in other words, the personification of an evil spirit, which on this account cannot be called the word, or words of God; yet even these parts have a similar tendency, as they show the malice, pride, and blasphemy of the spirit of wickedness ; and on the other hand, the beauty of that spirit of divine philanthropy, which throughout the whole Bible breathes nothing but peace on earth and good will towards men. Deists think it inconsistent with the dignity of the Divine Being, that he should commission certain men to write his laws in a book; but it will appear, when duly considered, that there was an absolute necessity for such a proceeding. Suppose that neither the precepts of morality, which were first given by God to man, and handed to us by the Hebrew law-giver; nor the blessings of religion, which are the bands of civil society; had ever reached the shores of our happy land; what knowledge could we have boasted of more than "The untaught Indian whose untutor'd mind Although the Bible of nature had been before our eyes, not a single precept of morality should we have been able to have gathered from the pages of this book. What was the state of the ancient Grecians 1600 years before Christ? rude, barbaFous, and uncivilised; until Lycurgus and Solon introduced their code of laws, the greatest part of which was taken from the books of Moses; they then became a refined and scientific nation. From the Greeks, the Romans copied their precepts of morality, and from the Romans, the ancient people of Europe received the greatest part of their moral laws. From which it appears evident, that every precept of morality was taken from the Bible. There is one argument to prove the authority of the word of God, which cannot be overturned by all the Deists in the world. If the Bible be not the word of God, it must have been written, or invented, either by good men, or wicked men; but if it can be proved that it was neither written, nor invented, either by good men, or wicked men, it must be the word of God. That it was not written, or compiled by wicked men, will appear from its own evidence, for if it is to be judged, we must suffer that evidence to appear in its defence. Can any Deist be so weak as to suppose that wicked men, who were in the love and practice of evil, would frame laws to punish their own vices in this world, and condemn themselves to everlasting punishment by declaring, the wicked shall be turned into hell, with all the nations that forget God? And again, Thou shalt not covet: this reaches the thoughts and desires of the heart. These restrictions and declarations are opposite to those things, which are contained in the religious books of the Mahometan and Pagan nations, which are the production of men, in which permission is given to indulge in sensuality. This, so far, is a certain proof of the divine origin of the Bible. It is no less evident, that good men could not be the authors of the Bible. For had it been compiled by good men, the same good men neither could nor would have given a lie to their profession by calling it the word of God, as it would only have been the word of men: consequently the Bible must be the word of God, inspired by him and thus given to man. It must be allowed that God created the first man; this being admitted, as it cannot be denied, we cannot doubt that he would give him a law, or rule of life. Now whether the divine author of our being, condescended to speak it with an audible voice, -to write it on the heart, as is said in scripture, or whether he commissioned man by that spoken law, or from that writing on the heart, to write it in a book for the instruction of posterity, it amounts to the same; for the law, or word of God, first spoken, or written on the heart, and from thence written in a book, still remains to be the word of God, first given by him. The possibility of such inspiration must necessarily be allowed, for certainly it was no more wonderful for God to inspire man to write his will in a book, than it was to inspire him, or enable him to receive by continual influx, a regular train of ideas. The question has long been asked by Deists, how shall we know that the Bible is the word of God? first, by being convinced from the Bible, that the precepts therein contained are worthy of God; that the pure spirit which runs through the whole, inculcates nothing but LOVE TO GOD AND CHARITY TO ALL MANKIND, viz. 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.' Deut. vi. 5. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.' Levit. xix. 18. Matt. vii. 12. Luke x. 27. These are the two great commandments which pervade every page of the Bible, and which on this account is truly called sacred: these are sacred duties. For the recorded wickedness of the Jews, or of any other nation mentioned in the Bible, makes no part of the word of God, any farther than as it shows that a departure from those precepts of true religion recorded therein, necessarily draws after it that train of fatal consequences, which is the result of that disobedience to the divine command, when the whole sum and substance of true religion contained in those two great propositions, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself, are not manifested in the life of man. Secondly, from the accomplishment of those things foretold by the Moses, and which, to prophets, beginning with the astonishment of every impartial man, have been fulfilling from their times to the present day. Now as it must be evident, that none but God could open to man those scenes of futurity, which have been realising for the space of 3300 years, and as those precepts of morality contained in the Bible could never be gathered from the book of nature, as man must have been totally ignorant in a savage state; and as it is clear that he could not have been reformed, or civilised without a knowledge of those precepts; they must have been given by the Creator: consequently, as far as demonstration can make truth appear, it is undeniable proof that the sacred scripture is the WORD OF GOD. |