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1828 ^^^SENTED TO THE LIBRARY
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OF
PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
Pi-ofessoi. Heni.y van Dyke, D.D., UU.D.
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AN
INTRODUCTION ^-^^^iiSi^S*^
TO THE
Crttteal S)tutip anu ?BtnotDletige
OF THE
HOLY SCRIPTURES.
BY
THOMAS HARTWELL HORNE, M.A.
SIXTH EDITION, CORRECTED AND ENLARGED.
ILLUSTRATED WITH NUMEROUS MAPS AND FAC-SIMILES OF BIBLICAL MANUSCRIPTS.
VOLUME I.
LONDON :
PRINTED FOR T. CADELL, STRAND; W. BLACKWOOD, EDINBURGH ; AND R. MILLIKEN, DUBLIN.
MDCCCXXVIII.
d!^
I y^
LOKDON t
Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode, New- Street- Square.
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
CHARLES LORD COLCHESTER,
ETC. KTC. ETC.
THIS WORK
IS
MOST GRATEFULLY
AND MOST RESPECTFULLY
INSCRIBED.
JUNE IV. MDCCCXVIII.
A 2
ADVERTISEMENT
TO
THE SIXTH EDITION.
In preparing this edition for the press, encouraged by the very favourable reception given to the former impres- sions of his work, the Author has carefully revised it throughout ; and has availed himself of numerous sug- gestions for simplifying and improving the arrangement of the several volumes which have been communicated since the publication of the last edition. By enlarging the pages, and abridging various parts which would admit of being condensed, as well as by transferring to the appendixes certain articles which had before been incorporated in the body of the work, the Author has been enabled to intro- duce a considerable quantity of new and important matter, without materially enlarging its size, or at all increasing its price. These various alterations and additions, he trusts, will be found to render his labours not unworthy of a continuance of that patronage, with which they have hitherto been honoured.
London, May 1. 1828.
A 3
LET THE SWEET SAVOUR OF JEHOVAH OUR GOD BE UPON US, AND THE WORK WE TAKE IN HAND DIRECT FOR US ; THE WORK WE TAKE IN HAND DO THOU DIRECT !
PSAL. XC. 17. BISHOP HORSLEy's VERSION.
IF I HAVE DONE WELL AND AS IS FITTING THE STORV, IT IS THAT WHICH I DESIRED ; BUT IF SLENDERLY AND MEANLY, IT IS THAT WHICH I COULD ATTAIN UNTO.
2 MACCABEES XV. 38.
PREFACE
TO
THE SECOND EDITION. ^
The Author of the present work cannot offer a new edition to the Public, without expressing the grateful sense he entertains of the very favourable manner in which his volumes have been received. In addition to the extensive circulation which his work has obtained in the Universities and other Theological Seminaries in England, he has the satisfaction of knowing that it has been adopted as a text book in various Theological Seminaries in North America.
Thus encouraged, the Author has sedulously availed himself of the suggestions which have been liberally com- municated to him for correcting his work, and improving its arrangement. By enlarging the pages, as well as em- ploying a small but clear' and distinct type in several parts of the work, he has been enabled to introduce a large mass of new and important matter.
The Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, once more offered to the Public, is designed as a comprehensive Manual of Sacred Literature, selected from the labours of the most eminent Biblical Critics, both British and Foreign. It originated in the Author's own wants many years since, at an early period of life ; when he stood in need of a guide to the reading of the Holy Scriptures, which would not only furnish him with a general introduction to them, but would also enable him to solve apparent contradictions, and to study the Bible with that attention which its su- preme importance demands : for '* every sentence of the
' Tliis preface was first printed in the year 1821 : it is now reprinted with the re- quisite alterations, to adapt it to the present improved arrangement of the following work.
A 4
Vlll PREFACE.
Bible is from God, and every man is interested in the meaning of it." * At this time the Author had no friend to assist his studies, — or remove his doubts, — nor any means of procuring critical works. At length a list of the more eminent Foreign Biblical Critics fell into his hands, and directed him to some of those sources of information which he was seeking ; he then resolved to procure such of them as his limited means would permit, with the design, in the first instance, of satisfying his own mind on those topics which had perplexed him, and ultimately of laying before the Public the result of his inquiries, should no treatise appear that might supersede such a publication.
The idea thus conceived has been steadily kept in view for more than twenty years'^ ; and although, during that interval, several valuable treatises have appeared on the study of the Holy Scriptures, to which he gladly acknow- ledges himself indebted for many important hints and illustrations ; yet, since no one has been published in the English language, embracing all those important subjects, which the Author apprehends to be essential to the critical STUDY of the Sacred Volume, he has been induced to pro- secute his investigations, the result of which he tenders for the assistance of others.
The Four Volumes, of which the work now consists, will be found to comprise the following topics : —
Vol. I. contains a critical inquiry into the Genuine- ness, Authenticity, Uncorrupted Preservation and Inspir- ation of the Holy Scriptures; including, among other sub- jects, a copious investigation of the testimonies from profane authors to the leading facts recorded in the Scriptures, par- ticularly a 716^ branch of evidence Jbr their credibility ^ which is furnished by coins, medals, inscriptions, and antient structures. — This is follovved by a full view of the argu- ments afforded by miracles and prophecy, for the inspir-
1 Bishop Horsley. 2 Now nearly thirty years. [1828.]
PllEFACE. IX
ationof the Scriptures, and by a discussion ofihe internal evidence for their inspiration, furnished by the sublilnity and excellence of the doctrines, and by the purity of the moral precepts, revealed in the Bible ; — the harmony subsisting between every part ; — the preservation of the Scriptures to the present time ; — and their tendency to promote the present and eternal happiness of mankind, as evinced by an historical review of the beneficial effects actually produced in every age and country by a cordial reception of the Bible ; together with a refutation of the very numerous objections which have been urged against the Scriptures in recent deistical publications. An Ap- pendix to this volume comprises a particular examination of the books commonly termed the Apocrypha, of the miracles of the ascension of Jesus Christ, and the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles, and of the difficulties attendant on the propagation of Christianity. These dis- cussions are followed by a table of the chief prophecies re- lative to the Messiah, both in the Old and New Testament, and by an examination of the genuineness of Josephus*s testimony concerning Jesus Christ.
In the first edition of this work the Author had given a very brief outline of the evidences for the genuineness and inspiration of the Old Testament, and a more extend- ed view of the genuineness, credibility, and inspiration of the New Testament ; and, being unwilling to augment, unnecessarily, the number of treatises extant on these subjects, he referred his readers to a few which are justly accounted the most valuable. In preparing the second edition for the press, it was his intention to condense these remarks, and to subjoin a few additional considerations : but he was induced to deviate from this design by the extensive circulation of infidel works and tracts, whose avowed object was, by the unblushing re-assertion of old and often-refuted objections, or by specious insinuations, to undermine and to subvert the religion of Jesus Christ — " the pillar of society, the safeguard of nations, the
X PREFACE.
parent of social order, which alone has power to curb the fury of the passions, and secure to every one his rights ; to the laborious the reward of their industry, to the rich the enjoyment of their wealth, to nobles the preserv- ation of their honours, and to princes the stabiUty of their thrones." Called upon by name from the press, to consider these objections to Divine Revelation, the author felt it his duty not to shrink from the task ; and as the an- tagonists of the Scriptures have in some degree varied the ground of their attacks, he indulges the hope that a tem- perate discussion of this subject, accommodated to the present times, may not be unacceptable to the biblical student, who may, perhaps, at some future time, be ex- posed to meet with the enemies of the Scriptures. To his own mind, indeed, the result of the laborious inquiries, in which he has thus been necessarily involved, has been highly satisfactory : — for, not having access to all the numerous and able defences of Christianity against the in- fidels of former ages, he has been obhged to consider every objection for himself; — and in every instance he has found that the numerous — he had almost said innumer- able — contradictions, alleged to exist in the Sacred Writ- ings, have disappeared before an attentive and candid examination. It may, perhaps, be thought that the gross and illiberal manner, in which some of the productions in question have been executed, renders them unworthy of notice ; but nothing surely is unworthy of notice that is calculated to mislead the ignorant or the unwary; and though some of the objections raised by the modern op- posers of Divine Revelation are so coarse as to carry with them their own refutation, yet others are so concisely and speciously expressed, as to demand several pages, — the result of many days' laborious research, in order to detect their sophistry and falsehood.
When the Author began to prepare this first volume for the press, he had it in contemplation to publish it in a detached form, in order to furnish a ready and immediate
PREFACE. XI
reply to the objections which at that time were almost daily issued from the press. In such a form it had even been announced to the Public : but as the objections con- tinued to be multiplied, the work imperceptibly accumu- lated in its progress; and when the first volume was completed, the Author was obliged reluctantly to abandon the idea of a distinct publication, on account of the addi- tional pecuniary loss which he would inevitably have incurred. He has only to express his ardent hope, that this part of his labours may, through the Divine Blessing, enable his readers to be ready always to give an answer to EVERY MAN, that asketh them a reason of the hope that is in them ; and he most earnestly requests that they will examine and combine, with candour and attention, all the various evidences here adduced for the genuineness, au- thenticity, credibility, and divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures ; and then solemnly and deliberately, as ra- tional and accountable beings, deduce that inference from the whole, for which they must hereafter answer at the tribunal of God.
Volume II., in Two Parts, treats, first, on sacred cri- ticism ; including an Historical and Critical Account of the Original Languages of Scripture, and of the Cognate or Kindred Dialects ; — an account of the Antient Ver- sions of the Scriptures ; — a critical notice (ilkistrated with numerous fac-similes) of the principal Manuscripts of the Old and New Testaments ; and of the divisions and marks of distinction occurring in manuscripts and printed edi- tions of the Scriptures. These discussions are followed by dissertations, — On the Various Readings occurring in the Scriptures, with a Digest of the chief critical canons for weighing and applying them ; on the Quotations from the Old Testament in the New, with New Tables of the Quotations at length ', in Hebrew, Greek, and English,
1 In the first edition, tables of References only were given to the quotations from the Old Testament in the New : but as these quotations have been frequently made the sub- ject of cavil by the adversaries of the Scriptures, and as all students have not the time to find out and compare several hundred references, the author has now giTen them at length, accompanied with the best critical remarks which he could collect.
XU PREFACE.
and a classification of them ; showing, first, their relative agreement with the Hebrew and with the Septuagint; and, secondly^ whether they are prophecies cited as literally ful- filled ; prophecies typically or spiritually applied ; prophe- cies cited in the way of illustration ; or simple allusions to the Old Testament ; — and on Harmonies of the Scriptures ; including the different schemes of Harmonisers, and on the duration of the Public Ministry of Jesus Christ.
The Second Part of the Second Volume is appropriated to the INTERPRETATION OF THE ScRiPTURES J Compre- hending an investigation of the Sense of Scripture, and of the Signification of Words ;-^ — the subsidiary means for ascertaining the sense of Scripture ; viz. the Testimony of contemporary Writers, Antient Versions, Scholiasts and Glossographers, and the Testimony of Foreigners who have acquired a language ; the Context ; Subject-Matter ; Scope, Analogy of Languages ; Analogy of Faith ; the Assistance to be derived from Jewish Writings and also from the Greek Fathers, in the Interpretation of the Scrip- tures ; Historical Circumstances ; and Commentaries.
These discussions are followed by the application of the preceding principles, for ascertaining the sense of Scripture, to the special interpretation of the Sacred Writings, including the Interpretation of the Figurative Language of Scripture, comprehending the principles of Interpretation of Tropes and Figures ; together with an examination of the Metonymies, Metaphors, Allegories, Parables, Proverbs, and other figurative modes of speech occurring in the Bible; — the Interpretation of the Poetical Parts of Scripture ; the Spiritual Interpretation of Scrip- ture, including the Interpretation of Types ; — the Inter- pretation of Prophecy, including general Rules for ascer- taining the Sense of the Prophetic Writings, Observations on the Accomplishment of Prophecy in general, and es- pecially of the Predictions relative to the Messiah ; — the Interpretation of the Doctrinal and Moral Parts of Scrip-
PREFACE. XUl
ture, and of the Promises and Threatenings therein con- tained;— the Interpretation and Means of Harmonising Passages of Scripture, which are alleged to be contradictory;
and the Inferential and Practical Reading of the Sacred
Writings.
The utmost brevity, consistent with perspicuity, has been studied in this portion of the work ; and, therefore, but few texts of Scripture, comparatively, have been illus- trated at great length. But especial care has been taken, by repeated collations, that the very numerous references which are introduced should be both pertinent and cor- rect ; so that those readers, who may be disposed to try them by the rules laid down, may be enabled to apply them with facility.
A copious Appendix to this volume comprises (among other articles) bibliographical and critical notices, metho- dically arranged, of the principal editions of the Holy Scriptures, and Versions thereofj both antient and modern, including a history of the chief modern Versions ; together with notices of the principal Philologers, Critics, and Commentators who have elucidated the Text, History, and Antiquities of the Bible. These bibliographical notices have been derived partly from the Author's knowledge of their works, partly from the recorded opinions of eminent biblical critics, and partly from the best critical journals and other sources : — the preference being invariably given to those which are distinguished by the acknowledged talent and ability with which they are conducted. The facility of commercial intercourse with the Continent, and the sales by auction of several valuable divinity libraries, have also enabled the Author to procure many critical works that would otherwise have been inaccessible.
In Volume III. will be found a sketch or summary of
BIBLICAL GEOGRAPHY AND ANTIQUITIES, in four parts:
Xiv PREFACE.
Part I. includes an outline of the historical and PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY of the Holy Land.
Part II. treats on the political and military af- fairs of the Jews, and other nations incidentally men- tioned in the Scriptures.
Part III. discusses the sacred antiquities of the Jews, arranged under the heads of Sacred Places, Sacred Persons, Sacred Times and Seasons, and the Corruptions of Religion among the Jews, their Idolatry and various Sects, together with a description of their Moral and Re- ligious State in the time of Jesus Christ.
Part IV. discusses the domestic antiquities, or the private life, manners, customs, amusements, &c. of the Jews, and other nations incidentally mentioned or alluded to in the Holy Scriptures.
An Appendix to this Third Volume contains (besides chronological and other tables, of money, weights, and measures,) a Biographical, Historical, and Geographi- cal Index of the most distinguished Persons, Nations, Countries, and Places mentioned in the Bible, especially in the New Testament ; including an abstract of profane oriental history, from the time of Solomon to the captivity, illustrative of the history of the Hebrews as referred to in the prophetic writings, and presenting historical notices of the Assyrian, Chaldee, Median, and Persian empires. In this Index are incorporated References to the Principal Matters contained in the Third Volume j so as to render it, in fact, both a concise system and a dictionary of
BIBLICAL antiquities.
In this Volume the Author has attempted only a sketch of Biblical Geography and Antiquities. To have written a complete treatise on this interesting subject, — as he conceives such a treatise should be written, — would have
PREFACE. XV
required a work nearly equal in extent to the present : but though he has been designedly brief in this part of his undertaking, he indulges the hope that few really essential points, connected with sacred antiquities, will appear to have been omitted.
Volume IV. is appropriated to the Analysis of Scrip- ture. It contains copious Critical Prefaces to the re- spective Books, and Synopses of their several contents. In drawing up these synopses, the utmost attention has been given in order to present, as far as was practicable, at one glance, a comprehensive view of the subjects contained in each book of Scripture. In executing this part of his work, the Author has endeavoured to steer between the extreme prolixity of some analysts of the Bible, and the too great brevity of others : and he ventures to hope, that this portion of his labours will be found particularly useful in studying the doctrinal parts of the Scriptures.
Throughout the work references have been made to such approved writers as have best illustrated particular subjects ; and care has been taken to specify the particular editions of the authorities cited in the notes to the follow- ing pages. They are all referred to for the statements contained in the text ; many of them furnish details which the limits of the present volumes would not admit ; and some few give accounts and representations which the Author thought he had reason to reject. All these refer- ences, however, are introduced for the convenience of those readers, who may have inclination and opportunity for prosecuting more minute inquiries.
Such are the plan and object of the work, once more submitted to the candour of the Public. The Author has prosecuted his labours under a deep sense of the responsi- bihty attached to such an undertaking j and, though he dares not hope that he can altogether have avoided mis-
XVI PREFACE.
take, yet he can with truth declare that he has anxiously endeavoured not to mislead any one.
The author cannot conclude this preface, without ten- dering his grateful acknowledgments to the Right Re- verend THE Lord Bishop of London, for his liberal offer of access to the Episcopal Library at Fulham ; — an offer, the value of which (though he had occasion to avail himself of it only to a limited extent) was greatly enhanced by the kindness and promptitude with which it was made.
CONTENTS
THE FIRST VOLUME.
ON THE GENUINENESS, AUTHENTICITY, INSPIRATION, ETC. OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
Chapter I. On the Possibility, Pi^ohability, and Necessity of
a Divine Revelation. -Page
I. Revelation defined - - - 1
II. Possibility of a Revelation - . - 2
III. Probability of such Revelation shown ; —
1. From the Credit given, in all Ages, to false Revelations - 3
2. From the Fact, that the wisest Philosophers of Antiquity
thought a Divine Revelation probable, and also expected one - ibid.
IV. Necessity of such Revelation proved : —
1. From the Inability of mere human Reason to attain to any
certain Knowledge of the Will of God - - 4
2. From the utter Want of Authority, which attended the purest
Precepts of the antient Philosophers - - 12 8. From the actual State of Religion and Morals among the
modern Heathen Nations - - -■ 17 V. Refutation of the Objection, that Philosophy and right Reason are
sufficient to instruct Men in their Duty - - 21 — 34
VI. Possible Means of affording a Divine Revelation - - 34 — 37
Chapter II. On the Gennine7iess and Authenticity of the Old ajid New Testaments.
Section I. On the Genuineness and Authenticity of the Old
Testament - - - - - - 38
Genuine and Authentic defined . . - ibid. I. External PaooFS of the Genuineness and Authenticity of the
Canon of the Old Testament - . . 39
1. The Manner in which these Books have been transmitted to us - 40
2. The Paucity of Books extant, when they were written - ibid.
3. The Testimony of the Jews - - - ibid.
4. A particular Tribe was set apart, to preserve these Writings - 41
5. Quotations of them by antient Jews - - ibid,
6. The Evidence of antient Versions - .... 45 II. Internal Evidence : —
1. The Language, Style, and Manner of Writing - - ibid.
2. The minute Circumstantiality of Time, Persons, Places, &c.
mentioned in the Old Testament - - 47 III. Genuineness and Authenticity of the Pentateuch, in particular, proved : —
1 . From the Language itself - - - - 49
2. From the Nature of the Mosaic Laws - - 50
3. From the united Historical Testimony of Jews and Gentiles - 51 — 58
4. From the Contents of the Pentateuch - - - 58—60 IV. Particular Objections to the Authenticity of the Pentateuch, considered
and refuted - - - - - 61 — 65
VOL. I. a
XVlll CONTENTS.
Page
Section II. On the Genuineness and Authenticity of the Neio Testament.
I, General Title of the New Testament - . . qq
II. Account of its Canon - - _ - 68
III. Genuineness of the Books of the New Testament - - 69
IV. Their Authenticity proved from,
1. The Impossibility of Forgery - - _ 71
2. External or Historical Evidence, attended by antient Jewish,
Heathen, and Christian Testimonies in their Favour, and also
by antient Versions of them in different Languages - 73 — 95
3. Internal Evidence: —
(1.) The Ciiaracter of the Writers - - 95 (2.) The Language and Style of the New Testament - 95 — 98 (3.) The minute Circumstantiality of the Narratives, toge- ther with the Coincidence of the Accounts there deli- vered, with the History of those 'I'imes . . 99 105
Section III. On the Uncorrupted Preservation of the Books of the Old and Netv Testainent.
I. The Uncorrupted Preservation of the Old Testament, proved from the absolute Impossibility of its being falsified or corrupted : —
1. By Jews - _ . . J07— 110
2. By Christians - - . - 110
3. From the Agreement of all the antient Versions extant - 110
4. From the Agreement of all the Manuscripts extant - 111 II. The Uncorrupted Preservation of the Books of the New Testament
proved from,
1. Their Contents - _ _ _ 112
2. The Impossibility of an Universal Corruption of them being
accomplished - - _ _ - 1 2
3. The Agreement of all the Manuscripts extant - . 114
4. The Agreement of Antient Versions, and of the Quotations
from the New Testament in tlie Writings of the early Christians 115
III. General Proofs that no Canonical Books of Scripture either are or ever
were lost - _ _ _ -117
IV. Particular Proofs as to the Integrity of the Old Testament - 118—120 V. Particular Proofs as to the New Testament - - _ 120 124
Chapter III. 0)1 the Credihility of the OldandNeiso Testa- ments.
Section I. Direct Evidences of the Credibility of the Old and Nexu Testaments. Their Credibility shown,
I. From the Writers having a perfect Knowledge of the Subjects they relate 1 25 1 28
II. From the moral certainty of Falsehood being detected, if there had
been any . . . _ . jgg
This proved at large,
1. With respect to the Old Testament - -128 133
2. With respect to the New Testament - - _ 133 144
III. From the Subsistence, to this very Day, of certain Ordinances or Monu-
ments, instituted to perpetuate the Memory of the principal Facts and
Events recorded in the Scriptures - . _ 145 147
IV. From the Establishment and Propagation of Christianity - - 147—151
Section II. Testi^nonies to the Credihility of the Old and Netv Testaments from Natural and Civil History.
§ 1. Testimonies from Natural and Civil History to the Credibility of
the Old Testament _ _ _ . 152 — 178
§ 2. Testimonies of Profane Writers to the Credibility of the New
Testament . _ . . 173 204
§ 3. Collateral Testimonies to the Truth of the Facts recorded in the
Scriptures, from antient Coins, Medals, and Marbles - 205 — 216
CONTENTS. XlJT
Page
Chapteh IV. All the Books of the Old and Nexv Testament are of Divine Authority^ and their Authors are divinely i7ispi7-ed.
Section I. Preliminary Observations.
I. Inspiration defined . _ . . 217,218
II. Its Reasonabltness and Necessity - - - 218
III. Impossibility of the Scriptures being the Contrivance of Man - 219
IV. Criteria of Inspiration - - . _ 220
Section II. The Miracles, related in the Old and New Testa- ments, are Proofs, that the Scriptures were given by Inspiration of God.
I. A Miracle defined - . . - . 222
II. Nature of the Evidence arising from Miracles - - 223 — 225
III. Design of Miracles - - - - 22.';— 227
IV. Credibility of Miracles, vindicated and proved - - 227 — 232
V. That the Credibility of Miracles does yiot decrease with the Lapse of
Years . - - - 232 — 234
VI. Criteria of Miracles - - - - 234 — 240
VII. Application of these Criteria,
1. To the Miracles wrouglit by Mosei and Joshua - - 241, 242
2. To those of Jesus Christ and his Apostles - - 243—252 VIII. Examination of some of the principal Miracles recorded in the New
Testament - - - - 253—262
IX. Particularly of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ - - 263
1. Christ's Prophetic Declarations concerning his Death and Re-
surrection - - - 263 — 266
2. Evidence of Adversaries of the Christian Name and Faith to the
Reality of this Fact - - - 266—273
3. The Character of the Witnesses - - 273—283
4. The Miracles wrought by these Witnesses - - 284, 285 Concluding Observations on the Resurrection of Christ - - 285, 286
X. General Summary of the Argument furnished by Miracles - - 286 — 289
XI. A Comparison of the Scripture Miracles and pretended Pagan and
Popish Miracles - - - 289—298
Section III. On Prophecy.
I. Prophecy defined ... - 299
II. Difference between the pretended Predictions of Heathen Oracles and
the Prophecies contained in the Scriptures - - - 301 — 306
III. Use and Intent of Prophecy - - - 30ff
IV. Chain of Prophecy, and Classification of Scripture Prophecies - 307
Class I. Prophecies relating to the Jewish Nation in particular - 308 — 313
Class IT. Prophecies relating to the Nations or Empires that were
neighbouring to the Jews - - - 313 — 319
Class III, Prophecies directly announcing the Messiah j their Num- ber, Variety, and minute Circumstantiality - - 319 — 325 Class IV. Prophecies delivered by Jesus Christ and his Apostles - 327 — 335 The five Causes assigned by Mr. Gibbon for the Diffusion of Chris- tianity, shown to be inapplicable - - - 336 — 339 Objections from the alleged Non-universalitv of the Christian Re- ligion refuted •- - ' - - 339—357 Predictions of the Apostles relative to the Corruptions of Christi- anity and the Spread of Infidelity - - - 358 — 360 Objections, taken from the alleged Darkness and Uncertainty of
Prophecy, shown to be unfounded _ _ . 361 — 363
Chapter V. Inter7ial Evidences of the Lispiration of the Scriptures.
Section I. The System of Doctrine and the Moral Precepts, which are delivered in the Scriptures, are so excellent and so perfectly holy, that the Persons, who published them to the
a 2
XX CONTENTS.
Page
Worldf must have derived them from a purer and more exalted Source than their otvn Meditations.
§ 1. A Concise View of the Religion of the Patriarchal Times - 364 — 367
§ 2. A Summary View of the Doctrines and Precepts of the Mo- saic Dispensation - - - - 368 — 383
§ 3. A Summary View of the Doctrines and Precepts of the Gospel
Dispensation - - - - 384 — 410
§ 4. On the Objections of Unbelievers to the Doctrine and Mora- lity of the Bible - - - -411 — 437
Section II. The Harmony and Connection, subsisting between all the Parts of Scripture, are a further Proof of its Autho- rity and Divine Original - - - 4-37
Section III. The Preservation of the Scriptures is a Proof of
their Truth and Divine Origin - - - 439
Section IV. The Tendency of the Scriptures, to promote the pre- sent and eternal Happiness of Mankind, constitutes another unansiKcrable Proof of their Diviiie Inspiration - - 440
I. Appeals of Christian Apologists and Testimonies of Heathen Adver- saries to the Effects of the Gospel upon the first Christians - 442 — 444 II. Beneficial Effects of Christianity upon Society in general - - 445 — 447 III. On the Political State of the World - . . - 448 — 450 IV. On Literature and the Fine Arts - - - - 450 — 454 V. Historical Facts further attesting the Benefits conferred by the Gospel
upon the World - ... - 455 — 458
VI. Effects' produced by Christianity in private Life, compared with those
produced by Infidelity ... - 459—463
Section V. The Advantages possessed by the Christian Religion over all other Religions, a demonstrative Evidence of its Di- vine Origin and Authority - - - 464?
Peculiar Advantages of Christianity over all other Religions, in
I. Its Perfection - - . - - 465
II. Its Openness ----- 466
III. Its Adaptation to the Capacities of all Men - - ibid.
IV. The Spirituality of its Worship - w w 467 V. Its Opposition to the Spirit of the World . _ _ 468
VI. Its Humiliation of Man, and exalting af the Deity - - ibid.
VII. Its Restoration of Order to the World ... 469
VIII. Its Tendency to eradicate all evil Passions from the Heart - ibid.
IX. Its Contrariety to the Covetousness and Ambition of Mankind - ibid.
X. Its restoring the Divine Image to Man ... 470
XL Its mighty Effects ..... ibid.
Section VI. Inability to answer all Objections, no just Cause for rejecting the Scriptures. — Unbelievers in Divine Revelation more credulous than Christians - - 472 — 480
Chapter VI. Recapitulation of the Evidences for the Truth and Divi?ie Authority of the Scriptures. — ■ Moral Quali- fications for the Study of the Sacred Writings.
Recapitulation ... . 480 — 488
The Scriptures a perfect Rule of Faith and Morals. — Moral Qualifications for the Study of the Scriptures, and in what Order they may be read to
the greatest Advantage .... 489 — 494
CONTENTS.
APPENDIX.
No. I. On the Books commonli/ termed the Apocrypha. Page
Section I. On the Apoc7-yphal Books attached to the Old Testament.
Derivation of the Term Apocrypha - - . -595
Reasons why the Apocryphal Books were rejected from the Canon of Scripture ; — I. They possess no Authority whatever, external or internal, to procure
their Admission into the Sacred Canon _ . _ 495
II. The Apocryphal Books were not admitted into the Carton of Scripture
during the first four Centuries of the Christian Church - - 497
III. The Apocryphal Books contain many Things vvhich are fabulous, and contrary to the Canonical Scriptures, both in Facts, Doctrines, and moral Practice _____ 497
IV. They contradict all other profane Historians _ _ 498
Section II. On the Writings usually called the Apocryphal Books of the New Testamoit.
I. Enumeration of these Apocryphal Writings - - _ 499
II. External Evidence to show that they were never considered as inspired
or canonical _ - _ _ 50I 503
III. Internal Evidence _ - - _ 503 — 511
IV. These Apocryphal Books are so far from affecting the Credibility of the
genuine Books of the New Testament, that the latter are confirmed
by them - - - - 511,512
No. II. On the Inspiratioti of the Holy Scriptures.
I. Observations on the Inspiration of the Old Testament - _ 514
II. And of the New Testament - _ .. _ 515 517
III. Conclusions derived from these Considerations - - 517 52I
No. III. On the Ascension of Jesus Christ - - 52 J — 523
No. IV. Oji the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles 523 — 525 No. V. Bxamination of the Difficidties attendant on the
Propagation of Christianity - - - 525 531
No. VI. A Table of the chief Prophecies relative to the
Messiah - - - -532
Chapter I. The prijicipal Prophecies relative to the Mes- siah, "with their Accomplishment, in the very Words of the New Testame7it - - - - ibid.
Section I. Prophecies relative to the Advent, Person, Silver- ings, Resurrection, and Ascensioii of the Messiah - 532 — 537 Section II. Predictions relative to the Offices of the Messiah 538 544
Chapter II. The p)rincipal Predictions by Jesus Christ, relative to his Sufferings, Death, Besurrection, the Spread of the Gospel, and the Destniction of Jerusalem - 544
Section I. Predictions {for the Confrmation of his Disciples'
Faith) that they •wouldjind Things according to his Word - 544
XxK CONTENTS.
Page
Chapter II. Predidiojis by Jesus Christ, continued.
Section II. Predictions of Jesus Christ, relative to his Stiffer-
ings, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension - - 544 — 548
Section III. Prophecies by Jesus Christ relative to the Destruc- tion of Jerusalem • - _ _ 54.8 — 556
Section IV. That there is Salvation only through Christ —
and the Danger of rejecting it - - - 557
No. VII. Proofs of the Ge7iuineness of Josephus's Testi-
mony concerning Jesus Christ - '^ 558—562
DIRECTIONS TO THE BINDER.
In the first instance, the Work is to be boarded in four Volumes ; and the Title Page for Volume II. Part II. is to be placed after page 574. of that Volume.
The Synoptical Table of Contents to the Appendix is to be placed after signature O o, and before page 1. of the Appendix.
In binding the Second Volume in two Parts, the second Title may be placed at the beginning of Part II., or before the Appendix to that Volume, at the option of the Purchaser.
ORDER FOR PLACING THE ENGRAVINGS AND MAPS.
The Fac-Simile of the Biblia Pauperum, to face the Title Page of
Vol. II. Plate I. The Fac-Simile of the Codex Vaticanus, to face Vol. If. page 124? II. Codex Cottonianus of the Book of Genesis, to face page ... 126
III. Codex Cottonianus, Harleianus, &c 132
IV. Codex Bezae I33
V. Fac-Similes of the Codex Rescriptus, discovered at Milan,
and of the Codex Argenteo-Purpureus at Vienna 140
VI. Codex Rescriptus of St. Matthew's Gospel 142
VII. Fac-Simile of a MS. of the Acts of the Apostles 143
VIII. Codex Ebnerianus ^,, I55
The Table of the Dates, &c. of the Principal Modern Versions of the Scriptures, to face the Appendix to Vol. II. page 57.
The Lord's Prayer in Javanese, Appendix to Vol. II 100
IX. Map of Palestine, witli the Divisions into Tribes, to face the
Title Page of Vol. III. X. Map of Judaea, adapted to the Gospel History, to face Vol. III.
page 14. XI. Map of the Journeyings of the Israelites, to face Vol. IV. page 21. XII. Map of the Travels of the Apostles, to face Vol. IV. page 331 Xlll. Fac-Simile of the Codex Montfortianus, and of the Corapluten- sian Polyglott, to face Vol. IV. page 464.
CRITICAL TESTIMONIES
In Favour of former Editions of this Work.
" Of all the "Works, which of late Years have been presented to the Notice of the Bib- lical Student, this is one of the most correct and useful. It is an Enctclopedia of Theological Knowledge. It is a complete Abridgment of many extensive Treatises of the most celebrated Divines, both of our own and Foreign Countries : and it entitles its Author to the Gratitude and Approbation of every Lover of the Sacred Volume."— Classical Journal, September 1819.
" This Work we bring forward with Confidence to the Notice of our Readers, as the very best Introduction to the Critical Study of the Holy Scriptures, in the whole Compass of English Literature. It has engaged the Attention of the Author for a considerable Number of Years, and is replete with Proofs of his Industry ; nor is this the only Quali- fication for the Undertaking which is displayed in the Execution of the Work : it exhibits a sound Judgment and considerable Ability. It is altogether an invaluable Work, and cannot fail of procuring for the Author the warm Commendation of every liberal Scholar. To the Biblical Student it may be safely recommended, as affording hira JIORE Assistance in the Pursuit of his proper Object, the Knowledge of the Scriptures, than any other Publication whatever, and as entitled to a Place in his Library, whether it be large or small, among the Books which he will never regret having purchased." -—^cl^c- Tic Review, January 1819. See also the Eclectic Review for January 1 822.
" Without some Capacity and Taste for the Critical Study of the Scriptures, the Man of God must be poorly qualified for his Work ; and the Faith of those whom he instructs will scarcely be made to stand on the Wisdom of God. Every Book, which is so ably adapted to assist in this Department of Ministerial Qualification, as this of Mr. Home's, ought to be received with the warmest Gratitude ; and its Circulation should be promoted
by all who wish well to the Cause of Christ Asa Book of Reference, this Work
is really invaluable. We know of no Book, which will so effectually aid the Researches of a Scholar. It contains, in every Department of which it treats, innumerable and most accurate References to those Works, which examine the Subject under Consideration more fully than the Bounds of his Undertaking permitted." — London Christian Instructor, Jpril 1819.
" It is saying much, yet, as far as our Knowledge of Biblical Works extends, not too much, to assert of these Volumes, that they constitute the most important Theological Publication of their Kind, which has appeared in this or any other Country for some
Years No well assorted Theological Library can be long without it ; and even
those Students in Divinity, whose pecuniary Resources are too limited to admit of wanton Expenditure, would do well, on the Score of Economy, to include these Volumes in their Library." — Christian Observer, November 1819.
" This Publication will be found extremely valuable by the Biblical Student." — Da. Maltby's Sermons, vol. i. p. 595.
For other Testimonies, see the British Critic, J'M?iel819; and January 1823; British Review, March 1822; Evangelical Magazine, October 1818; Christian Guardian, March 1827 ; Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, March 1827.
INTRODUCTION
TO THE
CRITICAL STUDY AND KNOWLEDGE
OF
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
ON THE GENUINENESS, AUTHENTICITY, INSPIRATION, ETC- OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
CHAPTER I;
ON THE POSSIBILITY, PROBABILITY, AND NECESSITY OF A DIVINBf
REVELATION.
I. Revelation defined. — II. Possibility of a Divine Revelation. — III. Pro-- bability of such Revelation sfietvn, 1. From the Credit given, in all ages, to false Revelations; 2. From the fact, that the ivisest philosophers of
antiquity thought a Divine Revelation probable, and also expected one
IV. Necessity of such Revelation proved, 1. From the inability of mere human reason to attain to any certain hiovoledge of the xmll of God ; — 2. From the utter want of authority, tvhich attended the purest precepts of the a7itient philosophers ; 3. From the actual state of religion and morals among the modern Heathen nations. — V. Refutation of the objection, that Philosophy and Right Reason are sufficient to instruct men in their Duty. — VI. Possible means of affording a Divine Revelation.
1 HAT there now is, and that for more than three thousand years there has been, in the world, a separate people called the Jews, who are distinguished by peculiar customs, and profess a pe- culiar religion : — Further, that there now is, and that for eighteen centuries there has existed, in the world, a religion called the Christian ; and that its professors, as well as the Jews, appeal, to certain books, by them accounted sacred, as the basis on which their religion is founded: — These are facts which no one can controvert.
I. The volume, to which Jews and Christiiins thus respectively appeal, is termed the bible, that is, the book, by way of eminence.. It comprises a great number of different narratives and composi- tions, written by several persons, at distant periods, in different lan- guages, and on various subjects. Yet all of these, collectively, claim.
VOL. I. B
2 Oji the Necessity J S^-c. of a "[Ch.
to be a DIVINE revelation, that is, a discovery afforded by God to man of Himself or of His will, over and above what He has made known by the light of nature, or reason.
The objects of our knowledge are of three kinds : — Thus, some things are discernible by the light of nature, without revelation ; of this kind is the knowledge of God from the creation of the world, " for his invisible things, even his eternal power and godhead, since the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made." Other things are of pure and simple revel- ation, which cannot be known by the light of nature : such is the doctrine of the salvation of the world by Jesus Christ. Others, again, are discoverable by the light of nature, but imperfectly, and therefore stand in need of a revelation to give them further proof and evidence ; of this sort are a future state and eternal rewards and punishments. But of what degree soever the revelation may be, whether partial or entire, whether a total discovery of some unknown truths, or only a fuller and clearer manifestation of them, it must be supernatural, and proceed from God.
II. Possibility of a Divine Revelation.
No one, who believes that there is a God, and that He is a Being of infinite power, wisdom, and knowledge, can reasonably deny, that He can, if He thinks fit, make a revelation of himself and of his will to men, in an extraordinary way, different from the discoveries made by men themselves, in the mere natural and ordinary use of their own rational faculties and powers. For, if the power of God be almighty, it must extend to whatever does not imply a contradic- tion, which cannot be pretended in this case. We cannot distinctly explain the origin of our ideas, or the way in which they are excited or impressed upon the human mind ; but we know that these ways are very various. And can it be supposed that the author of our being has it not in his power to communicate ideas to our minds, for informing and instructing us in those things, which we are deeply concerned to know? Our inability clearly to explain the manner in which this is done, is no just objection against it.'
And as it cannot reasonably be denied that God can, if he sees fit, communicate his will to men in a way of extraordinary revela- tion, so he can do it in such a manner as to give those, to whom this revelation is originally and immediately made, a full and certain assurance that it is a true divine revelation. This is a natural con- sequence; for, to suppose that God can communicate his will in a way of extraordinary revelation, and yet that he is not able to give a sufficient assurance to the person or persons to whom he thus reveals his will, is evidently absurd and contradictory. It is, in effect, to say, that he can reveal his will, but has no way of making
1 This has been acknowledged by a late distinguished antagonist of revelation ; who observes, that " an extraordinary action of God upon the human mind, which the word inspiration is now used to denote, is not more inconceivable than the ordinary action of mind on body, or body on mind ;" and " that it is impertinent to deny tlie existence of any phenomenon, merely because we cannot account for it." Lord Bolingbroke's Works, vol. ii. p. 468. 4to. edit.
y
I,] Divine Revelation. 3
men know that he does so; which is a most unreasonable limitation of the divine power and wisdom. He, who pretends to pronounce that this is impossible, is bound to pronounce where the impossibi- lity of it lies. If men can communicate tiieir thou<rhts by speech or langnage in such a way, as that we may certainly know who it is that speaks to us, it would be a strange thing to affirm that God, on supposition of his communicating his mind and will to any person or persons in a way of extraordinary revelation, has no way of causing his rational creatures to know that it is He, and no other, who makes this discovery to them. To admit the existence of a God, and to deny him such a power, is a glaring contradiction.^
III. Since then it cannot reasonably be denied, that it is possible for God to reveal his will to mankind, let us in the next place con- sider the PROBABILITY of sucli a revelation.
1. If any credit be due to the general sense of mankind in every age, we shall scarcely find one that believed the existence of a God, who did not likewise believe that some kind of commerce and com- munication subsisted between God and man. This was the found- ation of all the religious rites and ceremonies, which every nation pretended to receive from their deities. Hence also the most cele- brated legislators of antiquity, — as Zoroaster, Minos, Pythagoras, Solon, Lycurgus, Numa, &c. &c. all thought it necessary to profess some intercourse with heaven, in order to give the greater sanction to their laws and institutions, notwithstanding many of them were armed with secular power.'^ And what gave birth and so much im- portance to the oracles, divinations, and auguries, in antient times, was the conscious sense entertained by mankind of their own igno- rajice, and of their need of a supernatural illumination ; as well as the persuasion, that their gods held a perpetual intercourse with men, and by various means gave them intelligence of future things, i^
2. The probability of a cHvine revelation further appears from this circumstance, that some of the wisest philosophers, particularly Socrates and Plato, confessed that they stood in need of such a re- velation to instruct them in matters which were of the utmost conse- quence. With regard to the state of morals, they acknowledged that, as the state of the world then was, there were no human means of reforming it. But they not only saw and acknowledged their great want of a divine revelation, to instruct them in their conduct towards God and towards man ; they likewise expressed a strong hope or expectation, that God would, at some future time, make such a
> Leland's Advantage and Necessity of the Christian Revelation, vol. i. pp. 13 — 15. (8vo. edit. Glasgow, 1819.)
2 This fact is remarkably confirmed by the celebrated heathen geographer Strabo, whose observation on the supposed intercourse between mankind and the Deity is too striking to be omitted : " Whatever," says he, " becomes of the real truth of these relations, this however is certain, that men did believe o«rf think them true : and, for this reason, prophets were held in such honour, as to be thought wortliy sometimes of royal dignity, as being persons who delivered precepts and admonitions from the gods, both while they lived, and also after their death. Such were Tiresias, Amphiaraus, &c. &c. Such were Moses and his successors." Strab. Geogr. lib. xvi. pp. 1084, 1085. ed. Oxon.
B 2
4 On the Necessity, Sj-c. of a [Ch.
discovery as should dispel the cloud of darkness in which they were involved.^
IV. From the preceding remarks and considerations, we are au- thorised to infer, that a divine revelation is not only probable, but also absolutely necessary.
1. In fact, without such revelation, the history of past ages has shewn, that mere human reason cannot attain to any certain know- ledge of the will or law of God, of the true happiness of man, or of a future state. To a reflecting and observant mind, the harmony, beauty, and wisdom of all the varied works of creation are demon- strative evidence of a First Great Cause ; and the continued preserv- ation of all things in their order attests a divine and superintending Providence. But the ultimate design of God in all his works can- not be perfectly known by the mere light of nature, and conse- quently our knowledge of his preceptive will or law is equally uncer- tain, so far as his works disclose it or philosophy has discovered it.^ Indeed, if we examine the writings of the most celebrated antient philosophers, we shall find that they were not only ignorant of many important points in religion which revelation has discovered to us, but also that endless differences and inconsistences prevailed among them in points of the greatest moment ; M'hile some of them taught doctrines which directly tend to promote vice and wickedness in the world; and the influence of all, in rectifying the notions and reform- ing the lives of mankind, was inconsiderable. A concise statement of facts will confirm and illustrate this observation :
(1.) The ideas of the antients respecting the nature and worship of God were dark, confused, and imperfect.
While some philosophers asserted the being of a God, others openly denied it : others, again, embraced, or pretended to embrace, the notion of a multiplicity of gods, celestial, aerial, terrestrial, and infernal ; while others represented the Deity as a corporeal being united to matter by a necessary connexion, and subject to an immutable fate. As every coun- try had its peculiar deities, the philosophers (whatever might be their private sentiments) sanctioned and defended the religion of the state ; and urged a conformity to it to be the duty of every citizen. They
1 Plato, de Rep. lib. iv. & vi. and Alcibiad, ii. Dr. Samuel Clarke lias exhibited these and other testimonies at length in his Discourse on the Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion, proposition vi. (Boyle Lectures, vol.ii. pp. 130 — 135. folio edit.)
■2 On tills subject the reader may peruse, with equal pleasure and instruction, Dr. Ellis's elaborate treatise on the " Knowledge of Divine Things from Revelation, not from Reason or Nature," published many years since at Dublin, and reprinted at London in 1811. 8vo. Dr. E. also threw the substance of this treatise into a single discourse, which may be substituted for the preceding by those who may not be able to command the requisite leisure for reading a large volume. The discourse in question is printed in the first volume of the well-known and excellent collection of tracts intitled " The Scholar armed against the Errors of the Time;" and is intitled "An Enquiry, whence cometh Wisdom and Understanding to Man?" It shews satisfactorily, that Religion and language entered the world by divine revelation, without the aid of wliich man had not been a rational or reli- gious creature ; that nothing can oblige the conscience but the revealed will of God ; and that such a thing as the law of nature never existed but in the human imagination. The same argument is also discussed in an able but anonymous tract (now of rare occurrence, and known to be written by the Rev. Dr. James Paton, a divine of the Scottish church), intitled " An Attempt to shew that the Knowledge of God has, in all Ages, been derived from Revelation or Tradition, not from Nature." Glasgow, 1773. 8vo.
I.] Divine llevelation. 5
'* diligently practised the ceremonies of their fathers ; devoutly fre- quented tlie temples of the gods ; and sometimes, condescending to act a part on the theatre of superstition, they concealed the sentiments of an atheist under the sacerdotal robes."' 'it is true that insulated passages may be found in the writings o'l some of the philosophers, which apparently indicate the most exalted conceptions of the divine attributes and per- fections. These and similar passages are sonietimcs regarded with a Christian eye, and thence acquire a borrowed sanctity : but, in order to discover their real value, they must be brought to their own standard, and must be interpreted upon principles strictly pagan, in which case the context will be found, either to claim such perfections for the deified mortals and heroes of the popular theology, or to connect them with some of those physiological principles which were held by tlie different philosophical sects, and effectually subverted the great and fundamental doctrine of one supreme Creator.- The religion of the antient Persians is said to have been originally founded on their belief in one supreme God, who made and governs the world. ^ But a devotion founded on a principle so pure as this, if it survived the first ages after the flood, which cannot be proved, is known with certainty to have been early exchanged for the Sabian idolatry; the blind and superstitious worship of the host of heaven, of the sun, the planets, and the fire-*, the water, the earth, and the winds.
In consequence of these discordant sentiments, the grossest polytheism and idolatry prevailed among the antient heathen nations. They believed in the existence of many co-ordinate deities, and the number of inferior deities was infinite ^ : they deified dead, and sometimes living, persons ; the former often out of injudicious gratitude, the latter usually out of base and sordid flattery. According to the vulgar estimation, there were deities that presided over every distinct nation, every distinct city, every inconsiderable town, every grove, every river, every fountain. Athens
' Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roinan Empire, vol. i. p. 50.
" Dr. Ireland, Paganism and Christianity compared, pp. 46, 47. Frank's Essay on the Use and Necessity of Revelation, p. 44. " These ideas of the philosophers of Europe," says Dr. Robertson, " were precisely the same which the Brahmins had adopted in India, and according to which they regulated their conduct with respect to the great body of the people. Wherever the dominion of false religion is completely established, the body of the people gain nothing by the greatest improvements in knowledge. Their philosophers conceal from them, with the utmost solicitude, the truths which they have discovered, and labour to support that fabric of superstition which it was their duty to have overturned." Historical Disquisition concerning Antient India, pp. 283, 284.
3 Asiat. Researches, vol. ir. p. 58.
•• Lcland's Advant. and Necessity of the Christ. Rev. vol. i. pp. 59. 79.
■""Thus, tlie Chaldeans had twelve principal deities, according to the number of months in the year; and Zoroaster, the great Persian reformer, taught the Medians and Persians that there were two spirits or beings subordinate to one supreme, eternal, and self-existent being, viz. Oromasdes, the angel of light and promoter of happiness and virtue, and Ari- manes, the angel of darkness and autiior of misery and vice. — Varro makes three sorts of hcalhen theology ; — ihefabulous, invented by the poets ; — tlic phi/sical, or that of the phi- losopiiers ; and civil or popular, which last was instituted in tlie several cities and countries. — The Greek theology was thus distinguished : — 1. God, who rules over all things ; — 2. The gods, who were supposed to govern above the moon ; — 3. The demons whose jurisdiction was in the air below it ; — and, 4. The heroes, or souls of dead men, wlio were imagined to preside over terrestrial affairs. And, besides all these, the evil demons were worshipped, from fear of the mischief they might commit. These facts will account for the prodigious multitude of heathen deities, of which Hesiod computes thirty thousand to be Iiovcring about the earth in the air, unless he is to be understood as meaning an indefi- nite number. — Orpheus reckoned only l/irce liundred and sixty-five; Varro enumerated three hundred Jupiters; although he liimself, together with Cicero, Seneca, and some other eminent philosophers, were ashamed of the heathen deities, and believed that there is but. one God,
li 3
6 On the Necessity, Sfc. of a ^Ch.
was full of statues iletlicated to different deities. Imperial Rome, from political principles, adopted all the gods which were adored by the na- tions who had yielded to her victorious arms, and thought to eternise her empire by crowding them all into the capital. Temples and fanes were erected to all the passions, diseases, years, and einls, to which man- kind are subject. Suited to the various characters of the divinities were the rites of their worship. Some were vindictive and sanguinary ; others were jealous, wrathful, or deceivers ; and all of them were unchaste, adulterers, or incestuous. Not a few of them were monsters of the grossest vice and wickedness : and their rites were absurd, licentious, and cruel, and often consisted of mere unmixed crime, shameless dissipation, and debauchery. Prostitution, in all its deformity, was systematically annexed to various pagan temples, was often a principal source of their revenues, and was, in some countries, even compulsory upon the female population. Other impurities were solemnly practised by them in their temples, and in public, from the very thought of which our minds revolt. Besides the numbers of men, who were killed in the bloody sports and spectacles instituted in honour of their deities, human sacrifices were offered to propitiate them.i Boys were whipped on the altar of Diana, sometimes till they died. How many lovely infants did the Carthaginians sacrifice to their implacable god Moloch ! What numbers of human victims, in times of public danger, did they immolate, to appease the resentment of the offended deities !
It has been said that the mysteries were designed to instruct the people in the principles of true religion and of true morality ; and ingenious and learned men have laboured to represent them in this light, and also to shew how well calculated they are for this end, " They have said, that the errors of polytheism were detected and exposed, and the doctrines of the divine unity^ and supreme government taught and ex-
1 The chief oracles among the heathens appointed human sacrifices: as that at Delphi, that of Dodona, and that of Jupiter Saotes. It was a custom among the Phoenicians and Canaanites, in times of great calamity, for their kings to sacrifice one of their sons, whom they loved best; and it was commoji both with them, as well as with the Moabites and Ammonites, to sacrifice their children. Further, the Egyptians, th.e Athenians and Lace- demonians, and, generally speaking, all the Greeks; — the Romans, Carthaginians, Ger- mans, Gauls, and Britons ; . — in short, all the heathen nations throughout the world oft'ered human sacrifices upon their altars ; and this, not on certain emergencies and imminent dangers only, but constantly, and in some places every day. Upon extraordinary acci- dents, multitudes were sacrificed at once to their sanguinary deities. Thus, during the battle between the Sicilian army under Gelon and the Carthaginians under Amilcar, in Sicily, the latter remained in his camp, offering sacrifices to the deities of his country, and consuming upon one large pile the bodies of numerous victims. (Herod, lib. vii. c. 167.) When Agathocles was about to besiege Carthage, its inhabitants, seeing the extremity to which they were reduced, imputed all their misfortunes to the anger of Saturn ; because, instead of offering up children of noble descent (who were usually sacrificed) there had been fraudulently substituted for them the children of slaves and foreigners. Two hun- dred children of the best families in Carthage were therefore immolated, to propitiate the offended divinity; to whom upwards of three hundred citizens voluntarily sacrificed them- selves, from a sense of their guilt of this pretended crime. (Diod. Sic. lib. xx. c. M.) On another occasion, the Carthaginians having obtained a victory, immolated the hand- somest of their captives, the flame of whose funeral pile was so great as to set their camp on fire. (lb. lib. xx. c. 65.) Lactantius (Divin. Instit. lib. i. c. 21.) has recorded nu- merous similar horrid sacrifices of human victims. Besides the preceding authorities, the reader will find numerous additional testimonies, drawn from classic authors, in Dr. Har- wood's Introduction to the New Testament, vol. i. pp. 1 1 1 — 116. ; Mr. Bryant's Analysis of Anticnt Mythology, vol. ii. pp. 224. 266. 312. ; and also in Dr. Leland's Advantage and Necessity of the Christian Revelation, vol. i. ch. 7. pp. 134 — 157.
y Dr. Hill (Essays on the Institutions, &c. of Antient Greece, p. 52.) is of opinion, after many eminent writers, that the doctrine of the unity of God was taught in the mys- terieis. See also Bp. Warburton's Divine Legation of Moses, book ii. sect. 4. But Dr.
I.] DhiJie Revelation. 7
plained in them ; that the initiated became bound by solemn engage- ments to reform their lives, and to devote themselves strictly to the practice and cultivation of purity and virtue ; and that the celebration of the mysteries was extensive; and their influence great: — ^ initiantur,' says Cicero, ' gentes orariim itltimce.'
" It is true, that the priests of the mysteries were highly ostentatious of their own morality, and zealous in their professions to regenerate the people. But the means which they employed were neither suitable nor adequate to that end ; nor did they answer it. The mysteries, which, it has been pretended, were calculated to produce it, served only, in fact, to explain some of the subjects of mythology, and to promote the designs of human policy — to inspire heroism, and to secure civil subordination and obedience. In proof of this we may ask, if they contributed at all to change the people's polytheistical opinions, or to improve their morals? Did they not, in place of becoming better by them, degenerate daily ? Avere they not oppressed more and more by superstition, and dissolved in vice ? Did not some of the best and wisest philosophers disapprove of the mysteries ? — Alcibiades mocked the gods — Anaxagoras was expelled by the Athenians for the neglect of them. — Socrates certainly had no good opinion of the mysteries — he was not initiated into them; and circum- stances attending them have been suggested which ought to render their moral tendency more than suspicious.
" They were celebrated in the silence and darkness of the night, with the utmost secrecy. They were frequently conducted under the patron- age of the most licentious and sensual deities. The most indecent objects were exhibited, and carried in procession. ' It is a shame,' saith the apostle, ' even to speak of those things which were done of them in secret.' At last they became so infamous, in respect both of morality and good order, that it was found necessary to prohibit them.
" It is hard to oonceive how the mysteries could have any good effect on the morals of the people. It might excite the ambition of a ^ew, to be told that the gods were nothing more than eminent men ; but it was more likely to disgust the greater part of them, and to render them com- pletely unbelieving and irreligious. Besides, considering how few were initiated, the influence of the mysteries, even supposing them to have had a beneficial influence, must have been very small on the mass of the people. Farther, the initiated were prohibited, under a solemn oath, ever to reveal the mysteries. Whatever benefit, therefore, they might themselves derive from them, they could communicate none to others ; nor could the impression, however strong during the initiation, be always retained with equal strength during life. On the whole, taking the account even of those who favour them, the mysteries neither diminished the influence of Polytheism nor promoted the belief of the divine unity;
— they contributed rather to the increase of superstition, and to the prevalence of licentiousness and vice. If they were designed, as has been affirmed, to shew that the public religion had no foundation in truth
— to hold it up to contempt — what could have a worse effect on the mind of the people ? what more injurious to religious and moral prin- ciples and practice, than to exhibit the whole civil and ecclesiastical
Leland has long since examined the various proofs adduced in support of this sentiment; and has shewn that there is great reason to think that the notion of the Deity taught in the mysteries was not a right and just one ; and even if it were so, that it would have been of little use, as it was communicated only to a few, and under the strictest seal of secrecy. Advant. and Necessity of the Christian Revelation, vol. i. pp.158 — 196.
B 4
•8 On the Necesiity, S^c. of a [Oh.
-constitution as a trick and imposition — as reared by falsehood and main- tained by hypocrisy ?" ^
But whatever motives may have induced the first inventors of mys- teries to introduce them, the fact is, that they neither did nor could cor- rect the polytheistic notions of the people, or correct their morals, and in the course of time they became greatly corrupted ; consequently they could not but have a bad effect on the people, and tend to confirm them in their idolatrous practices. All men, indeed, under pain of displeasing the gods, frequented the temples and offered sacrifices ; but the priests made it not their business to teach them virtue. So long as the people were punctual in their attendance on the religious ceremonies of their country, the priests assured them that the gods were propitious, and they looked no further. *' Lustrations and processions were much easier than a steady course of virtue ; and an expiatory sacrifice, which atoned for the want of it, was much more convenient than a holy life." Those who were diligent in the observance of the sacred customary rites, were con- sidered as having fulfilled the duties of religion ; but no farther regard was had to their morals, than as the state was concerned. It cannot therefore excite surprise, that the polytheistic religion was every where preferred to virtue ; and that a contrary course of thinking and acting proved fatal to the individual who professed it.
(2.) They were ignorant of the true account of the creation of the world.
The notion of a Creative Power, that could produce things out of nothing, was above the reach of their natural conceptions. Hence one sect of philosophers - held that the world was eternal ; another 3, that it ■was formed in its present admirable order by a fortuitous concourse of in- numerable atoms ; and another "*, that it was made by chance ; while those who believed it to have had a beginning in time, knew not by what gradations, nor in what manner, the universe was raised into its present beauty and order.
(3.) They were also ignorant of the origin of evil, and the cause of the depravity and misery which actually exist among mankind.
The more judicious heathens saw and lamented the universal tendency of men to commit wickedness ; but they were ignorant of its true source. They acknowledged, generally, that the chief good of man consisted in the practice of virtue ; but they complained of an irregular sway in the wills of men, which rendered their precepts of little use : and they could not assign any reason why mankind, who have the noblest faculties of any beings upon earth, should yet generally pursue their destruction with as much industry as the beasts avoid it.
(4.) Equally ignorant were the heathens of any means, ordained and established by the Almighty, by which a reconciliation could be effected between God and man, and His mercy exercised, without the violation of His justice ; and by which the pardon of sinners might not only be made consistent with the wisdom of His govern- ment, and the honour of His laws, but also the strongest assurances might be given them of pardon, and restoration to the divine favour.
*' Man is not only a subject of the divine government, and therefore in the highest degree concerned to know the divine law, that he may obey
1 Dr. Ranken's Institutes of Theology, pp. 180, 181. Glasgow, 1822. 8vo.
2 The Peripatetics. 3 Democritus and his followers. * The Epicureans.
I.] Divine Revelation. 9-
it ; but lie is also a rebel subject, and therefore in the highest degree concerned to discover the means of restoration to the favour of God. Man has violated such precepts of the divine law as are discovered and acknowledged either by reason or revelation; — such precepts, for in- stance, as require him to be thankful to his Maker, and sincere, just, and kind to his fellow-men. These things may be considered here as known to be parts of the law of God ; because those philosophers, who acknow- ledge God, generally agree that these are, plainly, duties of man. But all men have violated the precepts which require these things. The first interest of all men is, therefore, to obtain a knowledge of the means, if tliere be any, of reconciliation to God, and reinstatement in the cha- racter and privileges of faithful subjects. To be thus reconciled and reinstated, men must be pardoned; and pardon is an act of mere mercy. \ But of the mercy of God there are no proofs in his Providence."' '^The light of nature, indeed, shewed their guilt to the most reflecting of the antient philosophers ; but it could not shew them a remedy. From the consideration of the divine goodness, as displayed in the works of creation, some of them indulged the hope that the Almighty might, in some way or other (though to them inscrutable), be reconciled ; but, in what manner, revelation only could inform them. That God will receive returning sinners, and accept repentance instead of perfect obedience ; and that He will not require something further for the vindi- cation of his justice, and of tlie honour and dignity of his laws and government, and for more effectuall}'' expressing his indignation against sin, before He will restore men to their forfeited privileges, — they could not be assured. For it cannot be positively proved from any of the divine attributes, that God is absolutely obliged to pardon all creatures all their sins, at all times, barely and immediately upon their repenting. There arises, therefore, from nature, no sufficient comfort to sinners, but, on the contrary, anxious and endless solicitude about the means of appeasing the Deity. Hence the various ways of sacrificing, and num- berless superstitions, which overspread the heathen world, were so little satisfactory to the wiser part of mankind, even in those times of darkness, that the more reflecting philosophers could not forbear frequently de- claring^ that they thought those rites could avail little or nothing towards appeasing the wrath of a provoked God, but that something was wanting, though they knew not what.
(5.) They were ignorant, at least they taught nothing, of divine grace and assistance towards our attainment of virtue, and perse- verance in it.
Some of their philosophers forbad men to pray to the gods to make them good^, which, they said, they ought to do themselves; while others equalled themselves to the gods^; for these, they affirmed, " are what they are by nature ; the wise man is what he is by his own industry."-' " The gods excel not a wise man in happiness, though they excel him in the duration of happiness,"*'
(6.) They had only dark and confused notions of the swnmum honum or supreme fehcity of man.
On this topic, indeed, Cicero informs us, that there was so great a dis-
' Dr. Dwight's Two Discourses on the Nature and Danger of Infidel Philosophy, p. 16.
^ See particularly Plato's Alcibiades, ii. throughout.
8 The Stoics. See Seneca, epist. 31. (op. torn. iii. p. 99, ed. Bipont.)
1 Ibid. ep. 92. (torn. iii. p. 386.)
5 Ibid, ep, 53, (torn, iii. p. 155.) 6 Ibid. ep. 73. (torn. iii. p. 242,)
10 On the Necessity/, 8^c, of a [Ch.
sension among the philosophers, that it was almost impossible to enumer- ate their different sentiments. At the same time he states the opinions of more than twenty philosophers, all of which are equally extravagant and absurd.' Not to enter into unnecessary details, we may remark that, while one sect ^ affirmed that virtue was the sole good, and its own reward, another ^ rejected that notion in the case of virtue in distress, and made the good things of this life a necessary ingredient of hap- piness ; and a third "* set up pleasure, or at least indolence and freedom from pain, as the final good which men ought to propose to themselves : On these discordant opinions, Cicero very justly remarks, that they who do not agree in stating what is the chiief end or good, must of course differ in the XKihole system of precepts for the conduct of life."^'
(7.) They had weak and imperfect notions of the immortality of the soul, which was absolutely denied by many philosophers as a vulgar error, while others represented it as altogether uncertain, and as having no solid foundation for its support.
Concerning the nature of the human soul, various and most contra- dictory sentiments prevailed : its existence after death was denied by many of the Peripatetics, or followers of Aristotle, and this seems to have been that philosopher's own opinion. On this important topic the Stoics had no settled or consistent scheme ; the doctrine of the immor- tality of the soul was not a professed tenet of their school, nor was it ever reckoned among the avowed principles of the Stoic sect. And even among those philosophers who expressly taught this doctrine, considerable doubt and uncertainty appear to have prevailed. Thus Socrates, shortly before his death, tells his friends, " 1 hope I am now going to good men, though this I would not take upon me peremptorily to assert ; but, that I shall go to the gods, lords that are absolutely good, this, if I can affirm any thing of this kind, I would certainly affirm. And for this reason I do not take it ill that I am to die, as otherwise I should do ; but I am in good hope that there is something remaining for those who are dead, and that it will then be nmch better for good than for bad men."'' The same philosopher afterwards expressed himself still more doubtfully, and said, that though he should be mistaken, he did at least gain thus much, that the expectation of it made him less uneasy while he lived, and his error would die with him; and he concludes in the following terms : " I am going out of the world, and you are to continue in it ; but which of us has the better part, is a secret to every one but God." "^
What has been said of Socrates may in a great measure be applied to Plato, the most eminent of his disciples ; but they greatly weakened and obscured their doctrine relative to the immortality of the soul, by blending with it that of the transmigration of souls and other fictions, as well as by sometimes expressing themselves in a very wavering and uncertain manner concerning it. And it is remarkable that, though there were several sects of philosophers, who professed to derive their original from Socrates, scarcely any of them taught the immortality of the soul as the doctrine of their schools, except Plato and his disciples; and many of these treated it as absolutely uncertain.
1 According to Varro, there were nearly three hundred opinions concerning the chief good. Augustin. de Civit. Dei. lib. sfix. c. 1.
2 The Stoics. 3 The Peripatetics. 4 The Epicureans.
5 Cicero, Acad. Quest, lib. i. in fine.
6 Plato, Phfedon. (op. torn. i. p. 143. ed. Bipont.)
7 Apol. Socratis, in fine. (op. torn. i. p. 96.)
I.] Divine Revelation, 11
Cicero is justly considered as among the most eminent of those phi- losophers who argued for the immortality of the soul ; yet he laboured under the same uncertainty that distressed their minds. Though he has treated the subject at considerable length, and has brought forward a variety of cogent arguments in behalf of this doctrine ; yet, after he has spoken of the several opinions concerning the nature and duration of the soul, he says, " Which of these is true, God alone knows ; and which is most probable, a very great question." ' And he introduces one com- plaining, that, while he was reading the arguments for the immortality of the soul, he thought himself convinced : but, as soon as he laid aside the book and began to reason with himself, his conviction was gone. All which gave Seneca just occasion to say, that " Immortality, however desirable, was rather promised than proved by those great men." ^ While the followers of these great philosophers were thus perplexed with doubts, others of the heathen entertained the most gloomy notions, — imagining either that they should be removed from one body to another and be perpetual wanderers, or contemplating the grave as their eternal habit- ation 3, and sadly complaining that the sun and stars could set again, but that man, when his day was set, must lie down in darkness, and sleep a perpetual sleep. '^
(8.) If the philosophers were thus uncertain concerning the im- mortality of the soul, their ideas were eqxially confused respecting the certainty of the eternal rewards and punishments of a futiu'e state, and of the resurrection of the body.
For, though the poets had prettily fancied, and have pourtrayed in beautiful and glowing verse, the joys of elysium, or a place and state of bliss, and the miseries of tartarus, or hell ; and though the antient phi- losophers and legislators were sensible of the importance to society and also of the necessity of the doctrine of future punishments, yet they generally discarded them as vain and superstitious terrors ; and rejected the very idea of the resurrection of the body as a childish and senseless fable. •'' Hence, in progress of time they were disregarded and ridiculed
> Cicero, Tusc. Qiiaest. lib. i. '-! Seneca, Ep. 102. See also Ep. 117.
3 It is called Domvs Aelerna in many inscriptions. Gruter, p. dcclx. 5. dccxc. 5. dccccxiii. 6. &c.
4 Soles occidere et redire possunt :
Nobis, quum seniel occidit brevis lux,
Nox est perpetua una dormienda, Catullus, V.
At at, Tai (jLokaxdi /uev iivav Kara ko/kov oXoivlai,
H Ta X^<^P^ asXiva, to t' ^vOaKes ovAov avr\Qov,
'TTepov av i^wouli, /cat ets iros aWo (pvovlf
Aij-jJ-es 5' 01 fifyaXot /cat Kaphpoi yj aocpot avSpes,
'OinroTe ■mpSiTn ^avcefxev, avaKooL ev x^of Kot\a,
'Ev5ofji.es ev /xaAa fxaKpov aTepfxva vrfypelov virvov.
Alas ! the tender herbs, and flow'ry tribes,
Though criish'd by winter's unrelenting hand,
Revive and rise when vernal zephyrs call.
But we, tlie brave, the mighty, and the wise.
Bloom, flourisli, fade, and fall, — and then succeeds
A long, long, silent, dark, oblivious sleep ;
A sleep, which no propitious Pow'r dispels,
Nor changing seasons, nor revolving years.
Moschus, Epitaph. Bion, Jortin's Discourses concerning the Christian Religion, p. 293. 5 Omnibus a supremo die eadem, quaj ante primum : nee magis k niorte sensus ullus
aut corpori, aut animae, quam ante natalem Puerilium ista deliramentorum,
avidaeque nunquam desinere mortalitatis commenta sunt. Similis et de asservandis cor-
12 On the Necessity, S^c. of a [Ch.
even among the vulgar, who consequently had no notion whatever con- cerning the resurrection of the body. Their poets, it is true, made fre- quent mention of the ghosts of departed men appearing in a visible form, and retaining their former shape in the shades below ; yet by these representations (if they mean any thing) they mean no more, than that the soul, after this life, passes into another state, and is then invested with a body composed of light aerial particles, altogether different from those of which it had previously been composed ; but that the gross matter, which they saw laid in the grave and turn to corruption, or which had been reduced to ashes on the funeral pile, and had been scattered in the air, should ever be again collected together, raised from the dead, and revivified ; — of this the most speculative philosophers never enter- tained the slightest conception.
This uncertainty concerning those great and fundamental truths was attended with fatal effects, both in principle and practice. In principle, it naturally led mankind to call in question the providence, justice, and goodness of God, when they observed the prosperity of the wicked, and the calamities of the righteous, without being sure that either of them should suffer or be rewarded in another state ; or else to doubt whether there really was any essential difference between Virtue and Vice, and whether it "did not wholly depend upon the institution of men. In prac- tice, hope and fear are the two things which chiefly govern mankind, and influence them in their actions ; and they must, of course, govern and influence more or less, in proportion to the certainty there is, that the things feared and hoped for are real, and the rewards and punishments assuredly to be expected. And as the corrupt inclinations of human nature will overcome any fear, the foundation of which is but doubtful ; so these, being let loose and freed from the apprehension of a future account, will of course carry men into all manner of wickedness. Nor is it sufficient to say, that they are under the restraint of human laws; since it is certain, that very great degrees of wickedness may be both harboured in the heart, and carried into execution, notwithstanding the utmost that human authority can do to prevent it. ^
2. From the ignorance and uncertainty, which (we have seen) pre- vailed among some of the greatest teachers of antiquity, concerning those fundamental truths, which are the great barriers of virtue and relio-ion, it is evident that the heathens had no perfect scheme of moral rules for piety and good manners. Thus, with the exception of two or three philosophers, they never inculcated the duty of lov- ino- our enemies and of forgiving injuries ; but, on the contrary, they accounted revenge to be not only lawful, but commendable. Pride and the love of popular applause (the subduing of which is the first principle of true virtue) were esteemed the best and greatest in- centives to virtue and noble actions ; suicide was regarded as the strongest mark of heroism : and the perpetrators of it, instead of being branded with infamy, were commended and celebrated as men of noble minds. But the interior acts of the soul, — the adultery of the eye and the murder of the heart, — were little regarded. On
poribus hominum ac rcviviscendi promissa Democrito vanitas Plin. Nat. Hist.
lib. vii. c. 55.
Neque enim asseiitior iis, qui ha3C nupcr dissercrc cceperunt, cum coiporlbus simul aninios interire, atque omnia morte deleri. Cicero, de Amicitia. c. 3.
I 13p. Gibson's Pastoral Letters, Letter ii. (vol, iv. p. 105, of Bp. Randolph's Enchi- ridion Tbcologicum, Oxford, 1792.)
I.] Divbie Revelation. 1 S
the contrary, the philosophers countenanced, both by arguments and examjilc, the most flagitious practices. Thus theft, as is well known, was permitted in Egypt and in Sparta ^ : Plato ^ taught the expedience and lawfulness ot exposing children in particular cases, and Aristotle, also, of abortion. '^ The exposure of infants, and the putting to death of children who were weak or imperfect in form, was allowed at Sparta by Lycurgus "* : at Athens, the great seat and nursery of philosophers, the women were treated and disposed of as slaves^, and it was enacted that "infants, which appeared to be maimed, should either be killed or exposed ^ ;" and that " the Athe- nians might lawfully invade and enslave any people, who, in their opinion, were fit to be made slaves. " ^ The infamous traffic in human blood was permitted to its utmost extent ; and, on ceitain occasions, the owners of slaves had full permission to kill them. Among the Romans, masters had an absolute power over their slaves, whom they might scourge or put to death at pleasui'e ^ ; and this right was exercised with such cruelty, especially in the corrupt ages of the republic, that laws were made, at different times, in order to restrain it. Death was the common punishment; but, for certain crimes, slaves were branded in the forehead, and some- times were compelled to carry a piece of wood (called fiircci) round their necks wherever they went. When punished capitally, they were commonly crucified. ^ By the Roman laws, a slave could not bear testimony without undergoing the rack : and if the master of a family were slain in his own house, all his domestic slaves were
' Diod. Sic. lib. i. Plutarch, in Lycurgo.
- Plato de Republica, lib. v. At Rome, infanticide was regulated by the laws of Romulus; and this horrid practice was approved both by Plutarch and Seneca. See Jenkin's Reasonableness of Christianity, vol. ii. p. 521. At Rome, a new-born infant was not held legitimate, unless the fatlier, or in his absence some person for him, lifted it up from the ground {terra levassel) and placed it on his bosom. Hence the phrase tollere jUiiim, to educate, non tollere, to expose. But even when his children were grown up, their father might imprison, scourge, send them bound to work in the country, and also put them to death by any punishment he pleased, if they deserved it. Adam's Roman Antiquities, p. 47. 5fh edit.
3 Aristot. Polit. lib. vii. c. 17. 4 Terent. Hecyra.
* In republican Athens, man was every thing, and woman nothing. " Women were literally the serfs of the family inheritance, whether that inheritance consisted in land or money; they were made, with other property, a subject of testamentary bequest ; (De- mosth. 1. Orat. contra Aphobum. Id. contra Stephanum, Orat. 1.) and, whatever delights heirship might convey to an Athenian lady, freedom of person or inclination was not among the number : single or wedded, she became, by the mere acquisition of property, at the mercy of the nearest male relation in succession: she could be brought from the dull soli- tude of the gynecasum, to become an unwilling bride, or she could be torn from the object of her wedded affection, to form new ties with perhaps the most disagreeable of mankind. And if, under any of these circumstances, nature became more powerful than virtue, life was the penalty paid for the transgression." (Quarterly Rcviev/, vol. xxix. p. 327.)
6 Aristot. Polit. lib. vii. c. 17. 7 Aristot. Polit. hb. ii. c. 14.
8 The celebrated censor, Cato, was a bad master to his unfortunate slaves, whom he never failed to correct with leathern thongs, if they were remiss in their attendance at any entertainments which he gave to his friends, or had suffered any thing to be spoiled. He contrived means to raise quarrels among them, and to keep them at variance, ever sus- pecting and fearing some bad consequence from their unanimity ; and when any of them were guilty of a capital crime, he gave them a formal trial, and in the presence of their fellow slaves put them to death. Plutarch, in Catone. (Vit£e, torn. ii. pp. Q55, 356, Ed, Briani.)
9 Juvenal, Sat vi. 219, 220.
14 On the Necessity , Sf-c. of a [Ch.
liable to be put to death, though their innocence was ever so mani- fest. ^ For the relief of the poor and destitute, especially of slaves, no provision whatever was made. By the Romans, who kept them in great numbers, they were most inhumanly neglected, their masters turned them out of doors when sick, and sent them to an island in the river Tiber, where they left them to be cured by the fabled god jiEsculapius, who had a temple there. Some masters indeed were so cruel that they killed them when they were sick ; but this bar- barity was checked by the Emperor Claudius, who decreed that those who put their slaves to death, should be punished as mur- derers ; and also that such sick slaves as were turned out by their masters, should have their liberty if they recovered. ^ Customary swearing was commended, if not by the precepts, yet by the example of the best moralists among the heathen philosophers, particularly Socrates, Plato, Seneca, and the emperor Julian, in whose works numerous oaths by Jupiter, Hercules, the Sun, and other deities, are very frequent. The gratification of the sensual appetites, and of the most unnatural lusts, was openly taught and allowed. Aris- tippus maintained, that it was lawful for a wise man to steal, commit adultery, and sacrilege, when opportunity offered : for that none of these actions were naturally evil, setting aside the vulgar opinion, which was introduced by silly and illiterate people ; and that a wise man might pubHcly gratify his libidinous propensities. ^
Corresponding with such principles was the moral conduct of the antients, — the most distinguished philosophers and heroes not ex- cepted, whose lives are recorded by Plutarch in a manner the most favourable to their reputation. Many of them, it is true, entertained a. high sense of honour, and possessed a large portion of patriotism. But these were not morality^ if by that term we are to understand such dispositions of the mind as are right, fit, and amiable. Their sense of honour was not of that kind which made them scorn to do evil ; but, like the false honour of modern duellists, consisted merely in a dread of disgrace. Hence many of them not only pleaded for self-murder (as Cicero, Seneca'*, and odiers), but carried about with them the means of destruction, of which they made use rather than fall into the hands of their adversaries, as Demosthenes, Cato, Brutus, Cassius, and others did. And their patriotism, generally speaking, operated not merely in the preservation of their country, but in endeavours to extend and aggrandise it at the expense of other nations : it was a patriotism inconsistent with justice and good
1 Di"'est. lib. xxix. Tit. v. lib. 35. Tit. xi. (cited in Jortin's Discourses concerning the Christian Religion, p. 147.) Tacitus informs us, tliat when Pedanius Secundus. prefect of the city of Rome, was assassinated by a slave, all the slaves in his family (four hundred in number) were put to death. Annal. lib. xiv. c. 42 — 44. vol. ii. pp. 140 — 142. edit. Bipont. See also Pliny, Epist. lib. viii. ep. 14.
'-' Suetonius in Claudio, c. 25. 3 Diogenes Laert. lib. ii. c. 8. § 4.
4 Seneca pleads for suicide in the following terms ; — " If thy mind be melancholy, and in misery, thou mayest put a period to this wretched condition. Wherever thou lookest, there is an end to it. See that precipice ; there thou mayest have liberty. Seest thou that sea, that river, that well ? Liberty is at the bottom of it. That little tree ? Freedom hangs upon it. Tliy own neck, thy own throat, may be a refuge to thee from such servitude ; yea, every vein of tiiy body." De Ira, lib. iii. c. 15.
I.] Divine Bevelation. 1 5
will to mankind. Truth was but of small account among many, even of the best heathens; for they taught that, on many occasions, a LIE was to be ineferred to the tnith itself! ^ To which we may add, that the unlimited gratification of their sensual appetites, and the commission of unnatural crimes, was common even among the most distinguished teachers of philosophy, and was practised even by Socrates himself, "whose morals" (a living opposer of revelation has the effrontery to assert) " exceed any thing in the Bible, for they were free from vice ! " — " The most notorious vices," says Quinc- tilian, speaking of the philosophers of his time, " are screened under that name; and they do not labour to maintain the character of philosophers by virtue and study, but conceal the most vicious lives under an austere look and singularity of dress,"'^
There were indeed some fexv philosophers, who cherished better principles, and inculcated, comparatively, purer tenets ; but their instructions were very defective, and they were never able to reform the woild, or to keep any number of men in the practice of virtue. Their precepts were delivered to their own immediate pupils, and not to the lower oi'ders of people, who constitute the great mass of society. Concerning these, indeed, the Stoics gave themselves no trouble, but seem to have considered them as little better than beasts. Further, the ethical systems of the philosophers were too refined for the common people ; their discourses on subjects of morality being rather nice and subtle disputations than useful in- structions ; and even those things, of which the philosophers were not only certain themselves, but which they were also able to prove and explain to others with sufficient clearness and plainness, (such as are the most obvious and necessary duties of life), they had not sufficient authority to enforce in practice. The truths, which they proved by speculative reason, wanted some still more sensible authority to support them, and render them of more force and efficacy in practice ; and the precepts which they delivered, how- ever reasonable and fit to be obeyed, were destitute of weight, and
' Dr. Wliilby has collected many maxims of the most eminent heathen sages, in cor- roboration of the fact above stated. The following examples are taken from his note on Eph. iv. 25.
KpeiTTOj/ 8e kXea^ai x^evSos rj aXrj^es KaKov. — j4 lie is Letter than a hurtful truth. Menander.
To yap ayaSiov Kpenrov €s-t t7)s a\-ri^fias. — Good is belter than truth. Proclus.
Ej'&a yap ri Sei Kai \pev5os \iye(T^cu, Aeyea^to. — When telling a lie will be jirqfilable, let it be told- — Darius, in Herodotus, lib. iii. c. 62,
He may lie, who knows how to do it, ev Seom Katpai, in a suitable time. Plato apud Stobasum, Serm. 12.
There is nothing decorous in truth but luhen it is profitable : Yea, sometimes Kai xpevSos wveffev au^pooirovs Kai r' aXri^fs fp\a\pfv, — Truth is hurtful, and lying is j)roJitable to men. Maximus Tyrius, Diss. 3. p. 29.
To countenance this practice, Dr. Whitby remarks that both Plato (de Rep. lib. ii. p. 607. and lib. iii. p. 611.) and the Stoics (Stobaeus de Stoicis, torn. i. lib. ii. tit. iv. § 4, and Ecloga;, p. 183.), seem to have framed a Jesuitical distinction between lying in words, and with aii assent to an untruth, whicli they called lying in the soul. The first they allowed to an enemy in prospect of advantage, and for many other dispensations in this Vfe. That is, their wise man may tell a lie, craftily and for gain : but lie must not eiTl« brace a falsehood through ignorance, or assent to an untruth,
- Quinctilian, Inst. Orat, Procem,
16 On the Nccessifi;, S^c. of a [Cli.
were only the precepts of men ^. They could press theh' precepts only by temporal motives. They could not invigorate the patience, excite the industry, stimulate the hopes, or touch the consciences of their hearers, by displaying the awful prospects of eternity. And if nolo, even arguments, founded upon tlie sublime A'iews of a future state, are often found insufficient to recommend religion and morality, what hopes could theij have of raising the attention of the multitude ?
Hence the wisest instructions of the philosophers were unable to effect any remarkable change in the minds and lives of any con- siderable number of men ; or to make them willing to lay down their lives for the sake of virtue, as the disciples and followers of Christ are known to have done. In speculation, indeed, it may perhaps seem possible, that the precepts of the philosophers might at least be sufficient to reform men's lives for the future ; but, in experience and practice, it has appeared impossible for philosophy to reform mankind effectually, without the assistance of some higher principle. In fact, the philosophers never did or could effect any remarkable change in the minds and lives of men, such as the preaching of Christ and his apostles undeniably did produce. The wisest and most sensible of the philosophers themselves have not been backward to complain, that they found the understandings of men so dark and beclouded, their wills so biassed and inclined to evil, their passions so outx'ageous and rebellious against reason, that they considered the rules and laws of right reason as very difficult to be practised, and they entertained very little hope of ever being able to persuade the world to submit to them. In short, they con- fessed, that human nature was strangely corrupted ; and they ac- knowledged this corruption to be a disease, of the true cause of which they were ignorant, and for which they could not find out a sufficient remedy : so that the great duties of religion were laid down by them as matters of speculation and dispute, rather than as rules of action ; and they were not so much urged upon the hearts and lives of men, as proposed to their admiration. In short, the heathen philosophy was every way defective and erroneous : and, if there were any thing really commendable in it, it was owing to traces and scattered portions of the revelations contained in the Scriptures, with which the philosophers had become acquainted through various channels*
Further, if, from the principles and practices that obtained in private life, we ascend to those which influenced the governments of the antient heathen nations, we shall find that the national spirit, which was cherished by their different states, was every where of an exceptionable character. Thus, " the eastern sovereigns aimed, with unbounded ambition, at the establishment and extension of despotic power ; ruling, excepting in a few instances, with capricious tyranny
1 Quid ergo? nihilne illi [philosoplii] simile praecipiunt? lino permulfa et ad verum frequentur accedunt. Sed nihil ponderis habcnt ilia prsecepta ; quia sunt huinana, et auctoritate majoii, id est, divinfi ilia carcnt. Nemo igitur credit ; quia tam se homineia putat esse qui audit, quam est ille qui praecipit. Lactantii Institutiones, lib.iii, c.27.
I.] Divine Revelation. 17
and licentious Indulgence, while their prostrate subjects were degraded and trampled down like the inire in the streets, and rendered base, superstitious, and vile in manners and conduct. Tiie Grecian states cherished a love of freedom, and a generous ardour for noble ac- tions; but they rarely manifested a respect for justice in their con- tests with other nations, and little regard to the rights of humanity; while, in the internal regulations of their governments, they seldom adhered to the principles of moderation and equity. Their dis- tinguished men excited jealousy and commotions by ambition ; and the general classes of the community exhibited a spirit of base ingratitude towards their benefactors, an ungenerous suspicion of their most virtuous rulers, and a hatred of all who were raised to distinction by pre-eminent qualities. They calumniated those who were most entitled to praise, and banished men whose talents did lionour to the periods in which they lived, and who have trans- mitted the flime of their several countries to distant times, persecut- ing to expulsion and death those whose justice and wisdom have excited the admiration of all succeeding ages. The Romans pro- fessed to oppose tyranny, and to spare those subjected to their power; but their object was universal dominion. They displayed the virtues of a stern and military people in rising to eminence, and particularly a noble patriotism and devotion to the public interest; but their lusts engendered unceasing wars, and their internal state was disturbed and agitated with contests for an agrarian equality which never could exist, and with tumults of factious men clamour- ing for freedom, while they promoted sedition, and aimed at exorbitant power. Dissension and civil wars at length subjected them to imperial authority, which soon degenerated into the de- spotism of men, raised by military caprice to a short-lived and pre- carious power, or brought forward by the chance of revolutions; while the empire was shaken by internal enemies, or sunk in its decline into feebleness and decay. The laws of nations were not established upon any foundation commensurate widi the importance of their objects ; they were ill defined and little respected. War, particularly in its earliest periods, was little better than pillage and piracy.^ A respect for heralds and ambassadors % and for the claims of the vanquished, was often violated."^
3. Lastly, if we advert to the pagan nations of the jiresent age, we learn from the unanimous testimony of voyagers and travellers, as well as from those who have resided for any considerable time among them, that they are immersed in the grossest ignorance and idolatry, and that their religious doctrine and practices are equally corrupt.
Thus, in Tartar}', the Philippine islands, and among the savage nations of Africa, the objects of worship are the sun, moon, and stars, the four elements, and serpents ; at Tonquin, the several quarters of the earth ; in Guinea, birds, fishes, and even mountains ; and almost
1 Homer and Thucydides, lib. i. and Justin, lib.iv. c. 3.
2 Herod, lib.vii. c. 133.
3 Bp. Gray on the Connection l)etwecn the Sacred Writings and the Literature of Jewish, and Heathen Authors, &c. vol. i. pp. 217, 218, 220.
VOL. I. C
18 On the Necessity, S^c. of a [Ch.
every where, evil spirits. Together with idolatrous worship, sorcery, divination, and magic almost universally prevail. Among their re- ligious tenets, we may notice that, in Tartary, they believe in two gods, one of heaven, the other of the earth ; in Japan, they hold that there are two sorts of gods, and that demons are to be feared ; in Formosa, that several gods preside over the several quarters of the earth, one of whom is paramount above the rest, attaining his su- premacy by passing through a multitude of bodies; the Tartars and American Indians believe in the transmigration of human souls into the bodies of beasts, and (as many African tribes also believe) that the souls of men after death require meat, drink, and other accom- modations of this life. Corresponding with such principles, are the moral conduct of these, and indeed of almost all pagan nations. Polygamy, divorce at the caprice of the husband, and infanticide, are nearly universal. Among many of the African tribes, as well as in America, cannibalism prevails ; and almost every whei'e, human lives are sacrificed at the caprice of a tyrannical sovereign.^ Many of these nations are yet in the deepest barbarism ; but if we advert to the actual state of Hindostan and of China, which countries have been highly celebrated for their progress in the useful arts, we shall find that they are equally ignorant of the true object of worship, and equally immoral in private life.
The religion of the Hindoos, like that of the antient Persians, is affirmed to have originally recognised but one supreme God.^ But whatever may be found in the Vedas, or books by them accounted sacred, implying the unity of God, is completely disfigured and lost in the multitude of deities or idols associated with him ; and in the endless superstitions into which the Hindoo worship has degenerated, from the earliest periods of authentic historj'. In Hindostan, indeed, the polytheism is of the grossest kind, not fewer than three hundred and thirty millions of deities claiming the adoration of their wor- shippers : — rites the most impure, — penances the most toilsome, — almost innumerable modes of self-torture, as various and extra- ordinary in kind as a distorted fancy can suggest, and as exquisite in degree as human nature can sustain, — the burning or burying of widows, infanticide, the immersion of the sick or dying in the Ganges, and self-devotement to destruction by the idol Juggernaut, are among the horrid practices that flow from the system of idolatry established among them, and which are exceeded in folly or ferocity by none to which paganism has given birth. The manifest effects of this system are, an immersion into the grossest moral darkness, and a universal corruption of manners. The Hindoo is taught that the image which he beholds is really God, and the heaviest judg- ments are denounced against him, if he dare to suspect that it is
iJSee Millar's History of the Propagation of Christianitj', vol.ii. ch.vii. pp.197 — 337.
2 See Asiatic Researches, vol. iv. p. 172. where the same thing is asserted of the faith of the Arabs and Tartars. See also Sir John Malcolm's Sketch of the Siklis, p. 147. where the Hindoos are said to have degenerated from a worship, originally pure, into idolatry ; though it is, at the same time, admitted in a note, " that the most antient Hindoos, though they adored God, worshipped ike sun and elements. "
I.] Divine Revelation. 19
nothing more than the elements of which it is composed.' In the apprehensions of the people in general, the idols are real deities ; they occupy the place of God, and receive that homage, fear, ser- vice, and honour which the Almighty Creator so justly claims. The government of God is subverted, together with all the moral effects arising from the knowledge of his perfections and his claims upon his rational creatures. There are, it is true, eastern maxims of morality, which perhaps are not inferior to the purest doctrines of the Greeks and Romans ; and it will not be denied by those who have examined them, that they have many points of resemblance even to Christian morality.^ But, in consequence of the total want of authority (common to them with all other heathen nations), either to enforce what is pure in their morality or to emancipate the people from the most inveterate and detestable usages, the Hindoos present to us all the same inherent defects which characterise the morality of the antient western heathens. Institutions, of a most malignant nature, exist among them, by which the superior and privileged orders are enabled to keep the people in perpetual ignorance and slavery; and to exclude them for ever from the comforts, the duties, and even the society of their fellows. Hence the universal charac- teristics of the Hindoos are, habitual disregard of truth, pride, tyranny, theft, falsehood, deceit, conjugal infidelity, filial disobe- dience, ingratitude (the Hindoos haveno word expressive of thanks), a litigious spirit, perjury'^, treachery, covetousness, gaming, servility, hatred, revenge 't, cruelty, private murder, the destruction of ille- gitimate children, particularly by procuring abortion (not fewer than ten thonsand chWCLven are computed to be thus murdered in the single province of Bengal every month), and want of tenderness and com- passion to the poor, the sick, and the dying. ^
The religious and moral state of China, though less degraded than that of the Hindoos, is deplorable, notwithstanding its boasted superiority in arts and sciences, and in the wisdom of its institutions. Religion, as a system of divine worship, as piety towards God, and as holding forth future rewards and punishments, can hardly be said to exist among the Chinese. They have no sabbatical institution,
' Asiat. Researches, vol.viii. pp.297, 298.
* See Asiat. Researches, vol.iv. pp.166, 167.
3 " False witnesses may be obtained in every place, on the slightest notice, and for a mere trifle. Their price varies in different zillahs: in some sixteen may be had for a rupee, in others ten ; but four annas each is what no true son of the trade was ever known to refuse in the interior ; and at this rate any number may be collected, to testify to facts they never witnessed." Essays relative to the Habits, &c. of the Hindoos, pp.316, 317. London, 1823. 8vo.
■* Where other revenge for a supposed injury is not in their power, they are known to destroy themselves, expressly in order that the guilt of their death may rest upon their enemies ; and in the hope, that, in the process of the metempsychosis (to which they give implicit credit), they may have more speedy opportunity of wreaking their full vengeance on the offender. This custom is called Dhurna. See Asiatic Researches, vol.iv. p. 337.
5 See Ward's History, Literature, and Mythology of the Hindoos, 4 vols. 8vo. where the facts above noticed are fully detailed. See also Dr. Buchanan's Christian Researches in Asia, and especially Mr.. Charles Grant's " Observations on the State of Society among the Asiatic Subjects of Great Britain, particularly with respect to morals, and on the means of improving it," in vol.x. of the Reports of the House of Commons (1812 — 1813.) Tit, East India Company, Fourth Part.
c 2
20 On the Necessity^ S^c. of a [Ch.
no congregational worship, no external forms of devotion, petition, or thanksgiving to the Supreme Being : the emperor, and he alone, — being high priest, and the only individual who stands between heaven and the people, having the same relation to the former that the latter are supposed to bear to him, — performs the sacred duties according to the antient ritual, and at certain fixed periods, but the people have no concern with them. All ranks, from the emperor downwards, are full of absurd superstitions, and worship a multitude of imaginary deities. Most of the forms of mythology, which make any figure in the page of history, now exist in China. The Chinese have gods celestial, terrestrial, and subterraneous — gods of the hills, of the valleys, of the woods, of the districts, of the families, of the shop, and of the kitchen ! — gods, that are supposed to preside over the thunder, the rain, the fire ; over the grain, over diseases, births, and deaths ; their idols are silver and gold, wood and stone, and clay, carved or molten. Altars are erected on the high hills, in the groves, and under the green trees ; and idols are set up at the corners of the streets, on the sides of the highways, on the banks of canals, in boats and in ships. Astrology, divination, geomancy, and necromancy every where prevail : charms and spells every one pos- sesses. The absurd notion of the transmigration of souls into other bodies is universal; and other articles of faith prevail among them, as various as the modes of worship ; in all which the people appear to be rather actuated by the dread of evil in this life, than by the fear of punishment in another. The duties which they perform are more with a view to appease an angry deity, and avert impending calami- lies, than from any hope of obtaining a positive good. They rather consult or inquire of their gods what may happen, than petition them to grant it, for a Chinese can scarcely be said to pray. He is grateful when the event proves favourable to his wishes, petulant and peevish with his gods when it is adverse. Though some individnal instances of integrity have occurred in the intercourse of the Chinese with Europeans, yet their general character is that of fraud, lying, and hypocrisy. Polygamy universally prevails, as also the cruel practice of exposing infants to perish, not fewer than nine thousand of whom are computed to be annually destroyed at Pekin, and the same number in the rest of the empire.^
Nor is the case materially different with the Mohammedans. Though their religion includes the acknowledgment of one living and true God ; yet, rejecting the Messiah, and attaching themselves to a sanguinary and lascivious impostor, it produces no good effect upon their morals, but leaves them under the dominion of barbarity and voluptuousness. These and similar instances of corruption in worship, doctrine, and practice, which have prevailed and still exist in the heathen world, fully prove die utter insufficiency of natural reason to be a guide in religion ; and also shew into what monstrous opinions and practices whole nations may be led, where that is their
' Supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. iii. parti, article China. Barrow's Travels in China, pp.418— 487. Milne's Retrospect of the Protestant Mission to China, pp. 29, 30.
I.] Divine Revelation. 21
guide, without any help from revelation. Nor will it diminish the force of this argument, to say that these instances of corruption are owing to an undue use of their reason, or that the measure of reason, possessed by the heathen nations, is low and imperfect ; since they are sufficiently skilful in whatever concerns their political or personal interests, in the arts of annoviufj their neifjhbours, and defendino; themselves against incursions, in forming alliances for their defence, and conducting the ordinary affiiirs of life according to the manners and customs of their several countries. Nor are the absurdities in religion, which are found among the modern heathen nations, greater than those which (we have already seen ') existed among the polished nations of antiquity before the publication of the Gospel: which are a joint proof that no age or country, whether rude or civilised, in- structed or uninstructed, infected or uninfected with plenty or luxury, is or can be secured by mere natural reason against falling into the grossest errors and corruptions in religion ; and, consequently, that all mankind stand in need of a divine revelation to make known to them the will of God, and the duties and obligations which they owe to their Creator.
V. Notwithstanding these important /r/c/^, and regardless of the confessions of the most distinguished antient philosophers of their need of a revelation, it is objected by many in our own times, that there is no necessity for one ; that the book of nature is the only book to be studied ; and that philosophy and right reason are suf- ficient to instruct and to preserve men in their duty.
Answer 1. It is an undeniable fact, that the doctrines of Christi- anity (without considering at present what evidence and authority ^ they possess) have had a more powerful influence upon men, than all the reasonings of the philosophers : and though modern opposers of Revelation ascribe the ignorance and corruption of the heathen, not to the insufficiency of the light of reason, but to their non- improvement of that light; yet, if this were true, it would not prove that there is no need of a revelation, because it is certain that the philosophers wanted some higher assistance than that of reason.
Answer 2. With regard to the pretences of modern deists, it is to be observed that almost all men, where the Scriptures have been ^- unknown, have in every age been gross idolaters; the few excep- tions that have existed, being in general a kind of atheistical philo- sophers. Deists, properly so called, are chiefly found in Christian countries, in the later ages, since Christianity has extensively prevailed over idolatry ■•^, and in the countries where gross pagan idolatry could
' See pp. 4 — 7. supra.
" The name of Deiats, as applied to those wlio are no friends to revealed religion, is said to have been first assumed, about the middle of the sixteenth centur)-, by some gentle- men in France and Italy, who were willing to cover their opposition to the Christian revelation by a more honourable name than that of Atheists. The earliest author, who mentions them, is Viret, a divine of great eminence among the first reformers ; who, in the epistle dedicatory prefixed to the first tome of his " Instruction C/ireticnnc," (which was published in 1553), speaks of some persons at that time who called tiiemselves by a new name, that o( Deists. These, he tells us, professed to believe a God, but shewed no regard to Jesus Christ, and considered the doctrine of the apostles and evangelists as fables and
c 3
22 On the Necessity, S^c. of a [Ch.
no longer be practised with credit and security. In these circum- stances, deists acquire, as it were at second-hand, their glimmering light from the book to which they oppose it ; and it is a fact that almost all the things, which have been said wisely and truly by
them, ARE MANIFESTLY BORROWED FROM THAT REVELATION WHICH THEY REFUSE TO EMBRACE, AND WITHOUT WHICH THEY NEVER COULD HAVE BEEN ABLE TO HAVE DELIVERED SUCH TRUTHS. iVoW,
indeed, that our whole duty is clearly revealed, we not only see its agreement \mtli reason, but are also enabled to deduce its obligation from reason : but, if we had been destitute of all revealed religion, it would have been a work of extreme difficulty to have discovered our duty in all points. What ground indeed have the modern con- temners of revelation to imagine, that, if they had lived without the light of the Gospel, they would have been wiser than Socrates, Plato, and Cicero ? How are they certain that they would have made such a right use of their reason, as to have discovered truth ? If their lot had been among the vulgar, are they sure that they would not have been idolaters? If they had joined themselves to the philosophers, what sect would they have followed? Or, if they had set up for themselves, how are they certain that they would have been skilful enough to have deduced the several branches of their duty, or to have applied them to the several cases of life, by argumentation and force of reason ? It is one thing to perceive that the rules of life, which are laid before us, are agreeable to reason, and another thing to find out those rules by the mere light of reason. We see that man J', who profess to govern themselves by the written rules of re- vealed religion, are nevertheless ignorant of their duty; and how can any man be sure that he should have made such a good use of his reason, as to have perfectly understood his duty without help ? We see that many of those, — who profess firmly to believe in that great and everlasting happiness which Christ has pi'omised to obedience, and that great and eternal misery which he has threatened against disobedience, — are yet hurried away by their lusts and passions to transgress the conditions of that covenant to which these promises and threatenings are annexed ; and how can any man be sure, that he should be able to overcome these temptations, if these motives
dreams. He adds that they laughed at all religion ; notwithstanding they conformed themselves, externally, to the religion of those with whom they were obliged to live, or whom they were desirous of pleasing, or whom they feared. Some of them, he observes, professed to believe the immortality of the soul ; others were of the Epicurean opinion in this point, as well as about the providence of God with respect to mankind, as if he did not concern himself in the government of human affairs. He adds, that many among them set up for learning and philosophy, and were considered as persons of an acute and subtile genius ; and that, not content to perish alone in their error, they took pains to spread the poison, and to infect and corrupt others by their impious discourses, and their bad examples. Bayle's Dictionary, article Viret, cited in Dr. Leland's View of the Deistical Writers, vol. i. p. 2.
Modern infidelity, though it may assume the title of Deism, is in fact little better than disguised atheism. A man seldom retains for any length of time his first deistical opinions; his errors gradually multiply, till he sinks to the last gradation of impiety. Tlie testimony of an infidel writer substantiates this point. " Deism," says he, " is but the first step of reason out of superstition. No person remains a Deist, but through want of reflection, timidity, passion, or obstinacy." — Brittan's Modern Infidelity pourtrayed, p. 9,
I.J Divine Revelation. 23
were less known, or less powerfully enforced ? But, suppose that he could by strength of reason demonstrate all these things to himself with the utmost possible clearness and distinctness, yet all men are not equally capable of being philosophers, though all men are obliged to be equally religious. At least, thus much is certain, that the re- wards and punishments of another world cannot be so powerfully enforced, in order to influence the lives of men, by a demonstration of their reality from abstract reasoning, as by one who assures them, by sufficient credentials, that he has actually been in that other state.
Answer 3. Besides, the contradictory and discordant speculations of the modern opposers of revelation, who boast that reason is their God (even if they had not long since been fully answered), are so great and so glaring, and the precepts delivered by them for a rule of life, are so utterly subversive of every principle of morality, as to demonstrate the absolute necessity of a divine revelation ^wuo (sup- posing one had never been given), in oi'der to lead men to the wor- ship and knowledge of the true God, and also to impart to them the knowledge of their duties to him, and towards one another. A brief statement of the recorded opinions of the principal opposers of re- velation in modern times, will prove and justify this remark.
1. Concerning religion, the iioorship of God, and the expectations of manlxind respecting a future state ; —
Lord Herbert, of Cherbury (who wrote in the former part of the seventeenth century, and was the first, as he was the greatest and best of the modern deistical philosophers), has laid down the following positions, viz. that Christianity is the best religion; -—that his own universal religion of nature agrees wholly with Christianity, and contributes to its establishment; — that all revealed religion (meaning Christianity) is absolutely uncertain, and of little or no use ; — that there is one supreme God, who is chiefly to be wor- shipped ; — that piety and virtue are the principal part of his wor- ship;— that we must repent of our sins, and, if we do so, God will pardon them ; — that there are rewards for good men, and punish- ments for wicked men in a future state; — that these principles of his universal religion are clearly known to all men, and that they were principally unknown to the Gentiles (who comprised almost all men). Yet, notwithstanding his declaration in favour of Chris- tianity, he accuses all pretences to revelation of folly and unreason- ableness, and contemptuously rejects its capital doctrines.
Mr. Hobbes, who was partly contemporary with Lord Herbert, affirms that the Scriptures are the voice of God, and yet that they have no authority but what they derive from the prince or the civil power; — he acknowledges that inspiration is a supernatural gift, and the immediate hand of God, and yet the pretence to it is a, sign of madness ; — that a subject may hold firmly the faith of Christ in his heart, and yet may lawfully deny him before the magistrate, and that in such a case it is not he that denies Christ before men, but his governor and the laws of his country; — that God exists, and yet that that which is not matter is nothing; that honour, worship, prayer, and praise are due to God, and yet that all religion is ridiculous^
c 4
24 On the Necessity^ S^c. of a [Cli.
Mr. Blount, who lived during the latter part of the seventeenth century, maintained that there is an infinite and eternal God, the creator of all things, and yet he insinuates that the world was eternal;
— that the worship we owe to God consists in prayer to Him, and in praise of Him, and yet he objects to prayer as a duty; that we are to expect rewards and punishments hereafter, according to our actions in this life, which includes the immortality of the soul, and yet that the soul of man is probably material (and of course mortal).
The Earl of Shaftesbury lived during the close of the seven- teenth and the early part of the eighteenth century. He affirms that nothing can be more fatal to virtue than the weak and uncertain belief of future rewards and punishments; and that this belief takes away all motives to virtue ; — that the hope of rewards and the fear of punishments make virtue mercenary; that it is disingenuous and servile to be influenced by rewards ; and that the hope of rewards cannot consist with virtue ; and yet that the hope of rewards is so far from being derogatory to virtue, that it is a proof we love virtue ;
— that however mercenary the hope of rewards and the fear of punishments may be accounted, it is in many instances a great ad- vantage, security, and support of virtue; that all obligation to be virtuous arises from the advantages (that is, the rewards) of virtue, and from the disadvantages (that is, the punishments) of vice; — that those are to be censured who represent the Gospel as a fraud ; that he hopes the Select Sermons of Dr. Whichcot (to which Lord Shaftesbury had written an elegant preface) will induce the enemies of Christianity to like it better, and make Christians prize it the more; and that he hopes Christians will be secured against the temper of the irreconcileable enemies of the faith of the Gospel ; and yet he represents salvation as a ridiculous thing ; and insinuates that Christ was influenced and directed by deep designs of ambition, and cherished a savage zeal and persecuting spirit; and that the Scrip- tures were a mere artful invention, to secure a profitable monopoly (that is, of sinister advantages to the inventors); — that man is born to religion, piety, and adoration, as well as to honour and friend- ship;— that virtue is not complete without piety; — yet he labours to make virtue wholly independent of piety; — that all the warrant for the authority of religious symbols (that is, the institutions of Christianity) is the authority of the magistrate; — that the magistrate is the sole judge of religious truth, and of revelation ; — that miracles are ridiculous ; and that, if true, they would be no proof of the truth of revelation ; — that ridicule is the test of truth ; and yet, that ridi- cule itself must be brought to the test of reason; — that the Chris- tian religion ought to be received when established by the magistrate; yet he grossly ridicules it where it was thus established ; — that religion and virtue appear to be so nearly connected, that they are presumed to be inseparable companions ; and yet that atheists often conduct themselves so well, as to seem to force us to confess them virtuous; — that he, who denies a God, sets up an opinion against the very well-being of society ; and yet that atheism has no direct natural tendency to take awny a just sense of right and wrong.
I.] Divine Revelation. 25
Mr. Collins also wrote in the early part of the eighteenth cen- tury, and pubhshed a variety of objections against revelation. He affirms that man is a mere machine ; — that the soul is material and mortal; — that Christ and his apostles built on the predictions of fortune-tellers and divines; — that the prophets were mere fortune- tellers, and discoverers of lost goods; — that Christianity stands wholly on a false foundation ; yet he speaks respectfully of Chris- tianity; and also of the Epicureans, whom he at the same time con- siders as atheists.
Contemporary with Collins was Mr. Woolston ; who, in his Dis- courses on the Miracles of our Saviour, under the pretence of vin- dicating the allegorical sense of Scripture, endeavours absolutely to destroy the truth of the facts recorded in the Gospels. This writer asserts, that he is the farthest of any man from being engaged in the cause of infidelity; — that infidelity has no place in his heart; — that he writes for the honour of Jesus and in defence of Christianity; — and that his design in writing is to advance the Messiahship and truth of the holy Jesus ; " to whom," he says, " be glory for ever, Amen;" and yet, that the Gospels are full of incredibilities, impos- sibilities, and absurdities; — that they resemble Gulliverian tales of persons and things, which out of romance never had a being; — that the miracles, recorded in the Gospels, taken literall}'^, will not abitle the test of reason and common sense, but must be rejected, and the authority of Jesus along with them ; and at the same time, he casts the most scurrilous reflections on Christ.
With the two preceding writers Drs. Tindal and Morgan were contemporary. The former declares that Christianity, stripped of the additions, which mistake, policy, and circumstances, have made to it, is a most holy religion ; and yet, that the Scriptures are ob- scure, and fit only to perplex men, and that the two great parts of them are contradictory; — that all the doctrines of Christianity plainly speak themselves to be the will of an infinitely wise and holy God : and yet, that the precepts of Christianity are loose, undeter- mined, incapable of being understood by mankind at large, o-ive wrong and unworthy apprehensions of God, and are generally false and pernicious ; — that natural religion is so plain to all, even the most ignorant men, that God could not make it plainer, even if he were to convey, miraculously, the very same ideas to all men ; and yet, that almost all mankind have had very unworthy notions of God, and very wrong apprehensions of natural religion ; — that the principles of natural religion are so cleai', that men cannot possibly mistake them ; and yet, that almost all men have grossly mistaken them, and imbibed a superstition worse than atheism. Dr. Morgan asserts that God may communicate his will by immediate inspiration, and yet that it can never be proved that he has thus communicated his will, and that we are not to receive any thing on the authority of revelation.
Nearly at the same time were published numerous tracts by Mr. Chubb, in some of which he assumed the garb of Christianity, though it is not difficult to perceive that his true intention was to
26 O/i the Necessitt/i Sfc. of a [Ch.
betray It. He declares that he hopes to share with his friends in the favour of God, in that peaceful and happy state which God has prepared for the virtuous and faithful, in some other future world ; and yet, that God does not interpose in the affairs of this world at all, and has nothing to do with the good or evil done by men here;
— that prayer may be useful, as a positive institution, by introducing proper thoughts, affections, and actions ; and yet he intimates that it must be displeasing to God, and directly improper; — that a state of rewards and punishments hereafter is one of the truths which are of the highest concern to men ; and yet, that the arguments for the immortality of the soul are wholly unsatisfactory : and that the soul is probably matter ; — that men are accountable to God for all their conduct, and will certainly be judged and dealt with according to the truth and reality of their respective cases; and yet, that men will not be judged for their impiety or ingratitude to God, nor for their injustice and unkindness to each other; but only for voluntary injuries to the public; and that even this is unnecessary and useless;
— that God may kindly reveal to the world, when greatly vitiated by error and ignorance, truths necessary to be known, and precepts necessary to be obeyed ; and yet, that such a revelation would be, of, course, uncertain and useless; — that Christ's mission is, at least in his view, probably divine ; and yet, that Christ, in his opinion, was of no higher character than the founder of the Christian sect (that is, another Sadoc, Cerinthus, or Herbert); — that Christ was sent into the world to acquaint mankind with the revelation of the will of God ; and yet, that his birth and resurrection were ridiculous and incredible ; and that his institutions and precepts were less excellent than those of other teachers and lawgivers; — that the New Testament, particularly the writings of the apostles, contain excellent cautions and instructions for our right conduct; and that the New Testament yields much clearer light than any other tra- ditionary revelation ; and yet that the New Testament has contri- buted to the perplexity and confusion of mankind, and exhibits doctrines heretical, dishonourable to God, and injurious to men; and that the apostles were impostors ; and that the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles resemble Jewish fables and popish legends rather than accounts of facts ; — that as, on the Christian scheme, Christ will be the judge of the quick and the dead, he has not on this account (that is, admitting this to be true) any disagreeable appre- hension on account of what he has written ; and yet he ridicules the birth and resurrection of Christ, represents his instructions as in- ferior to those of the heathen philosophers and lawgivers, asserts his doctrines to be dishonourable to God and injurious to mankind, and allows him not to be sinless, but merely not a gross sinner. He further declares, that the resurrection of Christ, if true, proves not the immortality of the soul ; — that the belief of a future state is of no advantage to society ; — that all religions are alike ; — that it is of no consequence what religion a man embraces ; and he allows not any room for dependence on God's providence, trust in him, and resignation to his will, as parts of, duty, or religion.
I.] Divine Revelation. 27
Lord Bolingbroke declares that power and wisdom are the only attributes of God, which can be discovered by mankind ; and yet, that he is as far from denying the justice as the power of God; that his goodness is manifest ; at the same time he ascribes every other perfection to God, as well as wisdom and power, and says, this is rational ; — that the wisdom of God is merely a natural attribute, and in no sense moral ; and yet, that the wisdom of God operates in choosing what is fittest to be done (of course, it is a moral attri- bute, involving perfect moral rectitude, as well as perfect knowledge) ; — that God is gracious and beneficent; — that whatever God has done is just and good ; — that such moral perfections are in God as Christians ascribe to him ; yet he censures divines for ascribing these perfections to God ; — that we learn from our own power and wisdom, the power and wisdom of God ; and yet, that it is profane to ascribe the excellencies of our nature to God, although without limit or imperfection. He undertakes to defend the righteousness of God against divines; and yet asserts that holiness and righteous- ness in God are like nothing in men ; that they cannot be conceived of by men, nor argued about with any certainty ; and that to talk of imitating God in his moral attributes is blasphemy; — that God made all things ; and yet, that he did not determine the existence of particular men (of course he did not determine the existence of any man, all men being particular men); — that he will not pre- sume to deny, that there have been particular providences ; and yet that there is no foundation for the belief of any such providences, and that it is absurd and proflme to assert or believe them ; — that God is just, and that justice requires that rewards or punishments be measured to particular cases, according to their circumstances, in proportion to the merit or demerit of every individual, and yet, that God does not so measure out rewards or punishments : and that, if he did, he would subvert human affairs ; that he concerns not himself with the affairs of men at all ; or, if he does, that he regards only collective bodies of men, not individuals ; that he punishes none, except through the magistrate ; and that there will be no state of future rewards or punishments ; — that divines are deserving of censure for saying that God made man to be happy; and yet he asserts that God made man to be happy here, and that the end of the human state is happiness ; — that the religion of na- ture is clear and obvious to all mankind ; and yet that it has been luiknown to the greatest part of mankind ; — that we know material substance, and are assured of it; and yet, that we know nothing of either matter or spirit ; — that there is, undeniably, something in our constitution, beyond the known properties of matter ; and yet, that the soul is material and mortal ; and that to say the soul is imma- terial, is the same thing as to say that two and two are five; -^that self-love is the great law of our nature ; and yet, that universal be- nevolence is the great law of our nature; — that Christianity is a re- publication of the religion of nature, and a benevolent system ; that its morals are pure ; and that he is determined to seek for genuine Christianity with the simplicity of spirit with which Christ himself
28 On the Necessity/, ^-c. of a [Ch.
taught it In the gospel ; and yet a great part of his works, particu- larly of his philosophical works, was written for no other end but to destroy Christianity. He also declares, that there is no conscience in man, except artificially; — that it is more natural to believe many gods than to believe one.
During the latter part of the eighteenth century flourished David Hume, whose acuteness of observation, and elegant style, have secured for his writings an extensive circulation. He asserts that there is no perceptible connection between cause and effect; — that the belief of such connection is merely a matter of custom ; — that experience can shew us no such connection ; — that we cannot with any reason conclude that, because an effect has taken place once, it will take place again; — that it is uncertain and useless to argue from the course of nature, and infer an intelligent cause; — that we cannot, from any analogy of nature, argue the existence of an intel- ligent cause of all things ; — that there is no reason to believe that the universe proceeded from a cause ; — that there are no solid argu- ments to prove the existence of a God ; — that experience can furnish no argument concerning matters of fact, is in this case useless, and can give rise to no inference or conclusion; and that there is no re- lation between cause and effect; and yet, that experience is our only guide in mattei's of fact, and the existence of objects; — that it is universally allowed, that nothing exists without a cause ; — that every effect is so precisely determined, that no other effect could, in such circumstances^ have possibly resulted from the operation of its cause ; — that the relation of cause is absolutely necessary to the propaga- tion of our species, and the regulation of our conduct; — that volun- tary actions are necessary, and determined by a fixed connection between cause and effect; — that motives are causes operating neces- sarily on the will ; — that man is a mere machine (that is, an object operated on necessarily by external causes) ; — that there is no con- tingency (that is, nothing happening without a settled cause) in the universe ; and that matter and motion may be regarded as the cause of thought (that is, the soul is a material cause, and thought its effect) ; — that God discovers to us only faint traces of his character ; and that it would be flattery or presumption to ascribe to him any perfection which is not discovered to the full in his works (and of course, that it would be flattery or presumption to ascribe any per- fection to God) ; — that it is unreasonable to believe God to be wise and good ; — that what we believe to be a perfection in God may be a defect (that is, holiness, justice, wisdom, goodness, mercy, and truth, may be defects in God); consequently, injustice, folly, malice, and falsehood maybe excellencies in his character; — that no re- ward or punishment can be rationally expected beyond what is al- ready known by experience and observation.
While Hume and Bolingbroke were propagating these sentiments in England, Voltaire, Diderot, D'Alembert, Frederick II. King of Prussia, and other distinguished writers, had confederated for the avowed purpose of annihilating the Christian religion. Their writ- ings are too numerous to admit of extracts ; but it is in the posthu-
I.] Divine llevelatioii. 29
mous works of the Kinf^ of Prussia, that we see a faithful delineation of the real tenets and opinions of tlie most celebrated jihilosophers of the continent, of the founders and legislators of the great empire of infidelity, with the philosophic monarch himself at their head. Every secret of their hearts is there laid open in their familiar and con- fidential correspondence with each other ; and there we see that they were pretended deists, but real atheists ; that, although the name of a Supreme Being was sometimes mentioned, yet it was seldom men- tioned but with ridicule and contempt; and that they never con- ceived him to be any thing more than the intelligent principle that animates all nature, the source of life and motion, the sensorium of the universe; but in other respects totally unconnected with this earth and its inhabitants. " In consequence of thfs doctrine these philosophers rejected all idea of a providence and a moral governor of the world. They ascribed every effect to fate or fortune, to ne- cessity or chance ; they denied the existence of a soul distinct from the body ; they conceived man to be nothing more than an organised lump of matter, a mere machine, an ingenious piece of clock-work, which, when the wheels refuse to act, stands still, and loses all power and motion for ever. They acknowledged nothing beyond the grave, no resurrection, no future existence, no future retribution ; they con- sidered death as an eternal sleep, as the total extinction of our being; and they stigmatised all opinions differentfrom these with the names of superstition, bigotry, priestcraft, fanaticism, and idolatry."^
Such are the various, contradictory, and impious tenets promul- gated by the most eminent champions of what is called deism ^ (and which have been repeated in different ways by the opposers of revelation in our age), concerning religion, the worship of God, and the expectations of mankind respecting a future stiite. We shall only add, that though the infidels of the present day profess to be the disciples of nature, and to receive her unerring instructions, yet they differ from each other with an almost endless variety. Having gradually receded from true Christianity to false, — some are un- believers in the nature, — some in the providence, — and others even in the existence of a God ; but all of them are unanimous in reject- ing the divine testimony, and in renouncing the God of the Bible. Let us now take a brief view,
2. Of their precepts concerning morals.
Lord Herbert declared that men are not hastily, or on small grounds, to be condemned, who are led to sin by bodily constitution ; — that the indulijence of lust and of antjer is no more to be blamed than the thirst occasioned by the dropsy, or the drowsiness produced by lethargy.
Mr. Hobbes asserted that the civil or municipal law is the only foundation of right and wrong; that where there is no civil law,
' Bp. Porteus's Charge in 1794. (Tracts, pp. 266, 267.)
" Dr. Dwight's Nature, &c. of Infidel Philosophy, pp. 20 — 42. Most of the preceding statements of the opposers of revelation, as well as of those which follow concerning morals, are selected from Dr. Leland's View of the Deistical Writers, where their identical expres- sions are given, and their fallacies are exposed with great depth of argument and learning.
so On the Necessiij/, 8^-c. of a [Ch.
every man's judgment is the only standard of right and wrong ; — that the sovereign is not bound by any obHgation of truth or justice, and can do no wrong to his subjects; — that every man has a right to all things, and may lawfully get them if he can !
Lord Bolingbroke resolved all morality into self-love as its principle, and taught that ambition, the lust of power, sensuality, and avarice, may be lawfully gratified, if they can be safely gratified ; — that the sole foundation of modesty is vanity, or a wish to shew ourselves superior to mere animals ; that man lives only in the pre- sent world, and is only a supei'ior animal ; — that the chief end of man is to gratify the appetites and inclinations of the flesh ; — that modesty is inspired by mere prejudice ; and that polygamy is a part of the law or religion of nature. He also intimates that adultery is no violation of the law of nature; and that there is no wrong, except in the highest lewdness.
Mr. Hume (the immorality of whose principles is displayed in ^[ix's, Private Correspondence receu\\y published^) maintained that self- denial, self-mortification, and humility are not virtues, but are use- less, and mischievous ; — that they stupify the understanding, sour the temper, and harden the heart ; — that pride, self-valuation, ingenuity, eloquence, quickness of thought, easiness of expression, delicacy of taste, strength of body, and cleanliness, are virtues ; and, consequently, that to want honesty, to want understanding, and to want strength of body, are equally the subjects of moral disappro- bation ; — that adultery must be practised, if men would obtain all the advantages of life ; — that, if generally practised, it would in time cease to be scandalous ; and that if practised secretly and frequently, it would by degrees come to be thought no crime at all ! ! !
Both Voltaire and Helvetius advocated the unlimited grati- fication of the sensual appetites, and the latter held that it is not agreeable to policy to regard gallantry (that is, unlawful intercourse with married women) as a vice in a moral sense ; and that, if men will call it a vice, it must be acknowledged that there are vices which are useful in certain ages and countries ! In other words, that in those countries such vices are virtues. - Rousseau also had recourse to feelings as his standard of morality. " I have only to consult myself," said he, " concerning what I do. All that I feel to be right, is right. Whatever I feel to be wrong, is wrong. All the moi'aiity of our actions lies in the judgment we ourselves form of them." ^ And just before the French revolution broke out, it is a known fact that the idea of moral obligation was exploded among the infidel clubs that existed in every part of France.
Such is the morality taught by some of those who in the last cen- tury claimed to be received as the masters of reason. It were no difficult task to add to their precepts many similar ones from the opponents of revelation in our own times ; but as they only re-assert
1 See the " Correspondence of David Humo with several distinguished Persons." London, 1820, 4to.
2 Helvetius, De I'Esprit, torn. i. disc. 2. th. 15. p. 176. et seq,
3 Emilius, torn. i. pp. 166 — 168.
I.] Divine Revclatioji. 31
the atheistical and immoral tenets of their predecessors with in- creased mahgnity and grossness, we shall spare the reader the pain of perusing passages that cannot but shock the mind of every one who cherishes the least regard for decency or social order. Let us advert, however, for a moment, to the effects produced by these principles on an entire -peojile^ and also on individuals.
The only instance in which the avowed rejectors of revelation have possessed the supreme power and government of a country, and have attempted to dispose of human happiness according to their own doctrines and wishes, is that of France during the greater part of the revolution, which, it is now well known, was effected by the abettors of infidelity. The great majority of the nation had become infidels. The name and profession of Christianity was renounced by the legislature : and the abolition of the Christian aera was proclaimed. Death was declared by an act of the repub- lican government to be an eternal sleep. The existence of the Deity, and the immortality of the soul, were formally disavowed by the National Convention : and the doctrine of the resurrection from the dead was declared to have been only preached by superstition for the torment of the living. All the religions in the world were proclaimed to be the daughters of ignorance and pride ; and it was decreed to be the duty of the convention to assume the honourable office of disseminating atheism (which was blasphemously affirmed to be truth) over all the world. As a part of this duty, the con- vention, further decreed, that its express renunciation of all religious worship should, like its invitations to rebellion, be translated into all foreign languages ; and it was asserted and received in the con- vention, that the adversaries of religion had deserved well of their country I Correspondent with these professions and declarations were the effects actually produced. Public worship was utterly abolished. The churches were converted into ' temples of reason,' in which atheistical and licentious homilies were substituted for the proscribed service ; and an absurd and ludicrous imitation of the pagan mythology was exhibited under the title of the ' religion of reason.' In the principal church of every town a tutelary goddess was installed with a ceremony equally pedantic, frivolous, and pro- fane; and the females, selected to personify this new divinity were mostly prostitutes, who received the adorations of the attendant municipal officers, and of the multitudes, whom fear, or force, or motives of gain, had collected together on the occasion. Contempt for religion or decency became the test of attachment to the govern- ment ; and the gross infraction of any moral or social duty was deemed a proof of civism, and a victory over prejudice. All distinc- tions of right and wrong were confounded. The grossest debauchery triumphed. The reign of atheism and of reason was the reign of terror. ' Then proscription followed upon proscription ; tragedy followed after tragedy, in almost breathless succession, on the theatre of France. Almost the whole nation was converted into a horde of assassins. Democracy and atheism, hand in hand, desolated the country, and converted it into one vast field of rapine and of blood.' In one part of
32 On the Necesst't^y SfC. of a [Ch.
France, the course of a river (the Loire) was impeded by the drowned bodies of the ministers of religion, several hundreds of whom were de- stroyed in its waters ; children were sentenced to death for the faith and loyalty of their parents ; and they, whose infancy had sheltered them from the fire of the soldiery, were bayoneted as they clung about the knees of their destroyers. The moral and social ties were un- loosed, or rather torn asunder. For a man to accuse his own father was declared to be an act of civism, worthy of a true republican ; and to neglect it, was pronounced a crime that should be punished Avith death. Accordingly, women denounced their husbands, and mothers their sons, as bad citizens and traitors ; while many women,
— not of the dress of the common people nor of infamous reputation, but respectable in character and appearance, — seized with savage ferocity between their teeth the mangled limbs of their murdered countrymen. " France during this period was a theatre of crimes, which, after all preceding perpetrations, have excited in the mind of every spectator amazement and horror. The miseries, suffered by that single nation, have changed all the histories of the preceding sufferings of mankind into idle tales, and have been enhanced and multiplied without a precedent, without a number, and without a name. The kingdom appeared to be changed into one great prison ; the inhabitants converted into felons ; and the common doom of man commuted for the violence of the sword and bayonet, the sucking- boat and the guillotine. To contemplative men it seemed for a season as if the knell of the whole nation was tolled, and the world summoned to its execution and its funeral. Within the short time of ten years, not less than three millions of human beings are sup- posed to have perished,- in that single country, by the influence of atheism. Were the world lo adopt and be governed by the doctrines of revolutionary France, what crimes would not mankind perpetrate ? What agonies would they not suffer?" ^ Yet republican France is held up in the present day as an example worthy to be followed in this country !
With regard to the influence of deism on individuals, we may remark that the effects which it produces are perfectly in unison with the principles which its advocates have maintained. In order to accomplish their designs, there is no baseness in hypocrisy to which they have not submitted. Almost all of them have worn a mask of friendship, that they might stab Christianity to the heart ;
— they have professed a reverence for it, while they were aiming to destroy it. Lord Herbert, Hobbes, Lord Shaftesbury, Woolston, Tindal, Chubb, and Lord Bolingbroke, were all guilty of the vile hypocrisy of lying, while they were employed in no other design than to destroy it. Collins, though he had no belief in Christianity, yet qualified himself for civil office by partaking of the Lord's Supper ; and Shaftesbury and others were guilty of the same base
1 The details, on which tlie above representation is founded, may be seen at length in the Abb6 Barruel's Memoirs of Jacobinism ; Gifford's Residence in France, during the years 1792 — 1795, vol. ii, and Adolphus's History of France, vol, ii. Dvvight's System of Theology, vol. i. p. 52. ,
I.] Divine Revelation. 53
bypocrisy. " Such faithless professions, such gross viohitions of truth in Christians, would have been proclaimed to the universe by these very writers as infamous desertions of principle and decency. Is it less infamous in themselves? All hypocrisy is detestable-; but none is so detestable as that which is coolly written with full premeditation, by a man of talents, assuming the character of a moral and religious instructor, a minister, a prophet of the truth of the infinite God. Truth is a virtue perfectly defined, mathematic- ally clear, and completely understood by all men of common sense. There can be no baitings between uttering truth and falsehood, no doubts, no mistakes ; as between piety and enthusiasm, frugality and parsimony, generosity and profusion. Transgression, therefore, is always a known, definitive, deliberate villany. In the sudden moment of strong temptation, in the hour of imguarded attack, in the flutter and trepidation of unexpected alarm, the best man may, perhaps, be surprised into any sin; but he, who can coolly, of steady design, and with no unusual impulse, utter falsehood,, and vent hypocrisy, is not far from finished depravity.
" The morals of Rochester and Wharton need no comment. Woolston was a gross blasphemer. Blount solicited his sister-in- law to marry him, and, being refused, shot himself Tindal was originally a protestant, then turned papist, then protestant again, merely to suit the times, and was at the same time infamous for vice in general, and the total want of principle; He is said, to have died with this prayer in his mouth: ' If there is a God, I desire that he may have mercy on me.' Hobbes wrote his Leviathan to serve the cause of Charles I., but finding him fail of success, he turned it to the defence of Cromwell, and made a merit of this fact to the usurper; as Hobbes himself unblushingly declared to Lord Clarendon. Morgan had no regard to truth ; as is evident from liis numerous falsifications of Scripture, as well as from the vile hypocrisy of pro- fessing himself a Christian in those very writings in which he laboucs to destroy Christianity. Voltaire, in a letter now remaining,, re- quested his friend D'Alerabert to tell for him a direct and palpable lie, by denying that he was the author of the Philosophical Dictio- nary. D'Alembert in his answer informed him, that he had told the lie. Voltaire has indeed expressed his own moral character perfectly in the following words : ' Monsieur Abbe, I must be read, no matter whether I am believed or not.' ' " He also solemnly pro- fessed to believe the Catholic religion, although at the same time he doubted the existence of a God, and at the very moment in which he was plotting the destruction of Christianity, and introducing the awful watch-word of his party, ^^ Ecrasez VInfame-" — at that very moment, with bended knee and uplifted eye, he adored the cross of Christ, and received the host in the communion of the church of Rome. This man was also a shameless adulterer, who, with his abandoned mistress, violated the confidence of his visitors, by open-
1 Dwight on Infidelity, pp. 47, 48.
2 Crush the wretch ! — meaning Jesus Clirist.,
yoL..i. D
34< On the Necessity, 8fc. of a [Ch.
ing their letters ' ; and his total want of all principle, moral or religious, — his impudent audacity, — his filthy sensualit}-, — his per- secuting envy, — his base adulation, — his unwearied treachery, — his tyranny, — his cruelty, — his profligacy, and his hypocrisy, will render him for ever the scorn, as his unbounded powers will the wonder, of mankind.
The dishonesty, perjury, and gross profligacy of Rousseau, who alternately professed and abjured the Roman Catholic and Protest- ant religion, without believing either, and who died in the very act of uttering a notorious falsehood to his Creator, — as well as of Paine and other advocates of infidelity, — are too notorious to render it necessary to pollute these pages with the detail of them.
VI. Since then the history and actual condition of mankind, in all ages, concur to shew that a divine revelation is not only possible and probable, but also absolutely necessary to recover them out of their universal corruption and degeneracy, and to make known to them the proper object of their belief and worship, as well as their present duties and future expectations ; it remains that we consider
THE POSSIBLE MEANS OF COMMUNICATING SUCH REVELATION TO THE WORLD.
There appear to be only two methods by which an extraordinary discovery of the will of God may be made to man; viz. 1. An immediate revelation, by inspiration or otherwise, to each individual separately ; or else, 2. A commission, accompanied with indisputable credentials, bestowed on some to convince others that they were actually delegated by God, in order to instruct them in those things which he has revealed.
But it cannot seem requisite that the Almighty should imme- diately inspire, or make a direct revelation to, every particular per- son in the world : for either he must so povv^erfully influence the minds and affections of men, as to take away their choice and free- dom of acting (which would be to offer violence to human nature); or else men would, for the most part, have continued in their evil courses and practices, and have denied God in their lives ; though their understandings were ever so clearly and fully convinced of his will and commandments, as well as of his eternal power and godhead. But even if God were willing to vouchsafe some immediate revela- tion of himself to vicious and immoral persons, how can we be assured that they would be converted ? Would they not rather find out some pretence to persuade themselves, that it was no real revelation, but the effect of natural agents, or of melancholy and a disturbed imagination ? They might, perhaps, be terrified for the present ; but there is every reason to apprehend, from the known infirmity and depravity of mankind, that such persons would soon stifle their terrors with their accustomed arguments for atheism and infidelity.
Independently, however, of the incfficacy of immediate revelation
1 See the publication intituled Vie Privee de Voltaire et de Jifadame du Chdtelet, Paris, 1820, 8vo.
I.] Divine Revelation. 35
to every man in particular, the supposing it to be thus made, would fill the world with continual impostures and delusions; for, if every one had a revelation to himself, every one might pretend to others what he pleased ; and one man might be deluded by the pretence of a revelation made to another, against an express revelation made to himself. And this, we may conclude, would often happen from what'we experience every day : for if men can be perverted by the arts and insinuations of others, against their own reason and judg- ment, they might as well be prevailed upon to act against a revelation made to them ; though revelations should be things as common and familiar among men as reason itself is. Immediate revelations, therefore, to every particular individual, would have been needless and superfluous ; they would have been unsuitable to the majesty and honour of God : they would have been ineffectual to the ends for which they were designed ; and would have afforded occasion for many more pretences to impostures than there are now in the world.
The only other way by which the divine will can be revealed to mankind, is that which the Scriptures affirm to have actually been employed ; viz. the qualifying of certain persons to declare that will to others, by infallible signs and evidences that they are authorised and commissioned by God. What those evidences are, will be discussed in a subsequent page. It is however but reasonable to suppose, that divine revelations should be committed to writing, in order that they might be preserved for the benefit of mankind, and delivered down genuine and uncorrupted to posterity : for,
1. Oral Tradition is so imcertain and so insecure a guide, that if a revelation claiming to be divine be not transmitted by writing, it cannot possibly be preserved in its purity, or serve mankind as a certain rule of faith and of life.
In illustration of this remark, we may observe, that writing is a more secure method of conveyance than tradition, being neither so hable to involuntary mistakes, through weakness of memory or understanding, nor so subject to voluntary falsifications, suppressions, or additions, either out of malice or design. " It is also a method of conveyance more natural and human. It is nothing extraordinary for a book to be trans- mitted pure and entire from generation to generation : but a traditionary doctrine, especially if it be of any considerable length, cannot really be preserved without a miracle, without the occasional interposition of Almighty God to renew the memory of it at particular intervals, or his continual assistance and inspiration to keep it always alive and vigorous. It is likewise a method of conveyance more complete and uniform, pre- senting itself to all at once, and to all alike, to be compared together ; whereas a traditionary doctrine must be communicated by little and little, and without doubt communicated differently at different times by different persons. It is, moreover, a method of conveyance more general and diffusive. A man's writings reach further than his words ; and surely we need not observe, that it is the practice of mankind, whenever they would publish any thing, to have it written or printed in a book." '
' Bp. Newton's AVorks, vol. iv. dissert. 2. pp. 19 — 23. 8vo. edit. The same line of argument, and nearly in similar terms, is stated and illustrated by Archbishop Tillotson, Works, vol. vi. pp. 233. et seq. London, 1820. 8vo.
D 2
S6 On the Necessity, 8^c. of a [Ch.
2. Furthei', experience shows that writing is a, method of convey- ance more lasting than tradition.
It is an old and trite observation, that a word heard perishes, but a letter written remains.^ Jesus Christ is said to have performed many other miracles, and to have done many other memorable things, besides ihose which have been committed to writing ^ ; but, observe, how much more faithful record is than mere report ; the ^e.\v, comparatively speak- ing, which were written, are preserved and credited, while the many, which were not recorded in writing, have long since been utterly lost and forgotten. " Every thing, of any consequence, we desire to have in writing. By this^ laws are promulgated; by this, arts and sciences are propagated ; by this, titles and estates are secured. And what do we know of antient history, but the little that cometh down to us in books and writings ? Tradition passeth away like the morning cloud ; but books may live as long as the sun and moon endureth."^
3. To the preceding arguments for the usefulness and expediency of written revelation, arising from the uncertainty of oral tradition, and the greater security and advantages of writing, we may add, that it is certainly more fair and open, more free from suspicion of any fraud or contrivance, to have a religion preserved in writing, there to be read and examined by all, than to have it left only with a few, to be by them communicated in discourse to others ; as no two per- sons express the same thing exactly in the same manner, nor even the same perscm at different times.
The heathen philosophers had their exoteric and esaieric doctrines, as they distinguished them ; that is, some which they generally delivered, and others which they communicated only to a few select auditors : but the first propagators of Christianity, knov/ing no such distinctions, delivered the ivhole doctrine which they professed to have received from God. The heathen priests had their mysteries, which were to be concealed from the profane vulgar ; but Christianity can never be made too public. Most other religions also are committed to writing for the use of their particular professors ; and it would be a prejudice to the Christian jeligion if it did not enjoy the same advantage. "The Jews had what they called an oral law, as well as a tvritten one ; and the one as well as the other they asserted to have been given by God on Mount Sinai — the oral to serve as a comment or explanation of the written law. But, in process of time, these traditions multiplied so fast, that the Jews found it necessary to keep their traditions no longer as traditions, but committed them to writing ; and they are now preserved in the books called the Talmuds. So fallible is tradition, so much more secure is writing, even in the ppinion of the greatest traditionists : and if the doctrines of re- ligion must, one time or other, be written, it is better surely to have them written by inspired authors at first, than by others afterwards!"
4. Lastly, tlie importance of the matter, the variety of the sub- jects, and the design of the institutions, contained in those books, which Jews and Christians account to be sacred, are additional reasons why they should be committed to writing. " The matter is .of no less importance than the whole will of God and the salvation
' Vox audita perit, littera scripta manet.
■2 John, XX. 30. xxi. 25.
3 Bp. Newton's Works, vol.iv. p. 24.
I.] Divine Revelatioiu 37
of mankind, our duty here and our happiness hereafter; and if any thhig deserves to be written, do not these things [deserve to be recorded] in the most lasting characters? The subjects likewise are very various, histories of times past and prophecies of things to- come, orations and epistles, sublime points of faith and plain rules of practice, hymns and prayers and thanksgivings, all too excellent, to be forgotten, but too many all to be remembered. The law was for a single nation ; but the Gospel is for the whole world. For su single nation it was requisite that their laws should be written, or to what can they appeal, and by what can they regulate their practice ? And if it was necessary for the law to be written, it was certainly mucli more necessary for the Gospel, which was designed to be both of perpe- tual and universal obligation, a religion for all ages and for all nations.'"-
The necessity of a divine revelation having been proved, and the probability that such a revelation would be given to mankind having^ been shewn, it remains that we examine the pretensions of the Old and New Testaments to be that revelation. Among the numerous attacks which have been made on the truth of Christianity, one of the most formidable is that which is directed against the authenticity of the scriptures. It has been asserted, that we derive a set of rules and opinions from a series of books, which were not written by the authors to whom we ascribe them ; and that the volume to which we give the title of divine, and which is the basis of our faith and manners, is a forgery of later ages. It is therefore of importance to ascertain, first,^ the genuineness^ authenticity, and incorruptness of the several books contained in the Bible, considered simply as compositions ; the credibility of their respective authors will next be investigated ; and their claims to be received as divinely inspired, will then be examined. In discussing these momentous topics, it would perhaps be the shorter way, to prove first the genuineness, authenticity, incorruptness, and inspiration of the New Testament '^ : for, if its claims to be received as a divinely inspired book be ad- mitted, no reasonable doubt can be entertained of the divine inspir- ation, &c. of the Old Testament ; because the writers of the New Testament incessantly appeal to it, and make ample quotations from it. As, however, the modern impugners of revelation have directed their arguments chiefly against the Old Testament, in order that, by impeaching its credibility, they may with greater probability of success undermine and invalidate the dispensation revealed in the New Testament, we shall commence with the Old Testament; be- cause if that be true, (the dispensation it contains being introductory to that contained in the New Testament,) the latter, being founded on and perfective of the former, must of necessity be true also. By adopting this arrangement, it is possible that some few arguments
' Bp. Newton's Works, vol. iv. p. 28.
2 This is the method pursued by Bishop INIarsh, in his Course of Lectures on the Se- veral Branciies of Divinity. Part. VII. Lectures xxxi. — xxxvii. Cambridge, 1823, 8vQi
D 3
38 On the Genuineness and Authenticity [Ch. 11;
may be repeated ; but the importance of the subjects discussed ^yill (it is hoped) be deemed a satisfactory apology for such unavoidable, repetitions.'
CHAPTER n.
ON THE GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS.
SECTION I.
ON THE GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.
f. Great importance of the question, ivliether the BooJcs contained in the Old Testament are genuine or spurious. — Genuineness and authenticity de- fined.— II. Genuineness of the Canon of the Old Testament. — 1. Exter- nal Proofs of the Genuineness of the Old Testament. — (1.) The Manner in which these Books have been transmitted to us. (2.) The Paucity of Booh extant tvhen they ivere written. (3.) The Testimony of the Jews, (4.) A particular Tribe was set apart to preserve these writings. (5.) Quo- tations of them by antient Jews. (6.) The evidence of antient Versions. 2. Internal Evidence. • — (1.) Latiguage, style, and inanner of writing. — (2.) Circumstantiality of the Narratives contained in the Old Testa- ment.— III. Proofs of the genuineness and authenticity of the Penta- teuch in particidar, — \. From the language in which it is xvritten. — 2. From the nature of the Mosaic law. — 3. From the united historical ■ testimony of Jews and Gentiles. — 4. From the contents of the Penta- teuch.— IV. Objections to the authenticity of the Petitateuch considered and refuted.
I. If the books, contained in the Old Testament, were not written by those authors to whom they are ascribed, or about that time to which they are assigned, but were written by authors who lived at a much later period, — that is, if they were supposititious or sjmrious, the history which is related in them would by no means be worthy of the great credit that is given to it ; the design, which pervades these books, would have been an imposition upon a later age, and the accomplishment of that design in the New Testament would be altogether an extraordinary and singular occurrence ; the miracles, therein recorded to have been antiently performed, would have been the invention of a later age, or natural events would have been me-
' Besides the autliorities above cited, the author has been largely indebted for the mate- rials of this Chapter to the Collection of Boyle Lectures in 3 vols, folio, (London, 1739); particularly to the Lectures of Bishops Williams and Leng, and of Dr. Samuel Clarke ; to Dr. Lcland's " Advantage and Necessity of the Christian Revelation shewn from the State of Religion in the Antient Heathen World," 3d edition, in 2 vols. 8vo. (Glasgow and London, 1819) ; and to the same author's masterly " View of the Deistical Writers." Tiie reader, 'who may not be able to consult these valuable works, will find a well-written " Comparative View of Natural and Revealed Religion," in the second volume of " Cliris- tian Essays," by the Rev. S. C. Wilks. London, 1817. 8vo.
Sect. I.] Of the Old Testament. 39
tamorphosed into miracles ; the prophecies, asserted to be contained in those books, would have been invented after the historical facts which are narrated in them ; and, lastly, Jesus Christ and his apostles would have approved and recommended the works of im- postors. Hence it is evident of what great importance the question is, whether these books are Genuine, that is, mhether they "doere xvritten hij the lyersons idio&e names they bear, and, (especially if the author be unknown) about that time ivhich is assigned to them, or at "which they profess to have been written ,- and also, whether they are Authentic; that is, whether they relate matters of fact as they really happened, and in consequence possess authority. For, a book may be genuine that is not authentic ; a book may be authentic that is not genuine ; and many are both genuine and authentic, which are not inspired. The first epistle of Clement Bishop of Rome is genuine, having been written by the author whose name it bears ; but it possesses no authority on which we can found any doctrines. " The history of Sir Charles Grandison is genuine, being indeed written by Richardson, the author whose name it bears ; but it is not authentic, being a mere effort of that ingenious writer's invention in the production of fictions. Again, the Account of Lord Anson's Voyages is an authentic book, the information being supplied by Lord Anson himself to the author ; but it is not genuine, for the real author was Benjamin Robins, the mathematician, and not Wal- ters, whose name is appended to it. Hayley's Memoirs of the Life of Cowper are both genuine and authentic : they were written by Mr. Hayley, and the information they contain was deduced from the best authority." ^ But the poems, which bear the name of Rowley, are neither genuine nor authentic, not having been written by him, nor by any one who lived in the fifteenth century, but being wholly the productions of the unhappy youth Chatterton, who lived three hundred years afterwards.
IL Genuineness of the Canon of the Old Testament.
" The word. Canon, signifies not only a catalogue or list, but also a law or rule. Those books are held canonical, which were admitted by Jews and Christians, as a rule of faith and manners."'-^
In M'hat age and by what author any book is written is a question of fact, that can only be answered by historical testimonies. These historical testimonies are ;
1. Unexceptionable witnesses, who possessed both the means of knowing, and who were also willing to communicate the truth ; and,
2. Certain marks which may be discerned in the subject-matter, diction, genius, and style of the books, and which show that they were written by the authors to whom they are ascribed, or about the age to which they are referred.
The former are termed external arguments, and the latter, in-
• Dr. O. Gregory's Letters on the Evidences, &c. of the Christian Religion, vol. i. p. 84. 2(1 edit.
'-! Ranken's Institutes of Theology, p. 189.
D 4
40 On the Genuineness and Authenticity [Ch. II.
temal ; and as these two species of testimony are universally admitted to be sufficient for proving the genuineness of the writings of Tlui- cydides, Plutarch, or Livy, or of any other antient profane authors, no further testimony ought to be required for the solution of our question.
1. External Proofs of the Genuineness of the Carton of the Old
Testament.
(1.) As those who were coeval with any Hebrew writer, and tran- scribed any book which they received from his hands, and also de- livered the same to others to be transcribed, knew by whom and at what time such book was written ; and as these, having a certain knowledge of the author and of the age in which he lived, delivered such book to their immediate descendants, and these ^gain to their posterity, and so from one generation to another through all suc- ceeding ages, — all these persons jointly testify that such book is the genuine production of the author whose name it bears, and of the age in which he lived.
(2.) The books, thus transmitted from one generation to another, (especially in that very remote age when the first books of the Old Testament were written), could not but remain, both more easily, as .well as more certainly, uncorrupted, and be propagated with fidelity, because at that time there were but few books, and also because the tradition relative to their origin was most easily recol- lected. And as this tradition (which was not communicated in the schools to their pupils by learned men, whose various conjectures sometimes obscure truth, but in private houses by fathers to their children^) was approved, many of the authors therefore did not subscribe to their works, either their names, or the age in which they lived ; but, where any of them did annex their names to their •writings, nothing further was requisite than faithfully to transcribe such notification, — a task which could be performed with the ut- most facility.
(.3.) In fact there was no motive to induce the Hebrews to corrupt this very simple tradition : on the <;ontrary, as these books wei'e held in the highest reverence and estimation by much the greater part of that people, they had the most powerful motives for transmitting the origin of these documents truly to their posterity. If, indeed, the Hebrew nation had been disposed to betray the trust confided to them, a motive would not have been wanting to them for pro- pagating falsehoods respecting their books, because these contain such repeated, — we may almost add — such incessant, reproofs and tcensures of them, as an unteachable, inflexible, and headstrong people, as place their character in an unfavourable point of view. But, notwithstanding, if that people testify that these books are genuine, they become witnesses against themselves, and consequently their testimony is unexceptionable.
In illustration of this remark, we may observe that the character
« Compare Dent, xxxii. 7, 8. and Psal. Ixxviii. 3—7.
Sect. I.] Of the Old Testament. 41
of the Jews is a strong proof that they have not forged the Old Tes- tament. Were a person brought before a court of justice on a sus- picion of forgery, and yet no presumptive or positive evidence of his guilt could be produced, it would be allowed by all that he ought to be acquitted. But, if the forgery alleged were inconsistent with the character of the accused ; if it tended to expose to disgrace his general principles and conduct; or, if we were assured that he con- sidered forgery as an impious and abominable crime, it would require very strong testimony to establish his guilt. This case corresponds exactly with the situation of the Jews. If a Jew had forged any book of the Old Testament, he must have been impelled to so bold and dangerous an enterprise by some very powerful motive. It could not be national pride, for there is scarcely one of these books which does not severely censure the national manners. It coidd not be the love of fame, for that passion would have taught him to flatter and extol the national character ; and the punishment, if detected, would have been infamy and death. The love of wealth could not produce such a forgery, for no wealth was to be gained by it.'
(4.) The true knowledge of the origin of these books could not be easily corrupted or lost, because a particular tribe among the He- brews was set apart from the rest, and consecrated, among other things, for the express purpose of watching over the preservation of these historical documents ; and further, there were never wanting men, belonging to the other tribes, both at that time and also during the Babylonian captivity, — (for instance, those who in more antient times were the governors of the Hebrew republic, and were called, first, judges, and afterwards prophets,) — by whom these books were held in the highest reverence, because they were themselves descend- ed from that very age, and from these very authors. Although the names of some of these authors, and also the age in which they lived, are lost in oblivion, yet as the Jews confess their ignorance, such confession is an evidence that they would not have testified it, if they had not received it as certain from their ancestors. In the meantime, the age at least of these anonymous books has not so entirely been neglected, but that we have the clearest evidence that not one of them was written later than \}i\Q Jifth century before the Christian aera.
(5.) The Old Testament, according to our Bibles, comprises thirty-nine books, viz. the Pentateuch or five books of Moses, called Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, the books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon, the Prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, with his La- mentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. But, among the antient Jews, they formed only twenty-
' Ency, Brit, vol. xvii. p. 107. art. Scripture, 3d edit.
42 On the Genuineness and Authenticity [Ch. II.
two books ^, according to the letters of their alphabet, which were twenty-two in number ; reckoning Judges and Ruth, Ezra and Ne- hemiah, Jeremiah and his Lamentations, and the twelve minor Pro- phets, (so called from the comparative brevity of their compositions,) respectively as one book. It is not necessary here to enter into a minute inquiry concerning the authors of these books- : but we may state generally, that the Pentateuch consists of the writings of Moses, collected by Samuel, with a very few additions ; that the books of Joshua and Judges, together with that of Ruth and the first part of the book of Samuel, were collected by the same prophet; that the latter part of the first book of Samuel, and the whole of the second book, were written by the prophets who succeeded Samuel, probably Nathan and Gad ; that the books of Kings and Chronicles are ex- tracts from the records of succeeding prophets concerning their own times, and also from the public genealogical tables made by Ezra ; that the books of Ezra and Nehemiah are collections of similar records, some written by Ezra and Nehemiah, and some by their predecessors ; that the book of Esther was written by some eminent Jew, who lived in or near the times of the transactions therein recorded, most probably by Ezra, though some think Mordecai to have been its author; the book of Job, by a Jew, most probably Moses ; the Psalms, by David, Asaph, and other pious persons ; the books of Proverbs, the Canticles, and Ecclesiastes, by Solomon ; and the prophetical books, by the prophets whose names they bear.
(6.) Let us now consider the evidence of testimony for the authen- ticity of the books of the Old Testament. As the Jews were a more ancient people than the Greeks or Romans, and were for many ages totally unconnected with them, it is not to be expected that we should derive much evidence from the historians of those nations : it is to the Jews principally that we must look for information. The uniform belief, indeed, of all Christians, from the very commencement of Christianity to the present time, has considered the books above enumerated to have constituted the whole of the Old Testament: and the catalogues of them, which were formed by the author of the synopsis attributed to Athanasius'^, by Epiphanius*, and Jerome*, (towards the close of the fourth century,) by Origen^, (in the middle of the third century,) and Melito Bishop of Sardis '', (towards the close of the second century,) all agree with the above enumeration. To these vv^e may add the testimonies of the Greek translators of the Old Testament, Aquila, Theodotion, and Symmachus, who lived towards the close of the second century, and that of the Peschito or
' Joscphus contr. Apion. lib. i. § 8. Oiigen's Philocalia, cited in Euscbius's Hist. Eccl. lib. vi. c. 25.
'-' Tliis subject is discussed iiifva, Vol. IV. in the critical prefaces to each book.
3 Athanasii 0|)era, torn. ii. pp. 126 — 204. Dr. Lardner has given the most material extracts from this synopsis, respecting the canon of Scripture. Works, Svo, vol. iv. pp. 290, 291. ; 4to. voi.ii. p. 404.
■* Hanes. xxix. Op. tom. 1. p. 122, el seq.
5 In his Frologics Gcileaius and Epist. ad PanUnum.
6 Op. torn. ii. p. 529., and in Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. lib. vi. c. 25.
7 Apud Euscbiiim, Hist. Eccl. lib. vi. c, 2G.
Sect. I.] Oftlie Old Testament. 43
old Syriac version, executed very early in the second, if not at the close of the first century of the Christian aera. Here the Jewish testimonies join us. Not to enter into any minute details concerning the several Targums or Chaldee paraphrases^ on various parts of the Old Testament, which were compiled between the third and ninth centuries of the Christian aera, nor the .Jerusalem and Babylonish Talmuds or Commentaries upon the Misna or Traditions of the Jews: — PiiiLO, an Egyptian Jew'^, (who lived in S\\Q.Jirst century of the Christian aera) quoted as having canonical authority, no other books than those which are contained in the Hebrew Bible, and whicli alone were acknowledged by the Jews of Palestine.
Philo, it is true, in none of his writings, gives an express notice of the canon of the Old Testament ; but in very numerous scattered passages he has indicated his own opinion, and probably also the opinion of his contemporaries concerning the merit and importance of each of the books which formed part of that canon. M. Hornemann^, who carefully read and examined all Philo's works, for the sole pur- pose of ascertaining his opinion on the canon of the Old Testament, divides the books of the Old Testament, according to Philo's expres- sions, into three classes, viz. 1 . Books cited with the express remark that they are divine : in this class 'are found the Pentateuch, the book of Joshua, the first book of Samuel, Ezra, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Zechariah, the Psalms, and the Proverbs. 2. Books cited 'without anrj notice of their divine origin : this class contains the book of Judges, Job, the first book of Kings, and several detached Psalms. 3. Books not mentioned by Philo^ viz. Nehemiah, Ruth, Esther, the two books of Chronicles, Daniel, the Lamentations of Jeremiah, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon.
To the books, to which Philo expressly ascribes a divine origin, we must probably add the second book of Samuel and the two books of Kings, these three books forming only 07ie with the first book of Samuel, which Philo calls divine. Of the twelve minor prophets, he cites only two as inspired : and it is certain that the twelve formed only one book. As he never quotes the apocryphal books, we may therefore place all the books of the Old Testament, which he ex- pressly quotes, into one class, viz. that of the books which he ac- counted sacred; and this class, according to the preceding observ- ations, is composed of the five books of Moses, Joshua, Judges, 1&2 Samuel, 1&2 Kings, Ezra, Isaiah, Jeremiah, the twelve minor
' The Targums here alluded to are those called the Jerusalem Targum, and the Tar- gum of the Pbcudo- Jonathan, on the Pentateuch ; that on the Cetubim, or Holy writhigs (comprising the books of Psalms, Proverbs, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Chronicles, tlie Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther), the Targum on the Megilloth (comprising the five last-meniioned books), three on the book of Esther, and one on the books of Chronicles. See an account of these Targums, infra, Vol. II. Part I. Chap. II. Sect. I.
- De Vita Mosis, lib. ii. The passage of Philo here referred to, and also the other testimonies above cited, are given at full length (with soine additional evidences from Christian writers) by Schmidius, in his claliorate Hisforia Antiqua et Vindicatio Canoiiis Sacri Veteris et Novi Testament!, pp. 129 — 1S9. 8vo. Lipsia?, 1775.
3 C. F. Hornemann, Obscrvationes ad IJlustrationcm Doctrinajde Canone Veteris Tcs- tamenti ex Philonc. Hauniw, 1778, 8vo.
44 On the Genuineness and Authenticity [Ch. IL
prophets, the Psalms, Proverbs, and Job. The other books may have formed part of the cation of the Egyptian Jews. Ruth was an appendix to the book of Judges ; Nehemiah to die second part of Ezra; and the Lamentations of Jeremiah might be joined to his prophecies. But the silence of Philo concerning any book, proves nothing against its canonical authority, if it be not contradicted or overturned by other positive proofs. ^
We now proceed to a testimony, which, though concise, is more important than any of the pi'eceding, the testimony of Josephus, who was himself a Jewish pi'iest, and also contemporary with the apostles.'^ Following the enumeration above accounted for, he says, in his treatise against Apion^, " We have not thousands of books, discordant, and contradicting each other ; but we have only t'ooenty- twoy which comprehend the history of all former ages, and are justly regarded as divine. Five of them proceed from Moses; they include as well the Laws, as an account of the creation of man, extending to the time of his (Moses's) death. This period comprehends nearly three thousand years. From the death of Moses to that of Arta- xerxes, who was king of Persia after Xerxes, the Prophets, who suc- ceeded Moses, committed to writing, in thirteen books, what was done in their days. The remaining four books contain Hymns to God (the Psalms) and instructions of life for man.'"*
The threefold division of the Old Testament into the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms, mentioned by Josephus, was expressly recognised before his time by Jesus Christ, as well as by the sub- sequent writers of the New Testament.^ We have therefore sufficient evidence that the Old Testament existed at that time ; and if it be only allowed that Jesus Christ was a person of a virtuous and irre- proachable character, it must be acknowledged that we draw a fair conclusion, when we assert that the Scriptures were not corrupted in his time : for, when he accused the Pharisees of making the law of no effect by their traditions, and when he enjoined his hearers to search the Scriptures, he could not have failed to mention the cor- ruptions or forgeries of Scripture, if any had existed in that age. About fifty years before the time of Christ were written the Targums
' Melanges de Religion, &c. torn. ix. p. 188 — 191. Nismes, 1824. Bvo.
2 Of these Talmuds, as well as of the writings and character of Josephus, a particular account will be found i;i/"ra, Vol. II. Part. I. Chap, V. § II, III. " Josephus was born about the year 37 of the Christian ffira ; and therefore, though much younger than the apostles, must still have been contemporary with many of them, especially with St. Paul, St. Peter, and St. John." — Bp. Marsh's Comparative "View of the Churches of England and Rome, p. 107.
3 Lib. i. § 8. tom. ii. p. 441. ed. Havercamp,
4 On the canon of Jewish Scripture according to the testimonies of Philo and Jose- phus, see further, Bp. Marsh's Divinity Lectures, Part vii. Lectures xxxiii. and xxxiv. pp. 17—50.
5 Among very many passages that might be adduced, see Matt. xi. 13. and xxii. 40. Luke, xvi. 16. XX. 42. xxiv. 25. 44. Acts, i. 20. iii. 22. vii. 35 — 37. xxvi. 22. and xxviii. 23. Rom. X. 5. 2 Cor. iii. 7 — 15. 2 Tim. iii. 14 — 17. Heb. vii. 14. and x. 28. An in- spection of the chapter on the Quotations from the Old Testament in the New (see Vol. II. " Part I. Chap.VII.) will furnish abundant proofs that the Jewish canon, in the time of Jesus Christ and his apostles, contained the same books which now constitute our Old Testament.
Sect. I.] Of the Old Testament. '^ 45
of Onkelos on tlie Pentateuch, and of Jonathan Ben-Uzziel on the Prophets (according to the Jewish classification of the books of the Old Testament) ; which are evidence of the genuineness of those books at that time.
We have, however, unquestionable testimony of the genuineness of the Old Testament, in the Jacf, that its canon was fixed some cen- turies before the birth of Jesus Christ. Jesus tlie son of Sirach, author of the book of Ecclesiasticus, makes evident references to the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and mentions these pro- phets by name ; he speaks also of the twelve minor prophets. It like- wise appears from the prologue to that book, that the law and the prophets, and other antient books, were extant at the same period. The book of Ecclesiasticus, according to the best chronologers, was written in the Syro-Chaldaic dialect, about a. m. 3772, that is, tivo himdred and thirty-two years before the Christian aera, and was translated by the grandson of Jesus into Greek, for the use of the Alexandrian Jews. The prologue was added by the translator, but this circumstance does not diminish the evidence for the antiquity of the Old Testament : for he informs us, that the Law and the Pro- phets, and the other books of their fathers, were studied by his grand- father; a sufficient proof that they were extant in his time.
(6.) Fifty years, indeed, before the age of the author of Ecclesi- asticus, or two hundred and eighty-two years before the Christian aera, the Greek version of the Old Testament, usually called the Septuagint, was executed at Alexandria, the books of which are the same as in our Bibles ; whence it is evident that we still have those identical books, which the most antient Jews attested to be genuine, — a benefit this which has not happened to any antient profane books whatever. Indeed, as no authentic books of a more antient date, except those of the Old Testament, are extant, it is impossible to ascend higher in search of testimony. The evidence, indeed, which we have ad- duced, is not merely that of the more modern Jews: — it is also that of the most antient, as is manifest from this circumstance, that the latter of these books always recognise others as known to be more antient, and almost every where cite them by name : whence it is evident that those antient authors long since received testimony from their ancestors, that those more antient books were the genuine works of the authors whose names they bear.
2. Strong — we may add indisputable — as this external evidence of the genuineness of the Old Testament unquestionably is, the In- ternal Evidence arising from the consideration of the language, style, manner of m-riting, and also from the circumstantiality of the narratives contained in the Books of the Old Testament, is an equally decisive and incontestable argument for their genuineness, and also to show that they were not and could not be invented by one impostor, or by several contemporary impostors, or by several successive impostors.
(1.) The Language, Style, and Mannei- of Writing, used i?i the hooks of the Old Testament, are internal arguments of their genuine- ness-, and prove not only that they must have been written by different
46 On the Genuineness and Authenticity [Ch. II.
jpersons, but also enable us 'with precision to ascertain a time, at or before which they must have been composed. ^
The Hebrew language, in which the Old Testament was written, being the language of an antient people, that had little intercourse with their neighbours, and whose neighbours also spoke a language which had great affinity with their own, would not change so rapidly as modern lan- guages have done, since nations have been variously intermingled, and since arts, sciences, and commerce have been so greatly extended. Yet, since no language continues stationary, there must necessarily be some changes in the period of time^ that elapsed between Moses and Mala- chi.3 If, therefore, on comparing the different parts of the Hebrevv Bible, the character and style of the language are found to differ (which critical Hebrevv scholars have proved to be the case), we have strong in- ternal criteria that the different books of the Old Testament were com- posed at different and distant periods ; and consequently a considerable argument may thence be deduced in favour of their genuineness. Fur- ther, the books of the Old Testament have too considerable a diversity of style to be the work either of one Jew (for a Jciv he must have been on account of the language), or of any set of contemporary Jews. If, therefore, they be all forgeries, there must have been a succession of im- postors in different ages, who have concurred to impose upon posterity, which is inconceivable. To suppose part to be forged, and part to be genuine, is very harsh ; neither would this supposition, if admitted, be satisfactory.
Again, the Hebrew language ceased to be spoken as a living language soon after the Babylonish captivity ; but it would be difficult or impos- sible to forge any thing in it, cifter it was become a dead language. All the books of the Old Testament must, therefore, be nearly as antient as the Babylonish captivity; and since they could not ail be written in the same age, some must be considerably more antient, which would bring us back again to a succession of conspiring impostors. Lastly, the simpli- city of style and unaffected manner of writing, which pervade all the books of the Old Testament (with the exception of such parts as are poetical and prophetical), are a very strong evidence of their genuineness, even exclusively of the suitableness of this circumstance to the times of the supposed authors. Not one of these criteria is applicable to the books which in some editions are attached to the Old Testament under the title of the Apocrypha : for they never were extant in Hebrew, neither are they quoted in the New Testament, or by the Jewish writers, Philo and Josephus; on the contrary, they contain many things which are fabulous, false, and contradictory to the canonical Scriptures.-*
1 For this view of the internal evidence of the genuineness of the Old Testament, the author is chiefly indebted to the observations of the profound and ingenious philosopher David Hartley (on Man, vol. ii. pp. 97 — 104.), and of the learned and accurate professor Jahn (Introductio in Libros Sacros Veteris Foederis, pp. IS — 28.)
'•i The departure of the Israelites from Egypt, under the direction of Moses, took place in the year of the world 2513, or before Christ 1491. Malachi delivered his predictions under Nehemiah's second government of Judea, between the years 436 and 420 before the Christian a;ra. The interval of time, therefore, that elapsed between them is between 1071 and 1055 years; or, if we reckon from the death of Moses (a. m. 2555) e. c. 1451, it is from 1015 to 1031 years.
3 An account of the various changes in the Hebrew language is given, hifra. Vol. II. Parti. Chap. I. Sect. I.
•* The arguments against the genuineness of the Apocryplial books, which are here ne- cessarily touched with brevity, will be found discussed at length infra, in the Appendix to this Volume, No. I. Sect. I.
Sect. I.] Of the Old Testament. 47
(2.) The vei-y great numher of Particular Circumstances of Time, Place, Persons, S^x. mentioned in the hooks of the Old Testament, is another argument both of their genuineness and authenticity.
A statement of tlie principal heads, under which these particular circumstances may be classed, will enable the reader fully to appre- hend the force of this internal evidence.
There are, then, mentioned in the book of Genesis, the rivers of Para- dise, the generations of the antediluvian patriarchs, the deluge with its circumstances, the place where the ark rested, the building of the tower of Babel, the confusion of tongues, the dispersion of mankind, or the division of the earth amongst the posterity of Shem, Ham, and Japhet, the generations of the post-diluvian patriarchs, with the gradual shorten- ing of human life after the flood, the sojournings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with many particulars of the state of Canaan and the neighbour- ing countries in their times, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the state of the land of Edom, both before and after Esau's time, and the descent of Jacob into Egypt, with the state of Egypt before Moses's time. — In fine, we have in this book the infancy and youth of the human race, together with the gradual and successive progress of civilisation and society, delineated with singular minuteness and accu- racy.
In the book of Exodus are recorded the plagues of Egypt, the institu- tion of the passover, the passage through the Red Sea, with the destruc- tion of Pharaoh and his host there, the miracle of manna, the victory over the Amalekites, the solemn delivery of the law from mount Sinai, many particular laws both moral and ceremonial, the worship of tiie golden calf, and a very minute description of the tabernacle, priests' garments, ark, &c. — In Leviticus we have a collection of ceremonial laws, with all their particularities, and an account of the deaths of Nadab and Abihu. — The book o^ Numbers contains the first and second num- berings of the several tribes, with their genealogies, the peculiar offices of the three several families of the Levites, many ceremonial laws, the journeyings and encampments of the people in the wilderness daring forty years, with the relation of some remarkable events which happened in this period ; as the searching of the land, the rebellion of Korah, the victories over Arad, Sihon, and Og, with the division of the kingdoms of the two last among the Gadites, Reubenites, and Manassites, the history of Balak and Balaam, and the victory over the Midianites; all of which are described with the several particularities of time, place, and persons. — The book of Deuteronomi/ contains a recapitulation of many things comprised in the three last books, with a second delivery of the law, chiefly the moral one, by Moses, upon the borders of Canaan, just before his death.
In the book oi' Joshua, we have the passage over Jordan, the conquest of the land of Canaan in detail, and the division of it among the tribes, including a minute geographical description. — The book of Juds^es recites a great variety of public transactions, with the private origin of some. In all, the names of times, places, and persons, both among the Israelites, and the neighbouring nations, are noted with particularit}^ and
simplicit}'^ In the book of Ruth is a very particular account of the
genealogy of David, with several incidental circumstances. — The books of Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, contain the transac- tions of the kings before the captivity, and governors afterwards, all delivered in the same circumstantial manner. And here the particular
46 On the Genuineness and Authenticity [Ch.IL
account of the regulations, sacred and civil, established by David, and of the building of the temple by Solomon, the genealogies given in the beginning of the first book of Chronicles, and the lists of the persons who returned, sealed, &c. after the captivity, in the books of Ezra and Nehe- miah, deserve especial notice, in the light in which we are now consider- ing things. — The book of Esther contains a like account of a very remarkable event, with the institution of a festival in memory of it.
The book of Psalms mentions many historical facts in an incidental way ; and this, with the books of Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Canti- cles, allude to the manners and customs of antient times in various ways. In the Prophecies there are some historical relations ; and in the other parts the indirect mention of facts, times, places, and persons, is inter- woven with the predictions in the most copious and circumstantial manner.
From the preceding statements, we may observe, First, that, in fact, we do not ever find that forged or false accounts of things superabound thus in particularities. There is always some truth where there are con- siderable particularities related, and they always seem to bear some pro- portion to one another. Thus there is a great want of the particulars of time, place, and persons in Manetho's account of the Egyptian dynas- ties, Ctesias's of the Assyrian kings, and those which the technical chro- nologers have given of the antient kingdoms of Greece ; and, agreeably thereto, these accounts have much fiction and falsehood, with some truth : whereas Thucydides's history of the Peloponnesian war, and Csesar's of the war in Gaul, in both which the particulars of time, place, and persons are mentioned, are universally esteemed true, to a great de- gree of exactness. — Secondly, a forger, or a relater of falsehoods, would be careful not to mention so great a number of particulars, since this would be to put into his reader's hands criteria whereby to detect him. Thus we may see one reason of the fact mentioned in the last pa- ragraph, and which in confirming that fact, confirms the proposition here to be proved. — Thirdly, a forger, or a relater of falsehoods, could scarcely furnish such lists of particulars. It is easy to conceive how faithful records kept from time to time by persons concerned in the transactions should contain such lists ; nay it is natural to expect them in this case, from that local memory which takes strong possession of the fancy in those who have been present at transactions.; but it would be a work of the highest invention and greatest stretch of genius to raise from nothing such numberless particularities, as are almost every where to be met with in the Scriptures. — Fourthly, if we could suppose the persons who forged the books of the Old and New Testaments to have furnished their readers with the great variety of particulars above mentioned, not- withstanding the two reasons here alleged against it, we cannot however conceive but that the persons of those times when the books were pub- lished, must by the help of these criteria have detected and exposed the forgeries or falsehoods. For these criteria are so attested by allowed facts, as at this time, and in this remote corner of the world, to establish the truth and genuineness of the Scriptures, as may appear even from this chapter, and much more from the writings of commentators, sacred critics, and such other learned men as have given the historical evidences for revealed religion in detail ; and, by parity of reason, they would suffice even now to detect the fraud, were there any : whence we may conclude, k fortiori, that they must have enabled the persons who were upon the spot, when the books were published, to do this ; and the im- portance of many of the particulars recorded, as well as of many of the precepts, observances, and renunciations enjoined, would furnish thera •with abundant motives for this purpose.
Sect. I.] Of the Old Testament. 49
Upon the whole, therefore, we conclude, that the very great number of particulars of time, i)lace, pei'sons, &c. mentioned in the Old Testament, is a proof of its frenuineness and truth, even inde- pendently of the consideration of the agreement of these particulars with history, both natural and civil, and with one another; which agreement will be discussed in the following chapter ^ as a confirm- ation of the credibility of the writers of the Old Testament.
III. Notwithstanding the conclusiveness of the preceding argu- ments for the genuineness of the Old Testament coZ/t'c//u^/;/, attempts have been made of late years to impugn it, by undermining the genuineness and antiquit}' o^ particular books, especially of the Pen- tateuch, or five books which are ascribed to Moses : for, as tlie four last of these books are the basis of the Jewish dispensation, which was introductory to Christianity, if the Pentateuch could be proved to be neither genuine nor authentic, the genuineness and authenticity of the other books of the Old Testament, in consequence of their mu- tual and immediate dependence upon each other, must necessarily fall.
That the Pentateuch was written by the great legislator of the He- brews, by whom it was addressed to his contemporaries, and conse- quently was not, nor could be, the production of later times, vve are authorised to affirm from a series of testimonies, which, whether we consider them together or separately, form such a body of evidence, as can be adduced for the productions of no antient profane writers whatever : for, let it be considered what are the marks and cha- racters, which prove the genuineness and authenticity of the works of any antient author, and the same arguments may be urged with equal, if not with greater force, in favour of the writings of Moses.
1. The Laa^GUAGE in ivhich the Pentateuch is ivritten, is a proof of its gemdneness and authenticity.
" It is an undeniable fact, that Hebrew ceased to be the living lan- guage of the Jevvs soon after the Babylonish captivity, and that the Jewish productions after that period were in general either Chaldee or Greek. The Jews of Palestine, some ages before the appearance of our Saviour, were unable to comprehend the Hebrew original without the assistance of a Chaldee paraphrase ; and it was necessary to undertake a Greek translation, because that language alone was known to the Jews of Alexandria. It necessarily follows, therefore, that every book which is written in 'pure Hebrew, was composed either before or about the time of the Babylonish captivity. ^ This being admitted, we may advance a step further, and contend, that the period which elapsed between the composition of the most antient and the most modern book of the Old Testament was very considerable ; or, in other words, that the most antient books of the Old Testament were written a length of ages prior to the Babylonish captivity. No language continues during maisy cen- turies in the same state of cultivation, and the Hebrew, like other tongues, passed through the several stages of infancy, youth, manhood, and old age. If, therefore, (as we have already remarked,) on comparison, the several parts of the Hebrew Bible are found to differ, not only in regard
1 See Chapter III. Section II. and Chapter V. Section II, infra. " See Doederlein Institutio Theologi Christiani, sect. 38. torn, i. p. 105. Noriir.berga?, 1778.
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50 On the Genuineness and Authenticity [Ch. II.
to style, but also in regard to character and cultivation of language; if one discovers the golden, another the silver, a third a brazen, a fourth the iron age, we have strong internal marks of their having been com- posed at different and distant periods. No classical scholar, independ- ently of the Grecian history, would believe that the poems ascribed to Homer were written in the age of Demosthenes, the orations of Demos- thenes in the time of Origen, or the commentaries of Origen in the days of Lascaris and Chrysoloras. For the very same reason it is certain that the five books, which are ascribed to Moses, v.'ere not written in the time of David, the Psalms of David in the age of Isaiah, nor the prophe- cies of -Isaiah in the time of Malachi. But it appears from what has been said above, in regard to the extinction of the Hebrew language, that the book of Malachi could not have been written much later than the Babylonish captivity ; before that period, therefore, were written the prophecies of Isaiah, still earlier the Psalms of David, and much earlier than these the books which are ascribed to Moses. There is no pre- sumption, therefore, whatsoever, a priori, that Moses was not the author or compiler of the Pentateuch." ^ And the ignorance of the assertion, which has lately been made — that the Hebrew language is a compound of th« Syriac, Arabic, and Chaldee languages, and a distortion of each of them with other provincial dialects and languages that were spoken by adjoining nations, by whom the Jews had at various times been subdued and led captive, — is only surpassed by its falsehood and its absurdity.
2. But further, the four last books of Moses contain " a system of ceremonial aiid moral la'ws^ "which, miless "we reject the authority o/'all history, "mere observed by the Israelites from the time of their departure out of Egypt till their dispersion at the taking of Jerusalem.
" These Laws therefore are as antient as the conquest of Palestine. It is also an undeniable historical fact, that the Jev/s in every age believed that their ancestors had received them from the hand of Moses, and that these laws were the basis of their political and religious institutions, as long as they continued to be a people." ^ Things of private concern may easily be counterfeited, but not the laws and constitution of a whole country. It would, indeed, have been impossible to forge the civil and religious code of the Jews without detection ; for their civil and religious polity are so blended and interwoven together, that the one cannot be separated from the other. They must, therefore, have been established at the same time, and derived from the same original ; and both together evince the impossibility of any forgery more than either of them could singly. The religion and government of a people cannot be new modelled. 'Further, many of the institutions, contained in the ceremonial and moral laws given to the Jews by Moses, were so burthen- some, and some of them (humanly speaking) were so hazardous, or rather «o certainly ruinous to any nation not secured by an exti-aordinary pro- vidence correspondent to them — especially those relating to the sab- batical year, the resort of all the males to Jerusalem anmially at the three great festivals, and the prohibition of cavalry — that forged books, con- taining such precepts, would have been rejected with the utmost abhor- rence. As the vvhole Jewish people were made the depositories and keepers of their laws, it is impossible to conceive that any nation, with