 
 able varieties in the fonn, structure, complexion, and the 
 other peculiarities which occur in mankind, was pursued 
 through the remainder of the second book, in as full and 
 particular a manner as seemed requisite, and the con- 
 clusion which resulted was, that the diversities which are 
 known in mankind are, in the most important particulars, 
 similar in kind to the natural varieties discovered in other 
 species of animals ; and, therefore, as far as we can rely 
 upon an inference drawn from analogy, they afford no 
 reason for supposing that there is more than one species 
 of men. It was observed, that the probable inference de- 
 duced from the comparison of parallel, or analogous phe- 
 nomena, would be very much confirmed, if it should 
 appear, on investigation, that varieties, such as those 
 which are the subject of discussion, do, in reality, take 
 place in particular races of men, and originate in the 
 progeny of the same stock. And this brings us to the 
 fourth part of our inquiry, which has been followed 
 through the remainder of the work. In the third, and 
 the succeeding books, we have examined the history of 
 the different races of men, and have taken notice of the 
 instances of variety in form and complexion which appear 
 to have arisen from the same stock, and of the most re- 
 markable differences in i)hysical character which exist 
 among tribes nearly allied to each other in kindred. In 
 the course of this inquiry we have seen that certain 
 deviations display themselves at once in strongly marked 
 examples, some striking phenomena of complexion or 
 figure appearing in the immediate offspring of races, or 
 families, in which they had been before unknown. In 
 other instances such variations take place by slow and 
 imperceptible degrees. It appeared, from the whole of 
 this examination, that there is no clearly traced and definite 
 
KELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 99 
 
 line which the tendency to variety or deviation cannot imss, 
 and, THEREFORE, NO SPECIFIC DisTiNCiiON. The chamcter of 
 one race passes into that of another, and this not merely 
 in the sense often attached to such an expression, im- 
 plying the want of any exact limit between them, but by 
 actual deviation and transition. Even within the limits of 
 one particular race it is sometimes possible to point out a 
 wide range of varieties, and, in some instances, it may be 
 shown that the most different complexions, and the 
 greatest diversities of figure known to exist, are to be 
 found among tribes which appear to belong to the same 
 nation, or family of nations. 
 
 " These conclusions have resulted from a survey of the 
 physical history of the most extensively spread nations, 
 and, indeed, of all the principal departments of mankind. 
 The various races, constituting the population of Africa, 
 were first surveyed ; then the different nations scattered 
 throudi the Austral countries and the islands of the 
 Indian Ocean ; afterwards, the several branches of the 
 Indo-European stock, including the nations of India and 
 some other parts of Upper Asia, and most of the 
 countries of Eurpoe. Next to these followed the Semitic 
 or False- Syrian nations. A survey of the races of people 
 near the chain of Caucasus prepared us for passing over 
 this limit, and proceeding to the northern and eastern 
 nations of Asia : this part of the work was closed with the 
 eighth book, which comprised an account of the native or 
 aboriginal inhabitants of America. In all these several 
 divisions of the human family, important physical di- 
 versities were shown to have arisen, and in each of them 
 remarkable approximations to the characters prevalent in 
 other tribes. On the whole it appears, that the inform- 
 ation deduced from this fourth method of inquiry is as 
 satisfactory as we could expect, and is sufficient to con- 
 firm, and, indeed, by itself to establish the inference, that 
 the human kind contains but one species, and, therefore, 
 by a second inference, but one race. 
 
40 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 " It will, I apprehend, be allowed, by those who have 
 attentively followed this investigation of particulars, that 
 the diversities in physical character, belonging to different 
 races, present no material obstacle to the opinion, that all 
 nations sprang from one original, a result which plainly 
 follows from the foregoing considerations."* 
 
 It seems scarcely necessary to add anything to the 
 opinion of this learned naturalist, yet I cannot omit the 
 present opportunity of referring to the favourable aspect 
 which the most elaborate modern speculations upon 
 etymology and grammar bear towards the doctrine of the 
 original identity of the human species. For a long period 
 the researches of the learned, upon the diversity of 
 languages, seemed to threaten a result adverse to the 
 sacred histoiy. No harmonizing principle seemed to be 
 evolved by which original affinities might be discovered. 
 The opponents of revelation triumphed in what they con- 
 sidered the irreconcileahle confusion of human speech. But 
 a most conspicuous and important revolution has been 
 witnessed. The simplifying process adopted by modern 
 inquirers has led them generally to the conclusion, that all 
 the known languages of the world are but dialects of one 
 now most probably lost; and that, as all the different 
 nations, in their most extended varieties, have yet general 
 features of agreement which assimilate them more or less 
 to a common type, so their languages also are reducible, 
 first to clusters and families, and these again, by still 
 further simplification, to a common origin, in one fountain, 
 whence they have all evidently flowed. The French 
 Academy have given their decided aj^probation to this 
 opinion, after deliberate and long research ; while Frederic 
 Schlegel, one of the most distinguished of scholars, has 
 expressed his decided adhesion to the same theory. | Thus 
 
 * Pritchard's Nat. Hist, of Man, vol. ii. p. 584, 2ncl edit. 
 + See the " Philosophische Yorlesungcn uber philosopliie der sprache und 
 des wortes." 
 
RELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 4 I 
 
 we have the additional testimony of the most elaborate 
 researches into language, conducted upon ground alto- 
 gether irrespective of the physiological inquiries already 
 referred to, that all mankind sprang from a common 
 stock. I have here touched but slightly on this subject, 
 because a future opportunity will be afforded of more 
 fully considering the primitive unity of speech. The 
 reader is, therefore, referred to the second Lecture, in 
 which the confusion of languages is more fully discussed. 
 
 There appear to be only two ways in which the force of 
 this evidence, in favour of the inspiration of Holy Scrip- 
 ture, may be evaded. Supposing it admitted, that the 
 researches of physiologists have now brought their theory 
 into agreement with the Mosaic statement, and the fact 
 itself is allowed to be satisfactorily settled, still it may be 
 alleged that the earliest traditions are in favour of the 
 same theory, and that the different mythologies of the 
 most ancient nations bear traces of the same opinion, and, 
 therefore, it may be thought that Moses required no special 
 revelation to enable him to record it. 
 
 We should be perfectly content to admit the truth, or at 
 least the strong probability of the premises, but we demur 
 altogether to this being brought forward as the reason 
 why Moses Jmew the fact. Upon the supposition that he 
 was delivering, on the authority of a divine communi- 
 cation, the statement that the human race sprang 
 originally from one pair, w^e might very reasonably expect 
 that the traditions of all nations would correspond gene- 
 rally with that fact, as stated by him ; while those tra- 
 ditions would by no means explain the origin of the 
 opinion ; nor would it follow, as a necessary or self- 
 evident proposition, that these traditions were the source 
 of his information. They may very naturally agree with 
 his statement ; that is obviously to be expected ; but that 
 they could not be the source or authority of his statement 
 may be rendered at least highly probable by the following 
 
42 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 considerations : — Although ^xe, in the present day, may 
 have ascertained that the traditions of all nations favour 
 the statement of Moses, and embody the fact among their 
 fables, yet there is no probability that Moses had any 
 means of ascertaining the agreement of these traditionary 
 accounts. The state of knowledge, at that period, 
 furnished no means for enabling any one to say what was 
 the general testimony of tradition upon this subject. It 
 would be irrational to suppose, that Moses would assume 
 the traditions of the two or three nations with which he 
 might be acquainted, as a sufficient foundation for liis 
 statement; because, upon the slightest reflection, it must 
 have occurred, that if these were not well founded, or 
 even if they were, the traditions of other nations might 
 be of an opposite character, and the vast majority, for all 
 he could foresee, might imfold a totally different view of 
 the matter. The probability, therefore, is, that if he had 
 been an impostor, and had possessed the sagacity hereby 
 imputed to him, he w'ould have abstained from committing 
 himself to a positive statement upon a fact, which he had 
 no adequate means of knowing, and which might not im- 
 probably be contradicted by a more enlarged examination 
 of the traditionary testimony of other nations. There 
 appears, therefore, no probability that he w^ould assume 
 the very limited traditions of which he had heard, as an 
 adequate basis for his theory ; and it is equally improbable 
 that he could possess that extensive knowledge of tra- 
 ditions on this subject, which we enjoy only after a lapse 
 of many ages, and as the fruit of the most extensive 
 travels and inquiries. His statement is so simple, so 
 clear, so consistent in all its parts, and wdth all the other 
 particulars included in the narrative, is so free from all 
 fabulous dress, and from all semblance of derivation from 
 any such source, that he must be a very perverse and 
 uncandid reasoner who can ascribe it to any such 
 origin. He might surely perceive, that to attribute 
 
RELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 43 
 
 to Moses such a comprehension of view, such a pro- 
 phetic insight into the results of all learned specu- 
 lations upon the subject, such an anticipation of the phi- 
 losophers in their own conclusions, and all this attri- 
 buted to an author who had no better materials than the 
 obscure traditions of a few nations, would really approach 
 to inspiration, if it did not actually include it. This 
 theory, therefore, presents insurmountable difficulties. It 
 is far more credible that Moses was inspired, than that he 
 wrote simply from the resources of human knowledge. 
 After all, the agreement of tradition with the Mosaic 
 account proves that account true, and this is the main 
 point to be ascertained. Upon this ground the objector is 
 deprived of his hostility to inspiration so far ; that is, he 
 admits the truth of the statement. We allow that it does 
 not hence, at once, necessarily follow, that Moses was in- 
 spired; but that point also becomes more probable than 
 the reverse, by the considerations we have offered : for to 
 admit that he makes a true statement in such a ease, and 
 imder such circumstances, is to admit that he states a 
 truth which he had no means of ascertaining, and could 
 not possibly have affirmed, without inspiration. The main 
 point, therefore, is conceded to us, when the truth of his 
 statement is admitted. 
 
 The only other method of accoimting for the accuracy 
 of the Mosaic statement would be to attribute it, as some 
 have done, to the wisdom of the Egyptians, among whom 
 he had been brought up. 
 
 To render this supposition tenable, it must be shown, 
 that such a doctrine was about that time taught in their 
 schools. But all that has been ascertained of their 
 wisdom, supplies no materials for such a conclusion. No 
 sort of analogy can be traced between the theory which 
 Moses has left us, and any of the speculations which they 
 indulged. ' Sir William Jones says, " There is no shadow, 
 then, of a foundation for an opinion, that Moses borrowed 
 
44 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 the first nine or ten chapters from the literature of 
 Egypt ; still less can the adamantine pillars of our 
 Christian faith be moved, by the result of any debates of 
 the comparative antiquity of the Hindoos and Eg}^tians, 
 or of inquiries into the Indian theology." 
 
 It is true we have not yet received very complete in- 
 formation of what was meant by the wisdom and learning 
 of the Egyptians at that early period ; but, judging from 
 the analogy of what we do know of their attainments — 
 especially from the amount of recent discoveries — we can 
 by no means imagine it to have been on this subject very 
 eminent, nor much, if at all, in advance of other ancient 
 nations, whose wisdom has been embodied and transmitted 
 to later times. There is every probability that Egyptian 
 learning related rather to the arts than to the sciences, or 
 philosophy in its proper sense. Several early and re- 
 nowned nations are well known to have derived many 
 opinions, and, indeed, a large part of their mythology, 
 from the Egyptians; and it seems impossible for the 
 theory Moses gives us to have been originally Egyptian 
 without some traces of it, or without the whole of it, de- 
 scending along with the icisdom which they transmitted 
 to other nations. Though all traces of this opinion were 
 supposed to have perished among the Egyptians them- 
 selves, yet — as they were at that period one of the most 
 advanced and mighty people, and as they were much 
 respected and consulted for their wisdom, and mainly 
 imitated by younger and less powerful nations, especially 
 by the acute and philosophic Greeks — we should certainly 
 have found traces of this opinion, among other portions 
 of their learning, transmitted and perpetuated among some 
 of those who are well known to have borrowed extensively 
 from them. 
 
 The same remark is applicable to the whole cosmogony 
 of Moses. It is impossible to suppose that it existed and 
 was taught in the schools of Egyptian wisdom without, 
 
RELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 45 
 
 first, having led to far more rational and refined opinions 
 than we know their early mythology embraced; — nor, 
 secondly, without having commended itself to the sages 
 and philosophers of other nations, who drew their opinions 
 on such subjects from the Egyptians, and through whom 
 it must have been transmitted and preserved along with 
 many other portions of their science and religion. 
 
 Neither the Egj^ptians nor Moses could at that early 
 period have found any historical data extensive enough, or 
 any researches of a philosophical character sufficiently 
 accurate and comprehensive to have supplied a foundation 
 for such a theory. The appearances and circumstances of 
 the different nations with which they might have been 
 acquainted would, if we are to judge after the analogy of 
 philosophisings in later times, have suggested an opposite 
 theory. With the varieties existing among different races 
 they might have been acquainted to some extent, par- 
 •ticularly as to colour, hair, form of the skull, &c. ; but if 
 they formed what might be called a speculative opinion 
 upon this point, there is great probability that it would 
 have been the reverse of the Mosaic account. There is, 
 however, no evidence, so far as our knowledge extends, 
 that they ever speculated on the subject. If they did so, 
 it must have been on very inadequate and partial in- 
 formation. But philosophical speculation of this kind 
 appears to liave been far enough from their habits in those 
 early times. Their mythological system, so far as it has 
 come to light, abundantly attests how utterly unfitted they 
 must have been, notwithstanding all that has been said 
 of their wisdom, for attaining to apy rational and just 
 views upon such question. 
 
 It is also worthy of remark here, how improbable it 
 would be, upon the supposition that Moses was not the 
 inspired legislator of Israel, that he should begin his work 
 with borrowing from the theory of the Egyptians, when 
 he was aiming to establish his own authority as an in- 
 
46 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 spired teacher upon purely independent grounds ; when 
 the whole end of his enterprise was to set up and confii-m 
 a system of religion and morals altogether opposed to that 
 of the Egyptians, and one tliat should emhody the alleged 
 revelations previously granted, and handed down among 
 the Hebrews from the time of Adam, the memorials of 
 which must have been preserved in the family of Abraham. 
 Even upon the very supposition of our adversaries, that 
 Moses was merely aiming to found a new religion of his 
 own, it seems essential to his success that not the 
 slightest resemblance should appear between his theory 
 and that of the Egyptians. Everything in such an enter- 
 prise depended upon the strength and integrity of the 
 conviction produced in the minds of his own people, that 
 he was a divinely inspired legislator and deliverer. He 
 possessed no power to control them but in this persuasion. 
 Now, nothing could have militated more directly and 
 effectually against their faith in him as an inspired teacher 
 and guide than the perception that he had boiTOwed the 
 most material facts of his statement from the Egyptians. 
 I think, therefore, it must be conceded, that had he been 
 an impostor fabricating a new religion, he would not have 
 chosen to adopt this opinion from so objectionable a 
 source ; for the very fact of its being Egyptian in its 
 origin, and well known to be such, would have appeared 
 a sufficient reason for its rejection. The veiy decisive and 
 simple manner in which he states this fact, as well as 
 everything else connected with the Creation ; the con- 
 sistency of the account throughout ; its freedom from all 
 ornament, all fable, ^all attempts at effect, shows that he 
 entertained the fullest conviction of its truth. This he 
 could hardly have done if he had been merely transcribing 
 a piece of Eg}'ptian learning, or a common traditionary 
 report 
 
 There seems, therefore, no ground left to account for 
 his possessing this portion of correct and curious in- 
 
KELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 47 
 
 formation, and for his recording it in so distinct and 
 decisive a manner, but to ascribe it either to that divine 
 instruction which he professes to have received, or to 
 trace it to that unbroken chain of sacred tradition which 
 might have brought it to him direct from Noah, and which 
 the very fact of his authority, as the divinely appointed 
 legislator and captain of the Hebrews, additionally and 
 sufficiently confirms. In either of these ways his pos- 
 session of it may be explained rationally, and its veracity 
 established ; but, as it appears to me, in no other. In his 
 Avritings it is first found, on his authority it rests, as pro- 
 fessedly a part of inspired Scripture — its author having 
 been divinely called to the office of instructing and guiding 
 Israel before he recorded this fact. 
 
 Since, then, it was so early put on record, and, after 
 being so severely contested, is at length found to comport 
 with the most extensive and elaborate researches of natu- 
 ralists and physiologists; since there is every rational 
 probability that it is a perfectly original statement, it 
 must either be at once ascribed to revelation, or be set 
 down as another happy conjecture of this extraordinary 
 individual. It would, indeed, be a rare and unexampled 
 case to find happy conjectures so often repeated, and on 
 such confessedly obscure subjects, by one man; especially 
 wdien such conjectures appeared prima facie anything but 
 true, and have now come to be accounted happy ones, 
 only because philosophers can find no facts to invalidate 
 them, and are led by their own independent investigations 
 to the same, or nearly the same, issue. Those must, 
 indeed, have been singularly sagacious conjectures which 
 anticipated so long beforehand — and, in many instances, 
 against appearances and probabilities — the researches 
 which can now neither show a contrary fact, nor add any 
 important information to the sacred record; but these 
 researches are of immense value as scientific verifications 
 of what were before truths of mere authoritv, and, there- 
 
48 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 fore, liable to be questioned by those who deemed the 
 authority itself doubtful.* 
 
 man's dominion over the mundane creation. 
 
 Among the great facts and transactions recorded by 
 the pen of the Jewish legislator, and connected with the 
 beginning of time and of the human race, the great charter 
 of man's superiority stands prominently forth as the ex- 
 press endowment of his Creator, couched at once in the 
 most emphatic, most comprehensive, and most explicit 
 terms. It constituted a direct and exclusive proprietorship 
 in all terrene beings, with dominion over them, though 
 held under the Creator as the Supreme Lord. Viewed as 
 a most important and essential part of the first order of 
 things, nothing can ajDpear more appropriate than its in- 
 ti'oduction in the very place that it occupies, and nothing 
 more accordant with the high dignity assigned to man 
 as made " in God's image." The fact itself is in perfect 
 harmony with the whole representation of the divine 
 wisdom and benevolence. It appears to crown with jiecu- 
 liai' lustre the naiTative of the creation, and shines forth 
 as one among the many features of true sublimity which 
 characterize the whole of the Mosaic narrative. It is 
 
 * Since these Lectures were delivered, the question of the unity of the 
 human race has undergone very elaborate and learned discussion. Professor 
 Agassiz, in particular, has endeavoured to disprove that unity, and to recon- 
 cile diversity of races with the authority of the Book of Genesis. The reader 
 may consult the opinions of the professor in " Principles of Zoology," by 
 Agassiz and Gould, chap, xiii., and in the " Christian Examiner " for July, 
 1850. It is impossible, iu a nott>, to attempt a refutation of a long and learned 
 argument. The professor has not proved that it is impossible for all the existing 
 races to have descended from one pair; he has only shown that it is improb- 
 able : but more than this must be done before the authority of Moses can be 
 set aside ; for many improbable things related by him liave yet been proved 
 true. The attempt to reconcile the notion of diversity of race with the teach- 
 ing of Moses and of the Bible generally, is a signal failure. An able and 
 ingenious reply to the arguments of Agassiz will be found in Dr. Hamilton's 
 work, entitled " The Pentateuch and its Assailants," p. 273, &c. 
 
IlELATING TO THE CKEATION, ETC. 49 
 
 scarcely possible to read it without being struck with its 
 simplicity, its beauty, and its truth; nor without perceiving 
 how well it harmonizes with that brief account of the 
 creation, and how essential it was to complete the whole 
 theory of man and his primitive condition. " And God 
 said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness ; 
 and let him have dominion over the fish of the sea, and 
 over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all 
 the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth 
 upon the earth. And God blessed them, and God said 
 unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the 
 earth, and subdue it : and have dominion over the fish of 
 the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living 
 thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, 
 I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon 
 the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is 
 tlie fruit of a tree yielding seed, to you it shall be for 
 meat."— Gen. i. 26—29. 
 
 The same fact is alluded to in other parts of Sacred 
 Scripture, as in Psalm viii. ver. 5 — 8 : " Thou hast made 
 him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him 
 with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have domi- 
 nion over the works of thy hands ; thou hast put all things 
 under his feet : all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of 
 the field ; tlie fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and 
 whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea." 
 
 Now, the facts of human history, collected upon an 
 extensive scale, most accurately correspond with this pri- 
 mitive endowment. The condition of some few degraded 
 tribes forms, we conceive, no real objection, since even 
 these exhibit decided superiority to the animal races, and 
 supply a confirmation of the subsequent account of man's 
 fall, which it was perfectly reasonable to expect would 
 lead to degradation and a forfeiture of primitive glory and 
 honour, the precise extent and operation of which none 
 could previously determine, and the partial interference 
 
 V. E 
 
no MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 of which with the law of primitive superiority in no respect 
 invalidates the original grant ; but, by the very exceptions 
 they present to the condition of the rest of mankind (ex- 
 ceptions only apparent and temporary, as we shall have 
 occasion to show presently), serve to demonstrate the 
 reality of such a grant, and its continued efficacy, not- 
 Avithstanding the disturbance that has intervened. More- 
 over, it is of essential importance to observe here, that 
 this primitive endowment is never really extinct. Man's 
 nature still remains capable of recovering its pre-eminence. 
 
 We are, then, first concerned with the general fact — 
 now clearly ascertained by the extensive researches of 
 naturalists — that mankind, through the whole world, with 
 some rare and very limited exceptions, enjoy an undis- 
 puted* dominion and unquestionable superiority. There 
 is no animal, however powerful, but man can conquer. In 
 many instances he can so subject even the larger animals 
 as to make them subservient to his own purposes. There 
 is no creature that attains to an equality with him, none 
 that acquires an analogous or parallel dominion over any 
 other classes of creatures. There is no subduing of one 
 race to another. 
 
 But man is lord not only of the creation that is upon 
 the earth, but of all that is within it ; a magazine of inva- 
 luable materials, which displays as manifest proofs of 
 being designed for his welfare and advancement, as the 
 animals and vegetables which are continually reproduced 
 upon its surface. He is constituted lord of all ; the whole 
 system is evidently upheld for his use, for the continuance 
 of his race, and for his social and moral advancement. 
 
 But let us next advert to those cases of apparent or 
 partial exception which have been already alluded to, 
 before we proceed to apply the general fact to the cor- 
 roboration of the MxDsaic testimony. The cases in question 
 are those of the Esquimaux, the Hottentots, including the 
 two principal tribes of the Caffres and Bushmen, the 
 
RELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 51 
 
 Alfourons or Endamenes, and Australians. These are 
 usually selected as the very lowest and most wretched of 
 all the human tribes. They have been represented, by 
 many writers, as quite on a level with the brute creation 
 around them. These accounts are found, however, upon 
 strict investigation, to be somewhat exaggerated ; for even 
 tlie most wretched of men evince many traces of supe- 
 riority, especially in domestic affections and sentiments, 
 in friendship for each other, in the universal use of speech, 
 in some arts of life, of warfare, and defence, and in various 
 principles, feelings, and sympathies ; displaying a sense of 
 moral obligation, some notions of invisible agencies, and 
 of a future state. There are none of them but employ a 
 degree of reflection and contrivance in taking and preparing 
 their food, in escaping from or conquering those enemies 
 that are physically more powerful than themselves, vastly 
 superior to any such qualities among the animal tribes. 
 Altogether, then^ even in his very lowest state, man is prac- 
 tically and really found to be possessed of a superiority over 
 all other creatures. His occasional degradation from the 
 high and noble superiority accorded to him, as already 
 remarked, constitutes no real infraction of the rule, as a 
 divine bestowment, when viewed in connexion with the 
 subsequent fact of his fall, which might be fairly expected 
 to prove a practical counteraction of the original grant, 
 likely to extend its consequences even beyond what is 
 found to be the fact. But we may admit, even to the full 
 amount, the statements made respecting the deep degrada- 
 tion of some tribes ; and were those statements still more 
 humiliating, did they involve^ undoubted proof of a de- 
 gradation even below some of the brute species, they 
 would not really form an invalidation of the original 
 charter, since the possibility of the ascent and gradual 
 elevation even of the most degraded tribes, can be no 
 longer a matter of question. Man's nature at least is 
 essentially superior, since he is capable of a degree of 
 
52 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 improvement and elevation, to which none of the animal 
 races aspire ; which none of them can communicate to 
 others of the species, and of which all their mces are 
 absolutely and universally unsusceptible, even under the 
 culture of syjterwr beings. Let man everywhere be com- 
 pare with the other animals around him, as to capability 
 of acquiring dominion over them, and of turning every 
 mundane object to his use, and the efficiency of the 
 original endowment will be as certainly recognised as in 
 the most civilized and scientific nations. " The same 
 race who, in the age of Tacitus, dwelt in solitary dens 
 amid morasses, have built Saint Petersburgh and Moscow, 
 and the posterity of cannibals and phthirophagi now feed 
 on jyiUau, or wheaten bread. The habits of men undergo 
 changes from time to time, in all that refers to their diet 
 and the supply of bodily wants, and they do not admit of 
 comparison Avith the uniform customs of the lower tribes, 
 which are precisely the same in eveiy respect to-day that 
 they were in the times of Homer and Aristotle."* 
 
 If, therefore, in that rude and savage state, which has 
 befallen some few of the human tribes, man does not 
 actually enjoy that universal dominion granted to him at 
 his creation, yet he readily acquires it by instruction from 
 his own species. Even isolated tribes, shut out from the 
 access of their more refined brethren, are known to 
 acquire a wonderful power over the brute creation ; and 
 though, for a time, they roam the wide wilderness alone, 
 or in small bands, yet, in many instances, they gradually 
 acquire a superiority over all around them. Though man 
 is by no means the swiftest Jn motions, or the keenest in 
 his perceptions, yet he imifomily becomes more than a 
 match for those animals that suqiass him in these qualities, 
 and, in the course of ages, learns to bring them within the 
 grasp of his power. 
 
 * rntcliard's Nat. Hist, of Man, vol.i. p. 171, 3ril cd. 
 
RELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. DO 
 
 Even the whole frame and fabric of the globe stands to 
 him neai'ly in the same relation. He is lord of all, to 
 occupy, to use, and to enjoy it, from generation to gene- 
 ration. He transmits his natural superiority, and the 
 results of his experience, skill, and art, to his children and 
 successors ; and thus, by degrees, all are employed, 
 excited, and improved. Eveiy object in nature affords a 
 stimulus to his faculties. The earth, not only in its 
 surface, but in its interior contents, ministers to his 
 comfort, and supplies some of the most valuable and 
 useful materials by which the framework of society is 
 maintained, and its advancing state embellished. The 
 sea and the rivers, and the fountains of water, the rocks 
 and the minerals, air, earth, and wind, the still more 
 hidden and secret powers of nature, magnetism, electricity, 
 heat, and steam, all submit to be his servants and obey his 
 will. In all this the words of early Scripture are verified, 
 in a manner fitted to convince us of the high authority 
 which dictated them. 
 
 It may be alleged, that it required no divine authority to 
 determine a fact so evident as that of man's superiority. 
 If this were really the case, we admit that the coincidence 
 would prove nothing of moment in favour of Moses. But 
 we think there is ground to demur to the conclusion, that 
 there were sufficient grounds to enable Moses, or any 
 other person, to state so general a principle in that early 
 age; and to have done so upon the very scanty information 
 then possessed, must have been, to say the least, a bold 
 and venturous assertion, the result of which could not 
 have been foreseen. Let the charter of superiority repre- 
 sented by Moses as granted, at first, on divine authority, 
 be construed, as it fairly must be, upon the supj)Osition of 
 being universally applicable to all the tribes of human 
 kind, as descending from one stock, and it will then 
 appear a thing by no means certain, before actual ascer- 
 tainment, that all these tribes, through all their gene- 
 
54 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 rations, should either possess such an inherent, or attain 
 such an actual, supremacy. On what ground could any 
 mere speculator or fabricator of an imposture, then have 
 ventured confidently to state, that God had given to man 
 an original superiority over all other creatures, which he 
 is never represented as annulling or retracting ? How 
 could Moses, or any one else, have been confident that 
 this would be found essentially true everywhere, and 
 always ? To have announced it as he does, would, 
 without inspiration, have been, indeed, a bold conjecture. 
 It is quite certain, that the very facts which have so per- 
 plexed naturalists, as to make them long doubt the 
 identity of the human tribes, would go far to render 
 questionable, in a scientific view, this superiority ascribed 
 to the whole race. And hence it would appear by no 
 means likely that Moses could have gained a knowledge of 
 this law of our nature scientifically ; because a full in- 
 duction of all the particulars would have made him doubt, 
 as it has made others doubt. Upon a partial or imperfect 
 induction he could have felt no confidence, but must have 
 been perpetually liable to contradiction, by the occurrence 
 of hostile facts. " If," says Dr. Pritchard, *' a person, 
 previously unaware of the existence of such diversities, 
 could suddenly be made a spectator of the various 
 appearances which the tribes of men display in different 
 regions of the earth, it cannot be doubted that he would 
 experience emotions of wonder and surprise. If such a 
 person, for example, after surveying some brilliant cere- 
 mony or court jiageant, in one of the splendid cities of 
 Europe, were suddenly carried into a hamlet of Negroland, 
 at the hour when the sable tribes recreate themselves with 
 dancing and barbarous music, or if he were transported to 
 the saline plains over which bald and tawny Mongolians 
 roam, differing but little in hue from the yellow soil of 
 their steppes, brightened by the saffron flowers of the iris 
 and tulip ; if he were placed near the solitary dens of the 
 
IlEIATING TO THE CREATrON, ETC. 
 
 Bushman, where the lean and hungry savage crouches in 
 silence, like a beast of prey, watching, with fixed eyes, the 
 birds which enter his pitfall, or the insects and reptiles 
 which chance may bring within his grasp ; if he were 
 carried into the midst of an Australian forest, where the 
 squalid companions of kangaroos may be seen crawling in 
 procession, in imitation of quadrupeds ; w^ould the spec- 
 tator of such phenomena imagine the different groups 
 which he had surveyed to be the offspring of one family? 
 and if he were led to adopt that opinion, how would he 
 attempt to account for the striking diversities in their 
 aspect and manner of existence '?"-'- 
 
 Moreover, upon the supposition that Moses knew nothing 
 of the case but from observation or mere human wisdom, his 
 opinion might very reasonably have been opposed to this 
 doctrine of the universal superiority of man over all animals : 
 at all events, it must have remained doubtful. He must 
 have felt, that he was utterly destitute of any sufficient 
 foundation to warrant so decisive and solemn a statement 
 as tliat which he has recorded. The superiority which he 
 would, in that case, attribute to man, he could not but per- 
 ceive, depended partly on his original endowments, but not 
 on these alone. A slight degree of reflection must have 
 made it obvious, that it depended also on the laws relating 
 to the u'hole animal creation ; because, by the maintenance 
 of these alone could the animals be kept in their relative 
 inferiority, and not allowed to advance upward towards 
 man, to dispute the superiority with him. Suppose it 
 possible, either that man should have continued to de- 
 generate, as Moses might have known he had done in 
 some instances, and this had gone on for a series of ages ; 
 or, on the other hand, that some of the animals had com- 
 menced to advance and improve, man's superiority might 
 soon have come to an end. A law of mental development 
 
 * Pritchavd, vol. i., 3rd edition, pp. 1,2, Introduction. 
 
5G MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 in some race of animals might have given them the 
 superiority. 
 
 I am happy to be enabled to confirm these views, by the 
 opinion of the celebrated Frederic Schlegel, in his Philo- 
 sophy of History. He says, "When man had once fallen 
 from virtue, no determination could be assigned to his 
 degradation, nor how far he might descend by degrees, and 
 approximate even to the level of the brutes ; for as from 
 his origin he was a being essentially free, he was, in con- 
 sequence, capable of change, and even in his organic 
 powers most flexible. We must adopt this principle, as 
 the only clue to guide our inquiries, from the negro, who, 
 as well from his bodily strength and agility, as from his 
 docile, and, in general, excellent character, is far from 
 occupying the lowest grade in the scale of humanity, 
 down to the monstrous Patagonian, the almost imbecile 
 Peshwerais, and the horrible cannibal of New Zealand, 
 whose very portrait excites a shudder in the beholder. So 
 far from seeking with Kousseau and his disciples for the 
 true origin of mankind, and the proper foundations of the 
 social compact, in the condition of the best and noblest 
 savages, we regard it, on the contrary, as a state of de- 
 generacy and degradation."* 
 
 Moses, as uninspired, could have known nothing of the 
 possibilities that might arise in the lapse of years on both 
 sides of this case. The maintenance of the disparity be- 
 tween man and other animals, depended altogether upon 
 laws which, at that period, no uninspired man was suffi- 
 ciently acquainted with, to enable him to say, that God 
 had bestowed upon mankind an absolute, universal, and 
 perpetual supremacy over the earth and all its contents. 
 The power itself depended on the divine will, and its 
 continuance, not to say its enlargement, through all 
 ages, even as a probable fact, rested upon the same 
 
 ♦ Pliilosophy of Historj-, pp. 48, 49. 
 
KEIATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 57 
 
 determining authority, and involved the entire laws, both 
 of man and the whole animal economy. Had it pleased 
 the Creator to bestow upon any of the animals an im- 
 provable mind, similar to man's, they might soon have 
 gained the ascendency, and disputed with him the sove- 
 reignty of the earth. 
 
 We conceive, therefore, that this was an orighial pur- 
 pose of the Creator, not clear from facts when Moses 
 Avrote, only of late decided as a matter of science, and, 
 indeed, scarcely yet clear to some obstinate speculators, 
 who still insist that the monkey may be transformed into a 
 man, or that the original state of manldnd is to be found 
 m that of the most degraded savages. 
 
 It appears, then, certain, that no human calculation of 
 chances or probabilities could have satisfactorily deter- 
 mined that this superiority should always and eveiy 
 where remain with mankind ; and that, in spite of all 
 intervening and disturbing contingencies, and the appa- 
 rent exceptions that should arise in the case of tribes that 
 might, through unforeseen circumstances, sink to a level 
 with, or even below, the brutes, the original power con- 
 veyed by the grant of the Creator should never pass 
 from man; that these cases should form no real ex- 
 ceptions to the universal rule, while the capability of 
 recovering the lost superiority remained in man's pos- 
 session. On the other hand, it must be considered as 
 justifying our conclusion, that it could not be foreseen 
 by human sagacity, that no similar capabihty should ever 
 be discovered among the brutes. So far from it, many 
 theorists, at one time, seriously judged that some other 
 species were just as capable of improvement as mankind 
 Yet it is now made quite certain, that no alteration what- 
 ever can take place in the relative position of any of the 
 animal tribes. Even under human tuition, each is found 
 to preserve his place and his instincts within the given 
 limits, without any, even the slightest, advancement, and 
 
515 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 without the power of transmitting his habits, or any small 
 degree of knowledge he may acquire from human tuition, 
 to his offspring. As to improvement from themselves, it 
 never takes place ; they neither ascend nor descend from 
 age to age. 
 
 But man, on the other hand, had a vast range conceded 
 to him. He was dependent upon no other created being 
 for improvement ; and he possessed no means of acquiring 
 any, but from his own species. He had no teacher but 
 God himself. The charter of his rights was, therefore, 
 large and liberal. A wide sphere was given him to move 
 in, and to which the inward impulses of his nature power- 
 fully direct him. He may rise, or he may sink, in 
 reference to a given standard; but let him sink never 
 so low, he possesses the power of rising again, as is 
 abundantly evinced in the improvements which have, 
 for a considerable period, been going forward among the 
 Esquimaux, and latterly among the still more degraded 
 Caffres and Bushmen of Africa, who have been uniformly 
 placed by naturalists at the very lowest point of the 
 human scale. 
 
 Now this improvableness of man evidently depends upon 
 an original law of his nature ; however his degradation 
 may be explained, his great susceptibility, both of moral 
 and mental cultivation, is still a matter of fact; it rests 
 upon unquestionable evidence, and is past dispute. By 
 instruction, civilization, christianization, and all the bless- 
 ings which accompany or How from these, man may be 
 elevated from his very lowest condition ; and if not raised, 
 within any moderate period of years, to an equality with 
 the more enlightened and scientific nations, he may yet 
 be so far elevated, as to afford the most satisfactory 
 ground for concluding that he will ultimately reach an 
 equality with such races ; or that yet, if he never should 
 rise to such a point, there can be no doubt of his realizing 
 a station vastly superior in all respects to that of the brute 
 
RELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 59 
 
 creation, and at least fully answering to the original 
 charter of superiority and supremacy over the earth and 
 all its contents. None of the Simla, or monkey tribes, 
 nearly as some of them have been imagined to approach 
 to the lower races of mankind, display the least capability 
 of such improvement, or the slightest approach towards 
 such a superiority over the other parts of creation. It is, 
 indeed, humiliating to think that any persons denominated 
 philosophers should ever gravely and complacently have 
 maintained the theory that represents man's nature as 
 merely a self-prompted perfecting of the "ape's malicious- 
 ness," or that men are only an improved breed of monkeys. 
 
 That man should possess so improvable a nature, and 
 that the Simia tribes, with their partial resemblances, 
 should have no type, no particle of it, must be an ultimate 
 fact, for which no reason can be given, but that man was 
 originally designed to possess such dominion over them, 
 and they were not designed to enjoy such dominion over 
 man. This law implies the will in which it originated. 
 The inspired legislator lays it down perfect at once, as an 
 invariable and perpetual law, universal in its application. 
 
 But the practical verification of this law depends upon 
 long-continued and extensive research, minute inquiry, 
 and anxiously repeated experiment. A naturalist or 
 philosopher, in these days, may say he does not want 
 revelation to tell him that mankind everywhere practically 
 possess this supremacy, or are capable of acquiring it. 
 But that is not the question before us. It is this : could 
 Moses have become possessed, by any natural means, of 
 that extensive knowledge which ive enjoy — could he have 
 that perfect and extensive acquaintance with all the tribes 
 of the earth, so scientific an insight into the laws of body 
 and mind, as to enable him to venture, without inspira- 
 tion, upon such a grand and sweeping statement of human 
 supremacy? We think that he could not possibly have 
 ascertained all the facts requisite to warrant such a state- 
 
60 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 ment. He could not have predicted what might be eUcited 
 by future investigation. For aught that science then could 
 have shown, some tribes of men might have sunk below 
 the brutes, or brutes might have been developed into men, 
 and above them. 
 
 We have, therefore, now before us, first, the broad and 
 explicit statement of an original charter of human supe- 
 riority over the whole mundane creation, given by an 
 author who professes to be under divine insj^iration, and 
 whose statements, viewed already in reference to other 
 very important and interesting subjects, bear strong 
 evidences of clear, infallible knowledge and foresight ; 
 secondly, we have before us the high probability, amount- 
 ing almost to a certainty, that he could not have ascer- 
 tained tlie fact of this superiorit}' by science or history ; 
 and we have, thirdly, the now well-ascertained conclusion, 
 acquiesced in by nearly all scientific men, that this supe- 
 riority does eveiy where belong to the human race, is, for 
 the most part, attamed in a very eminent degree, and 
 where it is not so clear and well marked, still there can 
 exist no longer any doubt, that the principle of it remains 
 in the psychical nature of the very lowest human tribes, 
 most of whom are, at the present moment, in a state of 
 gradual but decided improvement by the labom*s of mis- 
 sionaries and others. 
 
 Even the philosophical inquirer must admit, that this 
 superiority of man is the result of original and primitive 
 law, both in reference to man himself, the animal creation, 
 and the contents of the earth. 
 
 If so, then the Mosaic account anticipates all the dis- 
 coveries of the philosophers ; for that states the whole fact 
 early and at once, and ascribes it to its final cause. Nothing 
 can be more evident, or better ascertained, than that it 
 was the will of the Creator there should be one, and but 
 one, lord over all the earth, and immediately under him- 
 self. The concession of this, therefore, according, as it 
 
RELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 61 
 
 does, with the Mosaic statement, corroborates all we have 
 before observed, of the perfect accuracy of that account. 
 Nothing can be conceived with more propriety ; nothing 
 can ap]:)ear more harmonious with the whole description 
 of man's origin ; nothing can surpass it in unaffected 
 simplicity and true dignity. 
 
 The coincidence is, therefore, well worth observing, 
 especially because it is so distinctly marked by Moses, 
 and is found to be so uniform and universal a fact. The 
 concession of such a proprietorship over all is deeply in- 
 teresting, when viewed in reference to the advancement of 
 mankind. It then assumes the character of a principle, or 
 a law, out of which has arisen all our improvement in 
 natural knowledge and social refinement. It is also highly 
 interesting, as still presenting a wide field for the progres- 
 sive advancement of human power and happiness in ages 
 to come. It is, indeed, true, that we cannot escape from 
 the humbling and strong evidence of our degradation, turn 
 to what quarter we may. Yet the lesson is profitable and 
 humanizing, which, while it teaches us that the most de- 
 gi'aded savage shares with ourselves the nature of a man, 
 yet shoAvs that he too may aspire, as well as ourselves, to 
 the sublime hope of immortality. 
 
 There is another topic intimately connected with the 
 present, which, though it cannot of itself supply so satis- 
 factory a test of the inspiration of Moses, as many other 
 facts, yet ought not to be omitted, since it evinces a pene- 
 trating insight into the constitution of man, and displays a 
 quality of his nature of great interest, admirably comporting 
 with every other part of the characteristics attributed to 
 liim, and serving to strengthen the general evidence of the 
 divine wisdom'^by which Moses was uniformly guided. It is 
 
 THE SOCIAL PROPENSITY OF MANKIND. 
 
 God is represented as saying, " It is not good that man 
 should be alone." A companion was, therefore, in the 
 
02 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FxVCTS 
 
 very first instance, formed for him. It was hence mani- 
 festly the intention of the Creator, that man should not 
 merely propagate his race, but that he should also enjoy 
 the society of his kind. In this respect, then, we see that 
 he is pre-eminently distinguished. There is no other 
 creature so dependent for his joys upon society, so much 
 improved and advanced by social intercourse, so fitted for 
 giving and receiving pleasure from association with his 
 fellows. Indeed, we may affirm that, apart from the con- 
 sideration of the continuance of the race depending on 
 this sociality, it would be impossible, or next to impossible, 
 for mankind to exist without intercourse with their fellow- 
 creatures. The idea of seclusion and solitude seems 
 almost as repulsive to our nature as that of annihilation. 
 The very faculties which we possess appear to require 
 such intimate and continued intercourse for their develop- 
 ment and pleasurable exercise. There is a constitutional 
 tendency, which we may call a law of nature, or an 
 original bias, drawing and constraining human beings into 
 different kinds of associations, as under the influence of a 
 law of mental attraction. All the tendencies, aptitudes, 
 and provisions of our mental and moral endowments, 
 alike fit us for the action and re-action of social life. 
 Everything in our nature marks out the companionship of 
 our fellow-beings, as the proper sphere for the development 
 of our faculties, the proper element of our being. The 
 centre, is, indeed, marriage ; but out of this arises the 
 family association, a natural and necessary bond of union. 
 For there is no animal nature so entirely and so long 
 dependent on parental care as the young of the human 
 race. This leads to an association of families for mutual 
 help, protection, and enjoyment; and this is but the 
 embryo, or first form of the social state, out of which 
 grow, of necessity, all the forms, institutions, and authori- 
 ties of civil society. " Both in the reciprocities of do- 
 mestic life, in those wider relations which bind large 
 
RELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 63 
 
 assemblies of men into political and economical systems, 
 we shall discover the incontestable marks of a divine 
 wisdom and care, principles or laws of human nature, in 
 virtue of which the social economy moves rightly and 
 prosperously onward, and apart from which all would go 
 into derangement; affinities between man and his fellows, 
 that harmonize the individual with the general interests, 
 and are obviously designed as provisions for the well-being, 
 both of families and nations."* 
 
 Thus, through all time, and in all nations, the tenden- 
 cies of mankind as evinced in their civil and social 
 history, illustrate and confirm the decision of Sacred 
 Scripture, " it is not good for man to be alone." This law 
 is not, cannot be, reversed. All attempts to produce a 
 contrary state have been against nature, and have uni- 
 formly terminated in evil. 
 
 If this fact in our history cannot be considered as 
 verifying a prediction, it is at least a striking illustration 
 of the truth of the aphorism attributed to God by Moses. 
 Yea, it is even a proof of 4he divine wisdom of that 
 saying ; for under what other authority could it have been 
 so oracularly, universally, and justly decided of the whole 
 race ? Who, in that early and inexperienced age, could 
 have felt perfectly sure that it was not good for man to be 
 alone ? Who could then have decided, that under no 
 change of condition, no advancement, no i')ossible circum- 
 stances, it should be desirable or good for man to seclude 
 himself? It is, lo say the least, a memorable circum- 
 stance, that this should have been laid down at first, as a 
 general law or principle, and that all mankind should feel 
 the force and the truth of it, in their own nature. Many 
 writers, since the time of Moses, and even considerable 
 bodies of men, have endeavoured to contravene this law, 
 but nature has proved too mighty for them. The law has 
 
 * Clialmers' Bridg. Treat. Introd. p. 10. 
 
64 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 prevailed, and do€s prevail ; and the Scripture is thereby 
 verified. 
 
 We may proceed next to consider 
 
 THE SENTENCE DENOUNCED ON THE I\rAN AND WOMAN 
 RESPECTIVELY. GENESIS III. 16 — 19. 
 
 After the creation of man and his liberal endowment 
 with all temporal and spiritual felicity, the next principal 
 event, subject to comparison and scrutiny by facts in 
 human histoiy, is the fall. But, as the narrative given of 
 this event is to be verified chiefly by reference to the 
 mental and moral circumstances of mankind, it will come 
 to be considered in a subsequent Lecture. For the 
 present, therefore, we must pass it by, that we may confine 
 our attention, according to the arrangement proposed, to 
 facts and circumstances strictly of a physical character. 
 We come, therefore, in close connection with the account 
 of the fall, to the sentence denounced upon the man and 
 woman respectively, and which has an exclusive reference 
 to their natural condition. AVith the moral cause, or the 
 reasons of this sentence, we have at present no concern. 
 Our inquiry must first regard the import of the sentence 
 attributed by Moses to the Creator ; next we must notice 
 the facts in the condition of mankind, which seem to 
 verify this sentence ; and, finally, the evidence, afl'orded 
 by this coincidence, of the inspiration by which Moses 
 was guided, when he recorded it as the law of man's 
 altered condition. 
 
 The sentence itself is recorded in Genesis iii. IC — 19 : 
 " Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy 
 sorrow and thy conception ; in sorrow shalt thou bring 
 forth children ; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, 
 and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said. 
 Because tliou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, 
 and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded, savinc^, 
 
KELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 65 
 
 Thou sbalt not eat of it; cursed is the ground for thy 
 sake ; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy 
 life ; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee ; 
 and thou shalt eat the herb of the field : in the sweat of 
 thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the 
 ground: for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, 
 and unto dust shalt thou return." 
 
 First, We have a specific and appropriate sentence upon 
 the human female, containing the infliction of peculiar 
 2)ain in child-bearing; secondly, The prediction of a pre- 
 dominant desire ='■= towards her husband ; and, thirdly, A 
 subjection to his will and authority — " He shall rule over 
 thee." 
 
 All this expresses, we conceive, an altered condition, 
 and predicts what should be the state of the human female 
 through all her generations. It represents this alteration 
 in her state as made by a divine decree, and with a direct 
 reference to her priority in the transgression. It is cha- 
 racterized by special features of severity, both in her 
 painful bodily sufferings, and her entire subjection to man. 
 This being represented as an expression of the divine 
 displeasure, we may expect to find it universally verified 
 in the condition of woman. Along with the physical in- 
 dications attesting the high authority which effected this 
 change, we may reasonably expect to find some traces of 
 the primitive condition still displaying themselves in con- 
 nexion with the several evils thus denounced and inflicted. 
 As it appears to be a superinduced state, it will not alto- 
 gether obliterate the primitive constitution ; but it will be 
 
 * Dr. Boothroyd renders this passage, " to thy husband thou shalt be in 
 subjection, and he shall rule over thee." In & note, he cites, on the word desire, 
 Gen. iv. 7, where it is applied to the dominion of Cain over Abel. It seems, 
 in this case, to reciprocate with the word rule — he shall look up to thee, or feel 
 subject, and thou shalt rule over him. If this view be adopted, the sentence on 
 the woman contains two distinct inflictions. Dr. Adam Clarke, however 
 takes a diti'erent view, rendering the word appetite. There are, however, some 
 formidable objections to this intei-pretation, that need not be here stated. 
 V. F 
 
6G MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 submitted to with reluctance, and as an evil. There will 
 appear, through the imposed necessity of suffering and 
 submission, a nature designed for a superior condition, 
 yet subjected to inevitable and peculiarly marked sorrows. 
 
 There is to be observed, moreover, in the whole of this 
 sentence, a characteristic distinction bctvreen it and that 
 pronounced upon man. The woman is not specifically 
 doomed to the same labour, nor to derive her support 
 immediately from her own exertions ; yet her sentence is, 
 in some respects, heavier and more severe than that pro- 
 nounced upon man. Her principal sufferings are to arise 
 from parturition, consciousness of inferiority, and subjec- 
 tion to her husband's rule. The sentence is peculiar and 
 appropriate. 
 
 Let us now see how far it is verified by the actual con- 
 dition of the human female through all nations and ages. 
 The extraordinary lot of woman was pointed out ages ago 
 by Aristotle, who knew probably nothing of the account 
 given by Moses of the origin and cause of the fact. He 
 observed, that woman is the only mother under heaven 
 subject to this peculiar severity of suffering. There are, 
 no doubt, some varieties observable among the females of 
 different human tribes as to the degree of their sufferings. 
 Generally those of rude and savage tribes suffer less than 
 those of refined and cultivated nations. This fact has 
 been established by the inquiries of physiologists ; it is 
 found to vary merely in degree. The general law is still 
 observable in all the varieties of the human race. It does 
 not appear that animal nature in general is subject to any 
 uneasiness, sickness, and debility, after conception ; or 
 that in parturition they sustain anything like tlie pangs 
 of women. The females of most of the animal tribes are 
 believed to be in better healtli, and frequently to exhibit 
 more strength, after than before this state; but the human 
 female is subject, through a great part, frequently through 
 
IJELATiNG 'J'O THE CHEATION, ETC. t)T 
 
 the whole period of child-bearing, to various distressing 
 symptoms. 
 
 There seems, moreover, a })eculiarity in her case, inti- 
 mated in the expression, " 1 will greatly multiply thy 
 sorrow and thy conception.''' It is an ascertained fact, that 
 tlie conceptions of the human female, especially in civilized 
 nations, become sources of multiplied sorrows far beyond 
 those of any other animal, and that her abortions are far 
 more numerous. There is also a far greater degree of 
 mortality in child-bearing, and attendant upon tlie young 
 of the human race, than pertains to other animals. It is 
 stated by those who have minutely examined this subject, 
 that if the mortality common to woman, and her young, 
 were common to the animal tribes, it would not be 
 possible to preserve them in sufficient numbers for the 
 support and service of mankind : and yet, under these 
 extensive calamities, the human race is not only preserved 
 undiminished in numbers, but is in all probability in- 
 creasing, and increasing rapidly, even where these cala- 
 mities are most keenly and extensively experienced ; that 
 is, in the most civilized and refined nations. So that, 
 while this sentence is most felt where it ought to be felt, 
 it is prevented by other circumstances from tending, as it 
 otherwise would do, to the diminution and ultimate ex- 
 tinction of the race. 
 
 Since these facts, then, are all obvious, are matters of 
 experience, and are of universal occurrence, Ave may well 
 ask. What natural reason could exist for this marked dif- 
 ference in tlie providential arrangements concerning the 
 human race ? Why should woman — a partaker with man 
 of a rational soul; fitted to be both his companion and 
 his peer ; endovv'ed witli all that distinguishes humanity 
 from the brutes, and fits mankind to enjoy a supremacy 
 over everything that is on the earth — be thus subjected to 
 pangs and perils which no other living creature suffers? 
 
68 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 The same Almighty Power which constituted other animals 
 differently, and made their propagation scarcely in any 
 degree a matter of suffering, could not want the ahility, 
 and could be as little destitute of the will, to form the 
 noblest of animated natures, so as to secure the conti- 
 nuance of the race ordinarily, without that intensity of 
 suffering, that protraction of pangs, and that preceding 
 uneasiness, which marks human parturition. The noblest 
 and highest nature of all would appear to be unequally 
 treated, if this had been an original and not a superin- 
 duced condition. The facts themselves must be ascribed 
 either to the primitive and arbitrary arrangement of the 
 Sovereign Power — and would then appear to want equity 
 and benevolence — or they must be admitted to have a 
 punitive character and a moral cause, and so to comport 
 harmoniously with the Mosaic narrative, and add greatly 
 to its probability. 
 
 But let us further inquire if there is anything peculiar 
 in the latter part of the woman's sentence — " Thy desire 
 shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." 
 There was probably no reason for any such subjection in 
 her primitive condition. None, we conceive, can be de- 
 tected in nature, or the relations of the two parties to 
 each other. We can discover no reason for it in any 
 physical or mental disparity. It does not anywhere appear 
 that such subjection and dependence on the will of another 
 Avas the primitive law of the woman's nature. From the 
 account of the creation, it would seem that woman was 
 designed to enjoy a perfect equality with man ; but her 
 dependence upon the will of her husband, and her en- 
 thralment to his absolute rule, are facts which seem to 
 admit of no solution except that which Sacred Scripture 
 affords. God was pleased to inflict this sentence upon 
 her, because she was first in the offence, and the occasion 
 at least of her husband's fall. She is marked out, by her 
 
RELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 69 
 
 appropriate sentence, as the victim of deeper and more 
 frequent sufferings than man. 
 
 Her sin had consisted in an independent exercise of 
 her will, and an inordinate ambition to rise above her 
 natural condition. This seems to imply, that in her perfect 
 state she entertained no sense of inferiority, dependence, 
 or subjection, but felt as competent to judge and act for 
 herself as under the direction and will of her husband. 
 Her sin appears to have arisen from ambition to be as 
 God, and to enjoy an independence of him with whom 
 she ought to have been morally one ; and her punishment 
 has hence been characteristically marked by dependence 
 and subjection through all her generations — a subjection 
 which she cannot throw off, which has become a law of 
 her condition, and which, it must be confessed, to the 
 dishonour of man, is but too commonly made an occasion 
 for cruel oppression and wanton tyranny. Her lot is often 
 made still heavier by the ungenerous and contemptuous 
 treatment to which she is so extensively exposed. 
 
 Let any careful observer of humanity judge how deeply 
 degraded the female condition is in all heathen countries ; 
 to what a state of depression it was reduced through all 
 ancient times, how literally subject it is still every where, 
 and how obviously woman is still labouring under every 
 part of this singular sentence. Even where Christianity 
 improves and elevates the character, both of man and 
 woman, it does not obliterate the general facts of her 
 sorrow and subjection, but leaves these as an inscription 
 legible to every eye ; and yet one which can be in- 
 terpreted and reconciled with the goodness and wisdom 
 of the Creator, only by the light of the Mosaic narrative, 
 and which as natural facts, could have been traced in 
 woman's nature exclusively by the finger of the Almighty. 
 
 We come next to notice the part of this sentence which 
 relates expressly to man, " By the sweat of thy face 
 
70 MOSAIC STATEMENT OE EACTS 
 
 thou shalt eat bread, until thou return unto the ground; 
 for out of it wast thou taken ; for dust thou art, and unto 
 dust shalt thou return." 
 
 Upon the assumption that this describes an altered or 
 superinduced condition, we may expect to find here, as in 
 the case of the woman, both the new law of subjection to 
 toil, generally enforced, and yet not without some traces 
 of the primitive condition. The subjection will be of 
 necessity, not as of nature's choice. Do not these two 
 opposite principles uniformly appear in mans present 
 state? Human nature every where prefers exemption 
 from labour, loves ease, self-indulgence, and rest. There 
 is a strong propensity to avoid laborious exertion. Human 
 ingenuity has always resorted to expedients for escaping 
 from it. Nothing but the peril of starvation would induce 
 men, generally, to submit to this necessity; and so strong 
 is this love of independence and freedom, that many 
 tribes prefer to endure privation, and run the risk of 
 want, rather than be subjected to order, and sustain the 
 irksome drudgery, as they deem it, of tilling the ground. 
 
 The first means to which men resorted for the purpose 
 of evading the necessity of labour, which God laid upon 
 them, were rapine and violence. These have uniformly 
 had their origin in a love of ease and indulgence. One 
 man watched for the fruit of another man's toil. He saw 
 that he could supply his wants without submitting to the 
 necessity of labour ; and thus, by degrees, appeared all 
 the dire evils of contention and war; the stronger appro- 
 priating tlie possessions of the weaker; thence would 
 follow vassalage, a condition, most jirobably, very early 
 arising out of the propensity to escape from the necessity 
 of personal labour, b}-- the oppression of other men, and 
 the appropriation of their persons as well as of their 
 possessions. In the traditions of all nations, violence 
 and robbery are mentioned as among the earliest of 
 crimes, and slavery as their attendant evil. By such cir- 
 
RELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 71 
 
 cumstances the few would, at least in part, be released 
 from the pressure of the sentence, to toil for their in- 
 dividual support, but it would fall the more heavily upon 
 others. Notwithstanding all the inequalities which would 
 result from these and various other sources, still the great 
 law would necessarily prevail, as to the mass of mankind, 
 and the exceptions, as to the few, would be rather apparent 
 than real. For it is worthy of remark, here, that amidst 
 all the varieties of human condition, which have arisen out 
 of the improved or artificial state of mankind, in large and 
 cultivated nations, still the sentence of the Almighty may 
 be fairly said to be every where efficient. Even in those 
 cases where it is not literally fulfilled, as when property is 
 accumulated, or where mind and talent become the im.- 
 mediate sources of supply, yet, even there, the sentence is 
 virtually accomplished ; for riches bring envy, anxiety, 
 and uneasiness ; while mental exertion can scarcely in 
 any sense be denominated an exception. 
 
 Neither can those cases be considered as opposed to 
 the general sentence, where human tribes are migratory 
 and wandering in their habits, and live principally upon 
 the animals they are able to ensnare, or the fruits they 
 gather from the woods, or the roots they dig up from the 
 earth ; for in all these cases their toil is scarcely less. 
 Nearly their whole time is occupied in providing their 
 food, and their existence is proportionably degraded and 
 miserable. It is obvious, also, that under such circum- 
 stances their improvement is very slow, frequently im- 
 perceptible, through long periods ; their population rarely 
 augments, and, in many instances, is either stationary, or 
 actually diminishes. So that in proportion as the sen- 
 tence is counteracted by man's reluctance to labour, his 
 enjoyments, his improvement, and the propagation of his 
 race, become limited, or even retrograde. 
 
 From all that can be learnt of the condition of man- 
 kind, in all their tribes, over the wide eartli, and in all the 
 
72 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 different degrees of civilization, the sentence expressed by 
 Moses, as the law of their degraded condition, appears to 
 be invariably enforced. Man can procure little or nothing 
 without toil, and bis improvement in all respects depends 
 upon his practical submission to the law of his nature. 
 In all his more artificial or cultivated states, in which by 
 far the larger portion of the whole race is found, and 
 where the many do not literally till the ground, but where 
 the labouring is of a different kind, and in a different 
 direction, as in all the arts of civilized life, still his 
 necessities have to be supplied from the ground by the 
 labours of the industrious husbandman, which the artizan 
 procures for himself at the expense of other labour, for 
 the most part equally hard, and frequently far less health- 
 ful. Still it holds good, that " by the sweat of his face he 
 eats bread." 
 
 This then, virtually and really, is the condition of man 
 every where, and under all the artificial varieties of human 
 society. There appears, therefore, a far greater equality 
 in this respect among all mankind, than might at first be 
 supposed. It is a wonderful and striking fact that it 
 should be so, and that the rule should be so singularly 
 and universally verified, both in its subserviency to the 
 welfare of man, and in the adaptation of his ability to 
 comply with it to the necessity of its observance. For it is 
 another and additionally convincing proof of the wisdom 
 and goodness exhibited in the rule, that where less labour 
 can be sustained, owing to the physical circumstances of 
 man, there less seems to be required. It may be laid 
 down as a general fact, that in those countries where the 
 earth is more prolific, and vegetation more luxuriant, still 
 labour is never dispensed with, but the balance is still 
 nicely preserved between what is requsite, both to make 
 the supply meet man's necessities, and comport with his 
 ability to endure the requisite measure of exertion. Thus 
 Providence equalizes the relative condition of the race. 
 
RELATING TO THE CKEATION, ETC. 78 
 
 either adapting nature to human ability, or human ability 
 to the state of the earth and the climate, but preserving, 
 under all circumstances, the predominance of this great 
 law. Supply and demand balance each otlier. Thus 
 effort or labour becomes the lot of all, to some in one way, 
 to some in another. The hand of the industrious alone 
 can procure from the bosom of the earth, or through the 
 means of intervening arts, an adequate supply for each. 
 In some way or other, man must exert himself, or he 
 must possess some artificial means of turning the industry 
 of others to his own use. 
 
 From these general facts it appears, that the earth is in 
 a totally different state, in respect to man, from what it is 
 in respect to the inferior animals. To him it offers 
 nothing, or next to nothing, of its own accord ; to them it 
 gratuitously offers every thing they ever want. To him it 
 brings forth briars and thorns ; to them it is a storehouse 
 always sufficient. He reaps not unless he ploughs and 
 sows ; they neither sow nor reap. Why this repulsive, 
 frowning aspect to the noblest and highest of its in- 
 habitants ? The beast roams the plain or the forest, finds 
 and enjoys his food, lies down to rest, and knows no care 
 for to-morrow. But man must labour and sweat through 
 the whole length of the year, and scarce enjoy a breathing 
 time, save that which his merciful Creator has allotted to 
 the interests of his spiritual nature. 
 
 Is there not something extraordinary in all this ? It 
 is a condition of our nature not in harmony with its 
 original supremacy; it does not comport with the cha- 
 racter of a proprietor and lord of all the earth. It is not 
 in unison with the state of animal liberty and enjoyment 
 appointed to inferior beings. Man alone is a perpetual 
 slave to his own necessities. View him through all his 
 gradations, from the lowest to the highest, and vast as is 
 the disparity of his various states, still he never rids 
 himself, or at best but in semblance, from this yoke which 
 sits so heavily and closely upon his neck. 
 
/4 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 I am aware that it may be alleged, ^Yith propriety, that it 
 was a most wise arrangement of Providence to subject 
 mankind to the imperious necessity of tilling the ground, 
 or of pursuing some kind of occupation in lieu of it, 
 because their health, their morals, and their happiness, in 
 a great measure, depend upon their being actively em- 
 ployed. But we conceive that this very view of the 
 subject, instead of proving anything hostile to our argu- 
 ment, or contrary to the Mosaic account, that the sentence 
 consigning man to labour arose out of his moral apostasy, 
 serves but to illustrate and confirm that statement, by 
 admitting, as it does, that there existed such defects and 
 evils in his nature, as would inevitably lead to the miseiy 
 and ruin of the whole race, if not counteracted by the 
 law which subjects him to constant occupation. For what 
 would be the general effect of exemption from labour, 
 may be fairly inferred from those cases in which such 
 exemption is only in part obtained. 
 
 The admission, therefore, that labour was necessary for 
 man's welftu-e, seems to imply the previous fact that his 
 propensity to evil rendered such a law necessary and wise ; 
 but, unless our views are extended beyond this, we should 
 be reduced to the necessity of supposing that man was 
 originally created in this imperfect state, with a nature so 
 propense to evil, that a counterpoise was required to 
 supply a constant check, and that this was found in sub- 
 jecting him to incessant toil for his support, a natural con- 
 dition for the noblest of terrestrial beings, sharply and 
 irreconcileably contrasted with that of other living crea- 
 tures. The difficulties attending such a supposition would 
 seem to implicate tlic wisdom and benevolence of the 
 primitive plan. Why should he not have been created 
 free from those projiensities to evil, which rendered such 
 a subsequent arrangement necessary ? 
 
 But, upon the statement of Moses, that the original 
 condition of man was perfect, and involved no such sub- 
 
i;ELATl>iG TO TUE CiiEATlON, ETC. i i> 
 
 jection to severe and incessant toil, but was altogether 
 answerable to the station of superiority over the whole 
 creation, conceded to him by the wisdom and benevolence 
 of his Creator; and that this sentence, now so fully 
 corroborated by the facts of his experience and history, 
 was an equally wise and benevolent law, demanded by the 
 altered moral condition in which he had placed himself; 
 every thing, then, appears harmonious and reasonable ; 
 the Divine character is vindicated, and the sentence first 
 recorded by Mioses, and realized always in our actual 
 condition, is shown to be a most wise and merciful 
 arrangement, to preserve us from the consequences of un- 
 bridled passion, as well as to secure the conservation and 
 improvement of the entire race. 
 
 We conceive, therefore, that we are now entitled to 
 apply the remarkable coincidence between the sentence in 
 all its parts, and the facts of the human condition and 
 history, to the general argument in which we are engaged. 
 Have we not a marked and most accurate fulfilment of the 
 very words of the sentence attributed by Moses to the 
 Supreme Being? And is there any probability that such 
 a sentence would have been invented for the purpose of 
 imposture ? Or could any fabricator or deceiver be 
 supposed likely to fall upon a statement so peculiar in its 
 nature, so uncalled for, and yet so accurately and compre- 
 hensively anticij^ative of all that has transpired, and is 
 transpiring, in connexion v.ith the histoiy of our race ? 
 
 Certainly, to say the very least, it was highly improbable 
 that the fabricator of a false religion should have gra- 
 tuitously ventured upon such delicate ground. The 
 utterance of such peculiar principles and special facts 
 as are involved in the Mosaic account, would have been 
 cautiously avoided by any one who wished his system to 
 be free from objection, and secure from the peril of 
 collision with facts and experience. Neither can anything 
 be less likely, than that Moses should be possessed of 
 
76 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 sufficient knowledge of the human condition, to enable 
 him to lay down the laws in question from his own obser- 
 vation; and explain their origin so ingeniously. We 
 know that knowledge of this kind was not accumu- 
 lated in that age. And the acquaintance with facts which 
 Moses, or any other wise man, might have had in those 
 times, could by no means have supplied data for rules 
 which were to be applied to all mankind through all ages. 
 Mere human science, had it been much more extensive 
 than we know it was, could not in that age have em- 
 boldened any one safely to lay down such comprehensive 
 and peculiar statements. 
 
 This insight, therefore, into the human condition, is so 
 perfect, so strikingly minute, characteristic, and peculiar, 
 that he must be a daring reasoner who would venture to 
 attribute its accuracy either to the natural penetration, or 
 the acquired science of the sacred author. Nothing can 
 be more foreign to the general character of human 
 research, observation, or scientific discovery, than the de- 
 cisive, oracular, and yet simple air of the Mosaic state- 
 ment. Who could, for a moment, suspect the writer of 
 delivering, in these sentences, the results of mere human 
 observation or of philosophic induction ? It has not the 
 air of science, and it wants the caution of imposture. 
 
 There seems, then, to be no alternative left to us, but 
 either at once to concede to this extraordinary man the 
 inspiration he professes, and of which we have already 
 traced several striking evidences ; or to conclude, that the 
 statement under review is another of those successful con- 
 jectures, which have already multiplied upon us, as we 
 have proceeded, without a single occasion to place even a 
 solitary fact or sentence to the opposite side of the 
 account. It would, indeed, be a singular case of human 
 sagacity, to find all its conjectures thus happy ; a case 
 which could not, indeed, be paralleled in the history of 
 the world. But the supposition cannot be maintained in 
 
RELATING TO THE CREATfON, ETC. 77 
 
 reference to any of the statements of Moses, because they 
 anticipate facts which must either have defied conjecture 
 altogether, or else have suggested conjectures of an oppo- 
 site description. To suppose him a mere happy specu- 
 lator in these matters, and to admit, thereby, that his 
 speculations have all come true, would again involve us in 
 far greater difficulties than the frank admission, that they 
 are such comprehensive, such accurate, such far-seeing 
 statements, as can be accounted for only on the ground of 
 his having enjoyed divine inspiration. 
 
LECTURE 11. 
 
 Ti^e Mosaic statement of natiu'al aud physical facts relating to tlie creation 
 and the human race, compared with the discoveries of science, the records 
 of historj', &c. 
 
 {Continued.) 
 
 The Deluge — The covenant with Noah — The Rainbow, &c. — Tower of Babel 
 — Confusion of languages — Origin of nations — Tripartite division of 
 mankind — Traditions of the place whence the human tribes originally 
 diverged — Principal divisions of the human family — Prophecy of Noali 
 respecting the national character and condition of the races derived from 
 his three sons, &c. 
 
 In our former Lecture we traced some important and 
 highly interesting coincidences, which history and the 
 researches of scientific men have estabUshed between 
 various facts of natm'e and the very early statements of 
 the Mosaic record. We endeavoured to show how these 
 coincidences bear upon the inspiration of the sacred writer. 
 In entering upon the consideration of other verifications 
 of the same class, not less important and interesting, 
 allow me, in brief, to remind you, that the whole argu- 
 ment they are intended to sustain is one of accumulation. 
 Justice cannot be done to the sacred volume, unless it is 
 borne in mind that every separate coincidence, clearly 
 established, not only possesses the weight of its own 
 independent evidence, but that it both gives and receives 
 value by its harmony with others. It renders those 
 already established more forcible, and itself derives much 
 additional value from its combination with them. The 
 
MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS, ETC. 79 
 
 ancient and well-known simile of the bundle of sticks 
 appropriately illustrates this observation. 
 
 THE DELUGE AS DESCRIBED BY MOSES. 
 
 The narrative of this event, as given by Moses, is 
 affecting and solemn in the highest degree. It possesses 
 all the marks of simple truth, and appears in perfect 
 harmony with all the other events included in the gene- 
 ral statement of the creation, the fall, and consequent de- 
 generacy of mankind. The account of the deluge is fuller 
 and more particular than the earlier statements of the 
 Mosaic narrative. Hereby it affords a greater variety of 
 circumstances for the application of the test, which we 
 have already found, in various instances, corroborative of 
 the high authority of Moses. 
 
 First, we have a distinct statement of the moral cause 
 of the deluge. It is represented as a divine \isitation 
 threatened long before for the wickedness of mankind ; 
 next, as in part provided against by the preparation of an 
 ark, for the purpose of preserving the human and animal 
 races from extinction. The account seems further to 
 express distinctly, that the event itself was miraculous. 
 We dismiss, for the present, all consideration of the 
 reasons which are represented as inducing the Almighty 
 to inflict this judgment, that we may concentrate your 
 attention on the fact itself, and the agency, both primary 
 and secondaiy, by which it was brought about. 
 
 The general question, whether there ever has been a 
 universal deluge, has been much discussed, learnedly and 
 scientifically argued. It would be quite a hopeless task to 
 attempt to set before you even an outline of the different 
 speculations and theories upon this subject, which have 
 been maintained at different times, and by authors of 
 high celebrity. Most of these theories have been found 
 scientifically untenable, and have given way, one after 
 
80 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 another, as time and research have brought new facts to 
 light. Our chief concern will now be to inquire how far 
 the present state of historical knowledge and of scientific 
 research verifies the general statement of Sacred Scripture, 
 or how far it seems to be hostile to that account, or only 
 in some respects to modify the interpretations put on the 
 Mosaic record. 
 
 Before I enter on what may be termed the geological 
 test, it may be desirable to examine how far the Biblical 
 statement is confirmed by the histories and traditions of 
 the most ancient nations. It will form a good presump- 
 tive proof that Moses is correct in this matter, if it shall 
 appear that ethnical traditions generally (and still more if 
 they do universally) commence with this fact. 
 
 The earliest account, next to that given by Moses, was 
 preserved by Berosus, in the Chaldean annals, being 
 extracted from records which he found at Babvlon durincf 
 the period of the Macedonian kings. This account states 
 that a deity appeared unto king Xisuthrus, in a dream, to 
 warn him that all mankind would be destroyed by a flood, 
 and that he might save his family and relations, together 
 with birds and beasts, by preparing a ship. This singular 
 narrative coincides, in every important particular, with the 
 statement of Moses.* 
 
 Abydenus, a writer of Median and Assyrian history, pre- 
 serves a similar account; and Diodorus Siculus ascribes 
 a tradition of the same event to the Egyptians, who said 
 that they were the first of mankind, and were either jDre- 
 served from the universal devastation, or sprang up anew 
 from the teeming earth after the time of Deucalion. The 
 harmony of the Greek mythologies with these traditions 
 is too well known to need more than a brief reference. 
 
 • Alex. Polyhistor extracted this account from the 2nd Book of Berosus ; 
 and Eusebius gives it in his Greek Chronicle. Josephus against Appiou, 
 Cyril against Julian, Syncellus and ApoUodorus, aU quote the same passage 
 from the Chaldean Annals. 
 
i:l::LATi^;G to the creation, etc. 81 
 
 They represent the Supreme Deity as determining to 
 destroy the wicked who hved in the brazen age ; that 
 Deucalion, directed by Prometheus, constructed a vessel, 
 (XapvaKa,) that having stored it with necessary provision, he 
 took his wife Pyrrha, and entered it. Jupiter then caused 
 it to rain to such an excess, that all mankind perished, 
 except a few who found refuge on the summits of the 
 highest mountains. Deucalion and his wife having fxoated 
 on the waters for nine days, at last rested on Mount 
 Parnassus. Deucalion then entreated that mankind might 
 be renewed upon the earth, and, in answer to his prayer, 
 he was directed, with his wife, to throw stones over their 
 heads, and these v»'erc to be transformed into men and 
 women. 
 
 Lucian, Plato, and Aristotle, all testify to the belief of 
 a universal deluge, though Aristotle probably thought that 
 it ought to be considered as limited to Greece ; he is, how- 
 ever, far from affirming that it was not universal. There 
 are many other remarkable coincidences between the 
 Grecian traditions and the Mosaic record, which need 
 not here be noticed. A very complete and interesting 
 review of them may be found in Mr. Sharon Turner's 
 Sacred History of the World, vol. ii. p. 312 
 
 It may be quite sufficient for my present purpose to 
 observe, that these traditions were, in substance, uni- 
 versally prevalent in the ancient world, and are found 
 disseminated among modern nations in all their different 
 degrees of civilization. Mr. Sharon Turner, in his Sacred 
 Histoiy, has collected them from the Chinese, the books 
 of the Parsees, the Shanskrit, the Arabians, the Turks, 
 the Africans, from the different nations of North and 
 South America, and even from the various isles of the 
 Southern Ocean. Wherever, indeed, there is any attempt 
 to account for the existence of the present population, it 
 begins with the preservation of one pair of human beings, 
 or a single family, by some floating vessel. This is usually 
 
 V. G 
 
82 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 connected with a previously existing race, with the anger of 
 the Supreme Being against their sins, and Avith the 
 desolation of the earth and the race of men, by a general 
 inundation. The leading facts are sometimes obscured 
 by fabulous and absurd additions, or mythological fancies, 
 evidently graduated to the degree of cultivation and the 
 particular superstitions in each separate country ; but still 
 incorporating the grand catastrophe, together with the 
 means stated by Moses, for the presei-vation of the human 
 race from total extinction. 
 
 The evidence upon this branch of our subject is, there- 
 fore, both universal and complete. There are, in fact, no 
 conflicting traditions. The harmony among all nations 
 is such as could have arisen only from the fact itself We 
 find Chaldeans, Phoenicians, Assyrians, Medians, Persians, 
 Druids, Greeks, Eomans, Goths, Hindoos, Chinese, Bur- 
 mese, Mexicans, Peruvians, Brazilians, North-Americans, 
 Taheitians, Sandwich Islanders, Western Caledonians, all 
 preseiwing in their mythologies, or their histories, the 
 principal facts recorded by Moses. There is no clashing 
 testimony to be derived from the traditionary accounts of 
 either the ancient or modern nations. They all embody 
 but one story characteristically varied. 
 
 But this evidence is at present somewhat confused by 
 alleged discoveries, which, though they do not disprove 
 one general deluge, yet indicate large inundations, both of 
 an earlier and of a later date. 
 
 Now, supposing the theories that include such events 
 to be well founded, we cannot perceive how they invali- 
 date, in the slightest degree, the testimony of Moses. 
 
 In the first place, that account is connected with the 
 previous statement of the condition of the earth, as alto- 
 gether covered with water prior to the date of the Mosaic 
 creation. This fact, therefore, gives scope for the theories 
 which refer some appearances of a deluge to a date far 
 anterior to the Noachic flood; for it is expressly recorded, 
 
KELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 83 
 
 that " The earth was without form, and void; and darkness 
 was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God 
 moved upon the face of the ivaters. And God said, Let 
 there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let 
 it divide the waters from the waters." — Gen. i. 2, 6, 9. It 
 would appear from the sacred record itself, that the whole 
 surface of the globe was under water in the heginnlng, or 
 prior to the first day of our time. The discovery, there- 
 fore, that some general flood must have preceded the 
 ¥oachic, affords not the slightest ground for invalidating 
 the Mosaic account ; while all the researches of the geolo- 
 gists tend to confirm that account, by the remarkable fact 
 that no human remains can be traced to any previous 
 flood, and none as yet discovered even so far back as 
 Noah's. I am aware that upon this point the geologists 
 are at variance. Some contend that they have found 
 human remains of the same age as the extinct fossil 
 animals; but Dr. Buckland, who has referred to this sub- 
 ject in his Bridge water Treatise, assigns all those that 
 have yet been discovered to a much more recent period. 
 
 But if the Mosaic account is perfectly harmonious with 
 the theory of a flood long anterior to that of Noah, as we 
 have shown it is, so it is compatible with the admission 
 of any number of local or limited floods since that date. 
 We are merely informed that this was the first and only 
 general deluge which has occurred since the creation of 
 man; that it took place at a certain date; that it destroyed 
 man and beasts, with the specified exceptions. 
 
 I am aware, however, that the theories of some eminent 
 geologists have tended to throw a considerable degree of 
 doubt around the Mosaic statement; and also that many 
 advocates of his inspiration have felt constrained, in face 
 of these difficulties, to doubt the universality of the deluge, 
 and to interpret the language of Moses accordingly. I 
 think the doubt which is produced in some minds, and 
 the direct disbelief which prevails in others, is to be alto- 
 
rt-A iionAic state:ment of facts 
 
 gether attributed to the rashness and presumption of 
 theory. A probable theory for explaining some phenomena 
 has been adopted by scientific men, frequently on the 
 authority of an eminent individual, and this becomes a 
 standard by which ever}'thing else is tested. It is with 
 difficulty men are induced to question the validity of their 
 reasoning ; the easier method is to question the authority 
 of Scripture, or to explain away its assertions, till they 
 become vague and unmeaning. But those speculations 
 which are opposed to the Mosaic account of the deluge, 
 are far more likely to be unsound in their principles than 
 that Moses was mistaken, and the traditions and histories 
 of all nations erroneous. It becomes these geologists, 
 therefore, to reconsider the first principles they have 
 adopted, and especially to take notice of the very slender 
 and questionable ground upon which they stand. At all 
 events we are entitled to ask, that the record shall not 
 be invalidated by vague speculation, nor till every means 
 of harmonizino; it with the facts of the case shall have been 
 exhausted. 
 
 We shall now proceed to examine the difficulties con- 
 nected with this subject, and to supply such answers as 
 have been given by those writers who defend the accuracy 
 of the Mosaic record, and the strict universality of the 
 deluge. It may be proper, however, to observe, that since 
 this lecture was delivered, and first published, much addi- 
 tional information has been collected, the substance of 
 which the author has endeavoured to condense, and to 
 present in the following pages, that the state of the con- 
 troversy upon the deluge may be fully understood by the 
 reader. 
 
 The chief objections to the universality of the deluge 
 may be in brief stated thus : — 
 
 1. The difficulty of supposing the production of sufficient 
 water to cover the whole surface of the earth, and then 
 
RELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 85 
 
 the difficulty of getting rid of it : " The waters pr.evailed 
 exceedingly on the earth; and all the high hills that 
 were under the whole heaven were covered ; fifteen cubits 
 upward did the waters prevail ; and the mountains were 
 covered." — Gen. vii. 19, 20. 
 
 The only hypothesis that satisfactorily accounts for the 
 l)roduction of so vast a flood, is to suppose it miraculously 
 created for that express purpose, and that, when done 
 with, it was as miraculously annihilated, or at least re- 
 moved to some other part of the universe. Dr. J. P. Smith's 
 opinion of such a supposition is, that it " would require 
 a series of stupendous and immensely multiplied miracles, 
 in comparison with which the great decisive miracle of 
 Cliristianity, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, sinks as 
 insignificant." — Dr. J. P. Smith's Scripture and Geology, 
 pp. 113, 116. 
 
 '2. One of the most formidable objections is derived 
 from the appearance of some volcanic regions ; as at 
 .Etna, in a region of Asia Minor, and in the province of 
 Auvergne, in France. In all these places are to be found 
 extinct craters and cones, showing volcanic action far ante- 
 rior to the earliest traces of history or tradition. Around 
 these extinct craters are to be found also extensive beds 
 of lava, now become solid as the hardest rocks ; yet in 
 some places these lava-beds have been worn into channels 
 a hundred feet deep, by the flow of water over them. On 
 the sides of ^Etna, the cinder cones are covered witli dense 
 forests. In other places, the layers of lava alternate with 
 layers of mould, or with mineral deposits, and other strata, 
 containing fossil remains of extinct species. These facts 
 are supposed to establish the assertion, that Noah's flood 
 could not have touched these regions ; that they must 
 have remained undistm^bed by any convulsion of the sort 
 for many thousands of years. With regard to the channels 
 Avhich the flow of rivers may cut in the lava-beds, a recent 
 
86 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 discovery has shown how that might be explained in con- 
 sistency with the Mosaic narrative ; * but the alternate 
 beds of mould and lava, and the existence of craters and 
 cones of such vast antiquity, cannot so readily be adjusted 
 to the biblical chronology — at least if we are to suppose 
 that the present seas and continents stood in the same 
 relation to each other when the flood of Noah's era took 
 place. 
 
 To meet the geological difficulties arising from these 
 and various other facts, a modern writer, who has entered 
 largely into the subject, suggests the following theor}', 
 which seems adequately to meet the most formidable if not 
 the whole of the difficulties which science has been sup- 
 posed to present against the Mosaic narrative of the flood. 
 
 * " Carbonated springs, Auvergne. Carbonic acid gas is very plentifully dis- 
 engaged from springs in almost all coimtries, but pariicidarly near active or 
 extinct volcanoes. This elastic fluid has the property of decomposing many 
 of the hardest rocks with which it comes in contact, particularly that nume- 
 rous class in whose composition felspar is an ingi-edieut. It renders the 
 oxide of iron soluble in water, and contributes, as was before stated, to the 
 solution of calcareous matter. In volcanic districts, these gaseous emana- 
 tions are not confined to springs, but rise up in the state of pure gas from the 
 soil in various places. Prodigious quantities of this gas are now annually 
 disengaged from every part of the Limogne d'Auvergne, where it appears to 
 have been developed in equal quantity from time immemorial. 
 
 " In the environs of Pont Gibaud, not far from Clermont, a rock belonging 
 to the gneiss formation, in whicli lead-mines are worked, has been found to 
 be quite saturated with carbonic acid gas, which is constantly disengaged. 
 The carbonates of lime, of iron, and manganese, are so dissolved that the 
 rock is rendered soft, and the quartz alone remains unattacked. Not far ofi" 
 is the small volcanic cone of Chaluzet, which once broke up tlu'ough the 
 gneiss, and sent forth a lava stream." — Lyell, Prin. Geol. p. 250. 
 
 " The disintegration of granite is a striking feature of lai'ge districts in 
 Auvergne, especially in tlie neighbourhood of Clermont. (N.B. The district 
 which is the site of the volcanic cones, of the beds of lava and of granite, here 
 spoken of, is called La Limogne d' Auvergne, remarkable for its fertility, as is 
 the case with all the soils formed of volcanic detritus.) This decay was 
 called by Dolomieu, ' la maladie du granile ' ; and the rock may with propriety 
 be said to have the rot, for it crumbles to pieces in the hand. The pheno- 
 menon may, without doubt, be ascribed to the continual disengagement of 
 carbonic acid gas from numerous fissures." — Ibid. p. 251. 
 
DELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 87 
 
 "After a thorough and patient examination of the whole 
 subject, in all its important bearings, we find no reason 
 from anything advanced, either on the ground of alleged 
 absurdities in the narrative itself, nor yet in difficulties 
 raised on scientific grounds, nor yet from the claims ad- 
 vanced by certain oriental nations to an antiquity inconsist- 
 ent with the universality, if not also with the very fact, of 
 a deluge in the days of Noah, to doubt the perfect truth of 
 the Mosaic record on that point, and its accuracy in every 
 particular. This venerable record teaches us that the 
 deluge w^as literally universal, covering the entire surface 
 of the globe, so far at least as animal life had then spread. 
 
 " This fearful catastrophe was produced, as I cannot but 
 suppose, by an elevation of the bed of the antediluvian 
 oceans, which elevated beds constitute what is now land 
 on our globe, and by the simultaneous sinking of the 
 primeval continents, which then became, and still con- 
 tinue to be, the bed of the sea. Hence it is that no re- 
 mains of antediluvian man, or of his works, have yet been 
 discovered among geological strata. 
 
 " The argument adduced to show that man was not a 
 denizen of the earth in the period when the older strata 
 were deposited, because no remains of man or of his works 
 are found among the fossils of those strata, is equally in 
 point to show that the present continents could not have 
 been the seat of man's abode, when, in Noah's day, the 
 deluge covered the whole earth." 
 
 " Our bones," says an eloquent writer (Richardson, pp. 
 90, 91), " composed of the same materials as those of the 
 animal tribes, are equally capable of being kept from de- 
 struction. The same battle-field has preserved the remains 
 of the horse and his rider ! 
 
 "But had the present lands been the seat of man's abode 
 when the deluge swept over the globe, his skeleton, or the 
 mere fragments of his osseous structure, would have con- 
 stituted the least of those relics which he would have be- 
 
88 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 queatheci to the soil of ^vhich he was an inhahitant. Wc 
 shoukl have discovered his mighty and majestic works, 
 ■which so far transcend in duration his own ephemeral 
 existence. We should have found his cities and his struc- 
 tures overwhelmed in the waters of tlie deluge ; his ma- 
 jestic pyramids sunk in the hed of ancient rivers ; his 
 mountain temples hev/n in the solid rock ; his bridges of 
 stone, or the tombs he had erected over his loved ones. 
 We should have found (for even a century ago Bishop 
 Berkeley expressed a similar thought) his weapons of war, 
 his implements of agriculture, his coins, his medals, his 
 cameos, his intaglios, and vases, 
 
 " The fact, therefore, that nothing of all this has been 
 found in the vast multitude of aqueous deposits brought to 
 light, seems to show conclusively we tread not the soil 
 trodden by antediluvian man ; that soil lies now, in all pro- 
 bability, deeply submerged beneath the rolling billows of 
 the ocean. 
 
 " It maij, however, 3'et hapi^en, and that, too, possibly at 
 no very distant day, that a renewed alteration in the rela- 
 tive position of land and sea, even to a limited extent, shall 
 heave up the site of antediluvian cities ; or volcanic throes 
 may yet protrude some battle-field of Nimrod ; force up to 
 the light some vast idol-temple of the wicked ' sons of men,' 
 some cemetery of the ' giants that were on the earth in those 
 days ;' and present to the amazed geologist of the future, 
 the warrior clad in mail, the priest in his sacerdotal garb, 
 censer in hand, the huge skeleton of some antediluvian 
 chieftain-giant, in his rocky sarcophagus, covered with 
 mysterious inscriptions, with the jewelled tiara yet encir- 
 cling his skull, and the gem-studded breastplate still over- 
 lying the arched ribs, i:)roclaiming the mighty man, one of 
 those which were of old, men of renown (Gen, vi, 4). Or 
 these fdtm-e upheavals may yet lay bare to the gaze of the 
 indefatigable votaries of science among the sons of our 
 sons' sons, the virgin in her bridd attire, the shepherd sur- 
 
relatd;g to the creation, etc. b9 
 
 rounded by his flocks, the mother still clasping her fossil 
 babe, the husbandman plough in hand behind his oxen, 
 just as they were imbedded in the mass of mountain frag- 
 ments, swept over their sinking lands by the advancing 
 ocean floods, when the fountains of the great deep were broken 
 up ; a whole gallery of antediluvian human fossils, demon- 
 strating to the most sceptical among the scientitic of future 
 ages, the truth of the wonderful old record."-- 
 
 Again, referring to the peculiar state of the country round 
 Auvergne, Dr. Hamilton observes, — " We may readily ad- 
 mit tlie vast antiquity of this whole region, and of the 
 volcanic craters there found. AVhen upheaved from the 
 depths of ocean in the days of Noah, these lava-beds may 
 have been already formed, and the water channels now 
 seen therein may have been already deeply worn. For the 
 presence of alternate beds of lava and of vegetable soil, 
 and the existence there of strata presenting fossil remains of 
 extinct animals, show clearly this region has, like many 
 others on our globe, been several times upheaved and 
 submerged, and again upheaved. Those now extinct 
 craters may have been in action in a former period of 
 upheaval, and active even when submerged, as we know 
 does sometimes happen. We know, too, that whole re- 
 gions are upheaved, and sink again so steadily, that every 
 hill and rock, even buildings erected by man, retain their 
 position, both positively and relatively. The temple of 
 Jupiter Serapis, on the shores of the bay of Naples, has 
 been twice elevated, and has twice sunk, to the extent at 
 least of twenty feet each time, since the Christian era ; 
 yet many of the marble columns of the temple, which show 
 unmistakeable proofs of this alteration of level, are still 
 standing perfectly upright to the present day, as I can 
 personally testify. So, also, these volcanic regions, after 
 having bared their lava-rocks to the action of the elements 
 
 * The Pentateuch and its Assailants, by W. J. Hamilton, D.D.,p. '-2X9— "251 
 
90 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 and the streams for ages before Adam was, may have sunk 
 beneath the waters; and emerging again steadily in the 
 days of Noah, the same water-worn lava-rocks may have 
 presented their well-worn channels for the passage of the 
 stream, again flowing in the ancient beds, as their most 
 natural course. 
 
 " If on this last emergence of this ancient volcanic 
 region, the old craters again burst forth into action, the 
 long interval between the deluge and the historic age, in 
 these regions in the south of Europe, will yield ample 
 time for the formation of the cones of cinders and scoriae 
 now observed. Volcanic action having now ceased for 
 many centuries, and no fresh accumulation of cinders and 
 of scorice taking place, these apparently unsuitable mate- 
 rials are converted into, or they become covered with, a 
 productive soil in a much shorter time than many geolo- 
 gists seem to suppose ; as has been shown more than once, 
 in answer to the objections against tjie Mosaic era of the 
 deluge, drawn from the alternate strata of lava and vege- 
 table mould passed through in the digging of a well in 
 Sicily, as mentioned by the traveller Brydone. When his 
 observations were first published, it was confidently main- 
 tained that two thousand years were requisite to convert 
 hard lava into vegetable mould ; that as these alternating 
 strata were passed through, the lowest bed of lava must 
 have there overflowed at least fourteen thousand years 
 since ; consequently the Mosaic story of a universal deluge, 
 four or five thousand years ago, could not be true. More 
 extended and careful research has furnished evidence to 
 show that a few centuries will sometimes sufiice to accom- 
 plish the change. Even the materials overlying Hercu- 
 laneum and the sides of Vesuvius — where lava has so 
 frequently overflowed, and where the freshly-produced 
 volcanic soil is so speedily covered again with vineyards 
 and houses — afl'ord ample evidence of this. The mere 
 fact, on which so much stress has been laid, that many of 
 
IIELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 91 
 
 these old volcanic cones, especially on the sides of Mount 
 iEtna, are now covered with large forest trees, sliows, 
 indeed, that these cones surround crater mouths which 
 have been inactive for a long time, probably for many 
 centuries ; but, with all deference to the accomplished 
 Lyell be it said, this fact furnishes no shadow of a proof 
 that these cones have been standing as they now are since 
 the time of Noah, and before it. 
 
 " The four thousand (perhaps we may say five thousand) 
 years or more that have elapsed since the deluga, com- 
 prise a great many centuries, and afford ample time for 
 tlie accomplishment of changes far more extraordinary 
 than the extinguishing of all these once active craters, the 
 conversion of the materials of numbers of them into pro- 
 ductive soil, and the clothing of these volcanic cones with 
 a dense forest of huge trees." — Hamilton, pp. 241 — 243. 
 
 3. Another objection, not of a geological but chrono- 
 logical character, it may be desirable to notice here. The 
 monuments and inscriptions of Egypt have been supposed 
 by many eminent archaeologists and scholars to prove a 
 date several hundreds of years prior to the creation of 
 Adam. The chronology derived from these sources, as 
 deciphered and interpreted by Baron Lepsius, Monsieur 
 Ampere, the Chevalier Bunsen, and others, could it be 
 fully substantiated, would prove an unanswerable objection 
 to the Mosaic statement. Half a century ago the Chinese 
 chronology presented the very same formidable array 
 against the accuracy of Moses. The fabulous nature of 
 their history, however, or rather, their traditions — for they 
 have no history before Confucius — has become so apparent, 
 that nothing can be thence derived at all formidable to the 
 Sacred Record. The Chinese, however, are not known 
 to possess any monuments at all equal in antiquity to the 
 Egyptians ; the case, therefore, of Egypt must be treated 
 differently, and by itself. The Pyramids arc attributed to 
 an age anterior to Abraham ; yet they could not have been 
 
92 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 in existence during the flood; the period between Noah 
 and Abraham, it is said, is barely sufficient to allow for the 
 growth of the mighty nation that could accomplish such 
 works. Three hundred and fifty years, however, might 
 suffice for this. Then the temples, palaces, tombs, and 
 their chambers, preserving paintings in all their richness 
 of colouring, and the hieroglyphic inscriptions in such 
 profusion and perfection, could not have ^^ithstood the 
 destructive force of such a deluge as Noah describes. The 
 high state of civilization required for these works may 
 readily have been reached by the descendant&-of the sons 
 of Noah in two or three generations ; for they and their 
 ancestors, before the flood, were no savages, but men 
 farther advanced than some writers suppose. 
 
 The conclusions against Moses from this source have 
 been reached upon uncertain ground, and by steps that 
 are by no means made sure. The knowledge yet pos- 
 sessed of the hieroglyphics is imperfect ; the inscriptions 
 themselves are probably unworthy of trust; errors are 
 being frequently discovered in the interpretations offered 
 by learned men. It has been discovered that the present 
 inscriptions have been executed over the original ones, 
 which were only partially effaced. Upon this subject I 
 quote the recent work of Dr. Hamilton, which presents 
 a most complete view of this part of our subject : — 
 
 "Who shall say how far these alterations have been 
 made, where now detection is difficult? And who can 
 fail to perceive how the fact of these substitutions tends 
 to throw discredit on the whole series of monumental 
 inscriptions, and to involve their historical value in uncer- 
 tainty? Once ascertained, as it now is beyond dispute, 
 that the Pharaohs allowed themselves thus, from a petty 
 vanity, to tamper with and to alter the noblest monuments 
 of tlieir predecessors, the very records of the nation, what 
 guarantee can we find for the genuineness of even those 
 tables of royal names, those lists of dynasties, or those 
 
KELATING TO THE CEEATION, ETC. 93 
 
 chronological marks, upon which onr modern Ej::^yptolo- 
 gists found their most plausible arguments for the vast 
 antiquity of the Pharaonic empire?" — Hamilton, p. Q47. 
 
 But another mode of testing the accuracy of the chron- 
 ology derived from the inscriptions, has been employed 
 by a gentleman who has spent many years in studying 
 them on the spot, Mr. E. S. Poole has ascertained that 
 several of the dynasties recorded, on the monuments were 
 not successive but' contemporaneous. This, of course, 
 destroys the principle on which the calculations are 
 founded. 
 
 But Mr. Poole *'lias discovered on the monuments," 
 says Dr. Hamilton, " a variety of astronomical signs and 
 records, the interpretation of which he has ascertained ; 
 and his calculations, based on those astronomical records, 
 confirm the conclusion he deduces from other sources, — 
 all going to show that the whole of Egyptian chronology, 
 when understood and reduced to order, is entirely con- 
 sistent with the chronology of the Bible. 
 
 " As an instance : — On several monuments Mr. Poole 
 found, under the well-known name of some of the old 
 Pharaohs, records of this kind : — ' On such a day of such 
 
 a month, in such a year of the reign of King , son of 
 
 the Sun, beloved of Amoun, lord of the two worlds, &c., 
 such a star being in such a position in the heavens (here 
 all the points are distinctly laid down), happened such an 
 event, a great assembly,' &c. 
 
 " Now, the time when the star thus named occupied the 
 position thus designated is easily calculated ; and the 
 result of all these several dates, when fixed by calculation, 
 falls in with, and is corroborated by the evidence adduced, 
 in various ways, from a great number of the monuments. 
 But, in order to remove all grounds of doubt, Mr. Poole 
 submitted the data collected from the monuments, and on 
 which he had founded his calculations, to My. Airey, the 
 Astronomer-Royal at Greenwich, England. By him the 
 
94 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 calculations were made anew, and subsequently revised 
 again and again with great care, and they were found to 
 agree, within a few minutes, with the result of Mr. Poole's 
 original calculations. 
 
 " But so complete and satisfactory is the train of evi- 
 dence adduced by Mr. Poole, that Sir J. G. Wilkinson, 
 one of the most learned of living men in all that relates to 
 Egyptian archaeology, has openly published his entire 
 concurrence in the views of Mr. Poole on Egyptian chron- 
 ology, and his conviction of the satisfactory character of 
 the evidence that gentleman has drawn from the monu- 
 ments. (See his ' Architecture of Egypt.') 
 
 " That question may now be regarded as virtually settled. 
 Egypt, with all her splendid monuments, is found a witness 
 to the truth of the Bible, and to the correctness of the Mosaic 
 chronology^ — Hamilton, pp. 248, 249. 
 
 4. A minor objection is taken to the universality of the 
 deluge, from the difficulty of supposing such rapid vege- 
 tation as to supply an olive leaf to the dove, provide food 
 for all the animals in the ark, and to enable Noah to plant 
 a vineyard. There is, however, nothing incredible in very 
 rapid vegetation under the circumstances. A few days may 
 have sufficed for the production of the olive leaf, and for 
 grass, &c. But He who said in the first instance, " Let 
 the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed after 
 his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed is in 
 itself," had only to apply this law to the newly-risen lands, 
 or even to cause some of the various trees that must have 
 been torn up and swept off the lands, as they were washed 
 over by the rolling flood, to settle on the newly emerged 
 lands, and in the vast beds of soft soil or mud ready to 
 receive them, and a new vegetation under the warm rays 
 of the s\m would very speedily appeal', to answer all the 
 purposes required for man and beast. There is really 
 nothing formidable in this objection. 
 
 5. The size of the ark has been alleged as quite insuffi- 
 
RELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 95 
 
 cient to contain the animals and their food. But this 
 objection overlooks the statement that these animals were 
 brought together by miracle ; that the ark was prepared 
 under Divine direction ; that though the number of 
 animals is large, yet by far the greater part of them are 
 comparatively small ; that in a state of confinement in the 
 ark they would require much less food than when free ; 
 that many of them would be in a torpid state, and all of 
 them so influenced by the mighty power of the Creator 
 as to meet the circumstances in which they were placed. 
 Miracle is alleged to account for the whole. Whether all 
 the species of animals now known were there or not 
 cannot be determined by any calculations of the capacity 
 of the ark; since no one can say how many it could or 
 could not contain when the Creator interfered to make it 
 his instrument for preserving both man and the animals. 
 
 6. Another objection is raised on the habitudes of the 
 different animals, brought together from the most opposite 
 climates. It is alleged that animals belonging to the 
 arctic regions, and others from the burning deserts of 
 Africa, could not possibly exist together in one climate for 
 so long a period as the deluge lasted. But this objection 
 seems to be adequately answered by all our menageries, 
 where we see the animals from all climates, with a very 
 moderate degree of care and attention, existing together 
 for years. The temperature of the atmosphere during 
 the deluge was very probably in that medium state which 
 would, at least for a period, suit all the animals. There 
 is then nothing in this objection to render the history 
 doubtful. 
 
 7. Again, we are required to account for the spread of 
 the animals saved in the ark over the surface of the earth, 
 and each to the climate which alone suits its peculiar in- 
 stincts. It is well known that most animals readily find 
 out the regions best adapted to their nature. To account 
 for the dispersion of the animal tribes from a common 
 
LO jiosAic siate:.ie:,t oj-' facts 
 
 centre, we have, besides their various instincts, the possi- 
 bilities of access in those early times from one continent 
 to another by means which are now destroyed ; the pro- 
 bability that man travelled over the ocean much more 
 extensively than some writers have supposed ; the certainty 
 that he would take various kinds of animals with him wher- 
 ever he went, and the fact that disruptions of the earth's 
 surface have taken place since the date of Noah's flood — so 
 that all these considerations being taken together, the dif- 
 ficulties which would attach to a dispersion of the animals 
 at the present day, may not have applied at all, or in a 
 much smaller degree, to the state of the earth's surface in 
 the days of Noah. In fact, most of the islands near to 
 continents hear marks of having been once visited by them. 
 There is nothing unreasonable in the supposition that 
 all the isolated lands, including the vast region of New 
 Holland, were originally connected with the chief con- 
 tinents, and that their separation has been the result of 
 slow and gradual changes, or of sudden disruptions. 
 
 8. A chronology has been extracted from trees, which 
 has been employed to overthrow the authority of Moses 
 respecting the date and universality of the flood. It is 
 asserted that trees are standing and growing in Africa 
 and South America, which must have been there some 
 hundreds of years, or, perhaps, a thousand, before the 
 date of Noah's flood. The calculation depends upon the 
 number of rings observed in the body of the tree. Every 
 time the tree sheds its leaves a new ring is added ; taking 
 this as a yearly process, you would have a register of the 
 age of the tree ; but at any rate this mode of calculation is 
 subject to great uncertainty. From local circumstances — 
 such as great drought, and devastation committed by 
 insects — trees are known to renew their leaves twice, or, 
 in some cases, three times in a single year. In the In^se 
 of so many ages this fact alone would account for the 
 large number of rings found in these ancient trees. But, 
 
DELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 97 
 
 again, for the purpose of consulting this register of time, 
 the tree is not cut down, nor a complete section made ; 
 but an instrument is employed to bore it, and from the 
 plug extracted the calculation is made. Unless this plug 
 be a true radius of the circle of the tree, piercing only to 
 its centre, it may contain more marks of rings than ought 
 to appear. It is abundantly obvious, therefore, that no 
 evidence, sufficiently clear and accurate, can be obtained 
 from this source to sustain any objection to the Mosaic 
 record. 
 
 Lastly: It is objected, in relation to fish and other 
 aquatic or amphibious animals, that many live only in 
 fresh water, others only in brackish, and others only in 
 entirely salt water. To this difficulty. Dr. Ramilton 
 replies : " True, such distinction of fresh and of salt 
 water fishes does exist ; but who has tested with sufficient 
 accuracy the capability of these fresh water animals for 
 the endurance of a Salter element, to decide positively 
 that they could not have lived through the period of the 
 universal overthrow ? 
 
 " Su2^pose, however, that all the living tenants of fresh 
 water actually perished, may not the spawn of these 
 several varieties have been floating uninjured in the 
 waters, or have lain protected beneath and around stones 
 and rocks in secluded places, on the newly upheaved lands, 
 which finally settled, where but little current could dis- 
 turb the precious deposits that were spread abundantly 
 where the rivers of the new continents would begin gently 
 to flow, and the lakes to embosom themselves ? In this 
 way ample means may have been provided for continuing 
 the races of fresh water fishes and molluscs, which mul- 
 tiply, as we know, with astonishing rapidity in ordinary 
 circumstances. 
 
 " May it not be true that the germs of animal life lie 
 imbedded at this very moment beneath the stratum form- 
 ing the bed of the ocean, and that they are so guarded by 
 
 V. H 
 
98 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 surrounding mucl, and the immense pressure of ocean's 
 waters, from all action of the atmosphere, and from all 
 escape of vital moisture and gas, that vitality still exists 
 there — so that when, ages hence, the present ocean-bed 
 shall be upheaved, it shall bring with it to the sun and 
 air the seeds of appropriate animal no less than vegetable 
 life in countless myriads ? And why may it not have been 
 thus with the lands upheaved at the deluge ? We know 
 that seeds which had been lying for many centuries en- 
 tombed with Egyptian mummies, have with proper care 
 been found capable of germinating; and it is said that 
 insects, which had for years been enclosed in liquors 
 kept in closely sealed bottles, have, on exposure to air 
 and light, revived to perfect vigour and activity. (Dr. J. 
 P. Smith, p. 116; Humboldt's 'Cosmos,' vol. i. p. 345, 
 note.) To one instance of the kind at least I can myself 
 testify. The preservation of fresh water animals does, 
 then, present no serious objection against the universality 
 of the deluge." — p. j235. 
 
 The principal facts of this case, then, speak for them- 
 selves. They seem utterly to defy the attempts of the 
 philosophers to reduce them to the known laws of nature. 
 If there was miracle anywhere, or, at least, the intervention 
 of divine power, it was seen in tlie deluge. Creation itself 
 would scarcely be a more decided proof of a divine power 
 in immediate operation. Many wonderful facts are, we 
 admit, brought to light by geological researches ; but it has 
 hitherto made little advance in accounting for the effects 
 it has traced. Its course has all along been marked by too 
 great a fondness for generalizing, too great an antipathy to 
 admit almighty power, and a fond credulity of every seem- 
 ing fact that might afford an opportunity for calling in 
 question the accuracy of Moses. Hence it is continually 
 obliged to retrace its steps, and abandon its own favourite 
 and cherished speculations. It is satisfactory to know, 
 that none of its discoveries have yet been wrought into a 
 
RELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. ' 1)9 
 
 valid impeachment of any part of the sacred record. There 
 are, we admit, many difficult and unexplained facts ; nor is 
 it wonderful that, in so vast, so complicated, and difficult 
 a subject, there should he ; hut the two grand points, the 
 universality of a deluge, at the date assigned to it by Moses, 
 and the miraculous nature of the agency by which it must 
 have been effected, appear to be confirmed by all the facts 
 hitherto discovered, as well as by the conspicuous failure 
 of all other explanations. 
 
 The striking verification which the first of these points 
 has received by the discoveries of science, and by the nega- 
 tive kind of proof which is alone applicable to the other, 
 or our ignorance of all causes adequate to its production, 
 save the divine agency, is such as cannot be counteracted 
 by a few difficult or unexplained phenomena. Revelation 
 has the unrivalled honour of recording, by anticipation, the 
 substance of all the investigations and researches of sci- 
 ence on this sublime and difficult subject. The accurate 
 knowledge possessed by the inspired writer, it is obvious, 
 could not have been obtained by the same process of in- 
 vestigation as that which has led many of the most eminent 
 geologists to the same general conclusions. He could 
 have been qualified to impart all this information only by 
 that Spirit of divine wisdom, which we have already traced 
 in so many remarkable and convincing particulars. 
 
 It would be very unworthy of a philosophic spirit to 
 allow our knowledge on the great leading facts to be dis- 
 turbed by our ignorance on a few points, that are yet veiled 
 in darkness, and which, judging from our experience in 
 similar cases, there is every probability may be yet shown 
 to comport perfectly with the sacred narrative. Facts quite 
 as difficult to reconcile with the Mosaic statement, as any 
 now ascertained, and which at one period were deemed 
 absolute evidence against the truth of his record, have been 
 shown either to have been mistaken, or reasoiK'd u]ioii 
 hastilv, and made the basis for the announcement of law*, 
 
1 00 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 which other facts have entirely demolished. It is, there- 
 fore, not a little astonishing, that the frequent failure of 
 the geologists to make good their theories, the constant 
 remodelling of them by their own hands, and the gradual 
 convergence of all their established principles to these four 
 points ; the universality of at least one grand catastrophe ; 
 the accordance of their own date of that catastrophe with 
 the time of Noah ; the agency of it by water, influenced by 
 some unknown power ; and the origination of the present 
 race of mankind with this catastrophe ; it is astonishing, I 
 say, that these things do not repress their theorizings, and 
 constrain them to limit themselves at present to the col- 
 lection of facts. 
 
 They start in the race of speculation upon ground which 
 
 we cannot concede to them, — that all the different masses 
 
 of matter of which the earth consists, have been formed 
 
 originally according to the laws which they now observe to 
 
 be in operation ; that is to say, that natural causes have 
 
 produced the primitive creation without the intervention 
 
 of an intelligent Creator. This we pronounce at once to 
 
 be absurd, because there can be no natural laws without a 
 
 creating power, an arranging mind, and a previously exist- 
 
 insf creation. Mr. Sharon Turner well observes, — " It is 
 
 even a contradiction to suppose that the natural causes 
 
 now in operation could have formed our world. It is from 
 
 its completed formation that they arise, and are what they 
 
 are. They are the j)roduced, and not the producers. 
 
 Natural causes are the result of creation, not its makers. 
 
 They arise from the construction, composition, positions, 
 
 and material relations, and arranged agencies of the created 
 
 things ; but they have not fabricated them. All the laws 
 
 of nature in our world are posterior to its structure, not 
 
 anterior framers of it. It is the artificial creation of all 
 
 things, by an intelligent Artificer, which gives to all natural 
 
 laws and causes their very existence. They are not in 
 
 being until the fabric and the mechanism are completed; 
 
DELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 101 
 
 until each is placed in such relative positions, and in such 
 compounds, and endued with sucli properties, and asso- 
 ciated with such moving agencies, as we can become cog- 
 nizant of, and from which they originate."* 
 
 If a creation is to be admitted at all, then this presup- 
 poses the production at once of effects to which no laws 
 were joreviously ai^plicahle. Geologists may say, that it 
 requires so many myriads of years to produce the primitive 
 rocks, but their reasoning, though apparently analogical, 
 is inapplicable to the case in hand, because it commences 
 with applying laws which they have deduced from things 
 now in existence, to the very production of those things. 
 If we should apply the law of our own progressive and 
 slow growth to the first man, as formerly hinted, we should 
 be guilty of denying the possibility of his creation in a per- 
 fect state at once, and of attributing a law which belongs 
 to a particular order of created beings, to one not yet in 
 existence. We should suppose the law, before we have 
 sui")posed that to which it relates ; or we should be guilty 
 of the absurdity of just making the law the Creator, which 
 assuredly were less rational than to suppose an intelligent 
 Creator. But the first man could not possibly have come 
 into existence in the same way as others, because he first 
 existed alone — they are born in a natural way. He could 
 not have been born, because the supposition that he was 
 first, involves the inference that there was no human being 
 hefure him. Therefore, it required none of the present 
 laws of our nature to produce him ; moreover, theij could 
 have had no existence till he existed. He could not, there- 
 fore, have come into existence by the same physical causes 
 as all the rest of his race. He is admitted to have been 
 created, and he could not have been created a babe under 
 the same physical laws as ourselves ; for, in that case, he 
 must have perished immediately. Every view, therefore, 
 of the production of the first man, or the first animal, 
 * Turner's Sac. Hist, vo^ ii.p. 360. 
 
lO'rl MOSAIC STATEMLNT OF I-ACT:S 
 
 necessarily involves a creation, — the production of a being 
 mature at once ; whereas, to perpetuate or propagate that 
 being, the intervention of laws, and of time for those laws 
 or natural causes to operate, was indispensable ; but no 
 such laws and no such time are requisite upon the sup- 
 position of a creation. And without a creation, as may be 
 shown, nothing could ever have existed. This reasoning 
 holds good equally in reference to man or animals, rocks, 
 or earth, or water. Admit a creation, and then they are 
 brought into existence perfect at once, and the theories 
 invented to account for the origin of all things appeal' 
 absurd, and vanish ; deny the fact of a creation, and you 
 are left w^ithout laws, M-ithout matter, -svithout being, with- 
 out cause, and equally -svithout effect. Upon the whole, 
 then, it appears, that philosophy can ascertain no laws, 
 till it admits the existence of a creation. 
 
 Further, the Mosaic account of the disruption to which 
 the creation has been subjected, appears to be strikingly 
 verified, both by the histoiy and traditions of all nations, 
 and by the entire mass of facts collected by the naturalists. 
 During the last hundred years, we have seen the theories 
 of philosophers, as to the laws of nature, gradually correct- 
 ing and adjusting themselves tow^ards a perfect agreement 
 with the sacred record. The most formidable dithculties 
 have been overcome ; the doctrines of the decomposition 
 of lava, and of the formation of different species of rocks, 
 have been revolutionized, and every theory directly hostile 
 to revelation has been swept away, not by authority, but by 
 science itself; which is still gradually, though reluctantly, 
 approximating towards the testimony of Moses, in the 
 arrangement and systematizhig of all the phenomena. 
 We cannot, therefore, doubt, but that a perfect haniiony 
 will ultimately be established, and a still more minute con- 
 firmation be supplied by true science to the authoritative 
 record. There may remain, and perhaps for many years 
 vet to come, some few facts which it may be difficult to 
 
EELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 103 
 
 explain ; and what wonder, if, on such a subject, it should 
 be so ? These may afford occasion for minds, previously 
 indisposed to receive the testimony of revelation, to get up 
 snecial cases, and confront them with the divine word. 
 The discoveries mentioned by Brydone, at Etna, and the 
 theoiy of the well dug in the lava-beds of Jacl B,eale, so 
 long vaunted as decisive testimony against the chronology 
 of Moses, have now been proved to be altogether delusions. 
 Other similar cases might be mentioned. We have abun- 
 dant reason, therefore, to expect, that science will gradually 
 rectify all its own mistakes, will supi:)ly the refutation of 
 its own false theories, and ultimately prove itself, as it has 
 so often done before, a slow, but sure witness to the truth 
 of the sacred record. Hitherto the verification of the 
 Scripture is striking and satisfactory in the highest degree. 
 Its friends may well triumph in the utter failure of every 
 attempt to shake its authority, and may congratulate each 
 other upon the immutability of that rock on wdiich their 
 hoj)es are built. 
 
 THE COVENANT WITH NOAH KAINBOV;, ETC. 
 
 There are some other minor particulars connected with 
 the account of the deluge, which ought not to be entirely 
 passed over in the present argument, although they may 
 not afford so clear and striking a verification of the sacred 
 record, as we have been able to trace in reference to the 
 leading facts of the narration. I refer particularly to the 
 divine promise made to Noah upon the subsidence of the 
 flood, and the sign or memorial of that engagement, to 
 which the Almighty is represented as appealing, Gen. viii. 
 *^1, 22, and ix. 1 — 17. The substance of this covenant 
 was, that God would not again destroy all flesh and the 
 earth by a flood, and that seed-time and harvest, summer 
 and winter, should not again fail, or be disturbed in their 
 order, as long as the world, or the present order of things 
 
104 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 and beings, should last. This covenant implies the pre- 
 vious fact, and the immediate intei^osition of the divine 
 power and will by which it was effected. It is, moreover, 
 in harmony with the sentence which doomed man to labour 
 for his support, since in vain would he have tilled the 
 ground, unless the orderly succession of the seasons had 
 secured to him the reward of his labour. Though it is, no 
 doubt, clear that this had been the course of things prior 
 to the flood, yet the interruption for a whole year, by that 
 event, and the various changes, both in the state of the 
 earth's surface and of the atmosphere, which it had effected, 
 seem to render such an engagement, as that now made, 
 highly appropriate and seasonable for reviving the con- 
 fidence and stimulating the industry of mankind, by which 
 alone their race could be preserved in the world. 
 
 Without such an assurance, then, from the Almighty, 
 the sons of Noah for many years must have lived in -per- 
 petual fear, and upon every recurrence of heavy and pro- 
 tracted rains, might have anticipated a repetition of the 
 great catastrophe, which had destroyed the previous race, 
 and all their works. It is certain, without such a covenant, 
 they could have felt little confidence in proceeding with 
 their needful labours, and whenever appearances became 
 unfavourable, must have sunk into an abject and discon- 
 solate state of mind. This covenant was, therefore, at that 
 crisis, a most merciful and most necessary appendage to 
 the sentence, which had so materially altered their physical 
 condition, as to make their preservation dependent on their 
 own strenuous and persevering industr}-. 
 
 The history of the world, ever since this period, affords 
 an interesting verification of this divine engagement. It 
 particularly merits observation, that Moses, in recording 
 such a declaration, supposing him not to have enjoyed 
 divine instruction, was laying himself open quite gratui- 
 tously to the chances that might occur through all time, 
 then future, that a similar catastrophe might return. How 
 
];l:lating to the creation, etc. 105 
 
 else, but by revelation, could he know that it would not ? 
 Had he judged only from probabilities, nothing could have 
 appeared more likely, than that a catastrophe, which had 
 once arisen out of physical and natural causes, might occur 
 again ; and an impostor, writing at the time of Moses, and 
 knowing that there had been one universal deluge, w^as, 
 we conceive, far more likely to have predicted its repetition, 
 and to have endeavoured to alarm mankind by threatening 
 it, than to have quieted their fears by assuring them that a 
 similar event should never recur. It would much better 
 have served the purposes of imposture and superstition 
 as well as his own personal importance, to have done so 
 than otherwise. But those who can imagine Moses to 
 have been an impostor, destitute of all divine information 
 upon this subject, must perceive, that the conduct they 
 attribute to him would have been irrational, and, according 
 to all the calculations he could have made at the time, 
 more likely to issue in the entire subversion of his au- 
 thority, than in its establishment. 
 
 On this very ground, then, we make our appeal on 
 behalf of the sacred writer. Is it at all conceivable, that 
 any mere impostor would have ventured to risk his own 
 pretensions on so improbable a thing, as the non-recur- 
 rence of a flood, when one had manifestly occurred but a 
 few centuries before '? or is it probable, that he would 
 needlessly have risked his reputation at all, by putting 
 forth a decisive opinion one way or the other ? Upon the 
 supposition that he was an impostor, and conscious that 
 he could establish no claim to an infallible decision of the 
 matter, we conceive it quite improbable that he would 
 have made so gratuitous a venture of his authority ; but, 
 that, had he resolved with himself to record any opinion, 
 it was far more likely than otherwise that he should have 
 foretold a repetition of the event. This the impugners of 
 his authority admit is the more rational inference, from 
 the actual occurrence of a deluge once, and from their 
 
106 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 own assumption, that all the causes which produced it 
 continue still in operation, and are maturing and accumu- 
 lating their results for a similar catastrophe. 
 
 But here, then, we have the rationally and philosophi- 
 cally improbable fact, asserted in the most unequivocal 
 terms, that a similar desolation shall never take place ; 
 then we have all time, as far as time has rolled on, and 
 that no inconsiderable period, confirming in the fullest 
 manner the prediction of the sacred writer. There have 
 been partial inundations, occasional and local visitations 
 of famine, failure of harvests in some places, or in some 
 portions of the requisite sustenance of man ; but these 
 have evidently been no impediments to the preservation 
 and increase of the human race, any more than diseases, 
 earthquakes, volcanoes, and similar local and limited 
 disasters, Avhich seem to be wisely permitted to maintain 
 some fear of God, and preserve from generation to gene- 
 ration a sense of man's dependence, and an evidence of 
 the retributive system under w^iich he is placed. Yet 
 there has been no extensive failure of the ordinary consti- 
 tution of things, no suspension, or alteration, or cataclysm 
 of a universal kind. 
 
 As a grand general fact, it must, therefore, be admitted, 
 because it is evident and undeniable, that for more than 
 4000 years, Providence has uniformly co-operated with, 
 and blessed the labours of mankind, and neither suffered 
 a deluge to occur, nor the ordinary seasons to fail, nor the 
 human race to be again swept away. This, then, is no 
 inconsiderable test of the accuracy of Moses. The provi- 
 dence of God has confirmed tlie written word, and in 
 opening to the supply of the constantly augmenting popu 
 lation of the globe new objects of industry, and new 
 means of adjusting the productiveness of the earth to the 
 wants of mankind, we have, at least, so far as this long 
 lapse of ages affords it, an indubitable verification of the 
 promise, that there should be no repetition of the deluge, 
 
KELATl.NG TO THE CliEATiUN, ETC. lU7 
 
 and no further interference with the reguLar succession of 
 those yearly seasons on which the conservation of the 
 human race depends. The very accurate adjustment of 
 the earth's fertihty to human necessities, affords a striking 
 illustration of the merciful provision of the Creator, com- 
 bined with an evident intention to maintain everywhere 
 an obvious and imperative proof of dependence. 
 
 The fact is, probably, well known, that the population 
 of the globe could not be preserved, if but a single harvest 
 were generally destroyed. Each nation has ordinarily not 
 enough for two years' consumption, and usually but little 
 more than enough for one. There is a small surplus in 
 all, evidently adapted to supply the seed for the succeeding 
 year, and to meet the casualties which occur by partial 
 failures, as well as to supply the means to all that are 
 industrious, of procuring some additional comforts, and 
 of gradually advancing in civilization, by providing for the 
 support of those who are employed in arts and sciences, 
 and who impart the result of their thought and ingenuity, 
 in barter for those necessaries of life, which the others are 
 able to give in return for the comforts and luxuries which 
 art and science supply. 
 
 There is only one point further to which it will be 
 necessary to advert, in completing our remarks upon 
 the deluge, and the connected circumstances, — that is, 
 
 THE EAINBOW. 
 
 The reference made by the Almighty to " the bow in 
 the cloud," has appeared to many a matter involved in 
 some obscurity. It has been usual to admit, that its 
 appearance, after the deluge, could not have been its first 
 appearance ; but that, being a natural phenomenon, 
 depending on causes strictly physical, as Sir I. Newton 
 has shown, nothing more could be meant by the divine 
 reference to it, than that it should be a sort of pledge, or 
 
108 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 memorial, to bring to tlie remembrance of man the fact of 
 tlie deluge, and the covenant God then made to exempt 
 the human race in future from a similar calamity. The 
 appearance of the bow, therefore, in all countries, would 
 thus be connected with the divine ensfapjement, and 
 suggest it to mankind, while its perpetuity, secui-ed by the 
 immutability of the laws on which it depended, would 
 serve as a perpetual recognition of the divine engagement, 
 and stand forth as a sort of sign between God and man, 
 reminding both of the solemn assurance the Almighty had 
 given of his everlasting mercy to the offending race. 
 
 Although this exposition must, we think, be admitted as 
 a sufficient vindication of the propriety of such an 
 association between this natural phenomenon and the 
 covenant of God, yet it has been thought, that the divine 
 appeal to the bow would be more striking and satisfactory, 
 if that had been the first time of its appearance. 
 
 It has been suggested by some modern writers,* that 
 this is very likely to have been the case. They have 
 argued, that the density of the atmosphere around the 
 antediluvian world, must have been greatly different from 
 what it was afterwards. That, in consequence of the 
 flood, there would be a great change of temperature, and 
 also of the hygrometric character of the atmosphere. 
 Such a high degree of density necessarily presupposes the 
 absence of clouds and of rain in the primeval world. The 
 wonderful change produced by the breaking up of the 
 fountains of the great deej), would account for the waters 
 which would descend from the aerial medium ; and on the 
 altered state of the atmosphere, thence arising, would 
 
 * I might have said, and bij at least one ancient speculator upon these subjects, 
 viz. Burnet. He insists very strenuously upon the certainty, that the rain- 
 how had not appeared before the flood; and, for anght I know, his sugges- 
 tions upon the subject may have led to the theory to which I now allude. 
 The reader who is curious upon this question, may refer to Burnet's Theoi^ 
 of the Earth, Book ii. Chap. v. 
 
KELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 109 
 
 depend the appearance of clouds and the descent of rain ; 
 and then, Jirst, would be seen the bow of promise in the 
 heavens. To this it is added, that no mention of rain is 
 ever made in the account of the antediluvian world ; but 
 it is expressly said, Gen. ii. 5,0: '* The Lord God had 
 not caused it to rain upon the earth ; but there went up a 
 mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the 
 ground." It is certainly questionable how far this decla- 
 ration is to be extended forward from the period of the 
 creation, and it may, therefore, be advisable not to lay 
 much stress upon it. It is important, however, to observe, 
 that, in mentioning how the earth was watered, Moses 
 notices only the dew. This, viewed in connexion with the 
 other part of his statement, that " the Lord God had not 
 caused it to rain upon the earth," seems greatly to faA^our 
 this speculation. " The most plausible surmise we can 
 make," says Dr. Shuttleworth, both with reference to the 
 language of Scripture, and in explanation of existing phe- 
 nomena, seems to be, that some important change was 
 produced at that important epoch upon the surface of the 
 globe, by which the relative proportion of land and sea 
 became permanently altered. What that change was, 
 however, it is difficult, if not impossible, to form a well- 
 grounded opinion. There appears to be some warrant in 
 Scripture for the supposition, that rain was unknown in 
 the antediluvian ages. At least, the appearance of the 
 rainbow on the subsidence of the waters of the delu^-e, is 
 described in a manner to leave the impression of its bein^* 
 the first occurrence of that phenomenon ; and with re<^ard 
 to the state of the world, before the fall of our first 
 parents, it is expressly asserted, that ' no rain fell from 
 the lieavens in those days, but there went up a dew, 
 which watered the ground,' whilst no intimation is given 
 that this state of things was altered till the time of the 
 deluge. We can, however, account for the absence of 
 rain upon any known natural principles, only by the 
 
1 10 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 supposition that the proportion of sea, as compared with 
 that of dry land, was much less in the antediluvian ages, 
 than it has been subsequently to that crisis. The 
 diminished evaporation which would take place under 
 such circumstances, would apparently produce the results 
 now supposed. So long as the earth was only thinly and 
 pai'tially peopled, such a state of things as that here 
 surmised, would not be incompatible with the wants of 
 mankind, though it would be perfectly inconsistent with 
 the general diffusion of population over the whole globe. 
 The change which took place at that same period, in the 
 average duration of human life, would also seem to indi- 
 cate some alteration of a permanent character in the con- 
 dition of man's abode upon earth, less favourable to our 
 animal powers. That change, we may observe, though 
 immediate in a great proportion, was not total and com- 
 plete till after the lapse of a considerable time subsequent 
 to Noah : a circumstance which well accords with the 
 hypothesis above stated, since it is natural to suppose, 
 that the stronger stimulus of vitality would not yield 
 immediately to the operation of changes in climate, or 
 other similar causes, but would adapt itself gradually, and 
 through successive generations, to its new position, until 
 it had reached its maximum of depression, at which it 
 would remain stationary."* The validity of the argument 
 must depend, at least, as a verification of scripture, upon 
 the ascertainment of the relative proportions of land and 
 sea, as well as of the greater density of the atmosphere 
 before the flood. If these should ever be made out, they 
 will certainly prove, that a far greater mass of water 
 might be suspended in the air, which, upon the sudden 
 change of the temperature, and degree of density, must 
 
 * Dr. Sliuttloworth's "Consistency of rievelation," pp. 80,81; and " The 
 Truths of Eevelation, demonstrated by an Appeal to existing Monuments, 
 Sculptures, Gems, Coins, and Medals. By a Fellow of several learned 
 Societies," p. 128. 
 
RELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. IJ 1 
 
 fall in rain, and be thereby made one of the instrumental 
 and co-operating causes of the deluge. It is, moreover, 
 stated, that this supposed greater density of the atmo- 
 sphere would account for the gigantic size of the animals 
 and plants, whose fossil remains have been discovered, as 
 well as for the longevity of mankind in the antediluvian 
 age. These are, however, merely noticed as undecided 
 speculations, and we have alluded to them, to show that 
 the theories of the philosophers may possibly, in this 
 instance, yet subserve the interests of revelation, and 
 ultimately render it highly probable that the bow in the 
 cloud, in the day of rain, had never lefore appeared to 
 mankind. 
 
 The next important evtnt after the flood, is the build- 
 ing of 
 
 THE TOWER OF BABEL, AND THE CONFUSION OK TONGUES. 
 
 ABOUT THE YEAR OF THE WORLD, 1757. REFORE CURIST, 2247. 
 
 The Scripture asserts, that some time after the flood, 
 probably about a century, or a little more, mankind mi- 
 grated from the place of their first residence in the East, 
 to a plain in the land of Sliinar. Noah must have been 
 still alive, but we are not informed whether he journeyed 
 with them. Shortly after their settlement in this spot, 
 they determined to build a city and a tower, for the pur- 
 pose of perpetuating their names to future ages. When 
 we recollect what human nature still is, and what remark- 
 able circumstances had, in those early times, been con- 
 nected with their immediate ancestors, it will not appear 
 wonderful that an ambition of this kind should fill their 
 minds. The spot they had chosen for their residence was 
 one of the most favourable for the support of a large and 
 rapidly increasing progeny; and the object they had in 
 view, by the erection of this city and tower, appears to have 
 been, though a very natural one, yet evidently contrary to 
 
112 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 the divine purpose. They wished to prevent the dis- 
 persion of their race, by attracting and binding tliem 
 to one spot. But God had designed tliat they should 
 be spread abroad, and people the whole world. They 
 could scarcely be ignorant of the divine commission, first 
 given to Adam, and subsequently renewed to Noah, to be 
 fruitful and replenish the earth. Their plan was, there- 
 fore, frustrated, because it contravened the divine purpose. 
 
 Now, since Moses wrote the account of this tower within 
 about eight hundred years from its erection, his mere know- 
 ledge of its existence, or account of the design the builders 
 had in view, would be no absolute proof of inspiration, 
 because it is quite possible, and indeed probable, that the 
 Egyptians, before his time, were acquainted with its exist- 
 ence, whether in ruins or used for idolatrous purposes. 
 We, therefore, lay no stress upon the agreement of the 
 Mosaic account with that preserved by the earliest his- 
 torians, who have mentioned and described these ruins, 
 because Moses might have obtained his knowledge of the 
 existence of such a tower in the ordinary way ; and, con- 
 sequently, thougli his statement might be valuable and 
 curious, as containing the earliest notice of this erection, 
 which other ancient historians have described rnore fully, 
 and under circumstances which confirm his account, yet 
 this agreement would afford no test of his inspiration. 
 
 But we are principally concerned with the building of 
 Babel, as the occasion and the scene of one of the most 
 peculiar judgments and miracles which the Mosaic record 
 connects with the history of the human race. Before we 
 enter into the consideration of this remarkable fact of the 
 confusion of languages, it may be interesting to notice 
 briefly, how far the testimony of the earliest heathen 
 historians accords with that of Moses ; because, though 
 this agreement will not prove his inspiration, it will illus- 
 trate at least his accuracy and credibility. 
 
 He clearly states that the building was in a plain in the 
 
RELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 113 
 
 land of Shinar; that it was constructed of burnt bricks; 
 that it was, or was intended to be, very high ; and that it 
 was left unfinished. Now the earliest Greek historians 
 mention various particulars, which enable us to identify 
 these ruins even in the present day. They denominate 
 the building the Temple of Beliis, and nothing is more 
 probable, than that this vast edifice should have been 
 subsequently used for idolatrous purposes, though such 
 does not appear to have been its orighial destination. 
 Herodotus and Arrian both described the building, when 
 it was only partially in ruins. Their testimony is, of 
 course, given quite irrespective of the Mosaic account, 
 and, most probably, in total ignorance of its existence. 
 Herodotus states, that it was 600 feet in length and 
 breadth. Strabo also makes it the same in heicrht, and 
 adds, that it was 179 feet higher than the highest pyramids 
 of Egypt. These authors describe it as of a pyramidical 
 form, having eight square towers, gradually decreasing in 
 breadth, as it rose towards the top, with a winding road on 
 the outside, wide enough to allow horses and carriages to 
 pass each other and to turn. The whole is described as 
 built, not of stone, but of burnt bricks, imbedded in slime, 
 and most firmly cemented together. This circumstance 
 clearly indicates the great antiquity of these ruins. The 
 quarrying and hewing of stones, as well as the machinery 
 necessary for the employment of them in building, all 
 belong to a later age. 
 
 According to the accounts which all the Greek his- 
 torians have preserved, this must have been a stupendous 
 structure, and probably far surpassing anything which the 
 history of Assyria or Egypt presents. It seems fully to 
 authenticate the saying of the builders who planned it — 
 •'a tower, whose top may reach to heaven." Herodotus 
 saw it above a thousand years after the time of Moses, or 
 about one thousand eight hundred years from the date of 
 its erection, and found it in a state answerable to the 
 
 V. I 
 
114 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 Mosaic narrative, and connected with the structures which, 
 in after ages, had arisen in the same neighbourhood. For 
 it became the seat of the great Babylonish kingdom, and, 
 in the tim^es of the Greeks, presented altogether a vast 
 mass of ruins, spreading to a very considerable extent, and 
 convincing all the inquirers of that age, that it had once 
 been the seat of a mighty empire. 
 
 There can be no doubt, from the Mosaic narrative, that 
 the plain of Shinar was becoming, Avhen the tower was 
 erected, the residence of a powerful people, and it would 
 be perfectly reasonable to expect, that long after the con- 
 fusion of tongues, it would present an attractive spot, and 
 the tower thus begun would, as mankind degenerated from 
 the religion of the first age, be very likely to be turned to 
 purposes of idolatry. All we are anxious, however, to note 
 here, is the substantial agreement of all antiquity in the 
 main points of the Mosaic narrative. Herodotus, Strabo, 
 Diodorus, Ctesias, and Alexander the Great, who also 
 Tisited the ruins, though differing in some minute par- 
 ticulars, dependent on the accuracy of their several 
 observations, and the general sources of their informa- 
 tion, yet agree in all the main facts, and present just 
 such a statement as, considering the age in which they 
 lived, and all the circumstances of the case, we might 
 have expected. Every thing comports minutely and per- 
 fectly with the much more brief and much earlier record 
 of Moses. 
 
 But the most remarkable circumstance, connected in 
 the Mosaic record with the origin of this building, is the 
 alleged miracle of the confusion of tongues, employed to 
 arrest its progress and scatter its builders. This state- 
 ment has to be tested, both by the facts and by the reason 
 of the case. The existing diversity of languages is, by 
 believers in revelation, attributed to this origin. Here is 
 presumed to be its source ; and, if this narrative is true, 
 then we conceive there may be found satisfactory proof. 
 
RELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. I J b 
 
 that nothing short of the agency here exhibited could have 
 originated that diversity which we now^find existing, no 
 doubt greatly increased since the first confusion, among 
 the languages of mankind. 
 
 Before we enter upon the inquiry, whether any natural 
 causes could have produced this diversity, in the first 
 instance it may be interesting to observe, how all early 
 and traditionary accounts correspond with the Mosaic in 
 this particular. The Greeks attributed the diversity of 
 human languages to a divine interposition, and so far they 
 confirm the main fact, though, according to their custom, 
 they have wrought it up into a fiible. They report, that, 
 under the happy reign of Saturn, all terrestrial creatures, 
 including birds, beasts and men, had but one common 
 language, and that they sent a deputation to Saturn, com- 
 plaining that they should be denied a prerogative granted 
 to serpents, which are annually renewed by shedding their 
 old skin ; and, at the same time, entreating that they also 
 might be endowed with immortality. Saturn, in great 
 indignation, refused their petition, and, in judgment for 
 their ingratitude for what he had, in sovereign pleasure, 
 bestowed upon them, confounded their language, and 
 thereby separated and scattered them.-= 
 
 Mr. Jacob Bryant also gives us, from a Greek author, 
 an account of a tradition relative to the confusion of 
 tongues, preserved in an Egyptian temple of great anti- 
 quity. The translation is as follows : 
 
 " But "wlien tlie judgments of the Almighty God 
 ^Vere ripe for execution ; when the tower 
 Rose to the skies upon Assyria's plain, 
 And all mankind one language only knew; 
 A dread commission from on liigh was given 
 To the fell whirlwinds, which, with dire alarm, 
 Beat on the tower, and to its base 
 Shook it convulsed. And now all intercourse, 
 By some occult and over-ruling power, 
 
 * Plato in Politico, and I'liilo " De Ccnfus. Ling." may be consulted. 
 
J 10 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 Ceased among men ; by utterance they strove, 
 Perplexed and anxious to disclose tlieir mind, 
 But their lips failed them ; and, in lieu of words, 
 Produced a painful, bubbling sound : the place 
 Was hence called Babel ; by th' apostate ci-ew 
 Named from th' event. Thus severed far a'.yaj', 
 They sped, uncertain, into realms unknoAvn : 
 Thus kingdoms rose, and the glad world was filled."* 
 
 But we must now approach the principal inquiry with 
 which the authority of Moses, as an inspired historian, is 
 implicated. 
 
 There are two branches into which this question divides 
 itself. The first is, Whether human language appears to 
 have been originally one, or bears traces of several inde- 
 pendent originations : the second is, Whether, supposing 
 its primitive individuality — the cause assigned by Moses 
 for the existing diversities is the true one ; or whether 
 they might not all have grown, by time and the changes 
 of human affairs, out of the single original language. 
 These two inquiries must be separately pursued before we 
 can complete our argument, and arrive at a satisfactory 
 conclusion. 
 
 The first is a question which has been long and labo- 
 riously treated, and, until late years, with an aspect far 
 from favourable towards the Mosaic record. The course 
 of inquiry seemed to prove, that the immense differences 
 existing among the languages of the world could never 
 have arisen out of a common or parent stock; but as these 
 inquiries have advanced and become matured, unsus- 
 })ected affinities have been discovered, and fragments of 
 some original tongue have appeared everywhere traceable, 
 as supplying common elements to them all. Moreover, 
 it has been determined by these researches, that as each 
 class of languages is marked by affinities with other 
 classes, and these affinities bear no trace of beiucr de- 
 
 'O 
 
 * " Bryant's Mythol." vol. iv. p. 100, and " Clarlison's Eesearcli:s," p. ICo. 
 
EELATING TO THE CliEATION, ETC. 117 
 
 scended lineally from each other, but to be independent 
 branches from a common root or stock, the conclusion ie 
 naturally and necessarily drawn, that at one period there 
 existed only that one form of language, which has com- 
 municated these common elements to all, and which so 
 identify and concentrate them as to make it next to im- 
 possible that they should have had independent and 
 original formations of their own. The differences are not 
 great enough to necessitate independent originations, and 
 the resemblances are too striking to comport with any 
 theory but that of a common source ; so that the strictly 
 philological controversy may now be said to have deprived 
 the unbeliever of all right 'to question this important part 
 of the Mosaic statement. 
 
 Before I proceed, however, to the remaining branch of 
 our inquiry, it may be gratifying to lay before the reader 
 a few of the conclusions at which the most eminent philo- 
 logists have arrived, upon the primitive unity of human 
 speech. Even those who, like Klaproth, entertain no 
 reverence for the sacred history, still accede to the theory 
 of a single primitive tongue, and differ from Scripture 
 only as to the cause of the first deviation. This celebrated 
 philosopher says, referring to his own researches : " The 
 universal affinity of language is placed in so strong a 
 light, that it must be considered by all as completely 
 demonstrated. This (the affinity) appears inexplicable 
 on any other hypothesis than that of admitting fragments 
 of a primary language to exist through all the languages 
 of the old and new world." * Frederic Schlegel, Paravey, 
 Merian, Humboldt, Herder, and all the most eminent 
 linguists and philosophers, have come to the same con- 
 clusion. The celebrated philologist, Court de Gebelin — 
 who, thirty or forty years ago, published his great work, 
 entitled " Le Monde primitif analyse " &c., in 9 vols. 4to, 
 
 * Asia Polyglotta, Vorrede, s. ix. 
 
J 1 y MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 and from Avhich his work on the " History of Languages " 
 was extracted, and published separately — appears to have 
 anticipated the results of more recent researches, by ex- 
 pressing his decided opinion that all existing languages 
 are derived from one. Herder, though by no means 
 willing to subscribe to the inspiration of Moses, is yet as 
 clear and strong upon this point as we could wish. He 
 says : " As the human race is a progressive whole, the 
 parts of which are intimately connected, so must language 
 form also a united whole, dependent upon a common 
 origin. There is a great probability that the human race, 
 and language therewith, go back to a common stock, to 
 a first man, and not to several, 'dispersed in different parts 
 of the world." He even infers that mankind must, in the 
 first instance, have been widely and suddenly divided : 
 and yet he most strangely treats the record — which stated, 
 so long beforehand, these elaborated conclusions — as a 
 poetical fragment in tlie oriental style. His own philosophy, 
 however, brings him into an almost perfect agreement 
 with the sacred record. But we pass by his infidelity, 
 and, as we think, his inconsistency, for the sake of availing 
 ourselves of his philological authority, which might be 
 readily shown to be scarcely consistent with his opinion 
 of Moses. We pass on to Abel-Eemusat, the author of 
 " Kesearches into the Tartar Languages." He admits 
 that, "Beyond the epoch when profane history ceases, 
 there was a confusion (of tongues) which gave rise to them 
 all, and which such vain attempts have been made to 
 explain.'' * The most eminent writers on this interesting 
 subject have not overlooked the position in which they 
 are placed by these admissions. Their surrender to Moses 
 of the fact — so long and so sturdily disputed — that ori- 
 ginally all mankind used one speech, approximates them 
 so nearly to submission to the inspired authority, that 
 
 * Vol. i. p. xxix. 
 
JiELATlNG TO THE CREATION, ETC. 119 
 
 they have found it necessary explicitly to deny the miracle, 
 and labour, with double diligence and skill, to prove it 
 fabulous, and explain the fact by natural causes — with 
 what success we have yet to see. Some of them have, 
 indeed, clearly perceived that, upon the admissions already 
 made, they can hardly hesitate to proceed to the next 
 step ; because they cannot satisfy themselves that any 
 knov\'n causes, or any process observed by them, can 
 adequately account for the first deviation. This point, 
 however, I reserve, and shall at present only lay before 
 you the opinions of two other eminent scholars. Niebuhr's 
 early opinion was opposed to the doctrine of a violent 
 and miraculous confusion; but his later and more matured 
 judgment is given in favour of the scriptural statement. 
 He says : " This fallacy escaped detection among the 
 ancieiits, probably because they admitted several distinct 
 races of mankind. They who deny these, and go hack to 
 a single ^;rti?', must, to account for the existence oj idioms 
 different in structure, suppose a miracle ; and for those 
 languages which differ in roots and essential qualities, 
 adhere to that of the confusion of tongues. The admission 
 of such a miracle offends not reason; since, as the remains 
 of the ancient world clearly show, that before the present 
 another order of life existed, so it is certainly credible 
 that this lasted entire after its commencement, and un- 
 derwent, at some period, an essential change." * 
 
 * NiebuhrRomisclie Gescliichte, 3 Ausgabe ler. Tli. s. 00. lu the 2n(l edit, 
 he stated his opinion as follows: " They who do not recognise such a plu- 
 rality, but ascend to a single pair of ancestors, betray that they have no idea 
 of languages and their modifications, unless tliey cling to tlie miracle of tlio 
 confusion of tongues, a miracle which may suihce with respect to sucli races, 
 as present no striking physical difference," j). 44. Even this shows that, in 
 Niebuhr's opinion, upon the admission of a single pair, and one original 
 language, nothing can account for the present diversities of language, but a 
 miracle. His opinion, as given in the text above, from tlie ord edition, 
 appears to have become still further modified, and to have approached nearer 
 to the Mosaic statement. 
 
120 MOSAIC Si^Vi'EMENT OF FACTS 
 
 I will cite only one opinion more. Adrien Balbi says : 
 "No monument, either historical or astronomical, has yet 
 been able to prove the books of Moses false; but with them, 
 on the contrary, agree, in the most remarkable manner, 
 the results obtained by the most learned philologers and 
 the profoundest geometricians." * 
 
 These opinions bear first upon the question of only 
 a single primitive tongue, and upon the necessity, on that 
 admission, of explaining the great diversity that obtained 
 among the earliest nations, by some sudden and violent 
 cause. But these testimonies are of immense importance 
 to our present argument ; because they come from persons 
 for the most part unfriendly to revelation — none of them 
 expressly engaged or concerned in defending it — and led 
 to their conclusions by facts and reasonings quite irre- 
 spective of its statement. These admissions simplify and 
 facilitate the remainder of our argument: first, by estab- 
 lishing the fact of an original unity of speech; and, 
 secondly, by narrowing our inquiry to the cause or causes 
 of the first deviation. 
 
 Moses attributes this first diversity which arose in 
 human language to a miracle. We apprehend it will be 
 found, upon examination, that no other adequate cause 
 can be assigned for it ; for though, at first sight of this 
 question, it would naturally be suggested that many diver- 
 sities of language, and even entirely new ones, have arisen 
 in a manner perfectly natural and explicable, yet none of 
 these cases can be applied to the solution of the difficulty 
 before us. 
 
 It is perfectly intelligible how two languages, commixed 
 by colonists from different places, or by the invasion of 
 the one upon the other, should produce a third language ; 
 but the admission of this throws no light upon the case 
 of a solitary language in the world, spoken by all the 
 
 * Atlas Ethnographique du Globe. Mappemonile, Etli. I. 
 
RELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 121 
 
 human beings then in it, becoming two or more : for, admit 
 that mankind once consisted of a few families, all speaking 
 the same language, and suppose them to multiply ever 
 so fast, yet it is obvious that the parent's language will 
 still descend from fiither to son, just as readily and as 
 necessarily as his nature. There being supposed no new 
 language to arise from any foreign quarter to invade the 
 old one, from whence is any sudden infraction or alter- 
 ation to originate? It would appear that the child viiist 
 learn the language of the parent; he can learn no other, 
 and so on through the entire succession of human gene- 
 rations. He can be under no inducement, he can be 
 influenced by no imaginable cause, to leave it off and 
 invent another for himself. He cannot, even if he w^ould, 
 abandon his mother tongue ; his very ideas are all bound 
 up in it. He must, in like manner, transmit his native 
 language to his children ; and thus no new language could 
 possibly arise out of a single one but by a process, in the 
 first instance, inconceivably slower than that which we 
 witness in the present day, when changes are flowing in 
 from various causes which could not then have supplied 
 them, because they did not exist. 
 
 It is conceivable, and perfectly natural, that as mankind 
 went on advancing in knowledge, in art, in science, and 
 in social refinement, they must enlarge their number of 
 words, they must improve their speech, both in its accu- 
 racy, variety, and harmony. It might become more arti- 
 ficial, it might be systematized, reduced even to written 
 characters or signs, but it would necessarily remain sub- 
 stantially the same language. 
 
 It has been stated and argued by the impugners of 
 revelation, that this account of the miraculous confusion 
 of tongues is irrational, and the miracle needless, because 
 a variety of languages must, in the course of time, natu- 
 rally arise, as mankind increased and multiplied. Hence 
 many have set themselves to show how all existing Ian- 
 
laa MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 guages might be traced up to a few primitive sounds ; 
 and so they imagine they can account for one of the most 
 remarkable facts attendant on the condition of human 
 nature. 
 
 But let it be imagined that mankind increased ever so 
 fast, and that this led to their separating for the sake of 
 support, and that they thus became distinct nations, as 
 widely spread, or as distantly separated as you will, yet 
 we may challenge opposers to the proof, that this could 
 effect anything more than a very slow and gradual change, 
 by no means answering to the great diversities which 
 prevailed immediately after the deluge. 
 
 There is a marked and powerful tendency in human 
 nature to presene a tongue once common, even under 
 every disadvantage arising from the introduction of a com- 
 mingling race and language. We have at the present 
 day a striking proof of this, in the maintenance of the 
 ancient British tongue, which, there can be no doubt, 
 is radically the same as it was more than 2000 years 
 ago ; and the same is true of the Chinese, and the lan- 
 guages of India, for a still longer period. 
 
 A writer on the opposite side of this argument, in reply 
 to Dr. Waterland, many years ago, endeavoured to remove 
 the difficulty by observing, that the cause of the variety 
 of languages in the world is " grounded on reason and 
 nature ; in the necessary mutability of human things ; the 
 rise and fall of states and empires ; change of modes and 
 customs, which necessarily introduce a proportionable 
 change of language." * But this is altogether unsatis- 
 factory. It will account for increasing varieties, where 
 variety already exists, for the enlargement of the primitive 
 language, but not for the first introduction of that great 
 diversity which began to prevail at an early period. Man- 
 kind, we admit, gain their ideas by degrees, and not all 
 
 * Ilevelation Examined witli Candouv, vol. ii. p. 105. 
 
KELATJNG TO THE CREATION, ETC. I'^S 
 
 at once ; but the introduction of newjdeas, and the con- 
 sequent introduction of new terms, will afford no clue 
 to the change of original terms, and the substitution of 
 new ones for old ideas. Thus, if we suppose mankind 
 universally at one time to have called a tree, a horse, a 
 river, by those very terms, their gaining the new ideas of 
 frost, ice, and snow would be peculiar to the times when 
 they came to inhabit those countries where they first saw 
 these things, and would yield no explanation why they 
 should, or how they could, ever come to change the names 
 of tree, horse, and river, into words of a totally different 
 sound ; as horse into hijtiws, tree into arbor, river into 
 flumen. 
 
 But, if it should be pleaded that all living languages are 
 in a constant state of flux, that new words are added, and 
 old ones discarded, yet we should then be entitled to ask, 
 whence do these changes now accrue, but from the inter- 
 course of different nations of mankind, speaking and learn- 
 ing different languages, and not at all from any mutability 
 of human affairs ? But all these causes being absent in the 
 supposed case, they could have had no influence in the 
 introduction of the first diversity. It is natural and neces- 
 sary, that the diversity once introduced, should have been 
 kept up, and even increased rapidly, by colonization, and 
 other causes; but it seems altogether unreasonable to 
 expect, that a primitive and solitary language should 
 rapidly, or almost suddenly, split into several, charac- 
 terized by the greatest diversities. 
 
 It is important to observe here, that those who object to 
 the miraculous cause assigned by Moses, have not only to 
 explain how the original change might naturally take place, 
 upon their own hypothesis ; they have also to overcome the 
 historical difficulty of the existence of many different lan- 
 guages, from the earliest time, to which the records of the 
 most ancient nations extend. Their hypotliesis is, that, 
 admitting what the researches of the most eminent lin- 
 
124 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 guists have now made probable, that all languages have 
 sprung from one source, their present varieties may be 
 sufficiently exiDlained, by the numerous causes which we 
 now observe working changes in existing languages. It 
 might even here be strongly argued, that no such immense 
 differences as are now found, and proved to have existed as 
 far back as we have any records, could have appeared so 
 early, had those differences been produced merely in this 
 way, and without some extraordinary intervention facilitat- 
 ing the operation of such causes. Languages must, in 
 that case, have been, at least, more obviously and closely 
 cognate. In particular, there would not have been such 
 radical, grammatical diversities, nor such totally diverse 
 terms for expressing the same thing; terms between 
 which, after allowing full scope to the imaginations of 
 philologists, no relation of resemblance can be discovered : 
 and no fair genealogy of resembling sounds made out. 
 We are not concerned to deny that there may be such un- 
 discovered, and, at present, undiscoverable resemblances : 
 and that if we were in possession of some intermediate 
 sounds, which may have become extinct, the transmuta- 
 tions might be traceable. x\ll we contend for here is, that 
 there exists no positive proof of such a transforming pro- 
 cess as is required to account for the very early existence 
 of those immense diversities, which all ethnical histories 
 attribute to the very beginning of their respective nations. 
 The hypothesis, therefore, under review, is deficient in 
 its proofs of such early resemblances, as might make it 
 plausible, that there had been only a gradual, and not 
 a sudden divergence from the original unity of speech. 
 Yet the philologist, who adopts the preceding hypothesis, 
 is bound to make this out. We plead against it the im- 
 probability that the early nations could have exhibited 
 such very different languages, unless some extraordinary 
 and miraculous interposition had occurred to facilitate the 
 change, and make it comparatively palpable at once. 
 
EELATING TO THE CKEATION, ETC. 125 
 
 But we are even willing, for the sake of argument, to 
 allow the objector his premises, — to admit, that, suppose 
 time enough, there might be causes operating perpetually 
 through an indefinite period, which might produce all the 
 varieties which we now observe in language. Though we 
 have before endeavoured to show, that it is difficult to con- 
 ceive of the existence of such causes, we cannot pretend, 
 certainly, to deinonstrate that these never did exist. It 
 may, therefore, for argument's sake, be admitted, that, as 
 the peo2^1e who spoke the one language multiplied in num- 
 bers, extended their territory, and became separated into 
 tribes and nations, various dialectical differences might 
 obtain, which would introduce a considerable amount of 
 divergence in the forms and sounds of words, inflections, 
 and terminations ; that new objects and new modes of life, 
 the result of living in other climates ; that new customs 
 and habits, and the general progress of civilization, might 
 produce a considerable variety of new terms and combina- 
 tions of old ones ; that wars and invasions of one tribe or 
 nation by another, but especially that conquests might 
 again produce fresh combinations of these, at first, com- 
 l^aratively slight dialectical varieties, and that in all sorts 
 of proportions ; that the same causes continuing to operate 
 through a longer period, and upon a wider scale, might 
 again multiply, even geometrically, fresh combinations of 
 these combinations, and so on, till all these varieties of 
 languages were produced, which we now find among the 
 nations. 
 
 We have said, that such an hypothesis as to the j^ossi- 
 hillty of accounting for the phenomena in question, shall 
 be admitted ; but then it is necessary that there should be 
 sufficient time for the production of the result. To judge of 
 this, let us consider the rate at which languages usually 
 change, merely under the influence of natural causes. It 
 is to be observed, that we possess ample means for deter- 
 mining the ordinaiy pace at which these changes advance ; 
 
126 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 and it may, moreover, be fairly argued, that the process by 
 which the one original language would be gradually split 
 into others, must be immensely slower than those pro- 
 duced in any given language, after others have been formed. 
 But we will not insist even upon this, since our argument 
 will allow us to give it up. We will suppose, for the oppo- 
 nent's benefit, that the rate of change has always been just 
 what it has been within the last thousand years. More 
 than this, the opponent surely would not wish to claim. 
 We mii^ht vield him far less. 
 
 If, then, however considerable the difference between 
 modern English and Anglo-Saxon, between modern Greek 
 and ancient Greek, the present language of Italy and the 
 language of classic Rome, the resemblances between them 
 are so striking and undeniable, after all sorts of causes 
 have been working upon them for more than a thousand 
 years, how long a period would be required to ensure the 
 almost total dissimilarity which exists between some lan- 
 guages of the earth, and which (to make the argument 
 complete) have been as dissimilar as they now^ are from the 
 earliest date of which we have any records. There are 
 some of these languages which have been almost immu- 
 tably the same, and as much unlike each other as they are 
 now for the last 2500 years, some of them for a still longer 
 period, leaving scarcely 1500 for effecting this total dis- 
 similarity, which, we know, was in existence at the very 
 remotest date to which either history or tradition extends, 
 and in existence in the same degree of dissimilarity, simul- 
 taneously, among all the early nations. 
 
 But, if the objector should reply, he is not bound to the 
 chronology of Moses and the date of Noah's flood, and 
 why allow only 15U0 years for effecting this change; why 
 not allow 50,000, or 100,000, or any indefinite period ? It 
 is answered, but quite irrespectively of the authority of 
 Moses, because it is now universally admitted, that the 
 present races and nations originated at no very remote 
 
TiELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 127 
 
 period.- The most scientific geologists have determined 
 this ; and it is confirmed by the total absence of all his- 
 torical record, and of all tradition beyond the date of 4000 
 years from the present time. Hence it clearly appears, 
 that these great diversities could not have been wrought 
 by time, because many of them can be traced up to a date 
 very near to that which is assigned to the present race of 
 men, when it is agreed there was but one speech. So that 
 we find very great diversities within a century or two of 
 the flood. 
 
 Let it be observed, that our present argument does not 
 require that we should define anything of the amount of 
 change produced by the miraculous confusion, or the ex- 
 tent of that infraction which was made on the ordinary 
 laws of our nature. Several of the most eminent linguists 
 of the continent have thought that it must have been very 
 considerable, and even extending beyond dialectical varie- 
 ties. A change of some amount, or an infringement of 
 some extent, is all for which we here contend. It might 
 have consisted either of the substitution of several entirely 
 new languages, or merely of such extensive dialectical dif- 
 ferences, as should serve to render men totally unintel- 
 ligible to each other. The latter would, apart from the 
 examination of the early state of the first languages, appear 
 to be the more probable ; first, because it would accord 
 with the fact, that all languages seem more or less trace- 
 able to one origin or type ; secondly, because this would 
 supply all that was necessary for the intended result of 
 dispersion, and the Divine Being never works greater mira- 
 
 * Humboldt appears to have perceived the difficulty of admittiug speech 
 to be a purely human invention. He considers it in that view perfectly in- 
 exphcable ; although the hypothesis, he says, might be rendered plausible, by 
 .supi^obing thousands and thousands of yeai:<. Yet this supposition, he did not 
 observe, Avas precluded by the comparatively recent date of the existing races 
 of mankind. His conclusion is, that " language could not have been in- 
 vented witbout its type pre-e:isting in man." — Acts of the Berlin Bey al Acad. 
 1822, 1 . 217. 
 
r^8 MOSAIC STATE:\rENT OF FACTS 
 
 cles than are necessary ; and, thirdly, it would be in entire 
 harmony with tlie laws which appear to have been intended, 
 subsequently and ijermanently, to produce continued changes 
 in language through all human generations. Diversity of 
 tongues, then, it seems, even in this view, could never have 
 been introduced among mankind, but by miracle. To this 
 Moses ascribes it, and human history, as well as philo- 
 logical speculation, does but confirm and illustrate his 
 statement. 
 
 Every attempt to explain this fact, upon the supposition 
 of other causes, has utterly failed, and the more the present 
 diversity is considered, the more certain and reasonable 
 will the Mosaic account of it appear. Here, then, we con- 
 ceive, is to be found, and here alone, the true cause of the 
 first diversity, and in this argument is presented a fresh 
 and convincing proof of the divine inspiration of Moses. 
 Inspiration alone can account for his knowledge of a fact, 
 which, after infinite toil, learning is constrained to confirm 
 and verify. 
 
 ORIGIN OF NATIONS TRADITIONS OF THE PLACE WHE^'CE THE 
 
 HUMAN TRIBES WERE ORIGINALLY DERIVED, WITH THE PRIN- 
 CIPAL DIVISIONS OF THE HUMAN FAMILY. 
 
 The Mosaic narrative, as we have seen, clearly deter- 
 mines the general fact, that the first permanent settlement 
 of mankind, after the flood, was in the plain of Shinar. 
 There they built the stupendous tower, the ruins of which, 
 scattered along the banks of the Euphrates, still indicate 
 this to be the depository of the earliest memorials, both of 
 the human race and of human art. According to the sacred 
 narrative, this must have been the fountain head and 
 source, whence the streams of population have flowed into 
 all the other regions of the earth. If this account, there- 
 fore, be accurate, we may expect tliat the traditions of the 
 diff"ercnt nations will mainly correspond with it, and that 
 
lii::LATlNG TO THE CREATION, ETC. 129 
 
 various means may be found in ethnical histories of corro- 
 borating the sacred record of Moses. This is really found 
 to be the case, for all nations, possessed of any tolerable 
 degree of civilization, and particularly those that can trace 
 any connexion with the earlier branches of the great human 
 family, preserve some traditions, or show some proofs, of 
 their connexion with the East, or those that migrated from 
 it. Many nations have even preserved references to the 
 earlier race of men who preceded the flood, and to the 
 paradisaical state, while almost the whole world has handed 
 down, in its traditions, the fact of the re-peopling from a 
 single family. 
 
 It seems necessary here, first, to notice the relation 
 which ethnographical and scientific chronology bears at 
 present to the sacred word. Ahnost from the infancy of 
 this study, till within a comparatively few years, it has been 
 employed as one of the main supports of infidelity, and 
 has supplied a formidable impeachment of Moses. At one 
 time it was thought that Assyria and Chaldea must be rich 
 in materials for the confutation of the brief chronolos^v of 
 Scripture, and that, if their antiquities could but be investi- 
 gated, and their histories recovered, they would supply- 
 ample proof of an origin incomiDarably more venerable than 
 Moses assigns to them. But all the monuments were 
 mute, or the few that spoke disappointed the gainsayer, 
 and corroborated Moses. So the learned unbeliever aban- 
 doned these, and turned to consult other oracles. 
 
 China next presented a most hopeful source of opportune 
 reinforcement to scepticism, and all that was lacking might, 
 it was supposed, be supplied, by investigating their history 
 and philosophy, prior to the times of their great Confucius. 
 Still Chinese literature, at least so far back, supposing 
 such a thing existed, was inaccessible. Egypt, it was then 
 presumed, must be rich in confutation of the Hebrew legis- 
 lator; but, unfortunately, a seal was set alike on the lips 
 of their mummies, the tombs of their kings, and the hiero- 
 
 V. K 
 
130 MOSAIC STATEMEN'T OF FACTS 
 
 glyphics of their temples, and nothing better than vague 
 conjectures could be collected. But, at last, India, with 
 all its treasures, was laid at our feet. Its philosophy, anti- 
 quities, religions, and languages ; its subteiTanean pene- 
 tralia, and its sacred records, as well as its interminable 
 dynasties, would, it was suggested, undoubtedly divulge 
 proofs of an extraordinary antiquity, and, most probably, 
 open some avenue to the literary treasures both of China 
 and Egypt. Long did the opponents of revelation look 
 Avishfully forward to the day when these three sources of 
 ancient wisdom should be unsealed to them. They con- 
 fidently anticipated, many even triumphantly predicted, 
 that a flood of light would be poured upon human history 
 and mimdane chronology; but, above all, a whole ocean of 
 shame to overwhelm the sacred historian and all his in- 
 fatuated disciples. 
 
 Now, while our knowledge of these ancient nations was 
 young and immature, it was both rash and credulous. 
 Sometimes it was terrified by mere spectres ; often, in its 
 eager haste, it over-leaped the truth, and, without suspicion, 
 credited the enormous calculations and traditions of a 
 fabulous mythology. But, by degrees, it grew manly and 
 wise, cautious and calculating, and then the giants dwin- 
 dled into dwarfs, the mountains sank into mole-hills. The 
 interminable ages Ave once heard of, have at last melted 
 down into a few centuries, and all the mists, which had 
 distorted and magnified everything, have disappeared. 
 
 The Astronomy of the Hindoos was one of the most 
 vaunted demonstrations, that their eras must be placed 
 long anterior to the times of Moses. Mons. Bailly was the 
 first man of eminent science, who was perhaps himself 
 deluded, but who certainly deluded the scientific, and 
 scared the Christian world, with his astronomical calcula- 
 tions applied to the Hindoo chronology. But all his unfor- 
 tunate theories have been examined and overthrown by his 
 own countrymen, Laplace, Montucla, and Delambre, as 
 
EELATING TO THE CKEATION, ETC. lol 
 
 well as by Colebrook and Davis, in England. Mr. Bentley, 
 also, in his " Historical Review of the Hindoo Astronomy,"* 
 has placed, beyond all reasonable doubt, the general agree- 
 ment of their chronology with the Mosaic ; and shown that 
 the state of science, which they antedated by several mil- 
 lions of years, cannot possibly be older than the tenth or 
 eleventh century of the Christian era. Laplace, whose 
 wishes to subserve the cause of Moses none will suspect, 
 but whose opinion, upon an astronomical question, few will 
 feel inclined to dispute, says, " The origin of astronomy in 
 Persia and India is lost, as among all other nations, in the 
 darkness of their ancient history. The Indian tables sup- 
 pose a very advanced state of astronomy ; but there is every 
 reason to believe they can claim no very high antiquity. 
 Herein I differ, with pain, from an illustrious and unfor- 
 tunate friend." Meaning Bailly. Numerous other astro- 
 nomers and mathematicians of the highest rej)utation, such 
 as Heeren, Cuvier, Klaproth, and Dr. Maskelyne, have 
 traversed the same subject, and completely exploded, on 
 scientific grounds, the enormous and fabulous antiquity of 
 Hindoo science. 
 
 In the historical, philological, and ethnographical de- 
 partments of the same subject, Sir W. Jones, Hamilton, 
 Wilfort, Col. Tod, and Heeren seem to have left no further 
 room for vague conjecture. Klaproth has even placed the 
 true commencement of genuine chronological history in 
 India at so recent a date as the twelfth century of the 
 Christian era. 
 
 The fact now is, after the most elaborate and protracted 
 researches of numerous philosophers of all creeds, and of 
 no creeds, that about 2,000 years before the time of Christ, 
 is agreed to be the very earliest date at which any part of 
 India can be supposed to have been inhabited by powerful 
 and settled nations. This brings their chronology, as Sir 
 
 * London, 182-5. 
 
132 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 W. Jones suggested and anticij^ated, to about the time of 
 Abraham. 
 
 The Chinese chronology, characterized as it is by similar 
 fables, and similar exaggeration, has been subjected to the 
 same process of examination, and the analysis scarcely 
 assigns to it so early a commencement. Many of the 
 most eminent chronologers doubt, whether their settle- 
 ment ought to be dated more than a thousand years prior 
 to the Christian era. The latest authority, and confessedly 
 one of the most eminent upon this subject, is that of Col, 
 James Tod, who, in his " Annals and Antiquities of Rajas- 
 than," says, " I venture to place the establishment in India 
 l^roper of those two grand races, distinctly called those of 
 Soorya and Chandra, at about 2,250 years before the Chris- 
 tian era, at wiiich period, though somewhat later, the Egyp- 
 tian, Chinese, and Assyrian monarchies are generally stated 
 to have been established, and about a century and a half 
 after that great event, the flood."* 
 
 In like manner the zodiacs of Dendera and Esneh, the 
 Rosetta stone, and the tombs of the Egyj)tian kings, have 
 refused to supply any contradiction of the sacred record. 
 The mysteries expected to be divulged by the Egyptian 
 monuments have all vanished before the eyes of the learned 
 interpreters, and, instead of long lists of princes, extending 
 back to millions of years before the date of Moses, they 
 have deciphered the names of Ptolemy and Cleopatra, 
 Ramses and Shishak ; and in place of invalidating the 
 sacred record, and disturbing the sacred chronology, every 
 thing hitherto brought to light has not only comported 
 with our Scriptures, but contributed, in a most remarkable 
 manner, such as no forgery could ever admit, to attest their 
 accuracy, and to clear up some points which had before 
 been involved in much mystery. f 
 
 * Tod's Annals and Antiquities of Eajastlaan, vol. i. p. 37. 
 
 + Since this lecture was first printed, tlie important and most interesting 
 discoTerics of Dr. Layard, and his immense collections of Assyrian antiquities, 
 have further and most fully confirmed the same general fact. The chronology 
 of the Bible is now substantiaHj' established. 
 
PiELATlNG TO THE CREATION, ETC. 133 
 
 Thus, then, we see, that the Indian, Chinese, and Egyp- 
 tian chronologies are brought, in all their extent and details, 
 by the independent and scientific researches of philoso- 
 phers, many of them declared unbelievers, into a most 
 singular and unexpected identity with the authoritative 
 document ; unexpected, because, had some discrepancy 
 been found, it would not have been wonderful on such a 
 subject, and extending into ages so remote. The conclu- 
 sion to which we are brought, then, is this ; there is no 
 real chronology, and no true history, earlier than that of 
 the inspired historian. Few national histories can be traced 
 even so far back as the age of Abraham, and most assuredly 
 none prior to the IMosaic date of the confusion and disper- 
 sion at Babel. The plain of Shinar, then, was the true 
 nursery and cradle of mankind. From hence, as from a 
 fountain in the mountain's side, small at first, but rapidly 
 increasing, all the streams of human population have flowed 
 and diverged. From the event of their confused speech 
 and necessary dispersion, immediately commenced the 
 diverse nations which sprang up in India, Egypt, Assyria, 
 and China, mature and mighty almost at once, and fulfil- 
 linc: the renewed benediction of their Creator, " to be fruit- 
 ful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." 
 
 But we must now endeavour to collect a few j^artictdars, 
 in the history of nations, which will still further verify the 
 Mosaic statement. 
 
 From Noah proceeded, according to the Bible, three 
 principal stems, each of which became the parent-stock of 
 many nations. There are two things to be observed in the 
 history of this tripartite division of mankind, which remark- 
 ably verify the sacred record. The Jirst is, that most, if 
 not all, the known inhabitants of the world, qan be, and, 
 indeed, have been, traced up to the one or tlie other of 
 these three roots, and to no others. The second thing, 
 which furnishes a still more striking proof of the in- 
 spiration of our sacred books, is the fulfilment of the 
 domestic prophecy of Noah, preserved by Moses, respect- 
 
131 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 ing the permanent condition and destiny of his threefold 
 descendants. 
 
 Each of these sources of testimony to the truth of the 
 Mosaic narrative must be somewhat further examined. It 
 is difficult to compress the necessary illustration into the 
 limits which can be here allowed to it. But it may be 
 sufficient to present a brief outline, and refer to Mr. Sharon 
 Turner for its fuller illustration and proof. 
 
 He begins with Ham, who had four sons, Cusb, Mizraim, 
 Phut, and Canaan. These represent the regions and an- 
 cestors of Ethiopia, Egypt, Lybia, and Canaan. 
 
 " Cush represents to us the regions and people of 
 Ethiopia, that part of the east district of Africa which 
 spread from Meroe, in Upper Egypt, along the Ked Sea, 
 towards the Indian Ocean. Both the natives and the an- 
 cient Jews denominated this country Cush. They came 
 from the Indus into this territory, on the frontiers of Egypt, 
 and became distinguished among mankind for their equity, 
 sagacity, and general probity. 
 
 " From Cush came children, of whom the settlements of 
 some seem to have been in Arabia; and this may have 
 occasioned his name to be applied to some tribes or dis- 
 tricts in that peninsula. His most celebrated son was 
 Nimrod, the declared founder of that kingdom, which is 
 called Babel in Hebrew, and which is the term applied, in 
 the historical books of Jewish Scripture, for Babylon and 
 its empire. 
 
 " From Mizraim, the colonies which established them- 
 selves in Egypt descended. The most ancient sacred 
 writers, as well as the later ones, apply the name of this 
 ancestor to this country ; and in the time of Josephus 
 his countrymen continued to do so. The name of his 
 father, Ham, was also attached to it. From Mizraim, 
 also, descended several other tribes, who settled chiefly 
 in Africa. 
 
 " Phut became the ancestor of the Lybian population. 
 
RELATING TO THE CEEATION, ETC. 135 
 
 and stands in Scripture as the denomination by which this 
 portion of mankind is designated. 
 
 " From one of the sons of Mizraim sprang that people 
 who, under the name of Philistines, were, for some time,- 
 formidable to the Israelites, and who established them- 
 selves between the Mediterranean and Judea. His son, 
 Canaan, is distinguished as the progenitor of the Phoeni- 
 cians ; for Sidon is declared to have been his first-born, 
 and was one of the most ancient and distinguished cities 
 of the east. The family of Canaan spread from Sidon to 
 Gaza, along the Mediterranean, and inland as far as the 
 Dead Sea ; other nations also sprang from him, among 
 whom the Sinites, from the similarity of name, may have 
 been those of Tsin, or China. From Canaan, in the same 
 Ham line, issued those nations who became so depraved 
 in their corrupted civilizations, as to be ordained to perish 
 in their conflict with the Jewish nation, when, on their 
 refusal to resist [alloiv) their entrance, they were invaded, 
 subdued, and destroyed by it. 
 
 " From Shem proceeded the Abrahamic nations, and, 
 apparently, the Assyrian state ; for Asshur was his son, 
 and Asshur is said to have built Nineveh, the metropolis 
 of the Assyrian empire, and some of its chief cities. 
 
 " Four great streams of nations have issued from Abra- 
 ham. The Edomites, or Idumeans, the red men of the 
 East, who fixed their name on the Ked Sea, descendins: 
 from his grandson, Esau; the Jews from his grandson, 
 Jacob ; the Arabs from his son, Ishmael, by the Egyptian, 
 Hagar ; and those tribes and nations, which arose in the 
 east of Syria, from his last children by Keturah. Two of 
 these, the Jews and the Arabians, we know to have mul- 
 tiplied into great importance and celebrity, and to have 
 continued in ever-renewed and preserved generations, 
 amid all the waste and vicissitudes of destroying time, 
 from the days of Abraham to our own time. 
 
 •' Japhet, or Japet, seems to have been the ancestor of 
 
136 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 the chief populations, both of ancient and modern Europe, 
 and Higher Asia. He seems to have been the Japetus, 
 whom all the Grecian and Eoman traditions, transmitted 
 to us by their poets and mythologists, exhibit as the 
 ancestor of the human race. Seven sons, and as many 
 grandsons, from two of the others, are ascribed to him by 
 Moses. The Turks and Turcomans, their original stock, 
 deduce themselves, and the Tartars and jMoguls, from him 
 by another child. The sons, Medai and Javan, represent 
 the Medes and Greece. 
 
 " Of the other children of Japhet, his eldest, Gomer, is 
 considered to be the ancestor of the Kimmerians. Magog 
 is identified with the Scythian by Josephus, whose country 
 we now call Tartary, and to whom the posterity of Magog 
 is extended. Mesech and Tubal are believed to designate 
 those who settled in Cappadocia, and in Iberia, near the 
 Euxine. From Tiras the Thracians sprung. The grand- 
 sons by Gomer are thus stationed, by the best investigation 
 of these topics : Askenaz in Phrygia Minor and Bythinia; 
 and Togarmah in Armenia. Kipath is referred by Josephus 
 to Paphlagonia, but may belong to some of the northern 
 populations of Europe. 
 
 " Javan's sons appear to have large relations with Europe. 
 Elisha is identified with Hellas in Greece ; Tarshish with 
 Tartessus, in Spain ; Kittim is considered to designate 
 Italy; the other son's name, having been written with a 
 variation in the commencing letter, can be less certainly 
 fixed. I may conclude these derivations by adding, that to 
 Japhet and his offspring are ascribed generally, by the 
 Mosaic record, all the insular or maritime populations and 
 colonies of the Gentile nations."* 
 
 From these statements it would appear, that Europe, 
 
 Asia, and Africa, owe their various nations, in their vast 
 
 extent and long succession, to the three sons of Noah. As 
 
 we ascend upward in time, the branches every where con- 
 
 * Abridged from Sharon Turner, Sacred Hist. vol. ii. p. 4*50, &c. 
 
RELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. lo7 
 
 duct ITS to these three principal stems, and these as clearly 
 unite in their common parent, Noah. Of the Aborigines 
 of America, the descent is not yet clearly ascertained. 
 
 The two principal methods of determining the affinity 
 of nations are, by comparing their physical characters 
 and their languages with those of other nations. These 
 methods have both been employed in examining the history 
 of the American races. Baron Von Humboldt, Professor 
 Vater, and M. Duponceau have carefully and extensively 
 examined the languages of this continent. They all admit 
 the peculiarity, diversity, and complexity of its dialects 
 generally, but agree that they all appear to have sprung 
 from a common mother-tongue. Strong resemblances 
 have been traced between these languages, and some of 
 those spoken in Northern Asia, from which it is inferred, 
 that there has certainly been an interchange of inhabitants 
 between the two continents. 
 
 Of the physical characters. Dr. Pritchard observes, " The 
 evidence arising from this comparison, whatever it may be, 
 is of much greater weight, as coinciding with that obtained 
 from another quarter. It is in the idioms of Northern 
 Asia, that the most numerous analogies have been dis- 
 covered to those of the Western Continent, and to the 
 people of the same region, the physical structure of the 
 American races displays by far the nearest resemblance." 
 Humboldt says, " We cannot refuse to admit, that the 
 human species does not contain races resembling one 
 another more nearly than the Americans, the Mongoles, 
 the Mantchoos, and the Malays." Dr. Pritchard adds, that 
 " the opinion of Blumenbach and Von Humboldt has been 
 confirmed by the distinguished naturalists, Von Spix and 
 Von Martins, who were lately sent by the King of Bavaria 
 into South America. — These writers have made the fol- 
 lowing remarks on the resemblances between the native 
 Americans and the Chinese colonists settled in the Brazils. 
 ' The physiognomy of the Chinese was particularly inter- 
 
138 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 esting to us, and was, in the sequel, still more so, because 
 we thought we could perceive in them the fundamental 
 lines which are remarked in the Indians.' ' In comparing 
 the Mongole physiognomy with the American, the observer 
 has opportunity enough to find traces of the series of de- 
 velopments through which the eastern Asiatic had to pass, 
 in order, at length, to be transformed into an American.'" 
 It appears, therefore, highly probable that the Aborigines 
 of America are of Semitic origin. But of the modern 
 colonizing, which may be denominated a re-peopling of 
 this vast continent, and which has been proceeding at so 
 extraordinary a rate, the source is obviously and wholly 
 Jape tic. 
 
 We now proceed to examine, secondly, the prophecy 
 which, according to Moses, was pronounced by Noah 
 upon his three sons, and their descendants. It is recorded, 
 Gen. ix. 25 — 27, "And he said. Cursed be Canaan : a ser- 
 vant of servants shall he be unto his brethren." And he 
 said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem : and Canaan shall 
 be his servant. God shall enlarge Japhet, and he shall 
 dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be his ser- 
 vant." Canaan is the particular object of the curse, but it 
 seems from the whole narrative, that Ham and his descend- 
 ants generally were intended. So some manuscripts read, 
 " cursed be Ham,'' instead of Canaan ; and it is distinctly 
 stated, twice over, that " Ham was the father of Canaan'' 
 The mention of Canaan, in connexion with his father, 
 seems to imply that they were both implicated in the guilt 
 of that horrid deed, for which they were accursed by their 
 great progenitor. But the main question before us is this, 
 does the history of these three classes of nations verify the 
 prediction here pronounced ? To this question we j:) re- 
 sume an answer must be given in the affirmative. The 
 ethnical histories of the descendants of Shem, Ham, and 
 
 * " Accursed shall Ham be in liis sou Caiiaaii. The most abject slave 
 shall he be unto his brethren." 
 
RELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 139 
 
 Japbet all verify, in an extraordinary manner, these remark- 
 able predictions. 
 
 Japhet's descendants have been wonderfully enlarged, as 
 the name signifies. They now occupy Europe, a great 
 part of Asia ; and, certainly, a numerous portion of the 
 American population is of Japhetic descent. It is dis- 
 tinctly said, that Japliet should " dwell in the tents of 
 Shem." And the tendency has always been in this direc- 
 tion. The descendants of Japhet have been continually 
 encroaching on the nations which sprang from Shem. 
 Thus, in early times, Scythians invaded Media, and sub- 
 dued Western Asia. In after times, the Greeks and Eo- 
 mans overran and subdued the Assyrians, Medes, Persians, 
 Syrians, and Jews. Again, the Tartar have repeatedly 
 encroached upon the Hindoos and Chinese, while France, 
 Holland, and Great Britain have spread their colonies over 
 large tracts of territory, possessed by the descendants of 
 Shem, and literally dwelt in their tents. The tendency of 
 conquest has uniformly been from Europe to Asia, and 
 not from Asia towards Europe. 
 
 Further, it is affirmed, that Canaan, or Ham and his 
 descendants, should be the servants of Japhet ; and no fact 
 in history is more clear than the descent of the Africans 
 from Ham, and none is more fully established than the 
 degradation, wretchedness, and vassalage of the African 
 races from age to age. No portion of the human family 
 has been so destitute of high qualities and of civilization, 
 so barren of all that can dignify and elevate human nature, 
 so subject to every species of oppression. The Canaanites, 
 in particular, who proved to be the most obstinate enemies 
 of the descendants of Shem, were given up to slaughter 
 and expulsion. They migi-ated before Joshua into Africa, 
 and became the founders of Carthage, where they mixed 
 with the other descendants from their common progenitor, 
 Ham. But after a period of advancement and prosperity, 
 they were utterly overthro^^TL by the Bomans, the descend- 
 
140 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 ants of Japliet, and driven into the farthest part of Africa. 
 Even to this day, the curse is seen resting upon the natural 
 condition of these chiklren of Ham. For ages past, they 
 have been brought from the interior, and sold as slaves. 
 Tlieir condition is uniformly represented as deplorable 
 beyond description. All along their coast, with the excep- 
 tion of Egypt and Ethiopia, the inhabitants of which claim 
 another origin, they are subject to the haughty and cruel 
 oppression of the Turks. Through all the nations of Asia 
 and America, as well as in the European colonies, the 
 slave -markets are stocked with the children of Ham, sold 
 to perpetual bondage and suffering, under the descend- 
 ants of Shem and Japhet. 
 
 Let us now notice the portion of this remarkable predic- 
 tion which relates to Shem — 
 
 " Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall 
 be his servant." The word Shem, signifies renown, or a 
 name, and to the descendants of Shem have pertained the 
 greatest temporal renown and glory. They possessed the 
 fairest regions of the earth, and long upheld the mightiest 
 empires. But their chief renown has been in the line of 
 Abraham, from whom descended the promised seed that 
 was to bless all nations, and whom all nations were to call 
 blessed. The worship of the true God, the God of Noah 
 and of Shem, was continued in their family, and long con- 
 fined to them, while all the rest of the nations were sunk, 
 in idolatiy. "To them," says the Apostle Paul,* " per- 
 taineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, 
 and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the 
 promises. Whose are the fathers, and of whom, as con- 
 cerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed 
 for evermore."! 
 
 * Kora. ix. 4. 
 
 + For a fuller and more complete elucidation of these prophetic sentences 
 pronounced by Noah, and preserved by Moses, the reader is referred to " Lec- 
 tures on Prophecy, by !Mr. C. N. Davies," where the whole subject of the 
 destinies of Shem, Ham, and Japhet is ably examined and illustrated. 
 London, 1836. 12mo. 
 
RELATING TO THE CREATION, ETC. 141 
 
 Thus it clearly appears, that a marked division, or classi- 
 fication of the human family, has obtained from the 
 earliest times. None of the changes to which the nature 
 of man and the^interests of nations are subject, have availed 
 to obliterate or remove these characteristics. They answer 
 in a most remarkable and convincing manner to their 
 threefold origination, and to the three sentences attached 
 to them by their common progenitor. No one can regard 
 the three great ancient geographical divisions of the globe, 
 without at once perceiving, that there is a clearly marked 
 distinction of national character. Europeans, Africans, and 
 Asiatics, though each including many nations, and many 
 great diversities of character and habit, cannot be con- 
 founded together, for each and all retain, to the present 
 day, a marked correspondence in their conditions to the 
 sentence pronounced on them by Noah. 
 
 These facts, altogether, are such as no human sagacity 
 could have foreseen. Considering the statement which 
 Moses presents to us, of the origination of all the nations 
 of the world in three parental heads, and the fact that, as 
 we ascend, througli the aid of history and language, tradi- 
 tion and antiquities, towards the time and the seat of the 
 first families, we find every thing converging to these three 
 fountains ; and, further, that every new discovery, every 
 circumstance that is brought to Hght, as well as every 
 ancient fable that is analysed, still points to the East as 
 the birth-place of the first men, and to the flood as the 
 means of destruction to a former race, and to the ark as 
 the instrument of preserving a single family for the re- 
 peopling of the world, and then to the grand triple classi- 
 fication ; and when we still further consider, in the history 
 of each of these gi'eat divisions, the characteristic sentence 
 of Noah, legibly inscribed, at the present time, upon the 
 nations that respectively owe their origin to Shem, Ham, 
 and Japhct, — it seems impossible, certainly unreasonable, 
 to refuse our assent to the inspiration of Moses. No im- 
 postor, and no mere philosopher, would have ventured 
 
14 '2 MOSAIC STATEMENT OF FACTS 
 
 upon such sweeping sentences, views so general, charac- 
 teristics so pecuUar. The correspondences between the 
 historical facts and the written record are such as no in- 
 genuity, no penetration, no calculations of human reason 
 could have anticipated. Who could have foreseen, in the 
 age at Avhich we are sure Moses wrote, that tlie Africans 
 would not emerge, and become the conquerors of Europe ? 
 or who could have predicted that the Asiatics, then com- 
 prising all the mighty empires, and almost all the civilized 
 world, would not oveiTun and subdue all the rest ? Who 
 could have determined that Europe, then as uncivilized 
 and degraded as Africa is now, indeed scarcely j^eopled, 
 should become the predominant section of mankind, van- 
 quish the vast empires of the East, dwell in the tents of 
 Shem, and make Africa its servant ? These great events in 
 the history of nations, then lay hid far beyond the reach of 
 human sagacity, and could have been foreseen only by that 
 wisdom w^hich discerneth the end from the beginning. 
 Yet they were foreseen and described by the pen of Moses, 
 and put on record in those few brief sentences, of which 
 all national histories are now found to furnish the most 
 obvious illustration and confirmation. 
 
 This, then, even by itself, would be a most striking and 
 convincing fulfilment of the sacred volume ; but when 
 viewed in connexion with the many other remarkable par- 
 ticulars, in which that same record has been already shown 
 to be fulfilled, it augments the strength of the general 
 argument to such a degree, as to make it altogether unrea- 
 sonable to doubt the inspiration of the sacred author. 
 
 If Moses were not inspired, it then devolves on his 
 opponents to show, either that he has anticipated nothing 
 that reason might not have foreseen, and foreseen in his 
 age and circumstances ; or, that the facts which history has 
 transmitted, or tradition preserved, contradict and con- 
 found the statements which he has recorded. 
 
 Neither of these things has been done, or can be done. 
 
RELATING TO THE CKEATION, ETC. 143 
 
 But, on the contrary, the most elaborate and extensive 
 researches into the history, condition, and circumstances 
 of mankind, seem fully to confirm every particular of his 
 record, and to prove, that he could have derived his know- 
 ledge from no human source, because it involves many 
 peculiarities, and critical niceties of statement, which 
 could not have been anticipated, and many obvious 
 improbabilities which merely human calculation would 
 have rejected. The inference, therefore, without any 
 reserve or quaUfication, is forced upon us — he must have 
 heeii taught of God. 
 
LECTUEE III. 
 
 On the Mental and Moral condition of' Human Nature, as corroLorative of 
 the Biblical Doctrine of the Fall, and its effects. 
 
 Adaptation of the mental and moral economy to the social relations and 
 personal interests — Tlie doctrine of a moral apostasy — How it may be 
 expected to affect our nature — E\'idenced by suffering, both mental and 
 bodily — Traces of social and individual degradation, combined with 
 vestiges of primitive excellence — Man's practical aversion from moral 
 goodness — Yet sentimental approbation — Objections and speculative 
 theories considered — Contrai'ieties and contradictions in human nature 
 — Notion of perfectibility — Passion for immortality — Loss of the true 
 knowledge of God — And, thereby, of the Supreme Good — General review 
 of his condition — And the arguments thence derived in corroboration of 
 the facts and doctrines of Eevelation. 
 
 There appears a remarkable analogy between the con- 
 viction of the truth and inspiration of the Bible, ordi- 
 narily produced by the candid perusal of its contents, and 
 the conviction generally felt of the being of a God. The 
 belief of mankind in the latter truth, is not founded in 
 any elaborate or logical arguments of the learned, but is 
 derived from what is visible, Avhat is experienced, and 
 what reason at once pronounces to be necessary. There 
 is a kind of obvious and continuous proof always offered 
 to our understanding, and regularly supplied to each 
 generation, and all through the life and experience of 
 every man. It may be compared to a constant stream of 
 light, poured upon the rational soul, from all nature, 
 
MENTAL AND MOEAL CONDITION, ETC. 145 
 
 enabling it to understand its own mysterious conscious- 
 ness. 
 
 The evidence appeals to all our senses, and through 
 them to our reason, in all its degrees, from the lowest to 
 the highest. We feel the great truth thrust upon us by 
 every object and every circumstance. The conception of 
 supreme power and wisdom arises in our minds, as the 
 natural result of exercising our powers of perception and 
 reflection. To counteract this conviction is a work of 
 effort and artifice, of constraint and of delusion, of 
 subtlety and perverted reason. And, after all, there are 
 found but an inconsiderable few, who can be perverted and 
 corrupted, or pervert and corrupt themselves, into the 
 contrary opinion. Nature, in man and all his rel^itions, 
 counteracts the doctrine of the atheist. It cannot spread, 
 nor be effectually propagated, though it is found con- 
 tinually springing up afresh, like noxious weeds, in a rich 
 soil ; still it uniformly finds all the elements around un- 
 favourable to its growth. Every eye is made to behold the 
 works of the Almighty Creator ; every mind to contem- 
 I)late them in their mystery, majesty, and complexity ; 
 while reason itself, always searching after causes, dis- 
 covers none in chance, no rivalry of these works in human 
 art, and no power or will anywhere to which these works 
 can be attributed, but that which is properly infinite, inde- 
 pendent, and eternal. Hence all men, w4th a few incon- 
 siderable exceptions, confess themselves constrained, by 
 reason, by consciousness, and exi^erience, to believe that 
 here is a God. 
 
 Now something like this is the evidence which the 
 S"cripture statements gather from the consciousness and 
 experience of mankind. We see, and we feel, that the 
 whole system and state of things, and especially our own 
 condition, corresponds with the averments of revelation. 
 This conviction does not depend, in the major part of 
 believing minds, upon what is stated to be the numerous 
 
 V. L 
 
146 ON THE MENTAL AND MORAL 
 
 and "wonderful proofs of inspiration, derived from miracles 
 and prophecy, and other marks of divine authority, but 
 upon what is felt by our common reason to be obvious 
 truth. There is a saying among humble believers, con- 
 cerning the Bible, which appears to me to possess great 
 emphasis and significancy, "if« feel it to he true.'' Now 
 this conviction seems to be founded upon that fulfilment 
 of Scripture, which is always going on in the experience 
 of mankind ; which makes it a hght to every successive 
 generation ; which proves in the heart, like the solution of 
 an enigma or a hieroglyphic : it is a key to move the 
 secret springs of feeling, and by its correspondence with 
 nature in ourselves, or the principles of our moral and 
 intelleotual constitution, to attest the authority of that 
 word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. This 
 accordance it will now be our business to prove and 
 illustrate, in a class of coincidences differing essentially 
 from those already discussed, and arising out of the 
 mental and moral condition of human nature. 
 
 In the present branch of this investigation, it seems 
 desirable to premise a few observations, on the human 
 mind itself, since, from the phenomena observable in its 
 operations, we are about to deduce various illustrations 
 and confirmations of Scripture facts and doctrines. 
 Whatever views are adopted by us, as to the essence of 
 the human soul, or however we contemplate what are 
 termed its faculties, whether, as so many distinct parts of 
 a complex object, or as merely distinct acts of a simple 
 and indivisible agent, still the facts relative to its state 
 and operations remain the same. They are undisturbed 
 and undeniable. They are a part of its natural history, 
 and by them we must be guided, in all our inquiries into 
 its moral state. This then nuist be an appeal to human 
 consciousness. 
 
 The human body and the human soul are admirably 
 adapted to each other. They both present evidences of 
 
CONDITION OF HUMAN NATURE. 14-7 
 
 design and contrivance, whether viewed unitedly, and so 
 in reference to the social relations ; or separately, in refe- 
 rence to the uses and functions of each, as connected with 
 the instrumentality and agency of the other. It is 
 obvious, that as the whole man, consisting of body and 
 soul, is adapted to fulfil certain functions, so the soul 
 apart, and the body apart, are adapted, each to its own 
 peculiar province, and confined to it by the laws of its 
 constitution, which cannot be contravened. 
 
 Again, if we view the mind alone, we find an internal 
 adaptation of its faculties to each other, and a mutual 
 dependence among them all, so that each is essential to 
 the perfection and efficient exercise of the whole. If but 
 one faculty were lacking, the others could not discharge 
 their functions. All would run into confusion, imper- 
 fection, and debility. The presence of each, the nice 
 balancing of the one with the other, in their relative pro- 
 portions, and the orderly co-operation of the whole, are 
 essential to secure efficiency in the attainment of the 
 various ends in reference to which the mind was consti- 
 tuted. 
 
 This adaptation, observable in the mental economy, is- 
 evidently twofold ; first, between the several faculties 
 among themselves, to secure the discharge of the various 
 functions of the entire mind ; and, secondly, between the 
 whole mind, or the whole man, and other minds similarly 
 constituted ; since each is placed amidst a complexitv of 
 social relations, and in connexion with an external world 
 including both matter and mind. 
 
 Here, then, in each human soul, we find a commanding 
 power or faculty, which is denominated Conscience, which 
 imparts the peculiar characteristic of a moral constitution, 
 and out of which are evolved the various phenomena per- 
 taining to the virtuous and vicious affections, justice and 
 injustice, the discharge or neglect of duties and obli- 
 gations, in all their Avide and complicated bearings, as 
 
148 ON THE MENTAL AND MORAL 
 
 well as in their universal, unalterable, and constant appli- 
 cation to human nature in all its relations. 
 
 Such being the essential characteristics, the inherent 
 properties of the human soul, irrespective of all theories 
 regarding the metaphysical nature of conscience, and the 
 essence of the soul itself, we may proceed to examine and 
 compare these phenomena, without pausing to consider 
 previous questions, just as we may examine the proj)erties 
 of matter, quite irrespective of the question concerning 
 the substratum in which those properties are thought to 
 inhere. The essential nature, both of matter and mind, 
 is a mystery, not yet penetrated, perhaps not to be pene- 
 trated, by our limited faculties, and by no means necessary 
 to be determined, before we analyse and compare their 
 respective properties. Here, then, we must endeavour to 
 bring under review the moral condition of human nature, 
 as this is ascertainable by our own consciousness, by the 
 experience, the history, and the tacit confession of all 
 mankind. We wish to place, side by side, the bold, clear 
 statements of revelation, and the undeniable phenomena 
 which appear in our nature. 
 
 It is admitted, that the Holy Scriptures develop some 
 views of mankind, essentially different from those which 
 have been propagated from other sources. Their very 
 peculiarity exhibiting, as it does, a considerable deviation 
 from those moral views which men form of themselves, is 
 at least an evidence that the scriptural views were not 
 originated by human nature. Moreover, we think, that 
 when the views presented by the Bible upon this subject, 
 are compared with those which have been entertained by 
 unassisted reason, and when these latter are brought to 
 the proper test of history and consciousness, they must be 
 pronounced inadequate and erroneous, and consequently 
 be discarded ; while the statements of the Bible must 
 be allowed to be the only ones which tally, in all re- 
 
CONDITION OF HUMAN NATUEE. 149 
 
 spects, with universal experience and consciousness, when 
 thoroughly examined and rightly interpreted. 
 
 This, at least, it will be our endeavour to show, in the 
 argument we now intend to pursue. 
 
 We commence, then, with the earliest statements of 
 revelation, respecting 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF A FALL, OR MORAL APOSTASY, COMPARED WITH 
 THE UNIVERSAL PHENOMENA OF OUR MORAL NATURE. 
 
 The Bible represents man as created at first, in a state 
 of moral excellence, enjoying the friendship and favour of 
 God, and being conscious of an undisturbed and delight- 
 ful harmony among all his powers and emotions. His 
 mind was filled with wisdom and knowledge ; he was dis- 
 tinguished by vigour of purpose and rectitude of volition. 
 Moral purity pervaded all the exercises of his soul ; it 
 lived in an element of perfect felicity. Its natural endow- 
 ment was immortality. 
 
 It would be unnecessary to enter here into any further 
 illustration of what the Scriptures intend by the image of 
 God, or by man's being made upright. It is clearly affirmed 
 in the Bible, and will be conceded as so stated, that he 
 was brought into being, in a state of purity, felicity, and 
 perfection, and that his fall from this state is represented 
 as altogether his own act. The Scripture expresses the 
 displeasure and indignation of God against all the parties 
 concerned in that deplorable and fatal reverse which so 
 soon followed. 
 
 Let it, then, be conceded to us, that such, in general, are 
 the delineations of our moral condition and history, pre- 
 sented in the sacred word. Our next business will be to 
 consider how far the facts which appear in human nature, 
 and of which every reflecting mind, sooner or later, becomes 
 conscious, correspond with these and similar statements. If 
 the representations were not true, we may safely presume 
 
150 ON THE MENTAL AND MORAL 
 
 that there would be sufficient evidences afforded by 
 human nature itself, that it always had been, and still 
 continued, precisely what God originally designed and 
 made it; it would appear, as his numerous other creations 
 do appear, perfectly to answer all its original purposes ; to 
 attain all the good of which it is susceptible, for which 
 it appeared designed, and after which it still aspires. 
 Such evidences do accompany all other natures, and dis- 
 tinguish all other creatures. Man alone seems to be 
 infected by a deep and incurable taint of evil, and to 
 labour under a malignant spell, which perpetually cheats 
 him of the happiness after which he pants, and repels 
 him from the excellence, the beau ideal of which exists in 
 his imagination. 
 
 It is unquestionable, that the general state of mankind, 
 through all their successive generations, has been any 
 thing but happy and pure ; any thing but what the moral 
 philosophers, of all schools, admit it ought to be ; any 
 thing, and every thing, but what, from the rank of our 
 nature in the scale of creation, its constitution, capabilities, 
 and aspirations, might have been presumed to be its proper 
 destination and highest purpose. There appear in it ele- 
 ments of mischief and disorder, which by mere reason, we 
 know not how to explain; facts of a punitive and retributive 
 character, which are inseparable from us, universal as our na- 
 ture, and utterly irreconcilable to our conceptions of divine 
 benevolence and justice, save upon the admission of a gene- 
 ral apostasy, and a system of corrective moral discipline. 
 
 One of the most striking of these facts is this, that with 
 all the natural qualities fitted for giving and receiving 
 pleasure, both individually and socially, there have always 
 been in operation other and repugnant qualities, which 
 have overborne the amiable and benevolent ones, and 
 made human nature, every where, by far the most fatal 
 and pestilent enemy to itself Its greatest sufferings 
 have always been self-originated. Men have uniformly 
 
COiNDITION OF HUMAN NATURE. 151 
 
 been the greatest enemies to men ; their own, or each 
 other's tormentors. They are still, relatively, the oppress- 
 ors or the victims ; " hateful and hating one another." 
 These are not exaggerations or extreme cases, hut per- 
 petual and general characteristics. It is undeniable, that 
 the most extensive, most agonizing, most consuming 
 calamities have been inflicted, either directly by man on 
 man, or by man on himself. 
 
 First, we might enumerate the social sufferings which are 
 caused by the various bad passions of the human heart ; 
 such as anger, revenge, covetousness, ambition, and selfish- 
 ness, tending to oppression, extortion, and robbery, breed- 
 ing secret murder, or the open, wide-spreading, and exter- 
 minating calamities of war. To these might be added, as 
 produced by the same causes, the'.incalculable, and all but 
 infinite, evils of tyranny, usurpation, and bad government, 
 terminating in no government, or directly producing riot 
 and anarchy, war and bloodshed. 
 
 Then come the doings of superstition and idolatry, with 
 their countless hecatombs of human victims, and, above 
 them all, and worse than all, the Protean demon of in- 
 tolerance, which has, in turn, shouldered the banner of all 
 religions, and perpetrated the bloody work of persecution, 
 in the name of Moloch, Jupiter, Mahomet, or Christ. 
 How large a proportion of history is occupied wdth the 
 recital of the various ways in which these inhuman cruel- 
 ties have been inflicted or revenged, suffered or resisted, 
 and all by men themselves ! 
 
 Next, we might notice the innumerable personal miseries 
 produced by human vices, limiting our view to those that 
 terminate, or, at least, commence their inflictions on the 
 wretched subjects of those vices. And here, indeed, the 
 detail might be extended to all mankind, for wherever there 
 exists a being under the influence of vicious passions, there 
 is one that, sooner or later, proves a self-tormentor, often 
 in an intense degree ; and where can we find the mortal 
 
152 ON THE MENTAL AND MORAL 
 
 that has not borne this character in reference to himself? 
 The keenest stings ever felt are those inflicted by the 
 venomous serpents of evil passions, madly cherished within 
 man's own bosom. Who has not, by his secret sins, often 
 made himself both miserable and despicable, even in his 
 own eyes ? He has trampled his own honom' in the dust, 
 and he feels it. Those very passions, which it appeared, 
 at one time, the most desirable to indulge, have, at another, 
 recoiled upon us in the shape of retribution, and proved 
 sources of bodily suifering or mental anguish, or of both 
 in a high degree. Thus, treachery and falsehood, gluttony 
 and drunkenness, pride and lust, with various other vicious 
 passions, have been always, and are still, j^reying, like 
 vultures, on the vitals of their innumerable victims. We 
 need not multiply details. We must limit ourselves to 
 general views. 
 
 What a pitiable subjection, then, do w^e every where 
 behold of the nobler nature to the inferior ! Here is, 
 indeed, a sight over which superior intelligences might 
 weep, while they beheld the intellectual degradation, the 
 moral contrarieties, the spiritual pollutions, the voluntary 
 enslavement, the irrational rationality, the gratuitous self- 
 torture, the monstrous, maniac, free agency of man, at 
 once resisting, and yet embracing the corroding fetters of 
 his enthralment to evil. We might advert to the uneasi- 
 ness and agitation produced in the soul by malignant 
 passions, to the agonizing conflicts between conscience 
 and propensity, to the burning sense of shame produced 
 by evil tlioughts of all kinds, to the piercing stings of 
 self-reproach which attend the commission of crimes and 
 which torture the criminal. 
 
 Thus, an intestine war of conflicting elements, extend- 
 ing through the whole empire of the soul, is constantly 
 maintained within the human bosom. Man finds himself 
 ever at war with himself, a perpetual foe to his own peace. 
 He might enjoy a measure, at least, of felicity and repose. 
 
CONDITION OF HUMAN NATURE. 155 
 
 if reason possessed the rule without passion, or passion 
 without reason. But, while he is alternately swayed by 
 each, he lives in perpetual disquiet, and in a state of 
 mysterious and ominous misery. The climax of his 
 wretchedness might be added in the appalling apprehen- 
 sions of divine vengeance and future retribution, which 
 often mingle with his sufferings. But I purposely omit 
 these, that I may confine myself, at present, to indisput- 
 able and general facts. 
 
 There is a vast difference between the ruins of some 
 magnificent edifice and the tottering huts of the pauper 
 and the peasant. The original nature of the better 
 materials, their forms and obvious intentions, would be 
 discernible at a glance, and the indications of a very 
 different design and destination would be visible, even 
 though the noble fragments might be again wrought up 
 into human dwellings. There would be an essential 
 difterence between such remnants of grandeur, and the 
 hovel formed of inferior materials. Now, similar to this 
 would be the condition of human nature, upon the 
 assumption that Scripture is true, and that man was 
 made upright, but has apostatized ; whereas, no such traces 
 of disorder and ruin would be discoverable upon the con- 
 trary supposition. All would then appear harmonious, 
 however humble ; and complete, however inferior, There 
 are pertaining to man still, in all situations, and under all 
 circumstances, exactly those traces which indicate that he 
 was once in a far higher and nobler state ; that he was 
 destined to other purposes, fitted for other ends than 
 those he now serves, and qualified to fill a far wider sphere 
 than that to which he is now limited. What noble powers 
 of intellect does he still possess ; yet how low and thrift- 
 less are the uses to which they are mostly turned ! When 
 the sublime objects and ends of religion are contemplated, 
 to which he seems inwardly prompted, for he has been, 
 not inaptly, defined a religious animal, can we say that he 
 
154 ON THE MENTAL AND MORAL 
 
 ever attains that exalted consummation at which he aims ? 
 Behold him destitute of revelation, and he is no better 
 than a traveller that has lost his way. Suppose that true 
 religion does not occupy his faculties, and they seem, in a 
 great measure, thrown away — bestowed in vain. Then the 
 whole energy of human talent expends itself upon the ser- 
 vice of the mortal and animal body, or in planning child- 
 ish and vain amusement for himself and his companions. 
 How vast are his purposes ! how noble are his concep- 
 tions of greatness, but yet how feeble is he found in 
 action ! how dissatisfied, even with his utmost and rarest 
 attainments ! how thoroughly disappointed and chagrined 
 with the issue of all the objects of a temporal nature, 
 which engage his attention ! 
 
 What opposites of dignity and meanness, grandeur and 
 insignificance, meet in his nature ! How are all the san- 
 guine hopes of his early days mocked by the realities of 
 experience I How differently does he deem of life at its 
 different periods ; how regularly, and almost universally, 
 does he reverse his estimates of himself and the things 
 around him, as he advances in knowledge and experience. 
 In what station of life can it be said that he finds satis- 
 faction, and is willing to settle down and encircle himself 
 with his possessions, contented and satisfied, without a 
 fear or a wish ? Is there not always a sense of want : an 
 insatiable desire for something unattained, unseen ; a 
 mysterious consciousness of miscarriage and of need ; a 
 vacancy of happiness which he is ever endeavouring to 
 fill, but which mocks his ability and his means, and seems 
 to bid defiance to creation itself thoroughly to satiate? 
 What docs all this bespeak ? No other nature with wdiich 
 we are acquainted presents a similar condition. The very 
 meanest or the very highest among the animal tribes are 
 not so ; they take their fill of pleasure, and feel no want. 
 They taste their proper joys, and occupy their pro2:)er sta- 
 tions, and fulfil their proper offices, unconscious of any 
 
CONDITION OF HUMAN NATURE. 155 
 
 deficiency or dissatisfaction ; yet man's nature never is, 
 but always to be blest. 
 
 These facts, I conceive, furnish one item of experi- 
 mental evidence of that fundamental truth, asserted by 
 revelation, that man has departed from his primitive state, 
 has lost the true perception of his own felicity, wandered 
 from the supreme good, become every where an exile from 
 it, and still continues departing further and further from 
 the centre of perfection and bliss, by his ceaseless attempts 
 to find, in artificial substitutes, a compensation for the 
 original loss. 
 
 Let us next proceed to notice, 
 
 man's practical aversion from moral goodness. 
 
 The Scriptures represent man as totally alienated in 
 heart from the love of moral goodness, and as going astray 
 from rectitude and truth, even from his infancy; that, left 
 to himself, he proceeds from one degree of immorality 
 and vice to another, until he destroys his own happiness, 
 and inflicts misery on all with whom he stands connected. 
 There is the most ample evidence of these facts running 
 through all ages. What a histoiy, could it but be written, 
 is that of human nature, from the first generations until 
 this day ! What enormities of vice have been presented 
 to the omniscient eye of Deity! What horrid and dis- 
 graceful acts of injustice have been inflicted by mankind 
 on each other! and what formidable, though frequently 
 unconscious, enemies have they, at the same time, proved 
 to themselves and their own interests ! Apart from reve- 
 lation, what theory can explain or account for these 
 extremes of unrighteousness and unhappiness which 
 every where appear ? It is incredible that a wise, almighty, 
 and benevolent God could have made man what he now 
 is, when he possessed the ability to make him otherwise. 
 It is impossible to believe this without making God 
 
156 ON THE MENTAL AND MORAL 
 
 directly the author of moral evil, both in its first intro- 
 duction, and in all the disastrous consequences to which 
 it has led, and is still leading, and Avill, alas ! for ever 
 lead. Surely every mind, not to say pious, but rational 
 and just, must shrink with horror from such an impli- 
 cation. Yet the facts of human history and consciousness 
 are inexplicable, save upon the principles of Scripture. 
 Philosophy cannot reconcile them without the admission 
 of the fall. Eevelation ascribes all man's miseiy to his 
 sin, and all his sin to his own voluntary, unconstrained, 
 and uninfluenced choice, to his wilful departure from the 
 declared will of God ; and that upon a point in which 
 he could have no right to dispute the equity of the divine 
 prohibition, or allege the force of any natural or moral 
 necessity previously imposed upon him. On this par- 
 ticular fact of man's universal depravity, we conceive all 
 history throws a clear and convincing light, supplying 
 decisive proofs of the perverted and unhappy condition 
 of his moral and intellectual powers ; while in the very 
 midst of this ruin, which man has drawn upon himself, 
 there are obvious indications of an original excellency 
 and dignity of nature, not yet extinct. 
 
 The sacred word, moreoA^er, expressly declares, that 
 this taint of moral evil has become another nature, and 
 is transmitted from the parent stock through all our 
 generations; that it is so universal that ''there is not a 
 just man upon the earth, who liveth and sinneth not ; " 
 that there is not a single exception, and never will be 
 found one, amongst all the myriads of the human family ; 
 for that all flesh has corrupted its way, and all mankind 
 have together departed from the rule and jirinciple of 
 rectitude and goodness. That word represents our whole 
 nature as spiritually diseased and debilitated; and, further, 
 that this disease is not supei-ficial, but radical, having its 
 seat in the heart, and being utterly incurable by any human 
 means. Now, that this description is literally true. th« 
 
CONDITION OF HUMAN NATURE. 157 
 
 testimony of all ages, and of all writers in all ages, amply 
 shows. The multiplication of laws to restrain and punish 
 crime, even in the most refined states and nations ; the 
 necessity of severe and energetic coercion, even in civilized 
 society; the maintenance of the profession of arms to 
 protect mankind, not against the beasts of the forest, but 
 against each other ; the dreadful and almost constant use 
 made of the various means men possess of mutual annoy- 
 ance and defence; the fact that scarcely any two contiguous 
 nations in the world can remain, for any length of time, 
 in a state of relative peace and security ; and the constant 
 lamentations m.ade both by rulers and ruled, by moralists, 
 historians, and poets, over human depravity; all these 
 circumstances sufficiently attest the fact, that man is a 
 depraved and a wretched creature : while his occasional 
 aspirations after a better state, and his consciousness of 
 the evils under which he at present suffers, indicate that 
 his nature was not originally thus base, cannot, therefore, 
 be what it was intended to be, nor what he himself feels 
 it ought to be. These things then, we conceive, strikingly 
 verify the gloomy account the Scriptures contain of his 
 apostasy. 
 
 But these coincidences may become more convincing 
 and impressive, by considering that the word of God alone 
 has ventured upon the statement, that all this evil origi- 
 nated in the nature of man himself, in the abuse of his free 
 will, and is to be traced to no other origin, and attributed 
 to no other cause. This, you must admit, was a bold as- 
 sertion, in the first instance, accompanied as it was with 
 the intimation that the evil was radical and irremediable 
 by human means, and required the intervention of divine 
 power to counteract it, and to restore man to his pristine 
 excellence, and merits special obseiTation. Yet the doctrine 
 was openly and fully taught, before there had been much 
 experience upon the subject; before human means of 
 renovation had been tried ; and even when men were 
 
158 ON THE MENTAL AND MORAL 
 
 giving indications of great and rapid improvement in all 
 other respects. It was very early revealed, that " the 
 thoughts of man's heart were evil, and only evil, and that 
 continually, from his youth up." " I was born in sin, and 
 shapen in iniquity" — "they go astray, even from the 
 womb, speaking lies" — "man is born like the wild ass's 
 colt," and many similar passages of sacred writ, which, 
 without reserve, declare the fact of universal depravity. 
 Now, these were most bold and adventurous assertions 
 to make public so early, and at once, and were such as 
 no human intelligence could have ventured to make upon 
 the authority of its own unenlightened judgment. No 
 mortal could be sure beforehand that these evils were 
 anvthiner more than an accidental or an occasional aber- 
 ration — a partial misfortune. An epidemic corruption it 
 might be, but by no means obviously including all, or 
 extending to all time. Yet the word makes most decisive 
 and peremptory assertions upon this point, without qualifi- 
 cation or reserve : " There is not a just man upon earth 
 that liveth and sinneth not." Universal history confirms it. 
 We come next to notice, 
 
 SOME SPECULATIVE THEORIES OF THE PHILOSOPHERS, WITH 
 VARIOUS GENERAL OBJECTIONS MADE TO THE BIBLICAL 
 STATEMENT. 
 
 Human authorities, without number, have asserted, that 
 mankind, though depraved, were only partially so ; that 
 all the evil was only the effect of bad example ; that human 
 nature was born into the world in a perfectly indifferent, 
 or negative state. Some have even maintained, upon these 
 insufficient grounds, the doctrine of human perfectibility ; 
 and others, as if in sport with truth and experience, have 
 asserted, that mankind have been all along, from the first, 
 in a state of improvement, and have advanced from a con- 
 dition little above the brutes, to their present elevation ; 
 
CONDITION OF HUMAN NATUEE. 159 
 
 moreover that, by the aid of philosophy, they will progress- 
 ively develop into the highest conceivable state of perfec- 
 tion and enjoyment. Now, if these theories, or any part 
 of them, had been true, long ere this time Ave should have 
 heard of some nation, or race, or family, or individual, at 
 least, that practically confirmed the theory ; facts would, 
 upon a larger or smaller scale, have corresponded w4th the 
 speculation, and verified it. The speculators themselves 
 would have practically shov/n the truth of their own theory, 
 if it could have been done ; and some place Avould have 
 been pointed out where vice was unknown, and man was 
 all purity, the human family all justice, virtue, and happi- 
 ness. They would have discovered some salubrious moral 
 atmosphere in which dwelt the favoured race or nation, 
 that would have proved that human nature might be free 
 from turpitude ; free from enmity, cruelty, and degrading 
 vice. There man would have flourished in all the dignity of 
 reason, in all the fervour of pure affection, in all the sensi- 
 bilities of a refined intellect, a pure taste, and a sublime 
 devotion towards his Creator. His pursuits would have 
 been all lofty and noble ; his moral duties and obligations 
 would have become his element, and his habits would have 
 matured him for angelic converse. 
 
 But, unhappily for all these speculators, stern realities 
 and incontestable experience utterly repudiate their asser- 
 tions. If we go to the east or the west, the north or the 
 south, to remote or recent ages, man is still the same selfish 
 animal, the same degraded intelligence, the same moral 
 anomaly, the same proud and ambitious spirit ; glorying 
 in his superiority over all creation, yet deeply conscious of 
 his own mortifying degradation and inferiority ; boasting 
 of his moral dignity and immortality, yet unable to sustain 
 the one, and unwilling to secure the other. 
 
 The various theories of men upon their own condition, 
 have, one after another, been proved untenable, and their 
 vague and crude opinions, propagated and defended from 
 
1(50 ON THE MENTAL AND MOEAL 
 
 time to time, at last subside, and give place to the universal 
 and humbling testimony of the stern and impracticable 
 facts of their condition. The friends of revelation, then, 
 may triumph, that its testimony becomes daily more clearly 
 established and convincing. All other theories have been 
 tried, age after age, but all equally in vain. They cannot 
 combine with human experience, nor explain the pheno- 
 mena of our history and consciousness. On the one hand, 
 then, every thing serves to show, that man is a creature of 
 pure and noble origin : but, on tlie other, that he has 
 undergone a radical and fatal deterioration ; that he has 
 fallen from virtue, and equally from bliss ; that he exhibits 
 every where a gifted nature in ruins, yet evincing, amidst 
 those ruins, striking proofs of his high original, and of the 
 excellence which, though departed, has left significant and 
 indelible traces behind. 
 
 Thus far, then, we find every thing corresponding with 
 the word, and fulfilling, as all human history really does, 
 the testimony which was so early given of the primitive 
 perfection, but subsequent and fatal apostasy of man. If 
 there were no truth in these statements, or if the whole 
 theory were a mistake, a fabrication, then the facts of human 
 experience could not correspond ; the general, or, indeed, 
 the universal testimony of our consciousness, would con- 
 tradict these sweeping assertions, and the Bible could not 
 maintain its ground beyond a single generation. Suppose 
 all this statement of man's moral defection to be the mere 
 invention [of Moses, or the result of a partial observation, 
 but altogether without foundation in nature, tlien it must 
 have received decided refutation from human experience. 
 No such depravity could have appeared, or not approaching 
 to the extent represented ; no such addiction to evil would 
 have characterized all mankind ; no such general deformity 
 would liave been found in their moral nature ; no such 
 inward consciousness of insubordination to God and good- 
 ness; no such scenes of conflicting biasses would have 
 
CONDITION OF HUMAN NATURE. ICI 
 
 every where pervaded and controlled man's heart; but, in 
 tlie main, at least, all would have been order, purity, and 
 harmony. Man's own feelings would have given the lie to 
 such a statement, and it must, long since, have disappeared, 
 like a dream, for want of that agreement with facts and. 
 experience, which alone could verify and establish its state- 
 ments. Certain it is, that, as to all the observations made 
 by us upon the laws and operations of the human mind, 
 and of external nature, the discovery of general principles 
 is a work of much time, and, in most cases, requires many 
 exceptions and saving considerations. 
 
 But revelation has, in the first instance, laid down its 
 principles, and stated its facts, as to the character of human 
 nature ; and it has done so in the most unreserved terms, 
 and with the most comprehensive generality, challengino- 
 the most minute and the most extensive scrutiny of the 
 facts, as well as the most rigid comparison of its statements 
 with experience. But every thing in the consciousness 
 and history of man is found perfectly to comport with the 
 sacred page. Experience testifies that there is every where 
 a deep-seated depravity, an innate propensity to evil. It 
 is not a partial, it is not an accidental evil. It does not 
 arise, at least, in the first instance, from any social cir- 
 cumstances ; and it is not materially affected by the 
 savage or the civilized state. It is found to involve a total 
 loss of inward rectitude, and harmony of soul ; a confusion 
 among the springs of action ; a usurpation of passion over 
 reason, of self-indulgence over duty, and then a re-action 
 of the conscience against the passions, inflicting pain and 
 remorse, under a sense of that subjugation to evil, which, 
 though felt and deplored, is not conquered. The ancients 
 gave it, as the result of their observation, that "no man is 
 born without vices." They were convinced of the fact, but 
 they could not account for it. The fact, however, confirms 
 the authority which explains how this universal propensity 
 to evil has arisen. It is true always and every where, of 
 
 V 
 
 M 
 
3 62 ON THE MENTAL AND MOEAL 
 
 each man, under whatever sky, or under whatever system 
 born, he is invariably a sinner ; he does not attain even 
 to his own ideas of virtue, and is conscious of innumerable 
 violations of what he admits to be just, and right, and 
 good. No nation can trace back to any ancestors purer 
 than themselves. " The fathers have eaten the sour grape, 
 and the children's teeth are set on edge." Does not all 
 this prove the Scriptures to be accurate, and substantiate 
 their claim to divine authority and infallible knowledge? 
 We shall now proceed to notice some other 
 
 EVIDENCES OF MORAL CONTEAEIETIES AND CONTRADICTIONS IN 
 HUMAN NATURE, AND THE INCONSISTENT AND INADEQUATE 
 EXPLANATIONS OF INFIDELS. 
 
 There is one view of the subject which, though already 
 briefly noticed, seems to require further explanation. If 
 the Scripture account be true, that man is a fallen creature, 
 and not now as made at first, then we should expect, from 
 the peculiar combination and adaptation of faculties in- 
 cluded in his mental economy, that there would appeal- 
 opposition among his moral qualities, powers in a state of 
 hostility, an uneasiness and entire want of harmony, both 
 in and with himself, and in his social relations. 
 
 Now let us advert to the facts, as gathered from human 
 nature itself. There is the most decisive evidence of two 
 opposite principles. There is an understanding and a 
 conscience, and in all men these are found, to a certain 
 extent, on the side of virtue, moral order, justice, and truth. 
 They give their verdict, generally, to what is right, and 
 maintain correct rules of duty, at least, in speculation. 
 But, in opposition to them, rise up the passions and pro- 
 pensities, both of the flesh and of the spirit, warring against 
 reason and conscience. Is not this a matter of conscious- 
 ness to all ? Is there not something — call it a moral sense, 
 
CONDITION OF HUMAN NATURE. 163 
 
 or a moral judgment, it matters not? but it is a power of 
 most mysterious and original potency. It does not fail to 
 approve or condemn our thoughts, motives, purposes, pas- 
 sions, and actions. A sort of secret, inherent judge, which 
 passes sentence, in general, a just sentence, according to 
 the light it possesses. But there are other impelling and 
 commanding forces, which are opposed to this, and which 
 make human nature a mass of inconsistency, contrariety, 
 and disorder. " I see, and I approve the right,'' said an 
 eminent heathen writer, ''but I follow the wrong.'' Here 
 is an enigma, that never has been, and never can be solved, 
 but by the Bible statement. It is obvious, that this must 
 be a verification of what is stated in that book, of man's 
 being made upright, but of his having corrupted his way, 
 and departed in practice from what he feels to be right. 
 When the principles of virtue are laid before him, and when 
 the reasons of his duty are properly explained, they approve 
 themselves to what he calls his better judgment, but still 
 when he proceeds to action, he violates all those rules and 
 principles, and, in the face of his own convictions and con- 
 fessions, acts in such a way as to bring the conviction of 
 guilt into his soul, accompanied by the tormenting appre- 
 hension of divine displeasure. This is not peculiar to a 
 few cases, nor to religious persons, nor to a single nation, 
 nor to any artificial and unnatural state, produced by 
 peculiar education, or special habits. All acknowledge it. 
 It has been so through all ages ; and there has been pre- 
 served no description, no record of any human being that 
 has ever been an exception to this rule. He cannot do, or 
 will not do, the thing that he admits he ought ; but ex- 
 claims, alas for poor human nature ; so frail and unstable 
 is it in all that it knows to be good ! 
 
 Man's knowledge and sense of duty, then, surpass his 
 moral will, and his inclination. His judgment and his 
 conscience would impose a rule upon his actions, which his 
 
164 OK THE MENTAL AND MOKAL 
 
 passions refuse, which his heart loathes; and the inferior 
 powers, the rampant corruptions of the flesh, ohtain the 
 mastery, and prove too strong for tlie conviction of the 
 conscience, and decisions of the better judgment. 
 
 Now these contrarieties within man are utterly inex- 
 plicable, on any other ground than that stated in Scripture. 
 How such a condition of human nature could have arisen, 
 otherwise than by the fall of man from the primitive rule 
 of his constitution, it devolves on those to show, who deny 
 the Biblical statement. No man is entitled to reject that 
 explanation of the moral mysteries of our nature, until he 
 can show how otherwise every human being came into this 
 state of sin, and guilt, and misery. It is clearly absurd to 
 maintain, as some do, that there is no such thing as moral 
 evil in the world ; for they constantly contradict them- 
 selves, by proceeding to condemn some sort of actions, or 
 some class or other of their fellow- creatures. And to say 
 that all the evil in human nature has arisen from the 
 influence of bad example, bad government, or bad educa- 
 tion, exposes them to the necessity, first, of showing 
 whence these fountains of evil originate ; for when they 
 assign these things, as producing the deplored evils, they 
 do but carry back the cause a step or two, and attribute it 
 still to human nature ; forgetting that there could be no 
 bad government, bad example, or bad education, if human 
 nature were not itself bad. Secondly, they impose upon 
 themselves the further necessity of proving, that the cor- 
 rection of these assigned causes would remove the whole 
 evil, and produce a race of men free from the corruptions 
 and imperfections under which all at present labour. But 
 is it not highly probable, that if these pretended causes 
 had been the real ones, mankind, long since, would have 
 been able to remedy the evil ? At all events, it would be 
 incumbent on the j^atrons and advocates of this theory, to 
 carry their scheme into effect, and show us, at least, one 
 specimen of a pure and happy community, or, at least, of 
 
CONDITION OF HUMAN NATURE. 165 
 
 one perfectly pure human being, in whose mind there should 
 be no consciousness of evil, and between whose judgment, 
 reason, and emotions there should be no conflict ; whose 
 nature should be subject to no sense of punishment and 
 guilt, but proceeding, in all its functions, with the same 
 order and efficiency as any of the external arrangements 
 of the universe. Till they can do this, we may treat their 
 tlieories as idle dreams, which have no foundation in fact ; 
 while, on the other hand, we may still insist, that human 
 experience is found in perfect harmony with all the state- 
 ments of revelation, upon the several points hitherto 
 brought under review. 
 
 PASSION FOR IMMORTALITY. 
 
 The scriptural view of the subject may be further illus- 
 trated, by a reference to the longing of man after immor- 
 tality. The word of God represents him as endowed with 
 this transcendent gift, and every where treats him, even in 
 his fallen state, as distinguished by this quality. It does 
 not, indeed, any where enter into the proof of the 
 doctrine, but it plainly asserts it; " God breathed into his 
 nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul, 
 or^9(5rso«." The whole scheme of his salvation, developed 
 in the sacred volume, as well as the denunciations of 
 future misery, all proceed upon the assumption of this, as 
 a primitive part of his constitution. The loss of Immortal 
 Felicity appears to have been the forfeiture incurred by 
 sin, not the loss of immortal being ; but that favour of 
 God which would have made eternal existence a blessing. 
 He still, therefore, retains the capacity, the natural endow- 
 ment, the desire, in all its intenseness. " In the day that 
 thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." The event 
 showed that it was the greater penalty, one far greater 
 than the forfeiture of existence, that was intended. Let 
 us now see how the histoiy of mankind corroborates this 
 statement. What passion is so strong in human nature as 
 
16G ON THE MENTAL AND MORAL 
 
 this desire after immortal happiness ? How early is it 
 awakened, and how inextinguishable does it prove itself 
 even in death ! We all naturally shrink from the thought 
 of annihilation. To drop into the earth as the beasts, and 
 be heard of no more ; to give up this sentient, conscious 
 state of being, and become utterly extinct, after this brief 
 day of mortal existence, is most abhorrent to our feelings ; 
 and nothing but the most alarming and terrific dread of 
 future existence, as a state of retribution, can reconcile 
 any to accept such a termination of their being : and, 
 even with such a prospect, few can so reason down their 
 own passion as to indulge the unnatural illusion. It is too 
 much against the laws of our mental and moral economy, 
 and all the higher propensities of our nature. Even the 
 heathens, with no spark of revealed light to guide them, 
 have displayed the strongest desires after it, though they 
 knew not how to assure themselves of its reality, nor how, 
 adequately, to sustain the anticipation of it : yet they 
 found it to be inseparable from their consciousness ; and 
 they might as well shake off their being as their persuasion 
 of immortality. It was a conception, — a hope irrepressible 
 in their nature, yet never proved, nor substantiated by 
 their philosophy. 
 
 Man's nature every w^here is, and has been, the same, as 
 to this passion for immortality. It is disconcerted by 
 death, yet death is universal ; and with all tlie oblivion 
 which it brings of man and his works, still he every where 
 believes that he shall live after death, and that for ever. 
 Disappointed, mortified, humbled as he is by the death of 
 the body, still he retains an imperishable desire for 
 immortality, and never can, to any extent, be persuaded 
 that his expectation is false. Dreaded by the conscience as 
 this prospect may be, it still springs up in man's bosom, 
 and may be said never to quit the human intelligence. 
 
 The indestructible nature of this passion for immor- 
 tality has obviously led to all those efforts to which men 
 
CONDITION OF HUMAN NATUEE. 167 
 
 liave resorted, for making to themselves a species of 
 artificial immortality ; to secm'e, at least, an immortality 
 for their names and their deeds, in default of a satis- 
 factory hope in a blissful immortality for their persons. 
 But how far distant have they ever been from the reality I 
 What "shadows, clouds, and darkness rest upon it!" 
 "Whether men are to be, or not to be, after death, may be 
 a question to the speculative reason ; but the desire, the 
 anticipation of the human heart, is always in favour of the 
 affirmative. A few, whose minds are sophisticated by 
 error, and harassed by forebodings, may be driven to 
 deny it ; but the great body of mankind every where cling 
 to it. The poor African slave dies with it upon his 
 tongue ; the savage roaming the forest expires in the hope 
 of seeing the land beyond the sea. Socrates and Cicero 
 conversed about it with their friends, and expressed their 
 confidence that they should join the company of the wise 
 and good in another state. And all this is just what 
 might be expected from a being who once possessed the 
 prospect of immortal happiness, but has forfeited his 
 title to it, and yet retains all his longing, all his capa- 
 bilities ; and through life seems striving to attain it, or 
 something that may become its substitute. What a mys- 
 terious phenomenon would this state of the human mind 
 present upon any other principles than those of the 
 Bible ! How utterly inexplicable, if man were not im- 
 mortal ; how equally so if he were, but had continued in 
 a state of innocence I Yet, on the admission of the Bible 
 statements, all is plain. We have forfeited that by sin, 
 without which we never can feel blessed, and must always 
 feel that our existence is a blank and a mystery. Ask the 
 veriest wretch that breathes, if he does not wish to live for 
 ever, and even if he has no better notion of immortality 
 than the perpetuation of this poor, busy, grovelling ex- 
 istence, even in the present world, he would still eagerly 
 grasp at the hope, and say, ' Why was I made at all, if not 
 
168 ON THE MENTAL AND MORAL 
 
 to live for ever ?' "Were but one immortal, how would 
 others envy; how would worlds adore!" But life and 
 immortality are brought to light, restored and confirmed 
 to us, only in the gospel. The shadows disappear Avhich 
 gathered around us, and we are now enabled to say, " O 
 grave ! where is thy victory ? O death ! where is thy 
 sting?" 
 
 These facts in our nature correspond with Scripture, 
 and are a strict verification, a proper and natural sequel to 
 the account it gives of the first endowment, and subse- 
 quent fall of man. These facts ought never to be viewed 
 apart, or out of the li^'ht of the divine record : for then, 
 and then only, do they receive their proper and full expla- 
 nation. When the two are taken together, then both 
 appear consistent, and receive and impart mutual eluci- 
 dation ; the fact is illustrated by the record, and the 
 record is verified by the fact. 
 
 Another remarkable feature of our moral state, conse- 
 quent upon the fall, is to be traced in the 
 
 LOSS OF THE TRUE KNOWLEDGE AND FAVOUR OF GOD. 
 
 The Scripture represents man as having, in the first 
 apostasy, lost the divine presence and favour, become an 
 exile and outcast from the bliss of the paradisiacal state, 
 and as deprived of that reflection of the divine intelligence 
 upon his mind, which was the source of his wisdom, and 
 the highest glory of his being. We might, upon the ad- 
 mission of the truth of this, reasonably expect to find 
 some clear traces of its effects in the histoiy of man. 
 These, we think, may be seen in two respects ; first, in 
 tlie loss of his supreme felicity, and, next, in the total 
 obscuration of his intellect, in reference to the being and 
 perfections of God. 
 
 No visitation could be more just, or more appropriate, 
 than that he should be left without that supreme and 
 
CONDITION OF HUMAN NATUKE. 169 
 
 guiding light, which he had abused and despised ; and 
 that, as he had voluntarily withdrawn from God, so God 
 should leave him to feel the disastrous effects of forsaking 
 the chief good, and the fountain of all his bliss. If there 
 should be found any marked speciality in the disastrous 
 condition into which mankind have fallen, corresponding 
 with the nature of their sin, and the first immediate effects 
 that followed it, then this may be fairly interpreted as 
 another fulfilment of the divine testimony, or a coinci- 
 dence, contributing, in connexion with other evidence, to 
 establish the authority of Scripture. If man is found 
 every where destitute of the true knowledge of God, his 
 mind a blank, or rather disordered in all its conceptions 
 upon this fundamental and momentous subject, it will be 
 a fact coinciding so exactly with the statements of reve- 
 lation, as to the nature of his fall, and the immediate 
 visitation that followed it, that we shall be constrained to 
 admit this as in a high degree illustrative and confirmatory 
 of the sacred testimony. 
 
 The universe may present a w^ide field for his contem- 
 plations, the earth a proper theatre for the development 
 of his powers; the laws of nature may be efficient for his 
 support, and all terrestrial things may subserve his grati- 
 fication ; but, if the Scripture statement be true, there 
 will be an evident deficiency of the supreme good. A 
 void will be perceptible in human felicity — a vast void, 
 which nothing created, temporal, or finite can fill ; an 
 appetite, which nothing can satisfy ; a sense of desti- 
 tution, which will admit of no alleviation, though un- 
 ceasing efforts may be made to find substitutes and 
 palliatives. Now, is this true, or is it not ? 
 
 Let us put to the test the universal experience of man- 
 kind on this point. Is it not one of the most certain, 
 invariable, and universal of truths, that all men seek after 
 endless happiness, aspire after something infinite, some- 
 thing that shall yield an unfailing joy? Are they not 
 
170 ON THE MENTAL AND MORAL 
 
 ahvays aiming after it, unless, indeed, there be a few who 
 have given up the pursuit in hopeless despair, and have 
 sunk into a gloomy misanthropy, indicating not the 
 absence of this passion, but its morbid excess, or its bitter 
 disappointment. Thus all become witnesses of the truth 
 of that Scripture, " There be many which say. Who will 
 show us any good ?" The endless diversity of human 
 pursuits, and the nothingness of them all, illustrate the 
 same thing. Witness, again, the endless round of plea- 
 sures, the weariness and satiety in which they all issue ; 
 the changeableness of mankind in their different gratifi- 
 cations, according to their time of life, their disj^ositions, 
 their tastes, and their degrees of mental cultivation*; but 
 all tending to the same result, and producing, finally, the 
 same sense of dissatisfaction. "All is vanity," saith the 
 preacher, and not the preacher alone. The men and 
 women of the world, say the same themselves, after a little 
 experience. All agree in the same conclusion, sooner or 
 later; but they could not agree in it, and would not 
 confess it, if they had really attained permanent happi- 
 ness. There would be no uncertainty, if any had really 
 discovered perfect and undecaying felicity. The world 
 would ring with the announcement of the precious dis- 
 covery. But, instead of this being the case, it is precisely 
 and invariably the reverse. Man is eveiy where the most 
 busy, enterprising, sanguine, restless, and versatile of 
 creatures ; and yet he is the most dissatisfied with his 
 accumulations, with the world itself, and his own course in 
 it ; and if he does not discover, by the aid of revelation, 
 the way back to the true God, he never attains true happi- 
 ness, but finds his life altogether a miscarriage, and his 
 whole being an abortion. We may defy the world to show 
 an instance of a truly and permanently happy man, 
 destitute of the truths of revelation, ignorant of God, or 
 alienated from the divine purity and goodness. The 
 reason is given in the Bible, but no where else ; man has ' 
 
CONDITION OF HUMAN NATURE. 171 
 
 left the fountain of living waters, and endeavoured to hew- 
 out to himself cisterns, but they prove " broken cisterns, 
 that can hold no water." He tries all resources, but each 
 alike fails ; and he comes to the end of his days, saying, 
 " I have been all my life busy in doing nothing. I have 
 always been in the pursuit of happiness, but it has eluded 
 my grasp. Employment I have found in abundance ; 
 amusement, much ; sensual gratification, plenty ; but 
 happiness, little ; permanent happiness, never'' Then he 
 quits the world, saying, " It is too soon ; I am not ready : 
 death is cruel, inexorable : I am not happy." Now all 
 this comports with what Scripture records, and is a verifi- 
 cation of the fact, that, in his fall, man lost the favour of 
 God, in which alone his supreme felicity consisted. It 
 was not probable that he would find any substitute, or 
 that he would be allowed to pass through life without ex- 
 perimentally feeling the loss he had sustained. The fact 
 is universal, and minutely corresponds with the record. 
 You may try your senses, the world, the universe, but 
 happiness is found, neither in what you can taste, nor in 
 what you can hear, nor in what you can see. You may 
 try your friends, but it is not within the compass of their 
 power to bestow it. You may try business, power, wealth, 
 but happiness is not in the merchant's stores, nor the 
 miser's accumulations, nor the monarch's crown and 
 sceptre. Y^ou may try science, literature, poetry, fame, 
 and mental cultivation : but these are only flowers, fair 
 and fragrant for a time, surpassing others, perhaps, yet 
 quite as frail and as full of disappointment. The only 
 flower that blooms for evermore, that remains fragrant in 
 death, and yields the fruit of immortality, is the know- 
 ledge and love of God, which the divine hand implants in 
 our hearts, and teaches us to cultivate in this wilderness of 
 sin, and toil, and death. 
 
 But we may confirm these observations, by adverting 
 more particularly to the fact, that ignorance of the true 
 
172 ON THE MENTAL AND MOEAL 
 
 God has universally prevailed. This affords no incon- 
 siderable verification of the divine word, because it coin- 
 cides accurately with what, according to the Biblical state- 
 ments, must have been the result of man's fall. Every 
 nation, of which we have any knowledge, has been utterly 
 destitute of correct views of the Deity. Polytheism has 
 prevailed over all nations, and all ages, not blessed with 
 the light of revelation. 
 
 That has been the exclusive source of right notions of 
 God. It has ever taught reason upon this subject what is 
 rational. Men, therefore, prove, in their experience and 
 history, that they are under a visitation of divine dis- 
 pleasure, a privation of essential knowledge, for which we 
 can find and imagine no adequate reason but that stated 
 in the Bible. 
 
 There is something singular, and very remarkable, in 
 the universality of this state of the human mind, which, 
 we believe, will be found to have prevailed without a single 
 exception. As to the fact itself, it is especially to be noted 
 that those powers of mind which, in every other depart- 
 ment of human pursuit, have made such wonderful dis- 
 coveries, have been utterly unavailing here ; and those very 
 efforts of thought, which have succeeded to so amazing an 
 extent in unveiling the works of nature, have not been able 
 to make the slightest advance towards a just and rational 
 knowledge of God. This is a fact, admitted by the very 
 enemies of revelation themselves. 
 
 That the Greeks, and Eomans, and Egyptians, and all 
 other nations, so famed for their philosophy and learning, 
 for their cultivation of almost every branch of knowledge, 
 yet, on this subject, have evinced the weakness and 
 ignorance of children, have fallen into the grossest 
 absurdities, and admitted, as true, the most trifling and 
 degrading of fables. 
 
 The extent to which this holds true, is as singular as 
 the fact itself; because on almost every other subject. 
 
COiS'DITION OF HUMAN NATURE. 173 
 
 what has escaped one nation, has been discovered by 
 another, or what has been hidden from the mass has been 
 familiar to a few. There has been some portion of truth 
 acquired on all subjects, by all nations ; and though 
 men have not had all truth in their possession, they 
 have had some in all matters but this. What they have 
 acquired on other themes, has been the basis or nucleus 
 of further discoveries ; and thus succeeding ages have 
 regularly advanced upon their predecessors. But on this, 
 all have been equally in error, and all equally distant from 
 the truth. All have been sunk in the same profound dark- 
 ness ; all equally destitute of the grand secret of a just, 
 and rational, and comprehensive system of religion and 
 morals. There has never yet been any nation, there has 
 not even been an individual, who, by his own unaided 
 reason, has ever, with all his searching, found out God : 
 and though, in all nations, and through all ages, there 
 have existed vestiges of early traditions on this subject; 
 yet, even with these aids, but without revelation, no people 
 have ever been known to emerge from polytheism and 
 idolatry, into anything like a rational theism, or to eman- 
 cipate their own minds from the degrading thraldom of 
 superstition. 
 
 Such facts as the following may therefore be considered 
 as established past dispute ; that there has prevailed, from 
 the earliest ages, in all nations where revelation has been 
 unknown, a degrading ignorance of the great First Cause, 
 and a system of idolatrous worship, varying, indeed, in its 
 forms, yet every where consisting in a deification of some 
 created, finite, imaginary, or artificial objects, and to an 
 indefinite extent. 
 
 First, in point of time, we have Sabaism, or the worship 
 of the heavenly bodies ; then this was succeeded by hero- 
 worship, or the apotheosis of distinguished mortals after 
 death; then was added the deification of passions and 
 pleasures, of malignant and beneficent powers, or abstract 
 
174 ON THE MENTAL AND MORAL 
 
 ideas of good and evil, working in various forms in sur- 
 rounding objects. Even the very meanest animals and 
 beings in nature, every creeping thing having life, and 
 every vegetable displaying design or skill in its formation, 
 has been worshipped, and is worshipped, together with 
 the creations and fancies of the imagination, in all their 
 absurd and fantastic forms ; and hope and fear, suffer- 
 ing and enjoyment, health and sickness, prosperity and 
 adversity, have been elevated into distinct and independent 
 agencies, to which mysterious powers have been ascribed, 
 and which have been made objects of idolatrous worship 
 by infatuated and wretched human beings. 
 
 But, let it be observed, all this evil has naturally 
 followed the loss of the knowledge of God ; and these 
 false imaginations have proved the heaviest and greatest 
 curses upon mankind, the source and means of a large 
 portion of their immorality, their enmity to each other, 
 their cruelty, and their degradation. Superstition has 
 proved a dead w^eight, constantly sinking mankind down 
 in an abyss of crime, cruelty, and wretchedness ; deform- 
 ing human nature more and more ; exacerbating all its 
 physical evils, and supplying inexhaustible fuel to all its 
 malignant passions. No pen can describe the horrid 
 cruelties it has perpetrated, the disgusting actions it has 
 patronized, and the endless abominations to which it has 
 familiarized the human heart. It has debilitated the 
 understanding, seared the conscience, and corrupted the 
 affections ; it has made human life wretched, death more 
 formidable, and the grave a deeper and darker abyss ; 
 while it has deceived, deluded, and destroyed mankind 
 with a malignity of hatred, and recklessness of power, 
 with a vastness of devastation, and of suffering, which 
 appals the imagination only to conceive, and whicli ap- 
 proaches to the true idea of the infernal. 
 
 Now, is there not something remarkable in this, that 
 the sin of man, in the first instance, should, according to 
 
CONDITION OF HUMAN NATUKE. 175 
 
 revelation, be an attempt to become as God, to attain an 
 equality, in some sense, with the Eternal and Infinite ; 
 and that the punishment inflicted upon him should be a 
 loss of the divine knowledge and favour ; and that his sin 
 should herein be visited by so appropriate, so significant a 
 punishment, as might always point to it ? The threaten- 
 ing was death, and it has been strikingly exemplified in 
 the loss of everything which constitutes the true and 
 highest life of a rational and immortal spirit. Dis- 
 obedience to God, disregard of his commands, and a 
 forfeiture of his favour, could scarcely have been so appro- 
 priately, so significantly, punished, any other way. Men 
 forsook God, and God forsakes them. By a mysterious 
 operation, he deprives their intellect of that divine light 
 which it derived from the knowledge of his being and 
 nature ; and the human race has never since been able to 
 regain any just knowledge of him. Its loss of this 
 knowledge has left it a prey to all the direful consequences 
 of perversion in first principles. They forfeited his 
 friendship, and they have never since, in a single instance, 
 been able to look upon his glory, either mentally or 
 spiritually. They lost his instructions and the communi- 
 cations of his wisdom, and they have never been able to 
 make the slightest approach to the recovery of the divine 
 knowledge ; have never caught a single trace or glimpse of 
 his light, to guide them through the mazes of this vain 
 and perplexing life. 
 
 Is not this, thf3n, a verification of the divine word ? As 
 the offence of man, in the first instance, v/as committed 
 against the authority, the perfection, and the being of 
 God, and was evidently considered by God as amounting 
 to such a degree of criminality, as to require and justify 
 the withdrawment of himself; so we see the uniform, the 
 significant, the fatal blank left every where. The total 
 absence of divine knowledge and light, corresponding 
 with, and indicating, the nature of the offence, is univer- 
 
176 ON THE MENTAL AND MOEAL 
 
 sally and painfully felt. The temptation presented, and 
 haplessly embraced, was, "YE shall be as GODS, knowing 
 good and evil." The fatal ambition indulged, was to rise 
 above their sphere, to assert some kind of an equality 
 with the Creator, and to gain that knowledge which pro- 
 perly pertained to him alone ; and the consequence has 
 been a fall as low, an obscuration of their intellect as 
 intense, as the nature of the sin was presumptuous and 
 aspiring; a loss as great, and in the same Jcind, as their 
 ambition was inordinate ; a suffering proportioned to the 
 undutifulness of the action ; a punishment in tl;at very 
 principle in which their sin was peculiar. What coin- 
 cidence could be more marked and striking ? What veri- 
 fication more minute and complete ? Their false religion 
 has been their heaviest curse ; and their religion was the 
 first matter in which they sinned. By rejecting the fear 
 and the authority of the true God, they have become sub- 
 ject to the fear of all manner of false gods; and, refusing 
 the light of true religion, they have been left to all the 
 darkness and delusion of every kind of superstition. 
 Emulating and coveting knowledge, which was not suitable 
 to their finite and dependent nature, they have fallen 
 under the influence of perverting ignorance and destructive 
 error — evils which have never ceased to degrade, torment, 
 and corrupt them. 
 
 Here, then, is a marked and minute correspondence 
 between the facts of man's history and present state, and 
 the doctrines of the Bible ; a correspondence most clearly 
 marked in the causes that have produced it ; most minute 
 and striking in its circumstances ; evincing a visitation, 
 the most obvious and palpable, of the Almighty hand, in 
 judgment upon the offending creature. 
 
 What then, we may ask, has been, and is still, the 
 moral condition of human nature ? Those who are most 
 extensively and minutely versed in its history know that 
 it is, in the main, an exhibition of crimes and vices, varied 
 
CONDITION OF HUMAN NATURE. 177 
 
 occasionally by follies and sufferings. Everything seems 
 out of course in this strange mixture of wickedness and 
 ferocity. Here reason and folly alternately rule. Great- 
 ness and meanness, suffering and enjoyment, every where 
 combine in the human character. All sorts of atrocities 
 mingle with all sorts of levities ; every degree of wretched- 
 ness with every degree of gratification ; conscious guilt 
 with daring presumption. Men are by turns fools and 
 sages, vassals and tyrants, criminals and judges ; at one 
 time sober, at another frantic; now ready to destroy them- 
 selves through remorse; anon transported with ecstasies 
 of joy, by the very sins that had awakened that remorse. 
 Extremes of all kinds, extravagances in all things, con- 
 tradictions unceasing, meet in our disordered nature. 
 Men have all along, from the first, been tormenting, cor- 
 rupting, and sacrificing each other, under the malignant 
 anticipation of extracting their own felicity from each 
 other's suffering, their own good from others' ill. " What 
 a chimera, then, is man ! What a surprising novelty ! 
 What a confused chaos ! What a subject of contra- 
 dictions ! What a professed judge of all things, and 
 yet a feeble worm of the earth ; the great depositary and 
 guardian of truth, and yet a huddle of uncertainty; the 
 
 GLOEY AND THE SCANDAL OF THE UNIVERSE ! If lie is tOO 
 
 aspiring and lofty, we can lower and humble him ; if too 
 mean and little, we can raise and swell him. To conclude: 
 we can bait him with repugnancies and contradictions, till 
 at length he apprehends himself to be a monster even 
 beyond apprehension."* 
 
 Let it now be remembered, that these tormenting and 
 destructive powers and principles have all been in opera- 
 tion in human nature simultaneously with other principles 
 and impulses of an entirely opposite character. Yet, with 
 all these innate sources of felicity and well-being; with 
 fountains of innocent and rational, not to say divine, en- 
 
 * Pascal's Thoughts, p. 162, 8vo. 
 V N 
 
1 78 ON THE MENTAL AND MOEAL 
 
 joyment within himself, or within his reach; with all these 
 capabilities of promoting the happiness of related and 
 dependent beings, or of the race generally ; and, moreover, 
 with reason and conscience always mainly on the side of 
 virtue and truth — the human heart has, nevertheless, ela- 
 borately distilled poison into its own cup, and laboriously 
 fabricated the weapons of self-destruction. In reviewing 
 the scene, upon an extensive scale, emotions the most 
 opposite succeed each other. Indignation and scorn, 
 humiliation and surprise, pity and horror, alternately fill 
 the mind. Most assuredly, then, in the main, man appears 
 little better than an abortion. How rarely does he attain 
 an end worthy of his noble endowments ! His state has 
 been, and still continues to be, anything and everything 
 but what a philanthropic spirit of our own, or of any other 
 race, might reasonably anticipate for a being thus con- 
 stituted and gifted ; a being so desirous of felicity, and 
 so emulous of distinction; so eager for advancement, so 
 aspirant after immortality, yet falling so far short of all 
 his hopes and promises. Most certainly he has been, and 
 still appears to be, the very reverse of that which it may 
 be fairly presumed, an infinitely wise and benevolent First 
 Cause originally designed him to be. 
 
 Surely it ought, on every ground of modesty and reason, 
 to be presumed, that the vice and misery which have so 
 extensively prevailed could not have been the intended 
 result of divine causation. From the innumerable traces 
 of supreme benevolence visible on every side, as well as 
 from the uniform benignity which characterizes all the 
 direct and primary exercises of the divine power, we may 
 be content, without entering into any discussion of the 
 origin of natural and moral evil, to take the facts of the 
 case just as wc find them, and place the evil at that point 
 beyond which no analysis has been able to trace it ; that 
 is, in the free will of man. There we see it still, constantly 
 and universally generating fresh misery and mischief. 
 
CONDITION OF HUMAN NATURE. 179 
 
 Incessant attention and effort have been directed, by 
 the very best and ablest of men in all nations, to the 
 moral improvement and happiness of their species ; but 
 the continued trial, and continued failure of human re- 
 sources, forbid the most sanguine to look any longer to 
 this quarter. Experience has clearly shown, that whatever 
 are the energies of man's thought, the creations of his 
 genius, the onward and iTpward travel of his aspirations 
 towards social refinement, intellectual greatness, and 
 scientific discovery, yet the cure of his moral delinquency, 
 the completion of his happiness, the extinction of his 
 misery, the renovation and harmony of his po^Yers, the 
 conformity of his affections to the divine goodness and 
 benevolence, cannot be presumed to lie within the compass 
 of his achievement, or even of his hoj^e. 
 
 After all that science in its maturity, and intellectual 
 power in its utmost effort, has been able to accomplish 
 for him, lo ! he still feels as wretched, he still proves as 
 malignant, and still continues as base and foul as ever. 
 
 Education, social laws, civilization, may, in some mea- 
 sure, tame the ferocity of human passions, and assuage 
 the pangs of human suffering ; but these have always and 
 signally failed to renew the will and purify the affections. 
 They have never even aspired to establish that sublime 
 theory of morals which implicates our own happiness 
 with the welfare of others, and both with our moral re- 
 concilement to the divine purity and goodness. The wild 
 animal may be tamed, and made to assume gentler habits, 
 but retains the same nature ; he is a wild beast still. The 
 maniac, though in chains, continues to rave and tear 
 himself. Similar is the effect, and such the limit, of all 
 self-originated means of human improvement. They are 
 restrictive, rather than renovating; repressive and cor- 
 rective, but never transforming. 
 
 To a great extent, the evils remedied by law and civiliza- 
 tion in one form break out in another ; for if they banish 
 
] 80 ON THE MENTAL AND MOEAL 
 
 the rougher vices, they afford an occasion, and not unfre- 
 quently supply a stimulus, to numerous others, scarcely 
 less in moral turpitude, or lighter in their effects. If they 
 prevent some evils, peculiar to a rude and uncultivated 
 state, yet they generate others more subtle, but not less 
 immoral and pernicious. All, then, that can be done, all 
 that ever has been done, by purely human instrumentality, 
 has been to restrain and keep within certain bounds and 
 limits the ever-flowing current of human depravity and 
 misery, rather than to turn back its tide, or dry up its 
 fountain. Onward, irresistibly onward, the dark current 
 still flows ; not now a wild, dashing, desolating mountain- 
 torrent, bearing all before it, as among savage tribes, or 
 in ancient times ; but still the same fearful and deadly 
 stream, though it flows within defined limits, winds through 
 the midst of cultivation, and frequently hides itself in 
 subterranean channels. We appeal, therefore, to all who 
 know what human nature is, both in rude and civilised 
 states, as w'ell in modern as in ancient times, whether any 
 moral renovation is to be anticipated from man himself? 
 It is rather obviously in vain that he looks either to in- 
 ternal light, or external circumstances. All his discoveries 
 extend no further than to the detection of his delinquen- 
 cies and miseries. He cannot, from his own stores, 
 correct his acknowledged mistakes and sins, nor recover 
 himself to happiness, virtue, and truth. 
 
 The philosophers, who promise everything from the 
 force of reason and light of natural truth, effect nothing 
 for the cure of their patient. They neither apprehend the 
 true nature and extent of the disorder, nor possess ade- 
 quate skill to propound or apply a remedy. The two 
 grand propensities of mankind — wdiich impel continually 
 in opposite directions, and appear in irreconcileable hos- 
 tility to each other — are, firfit, ambition, which, while it 
 aims to be as God, alienates from him ; and, next, animal 
 appetite, which, while it promises real pleasure, always 
 
CONDITION OF HUMAN NATURE. 181 
 
 removes ns further from it. The one of these propensities 
 aspires upwards, above our nature; the other weighs us 
 down to earth, and sinks us below our nature. There 
 is required a reconciling medium for these repugnant pro- 
 pensities. This is the grand but difficult problem. 
 
 Two different classes of moral physicians have addressed 
 themselves separately to these irreconcileable symptoms. 
 Those who have set before man the abstract contemplation 
 of divine excellency, and the attainment of pure wisdom 
 by the light of nature, as a remedy for human disorders, 
 have but ministered to man's pride, by insinuating that 
 he was possessed of all the requisite qualities for raising 
 himself into a kind of divinity, and that he might attain 
 the proud elevation by subduing or eradicating his animal 
 propensities. The other class — who perceived the prac- 
 tical absurdity of such notions — fell into an opposite 
 extreme, equally fatal and absurd, by teaching that his 
 nature was but a higher degree of animalism, and that his 
 chief good was to be placed in sensual delights ; thus 
 making him no better, and no higher, than irrational crea- 
 tures. The one school perceived, in part at least, what 
 man ought to he, but overlooked what he really is; while 
 the other was content to let him remain what he is, with- 
 out teaching, or endeavouring to make him, what he ought 
 to be. 
 
 It is, therefore, evident that no improvement, nor hope 
 of it, is to be expected from such sources as these. The 
 light within is proved to be disturbed or delusive, and the 
 light without, in creatures or in nature, is obscured or 
 eclipsed. The passions and the senses are strong, and 
 constantly aspiring at the mastery over reason ; reason 
 resents the wrong, and strives to recover its lost dominion. 
 The corrupt affections are perpetually driving man to the 
 pursuit of unlawful and injurious gratifications ; w^hile his 
 own heart impeaches him as a transgressor, and his con- 
 science inflicts or threatens retribution. All things with 
 
182 MENTAL AND MORAL CONDITION, ETC. 
 
 which he is surrounded, act the part of seducers or tor- 
 mentors, sometimes both, in due succession; but still they 
 maintain a complete mastery over him : first, alluring him 
 by their fascinations ; then punishing him by their crimi- 
 nations and retributions. 
 
 This, then, we conceive, is the true condition of man- 
 kind. On the one hand, a primitive dignity of nature 
 still remaining, impels them towards intellectual grandeur, 
 moral excellence, perfect happiness, and immortality; 
 while, on the other hand, they are oppressed by moral 
 blindness, plunged in misery, and willingly enslaved by 
 concupiscence. These have become a second nature, vic- 
 torious over the aspirations of the immaterial spirit, and 
 all but destructive of the original moral constitution re- 
 ceived from the creative hand. In all this is to be found 
 a full and perfect verification of the great principles and 
 doctrines of revelation, which uniformly testify that " man 
 was made upright, but has sought out many inventions." 
 
 It would be difficult, we conceive, perhaps impossible, to 
 point out a single feature of man's moral character and 
 condition which does not corresjDond minutely, and with 
 a kind of exquisite fitting, to the facts and theory laid 
 before us throughout the Bible ; while it would be equally 
 impossible to find out any other theory that could so take 
 up, and harmonize, and elucidate all the facts of our social 
 history and personal consciousness. The one is the por- 
 trait on the canvas, the other the living original. 
 
LECTURE IV. 
 
 Coincidences between tlie doctrines of revelation and the general principles 
 of the divine moral government, as deducible from the facts which appear 
 in the constitution and history of human natui'e. 
 
 General explanation and limitation of the argument — Moral Government — 
 Efficiency and universality of its laws — Recognition of the being and 
 perfections of a supreme Governor — Vice distinguished — Attended with 
 suffering — Tendency of virtue to Avell-being — Doctrine of Providence — 
 Power and universality of Conscience — Instinctive propensity to Prayer 
 — Sense of future accountableness. 
 
 In entering upon this branch of our subject, it seems 
 desirable to explain, first, what it is intended to attempt, 
 and within what limits we propose to confine cm- argu- 
 ment. I shall not enter upon the proof, that there is 
 such a thing as a moral government of the world. An 
 argument upon this subject would lead us into too wide 
 a field; and, besides, it may be supposed to be fully- 
 admitted, even by those who are declared unbelievers in 
 revelation, at least by all such as are not professedly 
 Atheists. Our object at present, then, is not to prove 
 that there exists a wise, righteous, and benevolent Governor 
 of mankind ; but, supposing that admitted, to advance 
 forward upon this ground, to the proof that there are evi- 
 dences sufficient to convince us that the Author of the Bible 
 is the Author of those laws which we find operating within 
 our own consciousness, through all our social relations, 
 and throughout the entire history of our race, as far, at 
 least, as we can review it. Moreover, it will be no part 
 
] 84 COINCIDENCES BETWEEN REVELATION 
 
 of our endeavour to vindicate the moral government of the 
 world, nor to show that it might not be supposed to have 
 been better. Upon these questions men can merely specu- 
 late ; and, after all their reasonings, must admit that they 
 are quite incompetent and unquahfied to determine what 
 might or might not have been, or what might have been 
 best. For aught they know, all things considered, the 
 present system may be the very best that could have been 
 chosen; and, seeing it has been chosen by an infinitely 
 wise, benevolent, just, and Almighty Being, there stands 
 forth an overpowering presumption that it is best. Abstract 
 reasonings upon these points must give place to absolute 
 facts. Things are so and so; and our reasonings must 
 be limited to what is, and not influenced by our con- 
 jectures of what might have been. 
 
 Our direct business is to take up the undeniable facts 
 discoverable in our common nature ; and having learned, 
 what we can from them, by the most cautious exercise of 
 our reason, to judge whether they tally with the sacred 
 word ; and then, if in this endeavour we should obtain 
 satisfaction, we may safely proceed to infer that the 
 primary Author of that word, and of our nature, must be 
 the same. The correspondence, if perfect, will seem to 
 imply the conclusion, that there is an identity in the 
 source and nature of the two matters brought into com- 
 parison. This conclusion will be strengthened, also, by 
 the certainty that no such agreement can be shown be- 
 tween nature, as it is in ourselves, and any other moral 
 system, viewed in theory. After this proposed comparison, 
 there may still appear some things apparently difficult of 
 solution, or absolutely inexjilicable, owing to our limited 
 knowledge, on both sides of the comparison ; but these 
 will present no difficulty more formidable on the one side 
 than on the other. Those who admit that there is a God 
 — notwithstanding their imperfect comprehension of the 
 whole system of nature, and the impenetrable mystery 
 
AND DIVINE MOKAL GOVERNMENT. 185 
 
 of some parts of it — cannot consistently make parallel 
 difficulties, in the subjects of revelation, any objection to 
 its divine authorship ; both must either be received or 
 rejected, for equal reasons. We cannot deny revelation 
 to be of God, for those reasons which, when applied to 
 his being and attributes, as evinced in the works of nature, 
 are rejected as trifling or worthless. 
 
 MOKAL GOVERNMENT, GENERALLY, AND BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES, 
 
 COINCIDENT. 
 
 There are exhibited, throughout revelation, certain 
 great moral principles, which are there announced as ap- 
 plicable to our nature generally, and under all circum- 
 stances. These pertain principally to the mental and 
 moral constitution of man ; and their truth, we think, is 
 evinced by their apparent operation as laws pervading 
 our nature ; not laws in the sense of those original and 
 primary laws of inanimate and unconscious matter, against 
 Avhich it cannot rebel, or without subjection to which it 
 is never seen; but laws, in the sense of moral principles 
 ' or rules, admitting the exercise of choice, or what is 
 understood by volition and free agency, in the observance 
 or violation of them. These only are moral laws. Their 
 existence, as laws, is fully ascertained by the undeniable 
 fact, that human happiness is promoted by the keeping 
 of them; and by the equally certain fact, that punitive 
 and painful consequences attend their violation. In the 
 words of Bishop Butler, I would maintain, as past dispute, 
 that " God has given us to understand " (by the use of 
 our reason and the facts of our experience, the most clear 
 and palpable of all things) that " he has appointed satis- 
 faction and delight to be the consequence of our acting 
 in one manner, and pain and uneasiness the consequence 
 of our acting in another, and of our not acting at all ; that 
 we find the consequences, which we were beforehand 
 informed of, uniformly to follow." 
 
186 COINCIDENCES BETWEEN EEVELATION 
 
 Now, from this general observation, obvious to every 
 one, " We may learn that we are at present actually under 
 his government, in the strictest and most proper sense : in 
 such a sense as that he rewards and punishes us for our 
 actions. An Author of nature being supposed, it is not 
 so much a deduction of reason, as a matter of experience, 
 that we are thus under his government : under his govern- 
 ment, in the same sense as we are under the government 
 of civil magistrates. Because the annexing pleasure to 
 some actions, and pain to others, in our power to do or 
 to forbear, and giving notice of his appointment before- 
 hand to those whom it concerns, is the proper formal 
 notion of government. "\Miether the pleasure or pain 
 which thus follows upon our behaviour, be owing to the 
 Author of nature's acting upon us every moment W'hich 
 we feel it ; or to his having at once contrived and executed 
 his own part in the plan of the world, makes no alteration 
 as to the matter before us. For if civil magistrates could 
 make the sanction of their laws take place, without inter- 
 posing at all, after they had passed them, without a trial, 
 and the formalities of an execution : if they were able to* 
 make their laws execute themselves, or every offender to 
 execute them upon himself; we should be just in the 
 same sense under their government then, as we are now, 
 but in a much higher degree and more perfect manner. 
 There is no possibility of answering or evading the 
 general thing here intended, without denying all final 
 causes. For final causes being admitted, the pleasures 
 and pains now mentioned must be admitted too, as 
 instances of them. And if they are, if God annexes 
 delight to some actions and uneasiness to others, with 
 an apparent design to induce us to act so and so ; then 
 he not only dispenses happiness and misery, but also 
 rewards and punishes actions. If, for example, the pain 
 which we feel, upon doing what tends to the destruction 
 of our bodies, suppose upon too near an approach to fire, 
 
AND DIVINE MORAL GOVERNMENT. 187 
 
 or upon wounding ourselves, be appointed by the Author 
 of nature to prevent our doing what thus tends to our 
 destruction ; this is altogether as much an instance of 
 his punishing our actions, and consequently, of our being 
 under his government, as declaring, by a voice from 
 heaven, that if we acted so, he would inflict such pain 
 upon us, and inflicting it, whether it be greater or less. 
 Thus we find that the true notion or conception of an 
 Author of nature, is that of a master or governor, prior 
 to the consideration of his moral attributes. The fact 
 of our case, which we find, by experience, is that he 
 actually exercises dominion or government over us at 
 present, by rewarding and punishing us for our actions, 
 in as strict and proper a sense of these words, as- children, 
 servants, subjects are rewarded and punished by those 
 who govern them. 
 
 "And thus the whole analogy of nature, the whole 
 present course of things, most fully shows that there is 
 nothing incredible in the general doctrine of religion; 
 that God will reward and punish men for their actions 
 hereafter ; nothing incredible, I mean, arising out of the 
 notion of rewarding and punishing. For the whole course 
 of nature is a present instance of his exercising that govern- 
 ment over us, which implies in it rewarding and punishing."* 
 
 Now we proceed to observe, that what these laws or 
 principles are, is stated distinctly by revelation. They are 
 described with precision, and illustrated with much force 
 of evidence, as essential to the well-ordering of human 
 economy. The appeal is constantly made to our own 
 experience and consciousness as to their reality. Upon 
 this ground it appears impossible, in contemplation of 
 that being whom we acknowledge as our moral governor, 
 either to evade the force, or deny the actual operation, of 
 such laws in us and upon us. We are conscious of them ; 
 
 * Butler's Analogy, p. 50, 
 
188 COINCIDENCES BETWEEN EEVELATION 
 
 we see them constantly in force upon our fellow-beings. 
 Food does not more certainly nourish the animal system, 
 and poison injure and destroy it, than the observance of 
 these moral laws tends to man's well-being and happiness, 
 or their violation to his misery both individually and 
 socially. 
 
 But the efficiency and universality which attend these 
 laws, as indications of the supreme moral authority of the 
 Creator, serve, in many particulars, to verify the declara- 
 tions of the sacred volume. In fact, the whole system of 
 moral truth, as laid down in the Scriptures, may be sho'^ai 
 to be singularly coincident with all the princij^les of that 
 moral system under which we find ourselves placed, and 
 which appears to be evolved and recognised, in a most 
 striking degree, even where no guidance, no key-note, so 
 to speak, has been previously given to the human mind by 
 revelation. 
 
 I shall now attempt to illustrate these general observ- 
 ations, in reference to some leading principles of the moral 
 system, as they appear in the ivord, and as they are verified 
 in our nature. 
 
 ]. THE BEING AND TEKFECTIONS OF GOD. 
 
 We may commence with the fundamental doctrine of all 
 religion ; the being and perfections, both natural and 
 moral, of One God. There is a striking coincidence 
 between the dictates of Scripture and the decisions of our 
 own reason upon this momentous sul^ject. The Scripture 
 affirms that there is one God, and but one. It exhibits 
 his perfections, exercised in the creation and government 
 of the world. It did so when no other authority pro- 
 claimed the same truth. It did so for a very long period, 
 while many other authorities proclaimed and maintained a 
 contrary doctrine. It may be said now to produce, or to 
 command, generally, the ready assent of reason wherever 
 it is enlightened and cultivated. 
 
AND DIVINE MORAL GOVERNMENT. 189 
 
 It seems impossible for human reason to retain its 
 belief of polytheism after it is made acquainted with the 
 Biblical doctrine upon this subject. The darkness does 
 not more necessarily and naturally recede before the rising 
 of the sun, than idolatry or polytheism before the dawn of 
 revelation. The reason seems to be, in the intuitive per- 
 ception of the consistency of the one theory, as contrasted 
 with the detected imperfection of the other. The mind 
 perceives its reasonableness, just as it might the solu- 
 tion of a difficult problem in numbers, when laid before 
 it, though it seems to have been incompetent to find 
 out the solution for itself " Verily," says the Scripture, 
 "there is a God that judgeth in the earth." Human 
 nature, every where and always, has virtually asserted 
 and felt something of the same great principle, though it 
 has never, of itself, arrived at the perfect and full concep- 
 tion of it. It has never formally asserted the unity of 
 God ; though, when that doctrine is introduced by reve- 
 lation, reason instantly percrives its congruity, and assents 
 to it as a truth. His eternal power and Godhead are 
 known by the things that are made, so that God has never 
 left himself without witness, even in the alienated heart 
 and understanding of man. 
 
 Yet we must deny that reason, unassisted, has ever 
 been sufficient for the discovery and mahitenance of the 
 entire truth upon this important principle. Tlie proof of 
 this is to be found in the historical fact, admitted by 
 Mr. Hume, that till "about 1700 years ago, all mankind 
 were idolaters. The doubtful and sceptical principles of 
 a few philosophers, or the theism, and that too not entirely 
 pure, of one or two nations, (this is the insidious way in 
 which he passes by the awkward case of the Jews,) form 
 no objection worth regarding. Behold, then, the clear 
 testimony of history. The further we mount up into 
 antiquity, the more do we find mankind plunged into 
 idolatry. No marks, no symptoms, of any more perfect 
 
190 COINCIDENCES BE'HV'EEX KE\rELATTON 
 
 relicrion. The most ancient records of the human race 
 
 O 
 
 still present us with polytheism, as the popular and 
 established system. The north, the south, the east, the 
 west, give their unanimous testimony to the same facts." * 
 The object of Mr. Hume, in this passage, and indeed 
 the s6\e argument of all deistical writers, is to show that 
 revelation was needless, because reason, by itself, can 
 attain, they say, to the knowledge of the being, unity, and 
 attributes of God. But the disingenuousness of this 
 attempt is obvious enough. The very admission, that, till 
 revelation was made public, reason never did discover the 
 great principles in question ; but that since Christianity 
 has been propagated, a purer system of theism has pre- 
 vailed, and idolatry has been giving way, completely sub- 
 verts all the pretensions of Deists to the discovery of the 
 being and unity of God. The modern Deist, then, is 
 placed in this situation : he first enjoys the light of reve- 
 lation, and then endeavours to turn that light back against 
 itself. Being taught the truth, and finding it perfectly 
 consonant to the dictates of his own reason, he then 
 denies that he was taught it, and affirms that it is a 
 discovery his own reason has made. What can be more 
 disingenuous than this? He has partaken, in common 
 with all who dwell in christianized nations, of the advan- 
 tages and illumination afforded by revelation ; the current 
 of his thoughts and reasonings has been unconsciously set 
 by it ; the truth of the existence of only one God has been 
 first impressed upon him by education, early habit, and the 
 absence of all contrary associations ; and then he has seen 
 that all things in the system of nature agreed with the 
 notions which he supposed his reason had suggested ; 
 and then he started up with the delirious dream, that his 
 reason was the discoverer of this fundamental truth : just 
 as if a youth, after being initiated into the principles of 
 
 * Hume's Essays. Nat. Hist, of Eeligion, vol. ii. p. 417. 
 
AND DIVINE MORAL GOVERNMENT. 191 
 
 geometry and algebra, and finding them perfectly consonant 
 with his reason, should ambitiously and childishly infer 
 that his own sagacity had made, or would have made, the 
 discovery of those principles, without any assistance from 
 a guide or instructor. Thus it is with our modern Deist. 
 He derives all his first principles from revelation, how- 
 ever insensible of the fact, or indifferent to the consequent 
 obligations. He fights his battle with weapons taken 
 from our armoury. He first ascends the hill of Zion, and 
 views the universe by the light of revealed truth, and then 
 ascribes his knowledge to his own reason. 
 
 But no estimate of the capability of reason to make this 
 discovery, can be fair or valid, which is not taken from a 
 period prior to the existence and publication of the Bible, 
 or from some nation in which its influence had never been 
 felt. It is the extreme of unfairness and sophistry to tell 
 us, that reason is sufficient, and revelation unnecessary, 
 because those who reject it, are in the possession of many 
 of its fundamental truths, and that they have ascertained 
 their credibility and accordance with the system of nature 
 by the light of their own philosophy. The objector has 
 here, evidently, mistaken the accordance of reason with 
 revelation, for the anticipation of revelation by reason; 
 the only fact which would sustain his argument. But, if 
 we look carefully at the case, we shall see that the real fact 
 is this ; the ivy of reason, having grown up and around the 
 oak of revelation, has begun to boast of its own erectness, 
 strength and elevation. No Deist, in the present age, who 
 asserts the sufficiency of reason to attain to a belief in the 
 unity and moral perfections of a Deity, is or can be in a 
 fair situation to determine how much he is indebted to 
 revelation, or how far his reason might have advanced by 
 itself. It is impossible he should ever prove that he has 
 acquired his theism by the aid of reason alone ; for he lives 
 in the midst of an element of pure and celestial light, at the 
 very moment when he holds up the taper of his reason, 
 
192 COINCIDENCES BETWEEN KEVEI^VTION 
 
 and assures the world, that this is the exclusive source of 
 all the light which himself and others enjoy. Yet the light, 
 which first emanates from the orb of revelation, on which 
 he has turned his back, may be shown to be substantially 
 the light in which he walks, and by the aid of which, alone, 
 he has been led to all his boasted discoveries. 
 
 Here, then, we think, there is ground to infer a double 
 coincidence ; first, between the general doctrine taught 
 by revelation, on the being and government of God, and 
 the natural dictates of reason upon the same subject, 
 even where revelation is unknown, because some notions 
 of a superior and superintending power, or powers, seem 
 inseparable from our nature, and universally to attend the 
 possession and exercise of reason : and, further, that there 
 is a more complicated harmony discovered, as soon as the 
 precise doctrines of revelation upon this subject are pre- 
 sented to the understanding. Here arises a clear and 
 decisive conviction, not on the general fact, in the crude 
 form in which unassisted reason first holds it ; but beyond 
 that, in the more precise propositions of the unity, spirit- 
 uality, and moral perfection, which revelation asserts, and 
 to which reason ultimately brings us, when it has con- 
 trasted this system with that of polytheism. Thus a 
 double coincidence is established between the authority 
 of revelation, and the processes of reason ; first in its un- 
 enlightened, and then in its refined and improved state. 
 
 It appears, then, clearly established, from the whole 
 history of our nature, in reference to the being and 
 government of God, that, notwithstanding the tendencies 
 of the human mind to what is evil, and notwithstanding 
 all its crude speculations, and all its efforts to relieve 
 itself from a sense of moral subjection to the Supreme 
 Being, it has never been able to obliterate the evidence, 
 or neutralize the force of this great truth. It has partially 
 appeared in all the systems of idolatry; it is the originating 
 idea of polytheism, which, in ail its multifarious forms and 
 
AND DIVINE MORAL GOVERNMENT. 193 
 
 complicated machinery, rude or classic, is but the con- 
 fused and morbid creation of the human fiincy, under 
 the influence of this natural and intuitive perception of 
 tlie reason, exercised upon the various proofs of superior 
 agency, both objectively and subjectively. Is it not, then, 
 manifest, that there is a constraining law or principle in 
 our nature, counteracting the spread of Atheism ? for the 
 world has never, to any extent, become atheistic; nor, in- 
 deed, when some few have occasionally fallen into that 
 notion, can they long or consistently maintain it. It seems 
 as if an Atheist were a sort of hybrid. There is a law 
 which prevents the propagation of hybrids, or tends to 
 their speedy extinction. Society could not exist, for any 
 length of time, upon such principles, and hence it appears 
 as impossible (the laws of our nature being taken into 
 account) that there should be a nation of Atheists, as that 
 there should be a nation of idiots. What, then, is this, 
 but a verification, in another view, of the great truth of 
 revelation, and almost a literal fulfilment of its solemn 
 declaration — "As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall 
 bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God !"-- 
 
 11. VICE ATTENDED WITH BOTH MENTAL AND DODILY 
 SUFFERING. 
 
 We proceed, now, to illustrate another point of coin- 
 cidence between the doctrine of the sacred word and the 
 experience of our nature. It is laid down in the Bible, 
 that sin is attended with suffering, frequently in its double 
 kind, both bodily and mental ; and this law serves the 
 purpose of a retributive administration of divine justice, 
 not, indeed perfect, but incipient and preparatory to its 
 perfection hereafter. Vice, as such, is universally dis- 
 tinguished in its painful effects from the consequences 
 
 • r.om. iv. 11. 
 V. o 
 
194 COINCIDENCES BETIN-EEN REVELATION 
 
 of accident, or what we call misfortune. When we have 
 acted unreasonably, unjustly, or, in any sense, morally 
 wrong, we are the subjects of a very different feel- 
 ing from that of which we are conscious, when we 
 are sufFerincr from mere loss or accident. In the one 
 case, we are vexed with ourselves, or have a feeling of 
 remorse, for having voluntarily done wrong; but, in 
 the other, we have the satisfaction of knowing that v/e 
 cannot blame ourselves. We are all conscious of the 
 difference, and it arises from certain universal laws 
 of our nature, as inseparable from it as sensations of 
 bodily pain and pleasure. It is as impossible to con- 
 found, as to deny, the distinction. Virtue as naturally 
 and necessarily produces pleasurable emotions to our 
 moral feelings, as vice leads to uneasiness, self-reproach, 
 and fear. This is declared to be true, both in re- 
 ference to individuals and societies of mankind. The 
 Creator, through his revelation, has affirmed, generally, 
 that the soul that sinneth shall die. The first command, 
 or prohibition, was attended with this sanction, and it is 
 observable that, by a mysterious, but minutely adapted 
 economy, he has so ordered the laws of our nature, and 
 the events of his providence, in all their movements, as to 
 make the whole subservient to this wise and just expression 
 of his will. "Has any hardened himself against God, and 
 prospered?" "Wo to the wicked, for it shall be ill with 
 him, for the reward of his hand shall be given him." 
 " He that doeth evil, doeth it to his own hurt." We wish 
 to leave out of account, at present, the doctrine of the 
 actual retribution of a future state, and to allude to it, 
 only as the anticipation of it may become, in the pre- 
 sent life, one means of enforcing the general law under 
 consideration. 
 
 The principles of revelation upon this subject, are ex- 
 hibited throughout the whole volume. It is, in fact, 
 altogether based upon the eternal distinction between 
 
AND DIVINE MORAL GOVERNMEKT. 195 
 
 right and wrong, good and evil, and upon the capacity of 
 man's nature for perceiving that distinction. It assumes, 
 that God has made sucli a distinction, and connected with 
 the observance ornon-observance of it, certain consequences 
 of pleasure or suffering, necessarily following in the experi- 
 ence of mankind. 
 
 Now it is evident to all, that sin, or moral evil, generally 
 brings its own reward. Here the universal experience of 
 man corroborates the grand principles laid down in the 
 Bible, and confirms the universal law which is operating 
 in our nature. It does not invalidate this statement, or at 
 all diminish the force of the coincidence we are endeavour- 
 ing to establish, that most sins are productive of a present 
 pleasure : for this is admitted, and is represented as form- 
 ing the great inducement to sin ; this is perfectly consistent 
 with the notion of a moral system ; but this gratification 
 is obviously in the inferior, or animal part of our nature, 
 which has usurped a mastery over the nobler, as evinced 
 by the fact, that in sinning, the mind, or spiritual part, has 
 really little enjoyment, is frequently conscious of injury 
 and of violence, and really suffers a high degree of irksome 
 uneasiness, frequently amounting to bitter anguish, and, 
 for the most part, shows its reluctance to concur in those 
 evil indulgences to which the sinful passions incline. 
 The eternal law is never frustrated, however the under- 
 standing may be deceived or sophisticated by the fallacious 
 pleas or excuses suggested for the extenuation of evil. 
 God has determined, that wilful disobedience to his laws 
 shall produce uneasiness, pain, suffering, shame, and 
 finally death. The reasons for which he has established 
 these moral connexions, are not expressly stated in the 
 written word, in reference to every particular sinful act; 
 but an intuitive perception is supplied to the human 
 mind; and this is guided by general principles, as well 
 as by the universal reason, which serves the purpose 
 of many expressed laws, and without which no written 
 
196 COINCIDENCES BETWEEN REYELATrON 
 
 laws could avail, that the will of the Creator must be the 
 rule of his creature. He may deny, obscure, and reject 
 this internal perception of duty : this is only a proof and 
 a consequence of his moral defection, and what naturally 
 follows from his forfeiture of divine knowledge, and the 
 corruption of his moral affections ; but that such a power 
 of moral perception does exist in him is manifest, in the 
 remorse which follows misconduct, and which could have 
 no existence without the consciousness of such an inward 
 power and law of moral perception. 
 
 Now, the coincidence between the moral system of 
 revelation upon this point, and that of actual experience 
 and human history, is most perfect and striking. Many 
 of the vices to which men are prone bring a speedy and 
 marked punishment ; while others, though less rapid in 
 their sequences, are not less sure, nor less marked. Some 
 sins bear their brand, as it were, on the very face of them ; 
 and even while indulged, or immediately after, show that 
 they are against the will and law of God, as that was at 
 first impressed upon our nature. Some are so utterly 
 against the reason and feeling of mankind, that they pro- 
 duce universal disgust and contempt; others are so hostile 
 to the interests of society, that they lead to a loss of 
 character, and to a kind of circumscription from decent 
 and rational association ; and others are so opposed to 
 nature, in the individual man himself, that he becomes 
 a monster, or a beast in his own eyes, despicable, dis- 
 honoiu'ed, alienated, even from himself. Thus he bears 
 within his own breast, or discovers in the sentiments of 
 his fellow-beings towards him, or even in the physical and 
 corporeal effects of his conduct, decisive evidence that he 
 has violated the law of his moral and intellectual nature, 
 and transgressed the will of his Creator. This is more 
 especially seen, though not exclusively, in the case of 
 gross crimes, and such as are directly injurious to the 
 interests of others; such as murder, oppression, cruelty. 
 
A^SD DIVINE MORAL GOVERNMENT. 197 
 
 the violation of faith, and the indulgence of a grasping 
 selfishness. 
 
 It must be obvious that this branch of our subject would 
 admit of a large illustration ; but I prefer, at present, to 
 enforce attention to general principles, rather than run 
 out into minute and subtle distinctions. It is past dis- 
 pute, we conceive, that human consciousness and history 
 corroborate the great principles of revelation upon the 
 tendency of vice to suffering. 
 
 III. — TENDENCY OF VIRTUE TO WELL-BEING. 
 
 The reverse of this holds good in reference to virtue, 
 benevolence, and goodness. These have evidently the 
 opposite tendency. They clearly promote the well-being 
 of the individual, the peace, good order, prosperity, and 
 happiness of society. "Verily," says God, "there is a 
 reward for the righteous." "Trust in the Lord, and do 
 good, so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou 
 shalt be fed." All men are constrained to admire virtue. 
 Even the wicked themselves allow that the virtuous are 
 better, more respected, and more happy in the main than 
 themselves. The whole scope of the Bible will be readily 
 admitted to bear upon the proof of the general position 
 now laid down ; and as to the fact of man's consciousness, 
 and the testimony of experience, there cannot be much 
 room for diversity of opinion. 
 
 If we look the world through, we see that temperance, 
 moderation, truth, justice, benevolence, in their general 
 tendency, promote the health, long life, reputation, and 
 felicity of men. They not only are unattended by the 
 painful consciousness which accompanies, and the re- 
 morse til at follows, vice, but they seem to strengthen all 
 the energies of our nature, promote the well-being of 
 society, prove favourable to our highest mental develop- 
 ment, administer many and various gratifications, and 
 
198 COINCIDENCES BETWEEN EEVELATION 
 
 are ever accompanied with pleasurable reflections and 
 reviews. Who will deny that there is a most striking and 
 important contrast between the emotions with which a 
 vicious life and a virtuous one are reviewed ? 
 
 Now, the invariable and universal tendency of virtue to 
 human happiness, is a doctrine which could scarcely have 
 been ascertained, in the first instance, by human intelli- 
 gence. No one could have ventured to lay it down, as it 
 is laid down in the sacred book, without a divine know- 
 ledge of our nature and its laws. Many ancient philoso- 
 phers disputed the fact, and endeavoured to overturn the 
 principle ; hence they utterly confused virtue and vice. 
 Some moderns have done the same. Their attempts, 
 however, only show the perversion of the men from trutli 
 and virtue. They cannot destroy the distinction, nor 
 change the laws of our moral nature. Happily, their power 
 is confined to their speculations. The law^s of nature 
 prevail, and I suppose will prevail, in spite of those who 
 would deny, confuse, or reverse them. Virtue does exist — 
 does tend to well-being. The streams of water do not 
 more naturally tend to the sea, than does virtue to make 
 men happy both individually and collectively. 
 
 Here, then, is a law corresponding with the doctrine 
 of the Bible; a law working always effectually, because 
 it works in the very interior and centre of our nature ; 
 yet it evidently depends, in the first instance, altogether 
 upon the eternal distinction between good and evil, sus- 
 tained by the Supreme will. It could have arisen from no 
 other source, and could have been produced in us by 
 no inferior power. Certain it is, that if men could have 
 influenced the law; if their will could have reached it; 
 if their habits could have changed it — long ago it had 
 been reversed. They have been endeavouring, from the 
 beginning of time, to confound and thwart it; and will 
 even now not be persuaded that it is God's law, that it 
 
AND DIVINE MORAL GOVERNMENT. 199 
 
 cannot be annulled, and that it is universally and infallibly 
 sure in its operation. 
 
 But such is the clear distinction Scripture puts between 
 righteousness and Avickedness, and so certain is it, in fact 
 and in history, that men without the Scripture, and who 
 have never heard of it, have observed and recorded this 
 tendency of virtue to happiness, and of vice to the con- 
 trary. But the Bible alone founds it upon an eternal 
 and immutable law, originating in the divine will ; and 
 the Bible, alone, therefore, is entitled to the credit of 
 this foreseen and predicted fact. Apart from revelation, 
 we know of no reason why it should be so, and we could 
 by no means be certain that it would be uniformly so, 
 through successive generations ; or that it might not, by 
 human effort, or habit, or resolution, be ordered just the 
 reverse. For how was it to be foreseen, by human reason, 
 that vice was to be always injurious, and virtue always 
 pleasurable and useful, if not at the moment, yet at the 
 subsequent reckoning? For aught we could have deter- 
 mined, the time might come when vice might be indulged 
 with impunity, and virtue become injurious and painful, 
 and a violence to our nature. Neither the theory of 
 atheism or deism could hold out any security to the con- 
 trary, or show any good reason why this change might 
 not take place. Men may talk of the laws of nature, and 
 of the laws of morals ; but they should be reminded, that 
 our knowledge of such laws is the result of long observ- 
 ation and experience alone, and could not have been 
 possessed by human reason at the beginning of things. 
 The unbeliever is sure of the opposite tendencies in dif- 
 ferent actions, only upon the ground of history, experience, 
 and consciousness; but long before these were accumulated 
 to a sufficient extent to warrant his conclusion, revelation 
 had announced it. His method of discovery, therefore, 
 could not have been that on which revelation determined 
 the principle. 
 
200 COI^'CIDEKCES BETWEEN EEVELATJON 
 
 IV. THE DOCTHINE OF A UNIVERSAL PEOVIDENCE. 
 
 We may observe, again, that the Bible teaches the 
 doctrine of a universal providence, and that this is regu- 
 lated by infinite wisdom, goodness, and justice. " The 
 Lord preserveth man and beast;" but man is the more 
 especial object of a parental care, of a tender affection, 
 and of a moral discipline. This divine providence may 
 be viewed, first, in its reference to nations and the race 
 at large. For, as Mr. Sharon Turner has justly re- 
 marked — " You will find it to be a law of national pro- 
 vidence, repeatedly put into action, that every prosperous 
 nation, as every inculcated system, however powerful, and 
 successful, and improved, during the time of its enlarge- 
 ment and influence, has been checked as soon as it has 
 deviated into the depravities and errors which deteriorate 
 human nature, or obstruct its progress. Each has ad- 
 vanced in triumph, while it was benefiting mankind; 
 each has fallen when it has accomplished all its useful 
 purposes ; and a more improving one has been raised 
 up, and led into predominance in its stead." =:= It may 
 be very difficult and perilous for us to attempt the deter- 
 mination of the laws by which national j)rovidence is 
 regulated — perhaps impossible to do so, to any extent, 
 without great mistakes ; yet this should by no means be 
 allowed to obscure the general fact, that there are such 
 laws in operation, and that, from all we can discover of 
 them, they appear to harmonize in the main with the 
 statements given of them in the sacred volume. There, 
 at least, we find an outline of the divine plan of proce- 
 dure, and a general expression of the will and purpose 
 of God in reference to mankind at large. As thus : 
 *' His counsel shall stand, and he will do all his pleasure." 
 "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous." "The 
 
 * Turner's Sacred History, vol. ii. p. 010. 
 
AND DIVINE MOKAL GOVERNMENT. 901 
 
 way of the Avieked shall be turned upside down." " The 
 nation and kingdom that will not serve thee, shall perish; 
 yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted." These, and 
 similar scriptures, have been often and signally verified 
 in the affairs of nations. God causes the adverse events, 
 as they appear to reason, just as readily to promote his 
 ends as those that seemed auspicious and favourable. 
 This, for instance, is illustrated in the national histor}- 
 of the two great branches of the descendants of Abraham. 
 It was decreed that he should be the father of many 
 nations ; and, for this reason, his name was changed from 
 Abram to Abraham. (See Genesis xvii. 5.) "These 
 descendants were to be of that worldly consequence, that 
 royal govei nment and dignities were to mark their poli- 
 tical greatness (Gen. xvii. 6, 16). Four great streams 
 of nations, accordantly with this prediction and promise, 
 have issued from Abraham. The Edomites, or Idumeans; 
 the red men of the East, who fixed their name on the 
 Red Sea, descending from his grandson, Esau; the Jews, 
 from his grandson, Jacob ; the Arabs, from his son, 
 Ishmael, by the Egyptian, Hagar; and those tribes and 
 nations, which arose in the regions east of Syria, from 
 his last children by Keturah. Two of these — the Jews 
 and Arabians — we know to have multiplied into great 
 importance and celebrity, and to have continued, in even 
 renewed and preserved generations, amid all the waste 
 and vicissitudes of destroying time, from the days of 
 Abraham to our own time. Still his Hebrew and Arabian 
 posterity exist in several millions, though nearly 4000 years 
 have elapsed since Isaac and Ishmael were born to him. 
 To no other ancestor can such a number of living de- 
 scendants be now in any country traced. His otlier 
 branch, from his grandson, Esau, were also a copious 
 and an active people, in the periods which preceded our 
 era.'* 
 
 * Tm*ner, Sac. Hist. vol. ii. p. 518. 
 
202 COFNCIDENCES BETWEEN REVELATION 
 
 So, again, we see the supremacy of the Divine Provi- 
 dence in overruling the free will of man, and making it 
 harmonize with God's sovereignty, which is a matter of 
 special averment in the Scriptures. Each individual forms 
 his own independent purpose, and exercises his own liberty, 
 but God works them all up into the w^eb of his own myste- 
 rious and perfect counsel. He leaves all his creatures free ; 
 yet his will prevails, and harmonizes all. He makes them 
 do his pleasure unconsciously, and even contrary to their 
 intention. Against him no counsel can stand, and none 
 can defeat his wise, and gracious, and eternal purpose. He 
 makes even the wrath of man to praise him. Now all this 
 is foretold in the Bible. It only falls out as he has said. 
 Whether events be viewed in the detail, or in a grand course 
 and enlarged combination and complication, still the supre- 
 macy of God's counsel is maintained and made apparent ; 
 the page of history corresponds, when it is written fairly 
 and fully, w^ith the page of revelation. Thus all the events 
 of this many-peopled Avorld, at the present moment, are just 
 in that state which indicates the growing fulfilment of the 
 more glorious descriptions of sacred writ. His word is 
 going forth to all nations. Idolatry is tottering to its base, 
 and even the idolaters themselves presage and expect the 
 overthrow of their various systems. Neither atheism, nor 
 deism, nor any of the speculative theories which confound 
 virtue and vice, can stand against reason and Scripture. 
 They take no root in our nature. If through some special 
 circumstances they prevail for a time, yet in the end they 
 lose their hold upon the human heart, and men return to 
 their wisest and best counsellor. 
 
 V. CONSCIENCE, OR THE MORAL SENSE. 
 
 Another most material and important part of the moral 
 system is to be found in that faculty or property of our 
 nature, which, by universal consent, is denominated con- 
 
AND DIVINE MORAL GOVERNMENT. Q08 
 
 science. The question, what is conscience ? falls not within 
 our province. The metaphysical nature of conscience is 
 altogether unimportant to our present inquiry. It may be 
 an inherent, distinct, and original faculty, as much so as 
 any other faculty; or it may be the entire mind, acting in 
 the particular direction of moral relations ; or it may be, 
 as some have thought, an acquired principle or habit of 
 moral reflection. It matters little, since neither its suprem- 
 acy, its universality, its immutability, nor its independence, 
 can be called in question. Suppose it an original, integral, 
 and essential faculty of the soul, as some metaphysicians 
 describe it, a separate sense, and, properly called, a moral 
 sense ; then it affords a striking proof of the reality of a 
 system of moral government, and of the wisdom and good- 
 ness of the Creator, in qualifying the human soul, directly, 
 and at once, for the recognition of its relations and duties. 
 Suppose it an acquired habit of moral perception and judg- 
 ment, and it still shows that provision has been made in 
 the constitution of man for the production of a power so 
 essential to the operation and maintenance of a system of 
 moral government. Then, even under this view, our admi- 
 ration can scarcely be less, of that consummate wisdom and 
 skill, which, in such a contrivance, has produced results so 
 mighty and momentous, by processes at once so simple and 
 so effectual. Let it be, that the sentiments proceeding from 
 conscience, are produced in the same, or a similar way, to 
 that in which other sentiments are acquired ; still the uni- 
 formity, universality, immutability, and supremacy of these 
 moral sentiments, evince that they proceed from some law, 
 as certain, efficient, and original, as that which secures our 
 powers of perception and reflection. Whether we denomi • 
 nate conscience the faculty of perceiving and comprehend- 
 ing moral sentiments, or the action of the judgment in the 
 single department of morals, still it is obvious, that there 
 is given to conscience, by the Author of our nature, a kind 
 of rectoral authority over the active powers of the mind. 
 
204 COINCIDENCES BETWEEN REVELATION 
 
 It is independent of the will, and directs it, and may, there- 
 fore, with tlie strictest propriety, be denominated the high- 
 est of human faculties. It sits regent of the soul. " Thus 
 considered," observes Sir J. Mackintosh, " the language of 
 Butler, concerning conscience, that 'had it strength, as it 
 has right, it would govern the world,' which may seem to 
 be only an effusion of generous feeling, proves to be a just 
 statement of the nature and action of the highest of human 
 faculties. The union of universality, immutability, and 
 iBdependence (he might have added supremacy) with action 
 on the will, which distinguishes the moral sense from ever}* 
 other part of our practical natm'e, renders it scarcely meta- 
 phorical language to ascribe to it mibounded sovereignty, 
 and awful authority over the whole of the world within ; 
 shows that attributes, well denoted by terms significant of 
 command and control, are, in fact, inseparable from it, or 
 rather, constitute its very essence ; justifies those ancient 
 moralists, who represent it as alone securing, if not form- 
 ing, the moral liberty of man ; and, finally, when religion 
 rises from its roots in virtuous feeling, it clothes conscience 
 with the sublime character of representing the divine purity 
 and majesty in the human soul. Its title is not impaired 
 by any number of defeats ; for every defeat necessarily 
 disposes the disinterested and dispassionate bystander to 
 wish that its force were strengthened : and though it may 
 be doubted whether, consistently with the present consti- 
 tution of human nature, it could be so invigorated as to be 
 the only motive to action, yet every such bystander rejoices 
 at all accessions to its force ; and would own, that man 
 becomes happier, more excellent, more estimable, more 
 venerable, in proportion as conscience acquires a power of 
 banishing malevolent passions, of strongly curbing all the 
 private appetites, of influencing and guiding the bene- 
 volent affections themselves."* I have extracted this de- 
 
 * Mackintosh's Second Prelim. Disscr. on Ethical Phil. p. 347, 4to. 
 
AND DIVINE MOEAL GOVEIINMENT. 205 
 
 scrip tion of conscience, from the writings of one of the 
 most distinguished modern philosophers, for the purpose 
 of placing it by the side of the scriptm\al statements upon 
 the same subject, and of thereby showing how j)recisely the 
 most careful and acute philosophical analysis of the facts 
 of our moral nature coincides with the sacred testimony. 
 
 The description here presented by our philosopher is 
 valuable, Jirst, because it verifies all that is said in the 
 sacred word concerning the proper station, the authority, 
 the influence of conscience in general, and the essential 
 connexion of it with the moral government of God, and 
 the highest relations of man ; and, secondly, and pre-emi- 
 nently, because it recognises, most clearly and fully, the 
 peculiarity of the sacred testimony, as to the imbecility of 
 conscience to enforce, in all cases, the law of right upon 
 the will. It admits the fact, that the moral machinery 
 does not act perfectly and harmoniously, but that the con- 
 science has the ability and authority to command and lay 
 dowTi the law, and evince the reasonableness of it ; yet 
 there interposes a disturbing force, which d'rects the will 
 against the conscience, and makes the man consciously a 
 sinner, a transgressor of the law wTitten in his heart, a 
 violator, a wilful violator, of the very highest and most 
 venerable law of his nature. Well, indeed, did the phi- 
 losopher observe, " if conscience had the strength, as it 
 has the right, it would govern the world." But, though it 
 has the right, it has not the moral strength, even to govern 
 the individual ; for if it did, in fact, govern the individual, 
 it would thereby govern the world ; for its strength in one, 
 would be its strength universally, and so the world would 
 be governed by the government of each, emanating from 
 within the soul. But this very want of strength in the 
 conscience, or, rather, perhaps, more philosophically, this 
 want of submission, order, and dependence in the other 
 powers, is the very criterion that aff'ords so convincing a 
 proof of the truth and accuracy of the sacred testimony. 
 
206 OOrN'CIDENCES BETWEEN REVELATION 
 
 It is this very state of the moral powers and sentimentte 
 which is presented under the strong terms and metaphors 
 of a seared conscience, a deceitful heart, the Jlesh and the 
 spirit striving against each other, the law in the members 
 warring against the law of the mind, and to which the 
 inspired author refers, when he says, " The good that I 
 would, I do not, and the evil that I would not, that I do." 
 " The law is holy, and the commandment holy ; but I am 
 carnal, sold under sin." The sacred record clearly affirms 
 this rebellion of the passions against the will, makes it a 
 fundamental principle of the system of Christianity, and 
 clearly explains how it has supervened upon the original 
 constitution of our nature. Here, then, the sacred doctrine 
 is found fully coincident with that which the most matured 
 philosophy has taught, upon the nature, the condition, and 
 the restricted influence or imbecility of conscience. 
 
 It may not be irrelevant, further to observe, that the 
 existence, the supremacy, the independence, and the im- 
 mutability of conscience, are all recognised and strikingly 
 illustrated throughout the Book of Revelation, even from 
 the beginning ; and nothing can be more decisive, and 
 clear, and complete, than the illustration it affords, of the 
 laws which regulate this part of our nature, and of its 
 intimate and inseparable connexion with the system of 
 moral government. The operation and the power of con- 
 science are shown early in the human history, as in Adam 
 and Eve hiding themselves ; in the conduct of Cain after 
 his brother's murder. From which facts it appears, that 
 conscience was endowed wdth a most commanding and 
 retributive power, a moral sensitiveness to good and evil, 
 duty and obligation, with an instinctive bias to good, and 
 aversion from evil. 
 
 This power is, in all men, limited, not lost. It is weak- 
 ened, obscured, confounded ; but is still influenced in a 
 good degree, by right principles. Its characteristic and 
 prevailing tendency is still to rectitude, though its dictates 
 
AND DIVINE MORAL GOVERNMENT. j207 
 
 may be, in too many instances, effectually counteracted by 
 passion and seeming interest. When men do evil, it is 
 almost universally against their inward sense and convic- 
 tion of what is right. This faculty proves a judge, more 
 or less formidable, within the breast of the transgressor, 
 faithfully testifying against evil, and loudly foretelling the 
 consequence. When left to itself, and not interfered with, 
 or disturbed in its procedure, it still, in the main, points 
 to what is just and right, especially in matters not relating 
 to the Deity, and that high department of duty, in which 
 it is peculiarly liable to erroneous decisions, through the 
 loss of the right knowledge of God, In what relates to 
 personal virtue, and to the social duties, it is still, to a 
 great degree, a faithful witness, and an uncorrup ted judge, 
 though its decisions may be disregarded, and its testimony 
 overborne by the perverted will. 
 
 Let us remember, that it still shows the use for which 
 it was designed, still exhibits the power with which it was 
 originally invested, and still retains its place among the 
 practical powers of our nature, though there has grown up 
 within that nature an antagonist power, which overbears 
 and counteracts what it cannot silence or extinguish. 
 Conscience is still a swift and a sensitive witness, and 
 often makes the sinner feel its scorpion-like power to sting 
 and wound. How little, indeed, do men, in general, know 
 of its energy, of the secret power that it may acquire 
 against them ! What instances are upon record, of its 
 consuming and desolating wrath, when once it is roused 
 by the inward sense of divine authority ! It burns against 
 the transgressor with a relentless fury, it kindles the fire 
 that is never quenched, it quickens the worm that never 
 dies. It is a faculty of most mysterious power and undy- 
 ing energy. It stands forth, in the Almighty's place, an 
 avenger upon those that violate his eternal laws. No 
 tongue can detail, no pen describe, the anguish it is capable 
 of inflicting, when once its Almighty Lord gives it authority 
 
iiOS COINCIDENCES BETWEEN KEVELATION 
 
 to rise against us like an amied man. " How deeply 
 seated the conscience is in the human soul, is seen in the 
 effect which sudden calamities produce on guilty men, even 
 when unaided by any determinate notion or fear of punish- 
 ment after death. The wretched criminal, as one rudely 
 awakened from a long sleep, bewildered With the new light, 
 and half recollecting, half striving to recollect a fearful 
 something, he knows not what, but which he will recog- 
 nise as soon as he hears the name, alrcarly interprets the 
 calamities into judgments, executions of a sentence passed 
 by an invisible Judge ; as if the vast pyre of the last judg- 
 ment were already kindled in an unknown distance, and 
 some flashes of it, darting forth at intervals beyond the 
 rest, were flying and lighting upon the face of his soul. 
 The calamity may consist in the loss of fortune, or charac- 
 ter, or reputation ; but you hear no regrets from him. 
 Remorse extinguishes all regret ; and remorse is the im- 
 plicit creed of the guilty.'"* Men may outbrave it by false 
 reasons, they may elude it as if fleeing from an avenger, 
 they may offer palliations to blind and delude it into acqui- 
 escence or submission ; but how frequently does all this 
 prove in vain, even now% and how certainly in vain at last ! 
 What an affecting sight is that of a man, one hour all 
 ecstasy in sin, the next, all in flames with the stings of 
 conscience ; now stupified with the intoxicating draught 
 of pleasure, but, in a few hours, or days, agonizing with 
 remorse, frantic with guilt, and so tortured, that he is 
 driven headlong on the very extremity he feared, and, 
 trying the last questionable effort at release, he rushes 
 upon suicide, and desperately braves the power of the 
 Eternal to plunge him into a worse state of suffering. 
 
 But, on the other hand, how pre-eminent is the power 
 of conscience to sustain us in a right course of action ! 
 " Tf our heart condemn us not. then have we confidence 
 
 * Coleridge's Aids to Reflection, p. 120. 
 
AND DIVINE MORAL GOVERNMENT. S09 
 
 toward God." What a support does it minister under 
 trouble, what a shield does it present under adversity, and 
 what an antidote to the ills that may attend the fearless 
 prosecution of duty ! What a mighty power does it evince, 
 as well in bracing up the mind to suffer evil, as to antici- 
 pate and realize the approbation of that good Being, whose 
 eye conscience so vividly recognises, and in whose presence 
 it so often refreshes and strengthens itself ! 
 
 In short, the verification of the sacred testimony upon 
 this subject, by the facts of our history, the emotions of 
 our own consciousness, and the principles laid down by an 
 independent and scrutinizing philosophy, may be pro- 
 nounced absolutely perfect. Indeed it seems impossible 
 that authority and fact should ever appear in more satis- 
 factory and complete harmony. The sacred theory is found 
 true in every minute particular. No other theory is. The 
 mystery of those facts which human philosophy fails to 
 elucidate, is cleared up by the explanation the Bible affords. 
 We read the statements, we feel the emotions : our heart 
 responds — this is no deceiver, that so accurately depicts the 
 state of our ow^n consciousness, but a c?/anc?-, possessed of an 
 omniscient and omnipresent power of divination. All this 
 we have experienced, and the mystery of our commanding, 
 accusing, and tormenting conscience yields to this revealing 
 light. 
 
 Here, on the one hand, is the enigma of man's confused 
 and inexplicable nature ; but here, too, is the solution of 
 the enigma ; here is the labyrinth of our inmost thoughts 
 and emotions, our impulses, our inclinations, and our con- 
 victions ; but here, also, is the clue that guides us out of 
 the labyrinth. The evil conscience and the good consci- 
 ence alike feel the, justness of the divine averments, and 
 answer in corresponding emotions of suffering or joy, 
 terror or confidence. What, then, have we here but a full, 
 and clear, and satisfactory confirmation of all that is re- 
 corded in Scripture on this sublime and awful subject ? 
 V. p 
 
210 COINCIDENCES BETWEEN REVELATION 
 
 VI. PROPENSITY TO PRAYER IN DISTRESS. 
 
 We trace another coincidence between the statements of 
 revelation and the facts of our nature and history, in the 
 irresistible and instinctive propensity men display, under 
 certain trying circumstances and painful states of mind, to 
 worship the invisible power, and implore the assistance 
 and mercy of the Supreme Being. The fact is, first, to be 
 established or admitted. It undoubtedly is so, and it 
 might be proved, by exhibiting a great variety of particular 
 instances, comprising all sorts of persons. Suppose a case 
 of extreme danger at sea. The language of the shipmen 
 to Jonah is natural, and a thing commonly enough wit- 
 nessed under similar circumstances — " Arise, O sleeper, 
 and call upon thy God." Eevert to what is stated of the 
 strong excitement of devotional feeling, or rather its pro- 
 duction, where there had been none before, at the time of 
 the great plague of London. The churches were often 
 crowded from morning to night, when there was not a 
 clergyman to be found to lead the devotions of the people. 
 Witness the extraordinary influx of worshippers to all 
 places of worship throughout the kingdom, in that visita- 
 tion of the cholera, which, a few years since, excited the 
 dread of impending danger. But we need not rest the 
 argument on these instances, because it may be said that 
 there was some previous habit or prejudice in favour of 
 religion, and that they are not clear indications of any par- 
 ticular law or principle of our nature. 
 
 Well, then, I consent, that the principle or propensity 
 in question shall be brought to the test of other cases, 
 where there can be no suspicion of any habit or prejudice 
 of education, in favour of prayer. I would appeal, there- 
 fore, to the general fact of such a devout and religious 
 feeling being all but universally excited by the near ap- 
 proach of danger, or of death. All strikingly awful and 
 alarming visitations of providence, in all ages and nations, 
 
AND DIVINE MOKAL GOVERNMENT. 211 
 
 have had a similar effect ; often to a far greater extent in 
 heathen nations than in christian. We may even place the 
 fact in a still stronger hght; for, Avhatever have been the 
 previous habits of life, let serious danger impend, and the 
 blasphemer, the sceptic, the infidel, yea, the Atheist, becomes 
 devout. I believe the instances will be found to be exceed- 
 ingly rare, perhaps there is scarcely one to be found, of a 
 total absence of every kind of religious emotion in the 
 crisis we suppose. Man instinctively prays, or deplores, 
 or trembles, when he seriously apprehends that he is firmly 
 held by the grasp of retributive justice, or is on the eve of 
 meeting the eye of his Supreme Governor. The veriest 
 wretch that lives, whose hands are stained deep with the 
 blood of many a midnight murder, whose conscience is 
 seared as with a hot iron, who can have no rational aspira- 
 tion of hope towards God, and may know nothing of his 
 revealed mercy, yet, as he approaches his awful end, 
 whether by lingering sickness or by the awful hand of 
 human justice, bethinks him of the eternal power ; and 
 even, if he joins in no external forms of devotion and sup- 
 plication, yet says in his heart, *I am a sinner; God be 
 merciful, and forgive me.' The Atheist himself, almost 
 uniformly, as death approaches, feels the force of nature 
 too much for his no-creed ; he sinks into terror, or melts 
 into penitence, and, in both states, gives the lie to his 
 speculations, abandons the questionable deductions of his 
 sophisticated and soi)histicating logic, and commits himself 
 to the natural impulses of the deeper, surer, law of his 
 heart, which proclaims, by its spontaneous and resistless 
 emotions, that his opinions have been factitious, but that 
 nature is true, because it is of God. 
 
 What is here stated would admit of extensive confirma- 
 tion by facts on record.* But my appeal must be made to 
 
 * After the delivery of this Lecture, the particular fact here referred to was 
 confirmed by Mr. W. Hone, formerly a well-known advocate of infidelity. 
 Having heard the Lecture, he requested to si)eak •w'ith the author, and, in an 
 
21-2 COINCIDENCES BETWEEN REVELATION 
 
 them in the general. We cannot enter upon particular 
 cases. In these extremities, to which I have alluded, in- 
 fidels are generally known to pray, or try to pray,' though 
 often ashamed to have the real state of their heart dis- 
 covered. 
 
 I believe the facts stated thus generally are neai'ly, per- 
 haps quite, universal ; at all events, the very few exceptions, 
 or apparent exceptions, in which there may be really no 
 inward devout recognition of a Supreme Being, but a total 
 blank and negation of this class of our natural emotions, 
 are not of any weight in the 'general estimate : for there 
 are few laws, indeed, of our mental and moral system to 
 which there are not some apparent exceptions. But, if the 
 case be so, as I have represented, then we might ask, 
 whence is this universal propensity to call upon God, to 
 reverence and fear his power, to seek his mercy, and take 
 refuge in his goodness ? It appears to exist in our nature, 
 as really where revelation is not, as where it is. Now, could 
 it be universal, if it were not deeply rooted in the constitution 
 of man ? How should it survive all the unpropitious influ- 
 ences of a sinful, godless, and God-defying life, and burst 
 forth, at last, mightier than all the artificial restraints laid 
 upon it, by those habits which become a second nature, 
 if it were not founded in a moral law, and if it did not 
 emanate from what we call nature ? And, then, finally, 
 how should the existence, the appearance, the ultimate 
 confession, and development of this principle, or bias of 
 our nature, be predicted and described, as a triumph of 
 God and truth over a rebellious heart, but by his inspira- 
 tion, which could alone foresee the effect, under all circum- 
 stances, of that mysterious, mental, and moral constitution, 
 which he at first instituted in rectitude, but whose very 
 
 iBteresting conversation, stated that bucIi had once been his own experience; 
 ■while in a state of infidelity, suffering under severe affliction, and supposing 
 himself dying, he fell, involuntarily, into the attitude and the language of 
 prayer to the Supreme Being. 
 
AND DIVINE MOKAL GOVERNMENT. 213 
 
 aberrations demonstrate the divine authority of the word 
 that foretels them ? In all this we can perceive nothing 
 new or strange to the Divine word. It happens, in human 
 experience, just as the sacred authority says it should 
 happen. " As I live, every knee shall bow to me." Though 
 the fool says, in his heart, "there is no God," yet he is 
 found, at the last, inconsistent with himself. 
 
 " Men may live fools ; but fools they cannot die." 
 
 So the sacred testimony clearly and boldly avows, that 
 men of all classes and characters, when they come to their 
 troubles and extremities, make him, whom they had con- 
 temned and neglected, their last resource, often, indeed, 
 in vain, as to the attainment of any real pacification of the 
 agitated spirit. But, still, the fact itself shows the supreme 
 power the Creator retains over the spirit of man ; it demon- 
 strates the truth of his word, which declares, that, sooner 
 or later, for mercy or for judgment, every tongue shall 
 confess that He is righteous. " The spirit of a man may 
 sustain his infirmities, but a wounded spirit who can 
 bear?" When they are at their wits' end, then they cry 
 to the Lord in their trouble. What, then, have we, in this 
 fact, but a striking, a most convincing, verification of that 
 word, which, throughout, foresees, and predicts it all, say- 
 ing, " All flesh shall know that I am God ; " and, again, 
 "Be sure your sin shall find you out;" and, again, "In 
 the day of their trouble they will say. Arise, and save us ;" 
 and many similar scriptures. 
 
 VII. DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE. 
 
 We may find another illustration of the coincidence of 
 revelation with the facts of our spiritual constitution, in 
 reference to moral probation and final accountableness, or 
 the dependence of a future life upon our character and 
 conduct in this. 
 
 The doctrine of a future life, and of a state of reward or 
 
'214 COINCIDENCES BETWEEN REVELATION 
 
 suffering in it, is clearly laid down in the sacred word. 
 This is one of the fundamental doctrines which it is de- 
 signed to teach. But, as preparatory to this final consum- 
 mation, it represents, that men are placed, in the present 
 life, under a system of discipline and trial, calcuhited to give 
 scope for the exercise of their moral properties and endow- 
 ments ; and that, as there is a connexion between their con- 
 duct, as industrious, prudent, and persevering, or the reverse, 
 and their temporal well-being, so there is an inseparable con- 
 nexion between their good or ill conduct, morally considered, 
 and their enjoyment or suffering here, and their rewai'd or 
 punishment hereafter. It is, moreover, stated to be an essen- 
 tial part of the system, that there should be temptations to 
 evil, trial, and self-denial in the path of virtue, with the 
 strong inducements addressed to a rational and account- 
 able nature, of pleasing the Svipreme Moral Governor, and 
 thereby securing his favour and blessing. A great part of 
 the sacred word is occupied wdth exhibiting the motives 
 which should deter from sinning, and excite our diligence 
 in the cultivation of those dispositions, and practice of 
 those duties, wdiich tend to secure, both the approbation 
 of our own consciences, and the promised reward of eternal 
 life. These general principles are copiously illustrated in 
 the lives and struggles, the triumphs and honours, of the 
 righteous. Hence we are taught, that our future felicity 
 is dependent on the exercise of our natural and moral 
 powers in the particular circumstances of temptation and 
 trial in which all are placed, and that, in fact, if we act in 
 one way, we shall inevitably bring guilt, remorse, and 
 future suffering upon ourselves ; and, if we act in another 
 way, we shall as certainly secure peace, divine approval, 
 happiness, and hope here, and immortal honour hereafter. 
 This system of trial and probation is perfectly analogous 
 to that of which all are conscious, and which all admit to 
 be in operation in reference to temporal concerns. We 
 are quite sure, that a certain line of conduct promotes and 
 
AND DIVINE MORAL GOVERNMENT. 215 
 
 secures success and comfort, to such a degree, at least, as 
 is necessary for our temporal welfare ; that a contrary 
 course injures our reputation, undermines our health, and 
 brings on want and misery. Hence there is a course of 
 education and discipline, requisite for the formation of 
 proper habits in youth, enforced by parental government, 
 by the relations of society, and the influence of human 
 laws. This may be called a system of temporal govei-n- 
 ment, founded on the laws and principles of our nature, and 
 having its root in self-interest. This, therefore, renders 
 it highly probable, that there should be a parallel system 
 in reference to the higher relations and interests of our 
 souls. The history of mankind every where shows, that 
 they are conscious of such a principle. They evince, more 
 or less, a recognition of it. 
 
 The Bible declares, that there is such a system ; that 
 the whole life of man here is a state of preparatory trial ; 
 that he is exposed to various sufferings, afflictions, tempta- 
 tions, all through life, that he may have his dispositions, 
 moral sentiments, and affections excited and improved, 
 and enjoy, at last, the honour of triumphing over the 
 seductions of evil, and maintaining his integrity, submis- 
 sion, and faith, or suffer the shame and the attendant 
 retribution of an unfaithful, disobedient, and ungrateful 
 son. Now, as to the general exhibition of these principles 
 in the volume of revelation, there can be no material differ- 
 ence of opinion. I have stated them ver}' briefly, and 
 without specific reference, because, to give a complete 
 view of all the important principles there laid down, in con- 
 nexion with these subjects, would require more space than 
 can be allotted to them. Such, then, is the Biblical system, 
 in the main. Every man is placed under the same moral 
 economy. He is at liberty to act right or wrong. He has 
 a law written upon his heart, or a law written in the book, 
 or he has both ; and, when both are compared, they are 
 found minutely to correspond. He is placed in a world 
 
216 COINCIDENCES BETWEEN KEVELATION 
 
 where there are various inducements, chiefly of sense, to 
 do evil, and of reason and conscience to do riglit. He is 
 forewarned, that a great disturhance has taken place among 
 his moral powers, and that passion often interposes be- 
 tween conscience and volition, especially in reference to 
 his higher and more sacred duties and relations, and that, 
 because his nature has thus become prone to do wrong, he 
 will find need to reinforce the authority of conscience, by 
 prayer to the Supreme Being, and by availing himself of 
 the very best instructor within his power, as well as by 
 submitting himself to the corrective discipline of provi- 
 dence, as to all his temporal interests and personal feelings. 
 If, then, this is, in brief, the system verbally exhibited in 
 the Book of Kevelation, let us inquire whether it is con- 
 firmed by the facts of our consciousness and experience. 
 
 That such is the true system under Avhich we are placed, 
 may be evinced by an appeal to history, and by a reference 
 to our own feelings. If it were not a true and thorough 
 account of the moral nature and circumstances of man, 
 then it would be contradicted by experience. But, instead 
 of this, the more human experience is examined, the more 
 does it confirm the statement. And, although some men 
 have endeavoured to establish opposite views, or to show, 
 that there are facts in human experience which contradict 
 this system of the Bible, yet they have signally failed, and 
 have frequently been constrained, after more mature con- 
 sideration, to confess that things are precisely as revelation 
 has described them. We are not anxious to deny that 
 there are some unexplained, some mysterious circum- 
 stances connected with the Biblical theory, but then we 
 find, that if we set aside this statement, the same inexpli- 
 cable circumstances remain ; no theorv can mitiG^ate or 
 remove them. They remain inexplicable in our experience 
 and our philosophy, as well as in our religion. They are 
 placed by revelation to the account of the yet undeveloped 
 part of the scheme of providence, and that imperfection of 
 
AND DIVINE MORAL GOVERNMENT. 217 
 
 our knowledge, of which we cannot but have the deep con- 
 sciousness, in reference to the moral system, when we feel 
 it so powerfully in reference to the natural. If, then, these 
 difficulties remain, whatever theory we adopt, they form 
 no valid objection to the authority of the sacred word, 
 especially since that assures us, they will be all cleared up, 
 or so far, at least, as is necessary for our rational satisfac- 
 tion, when the consummation of the divine plan is attained; 
 and that, in the mean time, it is no unreasonable demand 
 upon such imperfect beings, conscious, as they must be, 
 of a gradual melioration in their views and sentiments, on 
 subjects considerably less complicated, that they should 
 await the maturity of their own knowledge, and the full 
 development of the divine plan. 
 
 Irrespective, therefore, of these considerations, we are 
 entitled to assume and appropriate every thing which is 
 apparent in human history and experience. 
 
 Now, upon this ground, we appeal to every one's con- 
 sciousness, that he has experience of inward tendencies, 
 both to good and evil ; that he possesses and exercises an 
 independent choice, in reference to actions of both these 
 characters ; that he views himself and others with alternate 
 blame or approbation, as actions appear to have been good 
 or ill; tliat he cannot avoid applauding or condemning, as 
 the case may be ; that he perceives himself often allured 
 to actions, which his reason tells him are essentially wrong, 
 and which his conscience assures him will bring pain and 
 harm, after the temporary pleasure which they may now 
 produce ; and, on the other hand, that he often feels in- 
 ducements to good actions, which he is prevented from 
 doing by some selfish or sensual end which interposes ; 
 and that, when he overcomes evil inducements, and yields 
 to the dictates of conscience, he attains a satisfaction and 
 a pleasure of the highest and purest kind. Moreover, he 
 is, and must be, sensible, that there is a moral discipline 
 to which he is subject, since he has, in passing through 
 
218 COINCIDENCES BETWEEN REVELATION 
 
 life, found his moral habits gradually improved or deterio- 
 rated, and the power of conscience increased or diminished. 
 All this, therefore, shows a nature, in the first place, 
 endowed with such powers as Scripture represents ; and, 
 in the next place, adapted altogether to the external cir- 
 cumstances of life and the world, and fitted to form habits 
 and sentiments of a good or evil character, according as it 
 has been inwardly disposed. In all this, it is impossible 
 to separate from ourselves and others the idea of virtue 
 and vice, praise and blame, just as it is in reference to any 
 action or habit which relates only to our temporal afifairs. 
 We constantly hear men praising or blaming human con- 
 duct, in reference both to private and public affairs, bearing 
 on secular and temporal interests, and they may always 
 fairly do so, wherever actions are the results of choice ; 
 but this implies a system of free agency and responsibility, 
 which, admitted in one department of our actions, cannot 
 be denied in another ; and, applied to temporal interests, 
 which are lower, cannot be excluded from the spiritual, 
 which are higher, and which have a more direct reference 
 to conscience and a future state. 
 
 This analogy being of necessity admitted, we readily 
 find every thing in our experience corresponding with the 
 s}'stem of the sacred word. We are conscious of the influ- 
 ences of temptation and the dictates of conscience ; we 
 intuitively feel that there is a distinction between virtue 
 and vice, in most cases, of easy discrimination ; we feel a 
 necessary reference to the laws of natural and moral obli- 
 gation ; we perceive that our moral sentiments are subject 
 to habit, and that this is founded in our constitution ; we 
 perceive that the good or ill of life has an influence upon 
 our character, makes us better or worse, and, as we im- 
 prove or degenerate in our moral sentiments and feelings, 
 we cannot help praising or blaming ourselves, and doing 
 the same towards others. This, then, is nature, human 
 
AND DIVINE MORAL GOVERNMENT. 219 
 
 experience, and consciousness, corroljorating, in every 
 respect, the system laid down in the divine word. 
 
 It only remains to observe, that the doctrine of a future 
 life seems to be connected, both by reason and conscience, 
 with the general conviction of responsibility. It is, to say 
 the least, more probable, as an inference from the system 
 to which we have here adverted, than the contrary ; and it 
 appears in perfect harmony with that partial and occasional 
 retribution, which all perceive and admit to be going on, 
 by the ordinary laws of our constitution. Where revela- 
 tion is unknown, this has been the issue uniformly antici- 
 pated, under some form or other, as inseparable from the 
 condition in which men perceive themselves to be placed, 
 and the moral sentiments they find uniformly developed 
 in their experience. To this sublime consummation they 
 do always, and, it appears, must always, look, as the only 
 reasonable inference from their consciousness, their endow- 
 ments, and their relative circumstances. All attempts to 
 persuade them to the contrary are found ineffectual, be- 
 cause they are against the inward dictates of nature, and 
 consist of appeals to their reason, by doubtful or negative 
 arguments, irrespective of the laws of their constitution, 
 and the facts of their experience. They cannot but believe 
 a future life possible, from what they experience, and can 
 judge, from the stages they pass through in this life, and 
 from what they witness in the consciences and deaths of 
 others ; and they cannot but infer it probable, from what 
 they feel in their own conscience, and from what they per- 
 ceive of the incompleteness of God's moral system of 
 government witliout it. Here all nations, and all men, 
 the few only excepted Avhose judgment is sophisticated by 
 the perplexities of their reason, conceive a future state of 
 reward and punishment to be, at least, highly probable. 
 This uniformity prevails, even where there is no revelation 
 to suggest the notion. What could lead to it so generally, 
 
220 COINCIDENCES BETWEEN REVELATION 
 
 if it were not an original moral instinct of our nature? 
 Keason itself seems to enforce it, as a natural and neces- 
 sary conception. In this point, then, as well as in the 
 others before noticed, there is a remarkable asfreement 
 between our natural sentiments and the statements of 
 revelation — a coincidence strongly marked. 
 
 VIII. DOCTRINE OF SUBSTITUTION. 
 
 We proceed to point out another particular, in which, 
 we think, a highly interesting and important coincidence 
 appears between the doctrines of revelation and the actual 
 system of the divine moral government, as we experience 
 it in ourselves, and witness it in the world. That is, in 
 tlie doctrines of mediation, substitution, and imputation. 
 There, are, perhaps, no doctrines of Scripture which have 
 been subject to more cavil and misrepresentation than 
 these. Some professed Christians have endeavoured to 
 criticise them out of the sacred books, while some infidels 
 have found them so thoroughly interwoven with the whole 
 scheme, as to make them their chief reasons for rejecting 
 revelation altogether. How little ground the Socinian has 
 for denying that these doctrines are in the sacred books, 
 may be inferred from the conduct of the infidel, who rejects 
 the books because he finds these doctrines so prominent 
 in every part of them. 
 
 We may leave these parties, however, to settle this 
 matter between themselves, and proceed to admit, at once, 
 that the case is just as the infidel objector supposes. The 
 Christian church, at large, agrees, that he may find them 
 there, and that they are too obvious, too prominent, and too 
 much interwoven with the whole theory of the Bible, ever 
 to be extracted or obliterated. This is not the place for 
 exposing the arrogant and presumptuous assertions of 
 those critics, who would expunge them from the Christian 
 revelation, by explaining all the allusions to them as mere 
 
AND DIVINE MORAL GOVERNMENT. 221 
 
 figures of speech, or unmeaning references to a ceremonial 
 economy that has passed away. It may be sufficient to 
 observe, in reference to the treacherous conduct of such 
 professed advocates of revealed religion, that the only 
 reason which could ever justify the introduction of such 
 doctrines into the ceremonial and typical dispensation, 
 must be their reality ; and the only reason that can justify 
 such frequent allusions to them, by the writers of the New 
 Testament, must be that same reality. 
 
 As to the objection of the unbeliever, who rejects reve- 
 lation because he finds the doctrine of mediation and 
 substitution prominently set forth, as one of its chief 
 inculcations, we have admitted the fact, but now proceed 
 to deny the validity of the objection derived from it. And 
 here we refer him back to nature, his own experience, and 
 the system of moral government, which he admits and 
 observes in operation. 
 
 Now this doctrine, or these doctrines, of mediation, sub- 
 stitution, and imputation, are the things repudiated and 
 condemned, as if they were most unnatural, unreasonable, 
 and unjust; and yet, when they are brought into com- 
 parison with the actual system of things and beings around 
 us, when they are analysed, and their true import ascer- 
 tained, it will appear, that they are neither so peculiar to 
 revelation, nor so incongruous with nature, and the general 
 system of providence, as many would represent. For it is 
 abundantly obvious, that the principle of mediation and 
 vicariousness does obtain in nearly all the relations of 
 social life. We neither come into existence, nor are pre- 
 served in life, nor take our places in society, nor form our 
 characters, without mediators. Men are, every where and 
 always, connected with others in such a way, as to be the 
 better or worse for their virtues or vices, their wisdom or 
 folly, their prudence or imprudence. We may every where 
 trace the efiects of actions, falling, for good or evil, upon 
 those who were no way concerned in them. Men are alao 
 
222 COINCIDEKCES BETWEEN REVELATION 
 
 constantly rescued, intentionally, by their fellow-men, from 
 the consequences of their own misconduct, and when they 
 had lost all power of saving themselves from the effects of 
 their own vice or folly. The innocent frequently suffer for 
 the guilty. The children bear the consequences of the 
 parents' vice, imprudence, and extravagance ; and, some- 
 times, the consequences extend through successive gene- 
 rations. Subjects continually suffer in their property, their 
 persons, and their lives, through the ambition, injustice, 
 or profligacy of tlieir rulers. Or, on the other hand, through 
 all these relations, we derive the most precious benefits 
 from the wisdom, or virtue, or generosity of others, who 
 have the power of affecting our condition. 
 
 For the sake of illustration, we may take a particular 
 case ; say, of a man, who has a family around him, and 
 depending on him. He has, by his misconduct, deprived 
 himself of the means of obtaining support. By his vices, 
 he has reduced himself to a state of debility and disease, 
 and his family to wretchedness, which urges them to some 
 vicious courses for their daily bread ; or, if they are yet 
 young and innocent, still they suffer with the guilty. Here 
 is clear imputation of the effects of crime, where there was 
 no implication in its guilt. Now, if we suppose no mediator 
 to intervene here, all these unhappy sufferers might perish 
 through the crime of one man. Or, suppose the case of 
 a captain, having numerous lives depending upon his skill 
 and care in guiding the ship; but, through the vice of 
 drunkenness in him alone, the vessel is lost, and the whole 
 crew perishes. Here, again, the innocent suffer with the 
 guilty. But we will return to the former supposition, for 
 the sake of drawing out the analogy a little further, in a 
 way natural, and, happily, not unusual. In the wretched 
 situation, to which we have imagined a vicious man and 
 his family reduced, we often find mediation. Conceive, 
 that at the critical conjuncture supposed, some charitable 
 and benevolent observer casts his eye upon this family. 
 
AND DIVINE MORAL GOVERNMENT. 
 
 Compassion moves him, we say, to consider what can be 
 done for the salvation of the family. If he possesses the 
 means, he may at once administer opportune relief. But 
 he may not be able to command the means ; or there may 
 be difficulties of a moral kind in the way of effectually and 
 pej'manently serving the wretched family. If he has not 
 means of his own, yet he can become a mediator, on their 
 behalf, with some others. Suppose he first procures, 
 tlirough his intercession, some kind physician for those 
 that are diseased, and thereby health is restored ; next, he 
 solicits and obtains money, to relieve their immediate 
 wants, and save them from the hon-ors of starvation. But 
 the kind mediator does more. By his instruction, and 
 good advice, he convinces the unhappy father of the folly 
 and wickedness of that course which has led to such misery. 
 He induces him to resolve upon a change of conduct. But, 
 at this point, he finds that he must carry his mediation 
 still further. The reformed man has no means of turning 
 his talents to any profit, for he has lost his character. No 
 one will employ him, no one will trust him. The bene- 
 factor becomes his surety, or intercedes with some one to 
 take him into their employ, or lends him capital to com- 
 mence business for himself ; here is mediation, suretyship, 
 substitution, again. Perhaps, he even becomes a bonds 
 man for him ; and thus he saves the man, and all his family, 
 from destruction. Happily, this is not a merely imagina- 
 tive descrijDtion. Now, no man would dare to pronounce 
 such facts unnatural, irrational, or inhuman. Nay, on the 
 contrary, nature prompts us to act just in this way towards 
 each other. It would, therefore, be more natural than a 
 contrary line of conduct ; and that it is not more common, 
 is not owing to any want of force in our natural feelings, 
 but to the fear, that such kindness might, in the main, be 
 abused, and become abortive ; could we ensure the happy 
 issue, we should, perhaps, always act thus in similar cases. 
 These happy effects have all arisen out of compassion, 
 
2$i4 COINCIDENCES BETWEEN EEVELATION 
 
 mediation, substitution. Will any one say, then, that the 
 principle of mediation is irrational and absurd ? Will any 
 one say, that the doctrines of Scripture, in reference to 
 human redemption, have no foundation in the system of 
 moral government, actually in operation, or that they find 
 no type in our common nature ? Will any one venture to 
 say, that suretyship, substitution, and imputation, have 
 not all a place in the temporal part of the providential 
 scheme ? and, if not, then, who shall dare to pronounce, 
 that they ought to have no place in the religious and spi- 
 ritual department of that same scheme ? or, that the detec- 
 tion of them is a valid objection to the scheme of religion 
 in which they appear ? Further, will any one say, that the 
 universal prevalence of these doctrines in their principle, 
 through all the systems of religion which men, destitute of 
 revelation, have devised for themselves, is not a proof, that 
 the abstract idea of vicariousness accords with our moral 
 feelings, and with the entire scheme of providence and our 
 social relations ? He must, indeed, be a perverse and 
 unfair objector, who can make these doctrines a ground of 
 hostility to Scripture, while he admits and applauds them 
 as they appear in his nature, and in every branch of the 
 social economy. 
 
 It will be obvious, that we might go on to illustrate the 
 existence and operation of these principles, in a great 
 variety of actual instances. God appears to have impli- 
 cated them with the whole system of his moral government. 
 The doctrine attaches as really to our mental constitution, 
 and the system of society, as to the system of our faith. 
 
 We are not called upon, here, to reconcile these facts 
 with our conceptions of the supreme goodness and justice, 
 or with the notion of a perfect moral government. It is 
 not necessary that we should be able to do so, in order to 
 render our present argument complete. Suppose it impos- 
 sible to do so, no valid argument thence arises against the 
 existence of a moral government, because it would be a 
 
 J 
 
AND DIVJNE MORAL GOVERNMENT. ^'25 
 
 mere argument, from our ignorance of tlie divine plan. It 
 is quite certain we understand that plan but very imper- 
 fectly. It is evidently a scheme, at present, but partially 
 exhibited. Its full development must take place, before 
 we can form a just and comprehensive judgment. Our 
 chief concern at present is to show, that revelation has, 
 even in its more peculiar doctrines, substitution, and 
 atonement, and, in the intervention of our Divine Me- 
 diator, brought to light, and presented to our faith, nothing 
 that can justly revolt our reason, or induce the suspicion 
 of discrepancy between its doctrines, and those laws that 
 appear in our moral constitution, and the general govern- 
 ment of the world. 
 
 Here, then, on the one hand, we find things, in the 
 experience of mankind, are so and so. It cannot be denied: 
 the innocent suffer through the fault of others, in every 
 relation of life ; the criminal are constantly saved or bene- 
 fited by the goodness of others. Substitution meets us 
 everywhere, in social life, and in the dispensations of 
 Providence. 
 
 Then, not only does this great doctrine, as found in the 
 sacred Avord, supply no valid objection to the inspiration 
 of Scripture, but its entire coincidence with what forms a 
 striking and universal feature in the system of Providence 
 and our mental economy, proves a strong recommendation, 
 and affords another test of the identity of the authorship, 
 both of nature and the Bible ; and such a test, as it may 
 well be beheved, from its very complexity, delicacy-, and 
 dignity, no imposture could ever afford. 
 
 Thus, in all the particulars now brought under review 
 Scripture is verified by the sentiments men spontaneously 
 form, showing, that those laws of our moral constitution, 
 upon which these sentiments uniformly depend, do so 
 minutely correspond with the sentiments inculcated by the 
 sacred volume, that both may fairly be concluded to have 
 a common author. No other, no contrary theory, com- 
 
'J 2 6 COINCIDENCES BETWEEN REVELATION, ETC. 
 
 ports with our entire experience and history ; and, there- 
 fore, all such must be rejected as imperfect and false. The 
 Bible theory corresponds with natural reason and con- 
 science, and that most perfectly, allowance being made for 
 the disordered state of our nature, which, indeed, does not 
 so properly require any allowance, as supply a more com- 
 plex and minute verification, in one most momentous par- 
 ticular, (I mean the actual existence of moral evil,) w^hich 
 no other theory can harmonize and explain. That which 
 has proved the wreck of all other systems, and must ever 
 prove so, furnishes a sure and triumphant criterion of the 
 only true and divine one. 
 
LECTUKE V. 
 
 Tlie Scriptural Scheme for the Universal Recovery of Mankind to Virtue and 
 Happiness, tried Ly its Adaptation and actual Success. 
 
 The Bihle proposes the redemption and recovei^ of mankind — Exhibits the 
 means — Assures the result — The only religion that ever proposed to 
 effect such an object — This purpose grand and •worthy of God — The 
 scheme, as exhibited, displays a universal character and adaptation — Per- 
 fection of its standard of morals and piety universally admitted — Objec- 
 tions against its divinity — Representations of the Neologists — Divinity of 
 the gosj)el proved from its character — Corroborated by its practical 
 application and advancing triumplis. 
 
 We conceive that another department of proof, on behalf 
 of the Sacred Scripture, is to be traced in the general 
 aspect of its revelations, concerning the restoration of man 
 from his fallen and apostate state, his return to God, his 
 recovery of divine knowledge, his return to sound morality, 
 inward harmony, social order, and final attainment of im- 
 mortal happiness. We design here to show, that the Bible 
 contains a scheme peculiar to itself, the professed object 
 of which is, to supply an effectual antidote to the misery 
 which transgression has introduced, in all its extent, and 
 in all its malignity ; and that this scheme, accomplished 
 and brought to bear, does answer its proposed purpose, 
 and that nothing else does ; that, therefore, nothing can be 
 wanting but its universal prevalence and reception, to 
 remedy, to the full extent required, all the evils under 
 
2*28 SCRIPTUDAL SCHEME FOR THE 
 
 which huiiian nature has been suffering from the earUest 
 times, and to restore it to all the joys it has forfeited. 
 
 The analysis of the argument here intended to be illus- 
 trated, may be thus stated : — The Bible claims the merit 
 of exhibiting, and bringing to perfection, a very peculiar, 
 and, in many respects, a mysterious process, which it intro- 
 duces as of divine origination and appointment; and that 
 this same authority proposes and provides certain moral 
 means and expedients, to which it attaches the very highest 
 efficiency and importance, and which it alleges will, when 
 used in the way prescribed, become the infallible means of 
 effecting the most desirable, and the most happy of changes 
 upon human nature. Thus, the whole scheme of revela- 
 tion, upon this subject, presents the gospel as a medicine, 
 or remedy, the value of which is to be subjected to trial, 
 and the virtue of which is to be tested by experience. If 
 it can be shown that the results fully justify and vindicate 
 the pretensions of Christianity, then the argument will be 
 valid, in favour of its divine origin. The pretensions being 
 inseparably connected with its high source, and its effect, 
 also, being uniformly represented as dependent upon its 
 divinity, these must invariably go together. Our object, 
 at present, therefore, will be to expand and illustrate the 
 general statement. 
 
 It will be admitted, on all hands, that the Bible does 
 propose a sclieme of human salvation, signifying, by that 
 term, the moral renovation of the heart, and the attain- 
 ment of inward moral harmony, external holiness, or virtue, 
 and the fmal attainment of everlasting life ; all of which 
 are represented as forfeited by the first apostasy. The 
 announcement and execution of this plan are to be traced 
 to the very first intimations in which it was seminally con- 
 tained, and from which, as from its earliest germ, the whole 
 has been gradually and slowly evolved, until the matured 
 fruit has been presented, in all its richness, to mankind. 
 Now, here it will be necessary to present a brief outline of 
 
UNIVERSAL llECOVEUY OF MANKIND. 229 
 
 what the Bible scheme of salvation professes to do, allow- 
 ing that, in the first place, the main object of revelation is 
 the restoration of human nature to the favour of God, to 
 moral rectitude, to happiness, and immortality ; and then 
 it will be necessary to meet some objections and represent- 
 ations, which would, in difl'erent ways, tend to invalidate 
 its divine authority. 
 
 Let it, then, be conceded, that the Bible explicitly pro- 
 poses, and does even confidently predict, a general and 
 thorough recovery of mankind ; does hold forth the most 
 flattering and joyous hopes, and does pledge its own 
 pretensions, on the result of effecting such a change in 
 human nature : and, what is a still further venture, which 
 we imagine could never have been made by any impostor, 
 and very unlikely to have been seriously made by any sim- 
 ply human and uninspired author, that every individual, 
 who will fairly, frankly, and heartily try its proffered reme- 
 dies, shall realize, in his own experience, all that is pro- 
 posed to be effected. Let us, then, examine its character, 
 in reference to the main object at which it aims. 
 
 This agency, which the Bible brings to our notice, pro- 
 mises to supply an antidote to the vices, and, in a great 
 measure, to the miseries of the world. It proposes to 
 restore the violated harmony of our nature, and again to 
 reconcile flesh and spirit, without destroying, without im- 
 pairing, and without unnaturalizing either. 
 
 This system comes forward with the commanding, the 
 exclusive, pretension to divinity and universality. It can- 
 not be denied, that there is an air of grandeur, a high 
 sublimity of conception, a lofty majesty of purpose, in the 
 project of a universal system of moral improvement and 
 happiness, surpassing any anticipation, certainly any sys- 
 tematic plan or arrangement, of human contrivance. The 
 gospel is the only religion that ever came forward, so far 
 as we know, with such a purpose professed and pledged ; 
 and, in this respect, its design is as bold, as its object is 
 
230 SCEIPTURAL SCHEMIi FOR THE 
 
 benevolent ; ^Yhile its means are as simple and practicable, 
 as its end is unprecedented and sublime. This, alone, 
 should court inquiry, and inspire candour towards such a 
 purpose. A religion that professed a less comprehensive 
 benevolence, would have wanted a most important guaran- 
 tee of divinity; and one that should have been adjusted, 
 or, by its essential nature, restricted, to a narrower sphere 
 of operation, would not have harmonized with all the other 
 plans and systems of the Almighty. Limitation is charac- 
 teristic of a finite nature ; universality belongs alone to 
 God. It is a quality which can attach to no plans but 
 those of an infinite mind, and wherever it does properly 
 and fully attach, there we possess no mean demonstration 
 of the same diyine authorship, as reveals itself in the 
 whole, and in every separate part, of universal nature. 
 
 Is it any presumption to say, that no human intelligence 
 could have devised a system of religion equally adapted to 
 all mankind ; one every way worthy of such a designation, 
 when it is notorious, that we have attained to no such 
 system upon any subject. A universal system of philoso- 
 phy, men have not even sketched, much less filled up. A 
 universal system, in any one department, such as medicine, 
 astronomy, chemistry, or mind, we possess not. We are 
 not even near such a perfect analysis on subjects con- 
 fessedly within the sphere of our observation. 
 
 How hopeless, therefore, must it be, on so wide, so deep, 
 so mysterious a subject as reUgion; comprehending not 
 only our present, but our past condition, and stretching 
 out into all the darkness and infinity of the future ; impli- 
 cating, not only ourselves, in all the variety of our circum- 
 stances and history, and in the most subtle and delicate 
 part of our nature, but the Deity, in his peerless perfec- 
 tions, his sovereign rights, his extensive government, his 
 deep counsels, and his vast designs. 
 
 But here, in the gospel, is professedly presented to the 
 world a universal system of religion ; one that risks all its 
 
UNIVERSAL EECOVERY OF MANKIND. S31 
 
 reputation on its fitness to this end; that challenges the 
 most minute and severe scrutiny on its adaptation to man 
 as he is, and on the desirableness of what it proposes to 
 make him ; that even stakes its veracity, and pledges all its 
 pretensions on the consummation of ultimately becoming 
 universal. 
 
 Now, although we hold it to be impossible for any human 
 judgment accurately and fully to divine beforehand, what 
 such a religion ought to include, just as it was impossible 
 for us primarily to originate such a religion ; yet there are 
 certain qualities which, we might fairly presume, it must 
 possess, and certain rules to be laid down which may 
 materially aid us in estimating its pretensions as divine, 
 and its adaptation to our common nature. 
 
 For instance, the human race presents some consider- 
 able varieties. I allude to these for the sake of observing, 
 that the scheme of the gospel is minutely adapted to the 
 universal characteristics of mankind ; it is adapted to them, 
 in all the varieties of which they are susceptible, through 
 the whole race. It is not an adaptation in the gross, 
 admitting possible exceptions, as to a general rule, but it 
 is an adaptation in detail, perfect alike to each individual, 
 and numerically to the whole. Whether it can be physi- 
 cally proved that black and white, red and brown, copper- 
 colour and yellow, all sprang originally from one pair, or 
 not, of this we are sure, that there never has been found, 
 yet, a human being of any colour, but Christianity was 
 adapted to engage and regulate, to delight and ennoble, all 
 the faculties of his mind. 
 
 There is not known any emotion of the rational soul, 
 but the gospel can purify, or control, or dignify it ; there 
 is not a fear that disturbs any human breast, but the gospel 
 is fitted to assuage or subdue it ; there is not a hope that 
 throbs in our bosoms, nor an aspiration or desire we enter- 
 tain, but the gospel either gratifies or corrects it. It has 
 for all " the promise of the life that now is, as well as of 
 
232 SCRIPTURAL SCHEME FOR THE 
 
 that which is to come." What a parental aspect does it 
 present towards all men ! What a powerful discipline does 
 it establish ! What a helping or correcting hand does it 
 extend to each ! What a fountain of living waters does it 
 unseal to our thirsty spirits ! Wliat a light does it cast 
 oVer all the past ! Wliat an insight does it afford into all 
 the future ! There is not a sin that defiles, or degrades, 
 or torments us, but this gospel can effectually correct and 
 pardon. There is not a virtuous emotion of any kind, 
 arising out of any circumstance or relation, common or 
 peculiar to any period of life, but it cherishes, elevates, 
 and perfects. Show us but a human form and nature, in 
 any clime, of any colour, in any state of weal or woe. eleva- 
 vation or depression, and we show you a religion as ex- 
 quisitely adapted to the whole compass and condition of 
 that being, as light to the organ of the eye, or sound to the 
 ear, or air to the lungs. 
 
 It is, moreover, essentially necessary, that any system, 
 pretending to universal adaptation, should display the most 
 comprehensive, penetrating, and perfect knowledge of our 
 nature, in all its various phases and conditions. 
 
 This the gospel unquestionably does. It fully appre- 
 hends the grandeur and meanness which combine in man ; 
 and, what is unspeakably to its honour, it exhibits and 
 explains the cause and theory of both. Christianity alone, 
 of all systems, knows us as creatures eager after hai^piness, 
 yet, really, the most miserable ; ever pursuing after the 
 "endless, the perfect, and the infinite, yet always painfully 
 conscious of our immeasurable distance. 
 
 Moreover, Christianity is attempered to all our grades 
 of intellect, and all our stages of improvement ; to all our 
 inward biases that are rational, and all our outward occu- 
 pations and indulgences that are lawful. It is equally fitted 
 to the soaring intellect of the sage, and the dawning intel- 
 ligence of the child. It humbles the proud, and raises the 
 
UNIVERSAL RECOVERY OF MANKFND. '233 
 
 depressed ; it cherishes the good in us that is weak, and 
 expels the evil that is potent. 
 
 Again, this is the only system that ever placed the 
 essence of piety in love to God, and that ever instructed 
 man to beg of God the power of obeying and loving him. 
 While it teaches most impressively, that there is a God, 
 and what sort of a God the only true God is, at the same 
 time it enforces the unwelcome, indeed, but yet the whole- 
 some truth, that such are the corruptions of man's nature, 
 that he is unworthy, both of the knowledge and favour of 
 God, and incapable of loving and serving him adequately. 
 To live ignorant of the one or the other of these truths, is 
 alike fatal to our peace and renovation. To apprehend 
 God, without the knowledge of our misery and dependence, 
 generates the pride of philosophers ; and to know our own 
 misery, but not the merciful Author of our salvation, 
 plunges us into the despair of heathens and atheists. Both 
 these conditions are unnatural, irreconcileable with our 
 aspirations, and inimical to our true and permanent 
 felicity. 
 
 Man is every where, by a deep necessity of nature, a 
 religious being ; he must have some sort of religion. In 
 the absence of the true one, he uniformly fabricates one 
 for himself. Nothing short of religion can meet the re- 
 quirements of his nature. He is all unblest, when blest 
 the most with earthlv felicitv, if this in^'redient is left out 
 of his cup ; and if this be but in it, he feels himself 
 supremely happy, whatever else he lacks. 
 
 In brief, we say, the gospel-scheme of renovation com- 
 ports with all the principles of known and admitted truth, 
 with all nature, all providence ; with the intellectual and 
 moral constitution, the entire reason and consciousness 
 of mankind ; and, what forms a not less valuable indication 
 of its divine origin, with all the other plans and works of 
 the Almighty. Not one of the known varieties of mankind, 
 
234 SCRIPTURAL SCHEME FOR THE 
 
 none of the possible circumstances, not any of the diver- 
 sities of personal character, social relation, or political 
 condition, can be pleaded as a fair exception, or alleged as 
 a case beyond the sphere of its adaptation and benediction. 
 
 Moreover, it is important to observe, that, in a religion 
 aiming at universality, all the means, and motives, and 
 instrumentality it either employs or sanctions, must be 
 suited to the nature for which it is designed, and adapted 
 to the exclusive end it proposes ; while it must be every 
 way honourable to the supreme authority, on which it 
 professes to take its stand. On these grounds, then, we 
 again aver, that Christianity is worthy of becoming the 
 universal religion. It can pass, and it does pass, most 
 honourably, through this test ; and it is the only religion 
 that can pass it; for it is the only one, all whose means 
 and motives are alike rational and pure, adjusted with 
 infinite skill to the nature of man, yet every way worthy 
 of the supreme authority to adopt and employ. 
 
 Its appeal to man is at once dignified and independent ; 
 persuasive, but not cringing ; earnest, but not mean ; justly 
 severe, yet graciously condescending. God holds the rela- 
 tion of a Father, but, at the same time, that of universal 
 and Supreme Rector. There is not a representation, in 
 the whole of revelation, that does not appear worthy of 
 him in the one or other of these characters. The gospel 
 preserves the dignity, yet fully expresses the benevolence, 
 of the divine nature. In this it commends itself to our 
 understanding. 
 
 It exhibits, indeed, a parents outraged authority, but 
 combined with all the melting tenderness of a parent. It 
 clothes itself with the unspotted robe of eternal justice, but 
 its voice is the voice of infinite love and everlasting mercy. 
 It excludes no man from its consolations, who desires and 
 seeks them, but it courts none by flattery, none for the 
 mere sake of proselytism, none for its own honour, or the 
 
UNIVERSAL RECOVERY OF MANKIND. 235 
 
 mere object of extension, but all for their own improve- 
 ment, felicity, and salvation. 
 
 It employs no secular inducements, gives no liberty to 
 the corruptions of the heart, and makes no provision for 
 any of the works of the flesh. It sacrifices no truth, even 
 for the sake of success. Its inflexible purity, its high 
 standard of morals, its stern regard to justice, rather re- 
 volts than entices the natural heart, and rather awakens 
 than soothes the prejudices of human nature. This, how- 
 ever, is nothing to its discredit, but rather to be construed 
 in favour of its divine authority; since, upon its own 
 assumption, mankind are in a state of alienation and 
 defection from God. If they are in such a state of revolt 
 as the gospel assumes, then it necessarily follows, that 
 their recovery to moral rectitude, submission, and order, 
 implies humiliation and repentance before reconciliation. 
 
 The requisite enforcement of the divine authority can- 
 not, at first, be acceptable. If man were not in a state of 
 moral hostility to God, he would need no gospel ; and, if 
 he is, then any true gospel must necessarily enforce what 
 is unpalatable to his revolted nature. While, therefore, it 
 assumes the fact, of which we are ourselves conscious, it 
 acts consistently, in presenting itself as the physician, and 
 representing our nature as the patient under its hand. 
 Nothing is more evident, upon the face of the evangelical 
 scheme, than its feature of dignity and sovereign inde- 
 pendence, apart from every thing like indifference, and 
 yet accompanied with the most tender and condescending 
 pity. Still it neither dreads nor dissembles that repug- 
 nance of the human heart to its discipline, which it 
 distinctly foresees and foretels. 
 
 Human fabricators of a religious system would have 
 studied to produce one more lenient to human weakness, 
 more attractive to man, as he is, more politic in its pro- 
 visions. They would especially have guarded against 
 
236 SCRIPTURAL SCHEME FOR THE 
 
 evei'y thing like a provocation, or open daring of human 
 hostihty. They always have done so ; herein they have 
 betrayed the feeble policy of human wisdom. They were 
 constrained to do so. They could do no otherwise, and 
 no less ; for human policy and power must always cal- 
 culate the possibilities of their achievements, by the nature 
 of the materials on which they have to work. The divine 
 wisdom and power are free from such limitations, and can 
 make all materials and natures subserve the supreme 
 purpose. 
 
 Hence Christianity nobly asserts its proper dignity and 
 independence. Strong in the confidence of its divine 
 origin, and resting upon the ample evidence of this fact, 
 it has dared, at the outset, to unveil the whole amount of 
 human criminality ; to hold up the spotless mirror of truth 
 before its face, and to cite it, as a rebel, before tbe divine 
 tribunal of the Creator. It boldly affirms more evil, and 
 worse evil, of man, than he is disposed to believe of him- 
 self, and pronounces his situation more guilty and despe- 
 rate than he is willing to allow. It demands nothing short 
 of a full admission of the most unwelcome facts, a frank 
 confession of guilt and apostasy, and a cordial reception 
 of the most humbling, but wholesome truths ; yet, in 
 effecting its ends, it treats man as altogether an intel- 
 lectual and spiritual being, and demands nothing of him, 
 but what he should feel to be eminently a reasonable 
 service. In addressing itself constantly to the understand- 
 ing and the conscience, it repudiates consistently, and with 
 divine dignity, all that instrumentality by which human 
 laws are maintained, or by which false religions have been 
 propagated. It attaches no merit, and attributes no virtue, 
 to ritual or mechanical performances. It demands the heart ; 
 when that is surrendered, it is content ; its object is gained. 
 A divine religion could ask ijo less ; but no human system 
 would have dared to ask, or ever did ask, so much. They 
 have been contented with a verbal confession, and an 
 
UNIVERSAL EECOVEllY OF MANKIND. 237 
 
 external conformity. Moreover, it should be observed, 
 that Christianity stands aloof from all the elements of 
 worldly dominion. It sanctions no physical coercion, nei- 
 ther does it employ conquest, or political machinery of any 
 sort. If men do not perceive, or will not admit, the evi- 
 dence by which it proves its divinity, and enforces its 
 requirements, at that point it leaves them, throwing all 
 responsibility upon themselves. It has no other instru- 
 mentality to employ. It magnanimously disdains all other. 
 Could it command those resources of human policy and 
 power, by which, at once, all nations of the world mi^-ht 
 be constrained to an external conformity with its creed, 
 without a renewal of the inner man, it would not deio-n 
 to use them ; because its great end, its spiritual consum- 
 mation, could not thereby be advanced, and because such 
 an agency would be altogether alien from reason, love, and 
 goodness. The standard of moral excellence which it 
 establishes, the principles of religious duty which it incul- 
 cates, the patterns it exhibits, the hopes it inspires, the 
 consolations it administers, the doctrines it teaches, and 
 the benedictions it ever}- where pours down upon our suf- 
 fering and prostrate nature, admit of no improvement, no 
 augmentation, no refinement. We can detect nothing 
 deficient, nothing redundant. Even the most penetrating 
 and spiritual imagination, can conceive of nothing sur- 
 passing it ; I do not say, as a whole, merely, but in every 
 item of that whole. What could be added, that would not 
 prove a deformity, or an incumbrance ? What could be 
 abstracted, that would not create a defect ? 
 
 ' " 'Tis like the Cerulean arcli we see, 
 
 Majestic in its own simi)licitj." 
 
 We may defy the world to produce a lovelier picture of 
 what man ought to be ; to conceive a fairer model for his 
 imitation ; or to supply a more appropriate and efficient 
 agency to impel and move in harmony all the springs of 
 his complicated and mysterious nature. Even the most 
 
238 SCRIPTURAL SCHEME FOR THE 
 
 malignant enemy dare not deny that, if every man were a 
 true Christian, according to the evangelical standard, the 
 world would, indeed, be blessed and regenerated. Our 
 nature admits of nothing higher, nothing purer, nothing 
 happier. But that it does admit of this, yea, of all this, 
 innumerable facts testify. Christianity, therefore, is not 
 a Utopian scheme, not a beau ideal, but a i^erfectly prac- 
 ticable system, applicable, yea, already applied, to a very 
 considerable and most encouraging extent. 
 
 We shall now notice some objections, which have been 
 put forth against our general proposition, respecting the 
 divine adaptation of the gospel to all mankind. A plau- 
 sible argument has been drawn, from the comparative 
 limitation of Christianity, against its divinity. It is argued, 
 if it had been of God, it would have made more successful 
 advances towards universality. Moreover, it is alleged, 
 that, in vindication of its own pretensions, it ought to 
 have put forth its divine energy, and attained the con- 
 summation which it predicts. Now, supposing nothing 
 could be advanced to neutralize, or in any way extenuate, 
 the admitted fact of comparative limitation, it would still 
 be questionable, whether the inference drawn ought, in 
 fairness, to follow. For the objection is not taken against 
 the internal adaptation of the gospel to universality, but 
 against its divinity only, on account of insufficient prac- 
 tical extension. At best, then, this can be viewed and 
 used only as a presumptive argument. It presumes what 
 the Deity ought to have done with this free gift of his own 
 grace. But is it not perilous, not to say impious, for man 
 to presume to what extent the divine beneficence ought to 
 be carried ? For there is a manifest sovereignty in all the 
 bestowments of the Creator. God has uniformly done 
 with his free gifts, in nature, as in grace, just as it hath 
 pleased him. His own will must be sovereign here. 
 
 But, if this objection is intended as a direct and positive 
 argument against the divinity of the gospel, then it is not 
 
UNIVERSAL RECOVERY OF MANKIND. 239 
 
 difficult to show that it is utterly powerless. It assumes 
 that universality is necessary to prove divine authority. If 
 so, it must be simply because Christianity has itself laid 
 this down as such a test, since it could not certainly be 
 deemed an essential proof of divinity. Such an argument 
 would involve an absurdity, by requiring an imiDossibility ; 
 since it would assume, that Christianity should have been 
 universal at its first announcement. But, in that case, 
 there would be a superseding of all claim, and all need of 
 rational proof. If it must be universal before it can be 
 proved divine, then these objectors require the effect to 
 precede the cause ; and by demanding, that universality 
 shall precede their belief in its divinity, they would require 
 its universal reception to have taken place, before there 
 could have been, according to their views, any adequate 
 proof that it was divine. Suppose all mankind to reason 
 in the same way: 'We cannot believe Christianity to be 
 divine, till it becomes universal ; ' you then exclude the 
 possibility of its ever being received at all ; or you expect 
 the miracle of its universal reception, without adequate 
 evidence. Thus all mankind would be reduced to the 
 absurdity of saying, ' We will believe the gospel when it 
 becomes universal ; but we know it cannot be universally 
 received, till it is first believed to be divine ; so it can thus 
 never become Avhat we require it to become ; because we 
 demand, before its reception, what can only be the result 
 of its reception : ' — which is absurd. 
 
 But, supposing the objector to modify his argument, and 
 admit that, at the outset of Christianity, there might be 
 sufHcient proof of divinity, without universality ; but, that 
 this not being afforded to us, we are justly entitled to 
 demand that its success should noiv avouch its divinity, 
 W>. should reply, that the same substantial evidence, some- 
 what varied, indeed, in its form, but, in other respects, 
 augmented, is still afforded, as at first ; and that univer- 
 sality, except as a fulfilment of prophecy, could add little 
 
240 SCRirXUKAL SCHEME FOR THE 
 
 or nothing to the proofs of divinity. God has admitted, 
 in reference to all his gifts, the free exercise of human 
 volition, and no objector ought to ask that this should he 
 superseded. Universality alone, therefore, could be no 
 adequate test of truth ; for what has ever been more gene- 
 ral or more successful in the world than polytheism? 
 amounting to that very universality which the objector 
 would make an independent and adequate proof of divinity. 
 Yet we see, in this case, to what a fatal error in reasoning 
 it would lead. The fact is, universality in reference to 
 any system, is, alone, no test of truth. The requirement 
 of it must, therefore, be abandoned in the present case, 
 and proofs of another kind admitted to avouch the divinity 
 of the gospel. 
 
 There is only one supposition on which the want of 
 universality could, at present, be alleged as a valid objec- 
 tion : that is, in case of its being predicted to take place 
 within a given period. We allow, that had Christianity 
 fixed a date for its universality, and had that date been 
 clearly passed, without attaining the consummation, then 
 the objection would have been irj-esistible, and Christianity 
 would have forfeited its claim : but nothing of the kind is 
 done. Christianity may not have attained that extension 
 we might deem desirable, nor that we might have expected, 
 but it has forfeited no proof of divinity ; it has violated no 
 pledge ; though it has illustrated the fearful sovereignty 
 of the Divine Author of all good, in permitting it thus far 
 to be impeded, partly by the hostility of open enemies, 
 and partly by the treachery of professed friends. The 
 limited spread alleged against it, cannot be shown to have 
 arisen out of any deficiency in the system itself, any want 
 of adaptation to mankind, or any restrictions imposed by 
 its Author. The fact of its partial dispersion may evidently 
 have been compatible with its divinity, since it may have 
 been permitted, for reasons similar to those which, though 
 inaccessible to us, have sufi'ered the existence of natural 
 
UNIVERSAL RECOVERY OF MANKIND. 241 
 
 and moral evil, a fact which all theories are obliged to 
 admit, as well as the Christian. The fact, therefore, itself, 
 simply as a fact, is analogous to other admitted facts in 
 the system of God's moral government. 
 
 It may be proper, moreover, to observe, that the gospel 
 nowhere intimates that those, who have enjoyed no oppor- 
 tunities of becoming acquainted with its contents, will incur 
 the responsibility annexed to a wilful and criminal rejec- 
 tion of its announcements. We might also remind all 
 who stumble at its want of universality, that, from the 
 very infancy of the world, it was openly and universally 
 taught. The religion of Adam and Abel was essentially 
 the religion of Jesus Christ ; and to the antediluvians the 
 gospel was preached as well as unto us : so that, as a 
 remedy, it began to run parallel with our sins and suffer- 
 ings, and was as certainly and sufficiently propagated to 
 the first sinners as to ourselves. It has always been a 
 universal boon, offered to the acceptance and use of all, as 
 freely as the light of heaven, though so frequently resisted 
 and contemned. 
 
 We need not attempt to show, historically, how often it 
 has been re-published ; how its light has been gradually 
 increased, its evidences augmented, and its commission 
 re-issued ; all tending to prove that its Author intended it 
 for all men, and that had his instructions been regarded, 
 and his commands obeyed, it would not have lacked that 
 universality which it has yet to achieve, evidently in the 
 face of intense and protracted opposition. 
 
 But, before the argument arising from the universal 
 character and adaptation of Christianity can be applied to 
 the subject in hand, it will be incumbent upon us to meet 
 another form of infidelity, by which it is attempted to dis- 
 connect the universal adaptation of Christianity from the 
 other evidences of its divine origin. 
 
 Now, though this theory neither denies the unrivalled 
 excellence of the gospel, nor disputes its claim to pre- 
 
 V. B 
 
242 SCRIPTURAL SCHEME FOR THE 
 
 eminence and universality, to the exclusion of all other 
 systems of religion ; yet, by denying its divinity, this sys- 
 tem greatly deteriorates the claim which the gospel other- 
 wise possesses, and renders the hope of its becoming 
 universal highly precarious. Certainly it tends to quench, 
 if not utterl}' to extinguish, the zeal and the faith which 
 would aim to make it so. The modern system oi Anti- 
 supernaturalism may be described, in brief, as a scheme for 
 harmonizing the undeniable superiority of the gospel with 
 the rational solution of its mysteries, the excision of its 
 miracles, and the flat denial of its divinity. This is the 
 system of half- christianized infidelity, which, it is to be 
 feared, prevails to a large extent among the scientific and 
 literary men of all countries ; and, what is much to be 
 deplored, it is the powerless kind of Christianity embraced 
 and taught, but too commonly, in the Protestant churches 
 of the Continent. 
 
 Neology, I admit, does not, in all cases, amount to quite 
 so bold an invalidation of the divine origin of Christianity ; 
 but, in most instances, it literally avows what I have stated. 
 It makes the whole affair of the Bible a mere matter of 
 reason, from first to last. In all cases it resembles a foe 
 that has set his face against the citadel, with the determi- 
 nation that it shall be reduced and levelled with the 
 ground, though his forces may be in different degrees of 
 approach against the main object of attack. The attempt, 
 in every form, and in every part of the theory, is to reduce 
 Christianity to mere rationalism ; and whether it openly 
 professes at once to make revelation appear altogether an 
 effort of hunian reason, or whether it more insidiously sets 
 up reason, as the final interpreter of every thing revelation 
 can be supposed to intend^ the eflfect is nearly the same, 
 and the issue, in both cases, is identical. The grand pro- 
 cess attempted is, to exclude whatever has the semblance 
 of divine intervention, miracle, or mystery. In the one 
 way, divinity is rationalized ; in the other, reason is deified ; 
 
UNIVERSAL RECOVERY OF MANKIND. 243 
 
 and, in both, the result is the same ; human reason and 
 divine authority are confounded or identified. When it 
 has fully worked its way to the ultimatum it seeks, it issues 
 in sheer and naked infidelity : for that which, step by step, 
 disclaims every thing supernatural, and denies that any 
 testimony or authority can avoucli what is above reason, 
 or beyond the power of natural causes, takes away all the 
 characteristics or peculiarities of divine revelation, and 
 sinks down into mere rationalism. It becomes, then, a 
 system of human philosophy ; and to call such a system, 
 in any sense, divine, were not simply a misuse of terms, 
 but a gross imposition. 
 
 I shall, first, present an epitome of the general prin- 
 ciples of this theory, that it may be understood how it has 
 gained its present ascendancy over men of no ordinary 
 talents and attainments. The advocates of this theory 
 would propound its explanation much after the following 
 manner — that Christianity may be rationally accounted for, 
 by supposing that it arose naturally out of the wearying 
 of the human mind, in the Gentile nations, under the 
 frivolous and absurd notions and practices of the ancient 
 idolatry; that there was something of the same feeling 
 arising simultaneously, among the Jonvs, thoroughlv to 
 defecate their system of its toilsome ceremonies, and to 
 produce a less burdensome and more rational theory of 
 religion. Supposing this state of feeling to prevail among 
 the reflecting and philosophic, both of Jews and Gentiles, 
 it would form a crisis highly favourable to the introduction 
 and establishment of any new and simpler system. At this 
 crisis let it be imagined, that some great genius arises, as 
 Socrates or Pythagoras, in former ages ; he might so select 
 all that was rational and harmonious in the previous and 
 prevailing systems, so improve it, by the addition of new 
 or neglected truths, as to come forth, at length, with just 
 such a theory as Christianity, allowance being made for 
 the mysticism and miracle, which the theorist imagines he 
 
244 SCRIPTURAL SCHEME FOR THE 
 
 can readily show are by no means essential to the system, 
 but susceptible altogether of a rational solution. 
 
 This scheme is further made plausible to its advocates, 
 by certain supposed facts, relative to the state of specula- 
 tive opinion, about the period when Christianity arose. 
 There can be no doubt but a new philosophic theory of 
 deism had been, for some time, circulating through the 
 Macedonian empire. The schools of Athens, Alexandria, 
 and Eome, had mostly embraced the doctrine of a purer 
 theism ; whether the elaboration of those schools, or whence 
 originally derived, I pause not now to inquire. It is ad- 
 mitted, that the later Platonists had introduced many and 
 great improvements into their notions of the Deity. Now, 
 supposing that Jesus Christ had derived his inculcations, 
 respecting the nature and attributes of God, from this 
 source, these theorists would go on to show, how readily 
 he might incorporate with these, as a basis, the devotional 
 doctrines of the Jews ; and then, connecting with the 
 whole his own just and pure notions of virtue and uni- 
 versal benevolence, he might readily perfect that system, 
 which they conceive to be the essence of the gospel. 
 
 They would possibly allege, that he was led to that par- 
 ticular aspect of benevolence which the New Testament 
 bears, by a disposition unusually philanthropic, or by a 
 sagacious perception, that this was the grand deficiency 
 in all former systems, and would be the great secret and 
 master-spring of his own. 
 
 They would suppose such a mind, long nursed in private 
 retirement, maturing its materials by deep reflection, mel- 
 lowed by the influence of universal love and goodness, at 
 length coming forth, well prepared to illustrate the system 
 by happy narratives, and enforce it by strong arguments. 
 It then only remains to be supposed, that the persons who 
 took it up from the original inventor, or those who co- 
 operated with him, added the supernatural parts, by way 
 of augmenting its authority, or accommodating it to the 
 
UNIVEKSAL KECOVERY OF MANKIND. 245 
 
 prejudices in favour of miraculous appearances, common 
 among all nations at that period, and deemed essential to 
 avouch the authority of any new system of religion. 
 
 Now, it is highly important, that this plausible method 
 of accounting for the rise and early success of Christianity, 
 should be somewhat fully met, and openly encountered, 
 because it labours hard, and not unskilfully, to subvert the 
 divinity, both of the gospel and its author, which we aver 
 to stand on adequate and independent proof; proof which 
 cannot be resisted, without impeaching the whole of the 
 evangelical statements, and implicating the author of Chris- 
 tianity in a most wicked and complicated imposture. 
 
 In the first place, it is supposed that Christ was merely 
 a philosopher, who formed his system on previously exist- 
 ing systems. But this supposition is annihilated at once, 
 by facts quite as clear and certain, as that there ever was 
 such a person as Jesus Christ. If he is allowed to be the 
 author of Christianity, it must be upon the uniform and 
 accordant testimony of history. But, then, that very same 
 evidence constrains the belief, that he never was in the 
 circumstances supposed by these theorists. There is ample 
 evidence that, up to the time of commencing his public 
 ministry, he was a person of the most humble condition 
 and connexions, and never heard of in any other character, 
 than that of the carpenter's son of Nazareth. Had he been 
 what the theory supposes, some one would have been able 
 to relieve the perplexity of the Jewish elders, when they 
 asked, "Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these 
 mighty words ? " Yet they, and all, admitted, that they 
 knew whence he was, and who were his connexions. No- 
 thing, therefore, can be more inconsistent with the whole 
 narrative, than to suppose Jesus Christ a philosopher, in 
 the ordinary sense of that term. 
 
 The next point observable in this theory of suppositions, 
 is, that one so good, so pure, so wise, so disinterested, 
 should lay the foundations of his enterprise, in a blasphem- 
 
246 SCEIPTCILVL SCHEME FOR THE 
 
 ous deception, and should commence his career with an 
 imposture, scai'cely to be paralleled in the history of the 
 world. Could such a philosopher have been guilty of so 
 outrageous a departure from truth and simplicity ? Could 
 he so glaringly have belied all his own teaching, as to give 
 himself out for a special divine messenger, claiming, not 
 so much to reason with men, as to command them, in the 
 name of God, when he was conscious, at the same time, 
 that he had merely been fabricating a human theory ? 
 Then we should have the perfection of moral sentiment, 
 and the excess of moral pravity, both proceeding from the 
 same source ; a mind tlie most pure, just, and good, and 
 yet the most depraved. We have no means of solving so 
 strange a phenomenon as this would present. It would 
 form a difficulty of far more perplexing explanation than 
 any connected w4th the full admission of his divinity. The 
 cause would then appear in moral repugnance to the effect ; 
 there would be darkness generating light ; vice producing 
 virtue ; and the very perfection of goodness, purity, and 
 truth, emanating from intense wickedness, and crafty de- 
 lusion. 
 
 The theory is also wholly at variance wdth the point he 
 so constantly enforced upon his disciples. "Whom say ye 
 that I am ? And Peter said. Thou art the Christ, the son 
 of the living God." And this answ^er it was, that drew 
 from him the memorable benediction, " Blessed art thou, 
 Simon, for liesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, 
 but my Father, who is in heaven." Nor is the theory, in 
 this point, less at variance Avith the obvious fact, that all 
 his controversies with the Jews turned upon their denial, 
 and his assertion, of divine authority. It was for inflexibly 
 maintaining this, and not for his doctrines of morality, that 
 he at length suffered death. " For a good work, we stone 
 thee not, but for blasphemy : and because that thou, being 
 a man, makest thyself God." The concession to them of 
 what is implied in this impeachment, that is, the very 
 
UNIVERSAL RECOVERY OF MANKIND. '^47 
 
 point assumed by these theorists as the truth, would have 
 saved him from an untimely end, and secured the highest 
 patronage to his system. Yet he refused to concede what 
 is now presumed to have been a falsehood altogether, or a 
 pretence ; but, in vindication of which, he was willing to 
 sacrifice himself, and risk all consequences to his system. 
 This supposition, then, as well as the other, is found to be 
 at variance with all the dictates of human wisdom and 
 policy, by which, if a mere philosopher, he must have been 
 influenced. 
 
 Again, it is presumed, by these speculators, that there 
 existed a predisposition in Judea, and throughout the Gen- 
 tile world, favourable to the reception of a new system. 
 But I would ask those best acquainted with the history of 
 those times, where they find the evidence of this ? Cer- 
 tainly the Jews, instead of being anxious to exchange their 
 system, for a brighter and more rational one, never held 
 their peculiarities with a firmer grasp. Nor is it likely 
 that it should have been otherwise, at that very period, 
 when the expectation of the long-promised Messiah had 
 reached its highest pitch. 
 
 As to the other branch of the supposition, relating to the 
 heathen nations, we do not hesitate in saying, that no evi- 
 dence can be produced to show that polytheism had become 
 loathsome. Whatever might be the state of the Esoteric 
 philosophy, the Exoteric, at least, had undergone no change 
 for the better. The philosophers might be wearying, under 
 the abortive results of their speculations ; but so they were 
 in the days of Socrates and Cicero. They had, indeed, 
 Platonized, to a considerable extent, but they had, at the 
 same time, incumbered and mystified that system, by pue- 
 rilities, which its great master never taught ; and which 
 tended to deprive it of more than half its plausibility, by 
 depriving it of all its simplicity. In fact, their philosophy 
 was anything but a guiding light, or j^ole-star to their 
 minds ; and was far enough from placing either the schools. 
 
248 SCRIPTUEAL SCHEME FOR THE 
 
 or the people at large, in an advantageous position for the 
 reception of Christianity. 
 
 The facts of the case, moreover, show nothing like a 
 prepared and waiting state of mind. If the supposition ot 
 our theorists were true, then the philosophers must have 
 been the first to hail the new light, and welcome this 
 brother philosopher. Then the apostles of Jesus must 
 have found a cordial reception for their new doctrines 
 among the pliilosophers of Greece and Kome. According 
 to the theory, all were ripe for this new scheme. But was 
 it so ? All history shows, that as the wise men of the world 
 were the first to oppose the gospel, so they were the last 
 to be won. They were not the parties to whom it first 
 applied itself; and, whenever it did, they were the last to 
 meet it with candour and favour. 
 
 But Ave must now examine the grand assumption, on 
 which the whole theory of the rationalist is built ; — that 
 Christianity is a sort of refinement, superinduced, both 
 upon Grecian theism and Judaism, a sort of distillation, 
 concocted from the best properties of the previous systems. 
 It supposes a human mind, signally gifted, it may be, for 
 such an undertaking, but still a human mind, and nothing 
 more, producing such a system as the gospel appears in 
 its own documents, out of the materials already prepared 
 to its hands. Then the momentous question before us is, 
 could such a process have produced such a result ? Innu- 
 merable processes, of a similar kind, had, we know, been 
 going on, in all the schools of Grecian, Roman, and Orien- 
 tal philosophy. But no sublimation of their gross and 
 incoherent materials had yet been attained. Reason 
 brought forth nothing but absurdities and contradictions. 
 Sects of philosophers, of all schools, were sitting in close 
 incubation upon all sorts of speculations ; but their broods, 
 whenever hatched, showed little of a soaring tendency, and 
 nothing of a celestial origin. These schools had continued 
 their speculations from generation to generation. They 
 
UNIVERSAL RECOVERY OF MANKIND. 249 
 
 laboured assiduously in their vocation ; but they laboured 
 always on the old materials, with the same tools, and with 
 about the same success. The metal they traded with was 
 coined and re-coined over and over again, from Pythagoras 
 down to Philo and Plotinus ; but it was a base metal still ; 
 and with all superscriptions and images hitherto impressed 
 upon it, still it bore indubitable traces of the mint and 
 mint-masters — they were all of men. 
 
 But here is Christianity, derived from none of the schools, 
 excogitated by none of the sages, recognised by none of 
 the philosophers, displaying no worldly policy, employing 
 no worldly motives, asking no patronage, and accepting no 
 human protection, courting no man's favour, and fearing 
 no man's frown, proceeding neither from the Capitol of the 
 Ciesars, nor the hill of Mars, nor the Arcadia of the gods, 
 but from an obscure corner, and a more obscure mechanic, 
 of the despised Judea ; standing upon the simple authority 
 and personal endowments of this single individual, yet con- 
 fessedly transcending, in truth, wisdom, and comprehen- 
 sion, in the sublimity of a clear and all-penetrating philo- 
 sophy, in the characteristics of a minute and universal 
 adaptation to mankind, and, above all, in pure benevolence 
 and exalted goodness, every conception, every imagination, 
 of the most eminent and revered sages the world had ever 
 seen. Here, indeed, we have the pure gold of unalloyed 
 truth. It has triumphantly sustained every test that has 
 hitherto been applied to it, and passed through every cru- 
 cible undiminished and uninjured. It still retains the 
 clear image and intelligible superscription of the eternal 
 Majesty. We are bold to say, no process will ever efface 
 these. Let the gospel be examined, as it stands, in its own 
 accredited documents ; let it be scrutinized by the keenest 
 discernment, and we risk nothing, we exaggerate nothing, 
 in averring, that it stands forth before the eyes of the 
 world, without a single mistake, without a blemish or a 
 puerility, a redundance or a defect. It has not a single 
 
250 SCRIPTURAL SCHEME FOR THE , 
 
 weak point; nothing that is out of place, out of order, or 
 out of keeping; nothing that the highest reason has any 
 right to disallow or deny; nothing that is not as useful 
 as it is true, as harmonious to the divine perfections as 
 adapted to human exigency. 
 
 What is less probable, than that such a system should 
 be the result of human invention, or a process of refine- 
 ment and selection applied to other systems ? It possesses 
 peculiarities which they never possessed, and yet a sim- 
 plicity that they never could attain. Mysteries, indeed, 
 but such as human policy Avould not have dared to broach 
 to the vulgar, even if human wisdom had conceived them, 
 and yet not one of them without significancy, dignity, and 
 utility. No trace of human derivation can be detected 
 through the whole of it, and yet nothing was ever so 
 adapted to human nature, so consonant with our reason, 
 our emotions, and our aspirations. The very fact, that it 
 was to the Greeks foolishness, is a sufficient proof that 
 human policy had -not been consulted in its formation; 
 and that the most consummate wisdom and foresight of 
 man would have shrunk from deliberately announcing its 
 doctrines to the world ; while its ultimate success, amonrf 
 those very Greeks, demonstrated its superiority, even in 
 the view of mere reason, above everything else with which 
 they were familiar. But, had reason alone originated the 
 gospel, it would not have presumed to anticipate, even this 
 measure of success, because it must have despaired alike 
 of evincing the truth of the Christian dogmas, by sufficient 
 arguments, or of enforcing them by adequate authority. 
 In fact, looking at the system, simply as a system, it ap- 
 pears wholly unlike all others ; it bears not the slightest 
 resemblance to any of the works of the philosophers, and 
 could never have been cast in the same mould, nor fabri- 
 cated of the same materials. It has not even the air or 
 pomp of a system, and appears the most alien possible 
 from the theorizing of mankind. It possesses all the au- 
 
UNIVERSAL RECOVERY OF MANKIND. 251 
 
 thority of an oracle, without its obscurity ; all the majesty 
 of wisdom, without its pedagogy ; all the perfection and 
 universality of truth, without its dialectics ; all the force of 
 the highest reasoning, combined with the simplicity and 
 promptitude of intuition. All the doctrines and precepts 
 of Christianity come upon us with such an air of originality, 
 such a calm dignity, such a native simplicity, such a ma- 
 jestic and commanding authority, such a resolved distinct- 
 ness, and displaying such a thorough and all-comprehend- 
 ing insight into human nature, that it is as irrational and 
 unphilosophical to suppose the whole, anything but what 
 it describes itself to be, as to attribute the animal system, 
 or the mental system, or any of the systems of nature, to a 
 human authorship. 
 
 Let the state of opinion in the schools, at the time of 
 Christ, be carefully surveyed, and it will sufficiently appear 
 that they had little, in common with him, certainly nothing 
 that could have suggested the peculiarities of his system. 
 If we concede to these schools the spirituality, unity, om- 
 nipresence, and omnipotence of the Deity, with some few 
 collateral truths, or rather speculations on his attributes, 
 which they never matured, we concede to them all that 
 they ever taught in common with Jesus Christ. But these 
 very truths were evidently not derived from their o^vn 
 laborious processes of ratiocination ; for it is well known 
 that no such process ever reached them ; but they were 
 merely traditionary truths, which the schools had been 
 induced to admit, unquestioned, into their system, partly 
 because all the reasoning of antiquity had failed to refine 
 any theory into universal and all-comprehending principles, 
 and partly because they had found that opportune assist- 
 ance, in the Jewish Scriptures, which, notwithstanding 
 their concealment, or their unconsciousness, of its true 
 character, had helped them to land their speculations on 
 those few final propositions respecting the Deity, which 
 appear, in their systems, like fair islets of coral amidst a 
 
252 SCRIPTURAL SCHEME FOR THE 
 
 boundless waste of waters, or as grains of gold amidst 
 mountains of earth and stones. In short, it must strike 
 every careful observer of the later philosophers, both Gre- 
 cian and Roman, that these great truths they have been 
 stated to possess, in common with Christianity, were 
 nothing but traditionary aphorisms, or conclusions, adopted 
 from some foreign source ; not the home-born progeny of 
 their own thought; not demonstrations wrought out and 
 arrived at by any long and painful effort of reasoning ; but 
 literally dogmas of faith, which they had acquired elsewhere, 
 and which they could not but welcome for their congruity 
 to reason, their innate sublimity and universality. Had 
 they been achievements of reason, then the process of 
 thought, by which their authors had traced them out, and 
 held them fast, in defiance of the long established doctrines 
 of polytheism, must have appeared, and would necessarily 
 * have been preserved. They would have marked out and 
 signalized such an era in the history of human thought, 
 would have been such memorable, unprecedented, and 
 unrivalled feats of human reasoning, as could not have 
 perished, any more than the names of the philosophers 
 and the schools whence they originated ; and both together 
 must have come down to us, along with the truths them- 
 selves. But no such demonstrations ever existed. No 
 such philosophers, ever appeared. No such discoveries 
 were ever attributable to reason. No such sjolendid 
 triumphs of thought, respecting God and his attributes, 
 ever graced the human mind. These mountains of ada- 
 mant had a deeper foundation than the systems of the 
 philosophers. They',were formations of a totally different 
 nature, and of a niAich earlier date. In fact, before the 
 philosophers acquired these truths, they had nothing 
 worthy of the name of system. All was quicksand, through 
 a wide and desolate waste of speculation. The acquisition 
 of these principles marks an era in their philosophizing. 
 They were pregnant utterances, but, at the same time, 
 
UNIVERSAL RECOVERY OF MANKIND. 253 
 
 isolated ones, on the divine nature. Tliey were, indeed, 
 exclusively such; no great or long travailing efforts of 
 thought having availed to give them birth, and never 
 having appeared to illuminate the schools, till the chiefs 
 of those schools condescended to be taught by the oracle 
 of Sinai. 
 
 It evinces that these great truths were the very same, in 
 their original source, as those taught by Christianity. 
 Even if it were not well known, that the later philosophers 
 had made themselves familiar with Moses, yet it would be 
 more reasonable to trace the great truths in question to 
 the traditionary sparks of light, first emanating from reve- 
 lation, but scattered by various means through the Gentile 
 world, than to suppose them the genuine discoveries of 
 the philosophers. Had these precious and conspicuous 
 principles formed the culmination of a jiurely rational 
 superstructure, — the golden summit placed on the j^roud 
 Babel of Gentile philosophy, by its own hands, presentino- 
 the apotheosis, so to speak, of concatenated reasoning — it 
 might have proved a resting-place, in the way of a j^ro- 
 phetic or prospective argument, that the human mind 
 alone, by dint of effort and length of time, miglit work out 
 for itself a rational system of religion : it would have 
 shown, that one philosopher might improve upon the 
 thoughts of another, and that a final result might possibly 
 come forth, adapted to the universal illumination and 
 emancipation of the human mind, and altogether indicat- 
 ing an advanced meridian of speculation. But nothing- of 
 this sort is discoverable. The truths in question have 
 come down from the philosophers, without any traces of 
 such a gradual advancement. They stand in the systems of 
 ancient philosophy without either antecedents or conse- 
 quents. Many, we know, point to them as rare and tower- 
 ing achievements of human science ; but, when fairly 
 examined, they will appear as alien to the fabrics on which 
 they shine, as pinnacles of gold on hovels of mud and 
 
254 SCRIPTURAL SCHEME FOR THE 
 
 straw. None can show that hnman reason is entitled to 
 the honour of their discovery, or can claim them as the 
 legitimate rewards of its effort and toil. They, are truths 
 of too gigantic a stature, of too royal a mien, to have the 
 same parentage as the dwarfish and ignoble rabble with 
 which they are associated in the writings of the philo- 
 sophers. There they stand, indeed, without a genealogy. 
 Liet them be compared with all the other truths of the 
 same philosophy, and it will appear, that there is no bond 
 of association between them, but that of juxtaposition ; 
 and tliat they are as much out of place as the regalia of the 
 kingdom would be in the humble cottage of a peasant, or 
 on the person of a squalid pauper. 
 
 But it is obvious, further, that Christ's teaching did not 
 terminate in these few truths, which the deism of the 
 schools had selected and sanctioned. Christianity out- 
 stripped them, as far as they had surpassed all the proper 
 doctrines of mere reason. These were but fragments of 
 truth, which the philosophers had broken off from the 
 main body of the system, as majestic columns or porticos, 
 transported from some magnificent ruin to grace the 
 museums of the curious. But Jesus Christ presented 
 them in their restored harmony. He gave forth the whole 
 theory of moral and religious truth complete at once, and 
 that, not as a discovery at which he had arrived by laborious 
 thinking, but as complete revelations, full grown and uni- 
 versal truths, or as splendid emanations of moral light, 
 bursting at once from a celestial orb upon the darkness of 
 the world. All his announcements came forth, as the ma- 
 jestic decisions of an oracle, with all the external and 
 internal evidences which could be conceived necessary to 
 avouch real revelations. 
 
 The force of this evidence is, I am aware, liable to be 
 counteracted, in some minds, by the peculiarities of the 
 Christian scheme, which startle speculatists, and create 
 difhculties, in admitting statements so completely sui 
 
UNTVEKSAL RECOVERY OF MANKIND. ^0-J 
 
 generis, and which they find so embarrassing to harmonize 
 with the theories of the ancient, or even of the modem 
 philosophers. 
 
 But may it not be alleged, in extenuation of these diffi- 
 culties, that when the truths and doctrines of Christianity, 
 peculiar though they be, are thoroughly examined, w^hen 
 they are placed side by side Avith the essential character- 
 istics, the individual experience, the personal and universal 
 emotions of human nature, when that aspect of strangeness 
 has passed away, and when they are applied as a key to 
 unlock the mysteries of the human breast, or as a balm 
 for its wounds, or as a sphere for its aspiratious, then we 
 find the most surprising agreement, the most delicate dove- 
 tailing, which could have proceeded only from the same 
 hand which formed and endowed man at first. Then it is 
 perceived, that Jesus Christ has laid down no principle, in 
 reference to God and his actions, or man in his entire 
 constitution and conduct, but what finds its verification in 
 the actual system and government of the world. Thus, 
 for example, the mediatory system, and the redemptive 
 process, exhibited by Christianity, have been unanswerably 
 shown to comport with the principles of a universal moral 
 system, and to harmonize alike with all the facts of our 
 nature, and of the whole constitution of things with which 
 we are connected. Hence it will be found to follow, upon 
 a minute p^nd careful examination, that the mental, moral, 
 physical, and Christian economies, severally and unitedly, 
 point out the one common Author of them all. 
 
 Were it practicable, within moderate limits, to enter 
 upon another view of this subject, we might lay before you, 
 first, the propositions of the ethical philosophy of antiquity, 
 and having placed beside them the scriptural announce- 
 ments, upon the same subject, we might show, by the 
 obvious differences between them, that there had been no 
 passing from the one to the other ; and that he who gave 
 forth the latter, with all their precision, force, and harmony, 
 
256 SCETPTURAL SCHEME FOR THE 
 
 has accomplished something vastly more original and 
 sublime, than those persons seem to imagine, who would 
 represent Christianity as a mere refinement upon the pre- 
 existing elements, or a reconstruction of ancient systems. 
 In fact, it might be made apparent, that he could have de- 
 rived no help whatever, in the construction of the Christian 
 system, from those incoherent materials, which have been 
 so lavishly, but undeservedly, honoured, as systems of 
 moral philosophy. 
 
 Is not this, however, an astounding fact — that Jesus Christ 
 should, at a single step, have ascended to the very pinnacle 
 of moral truth and wisdom ; that he should have placed 
 us at once upon ultimate truths, beyond which no analysis 
 is found to avail us ; that he should have poured upon our 
 minds as much of the effulgence of eternal wisdom as we 
 are able to bear ; that he should have made us familiar 
 with every thing, but that which is too vast or too subtle 
 for our feeble and limited faculties ; that he should have 
 left nothing veiled, but that which cannot be unveiled; 
 and told us every thing, but that which is ineffable ! After 
 his doctrines, we can reach, we can hope to reach, nothing 
 higher, nothing simpler, nothing purer, nothing more 
 sublime. He has borne us to an intellectual summit, from 
 which we can behold as much of the majesty and glory of 
 the infinite and eternal Mind, as can, by any possibility, 
 come within the sphere of finite comprehension, in the 
 present state. No advance has been made, since his day, 
 beyond these confines of our knowledge which he has laid 
 down ; no improvement, no extension of view, has ever 
 been gained by the philosophers, since Christianity was 
 published. It stands as the neplus ultra of ethics and reli- 
 gion. Would not this have been a singular phenomenon 
 indeed, that ho should have exhausted subjects so intricate, 
 so profound, and through all antiquity, so utterly chaotic, 
 and yet he himself be nothing more than a philosopher, a 
 mere mortal man ; that he, improving by so immeasurable 
 
UNIVEKSAI. KECOVEKY OF MANKIND. 257 
 
 a stride, upon all that preceded him, should yet have de- 
 fied all that follow, to improve upon his system? This 
 very anomaly alone would preclude the belief, either that 
 himself, or his system, were of man. This very aloofness 
 of Christianity from all the systems of man's contrivance, 
 this divine elevation, as of the heavens above the earth, 
 and like those heavens unsusceptible of refinement or 
 improvement, supplies an argument of the divine origin of 
 Christianity, that never has been, and we may say, never 
 can be successfully gainsayed. 
 
 The question now comes to be considered, does Chris- 
 tianity verify itself, as of God, by the peculiar character of 
 its results. Effects, it will be said, are the best test of 
 causes. We admit this, and will proceed to illustrate, by 
 facts, the verification of the principles laid down ; for we 
 are not left to bare abstract reasoning on the nature and 
 professed design of the gospel. We can confidently appeal 
 to its doings. The experiment of its capabilities hgis been 
 made. Its beginnings of reformation and benediction are 
 before the world. There is surely enough in its past his- 
 tory and triumphs, enough in the experiment of its power 
 already witnessed, enougli in every individual case in which 
 it has been cordially embraced, and allowed full and free 
 operation, to satisfy every fair inquirer, that it is capable 
 of effecting the most joyous of changes, the most complete 
 and extensive of reformations. We can point to the reality, 
 the felicity, and the permanence of its results, even upon a 
 tolerably large scale, and ask its very enemies if they could 
 rationally demand more, or whether they could rightly be 
 satisfied with less, in a religion designed for all mankind ? 
 Supposing the verification to have actually taken place, 
 even in a single case, it would, I submit, be, so far, a proof 
 of the efficiency of the remedy. If only a solitary human 
 spirit had experienced the result, which the Scripture 
 scheme of salvation proposes, supposing it to be bound to 
 no specific degree of extension, so peculiar, so stupendous 
 V. s 
 
*258 scRirxuEAL scheme for the 
 
 so infinitely beyond all human resources, is this moral re- 
 novation, this recovery of immortality, that it would prove 
 the religion and the agency that could effect it, to he 
 divine ; and, therefore, worthy of universal confidence and 
 acceptance. 
 
 But when the supposed case comes to be multiplied to 
 an indefinite extent, and when these cases are continued 
 through successive ages, and when it is further known, that 
 they are daily and almost hourly repeated, and under cir- 
 cumstances of contrast and variation, as to the opposite 
 states of the individuals, and the facts of conversion, which 
 give them almost a romantic effect, then, I thhik, we are 
 entitled to say, that we possess a demonstration of the 
 divinity of the gospel, which may well defy all opposition, 
 and warrant the inference, that he who does not cheer- 
 fully submit his mind and heart to its influence, and em- 
 brace it as God's chosen method of salvation, deserves to 
 remaii^ in his state of alienation from life, light, and im- 
 mortality. 
 
 Here, then, is the grand practical test of the divinity of 
 the Christian scheme. It brings forward the word of God 
 to act upon the moral nature of man, and by that word it 
 confronts the conscience. It represents the authority, the 
 justice, the pow^r, and the sentence of God. It charges 
 the guilt of sin home upon the sinner, and it then calls 
 upon hhn to repent, to believe in the divine mercy through 
 the IMediator, and accept his atonement as the medium of 
 reconciliation. It further declares, that whosoever thus 
 repents and believes tlie gospel, shall find an inward reno- 
 vation of his moral nature, love to God, delight in his 
 commands, j^eace of conscience, joy surpassing all the joys 
 of earth, comfort under all the difficulties and afflictions of 
 time, with victory over death, under whatever form it may 
 approach. It further represents the introduction of the 
 soul to the experience of divine grace, not as an entire or 
 perfect change of nature, but as ihe origination of a new 
 
UNIVERSAL RECOVERY OF MAKKIND. 259 
 
 principle in the heart, by which the soul is progressively 
 strengthened in its war against evil. This new principle 
 is called faith, and it consists in a firm credence and prac- 
 tical application of the word believed to be inspired ; and, 
 ilnder the influence of this principle, believers are repre- 
 sented as continuing a moral warfare, until, at last, they 
 obtain a complete victor}'- over the evils of their depraved 
 condition, and attain a happy and rational anticipation of 
 final acceptance and eternal happiness. 
 
 The Bible represents this peculiar moral instrumentality 
 as effectual to recover mankind from sin to holiness, from 
 misery and disappointment, in worldly pursuits and pro- 
 jects, to true satisfaction and solid joy ; and from the 
 gloomy fear of death and judgment, to an entire victory 
 over all these terrors, so that they can mostly say, " O 
 grave ! where is thy victory ? death ! where is thy 
 sting ? " All this the Bible represents as the effect of its 
 remedy for man's transgression ; and if the attainments of 
 professors of Christianity do not, in all cases, reach this 
 standard, it is their own fault ; but if they do not attain to 
 the main part of this — the substantial moral improvement 
 of their nature — they are branded as hypocrites, and alto- 
 gether disclaimed as Christ's disciples. All this is repre- 
 sented as resulting from the belief of " the truth as it is in 
 Jesus;" and this effect is, in innumerable instances, seen to 
 follow. 
 
 The peculiarity of this method of human renovation 
 especially deserves attention, because it is simple, per- 
 fectly in accordance with the principles and faculties of our 
 nature, and, in all its parts, consistent with reason, though, 
 in some of its doctrines, as might, have been expected, 
 above reason. It is, in its system, analogous to what we 
 always meet with in cases of return from disobedience, and 
 what human reason and experience suggest to be the very 
 best means of restoring rebellious children, and of correct- 
 ing their evil propensities. 
 
'^60 SCRIPTURAL SCHEME FOR THE 
 
 It is, in some respects, strikingly contrasted with all 
 human methods proposed for the promotion of om- moral 
 improvement, or the attainment of immortal life. These 
 have uniformly attached the utmost importance to certain 
 mechanical performances, as in all systems of heatheft 
 idolatry, where the whole stress is laid on the punctual 
 observance of the most trifling or absurd ceremonies, for 
 to them the saving virtue is attributed; or, as in the 
 theories of philosophers, where the proposed means of 
 such improvement are the unassisted and spontaneous 
 (efforts of the human mind, striving, by the ambitious 
 aspirations of its own vigour, to recover itself to virtue 
 and immortality, while its utter failure and conspicuous 
 imbecility loudly and continually proclaim its hopeless 
 distance from the chief good. 
 
 Let the gospel scheme be viewed in its two principal 
 bearings, first, in reference to the glory of the Supreme 
 Being, and then as it affects the condition of mankind, 
 whose benefit it proposes to seek. As it regards the 
 honour of all the perfections of the Godhead, we may ask 
 what scheme did ever so wonderfully and j^ierfectly unite 
 justice and mercy, and set the Deity before us in so vene- 
 rable, and yet in so amiable and engaging a light? It 
 vindicates all his rights, as the Supreme and Universal 
 Governor, respects all the interests of his boundless do- 
 minion, and yet presents the mild and benevolent aspect 
 of a Father " whose tender mercies are over all his works." 
 Then, as it regards mankind, the gospel possesses this pe- 
 culiar feature, that it is specially adapted to every human 
 being, and adjusts itself to man in every age, and under all 
 the circumstances of his delinquency and suffering. It 
 possesses a universal character, and addresses a universal 
 language to the heart and conscience. It is readily under- 
 stood, and at once felt by all to be minutely fitted to their 
 experience, their wishes, and their inward consciousness. 
 
 Now let us suppose this go-spol scheme presented to us 
 
UNIVERSAL llECOVERY OF MANKIND. 261 
 
 in its present perfected state, nothing being known of its 
 operation, or no trial having, as yet, been made of its effi- 
 ciency. Imagine the book that contains the gospel dis- 
 covered accidentally, or brouglit to us by some stranger or 
 angel, notliing being known concerning it, but what itself 
 testifies. Suppose it to be announced, as yet, only in a 
 single nation, and that some treat it with contempt and 
 inditference, believe nothing concerning it, because they 
 cannot be persuaded to examine it ; but at once declare, 
 that the whole is a fable or a fabrication, for the purposes 
 of imposture and delusion. Their opinion, it is evident, 
 would be entitled to no consideration in determining the 
 value or the authority of the volume. But suppose there 
 are certain others, and these no inconsiderable number, 
 who resolve to read, to w^eigh carefully, the whole docu- 
 ment ; to compare one part with another, to make them- 
 selves masters of its contents, and, as far as possible, 
 to examine the evidence wdiich may be attainable, that it 
 did really originate in divine inspiration ; and then, having 
 done all this, they rise from the investigation with the full 
 belief of its divine authority. They then begin, faithfully 
 and devoutly, to put in practice its directions. They re- 
 flect upon their own past history and experience, and find 
 the assertions and charges brought against them all true ; 
 they are heart-stricken on account of their delinquencies : 
 they become filled with shame for sin ; they apprehend 
 the purity of God, and their own pollutions, and are filled 
 with fear ; they lose all relish for their former evil prac- 
 tices, while they become conscious of the justness of that 
 sentence of this supposed divine law, which is represented 
 as being against them. They then follow the directions 
 of the book, in making confession and supplication to God 
 through the appointed Mediator. They are encouraged, 
 by the directions of the same book, to believe firmly in the 
 merit of Christ's atonement, and they are assured that, if 
 they make him their confidence, his merit their plea with 
 
262 bCFJPTURAL SCHEME FOR THE 
 
 God, and believe that he satisfied the hiw and made it 
 honourable, they shall find peace with God. They do so 
 believe in it ; they plead it in all their addresses to God ; 
 they find their minds calmed, and, in a most ineffable 
 manner, drawn forth in love, desire, and confidence toward 
 the great Creator; they feel a devout admiration of his 
 righteousness and mercy, and a strong ambition to be holy 
 as God is holy ; to see him, that they may be like him, and 
 to be for ever with him, that they may enjoy his favom' and 
 proclaim his glory. This is followed by an increased 
 sensitiveness to evil, a tenderness of conscience, an ex- 
 pansion of benevolence towards their fellow-men, which 
 displays itself in every relation of life. Their characters 
 derive, altogether, an elevation and refinement, a dignity 
 and purity, a felicity and hopefulness, from this change, 
 which makes them the objects of envy to the rest of their 
 fellow-mortals, who cannot understand the mysterious facts 
 which appear to be connected with the reception of this 
 extraordinary book. Now, supposing these persons, who 
 have made the experiment, to live thus in purity, felicity, 
 and hope, to the end of their lives, maintaining a consis- 
 tent, holy course, and endeavouring, by every possible 
 means, to benefit their fellow-creatures, both for time and 
 eternity, by example, by precept, and by self-devotement, 
 and then to die, exulting in the hope inspired by this book, 
 and declaring that they feel even their dying-bed to be a 
 bed of roses, as soft and light as a fleecy cloud, on which 
 they were ascending to their everlasting abode, confident 
 in the merit and ability of their Saviour; showing the in- 
 ward witness of his Spirit, as they said ; proving the spiri- 
 tual change they had undergone ; demonstrating, that they 
 were influenced by a new principle, above nature ; and that 
 they enjoyed a peculiar sense of divine favour ; and were, 
 even then, on the ver}^ verge of immortal felicity. 
 
 Would not this be such a practical verification of the 
 contents of this book, as could not, in the slightest degree, 
 
UNIVERSAL EECOVEHY OF MANKIND. 26[> 
 
 be invalidated by the non-cxperiencc of those who had a 
 the outset rejected and despised it, or continued utterly 
 inattentive and unconcerned in the great jirocess or ex- 
 periment going on before their eyes ? Could those per- 
 sons have any right to be heard against the efficacy of the 
 doctrine propounded by the book, who had never sub- 
 mitted their hearts and minds to the test of the experi- 
 ment? Just as reasonably might those who had never 
 tried a certain remedy, in a specific disease, expect to be 
 admitted as evidence against the remedy, whose efficacy a' 
 multitude of others appeared ready to attest from their 
 own personal experience. Cavils might be raised, and 
 questions of all kinds started, as to the discovery of such 
 a remedy, as to its mode of operation, and many might re- 
 fuse to believe in its efficacy on these alleged grounds ; 
 and till the patronizcrs of the new discovery could fully 
 satisfy these objectors, by a philosophical explanation of 
 their experiences, they might refuse to credit the fact of 
 any such cure having been wrought; but these objections 
 could possess little weight, and be entitled to no considera- 
 tion whatever, against the direct and positive experience 
 of the others ; for the fact would, and must, remain, and 
 whatever mystery might attach, in the view of these objec- 
 tors, to the production of the result, yet that result, once 
 produced, must, according to all fair principles of reason- 
 ing, continue to be a testimony to the efficacy of the means 
 used, however incapable it might prove of philosophical 
 solution. 
 
 We do not, however, intend hereby to admit, that the 
 efficacy of the gospel, in its operations, is thus incapable 
 of a philosophical explanation ; for it may be shown to 
 bear a perfectly clear and close analogy to the exercise of 
 the divine power in all the departments, both of material 
 and spiritual nature. If the Bible were a human fabrica- 
 tion, it would be followed by none of this kind of verifica- 
 tion from human experience, which it now possesses in so 
 
264 SCjaiPTUEAL SCHEME FOll THE 
 
 abundant a degree ; for, let any one consider, on tlie one 
 hand, what has been the enth-e failure of all human reme- 
 dies for the woes and vices of mankind ; and, on the other 
 hand, what has been the result of this gospel, in an end- 
 less multitude of cases, and what is daily resulting, and he 
 will perceive, that all we have described, and much more, 
 has actually taken place, and that too, under the most pe- 
 culiar and striking circumstances. As, at its first publica- 
 tion, the gospel produced these effects, in the fullest de- 
 gree, under the greatest conceivable disadvantages, upon 
 the most obstinate habits of both Jews and Gentiles, pre- 
 senting the most striking varieties of which human nature 
 is susceptible, so it still continues to prove its divine effi- 
 cacy, wherever it is brought into contact with the various 
 characters, opinions, and habits of men. It then wrought 
 its glorious work, where superstition had long maintained 
 a supreme and undisputed sway ; and where it had attained 
 no result, but the deeper degradation and depravation of 
 its wretched victims. It has now on its side a mighty ac- 
 cumulation of experiment, which nothing can shake, which 
 no sophistry can invalidate, and no scepticism deny. 
 Other methods than the obvious one may be resorted to, 
 for the solution of these facts, but they all fail when 
 brought to the test. Ko natural principle, no human 
 agency, can account for the effects which Christianity pro- 
 duces ; or else the same effects might be shown to follow- 
 in other cases, and from other causes. If enthusiasm, 
 fanaticism, faith in a human system, supposed to be di- 
 vine, and the mere natural power of moral suasion, or the 
 efficacy of eloquence, power of example, education, and 
 such like causes, be alleged, still these have all operated 
 in conjunction with systems of man's devising, and yet the 
 same results have not followed ; and simply for the reason, 
 that the systems in which men believed, with as strong a 
 faith as ever prophet or apostle believed in the Bible, were 
 not divine ; whereas, the gospel proves itself to be so by 
 
UNIVERSAL RECOVERY OF MANKIND. 265 
 
 the eificacy which the belief of it exerts over human nature. 
 There is a divine virtue, not in the effort of human thought, 
 called faith, hut in that which faith apprehends. 
 
 What infidels allege, then, against Cliristianity, all 
 amounts to nothing, while we can bring forward positive, 
 undeniable, and all but infinite effects to attest its sove- 
 reign virtue, and to prove that it does accomplish, daily 
 and hourly, all that it professes to accomplish, under every 
 possible variety of human nature ; and that very result 
 which our nature feels to be most necessary to its reno- 
 vation and felicitation. On all classes of characters, on all 
 the different degrees of natural talent and genius, on all 
 the different ages, on all the varieties of previous experi- 
 ence and disposition, Christianity has shown its transform- 
 ing power. We can point to the joyous changes, both 
 internal and radical, of which they are conscious, and which 
 they exemplify, and can describe ; but especially to those 
 that are external and visible to the world, and which are 
 attributed, by the subjects of them, exclusively to the in- 
 fluence of the Bible upon their minds, as undeniable proofs 
 that there is a divine virtue in the truth, and that it is of 
 God, because it has an effect upon human nature, which 
 nothing else was ever known to have, or even to approach. 
 
 If, besides the amazing variety of persons, on whom 
 Christianity is producing, not merely some beneficial moral 
 effects, (for that it does unconsciously on its very enemies), 
 you consider its saving effects, its happy fruits of holiness, 
 and peace, and heavenly hope, there will then, I think, 
 appear a mass of evidence, of the inductive kind, in its 
 favour, which ought, not merely to silence all opposition, 
 but constrain acceptance of it as indubitably preferable, 
 and by immeasurable degrees, not only to all the other 
 systems of religion, but to all the theories of the philo- 
 sophers, and to all the dogmas of infidelity. The learned 
 and [the rude, the young and the old, the comparatively 
 innocent and unsophisticated child of nature, and the man 
 
2^6 SCRIPTURAL SCHEME i^OR THE 
 
 hackneyed in the ways of the world, the humble peasant, 
 and the son of genius, the king on his throne, the prisoner 
 in his cell, the statesman in his cabinet, the philosopher 
 in his studies, the merchant in his enterprises, the miser 
 amidst his hoards, the persecutor in the paroxysm of his 
 rage and cruelty, the hermit in his solitude, and the fashion- 
 able votary in the dizzy whirl of pleasure ; all these, yea, 
 mankind, under a gi'eater variety of circumstances than I 
 can find words to describe, have felt the transforming 
 power of Christianity, and stand forth, as living witnesses 
 of the efficacy of this system of instrumentality and agency, 
 to effect all that it proposes, for the well-being of the human 
 race. 
 
 Moreover, these effects are produced in an endless variety 
 of ways, and may be called forth at any time, and in con- 
 nexion with any of the events of human life ; so that they 
 are, in fact, sometimes produced by a given instrumentality, 
 sometimes without any human agency, but by the direct 
 operation of divine influence upon the mind ; always, 
 however, through the word of God, either as the external 
 instrument, or as the agency to which the mind is inwardly 
 bowed, in order to be brought under its influence. Some- 
 times the word is first brought into contact with the mind, 
 and sometimes the mind is thrown into a state of strange 
 anxiety, and is sent to the word in search of salvation. 
 
 But the instances of its success, however numerous and 
 various, all exhibit a common character, and show a com- 
 mon origin, a source from which they all flow, not to be 
 mistaken, just as the drops of rain, or dew, though coming 
 in a different order and way, yet are one in kind ; or, like 
 the human face and form, endlessly varied, yet always 
 possessing the same general features, and all constituting 
 but one common nature. We attach much importance to 
 the identity of the result in such an endless variety of 
 cases ; because it is a proof of the sameness of the prin- 
 ciple, and of the perpetuity of the same power, working all 
 
UNIVERSAL RECOVERY OF MANKIND. Ji67 
 
 in all. For as, in each, the result is the same, so the 
 cause that produces that result must be inferred to be the 
 same. We might take individual instances, but our space 
 would not allow an extended appeal to separate facts, and 
 selection would be difficult, and scarcely answer our pur- 
 pose. The argument must rest upon the general character 
 of the Christian public, or, at least, upon the undoubted 
 and sincere portion of it. 
 
 Something might be said of the testimony of confessors 
 and martyrs, and the accomplishment of Scripture in their 
 experience. The word of God has usually awakened in 
 such minds the expectation, that when called to suffer for 
 conscience sake, they should receive a special measure of 
 consolation, and be able to account the cup of persecution 
 even a blessed cup put into their hand, by the unsearchable 
 counsels of an all-wise God. " They that suffer with him 
 shall also reign with him." "My brethren, count it all 
 joy, when ye fall into divers temptations," or trials. 
 '* Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and perse- 
 cute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely 
 for my sake." No tongue can describe the ineffable delight 
 such sufferers have experienced in those seasons of trial ; 
 or how they have been made insensible to pain, while re- 
 taining their full consciousness, under the utmost tortures 
 of the flesh. They have been known to sing on the rack, 
 and even to rejoice at the stake. The stream of life ebbed 
 not so rapidly under the torturing of their inhuman foes, 
 as the pure river of divine joy flowed in from its celestial 
 source upon their beatified spirits, even to the most ecstatic 
 ravishment, so that they could say, " Whether in the body, 
 or out of the body, we cannot tell." 
 
 Here, then, is again a correspondence between man's 
 experience and the testimony of the sacred word, both 
 minute and remarkable; an agreement that could not be 
 fortuitous, or casual, but proceeding from a cause which 
 necessarily implies a special virtue in that cause, an influ- 
 
268 SCRIPTUKAL SCHEME FOR THE 
 
 erice which nothing finite, nothing human, ever possessed, 
 or ever claimed. 
 
 Thus the effects of Christianity on the minds of men, 
 and the universal result which follows its acceptance, show 
 it to be of God, and attest the truth of its pretensions. 
 This imiversality of its influence may not unfitly be com- 
 pared to the sun in the firmament, which shines in com- 
 mon on all climates, countries, and nations ; an influence 
 which can no more be commanded or imitated, or controlled 
 by man, than it can be resisted or withheld. Every where 
 it calls forth vegetation, and in each different climate has, 
 indeed, its appropriate productions, but yet all identified 
 together, as the effects of the same general principle, or 
 genial power. In one region there are larger trees, and 
 richer fruits, and fairer flowers than in another, but in all 
 there are the general species and genera ; there are corn 
 and grass, that feed man and beast, fruits to gratify man's 
 taste, and flowers to regale his sense, and trees to adorn 
 the landscape: though all these may be endlessly varied. 
 Thus it is with the Sun of Kighteousness, which shines in 
 common over and through the whole intellectual world of 
 believing Christians, differing, as they do, upon some 
 points of dogmatic theology, or as to some matters of 
 Christian duty and ritual observance, or as to the details 
 of Christian experience ; yet all identified in the oneness 
 of the great principle of faith and life in an incarnate 
 Saviour. They shoAV and illustrate a spiritual identity. 
 All are under, and all admit, a common regimen ; all are 
 carrying on the same moral warfare against sin, and all are 
 looking for the fruition of the same blessed and glorious 
 hopes. 
 
 These observations have, I trust, in some measure, sus- 
 tained and illustrated our proposed theme — the adaptation 
 of the gospel to man's character and condition, and the 
 practical efhciency of the scheme, as realized by our nature 
 throughout the vast Christian community. The conclusion 
 
UNIVEJKSAL RECOVERY OF MANKIND. '269 
 
 seems to be inevitable, that the religion which accomplishes 
 so unparalleled, so difficult, and, at the same time, so de- 
 sirable a result, fully establishes its pretensions to a divine 
 origin, and must be pronounced, by impartial judges, 
 " worthy of all acceptation.'' 
 
LECTUEE VI. 
 
 The oiigin, perpetuity, and history of a special society, distinct from the 
 ■world, uniformly characterized by certain peculiarities of principle and 
 lu'actice, and denominated tlie people, or church, of God. 
 
 A church now exists — Traceable to the times of the Csesars — The succession of 
 Christian believers unbroken — Origin of the Christian profession in Judea 
 — This countiy long the seat of the Jewish Church — Credibility of its His- 
 toi-y — •Origin of this section of the church — Connexion with the Patriarchal 
 — Religious and moral principles identical — What these were — Then* trans- 
 mission from Noah — Embodied and enlarged in the law — Identity of 
 revelation tlii'ough all its periods — A distinct society commenced in Abra- 
 ham's family — Predictions respecting it — ^Contmuity of the chui'ch 
 through all its periods — General obsei-vations on this succession — Iden- 
 tity of faith — Great events connected witli this historj- — Presen-ation of 
 the chui'ch a continued miracle — An objection considered — Transition 
 from Judaism to Christianity — Evidence of inspiration — Vicissitudes 
 enliance the proof — Adversities and coiTuptions — Often near extinction 
 — Christian church-history — Infidel explanations — Tiieir failure — Com- 
 bination of worldly powers — The church still invincible — Severe dis- 
 cipline — Opposition foretold and over-ruled — Internal causes of decay 
 counteracted — Its whole history implies supernatural influence — Triumph 
 of divine principles in the heart — Contrasted in the case of infidels — Both 
 facts foreseen — Summary of the argument — Its connexion witli tlie nest 
 Lecture. 
 
 None will dispute the fact, that there exists, at the 
 present moment, a numerous body of persons in the 
 world, distinguished, by their jirinciples and practices, 
 from all the rest of mankind ; and that they consider 
 themselves the people of God, Christians, or the church. 
 They are separated from the rest of the world by their 
 belief in the Christian revelation. 
 
SCKIPTUKE VERIFIED, ETC. 271 
 
 It cannot be doubted, that this fraternity can trace its 
 succession back to the days of the Roman Ceesars, even 
 without referring to the Christian records. The history 
 of this particular body of persons is so intimately connected 
 with the history of the Roman Empire, both in its paternal 
 seat, and all its affiliated colonies, that it would be just as 
 easy to disprove the existence of that Empire, as to disprove 
 the existence of a Christian community in it, at the time spe- 
 cified. It is equally impossible to dispute, that this commu- 
 nity has existed, uninterruptedly, from that time down to the 
 present. It has preserved its continuity from the times of the 
 C?esars to the present moment ; and every body knows, that 
 it is still in existence, and flourishing. By its continuity, I 
 intend, that the Christian profession, consisting in the belief 
 of revelation, and in an external and visible conformity to 
 its requirements, has been successively transmitted from 
 generation to generation, ever since the time of Jesus 
 Christ and his disciples. 
 
 No one, who reflects upon this statement, and is, at the 
 same time, sufficiently informed upon the history of these 
 successive ages, to be qualified to judge of the truth of our 
 proposition, can entertain the slightest degree of hesitation 
 concerning it. He could no more doubt, that there had 
 been an uninterrupted succession of Christian believers, 
 and that these have existed under some visible form of 
 religious association, than that there had been a succession 
 of human generations, without any break or interval, 
 through all the ages we are contemplating. He could no 
 more question the continuity of the Christian churcli, than 
 the continuity of the human race. The profession of Chris- 
 tianity has been transmitted down from the times specified, 
 as uninterruptedly as human nature from father to son. 
 The jn'oofs of the one fact are just as clear as the proofs of 
 the other ; and the very documents, antiquities, and re- 
 mains of various kinds, which prove the one thing, prove 
 the other. I am not aware, that anv well-informed infidels 
 
272 SCRIPTURE VERIFIED IX THE 
 
 have ever disputed it, and I am quite sure that most of 
 them have, either tacitly or expressly, allowed it. 
 
 The continuance of the Christian profession, from the 
 time of Christ to the present day, heing then admitted, our 
 next step will be settled with almost equal facility. That 
 is, the origin of this particular form and profession of 
 revealed religion in the land of Judea. There is no fact 
 of history more clear, or less disputed, than this. All 
 ancient historians, who refer to the subject, agree, that 
 Christianity first arose in the land, and among the people 
 of the Jews. I shall only refer to the words of Tacitus, as 
 quoted by Gibbon, " They " {the Christians) " derived 
 their name and origin from Christ, who, in the reign of 
 Tiberius, had suffered death by the sentence of the Pro- 
 curator, Pontius Pilate. For awhile, this dire superstition 
 was checked, but it again burst forth, and not only spread 
 itself over Judea, the first seat of this mischievous sect, 
 but was even introduced into Rome."* Thus, in ascend- 
 ing through distant ages, we very readily identify the Chris- 
 tian church in its origin with the religious system of the 
 Jews. Their existence, therefore, at the time when Chris- 
 tianity arose, and their peculiar opinions, as embodied in 
 the sacred doctrines of their religion, must be conceded, as 
 the basis of the facts already admitted. 
 
 Further, the residence of the Jews in the land of Judea, 
 through many ages preceding the origin of Christianity, 
 and the special features of their religious system, as essen- 
 tially different from all the other forms of religious opinion 
 then in the world, are facts as clearly ascertained by his- 
 tory, as those we have already noticed ; and are all of them 
 either admitted or stated in the classic authors of Greece 
 and Ptome. Allusions are frequently made to the nation 
 of the Jews, their peculiarities, more or less, pointed out, 
 their temple, their worship, and their history, so far noticed 
 
 • Tacit. Annal. lib. xv. 41. 
 
PERPETUITY OF THE CHURCH. 273 
 
 by the ancient classic writers, as to leave no doubt upon 
 any of the general facts hitherto mentioned. 
 
 Eespecting the circumstances which, through a long suc- 
 cession of ages, brought them, as a nation, into that par- 
 ticular moral and religious condition, in which they were, 
 when first noticed by the Greek and Roman authors, we 
 find no testimony discordant with their own ; and whatever 
 facts can be collected from other sources, or have been 
 preserved among the records or monuments of any other 
 nation, fully corroborate their own. In the absence, there- 
 fore, of all conflicting testimony, their own account of their 
 origin, history, and religion, deserves to be received as 
 credible ; especially when its facts and princii)les can be 
 subjected to so many different kinds of tests, as we have in 
 the former Lectures already applied, and with results so 
 uniformly favourable to their authority. 
 
 From the point at which we have now arrived, we must 
 proceed to try the credibility of the Mosaic statement, con- 
 cerning the history of the Jewish church, by the entire 
 reasonableness of the account itself, its perfect consistency 
 with the profession of being founded in revelation, its har- 
 mony with the Christian dispensation, which arose out of 
 it, and which we know to have existed above eighteen 
 hundred years : and further, by the opposite test of the 
 unreasonableness and incredibility of any other hypothesis 
 concerning the Jewish church and nation ; I might even 
 say, the impossibility of maintaining any other theory; 
 because it is impossible to substantiate any other facts con- 
 cerning the religion and nation of the Jews, than those 
 their own records contain. 
 
 To form a just conception of the credibility of the scrip 
 tural history, it will be necessary to take a somewhat com- 
 prehensive survey of its leading facts, and bear in mind, as 
 we proceed, the question applicable to the whole series ; 
 namely, how far do these statements appear to afford a 
 reasonable and credible explanation of the events that fol- 
 
 V. T 
 
274 SCRIPTURE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 lowed in succession, and how far do the causes stated 
 appear to account for the effects that attended them ? 
 There will also here be afforded us an opportunity for in- 
 quiring, whether the events stated, many of them veiy sur- 
 prising, hut, in some instances, susceptible of proof, as 
 facts, from other authority, besides that of the Bible, could 
 have been produced, by any other causes than those to 
 which they are there ascribed ? 
 
 The Mosaic narrative is brief in everything but what 
 related to the selection, separation, and establishment of 
 the Jewish church and nation. It traces up the principles 
 of their faith to the earliest times, connecting them har- 
 moniously with the faith of the first man, and showing 
 how they arose, gradually, and became incorporated with 
 the moral and religious principles which had been trans- 
 mitted from Noah and his sons, and by them derived 
 directly from Adam. According to the statement which 
 Moses gives of those very early times between Adam and 
 Noah, it is apparent, that they enjoyed what may, with the 
 strictest propriety, be denominated both a moral and reli- 
 gious system. The purity, simplicity, and excellence of 
 this may easily be miade apparent; while its harmony with 
 the more elaborate moral and religious code of Moses, 
 and its ultimate completion and perfection in the religion 
 of Christ, will, if we can make it appear, identify the cha- 
 racteristics of revelation, through the history of the j^eople 
 of God or the church, from Adam to the Christian be- 
 lievers of the present day. This will complete the whole 
 chain. 
 
 The first great portion of the ascending series is, as we 
 have already shown, j^erfect and unquestionable. The 
 history of the Jewish section of the church, we have seen, 
 is scarcely less clear and certain ; and the third portion, or 
 that which was earliest in the order of time, we shall now 
 endeavour to show, was characterized by the same great 
 principles of faith and morals. 
 
PERPETUITY OF THE CHUPiCH. 275 
 
 It is to be certainly inferred, that the particulars related 
 by Moses, respecting the intercourse between Adam and 
 his Creator, do not include every thing that transpired ; 
 because the fact of conversing or communing together is 
 mentioned, without recording anything of the subject or 
 matter of their intercourse. It is further certain, that, after 
 the fall and the sentence denounced upon the man, woman, 
 and serpent, respectively, and after the intimation respect- 
 ing the bruising of the heel of the promised seed, and of 
 the serpent's head, by the seed of the woman, — that Adam 
 taught his sons to worship God, *as, without doubt, himself 
 and his wife had done, prior to their fall. It seems mani- 
 fest, that they had been taught to respect the seventh day, 
 which was evidently, from the first, the day of their worship. 
 
 From the history of Cain, Abel, and Enoch, it clearly 
 appears, that they understood and regarded the purport 
 of the first command of the Mosaic law, as to the fear and 
 love of God. It is further certain, that they enjoyed some 
 standard of social morals, or law of appeal; otherwise there 
 could have been no propriety in the words attributed to 
 God in his address to Cain — " Why art thou wroth ? and 
 why is thy countenance fallen ? If thou doest well, shalt 
 thou not be accepted ? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth 
 at the door." Gen. iv. 6, 7. This is an appeal to Cain's 
 knowledge of some revealed precepts, by which he ought 
 to have been guided, and the observance or non-observance 
 of which, was to meet a corresponding treatment, on the 
 part of the Creator. It is only on the supposition, that 
 Cain and Abel both knew the principles by which their 
 conduct was to be regulated, that we can discern the riglit- 
 eousness of God in his conduct towards each resf)ectively. 
 No one can suppose, for a moment, that the procedure of 
 each was left, without rule, to his own option. This would 
 be to make the divine treatment of them arbitrary. It is 
 of little moment here to inquire, whether the knowledge? 
 we suppose them previously to have possessed, was derived; 
 
'21 Q SCRIPTURE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 from any revelation made directly to themselves, or from 
 the instructions of their father, or even from their own 
 reflection and conscience. It is quite certain they must 
 have enjoyed such knowledge, or the means of acquiring 
 it ; otherwise the conduct of God would appear capricious, 
 and unjust, in a high degree. There must have existed, 
 then, some laws or commands of the Almighty, as clear 
 and intelligible to them as any laws of God have since 
 been made to us ; or we should have heard nothing of siv, 
 which is now, and always has been, a transgression of the 
 divine law. 
 
 Again, we have a reference to some rule of human duty 
 in the short account given of Enoch; Gen. v. 2:2, 24. 
 " And Enoch ivalked with God three hundred years ; and 
 he was not, for God took him." The proper sense of this 
 ivalking with God, seems to be that given by the Targum 
 of Onkelos — he walked in the wmj of God's j^^^cepts, and, 
 because he had so long and so eminently kept the divine 
 commands, he was translated to heaven. After this period 
 we have, in the history of Noah, whose father, Lamech, 
 and grandfather, Methuselah, must both have known Adam, 
 a distinct recognition of some moral and religious stand- 
 ard, because Noah was a preacher of the law of righteous- 
 ness; and, on account of his conformity to it, was singled 
 out to be saved, with his family ; and, besides, it was tes- 
 tified, that " the earth was filled with violence : " " and 
 God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, 
 and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart 
 was only evil continually." Gen. vi. 5 and 13. If we look 
 to a somewhat later period, we find that there was an 
 express reference to a rule of human conduct in the case 
 of Abraham. " I know him, (Abraham,) that he will com- 
 mand his children and his household after him, and they 
 shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment, 
 that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he 
 hath spoken of him." Gen. xviii. J 9. 
 
PEEPETUITY OF THE CHURCH. 277 
 
 Now we have no intimation of any new revelation of 
 moral or religious regulations or precepts from the time 
 of Adam. But though new promises are made to Noah, 
 after the flood, and to Ahraham, Isaac, and Jacob, still we 
 find no new commands of a moral or religious kind, en- 
 joining any new acts of worship or principles of conduct. 
 We may, therefore, safely infer that, as, through the whole 
 period from Cain to Abraham, there are references to sin 
 and wickedness, piety and impiety, righteousness and un- 
 righteousness, there must have been primary laws of 
 morality and religion ; and every argument of reason and 
 probability must induce the belief, that these originated 
 with God, otherwise they could scarcely have been so early 
 and so generally recognized ; or have been transmitted so 
 sacredly and uninterruptedly from Adam to his sons, and 
 have continued immutable, as it is clear they did, in the 
 esteem of the righteous from generation to generation. 
 For it is abundantly evident, notwithstanding the preva- 
 lence of sin and impiety, that the succession of just and 
 upright men was maintained from Adam to Noah, from 
 Noah to Abraham ; with whom properly commences the 
 middle period of the church, when he and his family were 
 adopted into a peculiar relation to the Supreme Being, 
 and separated as a distinct society or church in the world. 
 
 But, before we proceed to examine the peculiar features 
 which are to be viewed as tests of the inspiration of the 
 divine word, in reference to the church, we may, in brief, 
 state what appear to have been the chief principles, both 
 of the moral and religious code of the j^eople of God, from 
 Adam to Moses, when a new and more precise law was 
 delivered to them. The learned Selden has embodied the 
 moral principles in the following six particulars : 
 
 I. To abstain from idolatry. 
 
 II. To bless the name of God, or, as some express it, 
 to abstain from blasphemy or malediction of the divine 
 name. 
 
'27 S SCRIPTURE YERTFIED IN THE 
 
 III. To abstain from murder. 
 
 IV. To abstain from adultery, or from the pollution of 
 impure mixtures. 
 
 V. To abstain from theft. 
 
 Yi. To appoint judges to be the guardians of these pre- 
 cepts, and to preserve public justice. 
 
 These do, in fact, contain a principal part of the deca- 
 logue, as delivered by Moses. It is highly probable, that 
 the regular worship of God, and the observance of the 
 seventh day, were also added. Though we have no spe- 
 cific mention of the latter after its first sanctification by 
 the rest of God from his works, and his blessing it, yet it 
 can scarcely be doubted that it was observed along with 
 other positive institutions. 
 
 A summary of the religious principles of the age we are 
 reviewing, may be thus stated. 
 
 I. The agency of the Holy Spirit of God, in an ordinary 
 way, upon the minds of men : Gen. vi. 3. " My Spirit 
 shall not always strive with man." 
 
 II. The influence of Satan. This must have been a 
 truth, handed down from the first man and woman, along 
 with the account of the fall, and the sentence denounced 
 against the serpent. 
 
 III. The belief of the fall of man must also have been 
 transmitted. There is a passage, in the Book of Job, 
 wiiich seems to imply, that this was well known before the 
 law of Moses was given. Job xxxi. 33. " If I cover my 
 transgression, as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my 
 bosom." The same Book of Job makes it evident, in 
 many places, that the doctrine of human depravity was 
 another article of very early belief, arising out of the well- 
 known fact of Adam's apostasy. 
 
 IV. The doctrine of a future world, and the immortality 
 of the soul, certainly appear in tlie translation of Enoch, 
 and in various places in the Book of Job, as well as in the 
 hope of the promised seed, which could have been a hope 
 
PERPETUITY OF THE CHURCH. 279 
 
 to the first sinners only upon their expectation of a future 
 Ufe. 
 
 V. Tliere is the clearest evidence, that the doctrine of 
 atonement, by animal sacrifice, for the forgiveness of sins, 
 was regularly and constantly transmitted from the days of 
 Adam, Noah, Abraham, and Job. Mr. Clarkson observes, 
 in his " Patriarchal Researches^'" that " There is reason to 
 believe, from what has been said, that God gave to Adam 
 and Eve, after their creation,* certain precepts for the 
 moral guidance of themselves and their posterity; and that 
 certain doctrines or religious notions may also be distinctly 
 traced from the earliest times ; which precepts and doctrines 
 combined, constituted the body of divinity to the church of 
 Adam ; and that the same prece]3ts and doctrines consti- 
 tuted afterwards the body of divinity of the church of Noah ; 
 hence they must have been in operation as such, in the 
 plain of Shinar, when Noah and all his descendants were 
 living there, speaking one language, and dwelling together 
 as one people. For it is impossible to suppose, that such 
 a distinguished servant of God as Noah, one who had been 
 miraculously saved from destruction in the ark, one. who, 
 immediately on landing from it, built an altar unto the 
 Lord, and one who is called in the Scriptures a preacher 
 of righteousness, would have neglected to keep up among 
 the different families, all of which had sprung from his 
 own loins, that knowledge of God and religion which he 
 had brought with him from the old world. Hence, I con- 
 clude, that all the families, when there living together in 
 Shinar, knew what their duty was, both to God and man. 
 
 * This e:q)ression, I think, needs to he qualified ;' for it seems question- 
 able, whether any otlier law was given in Eden, than tlie prohibition of the 
 tree. All besides miglit be Kupi)osed left to intuition, while man was yet in 
 a state of rectitude. Several of the precepts of the law afterwards recognized, 
 and finally established in the ten worth, would not have been suitable, pro- 
 bably not intelligible, till the effects of sin began to be felt. This remark 
 relates merely to the phrase, " after their creation." 
 
S80 SCRIPTURE VERIFIED IX THE 
 
 as far as it had then been revealed. Hence, I conclude, 
 again, that when the different families, just alluded to, 
 separated from each other, and wandered about and formed 
 separate communities in new lands, they carried with them, 
 in their wanderings, the head of each family on the tablet 
 of his memory, all the religious precepts and doctrines 
 which they then professed; and hence it is easy to see 
 how men in the succeeding patriarchal ages, such as Job 
 and others, acquired that religious information which we 
 have seen, and fragments of which would be found after- 
 wards in different parts of the world. Nor have we any 
 reason to suppose that their religious information, or that 
 any traditions of importance, would have suffered mate- 
 rially, in point of truth, by being passed from one gene- 
 ration to another, when we consider,- that in consequence 
 of the longevity of men in those days, three persons only 
 would have been needed to hand down any striking occur- 
 rence from the creation to the time of Abraham. Methu- 
 selah, for instance, lived at the same time, both with Adam 
 and Noah. He could, therefore, have told Noah whatever 
 he might have received or heard as having come from 
 Adam, or whatever he himself had known of the history 
 of the antediluvian world ; and, certainly, no man could 
 have done this better than Methuselah ; for we cannot but 
 believe, that such a man as Enoch, his father, would have 
 taken great care to acquaint his son with all that had 
 passed relative to religion, laws, and doctrine from the 
 beginning. Noah, then, having been thus instructed, 
 Avould have had numberless opportunities of communi- 
 cating what he had then lieard, and also what he had him- 
 self seen, to his sons. Now Shem is said to have lived five 
 hundred years after the deluge, and so far into patriarchal 
 times, as to have been contemporary with Abraham. In- 
 deed, Shem is supposedby many to have been Melchizedek, 
 the venerable king of Salem, and priest of the Most High 
 God, who blessed Abraham after the battle in which ho 
 
PERPETUITY OF THE CEURCII. 281 
 
 rescued Lot, and to whom Abraham gave a tenth of all his 
 spoil on that occasion."* From these general views of 
 the earliest principles, both of morals and religion, among 
 the antediluvians, and to the times of Abrajjam, Isaac, and 
 Jacob, there appears an identity with both the Mosaic and 
 the Christian doctrine. 
 
 The law given at Sinai did but embody and enlarge the 
 simpler law brought down from the days of Adam ; and 
 the ceremonial, or religious law of Moses, did but expand 
 and illustrate more fully and typically the doctrine of sacri- 
 ficial oblations, Avhich had been taught by the first man to 
 his sons, and which, having never ceased from the begin- 
 ning, exemplifies that saying in the Book of the Reve- 
 lation, " The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, "f 
 virtually identifying the religion of Jesus Christ with that 
 of the first man. 
 
 But from these observations on the identity of the 
 Biblical system of morals and religion, through all the 
 dispensations or gradations of revealed truth, I proceed to 
 consider the testimony to the truth and authority of reve- 
 lation, which arises from the history of the church and 
 people of God, as they have been distinguished by the 
 profession of this religion, and the observance of the divine 
 precepts, through the difi'erent ages of the world. The 
 doctrines or principles, as they have been held by men in 
 the three great stages of advancement, have been depend- 
 ent for their influence, their propagation, and their trans- 
 mission, upon a succession of persons, called the people 
 of God, the righteous, or the church. Perhaps the term 
 church does not strictly apply, while there was no com- 
 munity or association for religious worship ; and, until the 
 time of Moses, there seems to have been no such asso- 
 ciation beyond the individual household. Each father, 
 during the whole of the patriarchal age, appears to have 
 
 * Clarkson's Researches, pp. 67, 70. + Chap. xiii. ver. 8. 
 
28'2 SCRIPTURE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 had a domestic church, and to have been the only priest ; 
 and beyond this, I think, we have no positive evidence of 
 the association of men in acts of reUgious worship/-!' This 
 forai of the church appears to have been well adapted to 
 the simplicity of the pastoral life, before large bodies of 
 men dwelt together in cities and towns. Of the con- 
 tinuity, both of religious sentiment, and of the religious 
 body, from the days of Adam to those of Abraham, there 
 can be, as we have shown, little doubt, since one link 
 connected Adam and Noah, and another single link, as 
 Arphaxad, or Selah, connected Noah with Abraham, and 
 secured the ready and uncorrupted transmission of Noah's 
 religion to Abraham, and, by three more links, even to 
 Moses.f 
 
 But in Abraham commences what is, with more strict 
 propriety, denominated the church of God, because he 
 received an express command to set apart his seed, and to 
 
 * Dr. Boothroyd, in a note on Gen. iv. 26, says, " It is not probable that 
 good men hogan then,./?rs/, to call on the name of the Lord." His version, 
 and he is supported in it by many eminent authorities, is, "then began men 
 to be called by the name of the Lord." This might seem to imply some 
 church-state distinct from, and beyond that of patriarchal government.. It is, 
 however, well known, that patriarchal families frequently included several 
 generations. The distinction, therefore, expressed in the proposed version, 
 is perfectly compatible with our view of patriarchal religion. But if any pre- 
 fer the notion of a wider religious association, our general views will not be 
 aftected by the admission, that there was, thus early, some land of regular 
 association for the worship of the true God, beyond that of families or 
 households. 
 
 + Alirahani died when Jacob was about fifteen, and from the death of Jacob 
 to the buth of Moses was only one hundred and seventeen years. Joseph's 
 life occupied fifty-four of these after Jacob's death ; so that from Joseph to 
 Moses we have only sixty-three. Thtis one individual (Jacob) connects 
 Abraham and Joseph, and one more might connect Joseph and Moses : — 
 then, from Abraluun to Moses, only three or four persons intervene. The 
 transmission, then-fore, of pati-iarchal rtdigion, was easy, and facts show that 
 it was unbroken and complete from Adam to Moses. Every link in this 
 chain of successive bclievtirs, may be said to be clearly ti'uceable, without a 
 single break or gap. 
 
PERPETUITY OF THE CHURCH. 283 
 
 enjoin upon them an imitation of his own example, in per- 
 petuating a badge of their descent, which was to mark 
 their separation from all nations of the world, to be a 
 peculiar people, with the view of transmitting that new 
 current of prophecy which was about to disclose, more pre- 
 cisely than had yet been done, the divine purposes for the 
 recovery of mankind. To Abraham, therefore, was granted 
 the promise, that his seed should be greatly multiplied ; 
 and that f]om them should come the great deliverer, whom 
 all nations should bless, and in whom all nations should 
 be blessed. Further, to Abraham was given this promise, 
 when he had no child ; and, moreover, the prediction that 
 his descendants should possess that particular land of 
 Canaan. Here, then, we have a distinct incorporation, by 
 divine charter, of a body of persons as a visible church, 
 identified in their moral and religious principles with all 
 the righteous that went before ; but, for the special pur- 
 pose of transmitting the ampler developments of prophecy, 
 constituted a peculiar people, a nation separated from all 
 the rest, and kept so in the most perfect and remarkable 
 manner, till the time arrived for the consummation of the 
 promises and prophecies which had commenced with Adam, 
 and had been accumulating through the lapse of so many 
 ages, till the coming of the great Messiah, who, in his 
 history, character, and principles, is found most minutely 
 to correspond with every item of the whole body of pro- 
 phecy, preserved and transmitted through those remote 
 ages. 
 
 Here, then, in the very founding of the church, in the 
 person of Abraham, we have three distinct predictions : 
 first, that his descendants were to be the church and people 
 of God, and to preserve the doctrine and worship of the 
 one true God through their generations, while all the other 
 families of the earth, descended equally with themselves 
 from the righteous Noah, fell into idolatry. This fact, 
 which is attested, as well by profane as by sacred history, 
 
284 SCRIPTUKE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 is a remarkable proof of the inspiration of holy Scripture ; 
 but we cannot dwell upon it here. We observe, therefore, 
 secondly, there was also a prophecy of the particular locality 
 these descendants of Abraham were to possess, when there 
 was no probability, nor for several hundreds of years after- 
 wards, of their ever being able to conquer it : and, thirdly, 
 there was a renewal of the veiy ancient prediction of the 
 seed promised to Adam, with the additional explanation, 
 which, migiit, indeed, be considered as involved in the very 
 first sentence, of bruising the head of the serpent, or tempter ; 
 viz., that he should bless all nations, and all nations call 
 him blessed. 
 
 From this period, then, there has existed, as we may 
 fairly presume all will allow, who are acquainted with the 
 history of nations, a numerous body of persons universally 
 admitted to be the descendants of Abraham. Whatever 
 may be thought of the circumstances of their residence in 
 Egypt, the mode of their deliverance, their journey through 
 the wilderness, and their entrance into the land of Canaan, 
 there cannot be any doubt of the existence of Moses, or of 
 the fact that he was their legislator and general ; and it can 
 as little admit of doubt, that, after the death of Moses, 
 Joshua was the captain who expelled the Canaanitish 
 nations, and led the Israelites into the possession of that 
 country. These facts are, in the main, attested by all the 
 authorities that can be found. 
 
 It is, further, to be observed, that there is no conflicting 
 testimony to this, no evidence whatever, that the Jewish 
 nation came into Canaan at any other date, or in any other 
 way, than that stated in the sacred record. We are, there- 
 fore, entitled here to conclude thus much as indisputable, 
 that the people of the Jews did possess this land from the 
 time stated, and did observe, while in it, the peculiar form 
 of religion ascribed to them by the sacred penmen, and by 
 all other ancient writers who have alluded to the subject. 
 It has already been shown, that Christianity arose among 
 
PERPETUITY OF THE CHURCH. 285 
 
 this people, nt the time, and under the circumstances stated 
 by the sacred books. The chain of persons is, therefore, 
 now shown to be comj)lete. From Adam to Abraham 
 there was an unbroken succession of righteous men, dis- 
 tinguished by certain moral and religious principles, who 
 never lost the knowledge of those principles, and never 
 abandoned the worship of the one true God. From Abra- 
 ham to Christ the general fact is equally clear, that there 
 existed a numerous nation, possessing the principles, and 
 following the practices of their fathers, and occupying a 
 distinct place in the earth, till the time of Jesus Christ, 
 soon after which date this nation was overthrown and dis- 
 persed ; and that, thenceforward, to the present time, there 
 has been another church which sprang out of their nation, 
 but which has been all along identified with the Israelites 
 and their ancestors, the patriarchs, in all the essentials 
 of the primitive religion, even ascending to the time of 
 Adam. 
 
 Upon the church, then, as thus shown to have been a 
 continuous body, existing, indeed, under different forms, 
 but still identified in its character and principles, we shall 
 now proceed to make some general observations, designed 
 to show, from its history, the verification of the sacred 
 word. 
 
 We observe, yirsi, there is something extraordinary in its 
 unbroken continuity and preservation through so many 
 ages, as a society peculiar in its principles and practices, 
 from all the rest of the world. It has presented an unin- 
 terrupted succession of devoted worshippers of the one 
 true God, through all generations. These have been, at 
 different times, connected with various nations, from whose 
 histories and ancient monuments many facts might be 
 collected, identifying the church in its fluctuations, and 
 verifying, at different points, the accuracy of the sacred 
 historian. Sometimes it has consisted of individuals from 
 a great variety of nations, but yet preserving its social and 
 
280 SCRIPTURE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 religious unity ; and while the different kingdoms of the 
 world have had their rise and fall, and have passed away 
 in succession, and been lost one after another, yet the king- 
 dom or church of God has remained through all time, and 
 is still perpetuated. 
 
 Under all the different forms in which it has existed, 
 and through its several transition states, it has preserved 
 an unquestionable identity. There has been an entire 
 unity of faith and hope, and the grand features of its mem- 
 bers have been the same, constituting a sort of moral 
 resemblance, running through all the branches of the same 
 family. Believers, whether under the Patriarchal, the 
 Mosaic, or the Christian economy, have been essentially 
 the same ; have disj)layed the same virtues and imperfec- 
 tions, and have been all united in the same great princi- 
 ples of faith and practice. Take, for instance, Abel, who 
 sacrificed of the firstlings of his flock, in faith of the pro- 
 mised conqueror of the tempter, who was to be the Saviour 
 of the world. Take Enoch, who walked in communion 
 with God, and devoutly persevered for three hundred years 
 in obeying the divine precepts. Take Noah, the preacher 
 of righteousness, or Abraham and Lot, the stedfast be- 
 lievers of the same great promise made to the faith of their 
 fathers, and renewed to them, and who, amidst all the 
 vicissitudes of their lives, maintained the integrity of their 
 faith in revelation, and their conformity to the divine pre- 
 cepts of moral and religious obligation, though not without 
 occasional marks of imperfection. 
 
 How often, too, in the history of the church, and espe- 
 cially in the ancient portion of it, do we see the fate of 
 nations and rulers hanging upon its destiny ! One nation 
 overturned, because it resisted some movement of pro- 
 vidence in relation to the people of God; another con- 
 quered and given to other rulers, to prepare the way for 
 restoring, reforming, or re-establishing the church. It 
 ^eems as impossible to doubt, that God has had a peculiar 
 
TEKPETUITY OF THE CHURCH. 287 
 
 people in the world, and preserved them from the begin- 
 ning of time, as that tliere has been a regular succession 
 of nights and days, of seasons of the year, and productions 
 of the earth. 
 
 But, amidst the vice and idolatry, which have so long 
 and so generally prevailed, it must be admitted to be a 
 phenomenon, not explicable by merely natural causes, that 
 those who, in every age, have been witnesses for the one 
 true God, have not been carried away by the prevailing 
 ignorance and wickedness. For such is the evidence be- 
 fore us, that it is clear the church has always been in the 
 furnace, yet has never been entirely consumed. Now, in 
 its preserved existence from Adam to Christ, from Christ 
 to the present age, there is a strict accomplishment of 
 many particular predictions relating to its indestructibility, 
 and there is a general verification of the whole body of 
 sacred Scripture, as designed to subserve its preservation, 
 and as presupposing its continued existence ; otherwise a 
 large portion of the sacred book would be a nullity, a thing 
 without a use ; and, secondly, a falsehood, as presuming 
 upon the existence of tliat which was not. So that, when 
 the whole scope and intention of the Scripture is examined, 
 and compared with the undoubted fact of the continuous 
 existence of such a body of persons, as we have denomi- 
 nated the Church, there appears a grand and lengthened 
 coincidence between the written word and the history. 
 
 It might be objected here, that the very existence of the 
 written word has been the cause of the fact alleged as its 
 verification. It may be said the word has created the 
 church, and been the means of perpetuating it fi-om age to 
 age ; and it may, therefore, be thought, by some, a very 
 natural thing that this result should follow. But, we think, 
 it can be shown, that the production and perpetuity of the 
 church could not have followed, humanly or naturally, 
 from the mere existence of the written word of Scripture ; 
 because, had that word not been of God, there are causes 
 
288 SCEIPTUKE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 in human nature, and in the relative circumstances in 
 which the professed people of God have been placed, which 
 would certainly have led to their extermination, or even 
 have prevented men from ever embracing the sacred testi- 
 mony ; for, in the face of these difficulties and obstacles, 
 nothing could have induced any portion of mankind to 
 submit to it, except the overpowering conviction of its 
 divine authority. 
 
 But it is evident, that through one principal 2)eriod,.and 
 that the earliest, the preservation of the divine comiiiands, 
 when there was no written word, depended altogether upon 
 the succession of believers. The divine promises and pre- 
 cepts were transmitted, traditionally, from one believer to 
 another, or from father to son, so that, had there been no 
 succession of believers, there could have been no preserva- 
 tion of the important matters of early revelation from Adam 
 to Noah, from Noah to Abraham, or even to Moses. Should 
 we admit that the existence of revelation was the cause of 
 the existence of the church, yet it is clear that the word of 
 God must have become extinct, but for the continuity of 
 believers from age to age. The admission of some tra- 
 ditionary revelation, therefore, through that long period, 
 necessarily implies a regular succession of persons, by 
 whom it was transmitted, because it was believed to be 
 divine. 
 
 It is, moreover, evident, that the Israelitish race were 
 retained in subjection to Moses, and to the severe discipline 
 of a forty years' pilgrimage in the wilderness, by motives 
 differing from those involved in the ordinary actions of 
 men. Nothing but a commanding conviction of divine 
 authority can account for their submission to a ruler whom 
 they did not choose, and who had no natural resources for 
 the maintenance of his command; nothing but their con- 
 viction that he was invested with divine authority, and was 
 as able to punish those among them who rebelled against 
 him, as to overthrow their enemies who impeded their 
 
PERPETUITY OF THE CHURCH. 289 
 
 march. The unbeliever, who thinks that there never was 
 sufficient ground for beheving in any divine revelation, 
 must esteem this a no less wonderful fact than we do ; 
 indeed, to him, and upon his principles, it ought to appear 
 utterly inexplicable, that such a body of persons should 
 have been brought into such a state of submission, and so 
 long retained in it, under circumstances which often ex- 
 cited them to rebellion. He may have his own way of 
 explaining the fact, but the fact itself he cannot set aside; 
 and, we think, the more closely and deeply he reflects 
 upon it, the less credible will any solution appear but that 
 which we allege as the true one ; namel}^ their belief in 
 the divine appointment and qualification of Moses, con- 
 firmed by the support God gave him in every crisis. 
 
 But we are not concerned, at present, to press this point ; 
 we pass on, therefore, to the general and indisj)utable fact 
 of the long continuance of the Israelites in the possession 
 of Canaan, under the character of the church of God. 
 Other historians, beside their own, refer to them at differ- 
 ent periods, but always as a very i^eculiar people, both in 
 their polity and their religion. Indeed, there is scarcely 
 an ancient writer of any extent, whose works have come 
 down to our own times, but attests, either directly, or b}^ 
 implication, both the existence of the Jews and their exist- 
 ence as a nation in Palestine. It is also equally clear, that 
 they had a social constitution peculiar to themselves, and a 
 religion distinguished by the fact that it taught the exist- 
 ence of only one God ; that it was sharply opposed to idol- 
 atry, and kept its people isolated from all other nations, 
 by special regulations as to marriage and various other 
 matters. 
 
 It is a fact, equally undeniable, that this nation consi- 
 dered itself the peculiar people of God, and adhered, in 
 the main, most rigidly to the rites and ceremonies of his 
 worship ; and that, whenever they deviated from tlieir pre- 
 scribed laws, or debased their worship by idolatrous and 
 V. u 
 
^90 SCRIPTUKE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 superstitious intermixtures, they suffered severe national 
 calamities. Their history down to the time of their sub- 
 jugation by the Eomans, and their expulsion from their 
 own land, is a matter perfectly notorious. But here arises 
 an interesting and important question. Did the existence 
 of the church of God terminate with their exclusion from 
 fJudea, or did the same religious fraternity continue, or the 
 same incorporation perpetuate itself, though in some other 
 form ? The Bible represents the favour of God as remov- 
 ing from the nation of the Jews, and attaching itself to 
 that portion of them who became the followers of Jesus 
 Christ; and this fact was proved by the entire cessation of 
 the civil and ecclesiastical state of Judaism. This was the 
 subject of specific prophecy long before, as were also the 
 circumstances under which it was to take place. These 
 events, Ave know, did take place at the destruction of Jeru- 
 salem, and, about that time, a new system was introduced, 
 founded upon the principles of the old one. Under the 
 superintendence, and with the authority of Jesus Christ, 
 his apostles w^ere commissioned to go forth, and form their 
 adherents into a new form of church-fellowship, yet deriv- 
 ing the authority, and confirming the foundations, of their 
 new brotherhood, from the doctrines of the former church ; 
 and though not involving any change in the essential prin- 
 ciples of the worship, or of the personal acceptance of the 
 worshipper, yet certainly introducing a most important 
 change in the extent and comprehension of the system ; 
 the one being strictly national and peculiar, the other uni- 
 versal in its aspect, and yet requiring a more strict and 
 spiritual character in its members. Instead of lineal de- 
 scent from Abraham, there was now to be a full and free 
 admission and acceptance into the sacred fellowship, of all 
 that sincerely believed in Jesus Christ as the Son of God 
 and the Saviour of men. 
 
 All this was matter of arrangement and specific regula- 
 tion by Christ himself; and the commission for carrying 
 
PERPETUITY OF THE CHURCH. 291 
 
 these regulations into effect was issued by him before his 
 departure from his disciples ; and, according to these in- 
 structions, they gradually relaxed the bonds of the ancient 
 law, and introduced into their own societies the new doc- 
 trines and institutes of their Master. 
 
 He had foretold, that their endeavours should be suc- 
 cessful; that they should raise up a new church upon those 
 new principles, which should become permanent, and pro- 
 ceed, Avith various fortune, encountering much opposition 
 and adversity ; but, in the main, advancing through all 
 ages and nations, triumphantly surmounting all difficul- 
 ties, until it should at length become the only religion of 
 the world, and comprise, within its brotherhood, all nations. 
 
 Now, these being the general terms and predictions re- 
 specting the church under its new form, we are all compe- 
 tent to decide how far they are fulfilled in the actual his-- 
 tory of the Christian Church. Has there existed, from the 
 time of Jesus Christ, down to the present, such a society, 
 considering itself a continuation of the ancient church, 
 possessing its determinate and characteristic features, but 
 adopting a different form of worship, and with many addi- 
 tional principles, but the object of which, as a distinct so- 
 ciety, has been the same, as well as its witness for God 
 and its treatment by the world? 
 
 Assuredly, there can be no doubt upon these points. 
 There has been a continued incorporation of Christian be- 
 lievers ; that is, a church united together, under a common 
 and supreme authority, recognized alike by all, professing 
 a common faith, meeting for acts of religious worship, and 
 making a common cause, but distinguished from the rest 
 of the world by the peculiar character of their religion, by 
 the specific form of their faith, and by the high and sub- 
 lime hopes they have professed to ground upon their faith. 
 
 Such a church does exist at the present time. It is 
 widely extended. In some respects it is diversified, and 
 characterized by sectional differences ; but it is identical 
 
•^^9 "2 SCRIPTURE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 in all its leading principles and doctrines, and in every 
 thing that concerns this argument. Its history answers 
 most accurately to the descriptions and prophecies going 
 before concerning it, in the sacred volume. 
 
 Could any authority, but a divine one, have ventured to 
 foretel the existence, the character, the perpetuity of such a 
 body, its constitution, its unity of principle and spirit, its 
 relative position in reference to mankind at large, its pro- 
 gressive advancement, its fluctuations and corruptions, 
 its indestructible vitality, and its propagation among all 
 nations, if there had not existed a divine foresight of its 
 history, and both a divine promise and a divine power to 
 sustain and preserve it ! It is a marvellous, fact, that there 
 should have been a church at all, when we consider, that 
 the truths and principles which constituted it, do not arise, 
 and never did arise, spontaneously in the human heart. 
 If its origin, in the first instance, could be traced to na- 
 tural reason, why did not similar churches arise, where 
 reason had full scope ? Why does not the history of the 
 various nations present similar instances of the origina- 
 tion and perpetuation of the same principles, and the same 
 succession of persons prej^ared to defend and maintain 
 them ? No such cases occur in the history of other na- 
 tions, unblessed by revelation. No such great and unde- 
 niable principles of morals and religion appear elsewhere ; 
 which, viewed simply as a fact, we think, clearly proves, 
 that reason and nature did not originate such a profession, 
 and did not, in the first instance, lead to the separation of 
 such a peculiar body of professors, as appears in the his- 
 torv of the Patriarchal, the Mosaic, and the Christian 
 churches. Its origination can be ascribed to no cause but 
 the influence of revelation, and its perpetuation can be ac- 
 counted nothing less than a continued miracle, performed 
 against the course of corrupt and depraved nature. For 
 all the nations of mankind, with the solitary exception of 
 the church, which held the traditionary, or the written law 
 
PEKPETUITY OF THE CHUHCH. '283 
 
 of revelation, fell early into idolatry, and lost entirely the 
 knowledge of the true God. All the earth, except the 
 single nation of the Jews, presented nothing but supersti- 
 tion and darkness ; and though the Jews were often in- 
 vaded, and overrun by their idolatrous neighbours, yet 
 they were never altogether overcome by the tide of desola- 
 tion ; but their partial defections were always visited by 
 such temporal judgments and such reforming measures, 
 as effectually led to the restoration of the purer principles 
 and worship of their ancestors. 
 
 Thus we may say, looking through the whole period of 
 the church's existence, which runs parallel with time itself, 
 it has outlived all its enemies, the greatest and mightiest 
 of whom has always found a grave in the quarrel. The 
 miserable confession of Julian, " O Galilean, tbou hast 
 conquered me," is applicable to all its adversaries. 
 
 Let us only suppose, what the whole current of revela- 
 tion shows, both directly and indirectly, that the continued, 
 unbroken existence of the church was foretold or presumed, 
 (one or the other must be granted,) and, in either case, the 
 only question we have to answer, in order to verify the 
 general truth of revelation, is, does the fact, as attested by 
 all history, answer to the express or implied prediction? 
 Has the church ever been extinct ? Assuredly it has not. 
 It has been a real phoenix, arising frequently from its own 
 ashes. It has been reduced to many straits, and come near 
 to extinction, but never been utterly cut off. Its enemies 
 have often made preparations to celebrate its obsequies, 
 and sing its* requiem. But it has started into newness of 
 life, risen, and come forth, even from its grave, to the con- 
 fusion and dismay of all its foes. It still lives, and proves 
 more beautiful and vigorous than ever. 
 
 The church has experienced various changes, and wit- 
 nessed fearful scenes of trial, but survived them all. Her 
 sun has been often beclouded, but has never gone down. 
 Her lamp has burnt dim, and sometimes in a sepulchre. 
 
'2Qi SCRIPTURE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 but it has never expired. Her interests have resembled 
 the tide, Avhich, while it recedes from one shore, rises upon 
 another. 
 
 When Noah and his family were shut up in the ark, all 
 the piety of the earth, the promises of God, and the hopes 
 of the church, were identified with a single family. Again, 
 when Abraham was commanded to take Isaac, his only son, 
 and when he lifted his hand, at the bidding of God, to slay 
 the seed, in whom, alone, the promise of the Messiah 
 could be fulfilled, the hopes of the church were all but cut 
 off. In the land of Egypt, when the decree of the king 
 went forth to slay all the male children, and there was but 
 a step between the Israelites and utter extermination, and 
 no human means appeared of preventing the decree from 
 taking effect to its utmost extent, then the hour of deliver- 
 ance approached. Not less memorable was the crisis, when 
 the whole body of the chosen people lay between the army 
 of Pharaoh pursuing, and the impassable Ked Sea before 
 them, shut in by apparent destruction, both before and be- 
 hind; then their preservation demonstrated the immuta- 
 bility of the divine word, the inviolability of the church of 
 God. 
 
 Again, we behold the accomplishment of Scripture, when 
 they were enslaved in the Babylonish captivit}-, by their 
 preserv'ation and singular deliverance. We further trace 
 the critical situation of the church, when Haman, and the 
 king at Shushan, had determined upon the destruction of 
 all tlie Jews, had fixed the day, and prepared the commis- 
 sion to all the governors throughout the provinces. But 
 this only proved another occasion for the deliverance of 
 the people of God, and the signal overthrow of their ene- 
 mies. The succession of believers, or of the church, could 
 not be destroyed, neither could God's promise fail. 
 
 We would put it to every unbeliever, in the first place, 
 to account, upon any human principles, for the existence 
 of a distinct and united fraternity, from the very earliest 
 
rKilPETUlTY OI-' TliE CHURCH. U26 
 
 times, down to the present; existing, too, in a state of 
 suffering, self-denial, and alienation from the world and its 
 ways ; and then we might further require him to account 
 for the coincidence of the facts regarding the history of 
 this society, with the book which authorizes its incorpora- 
 tion, and professes to foretel its existence, and even its 
 minute history, througli all the amazing lapse of time dur- 
 ing which it has been preserved in the world, and onward 
 to the end of time. The Scripture has been constantly 
 fulfilling, in the most remarkable manner, in this society, 
 and is so at the present time, both in its continued exist- 
 ence, its troubles from within and from without, its con- 
 flicts and triumj)hs, its corruptions and reformations, its 
 decline and revival. But I pass on now to notice. 
 
 Secondly : The sacred word presents its enlarged picture 
 of the church under different lights. There is this feature 
 running through the whole of its descriptions and predic- 
 tions — the church is represented as exposed to severe 
 suffering and external hostility. It is to be hated, perse; 
 cuted, oppressed, and, I might even say, slain by the world. 
 Was it not singular, that this should be foreseen, and that 
 an institution, so strictly spiritual in all its ends, so bene- 
 ficial and so peaceful in its character, as at least Christi- 
 anity has been, should excite this enmity, and rouse all 
 this malignity of the world against it ? 
 
 It is, moreover, represented, that its enemies should, to 
 a certain extent, be successful ; should prevail, sometimes 
 almost to its extinction, but never be allowed entirely to 
 crush it ; for that, when brought to its lowest ebb, it should 
 revive, and proceed on its course, undismayed by all the 
 terror and might of its foes, yea, braving all their malig- 
 nity, and arising, as if from the dead, again to maintain 
 the principles of the true religion with increasing success, 
 till they should ti'iumph over all opposition, and subjugate 
 all mankind to their sway. 
 
 Now, have not these particulars been verified, in a man- 
 
296 SCRIPTUr.E VEEIFIED IN THE 
 
 ner truly astonishing ? Have not the causes to which all 
 the corruptions and declensions, and most of the sufferings 
 of the church, were attributed in prophecies, actually ap- 
 peared in history ? There were times, under the Jewish 
 form of the church, when the nation, to a great extent, re- 
 volted or apostatized from the principles and spirit of the 
 ancient faith ; or when they incorporated idolatry w4th the 
 divine religion of Moses, and thereby brought severe visit- 
 ations upon themselves. But there were always a few 
 that retained their integrity, and became witnesses for 
 God and for the truth ; so that the pure system was never 
 lost. There were periods, when both these events seemed 
 impending, if not actually come ; but, when times of refor- 
 mation dawned, then the sacred books were brought forth 
 by those few faithful believers, wdio had concealed them as 
 hidden treasures, and though each had thought that he 
 alone was left, Abdiel like, 
 
 " faitliiul found 
 Among tlie faithless ; faithful only he 
 Among innumerahle false ;" 
 
 yet, Avhen the days of prosperity arrived, many appeared 
 openly as witnesses for God and his truth, who had never 
 diverged from the prescribed form of worship, nor bowed 
 the knee to a false or strange God, nor abandoned the 
 promises and hopes of their fathers. 
 
 Has not the actual history of the church been strikingly 
 similar under the Christian constitution ? I need not 
 enlarge upon those particular views, which are familiar to 
 all, but just allude to the general fact, so fully ascertained 
 in the history of the civilized world, since the time of 
 Jesus Christ, that there has been a Christian church ; that 
 it has been severely oppressed by heathen and w^orldly 
 princes, corrupted by many professed friends, retarded by 
 many human additions, corrugations, anfl incumbrances ; 
 but yet it has continued unto this day ; it has withstood 
 all opposition ; it has revived and reformed itself without 
 
PERPETUITY OF THE CHURCH. 297 
 
 the intervention of any new revelation, and its present 
 state affords the most striking confirmation of the sacred 
 writings. 
 
 Many infidels have taken upon them to show, that there 
 was nothing very extraordinary in the spread of Christian- 
 ity. Gibbon says, " it grew up in silence and obscurity ;" 
 and yet adds, what involves a decided contradiction of his 
 own statement, that " it derived new vigour from oppo- 
 sition, and finally erected the triumphant banners of the 
 cross upon the ruins of the Capitol."* It is, indeed, a 
 hard task to account for the progress of Christianity upon 
 the principles of infidelity. Instead of silence and ohscuHty, 
 it was always open and public ; it met with as severe oppo- 
 sition at its advent, as at any subsequent period. There 
 was no obscurity when the decree of Herod went forth to 
 slay all the male children under two years of age. There 
 was no silence or ohscurity wdien Jesus Christ appeared in 
 the temple, traversed the land, and proclaimed his doc- 
 trine on the mountain-tops. There was just as little when 
 the disci2)les, after his death, boldly declared to the na- 
 tional council, " We cannot but speak the things which we 
 have seen and heard ; " and surely the commission they 
 received from their Master, to " Preach the gospel to every 
 creature," and " teach all nations, beginning at Jerusalem," 
 savoured as little of secrecy and silence as can well be 
 imagined. 
 
 But so fruitless and absurd is the attempt of unbelievers 
 to account for the early progress and splendid triumphs of 
 the Christian doctrine ! The task has outmatched all their 
 sophistry, and baffled all their learning. But, supposing 
 their statement true, as to the manner and the means, yet 
 there is this fact that can neither be explained nor denied ; 
 the rise and progress of Christianity exhibited the un- 
 questionable fulfilment of promises and prophecies. If 
 
 * Decline ami Fall, chap. xv. 
 
298 SCRinUEE VERIFfED IN THE 
 
 the fact itself, of the perpetuation of the Christian church, 
 were ever so simple and natural, yet it becomes a proof of 
 divine inspiration, when it can be shown, that it was fore- 
 told long before, both by Christ and by the ancient pro- 
 phets. The Old Testament, kept by the enemies of the 
 new doctrine and new church, and deposited at the library 
 of Alexandria, several centuries before Christianity arose, 
 foretold the introduction of the Gentiles to the service of 
 the true God, and described that as the special age of glory 
 and extension to the church. Nothing but divine power 
 can be supposed adequate to have produced and main- 
 tained, under such a succession, such a fluctuation of cir- 
 cumstances, in so many different and dissimilar natioiis. 
 tlie identity of the Christian faith, and the continued ob- 
 servance of its ordinary duties. This Christian fraternity 
 has been assailed in every possible way, and has been 
 reduced within a little of extermination ; but it never has 
 been extinct; and are we not, then, on this ground, war- 
 ranted to infer, that the Spirit of the Almighty is in it ? 
 May we not challenge the world to produce an instance of 
 a religion that has been preserved so long, and under cir- 
 cumstances so unpropitious, or of a fraternity so identical 
 in its principles, its spirit, and its hopes, through all 
 generations ? No parallel can be produced ; none even 
 approaching to it. 
 
 Are we not, then, entitled to the inference, that these 
 particulars of the church's history, all foretold in the 
 sacred books, in their precise order, and verified by actual 
 experience, furnish an undeniable proof of the veracity 
 and divinity of that word which represents the church as 
 a bush burning with fire, yet never consumed ? 
 
 Thirdly, In connexion with these views we are entitled 
 to reinforce our general argument, by observing, that the 
 sacred word expressly speaks of the extensive combination 
 of human wisdom, power, and skill against the church of 
 God. And it is a notorious fact, that, generally, the great- 
 
PERPETUITY OF THE CHURCH. 999 
 
 est men in the world have been opposed to the church ; 
 men of the greatest learning, talent, and genius. The 
 men of power and authority, and in the greatest numbers, 
 have been its decided and implacable enemies. That it 
 should be able to exist and perpetuate itself under such 
 a combination of all that is great and mighty in human 
 nature arrayed against it, while its friends have often been 
 inconsiderable, weak, and few, is a moral miracle on a 
 large scale, and a miracle continued and prolonged, before 
 the eyes of the world, from age to age. 
 
 In one respect it is strange, that the church of God 
 should have enemies at all ; especially when we consider 
 what it is, and why it is. Can there be any thing to jus- 
 tify the enmity of the world against pure morality and 
 enlightened piety? And then, when it is remembered 
 w4th what malignity this conflict has been prosecuted, and 
 that there is no personal reason why wicked men should 
 hate the righteous and religious, and yet that there never 
 was any personal or national quarrel carried on with such 
 deep-seated and implacable enmity; and, again, when it 
 is observed, that this warfare should be carried on through 
 all the successive generations of the church of God, com- 
 mencing w^ith Cain and Abel, and running j^arallel with 
 the duration of the church ; that not all the blood shed in 
 the quarrel should in the least degree mitigate the world's 
 enmity ; that not all the efforts of peace-makers ; that not 
 all the considerations which reason and fear, or the threat- 
 en ings of Scripture can supply, could ever subdue the 
 enmity or unite the j)arties ; and, further, that, in this 
 deadly strife, the world has manifested a consciousness 
 that success was impossible ; and has been more afraid 
 of tlie church than able to destroy it. Yet, ever and anon, 
 the world has renewed the warfare, and rushed upon 
 destruction and disgrace. But, in all this, prophecy has 
 received a clear fulfilment, " Surely there is no enchant- 
 ment against Jacob, and no divination against Israel : for, 
 
300 SCRIPTUEE VEEIFIED IN THE 
 
 from this time, it shall be said, "What hath God wrought ? 
 No \vea2:)on that is formed against thee shall prosper, and 
 every tongue thatriseth up against thee, in judgment, thou 
 shalt condemn." 
 
 We might refer to the memorable instances, recorded in 
 the Old Testament, of the oppressions of the Israelites, 
 when God said, " I have seen, I have seen the affliction of 
 my people, that are in Egypt;" and to which reference 
 was again made, when it was said, " I gave Egypt for thy 
 ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee." We might show how 
 the army of Sennacherib was destroyed for the deliverance 
 of the church ; we might refer to the history of the proud 
 monarch of Babylon, and detail the circumstances of his 
 overthrow by Cyrus, and show how this stranger was made 
 a deliverer of the oppressed, and an instrument of re- 
 storing and reviving the decayed church, though he knew 
 not the God of Israel. We might further show, how the 
 curse of God evidently cleaves to those that oppose his 
 cause ; how it sometimes consumes secretly, like a pes- 
 tilence walking in darkness, and sometimes openly, like 
 the thunderbolt and the earthquake ; how it scathes, in an 
 instant, the power that resists, as by the omnijiotence of 
 an invisible avenger, and sweeps away, with resistless deso- 
 lation, the armies of the adversaries. There vv'as Herod, 
 that vexed the church in the apostles' days ; he was eaten 
 alive of worms that bred in his own flesh. There was 
 Judas, the suicide, who betrayed the innocent blood of his 
 holy Master. There was the earthquake at rhili2:>pi, when 
 the apostles were imprisoned ; and there was the perse- 
 cuting Saul of Tarsus, smitten to the ground and afflicted 
 with blindness. The Jews, too, in the infatuation of their 
 rage, when they resisted the claims of the Messiah, said, 
 " His blood be upon us and upon our children ; " and how 
 fearfully has the imprecation been realized in their heavy 
 and unparalleled sufferings from that very age to the 
 present ! 
 
PERPETUITY OF THE CHURCH. 301 
 
 The predictions which foreshow the perpetuity of the 
 church, are very numerous, and cannot be cited at length ; 
 but some of them we have noticed as specimens of the 
 Have they been all thus far verified? Have no combi- 
 nations of men availed against the Christian church ? 
 Have no counsels formed against it prospered and been 
 consummated ? Have no kings been able, with their 
 armies, or tlieir laws, or dreadful penalties, to exclude 
 Christianity, and exterminate the Christians? Certainly 
 not ! all these powers have proved unavailing. 
 
 The church has been like the sun in the midst of the 
 firmament, often defaced by clouds and storms, but nothing 
 has been able permanently to quench its light, or impede 
 its course. There we may now see it, shining more 
 brightly, rising more gloriously, and extending its beams 
 more widely than ever. It bids defiance still to all its 
 enemies, and is going forth in the most glorious and benig- 
 nant triumph, secure from all opposition. It is an oft- 
 repeated prediction, that all the combined comisel, power, 
 and wisdom of men to destroy it should fail. Has it not 
 been so ? And has it not been so without any counsel, or 
 wisdom, or power, on the part of the church itself? May 
 we not say, that nothing could be more weak or exposed, 
 than the whole body of the people of God, especially under 
 the gospel dispensation? For there has been no general 
 concert or combination of the friends of Christianity ao-ainst 
 their enemies, in the way of counter-scheming, or of com- 
 bined effort. There have been some large sections of the 
 Christian body, in which it has been deemed necessary 
 and proper to employ human power against human power, 
 human policy against human policy; but wherever this 
 has been the case, it has conspicuously failed ; and it has 
 thus always appeared to be the wisdom of the church to 
 commit its cause entirely to the hands of its divine Lord 
 and Head, and leave him to confound all the machinations 
 of its enemies. The counsels of the wicked against it. 
 
302 SCRTPTURE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 and the power of all its foes, are, as the elements of nature, 
 wholly under his divine control. 
 
 Moreover there has been this extraordinary mystery in 
 the annals of the church, that its times of severest per- 
 secution have been times of the greatest spiritual pros- 
 perity and success. In those seasons, though the sword 
 has availed against the persons of believers, the cause of 
 tliose believers has always been advanced by their suffer- 
 ings. The force of the truth has been thus evinced ; its 
 fragrance has been more extensively diffused by the tem- 
 poral sufferings of its advocates. 
 
 We are here, then, again entitled to ask, can anything 
 be more convincing and satisfactory than the results of 
 the long-tried opposition against the church of God ? does 
 it not appear that it cannot be suppressed ? It possesses 
 a vitality that makes it independent of man, and secure of 
 all human hostility. And, if so, then how demonstrably 
 divine the foundation on which it rests ! How true that 
 word of Scripture, which has had so large, so wonderful, 
 so minute an accomplishment in this whole history I 
 
 Fourthly, It is further to be observed, that much is said 
 in Scripture concerning the discipline to which God vrould 
 subject his church ; as, in the general, that its state should 
 be one of sharp trial and corrective chastisement. It might 
 be expected, perhaps, that this was to be all confined to 
 the old economy. But even in reference to the neic, we 
 read — " in the world ye shall have tribulation ; " " he that 
 will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution ; " 
 " if they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you." 
 
 Now all this has been, and is still, fulfilling. Even in 
 this age, when so much of external opposition against the 
 cause of Christianity has ceased, and a large proportion 
 of the world is made nominally of the church ; yet it is still 
 true, the spiritually minded are despised, contemned, and 
 ridiculed in every possible way, by the mere formalists, and 
 by that large class of professed believers, but real and 
 
PERPETUITY OF THE CHUECH. 303 
 
 practical infidels, who have crept into the church of Christ, 
 and long worn the livery of Christians, for the sake of 
 worldly ends. 
 
 This leads me further to notice the fact, that Scripture 
 frequently mentions the divisions and disasters, dissen- 
 sions and strifes, which should exist within the church 
 itself, through the w^eakness and sinfulness of its members ; 
 a source of evil which must, in reference to any institution, 
 except one divinely founded, have proved its utter ruin and 
 extinction ; but which has always been over-ruled for the 
 most important benefits and advantages. This evil aj^pears, 
 to human intelligence, more serious and alarming than all 
 the external opposition of declared enemies. Yet has it 
 been made the means, both of preserving the integrity of 
 the written word, of exciting the vigilance of the church 
 over its moral principles, and of supplying an evidence to 
 the world of the incorruptness and j^erfection of the sacred 
 document, which could not have been given by the church 
 alone, if its members had always remained in a state of 
 entire agreement among themselves. 
 
 It is abundantly manifest, that all the great corruptions 
 and apostasies of the nation of the Jews, while they con- 
 tinued the sole church, were subjects of clear prediction. 
 To this all their prophets are witness. The suiferings of 
 many of them, on account of these predictions, and espe- 
 cially for their fearless denunciations of divine judgments 
 on the princes and heads of the nation, sufficiently attest 
 the reality of such predictions, and confirm the argument 
 we are now handling. And, as to the Christian church, it 
 is not less certain, that the frequent divisions and disasters 
 were all foreseen ; that many apostasies have been pre- 
 dicted ; and that some very great and general defection 
 and depravation of the gospel-church was foretold, as about 
 to take place, even in those times immediately succeeding 
 the apostolic age. None can read the Epistles of Paul, 
 and of the other apostles, without being convinced of the 
 
804 SCRIPTUEE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 fact, that great desolations and divisions were predicted, 
 and the punishment of them as clearly marked out, while 
 the perpetuity of the church, under and through them all, 
 with its subsequent reformation and final universality, are 
 as decidedly foreshown. 
 
 There are particular instances that might be named, 
 such as the prophecy of Paul, concerning the mystery of 
 iniquity, which, he says, " does already work," &c. Another 
 instance you have, in the Apocalyptic Epistles to the Seven 
 Churches of Asia. Yet the continuance of the church is 
 clearly predicted, and even corruption and apostasy, per- 
 fidy and persecution, in all their degrees, and forms, and 
 deadly fruits, are represented as altogether powerless 
 against the church, and against the honour of its founder. 
 What other society, placed under such circumstances, 
 could have existed and preserved its constitution, all its 
 laws, all its moral features and principles, unchanged ? 
 Even its professed friends have often proved its greatest 
 foes, and laboured to undermine and overthi'ow it. 
 
 Are we not, then, entitled to say, that its internal, its 
 own peculiar history, as recording its trials, corruptions, 
 and conflicts, does but attest the truth of that sacred word, 
 in which all these evils, and the eft'ects of them, are clearly 
 and faithfully portrayed ? It is quite impossible, that any 
 human author could have written these descriptions from 
 merely speculating upon the casualties of the future. It 
 is, therefore, manifest, from all this, that infinite wisdom 
 and infinite power have alike been presiding over, and 
 regulating the affairs of the church of God. 
 
 Fifthly. It is further to be observed, that this society 
 has been maintained on principles involving, in human 
 nature, the exercise of a high degree of self-denial, or in 
 direct contravention of the selfishness of mankind, and 
 the first law of our nature, that of self-preservation. Not- 
 withstanding all that has been described, in the word, of 
 the state of those persons composing the church, as sub- 
 
rEHPETUITY OF THE CHURCH. 305 
 
 ject to severe trial and suffering, yet it is clearly represented, 
 that they should be distinguished by the preference they 
 would give to their principles and hopes, though involving, 
 frequently, the entire sacrifice of worldly and personal in- 
 terests. And though, in general, they were to pass a life 
 of suffering and conflict, both external and internal, desig- 
 nated, generally, by the militant state, while the people of 
 the world should be rejoicing, yet it is no less clearly 
 signified, that they should consider themselves the only 
 blessed and happy people, and should be perfectly satisfied 
 with their choice ; so that, whether right or wrong, wise 
 or foolish, such should be the fact, that they would, like 
 Moses, esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches than 
 all the treasures of Egypt. Such, it was foreshown, should 
 be their attachment to their religion, to tlieir Saviour, and 
 their God, that they would deny themselves, and take up 
 their cross, and follow Jesus ; that they should " not fear 
 them that kill the body," and whose j^ower could extend 
 no further; but should "account it all joy, when they fell 
 into divers kinds of trials, knowing that the trial of their 
 faith was much more precious than that of gold." 
 
 It is, moreover, represented, that, under and after all 
 these trials, their end should be satisfaction and peace, 
 joy and triumph. " Mark the perfect man, and behold the 
 ujjright, for the end of that man is peace." " The righteous 
 hath hope in his death." " My people shall never be 
 ashamed,"' and many similar scriptures. Now, assuming 
 that this is the current language of Scripture upon these 
 subjects, I would appeal to those who are least disposed to 
 favour Christianity and its professors, whether the usual 
 end of believers, who have proved themselves consistent 
 and sincere, is not, 79?-6-<??«//ie«%, joy, peace, and cheerful 
 hope ? The gloom of the death-bed scene is irradiated by 
 a light shining on the spirit, and reflected on all around. 
 There may be trivial exceptions to be accounted for by 
 peculiar circumstances, in perfect harmony with the general 
 
 V. X 
 
306 SCRIPTURE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 principles of the Bible, and with the argument here pur- 
 sued. We ask those who disbelieve, is not the end of this 
 people peace and joy? Do they not depart from this life 
 in the confidence of a better, and uniformly advise those 
 that surround them in that solemn moment, to follow 
 faithfully in the same path ? Does not this display a deep 
 and complacent consciousness of the superiority of their 
 choice, and the excellency of their portion ? For after the 
 most ample experience, and the most serious balancing of 
 interests, they give their decided preference to the religion 
 of the gospel, to the hopes of immortality it inspires, with 
 all the drawbacks it may involve as to this life ; and they 
 admonish those dearest to their hearts to make choice of 
 the same portion. 
 
 Can the same felicity and hope be affirmed of those who 
 reject Christianity? Far from it. On the other hand, 
 they often advise those they most love, not to embrace 
 their principles, nor imitate their conduct. The uniform 
 darkness, or sometimes misery and despair, frequently the 
 conscious shame they experience in their end, forms alto- 
 gether a fulfilment of another class of scriptures, as well 
 as a striking contrast to the happy experience of the people 
 of God. Whether the hopes of believers be well or ill 
 founded, does in no way alter the fact; the peace and joy 
 are theirs, the fear and shame are the unbeliever's portion ; 
 and, if there is nothing to come after death, the Christian 
 has still the advantage ; but if there is, then how ineffable 
 is that advantage ! 
 
 We may bring these observations to this clear and simple 
 result. The Bible foretels the jieaceful end of the righteous, 
 and says, they shall have peace and hope ; it does, at the 
 same time, and generally, describe the unhappy and gloomy 
 termination of a sinful life, and exhibits unbelievers and 
 the wicked, as leaving this world under alarming appre- 
 hensions of their future state. These things are realized 
 in fact. The observations, which all may have made on 
 
PERPETLITY OF THE CHURCH. 307 
 
 death-bed scenes, confirm this statement. It is not to be 
 denied. The general facts cannot be invalidated in any 
 material degree. It never has been attempted, so far as I 
 am aware, to deny them. Although they have been the 
 subject of profane ridicule, yet I know not that it has ever 
 been argued by infidels, that their principles afford as 
 much, or indeed any, comfort and consolation in death. 
 They could not sustain the argument for a moment, if 
 they were to attempt it ; because facts, on both sides, are 
 strongly and uniformly opposed to them. The whole case 
 is, indeed, emphatically described in one short sentence of 
 the Bible, against which they can advance neither fact nor 
 reasoning ; " The wicked is driven away in his Avicked- 
 ness ; but the righteous hath hope in liis death." 
 
 The various views of the church of God, which we have 
 now endeavoured to group together, have been designed to 
 show that there has been, from the earliest date of time, a 
 certain recognition of the true God, and of love to him, 
 and this is still extensively maintained"; that the unbroken 
 continuity, and unquestionable identity of this religious 
 profession, through all ages and nations, implies a divine 
 revelation, especially when the peculiar circumstances 
 under which the church has existed, are brought into 
 account ; and, further, that church history, as it may be 
 written by wdiat we term profane historians, coincides with 
 church history, as it was written beforehand by the pen of 
 inspiration ; and that, therefore, in these coincidences, sin- 
 gular as they are, and stretching out through all time, we 
 possess a most satisfactory proof of the divine inspiration 
 of the Scriptures. 
 
 The general subject is closely connected with the history 
 of the rejected loeojflc, which, as it bears upon the Christian 
 evidence, must be treated more at length than could be 
 done in the present Lecture. The vahdity of this whole 
 argument, relating to the church of God, cannot be fully 
 estimated till we shall have considered the case of the 
 
808 SCRIPTURE VERIFIED, ETC. 
 
 Je^Ys, in and since their rejection. It will be found a most 
 important appendix to the remarks already laid before the 
 reader. 
 
 This branch of the general subject I purpose to consider 
 in our next Lecture. The reader will suspend his judg- 
 ment on the whole argument relating to the existence and 
 perpetuity of the church till he has perused what is now 
 to follow. 
 
LECTUEE VII. 
 
 Tlie testimony of the scriptures concerning the rejection of tlie Jews from 
 their high and honourable station as the church of God, compared with 
 tlieir subsequent history and present state. 
 
 Eevelation refers to the excision of the Jews and their subsequent state — The 
 Founder of Christianity predicted the fall of his nation — The predictions 
 specified — Certainty tliat these were known before the event — General 
 view of their accomplishment — Specific facts — Preservation of the race, 
 notwithstanding their calamities — Attempts to preseiTS the temple frus- 
 trated — Total expulsion — Attempts at restoration — Ever since a fallen 
 people — Judgment always following them — Marn-ellously preserved — 
 Singular retention of their nationality — Arch of Titus — Protraction of 
 the exile — Discontinuance of sacrifice — Isolation from other nations, 
 tliough mixed with them — Their numbers appear undiminished — Great 
 vicissitudes of the nations where they have dwelt — No parallel case — 
 Complete separation from Gentiles — Argument for the inspiration of 
 prophecy — Excision of the Jews coincident with the origin of the Christian 
 Church — Foresight of the transition and the peculiar circumstances 
 of it, implies inspiration — The fact of the transition very singular — The 
 history and prophecy viewed together — Conclusion. 
 
 The subject of the present Lecture stands intimately 
 connected with that of the last, and may be properly con- 
 sidered as a continuation or completion of the remarks we 
 designed to offer upon the general history of the church or 
 people of God. 
 
 Though it is certain that, upon the establishment of 
 Christianity, the divine authority of Judaism ceased, yet 
 the references of the sacred word to the people of the Jews, 
 not being limited to the date of their ecclesiastical and 
 
oU) SCRIPTUKE VERJFIED IN THE 
 
 national excision, their subsequent state and history will 
 supply some important and interesting verifications of the 
 Scripture, and may, therefore, be viewed as a necessary 
 appendix to the history of the church. 
 
 There can be no dispute concerning the first principles 
 on which w^e propose to conduct the present portion of 
 our argument. We shall, therefore, merely state them in 
 brief; — that Christianity did, unquestionably, originate in 
 the land of the Jews, and from one of their own country- 
 men ; that it spread rapidly, and extended itself, in a com- 
 paratively short space, into almost every part of the civilized 
 world ; that its extension was mainly effected by publish- 
 ing abroad the history, and repeating the memorable 
 sayings of its Founder. The next step is equally clear ; — 
 that it was on account of publishing abroad these narratives, 
 and recounting these sayings of Jesus Christ, his disciples 
 became generally objects of intense hatred to their own 
 countrymen, and of scorn and contempt among the Gentile 
 nations. 
 
 It is further undeniable, that the Founder of the Christian 
 sect did utter certain speeches and sayings, openly, before 
 friends and enemies, which were intended to be under- 
 stood, and were understood by all, as predictions of the 
 fate of his native country : and it is still further clear, that 
 partly on account of these sayings, charged against him, 
 and neither denied nor refuted, he was publicly condemned 
 to an ignominious end, and did actually suffer crucifixion. 
 These open sayings or predictions of his, seemed to them 
 to undermine the authority of the national religion, by 
 foretelling its end, the destruction of tlieir temple, and the 
 subjection of the people at large to fearful calamities. That 
 Christ did deliver such predictions, before their supposed 
 accomplishment, is proved by the fact of their having been 
 made, in part, the ground of his impeachment and condem- 
 nation, as well as the reasons of that renewed hostility 
 which the preaching of his disciples excited after his death. 
 
REJECTION AND HISTORY OF THE JEWS. 311 
 
 The argument to be pursued in the present Lecture will 
 be founded on these undeniable facts. 
 
 I shall now proceed to notice, more particularly, what 
 these predictions were, as preparatory to the argument to 
 be derived from the subsequent history of those events, 
 which are deemed clear and palpable verifications or fulfil- 
 ments of them. 
 
 Let it be supposed, that Jesus Christ was well known 
 then as a public teacher and professed prophet, of more 
 than thirty years of age, when he delivered the following 
 discourse : Mark xiii. 1 — 10, "And as he went out of the 
 temple, one of his disciples saith unto him. Master, see 
 what manner of stones and what buildings are here ! And 
 Jesus answering said unto him, Seest thou these great 
 buildings ? there shall not be left one stone upon another 
 that shall not be thrown down. And as he sat upon the 
 mount of Olives, over against the temple, Peter and James 
 and John and Andrew asked him privately. Tell us when 
 shall these things be ? and what shall be the sign when all 
 these things shall be fulfilled ? And Jesus answering them 
 began to say. Take heed lest any man deceive you : for 
 many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ ; and 
 shall deceive many. And when ye shall hear of wars and 
 rumours of wars, be ye not troubled, for such things must 
 needs be, but the end shall not be yet. For nation shall 
 rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom ; and 
 there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall 
 be famines and troubles : these are the beginnings of sor- 
 rowp. But take heed to yourselves ; for they shall deliver 
 you up to the councils ; and in the synagogues ye shall be 
 beaten ; and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings 
 for my sake, for a testimony against them. And the gospel 
 must first be published among all nations." (Ver. 1-4 — 20.) 
 " But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, 
 spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought 
 not, (let him thatreadeth understand,) then let them that be 
 
3JQ SCRIPTUKE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 in Judea flee to the mountains : and let him that is on the 
 housetop not go down into the house, neither enter therein, 
 to take any thing out of his house, and let him that is 
 in the field not turn back again to take up his garment. 
 — And pray that your flight be not in the winter. For in 
 those davs shall be affliction, such as was not from the be- 
 ginning of the creation, which God created, unto this time, 
 neither shall be." The discourse is continued to the end 
 of the chaj^ter, and embraces many other particulars. 
 
 To meet an objection which may here be started, that 
 these were only private communications, and that we can- 
 not be sure that they were delivered before the events 
 transj^ired ; I would observe, that they refer to other say- 
 ings and discourses delivered openly in the courts of the 
 temple ; that they formed one principal reason of the 
 general enmity excited against Christ, and cannot, there- 
 fore, be considered private communications ; and that, 
 though they contain a fuller prediction than v/as delivered 
 on other occasions, of the destruction coming upon the 
 city and state of the Jews, yet they differ only in explicit- 
 ness, find in some special directions addressed to his im- 
 mediate disciples. There were other discourses delivered 
 to large bodies of the people, and in the presence of the 
 priests, which are of the same general character. For we 
 find Christ speaking thus, in Matt, xxiii. 29 — 39, "Woe unto 
 you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites ! because ye build 
 the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of 
 the righteous, and say. If we had been in the days of our 
 fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the 
 blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto 
 yourselves, that ye are the children of those that killed the 
 prophets. Fill ye up the measure of your fathers. Ye 
 serpents, yc generation of vipers, how can ye escape the 
 damnation of hell? Wherefore, behold, I send unto you 
 prophets, and wise men, and scribes. And some of them 
 ye shall kill and crucify ; and some of them ye shall 
 
REJECTION AND HISTORY OF THE JEWS. 313 
 
 scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to 
 city ; that upon you may come all the righteous blood 
 shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto 
 the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew 
 between the temple and the altar. Verihj I say unto you, 
 all these thinys shall come upon this yeneration. Jeru- 
 salem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest 
 them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have 
 gathered thy children together, as a hen gathereth her 
 cliickens under her wings, and ye would not ! Behold, 
 your house is left unto you desolate ; for I say unto you, 
 ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is 
 he that cometh in the name of the Lord." Some time 
 before this, when he was making a public, and for him a 
 very unusual, entry into the city of Jerusalem, and when a 
 great multitude were in the height of exultation, it is re- 
 corded, (Luke, chap. xix. 41 — 44,) "And when he was come 
 near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou 
 liadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things 
 which belong unto thy peace ! but now they are hid from 
 thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine 
 enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee 
 round, and keep thee in on eveiy side, and shall lay thee 
 even with the ground, and thy children within thee ; and 
 they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another ; be- 
 cause thou knewest not the time of thy visitation." 
 
 Again, after his trial and condemnation, which were 
 founded partly on a confused and perverted statement, 
 gathered out of his various predictions, concerning his own 
 resurrection, and the destiTiction of the temple, as they 
 were leading him away to crucifixion, Luke says, chap, 
 xxiii. 27 — 31, "And there followed him a great company of 
 people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented 
 him ; but Jesus, turning unto them, said, Daughters of 
 Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and 
 for your children. For, behold, the days are coming, in 
 
•314 SCRIPTURE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the 
 wombs that never bare, and the paps that never gave suck. 
 Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us, 
 and to the hills, Cover us." There are also numerous 
 allusions to the calamities coming upon the Jewish nation 
 in other parts of our Lord's history. Several of the para- 
 bles were expressly designed to predict and represent the 
 same things ; and, by the anger and exasperation which 
 they excited in the Scribes and Pharisees, who listened to 
 them, appear to have been so understood. It would, I 
 conceive, be needless to enter further into citations upon 
 these points. It is abundantly evident, that Christ did 
 speak openly, upon many occasions, and with singular 
 emphasis and explicitness, concerning the impending 
 national calamities ; and it is not less certain, that these 
 sayings were the occasion of much of the enmity against 
 him ; and further, that these savings were uttered loner 
 prior to any appearance or probability of the events fore- 
 told. 
 
 It might also be shown here, that these predictions of 
 Jesus Christ had become generally known to the Jewish 
 believers before the great catastrophe befel the city of 
 Jerusalem ;* that the existence and belief of these pre- 
 dictions formed the very reason which had induced the 
 Christian believers to quit the city ; and also explain the 
 otherwise inexplicable fact, that they alone should have 
 escaped the calamities of the siege. So that, had the pre- 
 dictions been introduced into those gospels subsequently, 
 it could not have escaped detection ; nor is it easy to con- 
 ceive, that such interpolations could have been in any way 
 practicable after the books were in general use. 
 
 * The evidence of this publicity was so clear, that the first enemies of the 
 gospel, such as JuUan, Poqihyry, and Celsus, never attempted to call it in 
 question. Tliree out of the four gospels were certainly in use. The recent 
 discoveiy of tlie works of Hippolytus makes it probable that the fourth (John's) 
 was not then unknown. 
 
REJECTION AND HISTORY OF THIl JEWS. 315 
 
 But it is not my intention to enter into any minute and 
 lengthened examination of these predictions, and their 
 accomplishment. We may proceed, at once, to observe, 
 that about thirty years after the death of Christ, a war 
 commenced against the Jews, during the reign of the 
 emperor Nero. This war was prosecuted, first, by Vespa- 
 sian, and afterwards by Titus, his son, and lasted, altogether, 
 four years and four months. After it had been continued 
 about two years, Vespasian was called to the imperial 
 throne, and his son had charge of continuing and com- 
 pleting the siege. He finally took Jerusalem, after it had 
 endured unparalleled horrors, about the seventieth year of 
 Christ, or nearly thirty-eight after his death, and in direct 
 conformity with his words, " This generation shall not 
 pass away, till all these things be fulfilled." 
 
 There are many other distinct items, and special par- 
 ticulars contained in the various prophecies of the event, 
 which would admit an extended illustration. For the veri- 
 fication of these, the reader is referred to works on the 
 express subject of prophecy, particularly to Dr. Keith's 
 " Evidence of the Truth of the Christian Keligion, derived 
 from the literal Fulfilment of Prophecy," chap. iii. p. 50. 
 A few of the particular facts, included in the general deli- 
 neation, may be mentioned ; such as " the abomination of 
 desolation, standing in the holy place," or the idolatrous 
 figures on the Eoman standards, planted on the holy 
 ground, as the emblems of this triumph of the heathen 
 over the once beloved, but now discarded people of God ; 
 the extensive preaching and success of the gospel of Jesus 
 prior to the calamities ; the severe persecution of the 
 Christians ; the declensions of many ; the famines and the 
 pestilences ; the wars and rumours of wars ; the false 
 prophets and false Messiahs, in various parts of Judea : 
 all these were circumstances described in the predictions, 
 and, therefore, offered as so many complicated tests of its 
 inspiration. Ample witness is borne to most of these 
 
316 SCEinUEE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 points by Josephus, who wrote the history of this war, and 
 whose work, though written to compliment and flatter the 
 court of the Eoman emperor, is, in fact, a striking com- 
 ment upon the predictions of Jesus Christ relative to the 
 same subject.-!- Wherein Josephus is deficient, the Roman 
 writers themselves furnish abundant and unexceptionable 
 materials to illustrate and confirm every particular of these 
 extraordinary discourses of Jesus Christ. Upon these 
 minor verifications I cannot enlarge, however tempting 
 tlie occasion, as I design to present a general survey of 
 tlie fate and condition of the Jewish race, subsequently to 
 their great national catastrophe. 
 
 Besides the argument for the inspiration of the pro- 
 phecies delivered by Christ on this subject, arising out of 
 the destruction of Jerusalem by the Eomans, it is to be 
 borne in mind, that we can furnish an important and con- 
 vincing appendix in the preservation of the Jews since 
 tlieir fall ; in their peculiarly distressed and suftering state, 
 in the mysterious spell which has all along bound them to 
 an expatriation, and which still exhibits them flourishing 
 in numbers, and generally in worldly enterprise, and yet 
 domesticated in no country since they lost their own ; 
 powerful in wealth everywhere, but powerful in arms 
 nowhere ; marked in their history by many striking facts, 
 and in their character by many imperishable features, 
 which identify them as the very people, doomed by their 
 own prophecies to a long night of affliction and disaster. 
 
 * "Josephus -was one of the most distinguished generals in the commence- 
 ment of tlie Jewish war ; he was an eye-mtness of the facts whicli he records ; 
 he appeals to Vespasian and to Titus for the truth of his history ; it received 
 the aiiiytdar attestation uj the subscription of the latter to its accuracy ; it was pub- 
 lished while tlie facts were recent and notorious ; and the extreme carefulness 
 with which he avoids the mention of the name of Christ, in the history of the 
 Jewish war, is not less remarkable, than the great precision ivith zvhich he de- 
 ycribcs the evnits ivhieh verify his predictions. Not a few of the transactions are 
 also related by Tacitus, Philostratus, and Dion Cassius." — Dr. Keith, on 
 Prophecy, p. 66. 
 
KEJECTION AND HISTORY OF THE JEWS. 317 
 
 These things will inevitably arrest attention, as the mind 
 glances over the eventful history of the Jews, since the 
 fall of Jerusalem. They have never been hidden in a 
 corner, nor forgotten in the earth. The finger of Provi- 
 dence has never ceased to point them out as a people, 
 whose fate shows, that the "curse causeless" has not 
 come. 
 
 After their city was taken, the Roman general had fondly 
 cherished the intention of saving their beautiful and holy 
 temple, and had taken every precaution to carry his inten- 
 tion into effect. Had he succeeded, it might have remained 
 to future ages, to confront and confound the predictions of 
 Jesus Christ. But it was accidentally (as we say) and irre- 
 trievably devoted to the flames. No exertions could save 
 it. Three centuries it remained a mass of ruins, to confirm 
 the sacred word ; and then, when Julian, the infidel empe- 
 ror, made attempts to re-plant the Jews in their fathers' 
 land, and to re-build their temple, for the express purpose 
 of falsifying the alleged predictions of Christ, by restoring 
 the worship and the sacrifices, every effort proved unavail- 
 ing, every scheme was baffled, and the thwarted but scoffing 
 emperor was made the unwilling instrument of verifying 
 and fulfilling that divine sentence which had been recorded, 
 and whtch he designedly sought to falsify. The temple 
 was destroyed within the predicted age, destroyed contrary 
 to human purposes, and has never been re-built, though 
 the imperial resources were, at one period, all directed to 
 this designed confutation of the prophecy.* 
 
 But let us now revert to the people of the Jews them- 
 selves. After the siege was ended, and every thing sur- 
 
 * Whether we adhere to Gregory- Nazianzen's statement, published the 
 same year, (^(i;!,) of tlie mh-aculous manner in which Julian's attempt was 
 effectually defeated, supported, as that statement confessedly is, by what Gibbon 
 allows to be the unexceptionable testimony of Ammianus Marcellinus, or 
 coincide with Lardner, and others, who question the evidence of miracidous 
 agency, still the fact remains imimpeachable. 
 
318 SCRIPTURE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 rendered to the invincible arms of the conqueror, the 
 sufferings of the nation were only at their commencement 
 The desolation that had wasted the city of David, and 
 exulted over God's holy mountain, now spread itself, like 
 a torrent of consuming lava, over the whole land. The 
 heaving and convulsion of the earthquake, which had 
 hitherto only been felt in a few places, wdiere the people 
 said, " our mountain stands strong, and w^e shall never be 
 moved," now became universal, and spread confusion and 
 destruction through all their borders. The w^hole people 
 were utterly reduced to slavery ; all their possessions were 
 confiscated; nothing was spared. Myriads were driven, 
 like cattle, to be sold in distant markets. Still the affection 
 of the people clave inseparably to the land of their fathers. 
 They preferred to famish in their dens, and amidst the 
 fastnesses of their mountains, rather than to suffer exile 
 and slavery. They agonized and perished in their deserts 
 and their caves. Their lingering affection for Zion, the 
 place of their solemn assemblies, and the j)ride of all their 
 glorv, made them ambitious of fallino- with their devoted 
 country. They suffered by hundreds and by thousands, 
 ratlier than be forced into exile. Scarce could they be 
 restrained, by their conquerors, from perishing as one man 
 by voluntary martyrdom. Many of their bravest ^-arriors 
 fell by their own swords, or sacrificed each other by mutual 
 compact. Contrary to the usual clemency of the Romans, 
 attempts were made, from time to time, to dislodge them 
 utterly from the seat of their forefathers. The task was 
 exceedingly difficult, and was repeatedly' foiled, by that 
 constancy and patience in suffering, which preferred the 
 hardest fate, and the most abject wretchedness in Judea, 
 to an abandonment of their beloved country. But all was 
 unavailing. The decree was at length accomplished, and 
 the people driven forth from all their hiding places, and 
 forbidden, upon pain of death, to set foot again within the 
 borders of their native country. Such a visitation had 
 
REJECTION AND HISTORY OF THE JEWS. 319 
 
 never before come upon them. The last tie was severed : 
 not a Jew was left behind. Strangers everywhere possessed 
 their holy things ; and the inheritance, conceded to them 
 by the most sacred covenant of their God, was utterly 
 wrested from them, and not a vestige of Judaism was 
 spared. 
 
 I cannot profess to go over, in detail, their subsequent 
 vicissitudes, or to describe the pecularities of their fortune. 
 They have been ever since, and still remain, substantially, 
 the same fallen people. The convulsions of the Roman 
 empire, and of Europe, through eighteen centuries, have 
 never thrown them back into their own land, nor afforded 
 them the faintest glimmering of hope that the time of their 
 deliverance was come. From the days of the siege they 
 have been, in the main, utterly deprived of their country. 
 They have had no temple, no sacrifice, no king, no prophet, 
 no lawgiver, no Messiah. The Christ they expected to be 
 the glory of their latter temple, and whom they do still 
 expect, though they have no temple to which he could 
 come, no city in which he could reign, has never appeared 
 to them ; and they have, as they well know, and poignantly 
 feel, passed an unprecedented, unexpected exile of eighteen 
 centuries, a period of suffering far exceeding any that had 
 previously befallen them. 
 
 It is also to be noted, that, through this protracted pe- 
 riod of expatriation, they have been hated of all nations ; 
 judgment has every where followed them ; they have not 
 risen, as in former periods of their captivity, to stations of 
 influence and command. Almost every people, whether 
 Christian, Mahommedan, or Pagan, has made them a 
 mockery or a prey, and sometimes both at once. And yet 
 they have, for the most part, been left free and independ- 
 ent. Without wearing the badges of slavery, they have 
 had to endure the fate of slaves, to suffer oppression, to 
 toil for others, to become the perpetual victims of cruelty. 
 Tlie history of their sufferings, throughout Europe alone. 
 
.020 SCPJPTUllE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 presents an accumulation of horrors, at which the heart 
 sickens with disgust. They have been like a Cain among 
 mankind, and might adopt his words, " Behold, thou hast 
 driven me out this day from the face of the earth ; and it 
 shall come to pass, that he that findeth me shall slay me.'" 
 And yet their race is marvellously preserved and prolonged. 
 No hand has been allowed to cut them off. No lapse of 
 time, or mutation of human affairs, has, in the slightest 
 degree, endangered their perpetuity. No national policy 
 has advanced their amalgamation with other tribes of men ; 
 or loosened their partialities ; or mitigated their prejudices ; 
 or obliterated, or even altered, their characteristics. They 
 may be found in every country under heaven, born natives 
 under every sky, but aliens in every nation where they are 
 born. Talking of and loving a country as foreign to them 
 as it is to us, yet calling it theirs ; yet dreaming of the great 
 Prince, that they believe will restore them to their pristine 
 greatness, and settle them again in the land of their 
 affections. 
 
 They carry with them, wdierever they go, the same marks 
 of nationality, and of a most ancient descent, without mix- 
 ture, and without material alteration. They afford a living 
 testimony to the antiquity and veracity of the Old TesUi- 
 ment writings ; but, above all, they prove, by their tem- 
 poral condition, and their inextinguishable devotion to 
 their own race, that they are reserved, by the hand of Pro- 
 vidence, for some important part allotted to them in the 
 yet future destinies of the world. They, moreover, confirm 
 the truth and inspiration of the New Testament, as well 
 by their unaltered and unalterable character, as by their 
 history. Their experience exhibits, indeed, the fulfilment 
 of prophecy to the very letter, while their character is, at 
 this day, the very fac simile of that presented throughout 
 the gospels. They retain to this moment all the peculiari- 
 ties of the age of Christ. The men that live now, might, 
 in their own proper and natural character, personate those 
 
REJECTION AND HISTORY OF THE JEWS. 321 
 
 that lived and acted then ; and we are sure, at least as far 
 as human judgment can ever be trusted, that there is not 
 another nation under heaven which could so characteris- 
 tically fit the gospel narratives, or so naturally participate 
 in the scenes of Christ's history. The men we look upon, 
 and converse with, are the very class of men that we be- 
 come acquainted with in the sacred record. There are to 
 be found their genuine prototypes ; and the progeny we 
 behold are neither degenerated nor improved since the 
 davs of their fathers. These livinpj Jews are the men who 
 could, without the slightest incongruity of character, or 
 violation of propriety, re-enact all the scenes in which their 
 ancestors took so conspicuous a part. The sight of a Jew 
 instantly carries us back to the times of the evangelists, 
 and we think of the controversies Christ had with them, 
 and of the scenes that attended the crucifixion ; we glance 
 in thought, onward, to the fall of their city, and desolation 
 of their temple. Here, then, we identify the character, as 
 well as the race ; we behold the verisimilitude of the evan- 
 gelical narrations ; and we assent, at once, to the proposi- 
 tion, that, so far as the Jews are concerned, all is in cha- 
 racter and in keeping. In them, the present and the past 
 seem singularly united, while both point to the yet coming 
 and hopeful future. 
 
 There is, at Rome, a remarkable and splendid monu- 
 ment of antiquity, called the Arch of Titus. It was erected 
 as a triumphal memorial, to celebrate and perpetuate the 
 fame of his victories ; Providence has spared it, amidst the 
 vicissitudes of Home heathen, and Rome christian; but 
 there it remains, a genuine antiquity of the age we speak 
 of, exhibiting, on its sculptured face, the representation of 
 Roman soldiers, bearing the Jewish table and golden can- 
 dlestick, and perpetuating the memory of their overthrow. 
 Imagine with what feelings a Jew must contemplate this 
 humbling trophy of his conquered country. Such is, at 
 once, the pride and sensibility of the exiled race, that no 
 
 T. Y 
 
322 SCKIPTUEE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 considerations can prevail upon them to pass under this 
 arch ; and a small passage was accordingly made at one 
 side, to enable them to avoid the mortification they must 
 otherwise have felt in passing it. To this hour they refuse 
 to walk under this symbol of their humiliation ; and scarcely 
 any sight can be so instructive, so confirmatory of the truth 
 of Christianity, as to behold, at once, this monument of 
 transactions long since passed, but all previously foretold 
 by Jesus Christ; and the living Jew, verifying its record, 
 by stealing through its side passage, and personifying, at 
 once, in his pride and his degradation, the people whose 
 fall it testifies, whose fate it embitters, and to whose ancient 
 history it imparts an affecting and instructive reality. How 
 is it possible to behold such objects, with the pages of the 
 New Testament in our hands, and doubt the truth of its 
 records, and the inspiration of its prophecies ? These are 
 now the palpable testimonies, the surviving witnesses, to 
 those predictions which pointed out the ruin of their 
 temple, and the dispersion of their race. 
 
 It may not be unsuitable here to notice, that the protrac- 
 tion of their exile was equally matter of prophecy. Jesus 
 Christ described, in a few words, what should be the con- 
 dition of their temple, from the hour of its si)oliation, and 
 of themselves, from the hour of their excision, to the pre- 
 sent. " And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and 
 shall be led away captive into all nations, and Jerusalem 
 shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, till the times of the 
 Gentiles be fulfilled," Luke xxi. 24 — 28; or, as Paul ex- 
 presses it, " till the fulness of the Gentiles be come in,'' 
 Eom. xi. 25. The import of these New Testament predic- 
 tions, is strikingly illustrated and confirmed, by the lan- 
 guage of the ancient prophets. The prophet Hosea had 
 said, " The children of Israel shall abide many days with- 
 out a king, and without a prince^ and without a sacrifice, 
 and without an image, [or altar,) and without an ephod, 
 (or pnest to near the ephod,) and without teraphim, {or divine 
 
REJECTION AND HISTORY OF THE JEWS. 323 
 
 manifestation r^') afterwards shall the children of Israel 
 return, and seek the Lord then' God, and David their king, 
 and shall fear the Lord and liis goodness in the latter 
 days."-!- 
 
 By the express law of Moses, their most sacred feasts 
 and solemn sacrifices are restricted to one certain place ; 
 and that has heen no\v, for many ages, in the hands of 
 strangers and aliens, who will not suffer them to approach 
 it. It is also to be carefully observed, that the prophet 
 Daniel had marked out the time of the Messiah's coming, 
 by the cessation of the great sin-offering; "he shall make 
 an end of sin-offering ;" and again, to the same import, 
 " he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease. J" 
 These rites of their religion were observed, punctuall}^ up 
 to the time of Christ, and their national fall; but from that 
 age, down to the present, they have been prevented by the 
 mighty, though invisible hand of God, from renewing those 
 services of the temple, whose termination was to be alike 
 the sign of the Messiah's advent, and the result of his one 
 propitiation. 
 
 But one of the most singular and striking facts con- 
 nected with this remarkable people is, that they still remain 
 a separate race. Every where they are as distinct from 
 those by whom they are surrounded, and among whom 
 tliey have dwelt for ages, as if they had recently migrated 
 from the other side of the globe. Wherever they dwell, 
 under the whole circumference of the heavens, they still 
 retain the same indomitable and undecaying attachment 
 to jMoses and Abraham ; the same imperishable hope of a 
 future deliverer; the same unconquerable antipathy to any 
 amalgamation with Gentile nations. Their preservation 
 so long and under such circumstances, contrary to all ana- 
 logies of nations placed in a similar state of expatriation, 
 affords a striking evidence of the truth of those prophecies 
 
 * See Calniet, on Teraphim. + Hosea iii. 4, 5. J Daniel ix. 20, 27. 
 
324 SCRIPTURE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 which have been accomplished, and a strong presumption 
 of the inspiration of those which are understood to refer to 
 their future destination. 
 
 But this preservation is, in this argument, to be mainly 
 regarded as presenting a singular fulfilment of those pre- 
 dictions which foretold, in connexion with the overthrow 
 and dispersion of the race, their distinct preservation — a 
 preservation of them as a people — during the whole of 
 their long exile, in a state of complete isolation from other 
 nations, among whom they are mingled. This affords 
 another striking proof of the inspiration of the sacred 
 records. It does so, not simply as a natural or common 
 fact, which might have been specifically predicted, and 
 limited to a certain age, but as a fact completely contrary 
 to what was to have been naturally expected, and standing 
 out in the face of the world, and in the history of mankind, 
 as inexplicable by any, or all, of those laws which influence 
 human nature under similar circumstances. 
 
 The prophet Jeremiah had said, in the name of their 
 God, " I will make a full end of all the nations whither I 
 have driven thee ; but I will not make a full end of thee : "* 
 and, again, the prophet Amos says, "For, lo ! I will com- 
 mand, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, 
 like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain 
 fall upon the eartli."j- Now the fact is, they are scattered 
 abroad among all nations, yet they are combined with none. 
 " They abound in Poland, in Holland, in Eussia, and in 
 Turkey. In Germany, Spain, Italy, France, and Britain, 
 they are more thinly scattered. In Persia, China, and 
 India, on the east and on the west of the Ganges, they are 
 few in number among the Jieathen. They have trodden the 
 snows of Siberia, and the sands of the burning desert; and 
 the European traveller hears of their existence in regions 
 which he cannot reach, even in the very interior of Africa, 
 
 * Jer. xlvi. 28. ■> Amos ix. 0. 
 
KEJECTION AND HISTORY OF THE JEWS. 325 
 
 south of Timbuctoo. From Moscow to Lisbon, from Japan 
 to Britain, from Borneo to Archangel, from Hindostan to 
 Honduras, no inhabitant of any nation upon the earth 
 would be known in all the intervening regions, but a Jew 
 alone."* They cannot live according to their own laws, 
 nor obey their own rulers, nor enjoy the full exercise of 
 their religion ; and yet they continue as compact and sepa- 
 rate from others, and as closely allied to one another, as if 
 they enjoyed the full advantages of their own government, 
 both in church and state. 
 
 And what is a fact not less remarkable, their numbers 
 seem to remain, as far as we can judge, undiminished, f 
 In different periods of their exile they have been subjected, 
 in almost all countries, to the most cruel and desolating 
 massacres, such as, in ordinary cases, would have sufficed 
 to exterminate any other people. Every project of hope 
 and fear has been employed to obliterate the distinction of 
 their race, and no means has been omitted, which the in- 
 genuity of fanatic zeal or malignant revenge could devise, 
 in order to abolish their Judaism, and incorporate them 
 with Gentile nations : but all alike in vain ; there is no 
 perceptible inroad. 
 
 During the period of their sojourn in strange lands, the 
 northern nations have migrated in vast bodies all over the 
 more southern parts of Europe ; but where could any of 
 these now be traced? The Gauls went forth in large 
 masses, to make reprisals upon other nations, for the con- 
 quests achieved by the Romans over themselves ; but 
 where are the traces of their dispersion, or the descendants 
 of those high-minded barbarians, who abandoned all rather 
 than bow to the Roman yoke ? 
 
 In France, for instance, among the various races of men 
 who have, from time to time, poured into it, like streams 
 coming in various directions into a grand reservoir of 
 
 * Keith on Prophecy, p. 70. 
 
 i- They are stated, by some writers, at about sL\ millions. 
 
:j26 scmPTURE verified in the 
 
 waters, who shall pretend to separate them, or even to trace 
 in the midst of them, the race of ancient Gauls I In Spain 
 and Portugal there has been a mingling of races widely 
 distinguished from each other. The Goths and Moors 
 have been incorporated with the ancient inhabitants ; and 
 the peculiarities of all have been lost, while a character 
 and a race have resulted from the commixture, different 
 from each. 
 
 In England we have a people descended partly from the 
 aborigines, from Romans, Saxons, Danes, and Normans. 
 But, confessedly, all are commingled, and there has been 
 no preservation of any distinct race. I am treating now of 
 cases where a particular people, or a part of them, is dis- 
 persed among another nation. If, indeed, a race possess 
 a particular district of country, which either excludes 
 strangers by its laws, or by its nature, as inaccessible to 
 foreign power, or as beneath the jealousy of neighbouring 
 states, or the aggrandizing views of conquerors, then they 
 may retain, through an indefinite series of ages, an uncor- 
 rupted and primitive race. This is, no doubt, the case 
 with the Chinese, partly so with the Ancient Britons, and 
 some others, whose character, habits, religion, and race 
 have remained unaltered, just in proportion as they have 
 been secluded in situation, or exempt from foreign in- 
 fluences. 
 
 But there is not a single instance, in the history of 
 human nature, of a people, dislodged from their native 
 country, and dispersed' through various other nations, re- 
 taining, for any considerable length of time, either their 
 religion, their habits, or the characteristics of their native 
 stock. The Jews, however, are the solitary, I might even 
 add, the miraculous instance of such a case ; a case, be it 
 observed, all the stronger for the extent of the dispersion, 
 for the smallness of the infusion of Jewish people in each 
 nation, and for the uniformity of the fact, as it regards all 
 the nations among which they are scattered. Had they, 
 
REJECTION AND HISTORY OF THE JEWS. 327 
 
 for instance, been dispersed only through one nation, their 
 isolation, in that particular case, might have admitted a 
 specific and satisfactory solution. Again, had they been 
 in any nation very numerous, their continued separation 
 might have been a probable case, and various reasons 
 might have been found or invented to explain the fact; 
 but in proportion as the number scattered in any place 
 was few, so was the strength of the probability, that they 
 would be absorbed and lost in the general mass of the 
 surrounding population. Then, again, the precise uni- 
 formity of this case of the Jews, in all the world, is a most 
 striking fact. That they should have remained a distinct 
 people in some one, two, or three of the nations, among 
 whom they were mixed up, would not have excited so much 
 surprise ; perhaps would hardly have deserved attention, 
 especially if, in other instances, they had been ultimately 
 commingled and lost among the people. Then it would 
 only have shown, that, while in one nation there were 
 causes which repelled them from union, in others there 
 were opposite causes, which had wrought upon their minds 
 to obliterate distinctions, and make them coalesce with the 
 people among whom they had been born and naturalized. 
 Allowing, therefore, in the first instance, for the peculiar 
 habits and feelings of the Jews, when their dispersion 
 began, we should have expected, that a veiy different re- 
 sult would have followed, at least in some of the nations 
 of the earth ; and that, however distinct they might remain 
 here or there, for so long a period as eighteen centuries, yet, 
 that at least in some other instances, where they did not 
 encounter so much enmity, nor find so much repugnance 
 between their own character and that of the people of the 
 place, that there at least would be seen a gradual oblitera- 
 tion of differences, terminating, at last, in a complete 
 amalgamation and consequent disappearance of the race. 
 
 But no : not in a single nation under heaven are the 
 Jews incorporated with the natives. Even where there 
 
3'28 SCRIPTUitE VEKIFIED IN THE 
 
 have been the nearest approaches, where distinctions have 
 been abolished for their sakes, special immunities be- 
 stowed, and their manners and opinions in part adopted 
 and imitated, still, even there, the line of demarcation has 
 been as broad and perfect, as in nations which have shrunk 
 from their approach, or rejoiced to hold them as a mark 
 for persecution, or a prize for cupidity. In fact, no separa- 
 tion of man from man can be more entire and complete 
 than that which takes place, I do not say between Jews 
 and Christians, but between Jews and all other men. They 
 feel, every where, as if they were not a part of the great 
 mass of mankind ; and all mankind feel towards them as 
 if they were the outcast of the family, the speckled sheep 
 of the flock, the Ishmael of the world, whose hand was 
 against every man, and every man's hand against him. 
 And since this alienation is strong as it is complete and 
 certain, since it is uniform in every part of the world, and 
 has continued for so many centuries, and is as intense at 
 this* day as at its commencement, and since all this was 
 matter of prophecy prior to the dispersion, and both Tes- 
 taments foreshow its commencement, its occasion, and its 
 attendant circumstances, we cannot withhold our acknow- 
 ledgment of the truth and inspiration of these prophecies. 
 It is quite impossible that they should have been forgeries, 
 or that that gospel which contains them should be other 
 than a divine revelation. 
 
 There is enough in this case of the Jews alone, if Chris- 
 tianity possessed no other argument, to strike infidelity for 
 ever dumb. All it can allege on the score of difficulties, 
 obscurities, mysteries, and discrepancies in the pages of 
 revelation, will jirove but dust in the balance, while the 
 living testimony, even of a whole nation of unbelievers, is 
 made to propagate itself from age to age, rendering their 
 nationality and their unbelief an imperishable monument 
 of the inspiration of prophecy, and presenting an occasion 
 
KEJECTION AND HISTORY OF THE JEWS. 329 
 
 for the fulfilment, and a pledge of the truth of those pre- 
 dictions which foretel their recovery and restoration. 
 
 The whole case is, then, deeply interesting as a fact, and 
 unanswerable as an argument. What eye but that which 
 penetrates into the mysteries of the future could have 
 descried this series of facts, so far off in the distance, and 
 so implicated with perpetual vicissitudes and endless con- 
 tingencies ? And what hand but that of Omnipotence 
 could thus have chastened, but not consumed them ; thus 
 afflicted, but yet preserved them ; thus have made them, 
 like the burning bush, a miracle and a witness before all 
 nations ? Thus, while their lot is to be cast down to the 
 lowest state of degradation and suffering, for continuing 
 still in unbelief, yet they are placed on a pinnacle of light 
 for the verification of the gospel, and for a divine presage 
 of those auspicious destinies to which both themselves and 
 the world are reserved. 
 
 Let those who are inclined to dispute or to doubt all 
 other evidences of the gospel-inspiration, turn their serious 
 attention to the case T have now stated. If they doubt the 
 reality of those miracles which were wrought by the founder 
 of the gospel, if they imagine they can discredit those 
 which were wrought by the apostles of Christ, and for the 
 propagation of the gospel, in the first ages, by raking to- 
 gether fabulous or exaggerated accounts of supposed or of 
 counterfeit miracles ; if they pretend that the import of 
 prophecy is, in all other cases, either obscure or of doubt- 
 ful application, or has been written after the events took 
 place, yet impossible as it is to admit, because impossible to 
 substantiate, any of these averments, yet, I say, let them at 
 least acknowledge, that here is a series of prophecies 
 minutely descriptive, and literally fulfilled, concerning 
 these facts, obvious to their own senses, of which it cannot 
 be alleged, either that they are obscure, or indefinite, or 
 that they were forged after the facts transpired. 
 
o30 SCRIPTURE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 On the fulfilment of these prophecies, revelation itself is 
 silent, because it was closed before the events took place, 
 and because profane history and avowed enemies are left 
 to supply, however unwillingly, the requisite information. 
 Here is a complete and undeniable case, to which there is 
 no parallel in universal history, and which stands forth as 
 a palpable fulfilment of predictions, which have appeared 
 upon record for many centuries, and concerning the sense 
 and application of which there can be neither hesitation 
 nor doubt. 
 
 It may be said, by some objectors, but the Jews believe 
 themselves the favourites of heaven still, and this tends to 
 foster their nationality, and to make them cling to their 
 paternal religion, and to the hope of a yet future deliverer. 
 But this, though a fact, will in no degi'ee explain the other 
 fact of their long-during separation from their country : 
 indeed, that very belief, indelibly impressed upon them, is 
 a part of the miracle of their case. They have derived no 
 advantages from this belief, but the contrary ; it has been 
 the badge of their exile, the spell of their fate ; it has 
 been attended with no glory and no gain ; it has saved 
 them from no misfortune, and conferred upon them no 
 solace. They have believed without cordiality, and with- 
 out authority. Indeed, their faith is a cold and fruitless 
 habit ; a faith hereditary, and not begotten by any divine 
 principle. 
 
 In short, they present the strange enigma of the most 
 blind and implicit belief, combined with a species of scoff- 
 ing and profligate infidelity. They entertain a faitli which 
 rests upon no rational principle, and is attended with no 
 spiritual advantage ; while they indulge an infidelity that 
 annihilates all the more delicate and refined distinctions 
 of morality ; which scoffs at the hopes of a future world, 
 and thus reduces them to a state of practical, if not theo- 
 retical. Atheism. 
 
 Before I quit this branch of the subject it seems im. 
 
REJECTION AND HISTORY OF THE JEWS. 331 
 
 poi'tant to observe, that the history of the Jews, since the 
 time of their overthrow, has its counterpart, which it is 
 essential to consider in connexion with that history. For 
 the propagation of the Christian church runs parallel with 
 the excision and abeyance of the Jewish, exhibits the most 
 striking contrast to it, and may be considered as essential 
 to a right understanding of those prophecies, in which the 
 fate of Judaism was implicated. The oracle which poured 
 its maledictions on the head of the one, and doomed it to 
 so long and so deep a fall, blessed the other, and set it up 
 above all the kingdoms of the world; destined it to an 
 unexampled course of moral and spiritual glory, and to a 
 sway that should become universal and perpetual. Yet, 
 when that oracle spoke, Judaism was in the possession of 
 a flourishing empire, and had been established, amidst a 
 numerous and powerful people, for many ages, whose rights 
 and privileges, and religious usages, were guaranteed by 
 the power and authority of the Roman arms ; whereas 
 Christianity then stood simply on the words and deeds of 
 Jesus Christ, an obscure mechanic, whose sole authority 
 wrought for it a speedy triumph ; made it, in three cen- 
 turies from its first promulgation, the acknowledged reli- 
 gion of the whole Roman empire ; has given it, ever since, 
 an undisturbed pre-eminence over every other system in 
 the world ; and, in short, has effected by it the greatest 
 revolution that was ever witnessed in the condition of 
 mankind. It is this change, foretold in the very minutest 
 circumstances of it so long before, a change in the members, 
 in the constitution, and in the government of the church 
 of God, which affords abundant verification of the sacred 
 testimony. None but the Divine Being himself could have 
 foreseen such a change. It could not have taken place in 
 the ordinary course of human affairs. 
 
 Supposing a particular nation, existing under the pecu- 
 liar circumstances in which the Jews were, at the time of 
 Christ's advent, it might be conceived that some one 
 
332 SCKIPTURE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 judging from their long antecedent continuance in that 
 particular profession of religion, their strength as a people, 
 their local situation, and other circumstances, might have 
 pretended to foretel their continuance for an interminable, 
 or very long succession of ages, in that same religion ; 
 though it would have been a very unusual thing for one, 
 only pretending to prophecy, to have looked so far forward, 
 and described events at so great a distance ; and it would, 
 indeed, have been a singular, though not an impossible 
 thing, for such a prediction to come true. It might have 
 proved a happy guess, because it was far more probable, 
 all things considered, than the contrary. But it is incon- 
 ceivable, that any one would have foretold the rejection of 
 that nation, and the reception of others in their place, with 
 the adoption of all their moral and religious principles, 
 and introduction to all their privileges. It is highly im- 
 probable, that any Jew should have done this, pre-eminently 
 national and prejudiced as we know they were. Besides 
 it was, again, altogether an unlikely thing, that they should 
 ever have admitted into their sacred Scriptures, such sup- 
 posed surreptitious predictions as fore-showed their own 
 overthrow and rejection, and the introduction of the Gen- 
 tile into their place. Yet such predictions were there, ages 
 before the coming of Jesus Christ, as we have formerly 
 shown. Nothing but the most overpowering conviction of 
 the inspiration of those ancient prophets, who foretold 
 their desolation, could have induced the heads of the nation 
 to admit these Avritings into the canon of their Scriptures, 
 and preserve them as of equal authority with the law of 
 Moses. Some one might have assumed the authority of 
 inspiration, and pretend to foretel that they would, as a 
 nation, be overthrown, come to an end, and be lost in some 
 other nation ; because this has been frequently the lot of 
 ancient nations. But this would not be the whole case of 
 prophecy in reference to them. The particulars, as we 
 have shown, are sirange and peculiar. Wlio, except the 
 
REJECTION AND HISTORY OF THE JEWS. 333 
 
 Divine Being, could have foreseen, that they should have 
 been, at the same time, rejected as a church, overthrown 
 as a nation, utterly annihilated as a state and as to poli- 
 tical power, yet that these events, while they should not 
 leave God without a church, should yet leave the rejected 
 church as distinct as ever; a people, "scattered and 
 peeled," as it is said ; " a proverb, a by-word, a curse, 
 and a shaking of the head among all nations ; " a people 
 still united in name, and by the strongest ties of fraternity, 
 and of religion too : a sort of living, moving, and ubiquitous 
 incrustation upon the ancient revelation of God, to vindi- 
 cate and embalm it before the eyes of all the world ! 
 
 That they should, moreover, cease to enjoy those favour- 
 able manifestations of the divine providence, which con- 
 soled them in their previous captivities, and from being 
 a flourishing, become, for so long a period, a suffering, 
 oppressed, and degraded people ; that they should them- 
 selves be conscious of the loss of the divine favour, and be 
 constrained to remain without a king, or a high-priest, or 
 a sacrifice, or a temple, or the voice of prophets, or of 
 judges ; that the divine influences they had enjoyed 
 through many centuries, and under all the vicissitudes 
 of their history, should utterly cease, and become silent. 
 These are facts not to be denied, and yet not to be ex- 
 plained by an appeal to ordinary causes. 
 
 But if, at this point, the consummation of Judaism be 
 discerned in Christianity, all will be clear and intelligible. 
 The foretold and accomplished transition of the church 
 from Jews to Gentiles, accompanied, as it has been, by 
 indications of a wise and designing providence, becomes 
 clearly the work of a divine power. It could never have 
 been effected without the intervention of divine providence. 
 Viewed] in connexion with the preservation of the Jews, 
 as a distinct people among all others, it becomes a still 
 more astonishing fact. They are living witnesses to events 
 which they most reluctantly and constrainedly attest. 
 
S34 SCKIPTURE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 There is not a civilized, nor a half-civilized nation under 
 heaven, but there they are to be found, and frequently in 
 considerable numbers ; yet politically, they are powerless, 
 because they are nowhere united under any civil head. 
 They present the skeleton of the former church, evidently 
 preserved to attest that they have been a church : and 
 that, as such, they formed the foundation of the Christian 
 church ; and are preserved, even in their unbelieving state, 
 exhibiting the existence and prevalence still among them, 
 of that very sin for which their fathers were rejected from 
 the favour of God, and for which they have been made an 
 example to all nations. 
 
 But these facts, in connexion with the calling in of the 
 Gentiles, the subjection of many of their nations to what 
 may, with a just explanation, be not improperly denomi- 
 nated the Jews' religion, (for the whole of it is absorbed 
 into Christianity,) form one material branch of the ai'gu- 
 ment for the truth of that revelation which has distinctly 
 foreshown all these events in the order in which they have 
 transpired. Here you may put your finger on express pre- 
 dictions ; such as those of Christ, of Hosea, Daniel, and 
 Jeremiah, concerning the destruction of the Jewish state, 
 the preservation and long affliction of the people ; while, 
 on the other hand, you may see the Jews preserved on the 
 face of the whole earth, to attest the condition of degrada- 
 tion and rejection in which they are still kept by the decree 
 of heaven. Here they still are in the world, and among 
 ourselves. You may converse with them daily ; and wher- 
 ever you encounter them, you may trace the moral features 
 of the very time of Christ, as clearly as if they were all cast 
 from the models of the days of Herod. The more we look 
 into the details of these coincidences, the more forcible 
 and striking do they appear. 
 
 " The prophecies are as clear as a narrative of the events. 
 They are ancient as the oldest records in existence ; and it 
 has never been denied, that they were all delivered before 
 
REJECTION AND HISTOEY OF THE JEWS. 335 
 
 the accomplishment of one of them. They were so un- 
 imaginable by human wisdom, that the whole compass of 
 nature has never exhibited a parallel to the events. And 
 the facts are visible and present, and applicable even to a 
 hair's breadth. Could Moses, as an uninspired mortal, 
 have described the history, the fate, the dispersion, the 
 treatment, the dispositions of the Israelites to the present 
 day, or for three thousand two hundred years, seeing that 
 he was astonished and amazed, on his descent from Sinai, 
 at the change in their sentiment, and in their conduct, in 
 the space of forty days ? Could various persons have testi- 
 fied, in different ages, of the self-same and of similar facts, 
 as wonderful as they have proved true ? Could they have 
 divulged so many secrets of futurity, when of necessity they 
 were utterly ignorant of them all ? The probabilities were 
 infinite against them. For the mind of man often fluctu- 
 ates in uncertainty over the nearest events, and the most 
 probable results ; but, in regard to remote ages, when thou- 
 sands of years shall have elapsed — and. to facts respecting 
 them, contrary to all previous knowledge, experience, ana- 
 logy, or conception, — it feels that they are dark as death 
 to mortal ken. And, viewing only the dispersion of the 
 Jews, and some of its attendant circumstances, how their 
 city was laid desolate ; their temple, which formed the 
 constant place of their resort before, levelled wdth the 
 ground, and ploughed over like a field ; their country ra- 
 vaged, and themselves murdered in mass, falling before 
 the sword, the famine, and the pestilence ; how a remnant 
 was left, but despoiled, persecuted, and slain, and led into 
 captivity ; driven from their own land, not to a mountain- 
 ous retreat, where they might subsist with safety, but dis- 
 persed among all nations, and left to the mercy of a world 
 that every where hated and oppressed them ; shattered in 
 pieces, like the wreck of a vessel, in a mighty storm ; scat- 
 tered over the earth, like fragments on the waters; and, 
 instead of disappearing, or mingling with the nations, re- 
 
336 SCRIPTURE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 maining a perfectly distinct people, in every kingdom the 
 same, retaining similar habits, and customs, and creeds, 
 and manners in every part of the globe, though without 
 ephod, teraphim, or sacrifice ; meeting every where the 
 same insult, and mockery, and oppression ; finding no 
 resting-place without an enemy soon to dispossess them ; 
 multiplying amidst all their miseries ; surviving their ene- 
 mies ; beholding, unchanged, the extinction of many na- 
 tions, and the convulsions of all ; robbed of their silver and 
 of their gold, though cleaving to the love of them still, as 
 the stumbling-block of their iniquity; often bereaved of 
 their very children ; disjoined and disorganized, but uni- 
 form and unaltered ; ever bruised, but never broken ; w^eak, 
 fearful, sorrowful, and afflicted ; often driven to madness 
 at the spectacle of their own misery ; taken up in the lips 
 of talkers ; the taunt, and hissing, and infamy of all people, 
 and continuing even, what they are to this day, the sole 
 proverb common to the whole world ; how did every fact, 
 from its very nature, defy all conjecture, and how could 
 mortal man, overlooking a hundred successive generations, 
 have foretold any one of these Avonders that are now con- 
 spicuous in these latter times ? Who but the Father of 
 Spirits, possessed of perfect prescience, even of the know- 
 ledge of the will, and of the actions of free, intelligent, and 
 moral agents, could have revealed their unbounded, and 
 yet unceasing wanderings, unveiled all their destiny, and 
 unmasked the minds of the Jews, and of their enemies, in 
 every age and in every clime ? The creation of a world 
 might as well be the work of chance, as the revelation of 
 these things. It is a visible display of the power and of 
 the prescience of God, an accumulation of many miracles. 
 And, although it forms but a part of a small portion of the 
 Christian evidence, it lays not only a stone of stumbling, 
 such as infidels would try to cast in a Christian's path, but 
 it fixes an insurmountable barrier at the verv threshold of 
 
REJECTION AND HISTORY OF THE JEWS. 337 
 
 infidelity, immoveable by all human device, and impervious 
 to every attack. "'■'• 
 
 Every thing in the history, both of Jews and Gentiles, 
 since the time of the introduction of Christianity, has 
 minutely answered to the prediction ; and the truth of the 
 divine word is thereby incontestably established. 
 
 The reader is now in a situation to judge, how far the 
 argument we have attempted is valid, how far the facts of 
 the church's history, extending through all time, implicated 
 with grand events in the history of the world, characterized 
 by strange vicissitudes, and involving throughout a con- 
 stant trial of righteous principle struggling against human 
 propensity and worldly interests, and exhibiting, at least, 
 one grand and extraordinary transition of deepest interest, 
 forms a valuable and satisfactory test of the inspiration of 
 that professedly divine volume, which has foreshown this 
 long and chequered course of suffering, and yet of triumph ; 
 of change, and yet of progression ; which poured out upon 
 the head of this holy brotherhood, the church, even from 
 its infancy, the selectest benedictions of heaven, imparling 
 to it a divine and an imperishable vitality, and which has 
 suspended, upon its yet future universality and unity, the 
 blessedness of the whole human family, and the everlasting 
 glory of the Great God and Father of all. 
 
 * Keith on Prophecy, p. 91. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 
 
 On the Kingdom of the Messiah, as represented in the Ancient Scriptures, 
 compared with its History and Present Prospects. 
 
 The Kingdom of the Messiah— Exhibited in a typical form, in the sacred 
 hooks and religion of the Jews — Prevalent opinions founded on them — 
 Proved from various sources — These predictions and expectations verified 
 in the character of Jesus Christ — The improbability of such a character 
 being fabulous— Credibility of the Evangelists — Probable effect of such a 
 real character — Facts correspond — And thereby attest its reality — Oppo- 
 site suppositions as to Christ's character — All proved untenable — The 
 establishment and success of the Christian cause — Eepresentations of 
 contemporary enemies — Weakness of Christianity at its rise — "What it 
 effected — Testimonies to its progi-ess — Jewish and heathen — Character 
 of its triumphs — Indiibitable proofs of their reality — Means by which 
 they were wrought — Explanations of infidels wholly untenable — Means 
 of detecting imposture then possessed — Inspiration and miracle obvious 
 — As clear after as during Christ's life — Facts otherwise inexplicable — 
 Supposition of pretended miracles — Disproved — Magic alleged to explain 
 the facts — The real miracles never rivalled — Confirmation of Apostolic 
 claims — Coincidence of the document and the history — Bearing of the 
 argument on the inspiratton of the Scriptures — Conclusion. 
 
 In pursuing our general views of scriptural verifications, 
 we come now to those which we conceive tlie sacred word 
 has received, in reference to that moral and religious sys- 
 tem which is denominated the Kingdom of the Messiah. 
 
 There are three branches of this inquiry, which we shall 
 pursue in the following order. 
 
 I. The Messiah's Kingdom is alleged to be set forth, 
 
SCRIPTURE VERIFIED IN THE KINGDOM, ETC. 339 
 
 both typically and prophetically, in the sacred books and 
 religion of the Jews. 
 
 II. • We possess a remarkable verification and fulfilment 
 of these anticipative descriptions of the Messiah, in the 
 personal character and history of Jesus Christ. 
 
 III. The establishment and success of the Christian 
 cause, further and fully verify the descriptions and antici- 
 pations which preceded it. 
 
 I. We propose to show, that such a religious system, as 
 we understand by the Gospel, was foreshown, and its intro- 
 duction into the world ascribed by the Jewish prophets to 
 some extraordinary person, denominated the Messiah, to 
 whom general expectation had long been directed. It is 
 obvious, that all the statements of the New Testament, 
 respecting the person and the system of the Messiah, de- 
 pend upon the Old Testament. To that is due the con- 
 ception of such a person. Before we can examine the New 
 Testament upon this point, and especially before we can 
 cite it in this argument, as exhibiting a fulfilment of an- 
 cient predictions,' it will be incumbent upon us to show, 
 that the views and interpretations given by Christ and his 
 apostles to the prophecies of the Old Testament, are not 
 fanciful and arbitrary ; that they have not been superin- 
 duced since Christ appeared ; but that they are substan- 
 tially the very views actually and extensively prevailing 
 long before the period of his birth. 
 
 If we can make this evident, it will materially contribute 
 to establish the credibility, not of the evangelists alone, 
 but of the two Testaments. For suppose the case, as to 
 the subject of prophecy, to be as we now presume, that 
 such and such prophetic writings did exist, and were pub- 
 licly known and read, so long before the date of the Chris- 
 tian religion ; but yet that no such views had been enter- 
 tained concerning the coming of a Messiah, his character, 
 deeds, or dominion, as Christian writers represent to be 
 the prevailing theme, the key-note of all prophecy and of 
 
340 SCRIPTURE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 all type ; then there would be a strong presumptive evi- 
 dence, that Christians had given a false and unauthorized 
 gloss to the prophecies of the Jews ; had forced a sense 
 upon them only to serve their own purpose ; or had, in 
 fact, read them under the light which Christianity had cast 
 upon them. 
 
 Thus, for instance, we allege that the coming of the 
 great Messiah was the subject of numerous predictions, 
 long antecedent to the time of his birth. But if, prior to 
 that event, no one had ever entertained such an expecta- 
 tion, there would be a strong presumption that our inter- 
 pretation was arbitrary, and, consequently, that the proof 
 of his coming having been predicted, had not been made 
 out. On the other hand, however, if we can show, that 
 long prior to this alleged fulfilment of prophecy, the fact 
 had been anxiously expected ; and that, by a common con- 
 sent, the voices of the Jewish prophets had so far been 
 accounted distinct and intelligible ; that the time, the per- 
 sonal character, and history of the Messiah had all been to 
 a certain extent anticipated by means of these prophecies, 
 then we shall be in a position to infer, that the facts of the 
 Christian history have a double accordance ; first, with the 
 alleged prophecies, and, secondly, with the expectations to 
 which they gave rise, between the time of their utterance 
 and of their supposed fulfilment. Thus we shall not only 
 have the argument arising from the ascertained correspond- 
 ence, and mutual support of prediction and fulfilment, but 
 we shall have that argument reinforced and fortified by the 
 contemporaneous opinion to which the prophecy gave rise, 
 and by every particular of the form which the expectations 
 of men assumed, while they were giiided exclusively by the 
 words of the supposed oracle. Observe — 
 
 (1.) That the expectation of a Messiah occupied the 
 minds of the Jewish nation long previous to the period of 
 Christ's birth. It was no novel opinion. We might carry 
 the application of this remark far back in their history, 
 
KINGDOM OF THE MESSrAH. o4 1 
 
 but shall confine our attention to the state of public opinion 
 in the interval between the cessation of prophecy and the 
 birth of Christ. 
 
 Now this period, say of about four hundred years, is not 
 only an interval during which the Jews admit they had no 
 true and faithful prophet, but it forms altogether a chasm 
 in their sacred history, which can be filled up only by un- 
 inspired writings. We shall, therefore, attempt to show% 
 generally, of this period, that it exhibited the full and vivid 
 expectation of the Messiah, and founded that expectation 
 upon the authenticated prophecies of past ages, and not 
 upon any granted to themselves. Those waitings vdiich 
 are called the Apocrypha, though clearly not inspired, and 
 never admitted into the Jewish canon of the Old Testa- 
 ment, are yet adequate proofs of the opinions which pre- 
 vailed in those ages. 
 
 It is abundantly manifest, from these writings, that the 
 great rallying point of national feeling and hope, through 
 the age of the Maccabees, Avas the expectation of the Mes- 
 siah. In the First Book of Maccabees, iv. 46, speaking of 
 the altar which Antiochus had profaned, it is said, " It was 
 resolved to lay by the stones in the mountain of the tem- 
 ple, till a prophet should come to determine concerning 
 them." This was the prophet to whom it is well known 
 they were looking to resolve all their questions. Judas, in 
 those days, was a great and honourable instrument in re- 
 storing their worship. His brother Simon also became so 
 distinguished, as a leader in war, and governor in peace, 
 that, by a national decree, agreed to by the people, he and 
 his posterity were appointed to be their governors and 
 high priests, " until there should arise a (or rather the) 
 faithful prophet." I Mac. xiv. 41. Now this very limita- 
 tion upon his power and priesthood, shows that the whole 
 nation were anxiously expecting the appearance of this 
 faithful prophet, before whom, they seem to admit, that 
 the descendants of their favourite prince and priest must 
 
342 SCRIPTURE VERIFIED IX THE 
 
 relinquish their pretensions, in deference to the higher 
 claims and superior glory of him who was to come. We 
 cannot desire better evidence of what was the prevailing 
 sentiment of the nation, of what expectations they enter- 
 tained, than this public decree, which was inscribed in 
 tables of brass, and set up in a conspicuous place of the 
 temple, as may be seen in the same chapter of the Macca- 
 bees, which has been already quoted. 
 
 The Book of Ecclesiasticus was undoubtedly written 
 above a century, perhaps nearly two, before Christ. It 
 contains ample evidence of the expectation of the people 
 in that age. In the thirty-sixth chapter, it is said, in a 
 prayer put up on behalf of the nation, " Show new signs, 
 and make other strange wonders : glorify thy hand and thy 
 right arm, that they may set forth thy wondrous works." 
 " Fill Zion with thy unspeakable oracles, and thy people 
 with thy glory. Give testimony to those that thou hast 
 possessed from the beginning, and raise up prophets that 
 have been in thy name." " Reward them that wait for 
 thee ; and let thy prophets be found faithful." " Lord, 
 hear the prayer of thy servants, according to the blessing 
 of Aaron over thy people, that all they which dwell upon 
 the earth may know that thou art the Lord, the eternal 
 God." Again, in the forty-seventh chapter of the same 
 book, it is said, speaking of David, " The Lord took away 
 his sins, and exalted his horn for ever: he gave him a 
 covenant of kings, and a throne of glory in Israel. But 
 the Lord will never leave off his mercy, neither shall any 
 of his works perish, neither will he abolish the posterity of 
 his elect, and the seed of him that lovetli him he will not 
 take away : wherefore he gave a remnant unto Jacob, and 
 out of him a root unto David.''' 
 
 The age in which they expected these things to be accom- 
 plished, was after the coming of Elias, according to the 
 same author, who was to turn the heart of the father to the 
 son, and restore (or preach up the restoring of) the tribes 
 
KINGDOM OF THE MESSIAH. 343 
 
 of Jacob, whose gathering had before been prayed for. In 
 the end of the book, the same writer names some of the 
 prophets, whom he prays may be found faithful. " Isaiah," 
 he says, " saw, by an excellent spirit, what should come to 
 pass at the last ; and he comforted them that mourned in 
 Zion. He showed what should come to pass for ever, and 
 secret things or ever they came." Again, in the forty-ninth 
 chapter, tenth verse, " Of the twelve prophets, let the 
 memorial be blessed, for they comforted Jacob, and de- 
 livered them by assured hope." Of Zerobabel, and the 
 days of Josedec, he says, " They set up a holy temple to 
 the Lord, which was prepared for everlasting glory." Now, 
 this comfort in the twelve prophets, and this assured hope, 
 could be no other than the Messiah, whose coming and 
 glory were portrayed by all their prophets. It is clear, 
 that the author of these passages could not understand 
 these twelve prophets as writing of the restoration from 
 the Babylonish captivity, because three of them prophesied 
 after that event. They spake of it as a hope and a glory 
 yet future. In the days of Simon, the Jews prayed for it ; 
 and the writer of Ecclesiasticus renews the same petition, 
 and prays, that God would make the time short. Man}" 
 more instances may be cited out of those Apocryphal books, 
 the precise age of which, though it cannot be accurately 
 determined, certainly preceded, by a considerable period, 
 the time of Christ. 
 
 The book entitled Tobit, was written for the encourage- 
 ment of the Israelites dispersed abroad ; and in this book 
 we read frequently of the hope of Israel. Thus, in the 
 fourteenth chapter of this book, it is written, after speaking 
 of the restored glory of Jerusalem, "And all nations shall 
 turn and fear the Lord God truly, and shall bury their 
 idols ; so shall all nations praise the Lord, and his people 
 shall confess God, and the Lord shall exalt his people." 
 This writer enumerates four great events to come, viz., the 
 end of the Jewish age, or state^and a long captivity of his 
 
344 SCEIPTURE VERIFIED TN THE 
 
 nation, which he joins with it. This clearly befel them 
 under Titus. 2. A* general return from that captivity. 
 3. A re-building of the city and temple, " with a glorious 
 building, as the prophets have spoken thereof;" and, 4. A 
 general conversion of all the Gentile nations from idolatry. 
 If it is asked, what has this to do with the expectation of a 
 Messiah ? The answer is obvious and decisive. In the 
 prophets, from which Tobit quotes them, they are con- 
 nected with the restoration of the fallen kingdom of David, 
 and the happy condition of Judea, both of which expres- 
 sions, since the days of David, had become characteristic 
 expressions among them, for the times of the Messiah, and 
 are so to this day. 
 
 Again, in Baruch, fourth chapter, it is written, " My 
 hope is in the Everlasting, that he will save you : joy is 
 come to me from the Holy One, because of the mercy 
 which shall soon come to you from the Everlasting, our 
 Saviour. Like as the neighbours of Sion have seen your 
 captivity, so shall they shortly see your salvation from our 
 God, which shall come with great glory and brightness of 
 the Everlasting. Put off, Jerusalem, the garments of 
 thy mourning ; put on the comeliness of thy glory, that 
 Cometh from God for ever. God will show thy brightness 
 unto every country under heaven. Thy name shall be 
 called of God, for ever. The peace of righteousness, and 
 the glory of God's worship. Arise, Jerusalem, and stand 
 on high, and look about towards the east : and behold thy 
 children, gathered from the west unto the east, by the word 
 of the Holy One, rejoicing in the remembrance of God. 
 For God hath appointed, that every high hill, and the 
 banks of long continuance, should be cast down, and the 
 valleys filled up, to make even the ground, that Israel may 
 go safely in the glory of God : even the Avoods, and every 
 sweet-smelling tree, shall overshadow Israel, by the com- 
 mandment of God. For God shall teach Israel with joy 
 in the light of his glory, with the mercy and righteousness 
 
KINGDOM OF THE MESSIAH. 345 
 
 that Cometh from him." This writer frequently mentions 
 this deliverance as eminently God's deliverance. " This 
 is our God," he says, " and none other shall be accounted 
 of in comparison of him." " He hath found out all the 
 ways of knowledge, and hath given it to Jacob, his servant, 
 and to Israel, his beloved. Afterwards did he show hunself 
 upon earth, and conversed ivith men.''-^ This was to be at 
 the time when Israel was to be saved, when the deliverer 
 was to come to Zion. 
 
 I have exhibited these passages out of the Apocrypha, 
 not because they possess the slightest authority in them- 
 selves, or are entitled to any respect, further than as they 
 show what were the opinions of eminent men among the 
 Jews, during the interval from Malachi to Christ ; while 
 as yet they had no light to guide them, but that which 
 shone from the pages of prophecy. These passages are, 
 in fact, a fair index to the expectations indulged during 
 this period. They prove, that the prospect of an age of 
 glory, of a general restoration of miracles and prophecy, 
 with the subjection of all the Gentiles to their religion, 
 and the service of their God, were the inspiring themes 
 that animated and cheered them under all their national 
 sufferings, and amidst the various conflicts and wars which 
 they maintained so heroically for their country and their 
 religion. Hence we are entitled to infer, that the coming, 
 the kingdom, and the deeds of the Messiah, were not after- 
 thoughts, or arbitrary glosses, imposed upon the Jewish 
 writings by the advocates of Christianity; but that they 
 had been the long cherished notions, the favourite and 
 chief expectations of the whole people, even through that 
 period of darkness and affliction which intervened from 
 the cessation of prophecy to the coming of John. 
 
 (2.) We come, however, now directly to the time of 
 Christ, and propose to show, by indubitable witnesses, 
 that, at this period, the whole people of the Jews were in 
 
 * Chap. iii. 30, 37. 
 
346 SCRIPTUEE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 full expectation of the appearance of this long-expected 
 personage. That this age should have been more preg- 
 nant with the expectation than any that preceded it, is just 
 the natural order of things, and what every reasonable 
 inquirer would anticipate. 
 
 Let us, then, examine into the state of opinion, matured 
 and ripened as it was into a full conviction that the time 
 was come, and that their Prince and Saviour would appear 
 just about the time of Augustus Csesar. 
 
 First, it is a very important fact, not sufficiently attended 
 to, as a proof of the state of public opinion at this period, 
 that while no false Messiahs are heard of before those days, 
 and comparatively few after them, yet about the time of 
 Christ's appearance, and for some years after, many de- 
 ceivers rose up, and proclaimed themselves the predicted 
 deliverers of Israel. Josephus expressly states, that before 
 the destruction of Jerusalem, there were multitudes of 
 false Messiahs, who endeavoured to delude both the Jews 
 and Samaritans. Gamaliel, also, one of the Jewish doc- 
 tors, witnesses, " Before those days there rose up Judas 
 of Galilee, in the days of the taxing." Then, again, the 
 sect of the Herodians was formed, upon the application 
 of the prophecies concerning the Messiah to Herod. 
 Because he had repaired and beautified the temple, they 
 were ready to catch even at this fact, as a fulfilment of 
 those splendid prophecies, which they reckoned must be 
 now accomplished, or utterly fail. Fearful, therefore, lest 
 their expectations should prove abortive, and their prophets 
 be found false, they would have attributed to such a wretch 
 as Herod the sublime and glowing prophecies which had 
 foretold their Messiah. Josephus mentions another im- 
 postor, who led a multitude into the wilderness, all of 
 whom were destroyed by Festus. 
 
 We may now approach to the time of Christ's birth, and 
 to the incidental circumstances which then occurred, and 
 which prove still further the point under consideration. 
 
KINGDOM OF THE MESSIAH. o4 < 
 
 When the Magi came to Jerusalem, asking, " where is he 
 that is born king of the Jews, for we have seen his star in 
 the east, and are come to worship him ?" " Then Herod 
 was filled with consternation, and all they that were with 
 him. And he called together all the chief of the Jews, 
 and inquired of them where Christ should be born;" and 
 they agreed in one opinion, that the place was Bethlehem. 
 Then he sent his soldiers, and killed all the male children, 
 from two years old, and under. But why all this conster- 
 nation and this bloody policy, except from the prevalence 
 of the opinion, that the set time was indeed come, and 
 that his own throne was in danger ? and whence this una- 
 nimous decision of the birth-place of the promised Mes- 
 siah, but upon the previous study and anticipation of the 
 fact derived from the prophecies which they had so long 
 held in reverence ? If, at the time of Christ's birth, they 
 had indulged no such expectations, they could not, as a 
 people, have been deluded by the pretended fulfilment of 
 hopes which they had never entertained ; and Herod and 
 his party would have felt none of that inward consternation, 
 which seemed to indicate that they already felt their power 
 beginning to totter. Their fear suggested the cruel pro- 
 vision against the infant Messiah, which only proved how 
 abortive are human efforts, when directed against divine 
 counsels. Neither Herod, nor they that w^ere wdth him, 
 started the previous question, whether any such king or 
 prince should be born, whether the nation looked for a 
 Messiah, or whether the prophets had foretold any such 
 event ; these points are never once doubted. The learned 
 doctors are not questioned, whether there should be any 
 Messiah or not. All such debates w^ere completely super- 
 seded by the universality of the expectation, and not a 
 query is proposed, but about the place of his birth ; and 
 the doctors replied immediately, without hesitation, and 
 without disagreement, and adduced the place of the pro- 
 phecy in support of their decision. 
 
348 SCRIPTURE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 Now these were the opinions, not of the pious few, who 
 looked, like Simeon and Anna, for the spiritual, conso- 
 lation, and waited in hope of the Lord's appearance, rest- 
 ing on the parting words of Malachi, " The Lord whom 
 ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple ; " but these 
 were the opinions of the heads of the tribes who repre- 
 sented the whole nation. 
 
 Some years after, when John the Baptist entered upon 
 his ministry, and public opinion begcin to demand that 
 attention should be paid to his growing popularity, a 
 deputation of priests and Levites was sent to ask him who 
 he was, and whether he professed to be the Messiah. The 
 Evangelist, Luke, says of John Baptist, " the people were 
 in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts of John, 
 whether he were the Christ, or not." Now John had made 
 no such claim, but he pointed to one, whose forerunner he 
 said he was. Then the fears of the rulers were again ex- 
 cited, and all were on the tiptoe of expectation, A similar 
 deputation was sent to Jesus Christ, and he pointed to the 
 signs which accompanied his preaching. On several other 
 occasions, with a restless anxiety, which sufficiently indi- 
 cated the state of public opinion, the same question was 
 put, "Art thou he that should come, or look we for an- 
 other?" The high-priest also said, "I conjure thee to 
 tell us, if thou be the Christ." 
 
 The Samaritans, it is evident, participated in the same 
 expectation ; as is manifest, from the saying of the woman 
 of Samaria, before she knew who Jesus was, " I know that 
 Messias cometh, which is called Christ; when he is come, 
 he will tell us all things : " and after that, when the men 
 of the city had seen Christ, and heard his words, they 
 agreed with one voice, saying, " this is indeed the Christ, 
 the Saviour of the world." The Samaritans, to this day, 
 residing at Naplous, entertain the expectation of a Mes- 
 siah, under the name of Hathah, or the Convertor. Some 
 Samaritan poems also, published a few years ago, from 
 
laNGDOM OF THE MESSIAH. 349 
 
 manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, at Oxford, confirm 
 and illustrate the reality of this expectation among that 
 people. 
 
 Another important testimony to the prevalence of this 
 expectation among the Jews, is to be derived from Celsus, 
 an early and malignant enemy of the gospel. Assuming 
 the character, of a Jew, for the sake of objecting against 
 Christianity, he says, " How could we, ivho had told all 
 men that there should come one from God, who should 
 punish the wicked, despise him when he came ? The 
 proi)hets say, that he who is to come is great, and a prince, 
 and Lord of all the earth, and of all nations and armies." 
 Again, in the same chai'acter, he says, '.' My prophet said, 
 formerly, at Jerusalem, that the Son of God will come, a 
 judge of good men, and a punisher of the wicked." Again, 
 " The contentions between the Jews and Christians are 
 very silly, both sides believing that it had been. foretold by 
 the Spirit of God, that a Saviour of mankind is to come."* 
 
 (3.) But let us now advance to another general observa- 
 tion. If such were the interpretations put by the whole 
 nation of the Jews on their prophecies, and such the 
 expectation prevalent, both among them and the Sama- 
 ritans, especially just about the period of Christ's birth, 
 it will be reasonable to anticipate, that some traces of this 
 expectation should be found in heathen authors, and that 
 the pleasing prospects, so long held before the eyes of the 
 Jews, should have excited some curiosity among their 
 neighbours. 
 
 The fact will be found^answerable to such a supposition. 
 The animating hope of Israel had impregnated the ima- 
 ginations of heathen poets, and been recorded in the pages 
 of historians, as an^^ expected event, to which all the civi- 
 lized world werelooking forward, and which, as they them- 
 selves attested, their own Sibylline oracles, as well as the 
 
 * The various'passages in Celsus, admitting the Jewish expectation of a 
 Messiah, maybe found in Lardner's works, vol. vii. p. 213. Octavo edit. 1827. 
 
350 SCRIPTURE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 prophets of Judea, attributed unequivocally and universally 
 to the east. There were preserved at Rome, from a very 
 early period, certain ancient writings, called Sibylline 
 Oracles, or the Books of the Sibyls. These were always 
 kept very secret by the governors of the Roman state. 
 About one hundred years before the Christian era, these 
 books were destroyed by a fire in the Capitol. 
 
 But after this loss of the first Sibylline Oracles, the 
 Roman senate thought the possession of oracles of such 
 importance, that they made a new collection from different 
 parts of Asia, Africa, and Sicily. The persons employed 
 in making this collection, brought together about a thou- 
 sand verses in the Greek language, and of course this 
 collection, although never properly made public, was par- 
 tially in the hands of private individuals. It was made 
 death, by the Roman law, to possess it. When Augustus 
 assumed the high priesthood, he revived this law, and, in 
 consequence, many volumes are said to have been sur- 
 rendered. There is ample evidence that this new collec- 
 tion contained some predictions concerning the apj^earance 
 of a great and all-conquering king ; for Julius Csesar, having 
 attained to the height of his military power, became ambi- 
 tious of the title of king. To incline the senate to the 
 proposal, an adherent of the Csesars produced, from the 
 Sibylline books, a prediction of a king, whose appearance 
 was determined to that age. It was then stated, that his 
 monarchy was to be universal, and that his kingdom would 
 be essential to the happiness of the world. Cicero op- 
 posed the proposition, but brought no charge of falsifi- 
 cation against the alleged quotation from the Sibyls' 
 books ; although, from the nature of his office, it is cer- 
 tain he had access to those writings. But, though he 
 admitted their existence, he at once denied their authority 
 as prophecies. There cannot be any doubt that these 
 Sybilline verses contained many fragments of Jewish pro- 
 phecy; the field in which they had been gleaned suffi- 
 
KINGDOM OF THE MESSIAH. 351 
 
 ciently indicates this. But we have no doubt, and there 
 is, indeed, room for none, that the contents of the Jewish 
 Scriptures were no secrets to the Koman rulers and phi- 
 losophers. Let it be remembered, that Judea was under 
 Roman governors, many of them learned and scientific 
 men ; that there had long been a friendly intercourse, 
 and sometimes intermarriages ; and that, not only were 
 Romans abundant in Judea, but distinguished and in- 
 fluential Jews were resident at Rome ; further, that the 
 Jewish Scriptures had been, ever since the return from 
 Babylon, publicly read in all their synagogues, and were, 
 in the Greek tongue, accessible at least to all learned 
 Romans. That their Scriptures had attracted the atten- 
 tion of many Roman philosophers, poets, and statesmen, 
 might be abundantly proved. But I shall confine my 
 direct proofs to the knowledge they evince of the great 
 primaeval prediction of a Messiah. 
 
 Tacitus has these words, *' There has been, in many 
 persons, a persuasion, that it is contained in the ancient 
 books of the priests, that at that very time it would come 
 to pass, that the East should prevail, and that those com- 
 ing out of Judea should obtain the government of human 
 affairs. Which doubtful sayings predicted Titus and Ves- 
 pasian (doubtless because they achieved 'their great vic- 
 tories in the east). But the vulgar, after the manner of 
 human cupidity, interpreted this greatness of themselves, 
 nor were they, by their sufferings, turned to a true under- 
 standing;"* meaning, that the Jews, by all their adverse 
 fortunes, could not be induced to believe that these predic- 
 tions related to Titus and Vespasian. 
 
 Again, Suetonius says, " In all the east there was an 
 
 * Pluribus persuasio inerat, antiquis sacerdotum Uteris continori, eo ipso 
 tempore fore, ut valesceret Oriens, profectique Judea reruni potirentvy. 
 Qute ambages Vespasianum ac Titum pra?dixei-ant. Sed vulgus, more hu- 
 mane cupidinis, sibi tantum fatorum magnitudinem interpretati, ne adversis 
 quidem ad vera mutabantur." Tacit. Hist. lib. v. cap. 13. 
 
352 SCRIPTURE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 ancient and constant opinion spread abroad, that persons 
 coming out of Judea should obtain, by the decree of the 
 fates, the empire of the world. This prediction, relating, 
 as the event abundantly proved, to the Roman empire, 
 the Jews applied to themselves, and, in consequence, 
 rebelled against the Eomans."=!= 
 
 In connexion with these two eminent heathen historians, 
 I will first place before you the remarks of Josephus, the 
 Jewish historian, and then offer a few observations upon 
 the three testimonies. 
 
 In his work upon the Jewish war, he says, " That which 
 chiefly excited them (the Jews) to war, was an ambiguous 
 prophecy, which was also found in the sacred books, that 
 at that time, some one within their country should arise, 
 that should obtain the empire of the whole world. For 
 this they had received by tradition, that it was spoken 
 of one of their nation ; and many wise men were deceived 
 by this interpretation. But, indeed, Vespasian's empire 
 was designed in this prophecy, who was created emperor 
 in Judea." 
 
 The turn which Josephus here gives to the prophecy, as 
 intending Vespasian, is assuredly nothing to his credit, 
 after having himself fought and suffered heroically in the 
 cause of his country, and in the hope of the promised de- 
 liverer ; but now, after the Romans had effectually con- 
 quered them, and it was to the interest of the writer to 
 court the favour of that people, he can abandon the hope 
 of a Messiah at that time and according to those prophecies, 
 and find nothing in them but an intimation of Vespasian's 
 empire. But let us pass this over, and observe, generally, 
 on all these historians : they agree that it was a universally 
 received opinion, that a great king was to come out of 
 Judea ; they all agree that this opinion had its rise in the 
 prophets, or ancient Sibyls, the sacred books, or the fates ; 
 
 * Life of Vespasian. See these and other testimonies in Laniner's -works, 
 vol. vi. p. 590. 
 
KINGDOM OF THE MESSIAH. 353 
 
 they all agree that it was expected at that time, which in- 
 timates, that the Jews considered the appointed period 
 elapsed ; and Josephus could not have erred so grossly, in 
 applying the prophecies to Vespasian, had he not felt con- 
 founded by the fact, as it appeared to him, that the date 
 was run out, and no Messiah manifested, (at least, none 
 whom the nation would acknowledge;) and finding no 
 excuse for protracting the period, and, at the same time, 
 no semblance, as he thought, of a fulfilment in one of his 
 own nation, he adroitly turns the whole point of the pro- 
 phecy towards the Roman emperor, and fixes upon him the 
 honour of being divinely designated to universal empire, 
 thereby virtually abandoning the hope of his fathers. It 
 is manifest, from these authorities, that the Jewish pro- 
 phecies were the source of the prevalent opinion. All had 
 agreed, that they marked out the country of Judea, and 
 that particular age, for the coming of this universal Prince. 
 Other heathen and classic writers might be quoted at 
 considerable length, to attest the same point. Thus 
 Sallust states, that by this exj)ectation Lentulus was first 
 induced to engage in Catiline's conspiracy, and that he 
 boasted the Cornelian family would give birth to this pre- 
 dicted monarch. Virgil, the poet, has, however, made the 
 most remarkable and interesting application, botli of the 
 prophecy itself, and of the imagery employed by the Jewish 
 prophets.* In his iEneid, but especially in his Fourth 
 Eclogue, he anticipates the birth and the times of this 
 approaching Prince. The celebrated Fourth Eclogue, 
 which is dedicated to Pollio, was written during his consul- 
 ship, and was designed to signalize the birth of a son to 
 the consul. The poet not only flatters his friend with the 
 
 * I feel that some apology is due to my more learned readers, for the 
 introduction of these well-known passages. But it did not appear that this 
 outline of evidence would be complete without them ; and it seemed pro- 
 bable, that some, especially of my younger and less excursive readers, might 
 never have seen them in their application to the present argument. 
 
 V. A A 
 
354 SCRIPTURE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 hopes of a son, but even ventures to apply to him the pre- 
 vailing and sanguine expectation which the Jewish prophets 
 had originated. 
 
 Before I proceed to quote some passages from this ex- 
 quisite poem, it may be observed, that the poet proved 
 himself a better courtier than prophet ; for the child born 
 to PoUio, in anticipation of whom the poem was written, 
 proved to be a daughter instead of a son. The points, 
 however, which you have principally to observe, are the 
 facts of a predicted prince, a happy age for the world, and 
 a universal empire. 
 
 The poem commences, by saying, that the Cum?ean pro- 
 phecy is come, or is accomplished ; the great order of ages 
 again commences : 
 
 " The last great age foretold Ly sacred rhymes 
 Eenews its finished course : Saturnian times 
 EoU round again ; and mighty years, begun 
 From theu' first orb, in radiant circles ran. 
 The base degenerate iron ofi'spring ends : 
 A golden progeny from heaven descends : 
 O, chaste Lucina, speed the mother's pains, 
 And haste the glorious birth." 
 
 He then describes the child to be born as an offspring 
 of the gods. He was to have full command of the globe, 
 and to introduce universal peace. Violence and injustice 
 were to be abolished, and man's life to be restored to pri- 
 mitive innocence and bliss. He was to destroy the race 
 of seiyents, and under him the earth was to be blessed in 
 all its productions. The nature of the most savage animals 
 was to be changed, so that the herds might feed secure 
 from lions and beasts of prey. Thus it proceeds : 
 
 " Thy veiy cradle with fresh flowers shall spring ; 
 The serpent, too, shall die : tlie baneful hei'bs 
 Of noxious poison wither and decay, 
 And S}Tian spices bloom o'er all the world. 
 
KINGDOM OF THE IMESSIAH. 355 
 
 Eipe yellow harvests ou the fifld shall wave, 
 The thoruy bramhles l)hish with pendiint grapes, 
 And honey, from hard oaks, like dew distil. 
 
 . All lands shall all things bear ; 
 No glebe shaU feel the haiTow's tooth ; no vine 
 The prmring-hook. The sturdy hind 
 Shall then release the oxen from the yoke. 
 
 The sisters, by the unmoved decree of fate, 
 ■Concordant, bade these ages smoothly run. 
 Advance to mighty honom's, 0, advance ! " 
 
 It is not necessary that I should here quote, at length, the 
 expressions of Isaiah, of David, of Hosea, of Zechariah, and 
 others, to show that a large portion of this language is but 
 borrowed from the sacred writers, and heathenized in 
 Virgils hand. They tell us, that " instead of the thorn, 
 shall come up the fir-tree ; instead of the brier, the myrtle- 
 tree ; that the wilderness shall blossom like the rose ; that 
 no lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast come up 
 thereon ; that the cow and the bear shall feed, and their 
 young ones lie down togeiher ; they shall not hurt nor 
 destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full 
 of the knowledge of the Lord, &c., and dust shall be the 
 serpent's meat. Nation shall not lift u^:) sword against 
 nation, neither shall they learn war any more." Thus this 
 poem proves the general prevalence of those anticipations 
 which had been excited by the sacred predictions. It may 
 be described as a heathen edition of some of Isaiah's most 
 beautiful and fervid prophecies. Virgil could scarcely 
 have been ignorant of those ancient writings. Whoever 
 will compare the 2nd, 9th, 1 Ith, and G5th chapters of Isaiah 
 with this poem, will, I think, be constrained to confess, 
 that the application of the very same imagery to the very 
 same subject, and in a similar way, by both writers, could 
 not have been an undesigned coincidence of thought, but 
 that the one must have been derived from the other. 
 
356 SCEIPTUEE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 Virgil closes his poem with expressing his hope, that he 
 should see the day when this son of Pollio should he born. 
 He did see the day, but, as I have before intimated, Scri- 
 bonia, Pollio's wife, gave birth to a daughter ; and, as it 
 regarded Virgil's application of the prophetic picture, it 
 ended in utter disappointment. But, in less than forty 
 years after, Christ was born in the east country, and ful- 
 filled, in a far higher sense than Virgil anticipated, the 
 vision which the poet had indulged. 
 
 There is another passage in the same author's writings,* 
 in which he again alludes to the great king that was to 
 come and acquire universal dominion. Endeavouring to 
 reconcile the Roman people to the recent subversion of 
 their republic, by the establishment of the throne of the 
 Csesars, in the person of Augustus, and intimating to them, 
 in his alluring strains, that the establishment of such an 
 empire was the fulfilment of the ancient prediction (tibi 
 quern inomitti scEpius audis ; ) he says, 
 
 " Turn, turn tliine eyes : see here the race divme. 
 Behold thy own imperial Eoman line ; 
 Csesars with all the Julian name survey : 
 See where the glorious ranks ascend to-day. 
 This, this is he — the chief so long foretold, 
 To bless the land where Saturn ruled of old, 
 And give the Latian lands a second age of gold. 
 
 This mighty chief his empire shall extend 
 O'er Indian realms, to earth's remotest end." 
 
 It is of little moment to our present argument, that both 
 Jews and Gentiles had given a secular gloss to the predic- 
 tions of the sacred word, interj^reting the language literally. 
 This is precisely what might have been expected of men 
 under the influence of those false notions of religion which 
 then so extensively prevailed. This is still the great 
 stumbling-stone of many professed interpreters of pro- 
 phecy. But the points of chief importance to the autlien- 
 
 • iEneid, Ub. n. 788. 
 
KINGDOM OF THE MESSIAH. 357 
 
 tication of the prophecy, and of the argument wc are now 
 pursuing, are, that the time, the set time, designed to be 
 marked out, was at length come; that the prophets had 
 excited an expectation, now universally prevalent, that a 
 distinguished deliverer should appear ; and that the signs 
 of his coming should be peace, righteousness, and universal 
 empire. 
 
 These points have, I hope, been sufficiently made out, 
 as all included in the public opinions, both of Jews and 
 Gentiles ; and it only remains for me now to offer some 
 vindication of the Christian method of interpreting and 
 applying these predictions, in all the detail and minuteness 
 with which they appear in the prophetical books, to Him 
 whom we consider the only person to whom they can point, 
 or in whom they have met, or are ever likely to meet, an 
 adequate fulfilment. 
 
 Jesus Christ was born at the period of all this excite- 
 ment and expectation. He was descended from the royal 
 house of David, whose son it had frequently been foretold 
 he was to be, at the period when the temporal kingdom 
 had departed from Judah. Now he was born, not merely 
 within the land of Israel, but at Bethlehem, as the wise 
 men of Herod's day explained the prophecy. He was born 
 under circumstances of poverty and humiliation, as the 
 prophets had also described. 
 
 Taking, for a moment, a glance at his wonderful life, his 
 perfect character, and unparalleled doctrine ; a life marked 
 by the most extraordinary impression upon his contempo- 
 raries ; a character that defied malignity itself to impeach 
 it, and a doctrine that seemed to embody all wisdom and 
 goodness — can any doubt remain, that -such a Prince of 
 Peace, and Truth, and Grace was eminently fitted to the 
 work of enlightening, elevating, and saving mankind ? Or 
 can we hesitate to prefer such an interpretation of these 
 prophecies as shall point out a spiritual prince, before 
 such an interpretation as should merely give us a temporal, 
 
358 SCRIPTUEE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 though a dignified and triumphant monarch, of some 
 earthly kingdom ; merely a superior, but of the same kind, 
 as the princes of the world ; a sort of .master-spirit among 
 the royal order? It could hardly be deemed an object 
 worthy of the intervention of the supreme wisdom and 
 power, to have created and sustained so vast an apparatus, 
 to have constituted so long a line of prophetic delineations, 
 merely to usher into the world a magnificent temporal 
 prince; or merely to have subjected all nations to the rule 
 of one such individual, however wise and just. The pre- 
 paration was too magnificent for such an issue ; too divine 
 for so earthly an object ; too spiritual for a consummation 
 so strictly temporal and secular. 
 
 If Vv-e look into the moral condition of hum.an nature ; 
 if we examine the state of all nations, as degraded by vice 
 and superstition, we shall there find an object worthy the 
 attention of the promised Messiah ; we shall see that it 
 was true religion, true morality, mankind deeply needed, 
 not worldly aggrandizement ; wisdom, not riches ; peace 
 with God and their own consciences ; not voluptuous en- 
 joyment, nor a paradise of earthly rest, but a moral renova- 
 tion of the heart, and a hope full of immortality. Let any 
 one look to the first consequences of man's defection, and to 
 the first professed expression of the divine mercy ; let him 
 trace these alleged divine expressions through all the pro- 
 phets, and then let these conjointly determine what ought 
 to be expected in the divine, the universal j^anacea for the 
 world ; what the higher nature of man needed in order to 
 restore it ; and what a Creator, who had formed and en- 
 dowed that nature, and witnessed its unhappy defection, 
 might be supposed willing and able to do for its recovery 
 to himself : and then let it be determined, whether a mighty 
 temporal prince, extending his sceptre over all nations, or 
 a divine almighty conqueror of sin, and death, and hell ; 
 whether a wide secular dominion, atfording only temporal 
 prosperity, or a peaceful reign of truth and love in the 
 
kingdo:m of the Messiah. 359 
 
 lieart ; a kingdom of righteousness within us, rather than 
 an outward kingdom of wealth and glory, is the thing most 
 needed ; whether a school for moral discipline, a fountain 
 for sin and uncleanness, and a transforming spirit of life 
 and grace, or an influx of corn and wine, be the more 
 precious reality for a suffering world to seek, and a bene- 
 volent God to bestow, as the fruit of that pregnant and 
 long-labouring prediction, to whose birth-hour angels and 
 men had been looking, through the long night of four 
 thousand years. 
 
 Had the prevailing Jewish notion of the Messiah proved 
 the true one, and all the magnificence and sublimity of 
 ancient prophec}' issued merely in the acquisition of the 
 temporal sovereignty of the earth, and in the very best 
 blessings which it is in the power of the most benignant 
 secular government to bestow, we might reasonably have 
 objected, that this was not an issue worthy the special 
 interference of the Supreme Being : and surely it will be 
 admitted, that an entire inward renovation of man's nature, 
 in that moral image of God which he had lost, would be 
 much more worthy, both of the long preparation and 
 ardent expectation of a Messiah which the divine promise 
 had occasioned. 
 
 Now that Jesus Christ, in the whole of his character, 
 answers to the spiritual import, and to the entire body of 
 the predictions ; that, in his dominion over human hearts, 
 and in his gracious doctrine, we have the substantial ful- 
 filment of all that had been previously foretold, we hope to 
 be able to show, in the remaining portion of this argument. 
 
 II. We come, therefore, now to state and prove, that we 
 possess, in the personal character of Jesus Christ, a singular 
 verification and fulfilment of all that the Jewish prophets 
 had attributed to their Messiah, as well as of those general 
 apprehensions of a great benefactor and teacher of man- 
 kind, which tradition had scattered through the heathen 
 world. 
 
360 SCRTPTUEE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 All who admit the general fact, that some such great 
 personage was expected, will also allow that it was upon 
 the suf)position of his extraordinary excellency, and the 
 superiority of his character, that those flattering hopes 
 were entertained respecting the future renovation of the 
 world. Without entering into any recital of the particular 
 virtues and excellences ascrihed to him, it may be suffi- 
 cient here to observe, that he was to teach all wisdom? 
 practise all virtue, and promote all the highest interests of 
 mankind. None can have read the particular prophecies 
 relating to these subjects, without observing that language 
 itself is exhausted in his praises ; and that he is spoken of 
 as at once the favourite of heaven and the joy of the earth, 
 the ambassador of God to man, the intercessor for man 
 with God ; as zealous for the glory of the Creator, as de- 
 voted to the improvement and felicity of his creatures. 
 Now, without regarding, at present, the circumstances of 
 the early history of Christ, let us take a brief review of his 
 character, from the period when he commenced, what may 
 be called, his public life. 
 
 We are, at once, struck with the extraordinary dignity, 
 combined with humility; the mental superiority, united 
 with the most singular simplicity and innocence, in every 
 action and every sentence. We cannot travel with him, in 
 imagination, for a single day, without feeling impressed 
 with the conviction, that we are in the company of some 
 most extraordinary personage. His wisdom astonishes 
 alike the learned and the rfide. His discourses are the 
 most penetrating and the most touching, the most in- 
 structive and the most gracious, that ever fell from human 
 lips, or ever saluted human ears. When men stood in his 
 presence, they were either transported with admiration, or 
 smitten with amazement, or covered with shame. His 
 friends were delighted by the sweetness of his manner, the 
 excellence of his doctrine, and the glad tidings of consola- 
 tion which he preached ; while those who ventured to 
 
KINGDOM OF THE MESSIAH. 361 
 
 encounter him in argument, from malice or contention, 
 found all their weapons unavailing, their motives instantly- 
 penetrated and exposed, or themselves entangled in the 
 very snare they had designed against him. All his public 
 controversies were marked by a skill surpassing that of the 
 most practised and crafty debater, while the simplicity and 
 artlessness of his reasoning and replies imparted an air of 
 dignity to his triumphs, and of superiority to his whole 
 demeanour, which demonstrated the presence of an all- 
 penetrating and all-comprehending wisdom. 
 
 But the chief character in all his conduct, was benevo- 
 lence. He went about doing good. It was his business 
 and his element. His beneficence was confined to no 
 class, and limited to no one department of blessings. All 
 were alike within the compass of his power and the good- 
 ness of his heart. With equal grace he could heal a poor 
 cripple by the road side, or instruct a proud ruler in his 
 mansion ; reprove the abandoned with a voice that effect- 
 ually reached their conscience and transformed their heart, 
 or console the wretched, the poor, and the penitent. 
 
 His philanthropy was the most perfect, the most com- 
 prehensive, and the most discriminating ; a wonderful 
 adjustment of wisdom with love, of justice with mercy. 
 At different times we behold him, in a great variety of cir- 
 cumstances, among friends and enemies, in the crowded 
 city, in the solitude of mountains and deserts, in the 
 temple among the scribes and priests, or in the lanes and 
 markets among the publicans and sinners ; yet what 2iurity, 
 what wisdom, what perfect propriety of conduct and of 
 speech, do we every where behold I What frankness, what 
 fearlessness ! What freedom from trickery, sophistry, or 
 stratagem ! Who could ever say that Jesus Christ dis- 
 played the slightest approximation to any of the charac- 
 teristics of an impostor ? No hidden or sinister purpose 
 ever appeared, no selfish ends, no incongruity between his 
 professions and his actions. Who ever detected him in a 
 
36'2 SCRIPTURE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 word, an emotion, or action inconsistent with the high cha- 
 racter and divine office he professed '? Only truth is uni- 
 form, always simple and natm-al. Insincerity is full of 
 expedients; falsehood is crafty and jealous; imposture is 
 boastful and impatient of scrutiny. 
 
 Jesus Christ was placed in many trying situations. His 
 enemies were no strangers to his pretensions. Had there 
 been any possibility of impeaching his veracity or consis- 
 tency, had they detected any flaw in his character, there 
 was no want of inclination to use it to his prejudice. He 
 had knowingly admitted a constant spy upon his conduct, 
 into the select company of the apostles ; one that was per- 
 fectly familiar wdth all their counsels and movements ; yet 
 even he failed to discover a plausible pretext for delivering 
 his jMaster to the Jews, though he had long sought an 
 occasion, and was constrained, at last, to betray the inno- 
 cent blood as a mere matter of gain. But the conduct of 
 Jesus Christ always challenged the strictest scrutin3\ One 
 supreme, commanding, and universal motive appeared in 
 all he did, and said, and suffered. The glory of God, in 
 the moral, spiritual, and eternal good of mankind, absorbed 
 him wholly. He refused no suffering, shrunk from no 
 labour, that might tend to exalt the divine glory in the 
 dominion of the supreme law, the claims of eternal justice, 
 and the riches of the divine mercy. In his history there ap- 
 pears, indeed, a wonderful union of gladness and grief, of 
 suffering and benediction, of dignity and degradation. 
 Who ever so harmonized all these opposites as Jesus Christ 
 did? Who could have sustained all these conditions 
 equally well ? Wliat human head could so have worn the 
 crown of glory and the crown of thorns? It is signally 
 worthy of observation, that he continually derived his con- 
 solation and support from the connexion between his 
 sufferings and the honour of the Eternal Majesty. He 
 saw of the travail of his soul, and was satisfied. The su- 
 preme desire of his heart was to become the Captain of 
 
KINGDOM OF THE MESSIAH. 363 
 
 salvation ; hence he braved and bore all the perils and the 
 agonies of a moral strife with the wicked of the world, with 
 sin in its violence, and Satan in his malignity. There 
 was not an action or a word, a pang or a privation, through 
 his whole life, that did not obviously subserve the dominion 
 of the truth, the exaltation of the divine righteousness, and 
 the enthronement of grace and love in the hearts of men. 
 Single-handed, and alone, he stood forward before the 
 world to elevate and sustain, by the energy of his own 
 wisdom, by the purity of his own life, a standard for dis- 
 honoured virtue and outraged truth, and forsaken godli- 
 ness ; while he himself presented the living image and 
 perfect model of all he enforced upon others. 
 
 Let it be assumed, from the uniform testimony of the 
 prophets, that the IMessiah was to be the great instructor 
 of mankind in all that concerns their duty to God and to 
 each otlier ; that he was to exemplify in himself every virtue 
 that can adorn the human character; that he was to bring 
 in and offer a perfect righteousness, and to afford such 
 blessings to the world as should unite all tribes of the earth 
 in the bonds of a common fraternity ; and then judge, from 
 the simple and unvarnished narrative contained in the 
 gospel, whether the character of Jesus Christ does not, in 
 all respects, fully answer to these requirements ; or whether 
 it is possible to conceive of one that can more completely 
 embody the sublime conceptions contained in the poetic 
 and prophetic delineations of the Jewish prophets. 
 
 We read, indeed, of great characters in history, but they 
 were great only in some one department, as philosophers, 
 as heroes, philanthropists, kings, or commanders. None 
 are found without weaknesses, errors, and defects. None 
 are greiit in all qualities. But how trivial and insignificant 
 does all their wisdom, or magnanimity, or generosity, or 
 heroism appear, when compared with Jesus Christ ! How 
 immeasurably does his character surpass, for its wisdom, 
 every sage ; for its purity, every anchorite ; for its superiority 
 
364 SCRIPTURE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 to suffering, every stoic ; for its fortitude, every martyr ; 
 for its benignity and self-denial, every philanthropist! 
 Even the pages of fiction have not dared to present a 
 parallel or an imitation ; and, in fact, have never reached 
 the conception of a character comparable to that of Jesus 
 Christ. The world knows nothing, practically, of excel- 
 lences such as these. They were infinitely above its stand- 
 ard, above its sympathies, above its imagination ; therefore 
 we find the counterpart nowhere, the conception of it never. 
 It is the unique, the unmatched, the highest work of God. 
 Fiction itself has never approached it, and yet candour 
 pronounces it to be a reality. Such, altogether, is the 
 originality, the perfection, of this character, that we may 
 decide, at once, upon the great improbability of its being- 
 imaginative ; while the perfect harmony of all its parts, the 
 unity of the different portraits, as drawn by the pens of the 
 several Evangelists, with the total absence of all colouring, 
 exaggeration, or management, constrain the belief that it 
 must be truth. Infinitely as those simple narratives out- 
 strip all that we can imagine as attainable by human na- 
 ture, in its best productions, yet we instantly admit the 
 perfect propriety, nature, and truth of the delineation ; yea, 
 the indispensable necessity for its possessing those very 
 peculiarities, upon the alleged mystery of his double na- 
 ture, as both the Son of God and the Son of Man. Assume 
 that the prophecies described him as Immanuel, God with 
 us, and then the narratives of the Evangelists, filled as they 
 are with the recital of his wonderful works, and bright as 
 they are with the lustre of his perfections, will seem a per- 
 fectly fair, consistent, and credible account of what, under 
 the given circumstances of the case, might have been ex- 
 pected, so far, at least, as imagination could go in pre- 
 conceiving what would be the manifestations of the God- 
 man.* 
 
 * Tlio following testimony to tlie charactei' of Jesns Christ, from tlie pen 
 of Rousseau, is worthy the perusal of those who have not already seen it. As 
 
KINGDOM OF THE MESSIAH. 365 
 
 I will only notice one additional feature before I proceed 
 to show the bearing of what has been advanced upon the 
 
 tlie frank acknowledgment of a man certainly not a Christian, it shows the 
 force of truth and nature in the character of Jesus Christ, tliough it proves 
 the inconsistency of the writer : — 
 
 " This divine book, (the gospel,) the only one necessary for a Christian, 
 and the most useful of all to every one, even though not a Christian, needs 
 only to be considered to fill the soul with a love for its author, and a desire 
 of fulfilling its precepts. Never virtue spake in such sweet language. Never 
 was the most profound wisdom expressed with such energy and simplicity. 
 We never leave ofi" reading it without perceiving ourselves better than 
 before. 
 
 " The majesty of the Scriptures astonishes me ; the holiness of the gospel 
 speaks to my heart. Examine the works of the philosophers, with all their 
 i)omp; how insignificant are they when compared with this ! Can a book, at 
 once so sublime and wise, be the work of man '? Can the person, whose his- 
 tory it relates, be himself a man ? Does it contain the language of an enthu- 
 siast, or an ambitious sectary' ? What sweetness, what purity in his manners ! 
 What affecting goodness in his instructions ! What sublimity in his maxims ! 
 What profound wisdom in his discourses ! What presence of mind ; what 
 ingenuity and justness in his replies ! What government of his passions ! 
 Where is the man, or philosopher, who knows how to act, suff"er, and die, 
 without weakness or ostentation ? When Plato describes his imaginary good 
 man, with all the ignominy of guUt, and worthy of every reward of virtue, he 
 paints, feature for feature, Jesus Christ. The resemblance is so striking, that 
 all the fathers have taken notice of it; and that it is not possible to be de- 
 ceived therein. How prejudiced, how l)lind must we be, to dare to compare 
 the son of Sophronisca with the son of Mary ! How far distant from each 
 other! Socrates, dying without pain, without ignominy, sustains easily his 
 character to the end. And, if this easy death had not honoured his life, we 
 might doubt whether Socrates, with all his genius, was other than a sophister. 
 We are told he invented morality; others before him had practised it; he only 
 declared what they had done ; and reduced into precepts their examples. 
 Aristides had been just, before Socrates told us what justice was. Leonidas 
 had died for his country before Socrates had made the love of our country a 
 duty. Sparta was free from luxury, before Socrates praised temperance. 
 Before he recommended vhtue, Greece abounded witli virtuous men. But 
 where could Jesus have taken, among liis countrymen, this elevated and pure 
 morality, of which he alone has given the precept and the example ? From 
 the bosom of the most furious bigotry, the most exalted wisdom is heard ; and 
 the simplicity of the most heroic virtues honours the vilest of the people. 
 The death of Socrates, philosophising undisturbedly with his friends, is tlie 
 most easy that can be desired. That of Jesus, expiring amidst torments, 
 railed at, vilified and cursed by every one, is the most dreadful that can be 
 apprehended. Socrates, taking the poisoned cup, blesses him who presents 
 
366 SCIilPTUEE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 general argument before us. It is the profound and uni- 
 versal reverence of Jesus Christ for the Eternal Father, 
 whose messenger to man he alleged himself to be. Upon 
 the assumption of the Messiahship, was it not most 
 appropriate to manifest such an absorbing passion; was it 
 not well placed, as the very basis of the Messiah's cha- 
 racter? And was it not most suitably and harmoniously 
 exhibited, as the very feature which, under the given cir- 
 cumstances, should appear the first, the highest, the most 
 commanding principle of his entire office and character? 
 How sweetly, then, yea, how perfectly, does his reverent 
 devotion towards God harmonize with the most active, the 
 most tender, the most comprehensive philanthropy ! How 
 were these two master-springs of his character, like distant 
 and discordant notes in music, brought into a melting 
 harmony in all his actions ! While, in his death, they 
 seemed combined into a most unearthly sv/eetness, as 
 pleasing to God as it was salutary and joyous to mankind. 
 Great as was his active love to man, visible through all his 
 words and deeds, yet its richest, its greatest donative was 
 in the offering up of himself to God, a sacrifice for the 
 
 it, and weeps for liim. Jesus, in the midst of tlie most friglitful torments, 
 praj's for liis merciless Lutcliers. Yes, if the life and death of Socrates are 
 those of a philosopher, the life and death of Jesus Christ are those of a God. 
 Should we suppose the gospel was a story, invented to please ? It is not in 
 this manner that we forge tales ; for the actions of Socrates, of which no per- 
 son has the least douht, are less satisfactorily attested than those of Jesus 
 Christ. In short, when all is done, it is only evading the difficulty, without 
 destroying it. It would be more inconceivable to suppose, that several per. 
 sons in concert composed this book, than that one person only furnished the 
 subject thereof. Never did the Jewish authors discover such language or 
 morality; and the gospel has'such strildng marks of truth, and so perfectly 
 inimitable, that the invention thereof would be more astonishing than the 
 hero of the subject. 
 
 " The precepts of Plato are often very sublime, but he sometimes is in 
 error* and how far do not those errors extend? As to Cicero, can it be rea- 
 sonably supposed, that this rhetorician had composed his Offices without 
 Plato? The gospel alone is, with respect to morality, ever certain, ever true, 
 ever uniform and consistent with itself." — Rousseau a Thoughts. 
 
KINGDOM OF THE MESSIAH. 367 
 
 sins of the world. Though, in one sense, incapable of fear, 
 through any conscious defect, or any surprise from his 
 enemies, yet the fear of God took such hold of his human 
 nature, that it made him dread, more than death, the wrath 
 of his Eternal Father. His soul was troubled, his flesh 
 was agonized, and even his pure and sinless mind became 
 sore amazed. Such was his pure reverence, his profound 
 devotion to the glory of God, that he sunk under the bur- 
 den of his spirit, when he sustained the guilt of our trans- 
 gressions. Never was the Eternal Jehovah so honoured 
 and exalted in our apostate nature. It was needful that 
 both angels and men should see a perfect example of what 
 fear, what reverence, what devotion, is due to the Supreme 
 Creator. There had been defection among the angels, 
 and apostasy of our whole race. Was it not, then, suitable 
 that there should be a just and full exaltation of the right- 
 eousness and supremacy of God ? A due reverencing and 
 a worthy adoring of him who is over all, God blessed for 
 evermore ? That which had been proved to be impossible 
 to us, was accomplished by Jesus Christ. All reverences, 
 all adorations, all submissions, all devotions of angels and 
 of men, seemed to be melted down into his one act. All 
 these high and pure emotions are united in his human 
 soul, and made one perfect and fragrant offering unto God. 
 As if all odours of sweetest incense had been compounded 
 into one ineffable fragrance ; as if all lines of natural beauty 
 had been united in one face, and all moral beauty into one 
 heart; as if all dignified, ennobling, and melting passions, 
 all holy ardours, and all seraphic impulses, had been col- 
 lected into one bosom : like them all, above them all ; in- 
 finitely transcending every conception we can form, was 
 that heart which Jesus Christ presented as an offering for 
 mankind to the Eternal Father. 
 
 But we must now advert to the certainty which attaches 
 to this account of Christ's character, as derived from the 
 four Evangelists, and answering to the predicted character 
 
368 SCRIPTURE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 of the expected Messiah. We must, then, endeavour to 
 show the hearing of this upon the genenil illustration and 
 fulfilment of the ancient Scriptures. 
 
 It will he readily conceived, that if there ever was in this 
 world so extraordinary a person as the Jesus Christ we 
 have described, he could not have appeared in any country 
 without producing an unusual excitement. So celestial a 
 light could not be hidden in a corner. The fact, indeed, 
 will be found precisely to answer to what might have been 
 presumed. His character did. produce an extraordinary 
 sensation. It did exert such an attraction as had never 
 before been felt. It did leave behind unparalleled effects, 
 and such as no time has availed to obliterate. There is 
 the utmost certainty of this, because the results j^roduced 
 by his life and character, altogether, can be proved, by un- 
 deniable facts and documents, to have been authenticated, 
 known, and talked of every where, long before the Evan- 
 gelists had recorded, or sent forth a single line of their 
 several narratives. The name, and deeds, and history of 
 Christ, were well known, and had produced myriads of 
 adherents to his cause, before any Christian church was in 
 possession of any written account of him. 
 
 So that we are sure, in the first place, that such an im- 
 pression had been produced most extensively by himself, 
 as, from the character in the narrative, was to have been 
 expected : and, moreover, it was produced at the very time 
 when he is said to have lived ; and was followed by conse- 
 quences and events which could not be accounted for, but 
 upon the supposition of his having been just what he is 
 described, and of his having made just that kind of impres- 
 sion which is attributed to him. 
 
 Had there been no such person, or had his character been 
 materially different from what is stated, such a fabulous 
 account would have met with the most easy refutation ; in 
 fact, it never could have gained any credit. But not merely 
 so ; no such effects, as we know did result, could have been 
 
KINGDOM OF THE MESSIAH. 309 
 
 j)roduced by any ordinary character. Our argument, there- 
 fore, is this ; unless the character of Christ be admitted to 
 have been precisely as described, his gospel could never 
 have been established ; his disciples could never have- 
 shown such devotion, such confidence, such fearlessness 
 in his cause, as the heathen vvriters ascribe to them. Un- 
 less there had been all this lustre, and all this fragrancy 
 about his name and his memory, his cause could never 
 have been preserved from decay, nor made triumphant, 
 both over Judaism and heathenism. Again, unless there 
 had been such a real person, and a distinct recognition of 
 his character remaining in the memories of the people 
 throughout the land of Israel, at the time when the gospels 
 were first written, it would have been utterly impossible 
 for them to have gained credit with any one, and much 
 less among the Jewish people, and within the generation 
 among whom he was stated to have lived. But though 
 the gospels were not written till twenty or thirty years 
 after his death, yet so fully were they recognised and cor- 
 roborated by myriads of living witnesses, and so abundantly 
 were they borne out, by all the facts that had followed his 
 life, ministry, and death, that they were universally ac- 
 cepted and assented to, as a genuine and fair account of 
 that extraordinary person. 
 
 An objector, it appears to me, can entertain here only 
 two suppositions, by which he may attempt to undermine 
 the force of this evidence. He may allege, first, that the 
 narrative of Christ's life is altogether a fabrication, the 
 result of a most crafty and skilful combination of very ex- 
 traordinary talents in the four writers ; or he may suppose, 
 secondly, that there was once, and at the time stated, such 
 a person, but that the accounts of him are grossly over- 
 charged, and made, indeed, mere fictions, by the weakness 
 or wickedness of the writers. 
 
 Now, without referring to the apparent absurdity of such 
 suppositions, as evinced by the internal evidence of truth, 
 
 V. B B 
 
370 SCRIPTURE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 nature, and simplicity in all the narratives, an argument 
 well glanced at by Rousseau, in the note lately given, I will 
 endeavour to show the inconsistency of each of these sup- 
 positions, by an appeal to the undoubted facts of the case. 
 
 Take the first supposition, that the accounts were wholly 
 fabulous ; then how are we to explain all the antecedent 
 facts ? The gospels were indisputably not the beginnings 
 of Christ's fame, nor the commencements of his cause. 
 He had gained thousands and tens of thousands of friends, 
 and made many enemies too ; he had originated a new 
 religion, he had suffered by the perfidy of a traitor, and his 
 religion been severely persecuted, his disciples martyred, 
 through many years, before any one heard of the written 
 gospels. His doctrine had penetrated nearly every part of 
 the Roman empire ; his confessors abounded in every city 
 of Judea and of Greece, as is testified by Jewish and 
 heathen authorities ; and the gospel was advancing rapidly, 
 in a career of triumph and glory, without the aid of these 
 supposed fictitious lives ; so that the allegation of these 
 narratives being a mere fabrication, then, for the first time, 
 proclaiming these wonders concerning Jesus, becomes an 
 absurdity that no man can maintain. The writings, in- 
 deed, might be a novelty, but the subject of which they 
 treated could be none. Hence all the testimonies of in- 
 dubitable history hang like a dead weight about the neck 
 of this supposition, and sink it effectually and for ever. 
 
 But let us try the second supposition of infidels. Ima- 
 gine, if you will, that there had been, at the time and jjlace 
 specified, some such a person as Jesus Christ, but that the 
 narratives of his character, given us by the Evangelists, are 
 greatly exaggerated, and substantially myths, mere fable. 
 Reduce the magnificent portrait to an everyday character; 
 take away from it, if you will, every feature of divinity, 
 every line that distinguishes it from other men ; or reduce 
 its glowing radiance, its inimitable beauty, its originality 
 and sweetness, down to the wildness of an enthusiast, or 
 
KINGDOM OF THE MESSIAH. 871 
 
 the dark subtlety of the impostor; or save it from this de- 
 gradatron, by stopping half-way in the character of some 
 sage, philosopher, or prophet; then, on every one of these 
 hapless expedients, hangs, again, the mill-stone of fatal, 
 indomitable facts. The impression that had been pro- 
 duced ; the powerful attractions that had been felt; the 
 moral transformations that had been experienced by thou- 
 sands ; the light that had been kindled in men's minds, 
 and communicated, and rendered permanent; the martvrs 
 that had suffered ; the convulsions that had shaken Juda- 
 ism to its very foundations ; the breaches that had been 
 effected by the unarmed, unprotected, despised fishermen 
 of Galilee, in the strongholds of heathen superstition and 
 idolatry ; the rapid advances of Christianity every where, 
 mauyre all the formidable array of civil, religious, and phi- 
 losophical authority against it; these are unquestionable 
 facts, utterly irreconcilable with mere mediocrity, or any 
 simply human excellency of character. They can be ex- 
 plained only on the ground of the peculiar, unprecedented, 
 divine superiority of the Messiah's character. It is just as 
 absurd to believe, that being an ordinary, or even a great 
 man, or a bad man, he could have wrought such prodigious 
 effects by his teaching and character, as to believe that he 
 never existed at all. 
 
 Thus, I think, it has been made evident, that no suj^po- 
 sition is consonant with all the undeniable facts of this 
 case; none, certainly, that can adequately explain them, 
 but that which proceeds upon the consistent and simple 
 statements of the Evangelists ; that the character of Jesus 
 Christ was such, throughout, as they have described it, and 
 such as had been attributed to the long-expected Messiah 
 by all the prophets. 
 
 III. We now proceed, thirdhj, to show, according to the 
 order laid down at the beginning of this argument, that 
 the establishment and subsequent successes of the Chris- 
 tian cause, further and fully verify all the descriptions and 
 
J / 2 SCRIPTURE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 anticipations that preceded it. Both Judaism and Gen- 
 tilism were to yield before it. Our inquiry, therefore, now 
 is, how far has its success evinced tlmt divine authority and 
 power, attributed to it by the united testimony of all the 
 prophets, and by the general expectation of the Jewish 
 people, and the other nations, w^ho looked more obscurely, 
 yet not the less certainly and generally, for a deliverer and 
 restorer of mankind ? 
 
 It is not intended to assume, that success is a criterion 
 of truth ; or failure a proof of falsehood and imposture. 
 In fact, no general rule can be founded upon the bare 
 matter of success or failure. Other considerations must 
 be weighed, before any rule can be established. Every 
 case must be tried by its own merits. A just estimate of 
 results can only be formed after a deliberate examination 
 of all the circumstances under which success or failure 
 may have occurred. In some cases, the success or failure 
 may have been purely' accidental, and then its causes wull 
 usually be sufficiently apparent ; in others, success may 
 have been so improbable, so totally precluded, upon any 
 human calculation, and so contrary to all experience, as to 
 thrust upon us the conclusion, that there was something 
 extraordinary, or even miraculous, in the result; or that 
 the peculiar nature and extent of the success, all circum- 
 stances considered, imply a power miraculous and divine, 
 in the causes from which it proceeded. But assuredly no 
 wise and experienced judge would propose success or fail- 
 ure as absolute tests in any great question of this kind, 
 irrespective of other circumstances. They may be so under 
 certain conditions to be laid down. They may prove very 
 satisfactory tests, w^hen applied carefully, and after an ex- 
 amination of the way in which they have occurred. 
 
 An argument, therefore, from the success or failure of 
 any cause, is not to be crudely stated, or rashly enforced. 
 I do not here intend to argue, that because Christianity 
 was successful very early, and to a very great extent, there- 
 
KINGDOM OF THE MESSIAH. 873 
 
 fore it must be divine : for then Mahommeclanism might 
 claim the benefit of the same bold and sweeping conclu- 
 sion. But I do mean to affirm, that because Christianity- 
 was successful, under all the circumstances of its own pecu- 
 liar case, it must be divine ; and because Mahommedanism 
 was successful only under its own peculiar circumstances, 
 it cannot be divine. 
 
 The force and bearing of the distinction here intended, 
 will be admitted, when the principal circumstances are 
 brought under review. Infidels are ready to suggest, that 
 other religions, besides Christianity, have been extensively 
 successful, have endured long, and sustained great opposi- 
 tion ; and, therefore, that the success of Christianity can 
 be no proof of its divine authority. Now we admit, that 
 if Christianity had achieved its success under similar cir- 
 cumstances, and by the same means as those other reli- 
 gions, it would, on this ground, have no priority of claim. 
 But we totally deny, that any other system was ever suc- 
 cessful under circumstances similar, or at all parallel. The 
 circumstances are every thing to the validity of this argu- 
 ment. Other systems may have been successful, and yet 
 their success may contain no guarantee of their truth ; 
 this may have been successful under such circumstances 
 as may contain the most elaborate and invincible proofs of 
 its divinity. We must, therefore, refer to those general 
 considerations, which may hereafter be advanced in proof 
 of the proposition, that success, in this case, is an evidence 
 of inspiration, on account of the very peculiar circum- 
 stances attending it. 
 
 To the right understanding of this argument, it is essen- 
 tial that we should regard particularly, both the principles 
 of Christianity, as to their acceptableness or repulsiveness 
 to mankind, and also the precise circumstances under 
 which this religion was left, at the period of its Founder's 
 death, and when it was first fairly launched upon its pro- 
 fessed career of converting the world. It w^as then pre- 
 
374 SCRIPTUEE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 eminently a religion of peace and love. It sanctioned no 
 violence; it enjoined patient endurance; and it forbad all 
 unrighteous means, all corrupt, all fraudulent practices, in 
 its defence, or for its propagation. 
 
 At the time when Christ suffered death, it had compara- 
 tively few friends, especially among the great, the rich, and 
 powerful. But, on the contrary, all seemed combined in a 
 league of inextinguishable hostility against it. Its Founder 
 was treated with the bitterest scorn, with savage cruelty, 
 while the few poor persons who professed attachment to 
 him were of the very lowest orders of the people. The 
 success of Christianity can scarcely be said to have com- 
 menced till after the death of its author. 
 
 Now this general view of the simple facts of the case, as 
 it then stood, is not dependent upon the Christian records 
 alone. It is the uniform account transmitted to us, both 
 by Jewish and heathen testimonies. So that it is not to be 
 alleged, that we designedly def)reciate the numbers and the 
 resources of the first Christians ; or that we diminish its 
 commencement for the sake of augmenting the wonder of 
 its triumphs, and giving effect to the insignificance of its 
 human means. Its enemies themselves represent its be- 
 ginnings as far more weak and despicable than do its own 
 professed historians. 
 
 I will lay before you a specimen or two of the descrip- 
 tions of its founders and early promoters, given by its ene- 
 mies. In a Jewish book, named Miriam, or Mary, it is 
 said, " Miriam brought forth a son, whom she called 
 Joshua (or Jesus). The elders of the Sanhedrim pro- 
 claimed him unfit to be of the consreoation, and stvled 
 him Jeschu, as a sign that his name and memory ought to 
 perish. Jeschu, finding himself thus marked, retired to 
 Upper Galilee. Jeschu passed to Bethlehem, the place of 
 his birth, and said to the inhabitants. It is of me that the 
 prophet Isaiah spake, when he said, 'A virgin,' &c. To 
 the people of Jerusalem, he said, * I am he of whom the 
 
KINGDOM OF THE MESSIAH. 375 
 
 prophet Zechariali said, Behold your king, &c. It is I 
 ■whom David, my forefather, had in view, when he wrote, 
 tlie Lord said unto me, Thou art my son,' &c. After relat- 
 ing that he was bound, scourged, crowned with thorns, &c., 
 this book adds, ' that he declared, that — my blood must 
 expiate the sins of men,' &c. After speaking of the death 
 of Jesus, one of the ancients is represented as addressing 
 the Nazarenes in these terms, 'You ought to know, that 
 this person, who has been hung, was the enemy of the 
 Jews, and their law.'"* Several other books of the Jews 
 speak of Jesus in the most degrading and contemptuous 
 terms. 
 
 Some of the early Christian fathers have also preserved 
 similar descriptions of Jesus, taken from Jewish writings, 
 which are now lost. With respect to the character and 
 condition of the first disciples, it is said, in a Jewish work, 
 still extant, " His disciples, and the wicked throng, were 
 attached to him. When the report of his works reached 
 Jerusalem, the worthless rejoiced greatly in them ; but the 
 elders, the devout, and the multitude of the wise men, wept 
 bitterly." The Toldoth of Huldric terms the disciples, 
 "vain and futile men;" and the apostles, "those worthless 
 persons." It is said, in another Jewish book, "then many 
 low persons of our nation attached themselves to Jesus." 
 Celsus also says, that " Jesus, taking to himself ten or 
 eleven abjects, vile publicans and sailors, went about with 
 them." And, in another place, that "he took only ten 
 abandoned mariners and publicans, and persuaded not 
 e\en all of them." Another opponent in those early times, 
 specially reviled Paul and Peter, and the rest of the dis- 
 ciples, as propagators of imposture, whom he declares to 
 have been " rude and illiterate, and that some of them 
 gained their subsistence by fishing." Porphyry styles the 
 
 * Sheppard's Div. Orig. of Christianity, vol. i. p. 80, where many similar 
 testimonies may be foxmd. 
 
376 SCKIPTURE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 apostles rustic and indigent men. Julian also writes thus, 
 " Jesus having persuaded a few among you, and those the 
 worst," &c. And again, " If there appear any one recorded 
 (as a Christian) of the persons of note or eminence, at that 
 day, under Tiberius and Claudius, when these things hap- 
 pened, judge me, on every subject, a deceiver." The Pa- 
 gans called the Christians, in derision, " pupils of the illi- 
 terate, and the fishermen." These references will suffi- 
 ciently show in what light Jesus and his followers were 
 regarded by those who lived at the time when Christianity 
 was first published. 
 
 Now, mider these circumstances, Christianity began its 
 career. Weak and despicable enough, humanly speaking, 
 it undoubtedly was, at least according to the opinion of its 
 enemies and the standard of the world. The only wonder 
 is, that, according to their own views, they should use such 
 severe methods for its suppression. It v/as, truly, a root 
 out of a dry ground. There was not one element in its 
 \\iiole system, that could bring it into sympathy and coali- 
 tion with the feelings or prejudices of any existing party, 
 either among Jews or heathens. Not a single feature that 
 could invite to it the regards of the great or the worldly- 
 minded. Nothing to give it popularity ; nothing to render 
 success, in any degree, probable, but rather the reverse. 
 Its author neither employed powder, nor possessed civil 
 authority, nor commanded wealth, nor promised greatness, 
 nor affected philosophy, nor courted any man's fcivour. 
 After his death his cause numbered, in Jerusalem, only 
 about one hundred and tw^enty attached disciples, and of 
 these many appear to have been women ; and the twelve, 
 who were looked upon as the leaders, were pretty nearly, 
 as their enemies have described them in the foregoing ex- 
 tracts, illiterate fishermen, and altogether of the poorest 
 and most inconsiderable of the people. In this, all hostile 
 writers exactly agree with their own descriptions of them- 
 selves. 
 
KINGDOM OF THE MESSIAH. 377 
 
 But let US now inquire what this weak, ignoble, and con- 
 temptible handful of men accomplished. They began their 
 labours, first, in the city of Jerusalem, where Christ had 
 been crucified, and where they openly published his resur- 
 rection. A most unpromising field, all will admit, and, for 
 an imposture on such a subject, the very worst that could 
 have been chosen. The most distinguishing feature of 
 their early announcements was the fact of the resurrection, 
 and this in the most explicit manner, before the very par- 
 ties who had been the chief agents in procuring his death- 
 These open averments were made immediately. The 
 Christian records state the success which accompanied 
 these efforts, in more exjDress terms, or more precisely and 
 fully, than other testimonies, but not more clearly. It was 
 quite natural that it should be so. But since the authority 
 of these records is the point under discussion, we will not, 
 at present, draw any of our proofs from them. There is, 
 happily, no necessity to do so, because we can show, from 
 other sources, the very same thing, 
 
 " The Jewish memoirs fully admit the rapid growth of 
 Christianity at its commencement, and up to the period of 
 the siege of Jerusalem, both among their own nation within 
 Judea, and wherever scattered through other countries. 
 The Toldoth of Wagenseil, after recording the hatred and 
 separation of the Jews and Nazarenes, immediately on the 
 death of Jesus, adds, ' and this calamity went on to ad- 
 vance, and spread itself, for thirty years, and the Naza- 
 renes, assembling by thousands and myriads, prevented 
 Israel from going up to the feast ; and the calamity was 
 great in Israel, like the day when the calf was made, and 
 there were none who knew what to do {against it). For 
 their faith (that is, of the Christians) strengthened itself 
 and advanced ; and there went forth twelve wicked men, 
 sons of robbers, and went through twelve kingdoms, and 
 prophesied among their assemblies, prophecies of false- 
 hood. And Israel went astray after them, for they were 
 
378 SCRIPTURE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 men of renown, and they confirmed the faith of Jesus ; for 
 they said that they were apostles of the suspended ; and a 
 great multitude of the Israelites followed them.' 
 
 " The Toldoth of Huldric, after mentioning that Herod 
 waged war against the Christians at Ai, adds, ' but he could 
 not conquer them, for even in Jerusalem itself, the number 
 of these most wicked people multiplied before the king.'"* 
 
 Celsus, who represents the Jews as a party of Egyptians, 
 who revolted against the laws of their country, compares 
 the secession of the Christians from the Jewisli nation to 
 that ancient event. He speaks in these words — " They 
 afterwards suffered the same kind of injury which they had 
 then committed, part of their own body having attached 
 themselves to Jesus, and believed on him as Christ!" A 
 comparison Avhich implies, that the defection from the 
 Jewish nation to Christianity, in that first age, was very 
 considerable and public, and even surpassing what the 
 sacred records themselves state. 
 
 Tacitus, the Roman historian, fully confirms this, when 
 he says of Christianity, " Though checked for a while (that 
 is, by the death of its Founder) it broke out again, not only 
 through Jiidca, the source of the evil, but through the city," 
 that is, Rome. Celsus, personating a Jew, asks those Jews 
 who had become Christians, " What ailed you, citizens, 
 that ye left your country's law, and being seduced by him 
 of whom we have spoken, were quite laughably deluded, 
 and became deserters from us to another name, and to 
 another life?" Asrain, he savs, " Yesterdav, and some 
 time since, and when we punished him who led you as a 
 herd, ye apostatized from your country's law."f This pas- 
 sage refers to the conversion of Jews, from the time of 
 Christ, through the whole apostolic age, to the period of 
 Adrian, or Marcus Aurelius, when Celsus lived. 
 
 Thus this religion, so weak and contemptible in its be- 
 
 * Sheppard, vol. i. p. 344. + Sheppard, vol. i. p. 344. 
 
KINGDOM OF THE MESSIAH. 379 
 
 ginnings, as we lately heard, had, during the lifetime of 
 the apostles alone, risen to such a pitch, that the power of 
 the state could not affect it. The preaching of it had 
 caused such a secession from Judaism, that it was com- 
 pared to the coming out of the whole nation from Egypt. 
 In fact, in Judea itself, Christianity, upon the clear admis- 
 sion of opponents, had set at defiance the authority of the 
 established religion ; had triumphed in the field of public 
 controversy ; had braved the learning, and the ridicule, and 
 the prejudices of the most prejudiced of nations; had glutted 
 the sword till it was wearied and satiated with slaughter ; 
 and had, with nothing on its side but its works and its 
 arguments, led so vast a multitude of the people captive to 
 its peaceful triumphs, as to make persecution itself con- 
 fess, that the attempt to exterminate the evil had only 
 increased and multiplied it, till it was become altogether 
 uncontrollable. 
 
 But, hitherto, we have viewed the advancement of Chris- 
 tianity exclusively in the country of Judea and among the 
 Jewish nation, by far the most circumscribed sphere of its 
 operations. Let us now endeavour to ascertain its success 
 among the Gentile nations. We will here, also, not appeal 
 to the sacred records, because proofs from profane authors 
 are less open to objection or doubt. The very genius of 
 Christianity, as well as the commission its Author left be- 
 hind, impelled its first advocates to publish it among all 
 the nations. They professed it to be a religion for all 
 mankind, and though all of them were Jews, religiously 
 attached to Moses, even to a fault, yet, after their national 
 difficulties and conscientious scruples were removed, they 
 threw aside all their prejudices, and openly declared, upon 
 the authority of the gospel, the equality of all men in the 
 sight of God ; and proceeded to discharge their evangelical 
 mission without respect of persons. This is evident from 
 the numbers of those who undertook missions to Gentile 
 cities, as well as from the extensive and almost uniform 
 
380 SCEIPTUEE YEEIFIED IN THE 
 
 success which attended those efforts. Some notion of the 
 amoimt of this success may he formed after perusing a few 
 extracts from heathen authors, who can be suspected of no 
 partiahty to the cause of the gospel, and of no disposition 
 to exaggerate its triumphs. Tacitus informs us, that in 
 the tenth year of Nero (a. d. 65) a great multitude of 
 Christians were convicted at Eome ; and it appears that 
 they perished. Whatever he intended by the word convicted^ 
 it is utterly improbable that they were all the Christians 
 of the city ; for though we cannot ascribe either prudence 
 or humanity to Nero, yet we need not, without stronger 
 evidence, suspect him of an indiscriminate massacre and 
 extirpation of the sect. 
 
 This statement, at all events, does not include the Chris- 
 tians of the provinces. With respect to these, we have the 
 authority of Julian, for stating their large numbers and 
 wide dispersion, during the lifetime of the apostle John. 
 For he writes thus, " A great multitude, in many of the 
 Greek and Italian cities, were seized with this distemper," 
 &c. Pliny, in a letter to Trajan, after describing his treat- 
 ment of the Christians, adds, " The matter appears to me, 
 that I should ask your counsel ; above all things on account 
 of the niimhers who are in danger of suffering. For many, 
 of all ages, of every order, and of both sexes, are brought, 
 and will be brought, in danger. Because the contagion of 
 this superstition has diffused itself, not in the cities only, 
 but in the open country. Yet it seems that it may be 
 stayed and corrected. It is certain that the temples, which 
 were almost deserted, have again begun to be honoured, and 
 the sacred solemnities, which had long been intermitted, 
 to be renewed, and victims to be every where bought, of 
 which heretofore there was very rarely found a purcliaser." 
 " Comparing," says Mr. Sheppard, " with this his previous 
 statement, that some of those he had examined professed 
 to have ceased to be Christians, some for above three years, 
 some for more, and one or more for above twenty years, 
 
KINGDOM OF THE MESSIAH. 381 
 
 we cannot doubt that the profession of the gospel must 
 have been very prevalent in those provinces in the reign of 
 Domitian ; i. e. within fifty years after it was first preached 
 to the heathen. It should be observed, also, (lest any 
 should imagine that only Jews, or proselytes, or judaizing 
 Gentiles, were converted in the first age,) that this early 
 and rapid conquest was manifestly over heathenism, and also 
 that it appears to have been, locally, at that particular 
 time, almost complete ; for how else can we understand 
 the desolate temples, and the very rare purchase of victims I " 
 " Either," says Mosheim, " you must suppose that Pliny 
 told his sovereign an untruth, or else you must take it as 
 certain, that the province of Pontus had more Christians, 
 in his time, than idolaters ; or, at least, that the greater 
 part inclined to renounce the religion of their forefathers." 
 " Pliny wrote officially. He could have no motive to colour 
 or exaggerate, nor could it be safe for him to do so. His 
 temptations must have laid on the other side." — "Dr. 
 Mosheim's view of this statement appears below what is 
 warranted, understanding it retrospectively of the state of 
 Pontus, under Domitian and Nerva, since which time it 
 seems Christianity had locally sustained a partial check." 
 — " Although the success of the Christian missionaries had 
 been, perhaps, greater in Asia Minor than in other j^arts 
 of the empire, yet there are heathen testimonies for the 
 more general extension of the religion, at as early a period. 
 We have seen those of Tacitus and Julian, concerning the 
 multitudes of Christians at Rome, and in many cities, both 
 of Italy and Greece ; we may add that of a jocular, satirical, 
 and obscure letter from the Emperor Adrian to Servianus, 
 describing the state of Egypt, which is preserved in the 
 Augustan history. It mentions the Christians three times, 
 and says, * even the patriarch, if he should come to Egypt, 
 would be required by some to worship Serapis, by others 
 Christ.'" — "From a work of Lucian we learn that an im- 
 postor, named Alexander, in the reign of Marcus Antoninus, 
 
382 SCRIPTURE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 complained that the province of Pontus was full of Atheists 
 (meaning deniers of the heathen gods) and Christians. 
 Pliny had been governor fifty years before, both of Pontus 
 and Bithynia. It does not seem, therefore, that the con- 
 tagion of which he speaks, in the extracts lately given, had 
 been materially stayed and corrected,'' although full liberty 
 to persecute had been given by the Eoman emperors. 
 Celsus also admits the wide propagation of Christianity, 
 and its reception by great numbers. He says, " At the 
 beginning they were few, and were of one mind, but now, 
 being spread as a multitude, they divide again and again." 
 Elsewhere he says, that " no wise man will be persuaded 
 by the doctrine, being deterred or distracted by the multi- 
 tude of those that accede to it." 
 
 I will quote, further, one, and only one, passage from a 
 distinguished writer. Justin Martyr, who took up the de- 
 fence of Christianity, in an apology to the Eoman emperor, 
 says, " There is not any where a race of men, whether of 
 barbarians or Greeks, or by whatever name they may be 
 called, whether erratic and houseless tribes, or herdsmen 
 dwelling in tents, among whom are not offered, in the 
 name of the crucified Jesus, prayers and thanksgivings to 
 the Father and Maker of all." 
 
 Should it be thought that there is something of exag- 
 geration in this, yet it is evidently such exaggeration as 
 could not have been used, unless the spread of Christianity 
 had been most astonishingly rapid and extensive. The 
 same author, in his first apology, addresses the emperor, 
 senate, and people, adverting to their conquest of Judea, 
 thus : " What has been said, (of Messiah) ' in his name shall 
 the nations trust,' indicated, that from all the nations they 
 shall look for him, as again about to come ; which thing 
 vou can perceive with your own eyes, and be persuaded by 
 the fact; for out of all races of men, there are those who 
 look for him who was crucified in Judea; shortly after 
 which that country was surrendered to your arms." 
 
KINGDOM OF THE MESSIAH. 383 
 
 It is certain, these triumphs of Christianity were of the 
 most difficult nature, and had been achieved over the most 
 formidable obstacles ; such as the aversion of the Greeks 
 and Komans to the Jews ; for they uniformly accounted 
 the Christians only a sect of Jews. There were the cele- 
 brated schools of philosophy ; the great learning and elo- 
 quence of the chief men among these heathens ; the arts 
 of magic, and the reverence felt for the oracles ; the deep- 
 rooted attachment of the people to the religion of their 
 country, which had endured so many ages, and been 
 adorned and fortified by so much art and skill. Then 
 there was the repulsive aspect of Christianity to selfish, 
 sensual, and luxurious nations ; its origination with a 
 despised, ignoble, and crucified Founder ; the meanness, 
 illiteracy, and alleged barbarism of its promoters. Still all 
 this array of obstacles could not arrest its progress. When 
 the vast numbers that adhered to it had made it probable 
 that the religion of the state would be forsaken and despised, 
 then the governors of the provinces appeal to the emperors. 
 Public rescripts, or orders, were issued by these emperors, 
 for the suppression of Christianity, and the flaming brand 
 of persecution Avas raised throughout the empire. Thou- 
 sands and tens of thousands are butchered, but it is all of 
 no avail. The indomitable spirit of apostasy from super- 
 stition still prevails. The name of the despised and 
 crucified Nazarene confounds the oracles, and outrivals all 
 the attractions of the temples, and all the influence of the 
 priests and magistrates. Other counsels are at length 
 adopted. Through fear, edicts of a more tolerant cha 
 racter are tried. This method, however, is just as unsuc- 
 cessful as the former. Nothing can induce the people to 
 worship the idols, or frequent the temples. Christianity 
 marches forward, with rapid strides, in every direction. It 
 invades the forum, the army, the schools, the palace; till 
 at length, without sword or power, or patronage or wealth, 
 and with no name to recommend it but that of the despised 
 
38-1 SCEIPTUEE YEEIFIED IX THE 
 
 Nazarene, it has fairly won a majority of the population to 
 the faith, and all hope of its suppression finally expires 
 before the irresistible advances of its peaceful banner. 
 
 That it had so rapidly and extensively triumphed, is de- 
 monstrated by these unquestionable facts, the various 
 decrees of the successive emperors alternately prohibiting 
 or tolerating it; the vast multitudes, of all orders, who 
 perished for the confession of it; the number of able, 
 learned, and eloquent advocates, who wrote in its defence ; 
 and lastly, the fact, which of itself speaks volumes, that 
 when Maxentius and Constantine were rivals for the im- 
 perial throne, they both thought it of essential importance 
 to their success to gain the Christians on their side. " Of 
 these candidates for worldly empire, one actually favoured 
 and flattered them, and the other is suspected of having 
 joined himself to them, partly from considerations of in- 
 terest." The great men found the current of public 
 opinion too strong for them, and when they thought it 
 would serve their purpose, they cast themselves and their 
 fortunes upon it, as upon a tide which they hoped would 
 bear them triumphantly to the consummation of their 
 wishes. Thus, finally, the cause of Christianity overcame 
 every obstacle. It drew the mass of the population from 
 the temples; it silenced opposition, and convinced per- 
 secution itself of the impolicy of its deeds. The rulers 
 followed the people, and the sword and sceptre were laid 
 upon the altar of Christianity, Avhile emperors vied v/ith 
 each other in offering to it the protection of their arms, 
 and the succour of their wealth. The too easy, or too 
 corrupt, or too sanguine leaders of the Christian cause, 
 whose predecessors had been proof against the thunder of 
 Eoman edicts, were overcome by the syren voice of flattery, 
 and the attractions of worldly greatness ; and so the religion 
 of the crucified Nazarene, and of the fishermen of Galilee, 
 became the law of the empire ; and, in consequence, dig- 
 nities of all sorts, and names of various degrees, Avith power 
 
KCNGDOM OF THE MESSIAH. 385 
 
 and wealth unbounded, were heaped upon it. I speak not 
 now of the consequences of such a transition. Our business 
 is, at present, simply with the fact itself, that, within three 
 centuries, Christianity should have made such sure pro- 
 gress, such steady advances, under the most inauspicious 
 circumstances, as to undermine the whole citadel of heathen 
 idolatry ; to ascend the imperial throne, turn the weapons 
 of its enemies against themselves, and decree the inherit- 
 ance of the Caesars henceforth a Christian empire. 
 
 It will now be interesting to notice the means by which 
 such mighty, such extraordinary, effects were produced. 
 We affirm, in the first place, on behalf of Christianity, 
 that such results, brought about by such inadequate means, 
 and altogether under such circumstances, necessitate the 
 admission of miracles, and that it is utterly impossible 
 to account for such facts as we have shown did take place 
 in the early history of the gospel, on any known prin- 
 ciples of human nature. The production of these results, 
 upon the supposition of no supernatural resources in the 
 apostles, has been found utterly to surpass the most inge- 
 nious and laboured explanations which have been at- 
 tempted. We are quite willing that opponents or doubters 
 should try the case, in reference to any of the celebrated 
 cities of Greece and Eome. Let them suppose an apostle, 
 or Christian missionary, to go to such a place, and begin 
 his narrative. Is it to be expected, that the people of any 
 such place would receive at once a doctrine which con- 
 tained nothing compatible with their views, or feelings, 
 or prejudices? and that they should become the followers 
 of this itinerant declaimer, at the certain risk of the loss 
 of all things, and the endurance of the most relentless 
 persecution ? That they would cheerfully brave the loss 
 of all that men count most dear to them in this life ; 
 and that this should occur, not in solitary cases, but in 
 hundreds and thousands, and when they possessed no other 
 warrant for their new faith, but the simple ijjse dixit of 
 V. c c 
 
386 SCRIPTURE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 this strange preacher ? This result would be contrary to 
 all we know of human nature. It is clear, that the cause 
 of Christianity could not have survived a single generation, 
 much less have gained immediately numerous proselytes, 
 unless it had brought with it, wherever it came, either the 
 indisputable evidence of miracles, or offered to the in- 
 quirers ample means of satisfying themselves, that mira- 
 cles had been v/rought for its vindication, in the place of 
 its first announcement. Thus, in all parts of Greece and 
 Rome, the preachers pointed out Jerusalem as the scene 
 of the principal miracle, the resurrection of Christ. Jeru- 
 salem was not so distant, but that some might readily go 
 thither, and ascertain the truth of the statements ; and it 
 is more than probable, that many did this before they 
 yielded their full assent to a doctrine that required them 
 to relinquish all their old opinions, and venture their lives 
 upon a novelty. 
 
 On the other hand, suppose, as the infidel does, that 
 Christianity was a crafty invention, and that it was an- 
 nounced, as all must admit it was, in innumerable places 
 among the Gentiles, before that generation was extinct, 
 who had seen Christ, witnessed his deeds and known his 
 history : then surely there must have been some who, 
 during that period, would either have come from Jerusalem, 
 or gone to it, for the express purpose of exploding the 
 imposture ; and, suj)posing them to have had in tlieir pos- 
 session the power of doing so, they would have been most 
 valuable agents of the Roman governors, and would have 
 enjoyed every facility for undeceiving the people, and stay- 
 ing, by their proofs and arguments, the evil against which 
 all the authority of the empire was directed in vain. But 
 nothing of this kind occurs. No such counter-evidence is 
 produced. No hosts of Jewish witnesses, or inhabitants 
 of Jerusalem, are brought forward to confront the apostles; 
 no, not a solitary individual. Time and further inquiry, 
 which usually dissipate delusion, and explode errors, only 
 
KINGDOM OF THE MESSIAH. ' 387 
 
 served to deepen public conviction, to confirm the state- 
 ments of the Christian advocates, and to give general 
 efficiency and success to their labours. 
 
 I can certainly conceive it possible, that, humbling and 
 repulsive as the Christian doctrine is to human nature, 
 and highly suspicious as the narrative of Christ crucified 
 and risen from the dead, must have sounded, at first, in 
 the ears of disputatious Greeks and ambitious Romans, I 
 can readily conceive, that a fanatic here and there might 
 have admitted the whole, without scruple or inquiry ; but 
 when such a supposition is strained to the utmost pitch, 
 it stands in ridiculous contrast to the thousands, and hun- 
 dreds of thousands, who finally yielded to the claims of 
 Christianity, and fell into the ranks of its followers ; and 
 cannot, at last, be any way reconciled with the slow and 
 cautious procedure of the wise men, and rulers, and phi- 
 losophers. How shall we account for their accession ? 
 They, at least, must have possessed something more than 
 common report ; they were not to be easily caught by an 
 imposture. They would not, certainly, have been induced 
 to believe what was so obviously j)rejudicial to their tem- 
 poral interests, that which they had so many powerful 
 inducements to decline ; if the conviction of the entire 
 truth of Christianity had not been forced upon them by 
 a light and a power wliich disarmed opposition, and tri- 
 umphantly placed it at once upon the throne of the under- 
 standing, and gave it the command of the conscience and 
 the heart. 
 
 Supposing the narrative of the apostles false, notiiing 
 could have been easier, in that age, than to prove it so. 
 Its detection and exposure would have saved myriads from 
 martyrdom, and myriads more from the supposed delusion. 
 Such a public service would have been rewarded by honours 
 and wealth. Had there been no miracles, or only false 
 and pretended miracles, surely it could not have been 
 difficult to check the progress of the imposture. Counter- 
 
388 SCEIPTURE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 Statements, or counter-impostures, or even authority and 
 punishment, would soon have brought the whole of the 
 delusion to an end. 
 
 For instance, if so shrewd and philosophic a man as 
 Pliny, instead of writing to the emperor for counsel, had 
 but reflected — the only instrumentality these men employ 
 is a delusive magic ; and we have magicians ; or, they 
 affirm every thing on their own unsupported authority — 
 he might at once have brought a superior degree, both of 
 authority and of art, to bear against them. His own au- 
 thority would surely have outweighed that of any Christian 
 missionary, and must, upon the supposition of no miracles, 
 or false ones, have appeared to possess far greater weight 
 with all sober-minded and reasonable persons. But it was 
 because these apostles and ministers brought forward proofs, 
 with which neither he, nor all the senate, with the emperor 
 at their head, could grapple ; it was evidently because, in 
 some way or other, they stood on far higher ground than 
 the mightiest of their opponents and persecutors, that no 
 power could compete with them, and no counter-state- 
 ments or counter-miracles could prevent the people from 
 believing their testimony. Had they gone forth to their 
 labours, simply as men, then men mightier than they 
 would have overcome them, and men wiser than they 
 would have confounded them. And had they gone forth to 
 their labour, in the consciousness of imposture, then where 
 was the imposition that might not have been matched, 
 and why was not so clumsy and vulgar a cheat detected ; 
 and, if detected, destroyed by some, at least, of the many 
 judges and philosophers before whom they told their tale ? 
 Abuse enough they continually encountered; prejudice 
 enough, from Greek and Jew ; but exposure, never; defeat, 
 nowhere. The foe used every species of attack and anti- 
 dote but the right one ; the only one that the nature of 
 the case admitted, viz. counter-evidence of the same nature; 
 but this was never and nowhere to be found. Ample and 
 
KINGDOM OF THE MESSIAH. 389 
 
 satisfactory contradiction, once offered, would have spread 
 with the rapidity of hghtning, and blasted and withered 
 all the fruits of the apostolic zeal and cunning ; yet it 
 was never forthcoming. But the general facts Avere noto- 
 rious enough ; all that went into Judea heard of them, 
 and returned, if not convinced, yet silenced. The Roman 
 governors that.were there, and had been there, before the 
 rise of Christianity, were in frequent communication with 
 the emperors and the seat of government in the capital. 
 To them an appeal would readily have procured all the 
 satisfactory information respecting Christ and his history; 
 had the apostolic narratives been false, had there been any 
 possibility of procuring counter-evidence. But none could 
 be procured. The apostles and Christian missionaries 
 went on, and none could gainsay. The Jews raved ; the 
 Romans smote with the edge of the sword, and gave them 
 to the wild beasts, or burnt them, to cheer the darkness of 
 the night ; but all failed. The men suffered, but the cause 
 triumphed; the adversary reviled, but Christianity smiled, 
 and went on. 
 
 There was undoubted miracle in all this. If we had 
 not been informed, by the sacred record, that Jesus Christ 
 had promised to accompany the word of his servants with 
 signs following, we should yet have inferred that he must 
 have done so, from the unparalleled triumphs of his cause, 
 both by such feeble instrumentality and under sucli for- 
 midable opposition. 
 
 Why else, we might ask, was the conversion of the hea- 
 then then so easy and short a work, compared with what 
 it is now, when we have every facility and advantage of 
 learning, experience, and antiquity, all on our side? 
 Miracle alone can explain it. But when we look into the 
 fact of the success of Christianity in Jerusalem, after the 
 death of Christ, there appears a still more signal and 
 miraculous, a still more hard-earned testimony than that 
 which was gained among the Gentiles. Because it ap' 
 
390 yCllIPTUlJE VElilFlED IN THE 
 
 pears that the Jews were then what they are still, a most 
 j)rejudice(l and immoveahle race; anything hut credulous, 
 except of their own rabbinical traditions ; yet, after having 
 held out against all the miracles of Christ's life, we find 
 thousands and tens of thousands yielding to the evidence 
 of his resurrection, and crying out, when they heard the 
 apostles, " What shall we do to be saved?." And if they 
 had so long resisted under the evidence, be it good or bad, 
 which Christ himself afforded, is it to be believed that 
 they would afterwards have been persuaded, under the 
 less attractive and less convincing advocacy of his apostles? 
 — that is, supposing there had been no true miracles 
 wrought either by him or them. Certainly this were alto- 
 gether incredible. Their late and reluctant submission 
 cannot be reasonably explained, except uj)on the admission 
 of miracles, and of the increasing number and force of 
 those miracles. What is it that makes it so difficult now 
 to convince a Jew of the truth of Christianity, when we 
 know^ that the apostles of Jesus Christ convinced so great 
 a number of them ? Had they possessed no other re- 
 sources, and wielded no other v/eapons than we possess, 
 they would, like ourselves, have preached to them, for the 
 most part, altogether in vain. 
 
 The continuance, the progress, the triumph of Chris- 
 tianity, therefore, after the withdrawment of Christ, and 
 by such feeble instruments as the apostles and their coad- 
 jutors, was a miracle of the most astonishing character, 
 proving the intervention of a divine power. The victories 
 it daily and hourly won over the most inveterate and pre- 
 judiced foes, in all directions, must be ascribed to a divine 
 virtue ; a power more than human must have impelled it 
 on its wondrous way. Miracles, indeed, were essential to 
 every step of its progress. It could not have surmounted 
 any of the formidable difficulties that lay in its course, 
 much less all, without them. 
 
 If any think that such a victory, over all the powers of 
 
KINGDOM OF THE MESSIAH. 391 
 
 the world, could have been won by a few poor and ignorant 
 fishermen, on behalf of so novel, so unattractive a cause, 
 and in the name of so disgraced and contemned a founder, 
 then it is incumbent upon them to show, that those uni- 
 form results, which followed the gospel in every country, 
 and among every people, did not surpass mere human 
 powers, and did not transcend the qualifications which 
 men possess ; or they are bound to produce a parallel case ; 
 — which they know to be impossible. The fact is plainly 
 this, either the intervention of miracles must be admitted, 
 as stated by the evangelical w;riters, or else these men must 
 be admitted to have produced results, by their preaching, 
 which will be found far more inexplicable, if they are attri- 
 buted to human, than if they are attributed to divine, 
 power. It is, indeed, upon ever}' view of the subject, quite 
 incredible .that Christianity should have taken such deep 
 root, and spread its branches so far, and matured such 
 fruits, had it not been nourished and sustained by an in- 
 ward principle of life, a virtue strictly divine, a power 
 supreme, and independent even of the eminent and holy 
 men whom it employed as its agents. Opposition, as we 
 have seen, proved one of the very best means of eliciting 
 and demonstrating its divine virtue. Without it we should 
 not have known half the strength and excellency of our 
 cause. Christianity proved itself, so often and so much, 
 mightier than the mightiest of all its foes ; yea, mightier 
 than the whole of them combined, that it is impossible to 
 deny to it the honour of winning all its victories by its own 
 inherent authority and strength ; or that it is the only reli- 
 gion in the world that has ever fought sucli battles, and 
 won such triumphs, by the simple energy of truth ; and 
 proved itself, on every occasion, a religion worthy of God 
 to reveal, and of man to receive. 
 
 But it is possible that infidelity may attempt to parry the 
 argument we have employed, by saying, it is very true, 
 Christianity never could have prevailed as it did, without 
 
392 SCRIPTUEE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 at least, the x>i'ctence of miracles. We admit that the simple 
 statement of the doctrine and history of Christ could not 
 have proved long or extensively successful, unless it had 
 been accompanied with professions of supernatural power. 
 But then we consider all these to have been delusions. 
 The people must have been deceived by the semblance of 
 miracles ; and when once the cheat was fairly established, 
 it was found impossible to eradicate it from the minds of 
 men, or check its onward progress ! It is not uncommon 
 for infidels to offer such an explanation of the success of 
 Christianity ; nothing is so cheap as this kind of declama- 
 tion, and nothing more easy than to persuade themselves 
 that they can get rid of the whole question after this man- 
 ner. Yet this is only supposition, suggested for the pur- 
 pose of explaining facts ; an expedient devised to meet an 
 exigency in argument. Let such a supposition be brought 
 into contact with the facts of the case, and it will soon be 
 found utterly inadequate to explain and reconcile them. 
 
 In the first place, we challenge the objector to show, that 
 the apostles were, or could possibly be, under the influence 
 of any of those motives which induce men to practise im- 
 posture. They had nothing to gain by it. They aimed at 
 nothing, after they had set up their imi^osture, which can 
 be imagined to supply any adequate temptation ; and then 
 they ran the most desperate risks of detection, exjDosure, 
 and persecution, for no assignable end. Men do not broach 
 pretended miracles under the risk of detection and punish- 
 ment, unless some object is to be gained worthy of the 
 difficulty and the peril. Let any one judge what that gain 
 could possibly have been, in prospect, when the apostles 
 began their mission ; or what other motives could have 
 influenced them, if not those they professed. After such a 
 reflection, let him read, in any histories, sacred or profane, 
 Jewish, heathen, or Christian, we care not which, what the 
 lot of these apostles actually proved to be, after they had 
 carried their project into execution; and, I think, he must 
 
KINGDOM OF THE MESSIAH. 393 
 
 admit, that they reaped nothing, as to this world, but suf- 
 fering and poverty, and }et, that in it all they rejoiced and 
 triumphed every where, as men who had gained their ends, 
 and were satisfied. It is, in fact, as impossible to impeach 
 their motives, as to question the purity and uprightness of 
 their conduct, or the severity and length of their sufferings. 
 Their sincerity, at least, then, is not to be questioned. 
 
 But, in the next place, it may be shown, that it was 
 highly improbable that men, situated as the apostles were, 
 should make any attempt of the kind supposed. They 
 were not of the class to invent and promulgate so magnifi- 
 cent an imposition. They were not of the order of minds 
 to have formed so ambitious a project. They were not 
 under the protection of either official authority or popular 
 favour. It is no great wonder if an imposture succeeds 
 when the state patronizes it, as was the case with the 
 alleged miracles of heathen priests and emperors ; nor 
 W'hen both state and people favour them, as was the case 
 with popish miracles ; nor when the sword is drawn to 
 compel assent and subjection, as was the case with Mahom- 
 medanism : but how difficult, yea, impossible, for an im- 
 posture to succeed, when both state and people are not 
 only opposed, not" only resolutely incredulous, but employ 
 all their united energies to suppress the pretender, let the 
 reader judge. Here, then, is the difficulty of maintaining 
 the supposition of pretended miracle in the present case. 
 It is incredible that, with universal opposition before them, 
 and no adequate motive prompting them, the apostles of 
 Jesus Christ should have set up the pretension to miracles 
 at all; which, once detected or betrayed, only by a single 
 false brother, would instantly have exploded the whole 
 cause, and brought condign punishment on its advocates. 
 
 In the third place, here we must notice the extreme im- 
 probability, I might almost say impossibility, of escaping 
 detection. And this I ground partly on the ignorance and 
 unskilfulness of the apostles themselves, and partly on the 
 
394 SCRIPTUiJE VEllU'lED IN THE 
 
 ample resources of skill, wisdom, art, and knowledge, of 
 all kinds, possessed by their opponents. They were no 
 magicians. They had never learned the curious arts of 
 deception which others practised. But all agree that they 
 Avere untaught and unskilful men, utterly destitute of hu- 
 man science. They were every where completely sur- 
 rounded by the most vigilant, the juost accomplished 
 opponents. Jews, Greeks, and Eomans, all were interested 
 in the detection of the cheat. Was it magic "? There were 
 numbers of masficians in all those nations. Whvwere not 
 rival magicians brought forward against them ? V\hj did 
 not the Sanhedrim employ a few skilful magicians to coun- 
 teract them ? Why did not Pliny engage magic and mock- 
 miracle against them ? Why did not the Eoman emperors 
 send forth such miracle-mongers, or command the praetors 
 and governors of provinces to encourage such curious arts? 
 and then, if they could have competed with the apostles, 
 and especially if they could have surpassed them, the cheat 
 would soon have been at an end. " In short," observes 
 Mr. Sheppard, " the magic, as they called it, of the apos- 
 tolic age was wrought against and among the most power- 
 ful enemies, and most skilful magicians. Yet we cannot 
 collect, whether from decrees, or memoirs, or controversial- 
 ists, or any more indirect source, that it was either once 
 exploded by detection, or once controlled by competition ; 
 therefore the apostolic magic was of a kind altogether new. 
 Wonders which could neither be unravelled nor equalled, 
 were confessedly attempted and performed, by men whom 
 all their opponents reviled as mean, rustic, and untaught."- 
 Supposing their rashness and temerity not unaccountable, 
 which assuredly it would be, still it would remain inexpli- 
 cable, that amidst such a variety, and multitude, and pro- 
 tracted display of pretended miracles, and by such a num- 
 
 * Sheppard's Div. Orig. vol. ii. p. 181. 
 
KIXGDOM OF THE MESSIAH. 395 
 
 ber of persons, in such different and distant places, and 
 before such an array of skilful enemies, detection, or trea- 
 chery, or rivalry should never once have occurred. 
 
 This is the last fact to which I shall refer. All authors 
 of that age, all historians, governors, and emperors, leave 
 the facts just where the evangelical historians place them; 
 and though some have alleged imposture and magic, they 
 have never once pretended to explain how the imposture 
 was carried on ; when, or how, or by whom it was dis- 
 covered ; or why, being discovered, the discovery made no 
 impression whatever upon the cause of Christianity. 
 
 The only conclusion, therefore, to which a candid in- 
 quirer can come, the only one consistent with all the facts 
 of the case, is, that these persons were conscious they pos- 
 sessed divine support, and could verify their commission 
 by signs which could not be disputed ; while their oppo- 
 nents were equally conscious, every where, and all along, 
 that they possessed no means of counteracting these pre- 
 tensions, or of exposing those wonderful signs. which they, 
 indeed, ascribed to magic, but which no practisers of that 
 dark and deceptive art had been found able to rival, or 
 could ever be induced to confront. 
 
 We are, therefore, fully entitled, we conceive, to conclude 
 that the miracles of the apostles were really divine works, 
 wrought " in all simplicity and in open day ; " multiplied, 
 varied, and indisputable ; wrought without preparation, 
 parade, or concert; the constant and universal accompani- 
 ments and vouchers, in that age, of this benignant religion, 
 whose divinity was thereby fully, clearly, and every where 
 attested. 
 
 Looking, then, at the actual history and condition of 
 Christianity, when it began its career, and at the means 
 and nature of its subsequent progress, we trace a most 
 striking agreement between its predictions and its docu- 
 ments. Even in its corruptions and perversions, its abuses 
 
396 SCRIPTURE VERIFIED IN THE 
 
 and its disasters, as traced in anotlier Lecture, we have 
 found nothing but corroborations of the sacred testimony, 
 and striking verifications of all that had been foretold. 
 
 Is there not, then, I ask, the most complete, the most 
 remarkable fulfilment of the writings, denominated the 
 Holy Scriptures, in the personal history of Jesus Christ, 
 and that of the cause he established ? Who dare deny, 
 that both he and his disciples foretold that this cause 
 should live and be triumphant over all opposition ? And 
 it has been so. Who can deny, that both he and they fore- 
 told that it should be bitterly opposed, yet tliat it should 
 be spread abroad to all nations ; and that, finally, all na- 
 tions should embrace it, and consider themselves abund- 
 antly, yea, divinely blessed, in the possession of it ? And 
 it is so, to a great and daily increasing extent. Who can 
 deny, that Jesus Christ gave an express commission to his 
 apostles, to preach the gospel to every creature, beginniog 
 at Jerusalem, which he foretold should be swept away, be- 
 cause it would reject them as it had rejected him ? And it 
 has been so. Who can deny, that Jesus Christ, at the 
 present day, has a wider sway over the world than at any 
 former period, and that his cause is evidently advancing in 
 a most marvellous, self-moved, and triumphant manner? 
 that, in fact, it is the only religion in the world that is 
 advancing. 
 
 Is it possible to believe all this of a forgery ? of a lie ■* 
 or of any human fabrication, concealing its fraud through 
 so many ages, and to such an extent, while resting exclu- 
 sively on human resources ? Assuredly, to believe this, 
 requires a stretch of faith beyond that which is involved in 
 the belief of miracles, and the cordial acceptance of Chris- 
 tianity as a divine religion. And he must be far more 
 credulous of wonders, who attributes all we have been con- 
 sidering, to imposture and to man, than he who ascribes 
 the whole to God. 
 
 There has been, then, such a verification of the great 
 
KINGDOM OF THE MESSIAH. 397 
 
 and comprehensive, the particular and minute, assertions 
 and statements of the sacred books^ respecting the person, 
 the doctrine, the character, and the kingdom of the Mes- 
 siah, in the history of the Christian cause, from the first 
 to the present day, as may reasonably produce a sincere 
 faith in its divine origin. Not one jot or tittle of the 
 divine word has failed, either in reference to the Jews or 
 Gentiles, friends or enemies, individuals, nations, or the 
 world. The entire series of facts that has transpired, pre- 
 sents a complete and full counterpart to the prophecies 
 and delineations, which were in existence, and in the keep- 
 ing of the Jews long before the appearance of Christ, which 
 they have carefully preserved ever since, and to the authen- 
 ticity of which they still bear witness. 
 
LECTUEE IX. 
 
 On the Doctrine of a Divine and Spiritual Influence, as revealed in the Scrip- 
 tures, and as realized in the History of Christianity and the Experience 
 of Christians. 
 
 All effects traceable to spiritual or immaterial causes — Mental power the 
 source of voluntary action in ourselves — How we are led to ascribe the 
 invisible and mighty agencj^ operating through all material causes and 
 effects, to a Divine and Infinite Spirit — Probability that the Divine 
 Spirit exercises the same influence over human minds — Analogies which 
 render such agency probable — The direct testimony of revelation as to 
 its reality — Facts verifying this testimony — In the first propagation of 
 the gospel — In its continuance and success in the world — In the fomia- 
 tion of the christian character — Connexion with an appointed instrumen- 
 tality — General Conclusion of the course. 
 
 In commencing tliis part of our subject, we may, perhaps, 
 be allowed to assume, that no consistent and complete 
 view of the whole system of the universe can be main- 
 tained, without admitting the doctrine of a divine and al- 
 mighty agency operating in each object, sustaining the 
 harmony, and presiding over the tendencies and issues of 
 the whole. It may be, that a first and hasty glance at the 
 system of nature, suggests to the mind the notion of a vast 
 multitude of independent and self-sufficient causes, all 
 operating by their own spontaneous agency. But, on 
 closer observation and analysis, we find that none of these 
 visible and secondary causes are anything more than 
 separate links in a chain ; that, though to those which fol- 
 
DOCTRINE OF DIVINE INELUENCE, ETC. 309 
 
 low they bear the relation of causes, yet they are them- 
 selves but effects dependent on preceding causes, which 
 may again be successively traced backward to others, till 
 we arrive at that which is invisible and spiritual. For, as 
 we advance upwards in every analysis, we not only find 
 something still antecedent, but, when we have found that 
 something, it proves, alone, inadequate to account for the 
 mysterious results which follow it, and we are compelled 
 to confess, that the jiower and efficiency of an Almighty 
 Creator and Governor can alone supply an adequate expla- 
 nation of that series of stupendous and wondrous opera- 
 tions which pass under our observation. After all our in- 
 quiries, we cannot persuade ourselves that the causes we 
 can detect, by any physical analysis, are the exclusive 
 agents of all that is before us. However long the series 
 through which we may trace the succession, still we come, 
 ultimately, to that cause of which we can form no other 
 conception, than that it is a power invisible, inscrutable, 
 and spiritual. 
 
 In many instances we arrive at an invisible agency of a 
 physical kind, before we terminate our investigations, and 
 of which we can give no explanation, except that it is itself 
 the effect of some other mighty, perhaps divine and infinite, 
 agency. We see effects produced which originate in no 
 cause appreciable by our senses, yet we infer that they 
 must have a cause. As, for instance, in the production 
 of motion or of mechanical power. When we see a mill 
 erected, and put into operation, we can trace the succession 
 of cause and effect up to the water, the flow of which turns 
 the first wheel ; but the flow of the water, from a higher 
 to a lower level, we readily resolve into the power of gravi- 
 tation, which we find is a universal principle or quality 
 attaching to matter, every where recognised, but nowhere 
 explained, and resolvable alone, and directly, as far as we 
 can determine, into the almighty power of the Creator. 
 The wind is also an invisible power, employed for navi- 
 
400 DOCTRINE OF DIVINE INFLUENCE 
 
 gation and machinery, and affords a similar illustration. 
 We detect it only by its effects. It is a power altogether 
 invisible. A steam-engine is another example of the same 
 thing. We can trace the whole series of results up to the 
 steam, and that again to heat ; but the heat is as invisibles 
 an agency as the wind or gravitation. Here, then, w.o 
 arrive at the boundary or connexion between material and 
 immaterial, physical and final. We may talk, philoso- 
 phically, about laws of nature, but all law imposed, whe- 
 ther upon matter or mind, implies a previous intelligence, 
 an adequate authority, and a superior power. The cause 
 of the gravitation, of the heat, or of the chemical change 
 which produces it, or of the wind, and the atmospheric 
 changes causing the motion of the wind, lead us at once 
 to the agency of the Creator. Or, if they do not, but 
 should be traced to some other cause, still material, yet 
 beyond that we cannot go, without pausing, at last, in an 
 infinitely wise and powerful Agent, on whom the whole 
 depends. In that Infinite First Cause, all, at last, termi- 
 nates, and to that every philosophical analysis leads us. 
 That alone can account for the ultimate facts or causes to 
 which we have traced up the succession, from whatever 
 point we may commence it. 
 
 From a fair and just analogy, therefore, reason teaches 
 us to describe this ultimate orprimar}' agency as spiritual; 
 and because its effects are so stupendous, so illimitable, so 
 glorious, so uniform, and harmonious, so far beyond all we 
 know of finite power, we style it divine. We are naturally 
 led to these conclusions, from our own experience and con- 
 sciousness. Thus, for instance, we lift a hammer, and 
 smite some material with repeated blows. Every one can 
 readily account for the blows, by saying, the arm lifts the 
 hammer and lets it fall again. But this explanation does 
 not trace up the effect to its primary cause. It stops short 
 in an intermediate one. The arm itself is not power. It 
 may remain, and its power be destroyed. The muscles 
 
viii^iFiKi) 15Y Kxri:r.iENci-:. 401 
 
 and the nerves move the arm. But the nerves are subject 
 to the Avill ; and to that point we can trace up the blows 
 given by the hammer. Without the determination of the 
 will, the final effect would not have been produced. " But 
 we can readily grant, also, that it is as easy for Him (the 
 Deity), a,nd as sufficient, to say the word, or to will all 
 these motions of materials, known to Him and present to 
 Him, as it is for the human spirit to will the motions of 
 the materials placed in its j^ower, through the introduction 
 of muscular force, which is but an intermediuip between 
 the will and those effects ; as, between that human will 
 and muscular action, there is an unknown chasm. Rather, 
 to speak with more physiological accurac}', this chasm 
 takes place between spirit and the material, if unknown, 
 nervous power : yet it is an equal one, since it is that action 
 of mind on matter, through will, which remains, and ever 
 will remain, the inexplicable mystery of creation. There 
 is no greater difHculty, then, difficult as all is, in conceiving 
 that the Divine Will can, and does, move all the materials 
 of the universe, by a simple and direct action ; since this 
 is but to do, universally, and at the same time, in a shorter 
 way, what He has empowered man to do, to a narrower 
 extent, and by a more circuitous road."* It is only neces- 
 sary to allow that the human spirit is one of these mate- 
 lials, under the control of the Divine Will, as it is one of 
 the objects of creating power; and the doctrine of divine 
 influence, which we are attempting to illustrate, will appear 
 in perfect harmony, both with the influence of the human 
 will upon its proper objects and in its limited sphere, and 
 with all we perceive of the Creator s power throughout the 
 unlimited sphere of the universe. 
 
 Here, then, by such analogies as these, we arrive, not 
 only at an invisible, but a spiritual cause ; and, upon a fair 
 
 * Dr. TtlHOcuUocli's " Troofs and Illustrations of the Attributes of God," 
 &c. vol. ii. p. 8. 
 
 V. D D 
 
402 DOCTRINE OF DIVINE INFLUENCE 
 
 inference, derived from our own consciousness, we ascribe 
 the wondrous, invisible, and boundless agency, operating 
 through or in all causes, and sustaining all the powers of 
 nature, to a Spirit whom we call God, whom we rationally 
 apprehend to be the first Author, the ever-present Con- 
 troller of all causes and all effects. In this mode of reason- 
 ing, concerning the divine influence, we only proceed upon 
 the same qTOund as we find necessarv to assume in ac- 
 counting for our own actions. We ascribe, in a larger 
 sense, to God that identical power, which we feel and 
 believe we possess, within ourselves, over the proper objects 
 and materials of our own agency. 
 
 But the reasonableness and strong probability of a divine 
 influence may be further argued, from the facts which are 
 observable in the social intercourse of minds, and, indeed, 
 from their whole economy. If matter is so constituted as 
 to act on matter, and mind so endowed as to control mat- 
 ter, under given conditions, there can be nothing incre- 
 dible in the general doctrine of mind acting on mind ; and, 
 consequently, a high probability in the notion, that the 
 Supreme Mind acts upon such as are created and finite. 
 It may, therefore, not be out of place to illustrate, a little 
 further, the phenomena connected with the general influ- 
 ence of one finite mind on another. 
 
 There is clearly, in the human system, provision made, 
 both for the exercise, .on the one hand, and the percep- 
 tion, on the other, of what is properly termed spiritual 
 influence. Kesults the most momentous and extensive, 
 both for good and evil, are perpetually flowing from it. 
 There may be some difterences between the laws that 
 regulate this kind of spiritual influence, and that which 
 the Divine Being exerts. The mediums may be different, 
 and these, in the latter case, less explicable by us than in 
 the former, or they may be even wholly concealed from 
 us ; but what wonder if it should be so ? Or how can 
 this affect the force of the analogy, or render it reasonable 
 
VERIFIED BY EXrERIENCE. 403 
 
 to admit the reality of spiritual influence in the one case, 
 and unreasonable to admit a corresponding influence in 
 the other? Surely he who believes, because he feels, that 
 his fellow-men exercise a spiritual influence over him, can- 
 not, with any show of reason, deny that the Supreme Spirit 
 possesses a similar power, and can employ it, at his plea- 
 sure, on all the human spirits he has created, and either 
 with or without such mediums as may be necessaiy to 
 finite beings. This is, at least, far more probable from 
 analogy than the reverse. There is evidently an influence 
 similar to that which tlie Divine Being is supposed to 
 exercise, constantly passing between man and man. The 
 eye is singularly adapted to convey it. Who has not felt 
 the fascinating magic of this organ under peculiar cir- 
 cumstances ? It has imparted, at a glance, a spiritual 
 influence, which has left an indelible impression upon the 
 recipient spirit. It has told the deep mysteries of the 
 heart, and exerted a power which has transformed the 
 character, controlled the conduct, and determined the 
 future destiny of the individual. It can convey sentiments 
 and emotions from mind to mind, as forcibly and fully as 
 if they were clothed in language, and impressed by all the 
 eloquence of the most gifted tongue. Yet the eye itself 
 is nothing but the channel of a spiritual influence. 
 
 We might further illustrate the reality of such influences, 
 by a reference to the efl'ects which are continually produced 
 by authors on their readers. This class of influences afl"ects 
 both the sentiments and feelings, and through them the 
 whole economy of man, and, as we continually witness, 
 proceeds to an incalculable extent. Silently and imper- 
 ceptibly it pervades the whole social body. It operates, 
 and is propagated purely by mental contact. It is a spi- 
 ritual electricity, felt, for good or evil, by the whole circle 
 of minds, connected only by the medium of the hooJc with 
 the first mind, which originated the propitious or unpro- 
 pitious impulse. We can as clearly distinguish between 
 
404 DOCTKINE OF DIVINE INFLUENCE 
 
 the medium, and the influence of which we are conscious, 
 which is strictly spiritual, as hetween the electrical \Yire 
 and the meaning it conveys. 
 
 One book, as to form, typography, and appearance, may 
 present little or no difference from another book ; but the 
 influence it exerts over us may be strikingly contrasted, 
 infinitely greater, and simply, because the Spirit which 
 produced the one, sways a more j^otent sceptre than the 
 Spirit that produced the other. But in either case, the 
 influence we feel is of a spiritual kind, though it comes to 
 us through the ordinary mediums of visible objects, which 
 are merely the arbitrary and conventional symbols of ideas. 
 In the character and history of Voltaire, for instance, no- 
 thing can be more evident than the pernicious spiritual 
 influence which he exercised, for a long period, over innu- 
 merable minds, and, through them, on the lives, and con- 
 duct, and destinies of large bodies of men throughout all 
 Europe. It was no. less a spiritual influence, because it 
 was of a disastrous and polluting kind, tending to turn 
 into ridicule the most sacred principles of religion, and 
 to sap the foundations of morality and social virtue. Had 
 he possessed a pure spirit, and employed his great talents 
 in the cause of virtue and happiness, and been as exten- 
 sively useful in rousing mankind to the pursuit and prac- 
 tice of goodness, as he was mischievous in nearly all the 
 impulses he gave to human thought and feeling, he would 
 not more obviously have exerted a spiritual influence, 
 though it would have been in an opposite direction. The 
 efl'ect of his extraordinary mental powers was to be traced, 
 like a pestilence, or a tempest, in the amount of desolation 
 it left behind. Mischief was his sport. His writings re- 
 lated, not to mere matters of dry speculation, but to the 
 moral sentiments and natural emotions of the heart, which 
 he debased and brutalized at their very source. The in- 
 fluence reached all classes, for it was suited to the 
 animalism of our nature, always struggling for the mas- 
 
VERIFIED BY EXPEUIENCE. 405 
 
 tery over reason and principle. Even myriads, Avho never 
 read a page of his writings, nor, perhaps, ever heard of 
 his name, felt the spiritual touch of some of his sentiments 
 or sayings, and were paralysed, or perverted, or maddened 
 by the potent influence of his malignant spell. Other 
 speculators have exercised a mighty power over the opi- 
 nions and theories of men, in matters of mere intellect 
 and thought. The writings of Aristotle for instance ; and 
 then, again, the works of the reformers, which produced, 
 throughout Europe, a convulsion in men's opinions, sudden 
 and mighty, like the shock of an earthquake. Eant, also, 
 in the department of metaphysical philosophy, long ruled 
 minds of a high and peculiar order, with a mighty sway ; 
 but surely no human spirit ever produced a greater, or a 
 more directly practical effect on other human spirits, than 
 the philosophical libertine of Ferney. There we contem- 
 plate him, disguised, indeed, under the affectation of a 
 moralizing recluse, but really surveying the desolation he 
 had spread, like a malignant daemon, that had retired to 
 an eminence to enjoy the scene, after having laid waste an 
 empire ; while the malicious smile upon his countenance 
 seemed to say, what a ,proof have I given of my intellectual 
 prowess ! and then his ominous words, which he uttered 
 when he returned to France, serve to complete the awful 
 tragedy," J am cone to Paris to find glory, and a tomh.'" 
 
 In the same class of disastrous spiritual influences may 
 be placed that effect which we have witnessed in our own 
 country, from the poetical writings of the late Lord Byron. 
 His influence was more directly aimed at the passions, 
 without attempting to prepare the poison so skilfully as 
 to secure the assent of the understandiuij^, or the concur- 
 rence of the moral sentiments. The ultimate object of 
 both seems to have been the heart ; to profane it, and pol- 
 lute it: and both authors accomplished their purpose to a 
 fearful extent. 
 
 Another illustration may be found in the case of a more 
 
400 DOCTRIISE OF DIVINE INFLUENCE 
 
 strictly intellectual influence, and of one altogether benign. 
 Lord Bacon exercised a spiritual power, perhaps quite as 
 extensive as that of Aristotle, and far more salutary. His 
 theory of philosophizing applies essentially to the objects 
 and the procedure of the understanding, and appears, at 
 the present moment, the light of all scientific men, which 
 is guiding them in all their researches ; the intellectual 
 key to all their discoveries : this is a spiritual influence yet 
 unspent. 
 
 But the power of one human spirit upon another, exer- 
 cised without limit and without end, is not to be doubted. 
 Its extent varies in difl'erent cases, and its products are 
 moral good or evil, according to the character of the energy 
 exerted in the first instance. The influence may be sub- 
 tle and secret, but the effects become apparent in the un- 
 derstanding, the moral sentiments, the passions, the social 
 relations, the whole practice, for the exterior man is always 
 the creation of the interior spirit; and even influences 
 which operate through the senses, return upon the life 
 and actions only through the effect they produce upon the 
 soul of man. All human power centres there, and all 
 extraneous agencies must there commence their ope- 
 rations, or at least traverse up to that point, before they 
 can begin to work efficiently upon man. 
 
 But there is another illustration of spiritual influence, 
 exerted by one human mind upon another, differing, in 
 some respects, from those already noticed, and, as I cannot 
 but think, approximating still more nearly to the nature 
 of those divine inffuences, the reality of which I am 
 anxious to make evident. I refer now to the influence of 
 friendship. Surely this may be denominated, apart from 
 religion, one of the most sacred and powerful impulses to 
 which either our understandings or our hearts are subject. 
 It is of little moment by what name it is defined ; a jDrin- 
 ciple, an emotion, or both ; a moral or a social sentiment ; 
 he fact is all we are concerned with at present. This, 
 
VERIFIED BY EXPERIENX'E. 407 
 
 then, is a susceptibility of our rational nature to a spiritual 
 influence from our fellow-creatures. It is, both in itself, 
 and in its cause, purely and essentially spiritual. That is, 
 in so far as it is a true and genuine friendship. For in 
 what is its proper root? Not in any bodily quality; not 
 in any perceived beauty ; but in mental or spiritual pro- 
 perties ; courage, magnanimity, generosity, genius, good- 
 ness, purity, or piety. It may arise from a perception of 
 our own mental likeness, or a discovery of those very qua- 
 lities in which we feel ourselves deficient, but admire and 
 wish to possess ; yet, whether it be contrast or resem- 
 blance which gives rise to the spiritual emotion or senti- 
 ment of genuine friendship, still it is a principle which 
 draws heart to heart, excites the most exquisite sympathy 
 of souls, and produces its results as well and as vividly, by 
 reflection and memory, without any direct medium of com- 
 munication, as in the presence of the endeared individual. 
 The imagination of what he feels, or sufl'ers, or enjoys, 
 shall place our soul in his soul's stead, and awaken senti- 
 ments and feelings which shall have as real an effect, and 
 alrnost to as great an extent, as if Ave actually witnessed 
 the facts we have only imagined. 
 
 Again, such is the influence of this sentiment in our 
 nature, that it can annihilate selfishness, prompt to acts 
 of the most generous self-devotement, and our life, in 
 short, become identified with our friend's, both in joy and 
 sorrow. All this, and far more than can be here described, 
 shall grow out of no physical or material cause, but shall 
 be the pure and evident result of the attraction which one 
 human spirit has for another ; a mysterious, and, in a 
 great measure, an inexplicable influence, which one mind 
 exerts on a second. Love, indeed, may show as great 
 results, but it is, perhaps, never so unmixed, never so 
 entirely a spiritual influence. It commonly arises from 
 something that moves the senses, or excites the animal 
 passions; sometimes, indeed, in connexion with the mind, 
 but frequently quite irrespective of all intellectual quali- 
 
408 DOCTRINE OF DIVINE INFLUENCE 
 
 ties. Genuine friendship, however, is produced from 
 purer and more ethereal elements, and is altogether a 
 sentiment or emotion of the soul, properly and exclusively 
 an effect of a spiritual character. It is, at once, the union 
 and communion of minds. It is, as Jeremy Taylor ob- 
 serves, " the greatest bond in the world ; for it is all the 
 bond that this world hath ; and there is no society, and 
 there is no relationship that is worthy, but it is made so 
 by the communications of friendship, and by partaking 
 some of its excellences. For friendship is a transcendant, 
 and signifies as much as unity can mean, and every con- 
 tent, and every pleasure, and every benefit, and every 
 society, is the mother or the daughter of friendship. Some 
 friendships are made by nature, some by contract, some by 
 interest, and some by souls." 
 
 Friendship, we may finally observe, attests itself a purely 
 spiritual effect, by the fact, that it is as strong in death as 
 in life, and even defies the power of tbe universal con- 
 queror. After death it lives as faithful to the memory, 
 which is the spirit's reality, as to the living en*ihrinement. 
 Its influence can hardly be said to be weakened by death, 
 any more than by local separation while alive. A jiurely 
 spiritual influence remains, and still operates, and can 
 never die in souls immortal. 
 
 The application of these analogies to the case in hand 
 is, I trust, obvious. Their value in the argument is to 
 show, that the human spirit is naturally so constituted as 
 to be exquisitely susceptible of spiritual influences ; that 
 it is constantly receiving them, and acting under their 
 impulse. That when Ave further consider the weakness 
 of the human soul in all good purposes and holy affec- 
 tions, its propensity to evil, both of itself and under the 
 influence of external excitements, it cannot but appear 
 highly reasonable and probable, that the Supreme Spirit, 
 who is, without doubt, infinitely good and benevolent, 
 should exercise, through proper mediums, or, it may be. 
 
VERIFIED BY EXPERIENCE. 409 
 
 without any medium, an influence of a spiritual kind over 
 our minds. This is both reasonable and probable, as an 
 inference from the extensive facts which we observe, and 
 is in perfect analogy with the whole system of things 
 around us, and within us. 
 
 Taken in connexion with the direct testimony borne to 
 such influence in the history of Christianity, and in the 
 consciousness of Christians, yet, to be examined, it will 
 surely supply sufficient evidence for the belief of the fact ; 
 and, indeed, all the evidence that can be reasonably re- 
 quired in a case so confessedly mysterious, and so essen- 
 tially remote from all the objects and operations of the 
 senses. 'Nothing, then, it appears, can be more probable, 
 than that there is a divine agency employed through the 
 whole spiritual economy, since we are constrained to admit 
 it, in the origination and superintendence of the material 
 and intellectual system. ' 
 
 If we see, first, in nature, that all motion, all power, 
 originates with S2:>iritual and invisible agency, and if we 
 are thence led to infer, that the primitive and original cause 
 of all things is a Supreme, Eternal, and Infinite Spirit;., 
 if, further, we all experience the influence of mind on 
 mind, we may fairly and safely infer, that it is far more 
 probable 'than otherwise, that our own spirits, the nobler 
 part of our nature, and that which allies us most nearly 
 to the great Father of Spirits, are not exempted from his 
 omnipotent agency. 
 
 It is of no moment, that the mode of this influence is 
 subtle, and perhaps beyond the reach of any analysis which 
 we can employ. It is with the fact, mainly, that we have 
 to do, and to the reality of that fact there are, we think, 
 veritable and innumerable testimonies, though it may not 
 be a matter of universal consciousness. In this particular, 
 it is placed in no worse predicament than a thousand other 
 intellectual phenomena, which are never disputed. The 
 non-experience of one man is no refutation of the cxpe- 
 
410 DOCTRINE OF DIVINE INFLUENCE 
 
 rience of another. Moreover, matters of fact are as certain 
 as demonstrations, provided only they be safely ascer- 
 tained, or adequately testified : yea, most of our demon- 
 strations can never be evinced in any other way, or by any 
 clearer evidence, than that of our senses^ or our conscious- 
 ness. They depend upon the very same foundations — the 
 trustworthiness of our natural powers of knowledge. With- 
 out dej^ending upon the medium either of sense or con- 
 sciousness, we can prove nothing. 
 
 These observations have, I trust, made it evident, that 
 there is a spiritual influence exerted throughout nature ; 
 and further, that the doctrine of a spiritual influence, 
 exerted for the maintenance of moral and religious prin- 
 ciples in the hearts of men, is in accordance with the 
 whole system of influences in the midst of which we are 
 placed. The belief of this doctrine seems necessary, to 
 account for effects which can be traced to no other cause, 
 and can never be adequately explained, without the admis- 
 sion of this. 
 
 We can satisfactorily account for nothing in the peculiar 
 department of spiritual beings, in the province of morals 
 and religion, without the admission of a divine and spi- 
 ritual agency. Just in proportion as our knowledge of the 
 ways of providence in this particular sphere enlarges, so 
 our views of our own agency and efficiency shrink into 
 littleness. In every thing we are constrained finally to 
 retreat upon the divine influence, or stop short of account- 
 ing for the effects which are witnessed. 
 
 It is in theology, as in physics ; in moral, as in material 
 causes and effects ; the final one, to which we are con- 
 strained to trace up all others, is spiritual and divine. So 
 that if there be any such thing as religion at all, whether 
 natural or revealed, theoretic or experimental, it must 
 virtually and essentially exhibit the divine influence, 
 operating mediately or immediately, or both, in and upon 
 the human soul. 
 
VERIFIED BY EXPEEIENCE. 411 
 
 The whole of revelation professedly proceeds upon this 
 as a fundamental principle. It clearly and uniformly 
 teaches, that divine influence is essential to the produc- 
 tion of those results at which it aims ; and that the mind 
 and heart of man can never exhibit the genuine and vital 
 emotions of a true piety towards God, without a divine 
 ajfiatus. It prescribes and sanctions a system of means, 
 such as we are accustomed to denominate moral suasion, 
 but, at the same time, it protests, that the mind of man 
 can no more become what the insj)ired religion requires it 
 to become, without a spiritual and divine influence, than 
 any part or object of nature can be sustained in its func- 
 tions, and produce its proper results, without the pervading 
 efficiency of the Almighty Creator. 
 
 It will be our endeavour, in what follows, to verify, as 
 far as we can, on so complicated and difficult a subject, 
 the general testimony of revelation, by an appeal to the 
 actual experience of human nature. 
 
 We conceive there has been, from the very introduction 
 of revelation, and more distinctly and palpably since Chris- 
 tianity was established, a clear accordance between facts 
 and the record, between human consciousness and the 
 doctrine, as dogmatically taught in the Scriptures. 
 
 1. We may clearly trace such a verification of the sacred 
 word in the facts which attended the early introduction 
 and promulgation of Christianity. It was represented by 
 many of the prophets, that the days of Messiah's kingdom 
 were to be characterised by special gifts and influences of 
 the Spirit of God. These were to consist, partly, in ex- 
 traordinary signs wrought by inspired men, and partly in 
 such moral and spiritual endowments as should clearly 
 evince the presence and operation of a divine power. The 
 promises and predictions are scattered throughout the 
 books of all the prophets, and are usually connected with 
 the coming and the times of the Messiah. One, in par- 
 ticular, is quoted by Peter, in his address on the day of 
 
412 DOC PEINE OF DIVINE INFLUENCE 
 
 Pentecost, from the prophet Joel. But the prediction of 
 Jesus Christ himself, prior to his departure from his dis- 
 ciples, may be noticed as a summary, and, at the same 
 time, a confirmation of the whole ; " Tarry ye in the city of 
 Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high." 
 In attestation of the narrative which records the fact, that 
 such a divine influence was afforded to them, we may 
 appeal to the effects which presently followed their labours, 
 and to the manifest and otherwise inexplicable change 
 wdiich took place in the men themselves. There appeared, 
 in the mental endowments, in the moral feelings, and in 
 the whole character of the apostles of Jesus Christ, a most 
 extraordinary improvement, a vast stride in all the qualifi- 
 cations requisite for the public advocacy and advancement 
 of the gospel after this period. To say nothing of the gift 
 of languages, and of other miraculous endowments, if we 
 look at the men,* simply as teachers of the doctrine of 
 Jesus, we find an enlightenment, a wisdom, an energy, 
 and unction of speech, and of persuasion, which distanced 
 all competition ; a self-devotement, and a degree of moral 
 courage, which altogether evinced a sudden and most ex- 
 traordinary change, eminently fitting them for all the 
 scenes and transactions in which they were called to bear 
 so cons]3icuous a part. They were no longer the poor, 
 illiterate, prejudiced, wavering, and timid fishermen of 
 Galilee. All the facts of the case show that they possessed 
 a power and a wisdom which none of their adversaries, not 
 even the most learned and the most subtle, could gainsay 
 or resist. The manner in which they acquitted themselves 
 appears the more extraordinary, not only because they 
 were previously unqualified and incompetent, but because 
 they were expressly forbidden to premeditate what they 
 should answer, or what they should say. Their Master 
 had assured them, that it should be given them at the hour 
 what they ought to say. 
 
 But lest any should object that these facts are taken 
 
VERIFIED BY EXPERIENCE. 413 
 
 Avliolly from their own statements, we may observe, that 
 the results whicli followed, and which profane history 
 records, fully corroborate the statements given in the book 
 of the Acts. The gospel had an immediate and most 
 extensive spread after the day of Pentecost. The advan- 
 tage gained to Christianity was answerable to the divine 
 and mighty cause assigned for it. The impression of its 
 truth produced the permanent effects that followed, and 
 all the growing series of vast and stupendous consequences 
 that arose out of the extraordinary scene which signalized 
 the commencement of the apostolic ministry, were pre- 
 cisely such as might have been anticipated from so mighty 
 a cause, and such as never have been, and never can be, 
 rationally explained upon any other theory. 
 
 The poor, despised, unarmed fishermen of Galilee went 
 forth to execute the commission of their Master, with no 
 worldly wisdom, no carnal weapons, yet their warfare 
 proved mighty to pull down the strongholds of sin and 
 Satan. Their strength consisted in the consciousness 
 that they were endued with power from on high, and all 
 the results, as fully appears from the admission of their 
 adversaries, answered to their expectations, and to the 
 predictions and promises of their Master. Tliey, indeed, 
 swayed not the power which controls human hearts, yet 
 they appealed continually to the signs and wonders which 
 that power wrbught, and whicli never failed to accompany 
 their words, and, in consequence, thousands Avere con- 
 vinced and brought under the influence of that gospel, who, 
 but for the extraordinary gifts bestowed on the apostles, 
 would never have understood a single word that they 
 uttered. Among those who were thus led in triumph to 
 the early preaching of Christianity, were many who had 
 long held out against its Founder himself, and who had 
 appeared among the most violent and resolute opposers ; 
 but who were, at last, overpowered by the augmented 
 lustre and energy of those new gifts and signs, which 
 
414 DOCTRINE OF DIVINE INFLUENCE 
 
 seemed to be multiplied as the cause advanced. To what, 
 then, I would ask, but the divine influence, can we attribute 
 the immediate dissemination of the gospel, at a crisis 
 when, from the ignominious death of its Author, there was 
 every rational probability of its suppression, and a dis- 
 semination to an extent which otherwise many years would 
 not have sufficed to accomplish ? 
 
 New systems, whether of religion or philosophy, simply 
 left to work their way by an appeal to the understandings 
 of men, never make such rapid strides, never win such 
 splendid triumphs over habit, prejudice, and power. Their 
 ordinary progress is slow and difficult. But the gospel, 
 testified by these humble apostles of Jesus, made its way, 
 in an incredibly short space of time, first to the hearts of the 
 immediate audiences to whom it was addressed during the 
 period of the Pentecostal feast, and then by them to the most 
 remote parts of the civilized world ; for at once a host of 
 preachers was raised up and qualified, if not in all respects, 
 yet adequately to convey the glad tidings to their own na- 
 tions and homes, and thus to excite attention and prepare 
 the way for the visits of some more competent teacher. 
 
 Now we argue that this system, proclaiming, as it did, 
 the name of a crucified Saviour, requiring faith in his 
 divinity, though he appeared not to their bodily senses, 
 destitute as it was of all adventitious recommendations, 
 not only unaided but opposed by all human and secular 
 power, could not have survived for a single year, scarcely 
 for a day, had not the power of God been so in it as to 
 make it mvincible to finite resources, and, at the pleasure of 
 its author, to transform enemies into friends, persecutors 
 into advocates, and to confound and overrule to its ad- 
 vancement all the counsels which were directed to its 
 extermination. Its chief promoters were constantly taken 
 from among the humblest and most powerless of the 
 people, frequently from the ranks of its foremost oppo- 
 nents, and thus it created for itself, wherever it came, a 
 
VERIFIED BY EXPERIENCE. 415 
 
 succession of friends and disciples, a heroic band ready to 
 fill up the places of those who fell by the reckless force of 
 persecution, and prepared to brave all extremities in its 
 defence. Even its enemies were appalled by the evidences 
 of divine energy with which it was constantly accompanied. 
 They often felt abashed and speechless before it, or were 
 smitten by a spirit of dismay and despondency. 
 
 They found, by experience, that the disciples of Jesus 
 could neither be confounded by argument, nor swayed by 
 interest, nor deterred by the terrors of martyrdom. There 
 was felt to be a mysterious energy, an invincible power, 
 attending this gospel, which neutralized all the force of 
 persecution, and annihilated the opposition of men. The 
 tide might as soon be resisted, the sun stayed in its course, 
 or .the winds controlled. Thus, when Paul, as a prisoner, 
 stood before Agrippa and Felix, the one confessed his con- 
 victions, the other trembled on the judgment-seat. Infi- 
 delity cannot account for such effects, while yet it cannot 
 deny them. Every attempt to evade this evidence has 
 signally failed. The facts stand forth confessed by all 
 antiquity, proved by the consequences which have extended 
 to our own times, preserved in the ancient monuments, 
 Avhich may still be inspected, and implicated, inseparably 
 and for ever, with the history of the civilized world. 
 
 It was, clearly, nothing in the men who advocated the 
 cause, no power of fascination which they possessed, no 
 sophistry to entangle the understanding, no baits to draw 
 the hearts of the worldly and sensual. The men, in all 
 respects, as men, were utterly powerless and inefficient 
 against the formidable opposition of an unbelieving, idol- 
 atrous, or philosophic world. Yet they achieved the pre- 
 dicted results ; they wrought eff'ects equally Avonderful to 
 themselves and to those who were the subjects of them. 
 How else, then, we ask, could this have been accomplished, 
 and all in fulfilment of prophecy, but by the power of 
 God? For if they had gone forth confiding in any human 
 
41G DOCTKTXE OF DIVINE INFIX'EXCE 
 
 resources of wisdom, art, or magic, or pretended miracle, 
 there was not a single . article or instrument they could 
 have employed, in which they were not sure to be out- 
 matched by their enemies. But they continually dis- 
 claimed all reliance upon human powers, and affirmed 
 that their sufficiency was of God, who had made them able 
 ministers, by his Spirit which dwelt in them and girded 
 them for their w^arfare. And is there not every reason to 
 credit their statements, and to convince us, that their own 
 explanation of their success is the only true one ? No 
 other can account for all the circumstances, no other can 
 be rationally sustained. 
 
 "Human suasion," says Mr. Hall, "can operate only on 
 principles which already exist. When Demosthenes, by 
 his powerful eloquence, excited the Athenians to combat, 
 he only called into action, by a skilful grouping of motives, 
 and an appropriate exercise of genius, principles already 
 existing, but which had lain dormant. He created nothing 
 new ; he transformed them not into new creatures ; but 
 only roused and stimulated those principles which had 
 animated the bosoms of nations, in resisting tyranny, in 
 every age. But when the apostles went forth to preach 
 faith in Christ, they assumed and demanded, if I may so 
 say, a state of things of which there had been no instance ; 
 they proposed to make a change in the mind and heart of 
 man, to which there was no natural tendency ; they re- 
 quired a creature dead in ' trespasses and sins,' to awake 
 to Christ; they proposed to convert him into a devoted 
 servant, a subject most loyal, most affectionate, most ar- 
 dent ; and how was it possible that any mere human art or 
 force could effect such changes as these ?"-!= 
 
 The apostles ascribed their success to the almighty 
 power of God. Thus, in Ephesians, chap. i. ver. 18, " The 
 eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye 
 
 • Hall's Works, vol. vi. p. 22G. 
 
VERIFIED BY EXPERIENCE. 4 L I 
 
 may know — what is the exceeding greatness of his power 
 to itsward who believe." Again, chap. ii. ver. 10, "For we 
 are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus." James 
 i. 18, " Of his own v/ill begat he us with the word of truth, 
 that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures." 
 1 Pet. i. 23, " Being born again, not of corruptible seed, 
 but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and 
 abideth for ever ; " and many similar scriptures, all attri- 
 buting the success to that same power, Avhich, at the first, 
 made the light to shine out of darkness, and produced all 
 the beauty and perfection of the natural world out of the 
 confusion of chaos. 
 
 It would be, as our Lord suggests, a singular and astound- 
 ing sight, to see some of the stones of the ground rise up, 
 and become both men and children of Abraham, at the 
 utterance of certain words. Yet, similar to this, was the 
 efficiency of the word, which, by the apostles, was preached 
 unto men ; and which made of those stones and clods, 
 men and women worthy of being denominated the children 
 of God, new creatures, living epistles of Christ, at once 
 the wonder and the blessing of the age in which they 
 lived. 
 
 But to turn the Pagan world to become Christian, is 
 obviously no work of human power. Yet this did the 
 preaching of the cross of Christ effect. " What a throwing 
 down of temples, and breaking of altars, and burning of 
 images, and cutting down of groves, and forsaking of ora- 
 cles w^as there,"* when the gospel did but come to the 
 heart, by the ministry of these ignoble and despised 
 apostles. These were triumphs Avhich reason had never 
 won ; achievements which philosophy had never attempted ; 
 results which no human instrumentality could ever have 
 accomplished. We behold idolatries of the longest stand- 
 ing, superstitions having the strongest and deepest roots, 
 
 * Flemin-'s Fulfilling of the Script, p. 2G1, ful. 
 V. E E 
 
418 DOCTRINE OF DIVINE INFLUENCE 
 
 customs and opinions venerable for age, and buttressed up 
 by the most sacred forms of government and religion, pro- 
 tected by every known sanction, and every possible degree 
 of authority which men could devise, intertwined with all 
 the social relations, engraven upon the memory from in- 
 fancy, and brought close to the heart, by being connected 
 with all that is dear to man, as well as associated with all 
 that is majestic, awful, and mysterious in the Deity, linked 
 even with the skies, and emblazoned with the hope of 
 immortality. Yet they all vanished like a dream, disap- 
 peared as at the magic touch of an enchanter, or crumbled 
 into dust, or consumed as stubble before the lightning, 
 and by nothing but the preaching of the gospel, accompa- 
 nied by that divine influence to which these Christian 
 advocates appealed. We are constrained to infer, that this 
 mighty transformation was effected by an unseen, sovereign 
 power, a mighty influence which at once reached the heart, 
 and inspired an instant hatred of all those forms of error 
 and of evil which were once held most dear and sacred. 
 That a sinu;le ^'eneration should witness such a transform- 
 ation, and experience such clear and illustrious improve- 
 ments, is indeed wonderful. 
 
 Let it be obsei'ved, moreover, that no distance of time 
 can bring these facts into question. The memorials remain 
 in the writings of the heathen world, in the monuments of 
 the nations subdued by the gospel, and in the pantheons 
 which the gospel has overturned, but which are yet pre- 
 served in the classic page, as in a museum that can never 
 perish, and where alone they now exist. It were irrational 
 and unphilosophical to attribute such unparalleled effects 
 to any thing but divine influence, co-operating with those 
 simple, and, as they were deemed, foolish and contemptible 
 means. It was evidently God that wrought by the word 
 of his grace, and made it mighty, to pull down the strong- 
 holds of sin and Satan. 
 
 Moreover, it was only one identical doctrine that ever 
 
VERIFIED BY EXI'ERIENXE. 419 
 
 had this power. The doctrme of the cross of Christ exclu- 
 sively effected these wondrous changes. Thus, it is evident, 
 the kingdom of God came not in word, but in power. We 
 see that this word, when it is applied to the heart by the 
 energy of the Divine Spirit, has a self-evidencing light, a 
 penetrating lustre that none can withstand. An invisible 
 agency impressed the word upon men's souls, as with a 
 warm and piercing sunbeam. No human art, or skill, or 
 power, could ever imitate or parallel these mighty, splendid, 
 and unique effects of the gospel. A painter's art may imitate 
 a flower, but its vitality, its fragrance, are only of God, the 
 Sovereign Creator. 
 
 2. But it is assumed in the gospel, that the supernatural 
 means employed at the beginning of Christianity, would 
 be necessary for its continuance and success in the world 
 in every age, and that it would not be able to make a single 
 convert without the distinct inten'^ention of the divine aid. 
 Moreover, that it would have, in its continued progress, to 
 contend Avitli the most formidable opposition, and yet that 
 all would be vain ; because it was intended for universal 
 victory, and because the divine influence was pledged to 
 attend it in all its course, and in every individual case. 
 
 " Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world," 
 was the parting and significant assurance of its ascending 
 Author ; and " I will send unto you another Comforter, 
 who shall abide with you for ever. When he is come he 
 shall convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of 
 judgment." Christ hereby promised his divine influence, 
 the operation of his Spirit to the end of time, and to be 
 always in and with his church, working by the truth, and 
 with his ministers, to the conviction and renovation of the 
 most inveterate enemies. 
 
 It may be inquired. Has there been any thing answerable 
 to this in the subsequent history of the gospel ? Surely 
 this can hardly be doubted. History shows a continued 
 divine influence exerted on behalf of Christianitv, mani- 
 
420 DOCTEIKE OF DIVINE INFLUENCE 
 
 fested in its preservation and perpetual triumph. But the 
 continuance of the effect argues tlie continuance of the 
 cause. No other could account for the position vviiich 
 Christianity has attained at the present day. I do not 
 mean simply in reference to external events, and the defeat 
 of those schemes and efforts, directed to^vards its overthrow 
 and extermination, which have hcen neither fevr nor small ; 
 nor do I refer chiefly to the manifest and remarkable over- 
 ruling of all those schemes and efforts to its greater honour 
 and success in the world. But I refer to that which con- 
 stitutes the genuine success of Christianity; its only ade- 
 quate result; the renovation of those who become its 
 subjects ; the production of its peculiar and genuine fruits, 
 in the conversion of men from sin, and ignorance, and 
 secularity, and their entire subjection to the love of God, 
 and the power of a pure morality. And of these, assuredly, 
 there has been a continued succession, an uninterrupted 
 series, from generation to generation, down to the present 
 time, in which they are, perhaps, as abundant, as striking 
 and splendid, as in any former period. As the succession 
 of human nature has been unbroken from the first date of 
 its creation, so there has been a succession of God-fearing 
 men, who have always been as the lights of the world, and 
 salt of the earth. But without this divine agency, we may 
 readily conclude, that the race of believers must have be- 
 come extinct, because the influence of the Divine Spirit 
 ceasing, the race must have expired. Yet no Christian, 
 without the divine blessing, can make another man a 
 Christian. It is not in human power to convert a sinner 
 from the error of his w^ays ; and of this there is ample 
 and humbling x^i'oof, in the utter failure of all human 
 means, in those innumerable cases in which all have been 
 employed in vain, as well as in the disappointment fre- 
 quently experienced in cases in which we have been most 
 anxious to realize the consummation of our hopes and 
 wishes. Would not every Christian parent, if ho were 
 
YEUIFIED CY EXrEHIEN(j£. 421 
 
 able, make his children real believers ? But the constant 
 disappointment of all our endeavours, in this respect, 
 abundantly shows, that the happy result depends not alto- 
 gether upon our power. Man cannot regenerate the soul. 
 Nothing hut. divine influence is sufficient to accomplish 
 this ; for after we have used our utmost efforts to the 
 attainment of this end, we see those who have enjoyed the 
 best means continuing strangers to the operation of a 
 divine power upon their heart, and destitute of those charac- 
 teristics which it is the great end of the gospel to produce. 
 But notwithstanding our experience of this humiliating 
 fact, God does still preserve, and has preserved from the 
 times of Christ and his apostles, a succession of true be- 
 lievers. He has divinely wrought their characters to a 
 general and marked conformity to the divine standard. 
 He has made them, in their day, the lights of the world, 
 and blessings to their fellows, witnesses for God and truth 
 in their generation, a holy, consecrated, and spiritually- 
 minded people. There exists, at the present moment, a 
 numerous body of such persons identified in faith, cha- 
 racter and aim. Separate and scattered as they are through 
 most countries, yet there is this peculiarity ; they all re- 
 cognise the grand general principles of Christian truth ; 
 all acknowledge the operation of the Divine Sjoirit on them- 
 selves, and the necessity of it to the formation of their new 
 and spiritual character ; they all openly ascribe both their 
 own change, and that Avhicli they anticipate in the whole 
 world, to the inward operation of the divine power on the 
 mind of man ; and they uniformly deny that any merely 
 human pov/er could effect that transformation, which they 
 have themselves experienced, or which they hope to see 
 effected upon others. 
 
 Now either they are right in ascribing this moral change 
 to divine influence, or the whole body, age after age, must 
 be under a gross delusion ; and all that they attribute to 
 divine power must bo the effect of human means, and 
 
422 DOCTMNE OF DIVINE INFLUENCE 
 
 capable of clear and full explanation, without the interven- 
 tion of any agency, except that of man. But we conceive 
 no objector to Christianity can prove this ; or that, if he 
 supposes he could, he would yet deny that it must be much 
 for the benefit of mankind, if they could all be brought 
 under the same agency, whatever it may be ; and that if it 
 is a delusion, it would be a most joyous thing to see all 
 the world so deluded. 
 
 But which are most likely to be wrong, those persons 
 who have been the subjects of the change, who have had 
 ample experience of the fact, and are fully conscious of all 
 that has passed in their own hearts ; or those opponents 
 who have never undergone any such change, who evince a 
 nature altogether estranged from God and spiritual sub- 
 jects, and who are utterly disqualified to form an accurate 
 judgment in the case ? Their ignorance and inexperience 
 constitute no proof against the alleged facts, and deserve 
 no consideration. Suppose two men witnessed an event 
 at a given place : their testimony is positive. Though a 
 thousand, who were not there, should stand forth to deny 
 the fact, their testimony would be nugatory, not contrary. 
 It is no evidence at all. 
 
 Suppose the fact of a beautiful garden, fully stored with 
 every variety of plants, fruits, and flowers, suddenly pro- 
 duced in a place which all knew to have been a desert, 
 which had been often or long subjected to culture, but in 
 which all human efforts had been unavailing to produce 
 either verdure or fruitfulness. Would not the supposed 
 effect, and its suddenness, under such circumstances, sa- 
 tisfy all that this could not be the work of a power less than 
 that of an Almighty Creator, to whom nothing is impos- 
 sible? And if we really had the opportunity of seeing 
 those productions, of tasting those fruits, and of subject- 
 ing them, in various ways, to the test of our senses, so that 
 there could be no doubt concerning the reality of the effect, 
 then we should have sufficient and convincing proof of the 
 
VERIFIED BY EXPERIENCE. 423 
 
 intervention of a power, far transcending that of any human 
 being. But not more so than we have frequently witnessed, 
 in the changes which the gospel produces in the characters 
 and hearts of men, and in the striking effects which it is 
 perpetually working in persons of all conditions. 
 
 It is material to observe here, that Christianity is not 
 restricted in its operations to the ignorant and the poor ; 
 it exhibits the same transforming efficiency among the 
 wise ; it wins its trophies proportionably among the philo- 
 sophic, among the infidels, among those full of the confi- 
 dence of learning and of human wisdom. All these classes 
 frequently feel the renovating, subduing, and ennobling 
 influence of the gospel, and are led in triumj^ih by the doc- 
 trine of Jesus Christ. Yet there is nothing in human 
 agency adequate to produce such effects. There is no 
 such magic in mere human persuasion, mighty as it is; 
 reason and philosophy cannot exhibit such transforma- 
 tions; and eloquence, with all its charms, cannot exorcise 
 the demon of sin from the human breast. These agencies 
 all fail and prove powerless against human depravity. Yet 
 the effects of which we speak are of frequent occurrence, 
 and by an instrumentality, so far as man is concerned, often 
 the most weak and contemptible, and never such as to 
 make it in any degree doubtful whether the honour of the 
 result belongs most to man or to God. 
 
 3. The verification may be made, perhaps, more satis- 
 factory, as it is made more minute and particular. We 
 will, therefore, now proceed to offer some observations on 
 individual cases. The sacred record affirms the necessity 
 of such spiritual influence to render the truths of revela- 
 tion effectual to the production and maintenance, the ma- 
 turity and conservation of the christian character, in every 
 particular instance. The whole tenoi' of the book so re- 
 presents the case. No man can be made a true Christian 
 without this divine operation on the mind and heart ; so 
 that whatever may be said of the rational evidence of Chris- 
 
4^>4 DOCTHINE OF DIVJNE INyLUl;:>;CE 
 
 tianity, and* of the reasonableness, excellency, and purity 
 of its truths and precepts, and of the conviction these may 
 produce in the judgment, still the spiritual eifect, in the 
 character and heart of man, is represented as never pro- 
 duced without an agency of another and a higher kind. 
 "Except a man be born of the Spirit, he cannot see the 
 kingdom of God," and "ye must be born again," will 
 suffice as specimens of the uniform testimony of revelation 
 on this point. 
 
 I am not now endeavouring to explain the doctrine, or 
 to show its harmony with other doctrines, or with the 
 general scheme of providence, or with human liberty. 
 These are subjects closely related, but by no means neces- 
 sary to be considered in the present argument. We are 
 not treating of the philosophy of such mental phenomena, 
 but of their reality. Our business is, first with the ob- 
 vious testimony of the written word, and then with the 
 fact, as a mere matter of human experience and conscious- 
 ness. 
 
 Now, we think, every real Christian becomes sensible 
 of a great change, more gradually or suddenly effected, 
 which is strikingly contrasted with his natural or sinful 
 state. His consciousness of life, of reason, of the former 
 supremacy of evil over him, is not clearer or stronger than 
 his present consciousness of a new and right principle of 
 action. The power to act is the property of a living being, 
 and the disposition to act sinfully is the characteristic of a 
 fallen being ; but the power and the disposition to act in 
 all things wisely, righteously, and conscientiously, or in 
 accordance with the will of God, revealed in his word, is 
 the effect of a new, a supernatural, and a divine influence. 
 This, at least, every real Christian feels and acknowledges. 
 The very first, and most essential evidence of such a new 
 and divine principle, is supreme love to God. This is the 
 true germ of a new life, and both its support and its deve- 
 lopment, in all the fruits of the Spirit, are felt to be as 
 
YERIFfED BY EXI'ERIENCl::. 4'25 
 
 dependent upon the divine influence, as its production or 
 first communication. Its operation is represented by 
 terms and images, whicli imply, or express, its sovereignty 
 and royalty. " Work out your own salvation with fear and 
 trembling, for it is God that worketh in you, both to will 
 and to do, of his own good pleasure;" and, again, " tiie 
 wind bloweth where it listeth ; so is every one that is born 
 of the Spirit." The experience of those who are thus born, 
 the experience of those who minister the gospel for the 
 production of such results, and the consciousness of those 
 who have heard and read the gospel, but never inwardly 
 felt the renovating influence, all conspire to establish the 
 statement. 
 
 There may be said to be evidence, both positive and 
 negative, that the formation of the full Christian character 
 depends upon the promised divine agency. Those are fre- 
 quently as fully convinced of this, who are utterly destitute 
 of that influence, as those who have received it. They will 
 confess the disinclination of their heart, and the resistance 
 of their will ; and that they feel as if no power in the uni- 
 verse could turn them, but that of their Creator. All this 
 is further confirmed by the experience of those who have 
 sustained the oflice of teachers of the gospel. They bear 
 witness to the inefficiency of means alone, and to the suc- 
 cess of them when the divine influence opens the heart, 
 and accompanies the testimony. Without this power men 
 may listen to the sound of the gospel, most faithfully 
 preached, but their hearts will remain obdurate, their 
 affections worldly, and their understandings entirely unin- 
 fluenced by the commanding realities of the Christian sys- 
 tem. A degree of theoretical knowledge, and some moral 
 virtues, may be acquired by a religious education, or by a 
 subjection to those good habits which Christianity enforces 
 upon all ; but this is found continually to exist without 
 any commanding aftection for the great Author of Chris- 
 tianity, or any conscious enjoyment of the spiritual bless- 
 
426 DOCTRINE OF DIVINE INFLUENCE 
 
 ings his religion confers. The heart may yet be dead to 
 God and the interests of eternity; for nothing is more 
 common than to see the forms of godliness separated from 
 the power, and where the power is practically denied. 
 Even the morality of the gospel may, in great measure, 
 be disjoined from its spiritual enjoyments and privileges. 
 We maintain, therefore, that all the peculiarity, all the dis- 
 tinctive qualities of the Christian character and life, are 
 hereby shown to depend on divine influence, and we think 
 it ought to be inferred, that no such character can be pro- 
 duced, or ever is produced, without such influence ; or even 
 where there does not exist a full recognition of the actual 
 operation of such an influence for the production of those 
 peculiar qualities which constitute the genuine Christian 
 character. 
 
 It is triumphantly asked by revelation, '• Can the Ethio- 
 pian change his skin, or the leopard his spots '? then may 
 ye who are evil learn to do well." God clearly asserts to 
 himself the exclusive power of renovating our nature, and 
 the facts which still attend the history of the gospel seem 
 fully to confirm its testimony upon this j^oint, that, without 
 the divine influence, Christianity itself, as a system of truth, 
 is either powerless, or only partially and externally advan- 
 tageous. It improves the manners and the habits, but it 
 does not produce the spirit of love and of adoption, of self- 
 dedication and sacrifice to the glory of God. 
 
 But where the new principle of spiritual life is imparted, 
 there a change follows, which, for its peculiarity of cha- 
 racter and completeness, is denominated " a new creation.'' 
 " Old things pass away; all things become new." A reve- 
 lation is made to the heart, which resembles the bestow- 
 ment of a new faculty of sight or feeling, by which a new 
 world seems to be opened to our perceptions. Every ob- 
 ject is presented in a new light ; feelings are awakened, 
 the most deep and commanding, to which, before, the soul 
 was a stranger ; and yet these feelings, when they are 
 
YEEIFIED BY EXPERIENCE. 427 
 
 awakened, appear the most reasonable and proper. Now 
 these changes, varying, indeed, in their circumstances, but 
 all most exactly identified in their results, take place, as 
 before observed, uj^on all classes of persons. There is 
 produced a certain agreement and harmony of character, 
 which makes the individuals brought under this influence 
 recognise each other as the subjects of a divine change, 
 and causes them to sympathize together in all the peculiar 
 emotions and exercises of the new state. Thus it is that 
 they have an interchange of friendship peculiar to them- 
 selves, but possessing the same general characters through 
 all ages, countries, and ranks ; to a great degree, we ad- 
 mit, inexplicable, and unintelligible to those who have had 
 no such experience. 
 
 It is, anoreover, unquestionable, that these effects follow 
 no particular kind of instrumentality, and cannot be infal- 
 libly secured, in any given case, whatever be the character 
 of the means. Human foresight and human wishes can 
 never ensure the result upon others ; it is mysteriously 
 connected with the sovereignt}^ of God, and the free agency 
 of the individual, in whose case it is either given or with- 
 held. So that where man may most desire these influ- 
 ences, and most devoutly labour to call them down, they 
 are yet sometimes withheld ; and where least expected, 
 they are often coj^iously bestowed. Even where, at first, 
 appearances are hopeful and promising, a disappointment 
 frequently ensues ; and, in cases where there seemed to 
 be no human probability of a propitious issue to our exer- 
 tions, there is frequently witnessed, in the most ample and 
 l^alpable degrees, the mighty and benignant workings of 
 the gracious Spirit. 
 
 The sacred record every where ascribes this great 
 change to a divine influence, and it appears, in fact, that 
 it must be so : for we find persons constantly faUing 
 under the power of God s word whom we never expected 
 to see so subdued, and concerninG^ whom we could have 
 
4Q8 DOCTRINE OF DIVINE INFLUENCE 
 
 augured nothing so desirable ; wliile others, who have had 
 ample opportunities, and the selectest means, remain in a 
 state of impiety, obduracy, and vice. 
 
 How, then, is it possible to doubt the reality and efii- 
 ciency of this operation, when we continually witness the 
 most decisive illustrations of all that the Bible asserts on 
 these points ? Individuals, subdued under the power of 
 conviction, they know not how, perhaps suddenly arrested 
 by a single sentiment of scripture, or by the ministry of 
 the word, and thrown into a state of alarm and self-con- 
 demnation, for which they find no palliative, and which 
 cannot be relieved by any human considerations, but which 
 the doctrines and promises of the divine word alone seem 
 to meet and relieve. They may, at first, try their old 
 amusements, or their habitual sins ; but the rehsli is gone; 
 all are embittered; or their old friends may endeavour to 
 rally their spirits, and persuade them that they are only 
 the dupes of a disordered imagination, or have been im- 
 posed upon by fanaticism, or have suddenly and casually 
 sunk into a fit of melancholy, which time and change of 
 scene will remove; but it all proves conspicuously in vain; 
 the authority of God has taken fast hold of their under- 
 standing and conscience ; their imagination is filled with 
 no unreasonable terror ; they try to escape from their fears 
 and griefs, but it is quite impossible. The impressions 
 remain ; the seeds are vital. They have taken root in na- 
 ture. The word of God has revealed truths of the clearest 
 evidence and deepest interest, and these have made inde- 
 lible impressions ; hence their fears, instead of being dis- 
 sipated, rise higher, and their minds, instead of recovering 
 their wonted indifference to divine things, become increas- 
 ingly like a troubled sea. Their resistance to the force of 
 conviction, and the striving of the secret power of God, is 
 fruitless, and at length they are constrained to yield, and 
 submit themselves to the prescribed, though hitherto de- 
 spised and hated doctrine ; and so, falling on their knees 
 
VEi:irIED BY EXl'i'.KlENCE. 429 
 
 in the deepest penitence, they invoke the divine mercy. 
 At length they perceive the authority, the beauty, the 
 adaptation of the whole gosj)el scheme to their particular 
 case and experience. They may continue for weeks and 
 months, or sometimes for years, passing through this pro- 
 cess, before the distress of their mind, or the violence of 
 their convictions, yields to the consoling doctrine of for- 
 giveness. But at length, by continued prayer, attention to 
 the Scriptures, and belief of the gospel, they are led to 
 such views of the Saviour, as effectually remove and sup- 
 press both their fears and their sins : the ^jromises inspire 
 hope, and induce them to indulge a full confidence in final 
 acceptance. 
 
 All this is terminated by an entire change in the cha- 
 racter and habits, approximating gradually to the standard 
 of gospel-purity. They thence begin to pursue a new 
 course of life, conforming themselves, as by an inward, 
 constraining influence, to practices which, before, they dis- 
 approved and disliked, and most ardently cherishing views 
 and principles which formerly were either unknown or 
 hated, and taking a viev/ of life, its ends and uses, alto- 
 gether the reverse of that which previously engaged them. 
 
 Now these are not rare cases, nor such as can, by any 
 possibility, be attributed to delusion, to the effect of ima- 
 gination, or of an unsound state of mind. Tliey cannot 
 be denied or explained away ; but are obviously the eflect 
 of a most powerful, wonderful, and peculiar cause; since 
 the instances are so numerous, and are to be met with 
 among all classes and professions, among those most forti- 
 fied against delusion by reason, philosophy, and learning. 
 
 It is, moreover, quite certain, that the highest character 
 of which human nature, in any state, is susceptible, the 
 most lovely form which can be impressed upon it, is that 
 of the true Christian. A human soul most entirely devoted 
 to the influence of the truth of God's word, and most 
 thoroughly transformed into its spirit and practice, surely 
 
430 DOCTRINE OF DIVINF^ INFLUENCE 
 
 all must agree, would be the most perfect specimen of 
 humanity, and such as, undoubtedly, all ought to hail and 
 wish to see universally exhibited. Nothing could be de- 
 sired or effected among mankind more felicitous, more 
 attractive, more nearly approaching to our ideas of the ex- 
 cellence of which man might be supposed susceptible in 
 his best and most perfect state, than the entire personifica- 
 tion of Christianity in a human being. It must be so. 
 since it would, in fact, necessarily imply some considerable 
 approximation to Jesus Christ, and his character must he, I 
 may say has been, universally admitted to surpass every 
 thing that has ever been witnessed in any other human 
 being* ; the verv beau ideal of our nature, and somethim: 
 more. 
 
 It may, without invalidating our argument, be conceded, 
 that the Christianity of multitudes is far from approaching 
 this high standard. Their deficiency, however, neither 
 supplies ground for an impeachment of Christianity, nor 
 for the rejection of that argument which rests upon the 
 efficiency of the gospel, as a system of moral renovation. 
 It is surely enough, for the vindication of Christianity, 
 to show, that a change the most thorough, the most pro- 
 pitious, in reference to others, and the most happy for the 
 individual himself, does take place upon those who are 
 conscious of being brought under a divine influence ; a 
 change far surpassing Avhat our nature can attain, or ever 
 does attain, in any other way, or under any other influ- 
 ence. 
 
 For man, under this supposed power of the Divine Spi- 
 rit, becomes uniformly obedient, submissive, reverential, 
 and devout towards God. He justly estimates his own 
 spiritual and eternal interests ; he forsakes whatever, in 
 habit or practice, is degrading or polluting to the mind ; 
 and appears, on the other hand, a cultivator of the highest 
 virtues, both I'tersonal and relative. He becomes, in num- 
 berless instances, a devoted friend to his fellow-men, a 
 
VERIFIED BY EXPERIENCE. 431 
 
 patron of benevolent projects ; for the promotion of which 
 he is ready to practise self-denial, and forego his own in- 
 terest, ease, and gratification ; and stands prepared to sacri- 
 fice his comforts, or even, in many cases, himself, that he 
 may promote the highest interest of others. 
 
 Now these are actual proofs, every where observable, of 
 the transforming and renovating influence accompanying 
 Christianity, which cannot be substantially denied ; and, 
 considering the immense multitude of instances in which 
 they occur, the great variety of personal character and cir- 
 cumstances under which they are produced, afford a most 
 satisfactory and striking verification of the divine word. 
 The production of such effects upon human nature, evinces 
 the presence of a divine power, and thereby demonstrates 
 the divinity of that book, which beforehand describes them, 
 and assures us, that only by the exertion of such a power 
 can they ever be produced. 
 
 It may be true, that the doctrine of divine influence we 
 have been considering, is liable to abuse, to mistake, to 
 fanaticism. But so is every doctrine of the Bible. The 
 true cause of such abuse, is to be found in the w^eakness 
 and wickedness of human nature. It is very certain, and 
 readily admitted, that many have run into the wildest ex- 
 tremes, and attributed the folly and infirmity of man to the 
 Spirit of God. Some have presumed to possess this influ- 
 ence, w^hose lives have done it no honour, and whose works 
 bear no seal of divine virtue. Some, in modern times, 
 have pretended to extraordinary influences ; as if God had 
 granted them special signs and special authority, not im- 
 parted to the rest of his people. But the Spirit is to be 
 known or discriminated only by its effects ; these are always 
 clear, inimitable, and good. Divine influence is not given 
 for ostentation, not for mere wonderment, not for man's 
 honour, but for God's. Its operation uniformly tends to 
 humble us, and to exalt the eternal and immutable source 
 of all goodness and purity. The doctrine itself must not 
 
-io'2 DOCTRINE OF DIVINE INFLUENCE 
 
 be charged with the follies and vices of men who profess 
 to hold it. Let not the truth and mystery of God himself 
 be made answerable for the extravagances of the weak, or 
 the impositions of the crafty. We are quite sure that these 
 are all broadly enough distinguished from the pure and 
 genuine influence of divine grace upon the mind, if men 
 are only anxious to discriminate. The real operations of 
 the Spirit produce love, joy, peace, long-suffering, temper- 
 ance, and such like. If these effects do not follow, all such 
 pretensions are proved to be vain and false. We may be 
 quite certain, that God will never allow his selectest opera- 
 tions to be counterfeited by man ; and we are equally sure, 
 that his influence is never bestowed without the accom- 
 panying seal to distinguish it from the eff'ects of human 
 artifice or passion. There is, throughout nature, a clear 
 and recognisable signature ujjon all the works of creative 
 power and skill, which never has been, and we may safely 
 say, never will be, counterfeited. God will not permit a 
 creature's power to be mistaken for his own, nor sufi'er his 
 own works to be rivalled, or his glory to be given to 
 another. 
 
 It seems only further necessary to remark, that there is, 
 to a certain extent, a connexion between the bestowment 
 of divine influence and our own agency, especially that 
 which we employ in prayer. The doctrine of Scripture 
 teaches, that God gives his Spirit in answer to our peti- 
 tions. While, however, there is in this fact much to en- 
 courage human exertion, there is also something to con- 
 found and humble our pride ; because we cannot explain 
 why it is that prayer does not always succeed in procuring 
 it. We may resolve this into the sovereignty of God ; but 
 there may also be reasons in ourselves which involve a 
 forfeiture of our claim. 
 
 It may not be deemed irrelevant further to observe, in 
 reference to the preaching of the gospel, that this, as a 
 divine institution, is found to be so intimately connected 
 
VERIFIED BY EXPERIENCE. 433 
 
 with the hestowment of divine influence, that it may be 
 accounted the chief instrumentality by which God savingly 
 works upon the minds of men. " I create the fruit of the 
 lips," says Jehovah. And it is confessedly his blessing 
 which has made the preaching of the gospel, in the history 
 of the church, the means of promoting his own glory, and of 
 saving the souls of men. This, which is esteemed foolish- 
 ness with men, is the wisdom and power of God to salva- 
 tion. How wonderful have been its general effects, and 
 how striking the especial instances of its efficacy, as in 
 times of the signal revival of religion, many of which have 
 been witnessed in this country and elsewhere ! These 
 surely contain proofs, now and then granted, out of the 
 ordinary course, and above the ordinar}^ measure, of the 
 Divine Spirit's power, and, at the same time, equally valid 
 proofs of sovereignty in its exercise. 
 
 It is to this divine influence, promised and pledged, as 
 they conceive, in a more copious effusion, that Christians 
 are now looking for the final victory to be w^on by their 
 religion. " The whole earth shall be full of the knowledge 
 of the Lord." It was this influence which at first shook 
 heathenism to its very base, and overturned the altars of 
 the ancient idolatry. The names of Jupiter, Venus, Apollo, 
 and Diana soon sunk into universal contempt and execra- 
 tion. But what was it that effected the mighty change ? 
 It was not philosophy, it was not education, it was not 
 legislation, but it was Christianity, and Christianity propa- 
 gated by a company of the meanest, most ignoble, and 
 defenceless of mankind ; yet accompanied by the power of 
 God. And so that same Christianity, accompanied by that 
 same divine influence, in the days yet to come, is destined 
 to work the overthrow and desolation of all the remaining 
 superstitions of the earth, until the worship of the onlv 
 true God and Jesus Christ, whom he has sent, shall be- 
 come the religion, and the only religion of mankind. 
 
 V. 
 
434 DOCTRINE OF DIVINE INFLUENCE 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 In closing the present course of Lectures, I may be per- 
 mitted to remind every thoughtful and candid inquirer, 
 that, upon the authentication of the sacred Scriptures, as 
 the word of God, our entire hope of immortal life is sus- 
 pended. The final question is not between the belief of 
 this book, and some other, equally or nearly as good ; nor 
 between this religion and any other that may present rival 
 claims, and rival hopes, but between the faith of the Bible 
 and infidelity, which is, literally, no faith, no hope. If this 
 religion cannot be proved true, no other can. The ulti- 
 mate choice, therefore, which all must make, will be be- 
 tween the Bible and the some difficulties which may yet 
 attach to it ; or the no-creed of infidelity, attended by the 
 same and still greater difficulties ; a scheme of disbelief, 
 which is contradicted and stultified by nature, by history, 
 and by consciousness at every step. 
 
 There cannot be a doubt, that the belief of a Christian 
 is more noble, more elevating, and more felicitous than 
 any other belief or disbelief. Even the sceptic must admit 
 as much as this. Every one, therefore, ought, above all 
 things, to desire that the Bible may be found true. His 
 highest interest, the true dignity of his rational nature, is 
 implicated with it. Prove it true, and he becomes a can- 
 didate for a blissful immortality ; prove it false, or suffer 
 one radical doubt to prevail, and he sinks down into a 
 mere reasoning animal, with no end in view worthy of his 
 high endowments, and no prospect answerable, either to 
 his moral and religious nature, or to the station he occu- 
 pies at the head of this lower creation, and as subject ex- 
 clusively and directly to the Supreme Lord of all. 
 
 Permit me to say, it will prove an exhilarating issue to 
 our present inquiries, if you have been convinced that the 
 Bible has kept pace with the flight of time ; if it has been 
 
VERIFIED BY EXPERIENCE. 435 
 
 made to appear, that the sacred word still maintains its 
 position, parallel with the advance of science ; and if we 
 have succeeded in showing, that it is a divine time-piece, 
 harmonizing strictly with the true shadow upon the dial. 
 
 Let me especially remind the Christian believer, that he 
 is most deeply concerned in the fulfilment of Scripture. 
 All his anticipations are involved in its yet unfulfilled 
 promises. It is, therefore, a matter of infinite moment 
 with him, to enjoy a valid guarantee, that he has not be- 
 lieved a cunningly devised fable ; and this guarantee, we 
 conceive, he possesses, and may find in so much of the 
 sacred word as is already fulfilled. It is unspeakably im 
 portant, that he should perceive the laws of his own nature, 
 the facts of his physical and moral condition, and of the 
 whole visible system with which he is connected, working 
 the accomplishment of revelation, and all converging as 
 lines to a centre, and that centre, the glor}" and the truth 
 of the sacred volume. 
 
 Surely we do not exaggerate, when we represent the 
 fulfilment of the Scriptures as connected with the highest 
 end to which all things created, organic and inorganic, 
 mental and moral, material and spiritual, can be subordi- 
 nated. To view them as terminating or issuing in any 
 thing short of this is, at least, immensely to diminish 
 their importance, and detract from their sublimity. The 
 maintenance of the laws of nature, simply as laws of nature, 
 without any ascending reference, or merely as tending to 
 the conservation of the human race, without connecting 
 that race, so conserved, with a system of moral govern- 
 ment, and that moral government again, with the revealed 
 will of God, and a future state of retribution, were, after 
 all, but to attribute a very inferior, and virtually an abortive 
 or vanishing conception to the Infinite Being ; a concep- 
 tion incomparably less sublime, and less worthy the 
 Supreme Intelligence, than that which brings the three 
 systems, the physical, the moral, and the revealed, into 
 
436 DOCTRINE OF DIVINE INFLUENCE 
 
 one focus — into the identity of a common authorship. 
 The maintenance of the two former of these systems, 
 merely as restricted to the continuance of the human race 
 in this world, is infinitely less important, than their main- 
 tenance as essential to the consummation of a system of 
 things and beings, on which are suspended the solemn 
 and sublime results represented in the sacred Scripture. 
 It is, in the one view, a matter of little moment to any of 
 us, whether we continue to live an hour longer, whether 
 the sun continues to shine another day, the clouds to rain 
 upon the earth, and the earth to bring forth its harvests ; 
 whether our powers of thought remain in exercise, or hence- 
 forth become enfeebled, confounded, and extinguished. 
 Even as it regards the whole human race, if we have no 
 permanent relation to God, and a future state of existence, 
 or, in other words, if the Bible be not true, it is a matter 
 of comparative insignificance, vast as the catastrophe would 
 be, whether the frame of nature should endure, as it now 
 is, and our race continue to live another year, or another 
 thousand years, or the whole system be at once dissolved. 
 Its instant termination might then be supposed to take 
 place, without involving any absurdity, any injustice, any 
 failure of purj^ose, or any unrighteousness in the Supreme 
 Being. But the other view of the subject involves the 
 most beneficent and sublime considerations. The fulfil- 
 ment of God's "word, that has gone forth out of his 
 mouth," is a matter of infinite concernment, both to us 
 and to himself. It is so to God, as implicating all his 
 higher attributes ; it is so to us, as involving our future 
 destiny. Whatever he has spoken is essentially, neces- 
 sarily, and for ever true. It must be verified, whether it 
 refers to what has been, is now, or is to be hereafter. The 
 succession of time, and the disclosures of eternity, can 
 only subserve its elucidation and fulfilment. There can- 
 not appear, therefore, any higher or more sublime reason 
 for the existence and maintenance of the material, intel- 
 
VERIFIED BY EXPERIENCE. 487 
 
 lectual, and moral systems, than this. " Not one jot or 
 tittle shall pass from the law, till all is fulfilled." The 
 written word sufficiently attests the importance of its ful- 
 filment, and boldly rests its veracity and divinity upon this 
 single test. It is emphatically declared, " the Scripture 
 cannot be broken." The universe is represented as merely 
 a theatre for the development of the divine conceptions, 
 and this earth but a temporary stage, on which the truth 
 of God's word is perpetually demonstrated. Time and 
 nature, with all their vast and minute, all their compli- 
 cated and delicate machinery, while they obviously subserve 
 immediate and subordinate ends, are yet just as obviously 
 directed to the fulfilment of the divine word, as their high- 
 est and most sublime consummation. Thus there would 
 appear to be an ascending reference, and a true sublimity in 
 the whole system of things with which we are connected. 
 The procedure of Providence, through all past ages, is 
 represented as uniformly tending to this exalted and mo- 
 mentous issue. Christians believe, that the kingdoms of 
 this world have been turned upside down, the loftiest of 
 mortals abased, and the meanest exalted ; — the elements 
 made to change their nature, time commissioned to sus- 
 pend his flight, and the sun to stay its course ; in fact, 
 they believe every thing has been made tributary, and that 
 in the most remarkable manner, when deemed necessary, 
 to the fulfilment of the divine word. For the same end, 
 they believe the ordinary procedure of things is still pre- 
 served, and all nature continues its course. Both the 
 order and the disorder, the law, and the miraculous excep- 
 tions, have alike been made to effect this object ; and thus, 
 we infer, it hiust be, till the whole word of God is accom- 
 plished. 
 
 It will not, perhaps, be presuming too much, to exi^ress 
 a hope, that the course of reasoning here pursued, may 
 have proved tributary, in some degree, to your faith in 
 these grand truths. We, as Christians, have embarked in 
 
438 DOCTKINE OF DIVINE INFLUENCE 
 
 this vessel, with all our interests, fully confiding in its 
 trustworthiness, and hoping, by its aid, to reach the haven 
 of eternal rest. We have all to gain, or all to lose, by the 
 truth or falsehood of those propositions which the sacred 
 word lays down. The question, Is the Bible true, or is it 
 false ? is the hinging j^oint of all our brightest hopes. Is 
 it fulfilling, or is it disproved, by the advancing history of 
 human nature and of the universe ? Does time confirm 
 or refute its decisions and statements ? Does science illus- 
 trate the truth of this book, or convict it of fraud, folly, or 
 mistake ? These are questions in which, not only Chris- 
 tians, but all men, are deeply interested ; and which, to a 
 certain extent, all may become qualified to answer for 
 themselves. 
 
 It is quite impossible, that the coincidences between the 
 words of scripture, and the facts we have reviewed, should 
 have been the result of artifice or imposture ; or, indeed, 
 of any thing but truth. These verifications are altogether 
 far too numerous, too complicated, too specific and minute, 
 extending over too vast a lapse of time, and involving too 
 great a variety of subjects, to allow of their being explained, 
 on any hypothesis that excludes inspiration. We have, I 
 hope, shown, that they could not be happy guesses ; that 
 they could not be forgeries ; that they cannot be attributed 
 to philosophy or human wisdom, or any shrewd calculation 
 of probabilities. Every conclusion to the whole case seems 
 to be precluded, except that which fully recognises divine 
 inspiration. 
 
 This general inference is additionally confirmed by the 
 concurrent testimony of the various other christian evi- 
 dences. For it is to be distinctly borne in mind, in termi- 
 nating the present course of Lectures, that we have dwelt 
 exclusively upon a single branch of the great subject. 
 This argument is to be united with the more direct evi- 
 dences, and by no means to be considered separately, or 
 as a summary of the whole. The result of the distinct 
 
VERIFIED BY EXPERIENCE. 439 
 
 reasonings here employed, whatever it may be, has to be 
 aggregated with the other arguments, which are usually 
 stated in treatises upon the whole subject. If this argu- 
 ment be not viewed in connexion with the main body of 
 the external and internal evidences, your estimate of its 
 value will be incomplete and erroneous. It has, so to 
 speak, yet to be carried to account. There is a concentrated 
 and accumulated force in the sum of all the evidences, 
 taken together, which they lose when separated and con- 
 sidered at intervals. To divide them is to do them injustice. 
 They are all united in their subject. A series of circum- 
 stantial evidences which, taken unconnectedly, would appear 
 ti'ivial, become irresistible when combined. In a court of 
 justice, one advocate may press one circumstance, a second 
 may dwell upon another. But the jurymen must not dis- 
 tribute their attention, and each take up a different circum- 
 stance. Every juror, to give a true verdict, must endeavour 
 to comprehend the bearings of the whole series of j^roofs. 
 It is this accumulative and concurrent testimony of the 
 whole evidence, on behalf of revelation, upon which we 
 lay especial stress. If a sceptic should think one isolated 
 argument weak or insufficient, so may the jurymen think 
 a single fact by itself; yet taken in connexion with a series 
 of others, it might effectually turn the scale, and remove 
 all doubt. We, therefore, protest against estimating the 
 value of any arguments in this case separately. If an 
 army were to be brought before the enemy, regiment bv 
 regiment, man by man, victory would be no difficult achieve- 
 ment. But a skilful general would not allow himself to 
 be thus beaten in detail. An unbeliever may think this or 
 that argument weak, when taken alone ; and this is the 
 usual method in which the christian evidence is treated 
 by such persons. Another thinks there may be some 
 force in one proof, but finds a flaw in a second. Few have 
 ever been found willing to meet the whole arrav. Yet 
 upon no other ground can the christian evidence be fairlv 
 
440 DOCTRINE OF DIVINE INFLUENCE, ETC. 
 
 dealt with. In no other way can the unbeliever stand ex- 
 cused of dishonesty, even to himself. This is a matter for 
 his own conscience ; and in parting with him at this point, 
 we place him in the presence of that light which will ulti- 
 mately render all concealment impossible, and convince 
 him that all dishonesty was criminal. 
 
 An argument has been attempted in these Lectures, 
 upon the ground of fact and reason, to show the truth of 
 revelation ; but the conviction aimed at, if produced, will 
 only be introductory to a higher purpose. Our speculative 
 conviction is not to be regarded as the ultimate end of 
 revelation. Faith in the truth must ripen into piety and 
 virtue. Then the excellence of revealed religion will be 
 understood, because it will be felt. This secret seal upon 
 the heart will, after all, be its best voucher. Happy, how- 
 ever, will the author of the present attempt consider him'- 
 self, if his labours serve to remove, in however small a 
 degree, the difficulties of any who rationally doubt, or to 
 confirm the faith of any who sincerely believe. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Abraham, God's promises to, 283. 
 
 Abrahamic nations, i)redicted, 201. 
 
 Adam and Abel, their Christian- 
 ity, 246. 
 
 Adaptation of our mental and 
 moral nature to our social re- 
 lations, 144, 147. 
 
 Anti-supernatui-alism and Neo- 
 logy, 242. 
 
 Apoer}'3)ha, Books of the, indicate 
 the Jews expecting the Messiah, 
 341, 346. 
 
 Arch of Titus at Rome preserved 
 by Providence to testify of the 
 Jews, 321 ; and the truth of 
 Christianity, 322. 
 
 Ark of Noah, the, its capacity, 95. 
 
 Atheism contradicted by our 
 whole nature and conscious- 
 ness, 145, 146. 
 
 Atheist, the, prays in distress,211. 
 
 Beginning, the, beforeourtime,22. 
 
 Bell, Sir C, on the physical na- 
 ture of man, 35. 
 
 Bible, the, examined, 9 ; its 
 moral instrumentality to bene- 
 fit man, 258, 259 ; is it true ? 
 437, 438. 
 
 Bridge water Treatises, 7, 21, 30. 
 
 Buckland's, Dr., Bridgewater 
 Treatise, 21 ; his interpretation 
 of Genesis i. 1, 25, 26; on the 
 creation of light, 28, 29 ; on 
 the six days of creation, 31, 
 32; on the Deluge, 83. 
 
 Butler, Bishop, on Moral Govern- 
 ment, 185, 187. 
 
 Celsus on the opinion of the Jews 
 regarding the Messiah, 349. 
 
 Chalmers, Dr., on Gen. i., 26 ; 
 on the social nature of man, 62. 
 
 Champollion and other anti- 
 quaries, their discoveries, 13. 
 
 China and Chinese antiquity 
 sought to confute the Scrip- 
 tiures, 129, 132. 
 
 Christ, the, expected by the Jews, 
 346, 347. 
 
 Christ Jesus, reveals a perfect 
 system of faith and manners, 
 256. 
 
 Christianity adapted to all classes, 
 232 ; its moral requirements, 
 235 ; objections answered, 238 ; 
 its not being universal indicates 
 the sovereignty of God, 240 ; 
 not an improved system of 
 philosophy, 246 ; unlike all the 
 systems of men, 240 ; its perfec- 
 tion, 250 ; meets the spu-itual 
 wants of man, 255 ; its sove- 
 reign virtue, 265 ; proof of its 
 divinity, 268 ; its early enemies, 
 375 ; the means of its progress, 
 384 ; miracles attended it, 389 ; 
 opposed by the most powerful 
 enemies, 394; its triumphs, as 
 predicted, 395. 
 
 Christians, their numbers in the 
 early ages, 378 ; testified by 
 many, 380 ; decrees against 
 them, and their enemies, 383. 
 
 Chronology, Egyptian and Indian, 
 extravagant, 12, 13. 
 
 Church, the Christian, 270 ; con- 
 tinued through all ages, 271 ; 
 originated from Chi-ist, 272 ; 
 predicted in its progress, 290 ; 
 and perpetuity, 294 ; its attend- 
 ant evils, 296 ; ojDposition to it, 
 298; destruction of enemies, 
 300 ; corruptions, 302 ; happi- 
 ness of its members, 304 ; 
 miseries of the wicked, 306. 
 
 Church, the Jewish, 274. 
 
 Church, the Patriarchal, 275 ; 
 obedience of Abel, of Enoch, 
 of Abraham, 276 ; strictly, it 
 commenced with Abraham, 282. 
 
 Clarkson on the principles of the 
 patriarchs, 279, 280. 
 
 Confusion of tongues by miracle, 
 118, 119. 
 
 Conscience, or Moral sense, 202 ; 
 its weakness, 205 ; its tcn'ors, 
 207 ; teaches responsibility, 219. 
 G G 
 
44k' 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Cosmogony of Moses, the, not 
 taught in the schools of Egypt, 
 44, 45. 
 
 Creation by a Supreme Intelli- 
 gence, 1 ; evident in all nature, 
 3 ; its teaching, 8 ; in a state of 
 maturity, 19 ; of spirits, 20. 
 
 Date of the world's creation, 11. 
 
 Davies, Mr. C. N., on Prophecy, 
 140. 
 
 Days of the Creation natural 
 days, 32. 
 
 Deists, their vain pretensions, 
 190, 192. 
 
 Deluge, the, 78 ; moral cause of 
 it, 79 ; tradition of it in various 
 nations, 81, 82 ; was it univer- 
 sal ? 83, 84 ; objections, 85, 99. 
 
 Discoveries of science, the, illus- 
 trate the Scriptures, 10. 
 
 Divine influence evident in the 
 ujiiverse, the only adequate 
 cause of the progress of Chris- 
 tianity, 398 ; iiofluence of in- 
 visioie agency, 400 ; Di\'ine 
 influence reasonable, 403 ; ana- 
 logy proves it, 404 ; influence 
 of writers, 405 ; of friends, 406; 
 of the Spirit of God, 409 ; pro- 
 mised by Christ, 412; experi- 
 enced by the Apostles, 415 ; by 
 their foUowers, 416 ; possessed 
 only by the gospel, 418 ; suffi- 
 cient for conversion, 420 ; ex- 
 perienced by Christians, 422 ; 
 its necessity, 423 ; to form the 
 Christian character, 425 ; as- 
 cribed to this influence, 427 ; 
 this makes men obedient and de- 
 vout, 430 ; yet liable to abuse, 
 431 ; connexion between its be- 
 stowment and prayer for it, 432. 
 
 Egypt, a witness to the truth of 
 the Bible, 94. 
 
 Egyptian liieroglyphics, 13 ; pyra- 
 mids, then- date, 91, 92. 
 
 Egyptian phD.osophy imperfect, 
 13 ; Moses did not borrow the 
 " Genesis " from it, 44. 
 
 Faber, Rev. G. S., on the days of 
 the creation, 32. 
 
 Faith, its necessity, 434. 
 
 Fall of man, the, 64 ; as repre- 
 sented in the Bible, 149 ; proved 
 by the universal condition of 
 mankind, 150 ; by the vices, 
 wars, and superstitions of man, 
 151 ; by man's vain pursuits, 
 153 ; by his aversion from moral 
 goodness, 155; by universal de- 
 pravity, 156 ; by the theories 
 of speculators in opposition to 
 Scripture, 158 ; by the moral 
 contrarieties, 162 ; by the loss 
 of the true knowledge of God, 
 168 ; and of happiness, 170 ; by 
 man's superstitious follies, 177. 
 
 FossU remains, those human are 
 recent, 83. 
 
 Future life of rewards and punish- 
 ments, 213; conscience prompts 
 to believe such a life, 215. 
 
 Genesis, the first verse, 22, 24 ; Dr. 
 Buckland on its meaning, 25. 
 
 Geological discoveries, 14, 15 ; 
 support the Mosaic records, 16. 
 
 Gibbon, Mr., on the progress of 
 Christianity, 297. 
 
 God, right notions of, never at- 
 tained by the most advanced 
 
 . nations, 172; his Being and 
 Perfections, 188. 
 
 Gospel, the, a universal system of 
 religion, 230 ; experience of its 
 power, 261 ; its fruits, 263. 
 
 Gospels, the origin of the Four, 
 369, 370. 
 
 Hall, R., onhximan suasion, 416. 
 
 Ham and his sons, nations from, 
 134, 135. 
 
 Hamilton, Dr., on the Pentateuch, 
 48; on the Deluge, 87, 91. 
 
 Herodotus on the Tower of Babel, 
 113. 
 
 Hieroglyphical -writing can be 
 reacl, 13. 
 
 Hindoo astronomy and chronology 
 affect not the Scriptures, 130. 
 
 Hone, Mr., a converted infidel, 211. 
 
 Human race, the, originated in a 
 single pair, 34 ; varieties in the, 
 considered, 33, 34. 
 
 Humboldt, Baron, on the origin 
 of the nations, 137. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 U3 
 
 Identity of religion and the 
 church among the pious, 285. 
 
 Idolaters, all mankind are, with- 
 out the Bible, 189. 
 
 Immortality, the passion for, in 
 men, 165, 166 ; discoursed of 
 by Socrates and Cicero, 167. 
 
 Infidels, pray in distress, 211. 
 
 Japhet and his sons, the nations 
 from, 135, 136 ; as prophesied 
 by Noah, 139, 140. 
 
 Jerusalem, the overthrow of, pre- 
 dicted by Chi-ist, 311, 315. 
 
 Jesus Christ, not a philosopher, as 
 commonly understood, 245 ; 
 his perfect character, 366 ; in- 
 fluence of his character, 368. 
 
 Jewish church, its privileges 
 transferred to the Christian, 
 289, 291. 
 
 Jewish war, 315, 317. 
 
 Jews, the, excision of the, pre- 
 dicted, 309 ; foretold by Christ, 
 312; their sufferings by the war, 
 317 ; in their dispersion, 319 ; 
 remain a distinct people, 322 ; 
 undiminished, 326 ; unincor- 
 porated with other people, 326 ; 
 confounding to infidelity, 328 ; 
 their religious character, 330 ; 
 living witnesses to Christianity, 
 332; reflections, 334. 
 
 Jones, Su* W., on the inspiration 
 of Moses, 43, 44. 
 
 Josephus, the Jewish historian, 
 316 ; on the expected Messiah, 
 362. 
 
 Justin Martyr testifies the num- 
 ber of the Christians, 382. 
 
 Keith, Dr., on Prophecy, 315, 
 325 ; regarding the Jews, 334. 
 
 Language of men, origin and di- 
 versity of the, 114,116; one ori- 
 ginal, 116; opinions of learned 
 men regarding, 118 ; difficulties 
 and objections, 122 ; the extent 
 ofthcchimge, 127. 
 
 Languages, the diverse, dialects 
 of one original now lost, 40, 41. 
 
 Light, its creation, as stated by 
 Moses, confirmed by Sir W. 
 Ilerschell, 29. 
 
 Maccabees, the, 341. 
 
 Mackintosh, Sir J ., on the human 
 race, 34 ; on conscience, 204. 
 
 Macculloch, Dr., on the attributes 
 of God, 401. 
 
 Mahommedanism, its imposture, 
 372, 373. 
 
 Man, the Natural History of, by 
 Dr. Pitchard, 34, 40 ; his do- 
 minion over the miindane crea- 
 tion, 48 ; objections from some 
 degraded tribes, 50, 52 ; differ- 
 ences in civilization, 54 ; his 
 improvable natiu-e distinguishes 
 him from brutes, 58 ; his social 
 nature, 61, 63; his fall by trans- 
 gression, 64 ; his siiffering state, 
 66, 70 ; his labours necessary, 
 71; all verify the truth and in- 
 spiration of Moses, 75 ; created 
 upright, 149 ; his passion for 
 immortality, 165. 
 
 Mediation,thedoctrme of, 223,225. 
 
 Mental and moral condition of 
 man, 144, 145. 
 
 Messiah, the kingdom of, tj-pified 
 in the religion of the Jews, 338 ; 
 expected by the Jews, 340 ; tes- 
 tified in the apocryphal books, 
 341, 345 ; his birth at the ex- 
 pected time, 357 ; his character, 
 358 ; extraordinary, 360 ; with- 
 out weaknesses, 363 ; testified 
 by an infidel, 364, 366 ; Jewish 
 enemies of the, 374, 375. 
 
 Moral government of the world, 
 183, 186. 
 
 Moral sense, 202, 203. 
 
 Mosaic account of the physical 
 creation, 1, 3 ; cosmogony, 6 ; 
 supported by geological dis- 
 coveries, 16, 17. 
 
 Moses, his divine intelligence, 11, 
 
 13 ; his records of the creation, 
 
 14 ; his divine inspiration, 43, 
 47 ; his declaration of the lord- 
 ship of man over the earth, 48, 
 57 ; given by inspiration, 60, 
 61 ; his record of the prophecy 
 by Noah proves him to be in- 
 spired, 141, 143 ; his govern- 
 ment of the Israelites, 288, 289. 
 
444 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Nations, the origin of, 128, 137. 
 
 NatTiral theology, its importance, 
 6,7. 
 
 Neology, its origin and character, 
 242, 244. 
 
 Noah, God's covenant of safety 
 mth him, 103 ; its fulfilment 
 proves Moses to have been in- 
 spired, 106 ; his prophecy, 138. 
 
 Organized races, extinct, 18, 19. 
 
 Oriental antiquities fail to confute 
 the Scriptures, 130, 131. 
 
 Paley, Dr., on the creation, 3. 
 
 Pascal on the condition of man, 
 177. 
 
 Patriarchal religion, 280, 281. 
 
 Pentateuch and its Assailants, 
 the, 48. 
 
 Philosophers, theu" vain remedies 
 for human nature, 180, 182. 
 
 Philosophy, Egj-ptian and Indian, 
 12, 13. 
 
 Physical facts of the Bible, 1 1 . 
 
 Prayer, man's propensity to, in 
 distress, 210, 211. 
 
 Principles of the Patriarchs, moral 
 and religious, 277, 279. 
 
 Pritchard, Dr., on the origin of 
 the human race, 35, 40 ; on the 
 origin of nations, 137, 138. 
 
 Prophecy, the fulfilment of, con- 
 firmation of Cliristianity, 336. 
 
 Providence, imiversal, 200, 201. 
 
 Rainbow, the, a token of God's 
 covenant, 110. 
 
 Rain, was it before the Deluge ? 
 109. 
 
 Recovery of man to virtue, the 
 scheme of, in the Bible, 227, 
 229 ; a universal system, 230. 
 
 Remedies to improve human 
 nature, 178, 182. 
 
 Responsibility intimated by con- 
 science, 219, 220. 
 
 Revelation must agree ^^'ith na- 
 ture, 45. 
 
 Rousseau on the character of 
 
 Christ, 364, 366. 
 Sabaism, the worship of the 
 heavenly bo dies ,173. 
 
 Scripture and its interpretations, 
 21 ; its views of mankind, 148 ; 
 to its fulfilment, all things should 
 be subordinated, 435. 
 
 Shem and his sons, the nations 
 from, 136-141. 
 
 Sheppard's Divine Origin of 
 Christianity, 374, 378. 
 
 Shinar, the fountain-head of the 
 nations, 128. 
 
 Shuttleworth, Dr., on the crea- 
 tion of light, 29. 
 
 Sibylline oracles, 350. 
 
 Spirit of God, his influence on 
 men, 409, 411 ; promised, 412. 
 
 Spirits, creation of, previously to 
 men, 20. 
 
 Strata of rocks formed under a 
 fluid, 26, 27. 
 
 Substitution, the doctrine of, 220. 
 
 Succession of the church of good 
 men, 285, 287. 
 
 Success of Christianity, the, 371 ; 
 under its circumstances, proves 
 its divinity, 372, 373. 
 
 Superstition, its horrors, 174, 175. 
 
 Tacitus on the expectation of the 
 Messiah, 351. 
 
 Tower of Babel, the, 111, 112; 
 its height, 113, 
 
 Turner, Dr. S., on the traditions 
 of the Deluge, 81 ; on the ope- 
 ration of natural causes, 100 ; 
 on the origin of nations, 134, 
 136 ; on Providence, 200 ; on 
 the Abrahamic nations, 201. 
 
 Vice attended with suffering, 192, 
 193 ; these declared in the Bible 
 to be inseparable, 194, 196. 
 
 Vu-gil on the expectation of a 
 Messiah, 353. 
 
 Vii'tue tends to well-being, 197 ; 
 assured in the Bible, 198, 199. 
 
 Voltaii-e and Vohiey, objections 
 of, refuted, 12, 13. 
 
 Wilkinson, on Eg}^tian antiqui- 
 ties, 13. 
 
 Woman, her suffering condition, 
 65 ; observed by Aristotle, 66. 
 
 Reed and Pardon, Printers, Paternoster Row, Loudon. 
 
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