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Accessions No.
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NEW RELIGIOUS BOOKS, FOR GENERAL READING
J. & J. HARPER, NEW-YORK,
HAVE NOW IN THE COURSE OF REPUBLICATION,
THE
THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY.
THIS PITBLICATION WILL BB COMPRISED IN A LIMITED NUMBER OF
VOLUMES, AND IS INTENDED TO FORM, WHEN COMPLETED,
A DIGESTED SYSTEM OF RELIGIOUS AND
ECCLESIASTICAL KNOWLEDGE.
THE FIRST NUMBER (NOW PUBLISHED) CONTAINS
THE LIFE OF WICLIF.
BY CHARLES WEBB LE BAS, M.A.
Professor in the East India College, Herts ; and late Fellow of Trinity
College, Cambridge.
IN ONE VOLUME. EMBELLISHED WITH ▲ PORTRAIT OF WICLIF,
VOLUMES IN PREPARATION.
THE CONSISTENCY OF THE WHOLE SCHEME OF REVELA-
TION WITH ITSELF, AND WITH HUMAN REASON.
By p. N. Shuttleworth, D.D.
arden of New College, Oxford. (In Press.)
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
By Joseph Blanco White, M.A
Of the University of Oxford.
HISTORY OF THE PRINCIPAL COUNCIL'S.
By J. H. Newman, M.A.
Fellow of Oriel College, Oxfwd.
THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY (continued).
THE LIVES OF THE CONTINENTAL REFORMERS
No. I. LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHBR.
Bv HroH James Rosie, B.D.
Christian Advocate in the University of Cambridge.
THE LATER DAYS OF THE JEWISH POLITY:
With a copious Introduction and Notes (chiefly derived from the Tal-
mudists and Rabbinical Writers). With a view to illustrate
the Language, the Manners, and general Ilistorv
cf the Nkw Testament.
By TtJOMAs Mitchell, Esq. A.M.
Late Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN IRELAND.
Bv C. R. Elringtov, D.U.
Regius Professor of Divinity m the University of Dublin.
THE DIVINE ORIGIN OF THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION
demonstrated in an analytical Inquiry into the Evidence on which the
Belief of Christianity has been established.
By William Rowe LvAf.i , M.A.
Archdeacon of Colchester, and Rector of Fairstead and Weeley in Essex.
HISTORY OF THE REFORMED RELIGION IN FRANCE.
By Edward Smkbi.ey, M.A.
Late Fellow of Sidney Susisex College, Cambridge.
ILLUSTRATIONS OF EASTERN MANNERS, SCRIPTURAL
PHRASEOLOGY, &c.
Bv Samhkl Lkk, B.D. F.R.S. M.R.A.S.
Regius Professor of Hebrew in the University of Cambridge.
HISTORY OF SECTS.
Bv F. E. Thompson, M.A.
Perpetual Curate of Brentford.
SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF LITURGIES:
comprising a Particular Account of the Liturgy of the Church of
England.
By Hknry John Rosk, B.D.
Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
By Mii;hael Russell, LL.D.
Author of the " Connexion of Sacred and Profane History
THE LIFE OF GROTIUS.
By James Nichols, F.S.A.
Author of Arminianism and CalvinisT Ci^cuiuired.''
Harper^s Stereotype Edition,
CONSISTENCY
OF
THE WHOLE SCHEME
OF
REYELATION
WITH
ITSELF AND WITH
HUMANr REASON.
PHILIP NICHOLAS Sl^UTTLEWORTH, D.D.
Warden of New College, Oxford, and Rector of Foxley, Wilto.
NEW-YORK :
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY J. & J. HARPER,
NO. 82 CLIFF-STREET,
AND SOLD BY THE PRINCIPAL BOOKSELLERS THROUQHOUT
THE UNITED STATES.
niff^
O^ THB
[XJNIV^ESITYJ
I
SEEPAGE.
9
The object of the following dissertation is to do
justice to the internal evidences of Christianity,
by disencumbering them of the weight of that class
of objections which, though in popular discussion
generally considered as affecting the cause of reve-
lation exclusively, stand in reality in no need of
refutation, for the plain and simple reason that
they are applicable in exactly the same degree to
every possible modification of religion whatever.
There is certainly much confusion of idea dis-
played in the mode by which skeptics for the most
part make their assaults upon the credibility of
revelation. Of the arguments alleged by them,
far the greater proportion will usually be found to
militate against principles already admitted by
themselves, while almost all of them consist of
isolated and desultory attacks upon some detached
point of belief, rarely, if ever, at the same time
taking an enlarged and impartial survey of the
antagonist difficulties which attach to the opposite
view of the same question. It is obvious, how-
ever, to every person who has paid the slightest
attention to the topics of theology, that objections
which, when considered separately, appear per-
fectly unanswerable, may often lose the greater
A3
PREFACE.
part of their power of embarrassment when taken
as integral portions of a complex system, and even,
when viewed as a counterpoise to other proposi-
tions not less formidable, may contribute rather to
the removal than the suggestion of doubt. Natu-
ral no less than revealed religion, in fact, consists
of a mass of startling problems, each of which in-
dividually appears pregnant with insuperable diffi-
culty, and yet between the counteracting forces of
which our faith, whether as philosophical theists
or as devout Christians, must be content to pre-
serve its balance. Nothing, accordingly, is so easy
of achievement as the task undertaken by the in-
fidel, provided his object be to become the assail-
ant. He has only to limit the discussion to one
single view of a necessarily complex subject, and
the perplexities which immediately suggest them-
selves will, of course, so long as we confine our-
selves to the same restricted mode of defence,
exceed our means of disentanglement. The ob-
vious and, indeed, the only remedy for this species
of misapprehension, to which the natmal indolence
and the less venial passions of mankind too easily
dispose them, is that of acquiring, as much as
possible, the habit of looking upon the subject-
matter of our religious belief as an entire and con-
nected whole ; and of considering no one propo-
sition which it seems to involve as altogether in-
admissible until we have cautiously balanced it
against that contradictory dogma which, in case
of its rejection, we shall be obliged to substitute
in its place. It is surely, however, no breach of
charity to assert that the skeptical disputant against
revelation rarely, if ever, proceeds to this length ;
PREFACE. T
^nd yet, until he has done so, it is certain that he
has not given the grand question which he takes
upon himself to determine the consideration which
it deserves, and which it is fairly, in strict reason-
ing, capable of receiving. The object aimed at
in the ensuing • pages is, to expose the fallacy
involved in this mode of argument. In so short
a work, an attempt to give a general and con-
nected view of the internal evidences of our faith
must necessarily confine itself to the discussion of
the more general and prominent topics. It will,
however, answer its purpose, if, by affording to the
reader a comprehensive sketch of the main out-
line, it induces him to fill up the detail by pur-
suing that train of thought which the contempla-
tion of so interesting a subject cannot fail to sug-
gest. Even the most firmly-grounded faith in
this life being established rather upon a balance
between conflicting difficulties than upon positive
demonstration, it follows, that the wider we make
our intellectual range in examining the general
system of Providence, the more we become famil-
iarized with those astounding facts which form the
basis of every possible theological theory, and the
less we are in consequence disposed to be offended
with what we find to be rather the result of an
incurable defect in our own intellectual apprehen-
sions than a substantial refutation of our religious
creed. It is thus that in proportion as we advance
in practical knowledge, the more we perceive the
wisdom of that submission of the understanding in
certain cases, the idea of which is so offensive to
every beginner in the study of theology, but of
which no person who, by laborious experience,
8 PREFACE.
has learned the necessity of walking by faith will
be ashamed to make his profession. Certain, at
all events, it is, that the denial of Christianity
affords no escape whatever from most of the diffi-
culties with which, in the hasty judgment of man-
kind, it stands almost exclusively charged. To
every mind endued with the vital feeling of religion
sufficient evidtnce has been afforded by the mercy
of the Creator for every purpose of effective moral
probation, however inadequate it may be for the
gratification of mere curiosity : but the insatiable
spirit of skepticism, if it will pursue its course
rigorously and consistently to the last, has in
strictness no assignable resting-place or limit short
of the hopeless extreme of atheism itself.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER L
The Sentiments of Religion natural to the human Heart— -The natu-
ral Reason unequal to the Investigation of remote religious
Truth — A Revelation is therefore necessary — The authenticity
of any presumed Revelation to be determined Ufwn according to
external and internal Evidence— Christianity the only System of
religious Belief which is supported by any substantial Weight of
Proof W
CHAPTER n.
Of the Prejudices commonly entertained by Men of the World
against ReYelation tS
CHAPTER m
Of the Difficulties which attach in common to natural, no less than
revealed Religion; and of those which belong exclusively to
Christianity 38
CHAPTER IV.
Of the Necessity, as demonstrated by experience, of the Existence
of a written Revelation of the Divine Will 36
CHAPTER V.
Of the Mosaic History of the Creation 43
CHAPTER VI.
Of the Longevity of the antediluvian Generations 50
CHAPTER Vn.
Orthe Fall of our first Parents 51
CHAPTER Vni.
Of the History of the general Deluge, and the ConAisioo of Tongues 69
10 CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IX.
Bage
Of the internal Probability of the peculiar Revelation of the Divine
Will contained in tlie Je';vish Scriptures, and of the moral Ten-
dency of that Revelation 70
CHAPTER X.
Of the moral Tendency of the Levitical Institutions 86
CHAPTER XI.
Of the miraculous Incidents recorded by Moses 98
CHAPTER XII.
Of the internal Evidence of the Authenticity of the Books of Moses,
and of the other Jewish Scriptures 108
CHAPTER Xin.
Of the intenial Evidence of the Authenticity of the historical Books
of the Old Testament subsequent to Moses 120
CHAPTER XIV.
The same Subject continued 127
CHAPTER XV.
Further Observations upon the moral Tendency of the Levitical
Institutions 131
CHAPTER XVI.
Of the Evidence afforded to the Authenticity of the Levitical Insti-
tutions by the onerous Nature of its Ritual, and the present State
of the Jewish People 144
CHAPTER XVII.
Of the Tendency of the prophetic Books of the Old Testament. ... 150
CIUPTER xvin.
Consistency between the Covenant of Moses and that of Christ, as
having an Expiation for Sin as their leading Object — The Leviti-
cal Expiations were confessedly ineffectual — It must be pre-
sumed, therefore, that the great Purpose of the Gospel Dispensa-
tion was to correct this Deficiency — The popular Objections to
the Doctrine of Ctirist's Atonement examined 160
CHAPTER XIX.
Of the Divinity of Christ 184
CONTENTS. 11
CHAPTER XX.
Of Sdnotification by the Holy Spirit.
.%
CHAPTER XXI.
Of the practical Tendency of the Morality of the Gospel, and of the
extraordinary Gifts of the Holy Spirit 199
CHAPTER XXn.
Recapitulation of some of the foregoing Observations — The Scrip-
tural Doctrine of the Divinity of the Holy Spirit 204
CHAPTER XXm.
Of the Holy Trinity 208
CHAPTER XXIV.
Of the practical Tendency of the Christian Virtue of " Faith" 213
CHAPTER XXV.
Of ecclesiastical Authority anil Ordinances 218
CHAPTER XXVI.
Of the Miracles recorded in the New Testament 225
CHAPTER XXVII.
The Evidence of the Truth of Revelation afforded by the low Con-
dition in Life, the absence of literary Acquirements, and the Im-
possibility of Confederacy in its respective Promulgators 239
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Conclusion 214
THE
CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
WITH
HUMAN REASON.
CHAPTER I.
2%e sentiments of Religion natural to the human heart— TVie Na^
tural Reason unequal to the Investigation of remote Religious
Truth — A Revelation is therefore necessary— The authenticity of
any presumed Revelation to be determined upon according to
external and internal Evidence — Christianity the only system of
Religious Belief which is supported by any substantial weight of
procf.
All modifications of religious belief are, or at least
profess to be, solutions, so far as our means of informa-
tion extend, of the apparent anomalies discernible in
the works of Divine Providence, As, then, that reli-
gion can only be the true one which really accords
with those acknowledged facts in the physical and
moral universe, which are established by positive
experiment, it necessarily follows, that the true course
for arriving at a correct system of belief, is that of
studying our own nature carefully and impartially
under every possible aspect ; of ascertaining its real
and most prominent wants, and of determining which
of the many theories offered to its choice, most satis-
factorily accounts for the numerous perplexing cir-
cumstances which the most cursory survey cannot
fail to recognise in the existing order of nature. The
Christian dispensation will, we conceive, be found
upon inquiry, to be the one which best — it would, in
fact, be no exaggeration to say, which exclusively— r
2
14 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
answers to this test ; and to show that it does so,
will be the object of the following observations. The
question thus proposed for discussion is one of experi-
ment, in the strictest meaning of the term ; the basis
of the argument being not what a speculative imagin-
ation might suppose the constitution of the universe
to have been, had God so willed it, but what it actu-
ally and demonstrably is. The conclusion at which,
of course, we hope to arrive, will be, that upon that
practical basis no consistent system of theological
belief can be erected, excepting that for the possession
of which we are indebted to the Jewish and Christian
Scriptures. If those remote and mysterious conclu-
sions, which we derive from that Divine source, are
found strictly to harmonize in all their parts with the
facts previously established by the native faculties of
our minds, the probability in favour of its presumed
authenticity is at once established :— if every other
possible attempt at explication is found, upon examin-
ation, either to mis-state the primary truths of the con-
stitution of nature, or to fail in accounting for any of
its startling anomalies, the probability thus assumed
will amount to little short of certainty. Such is the
position which we trust that the Christian Revelation
will be found to occupy, if impartially examined, in
the first place, as a system of doctrines consistent
with itself, and with the acknowledged course of
nature ; and, secondly, when contrasted with those
various theories which have, from time to time, been
urged by ingenious men in opposition to it. The
question, we repeat, is one of strict experiment ; and
being such, we shall commence our observations by
advancing such assertions only as probably no reli-
gionists of whatever denomination will hesitate in
admitting.
No one fact, then, connected with the circumstances
of human nature would seem to be more completely
established by experience than that contained in the
Scriptural aphorism, that the heart of man is evil
WITH HUMAN REASON. 15
from his youth. This evil tendency is conspicuous,
not merely in the gross vices and ferocious habits of
the savage, or in the unsubdued passions of the com-
paratively ignorant members of more civilized com-
munities, but under every, the most plausible modi-
fication of society in its highest state of artificial
refinement. The same selfishness of motive, the
same worldliness of feeling, the same concentration
of the thoughts upon the trifling interests of sensual
gratifications of the present moment, with a reckless
indifference for the higher principles of morals, how-
ever disguised by the conventional decencies of society,
characterize our species to the last, wherever the
strong external stimulant of religion is wanting.
Yet, though such are the ordinary habits of our
nature when left to itself, nothing, on the other hand,
is more certain, than that the principle of religious
feeling is also natural to man, and suggests to him
one of his most prominent wants. Let his attention
once be diverted from its usual channel by some strong
moral excitement — let sickness or sorrow dissipate
for a moment the illusions of the bodily senses, — or
the intellectual powers, whether from curiosity or
some worthier motive, seriously occupy themselves
in the examination of the great questions connected
with our first origin, and with our ultimate destina-
tion, and a reverential feeling of devotion, accom-
panied by a consciousness of his own responsible
position, takes possession of him as a matter of course.
That the sentiment thus roused is not the production
of mere ignorance and superstition, is evident from
the circumstance that the accutest understandings
and the most exquisitely attempered dispositions are
most disposed to its influence. We have only to feel
it in order to be unanswerably convinced of its Divine
origin. The sensations thus excited are experimen-
tally the noblest and the purest of any that we are
conscious of possessing. The uniform mode of their
operation, in every variety of the human mind, is
16 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
again another prpof that they derive their origin from
the regular course of our natural constitution, and not
from the desultory suggestions of caprice. That, for
instance, the examination of the wonderful structure
of the universe leads us necessarily, by a direct and
unanswerable chain of inference, to the theory of an
intelligent and self-existent First Cause ; that a like
examination of our own intellectual operations and
perceptions leads us as necessarily to conclusions
favourable to the doctrine of the immateriality,* and,
therefore, probable immortality of the thinking prin-
ciple within us, and that the feeling which we denomi-
nate conscience, will, in exact proportion to the de-
gree in which we cultivate it, create a still increasing
* Every judgment which we can possibly form, after a careful examin-
ation of the operation of our minds, leads us to conclusions, perfectly
irreconcilable with the supposition of the soul's materiality. Not one
of the many phenomena of matter with which we are acquainted has the
slightest resemblance to those of thought and consciousness. But the
objection to the materialist theory does not terminate here. Admitting,
what it would be a mere gratuitous assumption to admit, that sensa-
tion might possibly be the result of mere corporeal organization, we
should still find ourselves unable to account for that conviction of our own
singleness and individuality which accompanies every exertion of our
thoughts. Why, we should still ask, if the soul is but an assemblage of
divisible parts mechanically adjusted, has not every sensory organ a dis-
tinct and peculiar consciousness exclusively and incommunicably its
own? What is the one indivisible entity which presides over the whole ;
which takes cognizance of, and pronounces judgment u{x>n, the various
animal and intellectual perceptions, and refers them all to itself? " Se
in un popoloo in un esercito," says Francesco Soave, "un sente fame,
uno sete, e questi ha caldo, e quel freddo, ed altri ha dolore in una mano,
altri inun piede o nel petto o nel capo, chi dira mai che il popolo o I'esercito
tanto insieme sia consapevole delle sensazioni che ha separatamente
ciascuno individuol
" Ne si pretenda che il paragone non valga, perch^ ogn' uomo e qui
eeparato da ogn' altro. Imperocche nel cervello ancora, e in qualunque
Esser composto, ogni minima parte ha un' esistenza cosi sua propria, e
distinta, e separata d' ogni altra, come qualunque uomo in un popolo o in
un' esercito
" Per qualunque verso dunque si prenda un Esser composto, e o si
consider! nel suo tutto, o nelle sue parti, h sempre assolutamente impos-
Bibile, ch' ei sia consapevole a se stesso di piu sensazioni e percezioni
eimultanee. E poichg noi di queste simultanee sensazioni e percezioni
a noi medesimi siam consapevoli realmente, ne vien d' assoluta necessity,
che oltre alia sostanza composta e materiale che forma il corpo, in noi
debba esistere un' altra sostanza diversa affatto da quella, ciog, non com-
posta, ma pura, unica, semplice, Indivisibile, che e quella che chiaraiamo
auimn o spirito."
WITH HUMAN REASON. 17
■susceptibility of moral apprehensions, and a conse-
quent conviction of the imputability of our actions,
are propositions, the truth of which it is impossible
to deny. Man, therefore, may be said to possess two
directly opposite characters, each of them in a cer-
tain sense equally natural : the one, that which exists
of itself, prior to any regular system of moral culti-
vation, and which is almost exclusively swayed by
animal instinct : the other, that which only waits to
be called forth by habits of discipline, and which is
sure to manifest itself the moment that circumstances
become favourable for its developement. Now, there
assuredly can be no doubt which of these two dissim-
ilar states is most worthy of our approbation, and
most accordant with the presumed wisdom of Him
who placed us in our present condition. The highest
possible elevation to which we can attain under the
former, is that of apparently inoffensive, and, perhaps,
not altogether unserviceable, members of society, con-
cealing the real selfishness of our disposition by the
conventional laws of decorum, and subduing our
natural ferocity by a sense of its inexpediency, but
with a strict limitation of all our hopes and fears
within the narrow limits of human life : whilst under
the latter, not only every external action, but also
every internal thought, is restrained by an efficient
control, and, instead of merely temporal and inferior
motives of conduct, others of a most vivid and un-
earthly character are substituted, ample in their scale
and character as eternity itself.
Still, however, whilst such is the general capability
of religious impression which we derive from our
natural constitution, it by no means follows from any
necessary deductions of our reasoning powers, what
ought to be the peculiar form and modification of that
system of belief which alone deserves to fall under
the high designation of true religion. That which
has reference to the system of the whole universe and
to the essential attributes of the Almighty mind itself^ is
2*
18 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
obviously incapable of being measured by the mere hu-
man intellect, taking for its rule and standard the few
facts supplied by its very limited experience in this
world. We may follow up inference after inference,
cautiously deducing remoter and less palpable truths
from those primary ones, which are more immediately
the result of our personal experience. But the in-
quiry very soon leads us beyond the utmost verge of
legitimate human knowledge. We feel, indeed, with
the most unhesitating certainty, that the stake of our
happiness is in some way or other interwoven with
those undeveloped mysteries which we strive to pene-
trate, but we are acquainted with no natural instru-
ments by which we can arrive at them. A powerful
instinct urges us forward, but our bewildered reason
strives in vain to keep pace with it. A correct sys-
tem of religion again, having, as was just now ob-
served, reference to the real circumstances of nature,
it follows as a matter of course, that some one modi-
fication of doctrine must be not only superior to all
others, but, as truth is self-consistent and immutable,
must be exclusive of all others : that is to say, it must
be true, and all the rest, so far as they do not consti-
tute an integral portion of it, must be necessarily
false. But how are we to arrive at the knowledge
what that one and exclusive modification of religion is?
This is an inquiry in which, indeed, our natural
intellectual powers must take their share, as even our
most vague conjectures must depend upon our reason-
ing faculties, in the last resort, for whatever degree
of probability they may possess ; but still it is per-
fectly vain for us to hope that the area of our spiritual
apprehensions can be widely extended by any talent
of discovery vested in the human mind itself. Mean-
while it is impossible to infer that God has given us
the need of religious sentiment, and yet denied to us
the means of gratification. Grant the existence of
the instinct, and the analogy of nature will assure us
that it was imparted for some definite end and object.
WITH HITMAN REASON. 19
Admitting, then, as two concurrent truths, the fact
of the necessity of religion to the human heart, with
that of the insufficiency of the human understanding
for its effectual acquisition, and we are driven, almost
of necessity, to the inference, that the wisdom and
goodness of our Maker would provide in some mode
or other for supplying the defect. It would seem,
then, that a communication from heaven, so far from
being intrinsically improbable, is, on the contrary,
what we might appear to have strong a priori reason
for expecting from the mercy of Providence; whilst
all that, under such circumstances, would remain for
our intellectual powers to perform in their own proper
department, would be to judge of the evidence of such
revelation as that now supposed, by the same rules
of probability derived from their really accessible
means of knowledge, which they would apply to every
other case of external testimony. This is undoubt-
edly the course of proceeding which the theory of
Christianity requires at our hand ; and it would be
difficult to show that, all the circumstances of our
nature considered, the demand which it thus makes
upon our obedience and belief, is repugnant to the
dictates of sound reason.
It appears then, if the foregoing propositions are
correct, that the idea of the one true religion neces-
sarily involves that of " an express revelation from
heaven ;" no natural operation of the mind of man
being capable of making him acquainted with those
phenomena of the invisible universe in which, not-
withstanding, he has a decided interest; whilst the
facts thus revealed, being many of them obviously
beyond the compass of the human faculties to appre-
ciate, are capable of being rendered objects of sub-
stantial belief, not by their own objective clearness,
but only by the " evidence'^ with which they may be
accompanied. One standard, indeed, our minds un-
doubtedly possess, which is and ought to be available
even in the transcendental dogmas of revelation, that
20 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
is to say, our moral sense, such as we have every
reason to believe that it has been implanted within
us by our Maker. No religion, under any external
weight of testimony whatever, can be admitted as the
true one, the principles of which are unequivocally op*-
posed to that faculty. Many revealed dogmas might,
and undoubtedly Avould, be found above its apprehen-
sion and that of our intellectual powers, but none would
be directly hostile to it. With this single exception
then — an exception, which, after all, we must have
recourse to only with extreme caution — we must be
prepared to receive that one system of religious
belief which we acknowledge as authentic, in the
form of an external communication, and not of any
discovery made by our own reasoning powers ; whilst
the evidence which will command our assent to it,
will be of that peculiar description which our limited
faculties are best able to apprehend, namely, the
accordance of the presumed revelation with the ac-
knowledged constitution and necessities of our own
nature, the dignity and worthiness of its object, its
internal consistency with itself as a whole and in all
its parts, and the confirmatory attestation of those
persons whose actual position as eye-witnesses, and
the known integrity of whose characters, put their
assertions beyond the reach of suspicion.
Admitting, then, that there exists somewhere an
authentic revelation of the Divine will (and if we
deny that fact we deny every one of the foregoing
propositions,) the question to be resolved is simply
this, " which of all the modes of opinion which have
assumed the name, is that revelation ?" Now it is
certainly not assuming too much, to assert that
Christianity alone has the slightest claim to that
character. The various religious opinions of man-
kind are matters of history. The events which first
suggested the leading and peculiar principle of each,
which fostered their growth, and gave them that hold
upon the minds of their supporters which in their
WITH HUMAN REASON. 21
several degrees they have respectively possessed, are
all such as may be readily accounted for by consider-
ing the peculiar habits of the societies in which they
severally arose, the worldly interests or national pre-
dilections which they served to cherish, the then ex-
isting state of comparative ignorance or literature,
and often the mistaken theories respecting the struc-
ture of the material universe, which subsequent dis-
coveries in science have effectually overthrown. Such
is undoubtedly the case with every modification of
religious belief with which we are acquainted, Chris-
tianity alone excepted. Every distinguishing charac-
teristic, on the contrary, of this latter religion, is
marked with peculiarities preeminently its own. It
is referrible to no natural causes with which we are
acquainted. Its first appearance was like that of a
comet entering our planetary system. We can
neither surmise from whence it comes, nor speculate
upon the far remote regions with which its destinies
are connected ; but we look up to it with awe, and,
in spite of our ignorance, feel a satisfied assurance
that its operations are among those which are under
the superintendence of infinite Wisdom. That, so
far from having the way prepared for it by the previous
habits of society, or by its accordance with human
notions and passions, it, on the contrary, made its
way in direct opposition to national prejudices, phi-
losophical theories, and above all, to the natural
sensuality and self-love of the human heart : — that it
professed to be supported by the most miraculous
deviations from the ordinary course of events, and yet
gained implicit credit from persons who could have no
interest in professing their belief in it if they knew it
to be false, and who, had it been false, had undoubt-
edly the means of its refutation in their own hands : —
that commencing from apparently the humblest of
all humble beginnings, possessed of no temporal
authority, and arrayed in none of our earthly notions
of " beauty that we should desire it," it, notwithstand-
2S CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
ing, spread rapidly over the whole civilized world,
and impressed an entirely new character upon human
society : — that during the space of eighteen centuries
it has sustained every shock which the violence of its
persecutors, the calumnies and arguments of its most
inveterate opponents, or the vices and superstitions
of its less informed followers could inflict upon it,
and that, at this moment, it stands entire ; assented
to in all points by a vast number of men of the most
enlightened minds, and by none more than by those
who have most sedulously examined its evidences : —
that, be it true, or be it false, it is an undoubted fact,
that the most valuable members of society, the most
perfect specimens of the human race, have been those
who have made its doctrines their rule of faith, its
injunctions the guide of their practice : — all these are
points which the Christian believer may unhesitat-
ingly assert as incontrovertible truths, and which, per-
haps, few professed sceptics would have the hardi-
hood to controvert. Why, then, having succeeded
thus far, has it not done still more ? To what are
we to attribute the slowness with which, in latter
times, this singular religion has made and continues
to make its way through the world ? Why, at every
step of its progress, is it opposed and impeded, not
merely by the violence of those passions which it is
its professed object to eradicate or control, but occa-
sionally also by the more plausible hostility of men
of seeming candour, of great literary acquirements,
and of apparently sound morals ?
This is a question which it is natural to put, and to
which it may appear difficult to return a satisfactory
answer. That men of enlightened minds should
despise a sensual, and detest a selfish or cruel code of
religion, seems natural and just. But that they should
assume a degree of merit in traducing the most single-
minded and self-denying of all practical rules of con-
duct, and that they should coalesce for the purpose of
bringing into disrepute the only seemingly well au-
WITH HUMAN REASON. 28i
thenticated revelation from heaven which would raise
us above the earth, and hold out the prospect of a happy
immortality, is a phenomenon which appears at first
sight perfectly inexplicable. To discuss this subject,
and to show that the blame is not justly attributable
to any want of reasonableness in the religion itself,
will be the object of the following remarks. Perhaps
it may appear in the sequel, that this very species of
hostility which Christianity has met with, is to be
considered among the strongest proofs of its unearthly
origin. Most assuredly it is the very kind of recep-
tion which Scripture has expressly declared that it
would receive from the passions and prejudices of
mankind.
CHAPTER II.
Of the Prejudices commonly entertained by Men of the World
against Revelation.
It is not necessary, in order to account for the rejec-
tion of Christianity by many persons of otherwise
cultivated minds, and by a very considerable portion
of mere men of the world, to suppose that they are
conscious to themselves of any calculated motives
of hostility, or any unusual laxity of morals. It
is enough that we know from Scripture and from
experience, that the natural heart of man is prone to
self-indulgence ; and as such is averse from the labour
of a painful investigation of abstract and mysterious
subjects, especially where the remuneration of that
labour is professedly not immediate, but the deferred
and uncertain allotment of a future state of existence.
The instinctive wants of the body are immediate in
their demands upon our attention, and are clamorous
if neglected; they require no painful tension of the
understanding to perceive their object, nor any great
24 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
ingenuity to attain to their gratification. There i»
an obvious and palpable connexion of cause and
effect between the pursuit of the thing sought for,
the acquisition of it, and the enjoyment resulting
from its possession. And what is thus true of our
corporeal pleasures, taken in their lowest stage, is
still no less true of them in their highest, however
plausibly they may be disguised by the refinements
of civilization, and even elevated by their association
with philosophy and science. Immediate fruition in
some shape or other, is equally the aim of all. To
persons in this disposition of mind, religion, with
Its long catalogue of abstruse propositions, of thin
abstractions, of immediate privations, and deferred
retributions, necessarily comes as an unwelcome
intruder. It never can be the case that they should
turn willingly from pursuits at once so apparently
natural and so attractive, to the impalpable and
obscure speculations of theology, more especially
when, in addition to the more vivid impression made
upon the imagination by temporal objects, and the
indolence which shuns all presumed unnecessary
inquiry, the heavy price is to be paid of a self-
denial, not only in the case of confessedly degrading
pleasures, but in that also of those which the
generality of mankind deem perfectly inoffensive-
This observation, it is true, seems to apply rather ta
the study of religion in general than to that of the
Christian revelation exclusively* But it should be
remembered, that if we once give up the theory of a
direct revelation, and leave each person to the peculiar
creed suggested by his own moral sense, every man's
religious speculations become, from that moment^
rather a matter of amusement than of painful coercion*
The ingenuity of self-love will invariably, in such
circumstances, adapt its speculations to its own tastes
and predilections, and will as assuredly contrive to
suggest some excuse for the indulgence of the pas-
sions as the pure code of Christianity is inflexible in
WITH HUMAN REASON. 26
restraining them. The real feeling of repugnance
begins then, and then only, when, instead of pursuing
our own visionary caprices, and misnaming them
religion, we are peremptorily required to adopt a
system of belief external to ourselves in its origin,
uncompromising in its injunctions, and unearthly in
its remunerations. There is a point of repulsion at
the very outset, in this latter case, which discourages
any mutual attempt at approximation in notions and
feelings thus little in unison. It matters not by what
weight of external or internal evidence such a creed
may chance to be supported, or how perfectly accord-
ant its data may be with the ultimate conclusions of
sound philosophy. In a case of this description the
average of worldly men make their election, not from
deep and painful calculation, but from the impulse of
the moment; and, having once taken their station
with this or that party, seek to tranquillize their
consciences and lull their fears, by occupying a kind
of neutral ground between vague admissions and
practical unbelief; while those of more courage, or
more acute talents, take the bolder step of becoming
at once the assailants, and attacking the credibility
of the doctrines, the obligations of which they would
evade.
Nothing can be more obvious than that any reli-
gion, however true, and even in a certain sense demon-
strably such, would have little chance of making
very numerous converts, if examined only in the
perfunctory and prejudiced manner now described.
Few truths are so attractive at their first aspect as
they appear eventually upon further discussion ; and
of all truths, those of theology are the least so. From
first to last it involves a tissue of seeming paradoxes,
into the admission of which we are eventually driven,
not so much from the light by which they are them-
selves surrounded, as by the anomalies, the contra-
dictions, the impossibilities, the total degradation of
our best and noblest feelings, which would be the
3
26 CONSISTENCY OF KEVELATION
necessary consequence of their rejection. "We cannot,
therefore, be surprised that truths of this kind, if
injudiciously stated, or indolently discussed, must
often fail of carrying conviction ! Nothing can be
easier thaa to make out a plausible case against
isolated portions of an intricate and mysterious theory
with auditors who, even if they possess natural talent
sufficient for the purpose, have, at all events, never
taken the trouble to examine its consistency as a
whole, and in the minds of a greater part of whom
a bias in the opposite direction may, without any
breach of charity, be presumed to exist : nor need we
accordingly be surprised, however we may be grieved,
to see a laugh raised against the supposed weakness
and superstition of speculative men by persons who
have never been taught to acknowledge any higher
standard of morals than that of social expediency, or
any wish beyond that of the gratification of the selfish
passions of pleasure, avarice, or ambition.
Such, however, is infidelity under its most common
aspect. In this deplorable stage of it, the first attempt
at cure must be made by the application of moral
rather than of intellectual medicines. The very
simplest effort of the attention is wanting, and that
is to be roused by alarming the fears and appealing
to the consciences of the respective parties before we
can have any chance of success from argumentative
discussion. It is, therefore, to unbelief of a higher
and more intellectual order that any more elaborate
exposition of the Christian evidences, as establishing
the reasonableness and consistency of revelation,
must be addressed. Now common candour obliges
us to admit, that acute reasoners, and humanly
speaking, amiable men, have undoubtedly existed
from time to time, who, having as they thought
impartially examined the arguments for and against
Christianity, have decided upon unbelief as the least
difficulty 01 the two; and who, without entertaining
any violent hostility against it as a system of opinions,
WITH HUMAN REASON. 27
have still asserted the incurable ignorance of the
human mind upon those mysterious topics, and jus-
tified, accordingly, their unwillingness to inquire
further by the assumption that all inquiry is mani-
festly useless. In order, therefore, to meet opponents
of this description, it may be desirable to examine
how far their peculiar class of objections weigh
against the doctrines of Christianity exclusively,
considering them, as in fact they are, a superaddition
to the fundamental principles of natural religion ; or,
on the other hand, how far they may be equally
valid against every modification of religion whatever.
Should the latter appear to be the case, it would
follow, either that their argument involves a fallacy,
as attributing exclusively to the revelation of Jesus
Christ an objection which applies equally elsewhere,
or it would prove more than themselves intend, by
showing that religion of every description, that of
pure unmixed theism not excepted, is a sentiment
alien to our nature. Few professed infidels, who
have not discarded all the restraints of conscience,
would, perhaps, be hardy enough to venture this
latter assertion. Yet scarcely any of them have had
the candour and good sense to remark, that by far the
greater number of attacks, which they profess to
direct solely against Christianity, strike directly, if
any where, at the basis of all religion whatever. This
confusion of ideas it is necessary to point out and
correct, if we would discuss the peculiar evidences
and merits of the Gospel accurately and fairly.
CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
CHAPTER III.
Of the difficulties which attach in common tc Natural, no less than
Revealed Religion; and of those which belong exclusively to
Christianity.
Christianity, then, may be contemplated in two
distinct points of view, both of them in their respec-
tive sense equally correct. It may be considered as a
whole and entire system of theology, having natural
theology for its basis, and revelation for its crown
and capital ; or it may be viewed in the light of a
corrective of the apparent anomalies, and as explana-
tory of the many difficulties, which perplex every,
the most rational theory of belief, in the absence of a
distinct revelation. According to the former mode of
seeing it, natural religion will seem to be concurrent
with it, and to constitute an integral portion of it ;
whilst, according to the latter, it will in some measure
be opposed to it. This distinction, we repeat, has
not been sufficiently remarked by those persons who
have assailed the doctrines of the Gospel. Professing
themselves to be sincere Theists, they have still
directed their assault so vaguely and indiscriminately
as to cut away from under their own feet the very
support upon which they have taken their stand.
That religion, including under that term the essential
doctrine of an all-wise and all-benevolent Ruler of
the universe, and of the soul's immortality, is natural
to cultivated and civilized man, they assert no less
confidently than ourselves. But though it is easy to
make this admission, and to fancy that we cordially
assent to it, it is by no means easy to anticipate all
the remote and perplexing inferences, which, if traced
systematically, step by step, necessarily result from it.
Those two main principles once granted, almost
every difficulty, which has been invidiously alleged
WITH HUMAN REASON. 29
as specially impugning the theory of the Gospel,
immediately assails the consistent Deist in the very
commencement of his inquiry. The beautiful me-
chanism of the universe evidently announces the
existence of an intelligent and benevolent Author.
Yet whence did that Almighty Author derive his own
eternal existence ? Until the rational Theist can see
his way through this primary difficulty, it is in vain
that he argues against the assumed improbability of
those facts superadded by revelation to the no less
inexplicable religion of nature. Suppose this great
riddle once satisfactorily solved; another equally
perplexing immediately presents itself. He who is
confessedly the great Cause, and author of all things,
would appear to be necessarily impassive in his
nature ; since it seems impossible to suppose that
any created object can be endued with such qualities
as to react forcibly, and by external agency, upon the
volition of its own Creator. Yet once admit this
seemingly obvious conclusion, and all those very moral
attributes of the Deity, which entitle him to our love
and reverence, and which the Theist professes to
assert as pertinaciously as the Christian, fall imme-
diately to the ground. An impassive and imperturba-
ble Supreme Being would, in reality, differ little from
the nominal deity of Epicurus. A universe might,
according to such an hypothesis, exist, (provided,
indeed, that the very supposition of a creation
emanating from a Creator thus isolated from external
objects, does not involve a contradiction) but the
Almighty mind could not, in such a case, be imagined
to exercise any moral, and scarcely any physical,
superintendence over it. Such a being might be
presumed to be necessarily occupied solely in the
contemplation of his own infinite perfections, and to
be incapable of all sympathy with us and our con-
cerns. Yet the doctrine of a Creator, thus indifferent
to the welfare of his creatures, is too monstrous to
meet with the patronage of any reasonable sceptic.
3*
90 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
How then does he make his way through this seem-
ingly inexplicable difficulty ? Merely by the fact that,
whilst his metaphysical theories suggest one thing,
his own moral sense, and all his better and sublimer
feelings, inculcate the directly opposite conclusion.
The sceptic, in the next place, admits the doctrine
of the soul's immortality, because without that ad-
mission, under the present unequal distribution of
worldly prosperity, religion itself were an empty
name. Yet press him with the consequences of this
assertion, ask him if the souls of the virtuous and the
wicked are alike immortal, what must be the distinc-
tion between their respective allotments in a future
state of existence ? and he shelters himself under the
general plea of ignorance ; in other words, he shrinks
from following the inquiry into all its consequences,
which, if so pursued, would necessarily lead him to
some conclusion not very remote from that which he
charges as a foremost blemish upon the Gospel.
Again, the existence of evil in all its forms, whether
moral, physical, or intellectual, is an enigma which
every Theist is bound to reconcile with his own self-
styled rational views of religion, or to confess that the
difficulties accompanying any peculiar modification of
belief do not necessarily afford a ground for rejecting
the evidences upon which it may chance to be built.
Whence originates the acknowledged inequality in
the dispensation of the good and evil things of this
life ? Why did an almighty and all-benevolent Being
(for such a Deity he professes to acknowledge) check
the operations of his goodness, and deal out happiness
in such scanty, pain and imperfection in such ample
proportions? Why was the human mind endowed
with such gigantic powers of apprehension, such high
and indefinite aspirations, whilst the circumstances in
which it is placed are such as to cause a vast waste
of unemployed faculties, and to suggest little more
than abortive schemes for the attainment of what
would seem imaginary good ?
WITH HUMAN REASON. K
What, again, does natural religion teach as a solu-
tion of that inextricable mystery, the compatibility of
free will with the operation of external motives, and
of God's foreknowledge, the ineffectual discussion of
which has brought unmerited obloquy upon Chris-
tianity, as though the difficulty had originated from
that source, or that the denial of revelation would
contribute any thing towards its removal?
The rationalist may, indeed, shut his eyes, and
choose not to see, or he may otherwise occupy his
thoughts and may really be not aware of the dark-
ness involved in the foregoing questions, but most
certainly that darkness is as old as philosophy itself.
If the Christian is more perplexed by discussions of
this nature than the mere Theist, it is only because
from the tremendous importance of his creed, his
mind has been rendered more anxious and contem*
plative, that reflection has become a more momentous
duty, and the current of his thoughts, in consequence,
been more systematically turned in that direction.
True, indeed, it is, that the mysteries here alluded to
are far from comprehending all that are involved in
the admission of the truth of Christianity. All that
is now asserted is, that it is both unfair and illogical
to lay exclusively to the charge of that peculiar form
of belief, perplexities which it shares in common
with every other modification of theistical inquiry,
and from which the adoption of the gross absurdities
and inconsistencies of even Atheism itself would
scarcely afford us a shelter. Without, then, pretend-
ing to deny that the Gospel revelation has difficulties
really and specially its own, we would merely urge
that it is those specific and peculiar difficulties, and no
other, which suggest a legitimate subject of discussion
to the sceptic. By a sober investigation of them,
then, let it be tried. The result, we are satisfied,
will be, that the additional enigmas which it pro-
poses, beyond those attaching to natural religion, are
act more in number than might be fairly anticipated
SE CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
from the wider survey of the Divine arrangements
which it affords to our minds, and the consequent
necessity for the supply of new matter for wonder
which this last supposition involves. We may add,
also, that if the perplexities which Christianity may
thus appear to have superadded to the religion of
nature be found, as assuredly many of them will be
found, to explain and remove some of those which
previously encumbered the principles of Theism ; such
explanations ought in fairness to be taken, so far as
they may go, as a set-off against the new difficulties
thus introduced, and as a diminution of their total
amount. This act of justice infidelity will, perhaps,
never be found to have voluntarily conceded, but it is
obviously claimable upon every sound principle of
argument. Let us illustrate this observation by
what, we know, occurs every day in the pursuits of
experimental philosophy.
If we might venture to speculate upon what might
be presumed a priori to be the probable effect of
sudden illumination of the human mind, on the
subject of the ^reat principles of religion, we should
naturally be disposed to expect a result perfectly
analogous with that which we know from experience
accompanies every similar enlargement of our appre-
hension of the objects of physical science : that is to
say, the mind would gain a step in advance, and
occupy a wider area of knowledge than before, but
at the same time the concurrent effect would be that
whilst some preexisting difficulties would be par-
tially, and others perhaps satisfactorily, explained,
the accumulation of new facts, thus occasioned, would
necessarily bring with it an accession of perplexity,
of which we were not aware in the earlier stage of
our progress. In the present state of the human
faculties, one source of doubt is removed only by the
inevitable introduction of another. A phenomenon
in chymistry or in natural history may be explained
by the discovery of some hitherto unknown principle,
WITH HUMAN REASON. 83
but that fresh discovery, whilst it serves as a key to
unlock former subjects of doubt, is itself quite as
perplexing as those which it has removed. It is
impossible to deny that Newton has truly explained
the phenomena of the planetary system, by referring
them to the universal law of gravitation. But this
discovery has only put us in possession of one link
the more in the eternal chain of consequences, so
that, instead of asking any longer what it is which
retains the heavenly bodies in, and gives re^larity
to, their respective courses, our question now is, what
is the principle which gives to all matter whatever,
its power of mutual and reciprocal attraction. The
subject matter of our knoAvledge is increased, but our
final ignorance remains the same. Our intellectual
horizon shifts as we advance, but the same mass of
clouds hangs to the last on its extreme verge.
With regard, then, to the admitted difficulties of
Christianity, it may be confidently asserted, that in
this respect the sceptic does not argue the matter
fairly. He assumes that a Divine revelation ought
necessarily to operate as a universal solution of pre-
existing doubt, whereas the infinite and stupendous
nature of the problems with which it has to do, and
the admitted fact of the very limited faculties of the
human mind, ought naturally to have suggested to
him the directly opposite conclusion. The idea of a
religion without mystery involves, in fact, little less
than a contradiction of terms. The science of theo-
logy, we repeat, is nothing more or less than that
course of inquiry by which, availing ourselves of
every clue which Providence has placed in our hands
for tne solution of the enigma, we strive to account
for the existence of those phenomena in the material
and intellectual creation which appear to us at first
sight unworthy of the presumed wisdom in which all
things, as a whole, are admitted to have been formed.
Now if the whole course of this inquiry, from the
rery first surmises of human reason to the profoundest
34 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
dogmas of revelation, is necessarily one of embarrass-
ment, it is obviously unscientific and unphilosophical
to adopt a theory so far only as it embraces the
maximum of perplexity, and to become indolent and
incredulous at the precise point where something like
an explanatory process appears to be commencing.
This, however, is really the line pursued by those
persons who, having, as they imagine, from convic-
tion, admitted the great principles of natural religion,
are willing to take their final stand there, and advance
no further. To the real consistent Atheist, of course,
such arguments as the present do not apply. Con-
tradictions and anomalies are the strong holds in
which he loves to entrench himself. The more
absurdities he imagines that he discovers, the more
unassailable his creed becomes. The defect of his
theory is, not that seeming oversights are traceable in
the established order of things, but that they are not
to be found in sufficient quantities to make out his
case. But the Theist commits the paralogism of
admitting all the difficulties of belief whilst he rejects
those antagonist and remedial propositions which
would go far to remove them. Take, for instance, the
perplexing fact already alluded to, of the existence of
evil. Considered as an integral portion of mere
rational theology, it presents nothing but unmixed
embarrassment. Adopt the solution affi)rded by
Christianity, and, though the original question re-
mains unanswered, why a wise Providence has not
proceeded at once more directly to its object, but has
made ignorance and personal suffering a necessary
step towards the attainment of ultimate good; still
it follows, as a self-evident truth, that if our present
life be, as Scripture asserts that it is, a state of pro-
bation, the existence of temporary evil is implied as
a necessary constituent of the operation intended to
be wrought. Thus much, at all events, the original
difficulty is diminished. What the sceptic does not,
and will not see in this, and in odier similar cases is,
WITH HUMAN REASON. 35
that the theory of revelation does not pretend to
account for those primary facts which are evidently
beyond the grasp of our apprehension to embrace,
but that it suggests merely a practical rule of life,
with a superaddition of fresh subsequent positions
which, if we are willing to take the former one for
granted, will, in some measure reconcile their con-
tradictions, and establish their compatibility with the
arrangements of Divine wisdom.
Considered in this point of view, many circum-
stances in the doctrines of the Gospel, which when
considered by themselves would present only un-
mixed wonder, and which accordingly have ever been
prominent marks for the assaults of infidelity, are, in
reality, so far from adding to the general mass of
improbabilities which meet the theologian in every
step of his course, that they leave the general ques-
tion far more clear than they found it. To demon-
strate this fact, will be the object of the following
pages. He assuredly must know, indeed, little of the
impenetrable darkness which surrounds us, who
would hope in this life to reduce the simplest propo-
sitions, even of physical science, much less the tran-
scendental dogmas of theology, into the form of self-
evident truths. All that any exposition of the Christian
evidences can presume to effect, is merely to show
that revelation accords, not with our abstract theories
and capricious surmises of what we choose to assume
that God's creation ought to have been, but with
what experience tells us that it actually is. That it
does so accord in all points; that the undisguised
and unequivocal admission of the actual existence of
what we have ventured to call the seeming anomalies
in the constitution of the universe is one of its fun-
damental propositions, and that without attempting
to explain them away, it affords the best solution of
the difficulties they suggest, which is to be found in
the annals of religious philosophy, is all that we can
in fairness be called upon to show. Much, after all,
3Q CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
must be left to that principle of faith which, like its
sister virtue, charity towards man, "believeth all
things, hopeth all things, endure th all things." But
tliat very residue of incurable ignorance, against
which in this world we find it fruitless to struggle, is
among the strongest pledges afforded us by Provi-
dence, that our present allotment is not intended to
be final.
CHAPTEU IV.
Of the Necessity, as demonstrated hy experience, of the existence of
a written Revelation of the Divine Will.
If, then, the view now taken of the question at
issue between the defenders and the assailants of
Christianity be correct, it will appear, not only that
tiiat sublime theory is not in itself accountable for
the facts which experience has shown to form part of
the existing order of things, but, on the contrary, that
the admitted existence of those facts gives a sunstan-
tial probability to that theory, which it would not
otherwise possess. That such is the case, will be
more clearly shown by considering, separately and
distinctly, the several component parts of the Chris-
tian system, and showing that, however improbable,
a priori and humanly speaking, each of them may
appear, when viewed in the form of detached proposi-
tions, they present themselves almost in the light of
necessary remedial processes, the moment that we
consider them with reference to those startling posi-
tions of natural religion, the certainty of which, by no
subterfuge of the reason, we are capable of evading or
denying. To begin, then, with what must at the first
point of view be considered as an incident little likely
to be expected in the arrangements of Providence,
namely, the necessity of the communication of adis-
WITH HUMAN REASON. 37
tinct written revelation of the Divine will, to crea-
tures whom their Maker has already endued with a
moral sense and considerable reasoning powers.
We readily admit, that, were the creation of man
still a thing in fiiiuro, such an arrangement as that
now contended for might appear to beings, reason-
ing as we do, far from probable. Why in the original
allotment of the moral faculties of man, Grod chose to
leave his work so far imperfect as that it should re-
quire a course of subsequent reparation and of special
Divine interference for its correction, it is impossible
to explain. The question, however, is here not one
of argument or of speculation upon presumed possi-
bilities, but of fact. We appeal at once to that ano-
malous thing, human nature, and deny, because the
testimony of history is uniform as to this point, that
man, constituted, as we know him to be, can attain
to any high degree of moral and spiritual elevation,
independently of such adventitious help as that deriv-
able from a written communication of the Divine will.
The thing has been, as we know, frequently and fairly
tried. Nations, under almost every possible modifi-
cation of condition, have existed in ignorance of a
Divine revelation, and the result has invariably been
the same in character, if not exactly so in degree.
In many cases man has sunk in real degradation far
below the level of the brute creation, and in none has
assumed that high moral elevation vvhich is ma-de
attainable to us by Christianity. In every such
instance the best and noblest powers of the human
heart and head have lain dormant, and the grossest
principles have constituted the main moving spring
of social action ; nor have the actual moral capabilities
of our nature been at all apprehended until the pro-
mulgation of a positive law, under the most solemn
sanctions, and professing to emanate from Divine
authority, impressed a new character upon society.
Now, it is easy to ask, " why was not man so con-
stituted as to begin his course at that advanced stage
4
38 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
of improvement to which it is the acknowledged
object of revelation eventually to lead him ?" But to
this question the mere Deist is as much called upon
to return a satisfactory answer as the Christian. Both
must alike shelter themselves in their ignorance.
The case, however, we repeat, is nevertheless one of
acknowledged fact. It has been charged as an im-
probability against the Christian system, that the
revelation of it was delayed until 4000 years of man's
history had passed away : nor do we, any more than
in the former case, attempt to give an explanation of
this circumstance. One thing, however, has at all
events been established by it : that is to say, it has by
this means been irrefragably proved, that the highest
powers of unassisted human reason are perfectly
incapable of making any real discoveries in religion.
Had we no other scale by which to estimate the value
of revelation, the strange and innumerable modifica-
tions of error which prevailed, even in the most highly
cultivated nations, during the period of its absence,
would effectually supply one. If, however, it be now
certain, and certain it appears to be, as infinitely
modified experiments can make it, that such is the
natural feebleness of the human mental powers, what
becomes of the favourite contemptuous argument of
the Infidel, which assumes at once the a priori im-
probability of any Divine revelation whatever, the
object of which should be the correction of those
deficiencies ?
It signifies nothing towards the discussion in ques-
tion, whether or not Providence in its wisdom might
not have arranged things otherwise. Our reference
is to man as we know him to be constituted, and to
the existing order of things. To say nothing of the
Pagan ages of antiquity, and the moral abominations
which pervaded every class of society in the most
brilliant days of classic Greece and Italy, let the
Infidel explain why at this moment, as we cast our
eyes over the different portions of the globe, we find
WITH HUMAN REASON. 39
Giiristianity and civilization coextensive ; and why,
even among the nations of Christendom, those are
confessedly most advanced in all the arts which
elevate our nature, whose modification of belief ap-
proaches nearest to the primitive purity of the Bible ?
Let him show, with such data before him, that the
assertion of the special interference of the Deity for
the illumination of the human race, involves an
absurd or untenable proposition. All that he has
shown is, that, were man's nature differently consti-
tuted, such external helps might not, perhaps, have
been necessary. A conclusion which no believer in
revelation will deny, but which proves nothing with
respect to the point at issue.
We will assume, then, as the basis of the following
arguments, that an actual revelation of the Divine
will cannot, under existing circumstances, be said to
be otherwise than probable. But admitting thus
much, there is an end of the objection alleged against
such an arrangement, from the deviation which it
implies from the established order of events. True,
indeed, it is, that a distinct revelation, in order to be
such, must be supposed to interfere in some degree
with the ordinary course of nature. Ends are attain-
able only by means ; and the means adopted must,
in all cases, have reference to their specific object.
A uniform and universal appeal to the moral feel-
ings and reasoning powers of the human race, can be
made only through the medium of one out of two
distinct channels, oral or written communication.
The adoption of either course on the present suppo-
sition implies a miracle, for the first promulgators of
the presumed doctrines, even granting that they avail
themselves of merely natural instruments for the de-
livery of their message, must of course be themselves
specially inspired. To allow, however, the proba-
bility of one single miracle in this case, involves
effectively the necessity of others. The Providence
which once thus specially interferes with mankind,
40 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
must also be presumed to watch over its own arrange-
ments, and to secure their adequate operation. It is
not necessary to follow the obvious course of this
argument into all its branches, to show that the prac-
tical form into which every real revelation must event-
ually settle, (because that form is the only one which
could be equally efficient in all ages, and in every
portion of the habitable globe,) is that of written ex-
positions of the Divine will, definite in their form,
and authoritative in their manner. Oral instruction,
in order to be rendered uniform in its doctrines, and
universally accessible to ajl conditions of mankind,
would require an interminable continuity of miracle,
which nothing less than the most inevitable necessity
of the case would justify us in expecting. But the
promulgation of a written revelation is like the single
act of the creation of the universe, a miraculous
agency at the moment, but which, having once taken
place, leaves subsequent events to pursue their natural
and established course.
If, then, it is not unreasonable to infer that God
has, on some occasion or other, communicated his
will to mankind, and if among the various professed
revelations which have appeared at different periods
of man's history, one only has come to us supported
by an overpowering weight of evidence, whilst it has
at the same time been productive in its effects of a
vast, though confessedly incomplete, renovation of the
human character, we have undoubtedly the strongest
reasons for believing that revelation to be the true
one. It is true that many persons may be found who,
whilst they assent to the general probability of the
fact of a revelation, will find what they imagine to be
substantial objections to every religious theory which
thus far has assumed that character. But objections
of this kind are almost always traceable to the old
fallacy, which has just now been alluded to, of dic-
tating imaginary schemes of creation to Providence,
instead of directing our judgment by what we know
WITH HUMAN R-RA«dL . .-^ ^ <« .
to be actually established. "We are all of us unwil?*
ling to suppose the interposition of any seeming?^ *
elaborate means between the enunciation of the
Divine will and the attainment of its end. But the
great lesson taught us by experience is, that the
anticipations of our judgments are ever more hasty
than the course of God's proceedings. Why the
workings of his providence move thus slowly, and
by a thus apparently intricate process of contrivance,
we cannot hope to explain, but we are experimentally
certain that such is the fact. Those persons, then,
who are inclined to believe generally, that' God may,
not inconsistently, communicate his will to mankind,
and who yet are offended by the specific mode which
the believer in Christianity asserts to have been
actually adopted by him, would do well if, instead of
building visionary schemes of presumed possibilities,
they would but ask themselves how, admitting the
actual circumstance of hum^n nature^ they can conceive
the possibility of such a communication by any less
improbable vehicle than that now supposed.
The appeal to human conviction must be made
in some way or other, and yet every way which we
can imagine must be attended with its respective
apparent improbabilities, of which those who are
disposed to cavil may readily take advantage. The
candid mind will of course make its option on the
side which presents the smallest sum total of ditfi-
culty; and we have no hesitation in asserting, that
upon a full examination of the circumstances, that
side will be found to be the one which assumes, in
the first place, that the fact of a revelation of God's
will is intrinsically probable : and secondly, that the
only professedly inspired documents, bearing the
apparent stamp of authenticity, are those of the
Jewish and Christian Scriptures. This latter propo-
sition it will now be our object to demonstrate to the
best of our power.
In attempting to speculate upon the internal pro-
4*
42 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
bability of the truth of any alleged communication
from heaven, the mind is necessarily compelled to
occupy a peculiar position, and to lay down, at start-
ing, certain primary propositions, without the admis-
sion of which it is obviously impossible to proceed.
To derive our data from the facts which in this late
period of the -svorld are passing daily before our eyes,
would evidently be irrelevant and unphilosophical.
We must be prepared to meet with deviations from
the presumed established laws of the creation, as a
matter of course. At the same time, our experience
of the fixedness and uniformity of the ordinary opera-
tions of nature, forbids our assuming that Providence,
under any circumstances, would be unnecessarily
lavish in the operation of miracles. So long as they
might be wanted to give the first impulse in the
launching of a new system, they might reasonably
be looked for; but such operations as are obviously
within the competency of natural causes to produce,
might on the other hand be expected to occur, accord-
ing to the more ordinary process. It is on this prin-
ciple that a new scale of probabilities will suggest
itself to the inquirer into the internal evidences of
revelation. It would be a manifest contradiction to
look for a perfect analogy between the first creation
of a system, and its subsequent ordinary cause of
operation, and yet the necessary deviation from order,
thus occasioned, would not, it may be presumed, be
disorderly. In other words, the quantum of necessity
would be the measure of the quantum of miracle to
be calculated upon. It is indeed manifestly impossi-
ble for the human mind to act upon this rule with
any thing approaching to accuracy, and yet perhaps
we may approximate to it sufficiently for the purpose
of conjecturing how far the miracles, recorded in any
given form of revelation, appear worthy of a wise
Providence, and calculated to produce their respec-
tive objects. Every person at all acquainted with
the Holy Scriptures, will perceive how strikingly this
WITH HUMAN REASON. 43
observation applies to the preternatural incidents
which we find there related. There is nothing in the
miracles of the Bible which in the slightest degree,
reminds us of the monstrous wonders of the imagina-
tive works of fiction. Be the narrative true or false,
at all events the admixture of preternatural occur-
rences is exactly, on all occasions, kept down to the
strict necessity of the case, and natural instruments,
where available, are made to contribute their share
towards the production of the event. This prelimi-
nary observation it is quite necessary that we should
make, in order that it may be distinctly understood
what is the kind of probabilities which, in the course
of the ensuing observations, we shall endeavour to
trace in the narratives of the Old and New Testa-
ment. No Christian, who 'recollects the inscrutable
mysteries which envelope Deism itself, will shrink
from avowing the strict analogy which, in that re-
spect, exists between the religion of unenlightened
reason, and that of the Gospel. He knows that every
particle of matter, every intellectual perception, teems
with wonder. But still it should never be forgotten
that the prevailing spirit of Scripture, even in its
highest excitement, is that of unostentatious sobriety,
and that a calm, candid, and teachable frame of mind
is that which is alone adapted for taking a compre-
hensive view of the whole system of revelation, and
pronouncing judgment upon its internal probability.
CHAPTER V.
Of the Mosaic History of the Creation.
To begin, then, with the scriptural account of the
creation of the world. The doctrine of the past
eternity of the universe is a necessary consequence of
the principles of Atheism. If there exists no Creator,
44 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
it obviously follows, that all things must have been,
from all eternity, precisely what we find them to be
at present ; in other words, owing their being to an
inherent principle of self-existence, they could never
have undergone any modification or change either
from internal or external causes. Every fact, how-
ever, derived from the experiments of scientific men
is directly at variance with this supposition. If there
is one conclusion in philosophy more certain than
another, it is that the universe around us, and the
globe which we inhabit, must have had a beginning.
Nor is this all : with regard to the latter, we know
not only that it has emanated from some creative
power, but that it has received peculiar modifications
from time to time, which, by the beneficial effects
resulting from them, mark the continuing superin-
tendence of a wise and benevolent mind. The present
condition in which we find it, has evidently been pro-
duced at no very remote period from our own time.
The several chronometers supplied by the regular
operation of existing phenomena on the surface of
the earth, all coincide most remarkably with the date
of the creation, as recorded in the Mosaic writings.
Every discovery of the geologist supplies the same
inference, so far as it refers to the history of the
human race. Be the antiquity of the material mass
of the globe what it may, and allowing the utmost
latitude to the calculations of those who conceive
that the various stratifications of the earth must have
been the result of an almost infinite succession of
slow deposits and diluvian submersions, still it is ad-
mitted by all parties, that the first appearance of man
must be considered as subsequent to all other forma-
tions of animals, and to all important modifications
of the mineral world, with the exception only of one
single diluvian action, which appears to have taken
effect at a later period.
That there is a broad and general appearance of
agreement between these facts and the Mosaic nar-
WITH HUMAN REASON. 45
rative, cannot be denied, whatever difficulty we may-
find in reconciling the scriptural account of a six
days' creation with those longer epochs of time which
geologists have generally considered necessary to
account for the successive stratifications of the soil,
and the production of the inferior animals. Now the
question is, whether this general accordance be suffi-
cient, even presuming the conclusions of geologists
to be correct, to justify our belief in the Divine
inspiration of the scriptural narrative of the creation ?
This question we may surely venture to answer in
the affirmative, when we recollect that the exclusive
object of revelation is to inculcate a moral lesson, by
making us acquainted with the spiritual position of
man, with reference to the Deity, and not with the
comparatively unimportant facts of natural history.
That Scripture, indeed, should* wilfully falsify any
narrative of circumstances, and gratuitously introduce
fable, where the plain truth would be equally intel-
ligible, it were impiety to suppose. But surely we
may admit that there would be nothing inconsistent
with the Divine perfections in touching only generally
and incidentally, and with a certain allowance for
the ignorance of an unphilosophical age, those portions
of its narrative, which are rather necessary accom-
paniments than any integral and component part of
the main subject matter. We may ask, moreover,
if it be required of Scripture that it should always,
when referring to merely physical phenomena, relate
the real and precise fact, " with the received opinions
of what age of the world would those facts accord .?"
Human theories, we should recollect, are continually
changing in proportion to the progress of discovery ;
and what would appear to be a philosophical truth
to-day, may, in many cases, be an exploded falsehood
to-morrow. Had Moses, for instance, inculcated the
doctrine of the Cartesian vortices, that circumstance,
which in the seventeenth century would have been
considered as the strongest proof of his inspiration,
46 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
would have been a decided refutation of it in the latter
part of the eighteenth. Were strict philosophical
accuracy, therefore, to be required as a necessary test
of an inspired narrative, it is obvious that it would
really be in accordance with no one possible period
of the stale of human knowledge, unless we can sup-
pose that the time will actually arrive in which
experience will have no more to learn, and the whole
process of investigation be completed. If, then, even
revelation itself would be justified from the necessity
of the case, in stopping short of this extreme point,
why, it may be asked, should we expect it to do so
at one period more than another ; or rather, why
should it not at once adapt itself, so far as it can do
so consistently with the substantial communication
of truth, to that state of knowledge which prevailed
at the time when its communications were first made ?
Such would appear to be the course necessary to
make itself practically intelligible to the parties
addressed, and, as a choice of difficulties, would
seem to be the least objectionable, because the most
really useful mode of proceeding.
Still, however, after making due allowance for this
necessary principle of accommodation, facts, we
conceive, may be traced in the Mosaic narrative,
which would seem to announce an acquaintance with
some of the phenomena of the universe, as substan-
tiated by subsequent discovery, which it would be
difficult to account for in any other way than that of
a presumed express inspiration. It is true that spe-
culation upon these points, where the subject matter
is confessedly so mysterious, and upon so vast and
intricate a scale, ought to be indulged in with extreme
caution, as liable to the exaggerations and false con-
clusions of an excited imagination. Experimental
science, which is always progressive, must ever be
an equivocal auxiliary to the fixed and immovable
truths of revelation. Still, however, as infidelity has
for the furtherance of its object, availed itself ot pre-
WITH HUMAN REASON. 47
sumed inaccuracies in the scriptural records of the
creation, there cannot surely be an impropriety in
pointing out, with all due diffidence, a few of the
facts there asserted, which would seem to accord in
a striking manner with the discoveries of modern
science ; or with what might be conjectured as pro-
bable with reference to the early condition of a world
such as ours, and the condition of human nature,
when existing under strange and unwonted circum-
stances. In addition, then, to the preceding general
remarks on this subject, we may observe, in the first
place, that the surface of the globe immediately after
the time of its first formation, is asserted by Moses
to have been nearly that of semi-fluidity. Now that
such must have been the case is considered by geolo-
gists as a matter of perfect certainty. But it may
be urged that the proofs of this circumstance are so
visibly impressed upon the whole surface of the earth
that Moses might easily have arrived at that conclu-
sion, even though we suppose him to have had no
more than the common knowledge of a tolerably
careful observer of nature. — Be it so. Still it remains
to be shown by what happy coincidence it was that
the order of the successive productions of the Creator,
commencing in the inferior races of animals, and
advancing onward from fishes and birds to quadru-
peds, and from quadrupeds to man, should have been
asserted by him in a series so nearly, if not exactly,
corresponding with that in which the discoveries of
geology have shown them to have occurred. It is
impossible to suppose him to have been possessed of
facts, gleaned solely by a regular process of scientific
induction, sufficient for the establishment of this
theory. Was it then a mere fortunate guess, or are
we not rather justified in referring his knowledge to
the higher source of inspiration ?
Another remarkable seeming accordance, to say
the least of it, with the recent discoveries of science,
in a branch of philosophy which depends, for its very
48 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
existence, upon the perfection of our modern optical
instruments, occurs almost at the very commence-
ment of the Mosaic narrative. Let it, however, be
here again observed, that we allude to these facts as
prima facie coincidences merely. Ignorant as mankind
are, and as they are probably for ever destined to
remain, of the real nature of the remote heavenly
bodies, it is evidently impossible that we can venture
to found upon the assumptions of modern science any
thing more than a vague general surmise, with regard
to what may be the true theory of that mysterious
portion of the universe. It is, we repeat, only because
infidelity has let pass no opportunity of directing the
presumed discoveries of science against revelation,
that we feel ourselves justified in using arguments
of the same description in its defence, so far as they
may be fairly available. The coincidence to which
we now allude, appears to us a striking one ; let the
reader attach to it what degree of credit he may con-
ceive that it deserves. Every person conversant with
the scriptural account of the creation must have been
to a certain degree perplexed by the fact that Moses
asserts light to have been called into existence on the
first day, and yet expressly declares that the sun and
moon were not created as luminaries until the fourth.
This statement, at first sight, has the air of singular
and glaring inconsistency, which it would seem to
be impossible to reconcile with truth. If we consider
the writer of the Book of Genesis as an impostor, or
a fanatical theorist, attempting to impose his own
wild speculations upon the world, we cannot possibly
imagine a statement less likely to suggest itself to the
author himself, or less calculated to secure proselytes.
And yet the observations of the late Sir W. Hecschell
afford us reason to believe, as is well known, that a
process is at this moment going on in the system of
the heavenly bodies precisely analogous with this
statement of the Mosaic writings. That celebrated
astronomer, in his paper addressed to the Royal
WITH HUMAN REASON. 49
Society, in 1811, on the subject of the celestial
nebulae, has given the history of his own observations
carefully followed up during the course of a long life.
He has there shown that those irregularly shaped and
widely diffused masses of light, which under the
name of luminous nebulas, had long attracted the
notice of scientific men, and which are known to
exist in vast numbers, in various parts of the heavens,
are, by a regular process of gradual condensation,
made to approach more and more to a spherical form,
until, having acquired a bright stellar nucleus, and
losing their remaining nebulosity, they finally assume
all the definite brightness of a regular fixed star. From
the uniformity of this operation, so far as it has been
remarked, and from the vast multitude of instances
in which it has taken, and is still taking place, it
seems natural to infer that a large portion of those
stars, whose places have been recognised in the
heavens from time immemorial, derived their first
origin from the same process. But it is also the
generally received opinion, that the sun of our own
planetary system is a star precisely of the same nature
with the rest ; and if so, it seems not improbable
from analogy, that it derived its present form from
the same cause of condensation, and that its original
state of existence was that of a thin luminous fluid,
occupying a vast portion of the orbits of those plane-
tary bodies of which it is now the centre. It is surely
not a little remarkable, that what might a century
ago have been quoted as a seeming absurdity and
oversight in Scripture, should be found thus signally
to accord with one of the most curious discoveries of
modern astronomical science.
50 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
CHAPTER VI.
Of the Longevity of the Antediluvian Generations.
Another peculiarity in the scriptural account of
the early period of the world, which, for convenience
sake, we shall allude to somewhat out of its regular
order, is the remarkable longevity which it attributes
to the antediluvian races. This is a statement so little
accordant with existing experience, that we believft
it to have not unfrequently startled sincere believers
in the general veracity of the Mosaic Avritings, whilst
it has, undoubtedly, seemed to afford a handle for
triumph to the declared sceptic. The case must be
admitted to be a perplexing one ; yet still we think
that we can perceive reasons derived from the condi-
tion of mankind at that early epoch which would
seem to make such an arrangement a not improbable
result of the decrees of a wise Providence. Every
well-founded criticism upon the internal evidence of
revelation, we must again remind our readers, must
be built entirely upon the admitted phenomena of
human nature, both moral and physical. We must
necessarily suppose that God willed the early civiliza-
tion of mankind, but, as we have no reason to believe
that the intellectual faculties of man, from the time
of the fall of our first parents, were other than what
we know them to be at the present moment, we
must necessarily suppose that the earliest generations
required precisely the same secondary helps to know-
ledge which, under similar circumstances, would be
most available to their latest descendants. Now the
objection of the sceptic, on this occasion, is founded
upon the mere gratuitous assumption, that what ap-
pear to us to be the fixed laws of nature, must always
have been such, even when the strongest necessity
and the most urgeat expediency required their pro-
WITH HUMAN REASON. 51
visional modification. It surely can be deemed no
very bold assertion, if we assume that the rule of
internal probability would rather incline us to adopt
the opposite conclusion. Admitting the present three
score and ten years, which are usually considered as
the average maximum of human life, to be sufficient
for every substantial purpose for which God has
thought fit to place us in this world, it is still per-
fectly obvious that so contracted a term would have
been quite insufficient, in the first commencement of
society, to enable the human race to attain at any
tolerably early period, to that quantum of cultivation
for which it is impossible not to perceive that his
Creator intended him. Let us suppose, then, the
first inhabitants of the earth existing, not only with-
out the more abstruse sciences, but without those
simple rudiments of knowledge necessary for the
accommodation of society in its ruder state, and let
us consider what would be the different results of two
distinct arrangements ; the one- allotting to the human
individual a term of existence little short of one
thousand years, and the other cutting him off at the
present more contracted date. It is evident that
knowledge, in the former case, would, from the vast
accumulation of facts, increase, as compared with
the latter, in almost a geometrical proportion. There
we should find the experienced head of a family
communicating to successive races of descendants
the hoarded experience of centuries, whilst, according
to the other supposition, we might expect to see the
first commencements of knowledge cut off* periodi-
cally in their very germ, and generation succeeding
to generation with no better lights of science than the
transmitted abortive attempts of persons whose lives
have terminated almost before their really effective
education had begun. It would, of course, be the
height of presumption to assert that this is the real
explanation of the remarkable dispensation of Pro-
vidence now alluded to. It cannot, however, be
52 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
doubted, that allowing to the earljr race of mankind
the same average faculties possessed by their descend-
ants, such would be the very dissimilar degrees of
benefit produced by the two different systems here
supposed. How, then, would it be advocating an
improbability, to suppose that a benevolent Creator
may, under a special emergency, have peculiarly
adapted the operation of secondary causes, for a
limited period, to the wants of his creatures ?* Be,
* It seems perfectly certain, from what we know experimentally of
the nature of the human faculties, that man at his first creation must,
for some short time at least, have depended for his animal existence upon
the special superintendence of his Creator in a manner to which we find
nothmg analogous in the existing order of the univei*se. All well-in-
formed persons, whether sceptics or believers in revelation, are agreed in
admitting that the human race were first introduced into our planet at a
comparatively recent period of time. What then was the condition of
the aboriginal parents of mankind at the moment of their first produc-
tion 1 The case admits of only two suppositions ; they were either chil-
dren or adults : in either supposition a m.iracle, or what is equivalent to a
miracle, was necessary for their support. Had they been children, it is
self-evident that they must have perished within a few hours after their
creation, unless sustained by some such providential interference as that
now supposed. If they were adults, the result would have been the
same, although the argument from which we derive that inference may
be somewhat less palpably obvious. All the practical knowledge which
we arrive at through our bodily senses is, we know, derived solely from
experience. A human adult, waking for the first ti ne to the conscious-
ness of existence, with all his animal faculties in fui" vigour, and under
the most favourable circumstances of climate and bodily comfort, would
be as incapable as a new-born infant of availing himself, by any natural
effort, of the means of sustenance, however liberally spread around him,
and would perish before he would have acquired the knowledge requisite
for the support of life. He would possess eyes, but the impression of
external objects upon the retina would convey no definite ideas : he would
have limbs, but they would be useless for the purposes of locomotion. He
would want every conception of space, distance, solidity, vacuity, &c.
In addition to this, he would be debarred from the fiaculty of the commu-
nication of his feelings by speech. It is manifest, that under such cir-
cumstances, life could be maintained only by the direct intervention of
some guardian power, either instilling miraculously that practical know-
ledge which, under ordinary circumstances, is the result of long expe-
rience only, or else directly providing for his physical necessities, as they
successively occurred. That the human race does exist at this moment,
is a proof that some such special care as that now supposed must have
been extended by the mercy of the Creator to the parent stock from which
we are descended. It is, therefore, perfectly vain and un philosophical to
assume what may have been the physical circumstances of the world in
in its infancy, from what is at this moment passing before our eyes. So
far from infeiTing them to have been the same with the present course of
events, we are compelled to suppose that they must have been in many
WITH HUMAN REASON. 53
however, this as it may, it is certain that the inspired
historian pleads neither this nor any other reason as
an explanation of the seemingly anomalous fact which
he records. He seems to compose his narrative merely
ministerially, and without the insertion of a single
comment. We detect in it nothing of the interested
advocate, striving to show the real internal probability
of a startling proposition. No mode of writing, as-
suredly, carries with it more of the air of real inspira-
tion than that where the facts stated appear at first
sight incongruous and anomalous, but lose, upon
subsequent reflection, much of their apparent im-
probability ; and where the writer himself appears
to be perfectly unaware of the value of the truths
he is communicating. Whether this observation will
apply to the case now before us, may be matter of
opinion. It is one, however, which may, with cer-
tainty, be extended to many striking passages both of
the Old and of the New Testament.
respects essentially different So fallacious is the argument derived from
our own mere personal experience in these mysterious questions. With
regard to the use of language, it seems difficult to imagine that it could
have been possessed by the earliest generations of mankind, excepting
through the aid of Divine instruction. This surmise, which the acknow-
ledged circumstances of our nature seem to point out as the only probable
solution of a great metaphysical difficulty, seems to derive some warrant
from the statement given in Genesis ii. 19. " And out of the ground the
Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air ; and
brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them : and whatso-
ever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof."
5*
54 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
CHAPTER VII.
Of the Pall of our First Parents.
The most remarkable and perplexing part of the
Mosaic narrative-of the early history of the human,
species is that which refers to the original condition
in Paradise of our first parents, and to their subse-
quent fall. As this event constitutes the very founda-
tion upon which the whole structure of Christianity
is built, and as it has afforded not only the great
object of attack to Infidels, but has also been a source
of the most discordant opinions among the various
denominations of Christians, it will be expedient ta
examine it in some considerable detail. On a subject,
indeed, so profoundly mysterious, it would be absurd
in the extreme to hope that any examination of ours
could suggest any satisfactory explanation of what is
manifestly beyond the reach of human reason. All
that we can attempt to do is, to take the few facts
related by Moses in as literal a sense as possible,
keeping out of sight, at the same time, all the tradi-
tional notions which, without any authority of Scrip-
ture, have, in the course of ages, been attached to
them by human ingenuity; and then to inquire how
far what we find to be actually stated as matter of
fact accords with the established and acknowledged
phenomena of human nature. In order to come to a
perfect understanding on this point, it will, of course,
be necessary to examine our moral constitution, such
as, from our own internal consciousness and our in-
tercourse with mankind we know it experimentally
to be, and to observe how far it bears any traces of
that degradation which we are told has been thus
inflicted upon it, subsequently to its first production
by its Creator. Now there is not, perhaps, a single
Theist, or even Atheist, who will not, on this subject,
WITH HUMAN REASON. 55
assent implicitly to the definition of our nature as
afforded by revelation. " The heart of man is evil
from his youth." Is this, we ask, or is it not, the
strict truth ? It matters not for the present argument
how such happened originally to be the case. The
question is one of practical experience. " The good
that I would, I do not," says St. Paul, " but the evil
which I would not, that I do." Here is the assertion
of an abstract perception and preference in our minds
of what is good and honest, continued with an actual
practical bias and predisposition in our carnal feel-
ings, to act directly in contradiction to our better
judgment, which we have no hesitation in asserting,
that every human being has occasionally perceived
within himself from his first infancy. Is, then, this
strange collision, which we all feel, between our
moral sense, and the' suggestions of our animal
nature, curable by any inherent power of spiritual
exertion lodged within ourselves? The very terms
of the proposition already stated, supply at once an
answer to this question. If the preponderance of
our nature is evil, it cannot be supposed to supply
any effectual medicine for its own cure ; and if so,
the necessity of some external dispensation, like that
of the Gospel, for the removal of this original, and,
by us, incurable taint, would appear to follow as a
matter of course. It would signify nothing, we repeat,
as to the argument of our need of some express mode
of reconciliation with God, how this disease of sin
was originally introduced into man's constitution,
if the fact of its actual existence there be once well
established. Let it have been impressed upon each
individual distinctly and specially at his birth ; let it
have been the original modification of the human
heart ; or let it have been the acquired consequence
of some act of indiscretion in our first parents, the
consequence to ourselves will, at all events, be pre-
cisely the same. The fact that we are all of us far gone
from righteousness will still remain unimpeached.
56 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
In this point of view, then, the recorded history of
the fall of our first parents is a matter of speculative
curiosity rather than of real moment. We might
naturally wish to know whence this strange and
anomalous moral arrangement took its origin, but the
practical result to ourselves would remain the same,
be our theory with regard to that origin what it might.
Man, undoubtedly, as a moral agent, prefers evil to
good. This is more or less true with this or that
individual, but it is still, in a great degree, certainly
true of all. Even the best men will occasionally
recognise, within themselves, a kind of inconsequen-
tial reasoning, which they know to be false, whilst
they yield to it : a species of morbid appetite lo do
precisely that which conscience tells them to be sin-
ful. But with regard to the great mass of mankind,
it is truly fearful to think how vast is the extent of
depravity, which is kept within tolerable limits, and
is rendered compatible with the existence of social
order, only by the restraints of public opinion, or by
the fear of the magistrate. It is true, indeed, that to
the eye of the careless observer, the external aspect
of society, for the most part, appears sufficiently
smooth ; but it is because in every civilized country
the superincumbent weight of civil government and
conventional decorum keeps down that tendency to
resistance which is sure to manifest itself the mo-
ment that, by change of circumstances, an opportu-
nity for so doing is afforded. But the principle of
morals, we should recollect, has much less to do with
external actions than with internal motives. It
follows, therefore, as a necessary consequence, not
only that a man may be a grievous sinner before
God, whose conduct in society has afforded no handle
whatever to actual censure, but, also, it is an obvious
proposition, that his internal and substantial guilt
(his external actions continuing precisely the same)
will ever advance progressively in atrocity, precisely
in proportion to the degree of positive better know-
WITH HUMAN REASON. 57
ledge against the dictates of which he shall be de-
liberately offending.
This proposition being admitted, the conclusion is
inevitable ; namely, that, so long as the original cor-
ruption of the heart continues undiminished, every
advance in moral and religious knowledge will necessa-
rily be an advance in guiltiness. Precisely on the same
prmciple by which we blame that ferocity in the
uncultivated savage, which we consider a mere
animal instinct in a beast of prey, and excuse that
conduct in a savage which would be deemed unpar-
donable in a civilized heathen ; so, the same dead-
ness of spiritual feeling, which would be a matter of
course in the latter character, would attach an awful
responsibility to the well-instructed Christian . — Know-
ledge, then, is the source of guiltiness : increase of
knowledge to any class of beings, whose instinctive
predisposition is such as to incline them to prefer
knowingly the worse to the better principle, is vir-
tually and substantially an increase of guilt. Such,
then, is the fallacy of the argument which would
attribute to man the faculty of healing by his own
natural powers of moral exertion, with no better
guide than his intuitive perceptions of right and
wrong, the evil which we find to have been, in some
way or other, inflicted upon his spiritual nature.
Having made these preliminary observations, let
us now consider the narrative of the fall of our first
Earents as given in the Mosaic writings, and observe
ow far it accords with the anomalous constitution of
the human heart, as established by our own expe-
rience. In discussing this subject, it is no easy
matter to detach ourselves from the associations
arising from early oral expositions, and the theories
of rival controversialists, and to fix our attention
singly and exclusively upon what has been actually
revealed. Perhaps no one theological fact, in conse-
quence of the momentous interests connected with
it, and the train of poetic ideas which it is so well
58 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
calculated to suggest, has suffered more from the
admixture of extraneous human theories than the
one before us. The very small space occupied in
Scripture by the narrative of the fall of man, when
compared with our own multifarious conceptions on
the subject, may afford a salutary hint to the mind of
every well disposed person, of the danger incident to
us all, of mistaking our peculiar intellectual specula-
tions and the traditions of our infancy for revelation
itself, if we do not take care to secure the accuracy of
our notions, by measuring them carefully from time
to time, with what we find to be expressly written.
It is obvious, that if we would discuss this, or any
other mysterious theological question, with accuracy
and fairness, we can do so only by abiding, as closely
as possible, by the strict letter of Holy Writ, inter-
posing our own speculations solely where they appear
to follow as necessary inferences from the acknow-
ledged language of the original document.
In the first place, then, we may observe, that the
Book of Genesis does not seem to assert that our first
parents were created in their own proper nature,
immortal, though it appears certain that, had they
retained their obedience, they were not only capable
of, but actually destined for, an incidental and con-
ditional immortality, the consequence of their repair-
ing the decay of their bodies by the fruit of the tree
of life. This last species of immortality, though a
real and effective one, is still different in kind from
that which would result as a necessary consequence
from the original constitution of the corporeal frame.
In the one case mortality would follow, from the
mere circumstance of withholding the necessary
aliment : in the other it could be superinduced only
by introducing an entire change of the animal habits
and functions. What, therefore, would have been
the ultimate allotment of mankind had the fall never
taken place, or had some occasional individuals
amongst the descendants of Adam only fallen into
WITH HUMAN REASON. 59
sin, and our first parents escaped from pollution, is
a matter of mere conjecture, on which it were as
unwise, as it is unnecessary, to hazard an opinion.
It appears, moreover, in the second place, that how-
ever morally superior our first parents may have
been in consequence of their unblemished innocence
to their guilty posterity (and vast undoubtedly that
superiority was) still with regard to the general scope
and compass of their knowledge, they were inferior,
not only to their own offspring, but to what they
themselves subsequently became in their fallen and
guilty condition. So far as we can judge from the
very short statement given in the Book of Genesis,
man, at his first creation, was the first of terrestrial
animals, highly and admirably fitted for his situation,
by the possession of many appropriate blessings, and
possessed of that exact degree of understanding which
was calculated for every purpose of harmless, and,
Erobably, of refined enjoyment ; and yet he appears to
ave been left without that intuitive moral sense,
which, by inculcating the nice and eternal distinctions
of right and wrong, renders us capable of sinning,
from the simple fact, that it exclusively suggests the
rule by which we apprehend our duty. It is clear
that this last mentioned faculty might have been
kindly withheld by the Creator, on account of the
fearful risk attending upon a gift so critical and so
easily abused, and yet that a vast residue of intel-
lectual endowment might have remained for the
purposes of harmless enjoyment, as the allotment of
the human race. Almost all the arts which add to
the social happiness of life, a very large portion of
the pleasures of imagination, and all the treasures of
experimental knowledge, might have been possessed
in a high, perhaps in an exuberant degree of perfec-
tion, by creatures untainted by sin, because unen-
dowed with that peculiar apprehension which alone
creates the capability of sinning. Such a constitu-
tion of human nature, in its joriginal state, would
$0 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
seem to harmonize exactly with what might be pre-
sumed as probable with regard to the allotment on
the surface of this globe, of the most perfect portion
of God's earthly creation. Certain it is that revela-
tion seems expressly to imply, that man did not acquire
the knowledge of good and evil until the moment of
his transgression of the Divine prohibition. And it
is a remarkable confirmation of this view of the sub-
ject, that the first and immediate consequence of his
disobedience was a newly acquired sense of propriety
and decency which he had not possessed in his state
of innocence. " The eyes of both of them were
opened, and they knew that they were naked." At
the same time, it would appear that their animal
passions became depraved as their moral apprehen-
sions were enlarged, and thus begun that struggle
between carnality and better knowledge, which has
descended from them in such fatal proportion to their
guilty posterity. We may also observe, in confirma-
tion of the supposition here hazarded, namely, that
man attained to an enlarged state of moral appre-
hension by the fall, though by that acquisition he
destroyed the just equilibrium of his original and
more happily blended nature, that this view of the
subject appears to be sanctioned by the expression
which Moses puts into the mouth of the Almiglity
with reference to that event : — " And the Lord God
said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know
good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand,
and take also the tree of life, and eat, and live for
ever, therefore the Lord sent him forth from the garden
of Eden," &c.
The purport of the Mosaic account then appears to
be, that what really occasioned the fall and ruin of
our nature, or in other words, the introduction of our
present incongruous and anomalous moral constitu-
tion, and of sin as a necessary consequence, was the
acquisition of an accurate knowledge of the distinc-
tions of right and wrong, by a creature not originally
WITH HUMAN REASON. 6t
fitted for its reception, and, therefore, incapable of
making a proper use of it. That such a change could
not be a subject of approbation with a God of infinite
moral purity, and in whose sight the amplest endow-
ments of intellect can be valuable only as they are
found to cooperate with the great principles of duty,
is obviously certain. The evil spiritual beings so
frequently alluded to by Scripture, no doubt, possess
intellectual powers far beyond those at present allotted
to the human race, but, assuredly, such faculties serve
only to enhance their depravity. It should, however,
be remembered, that although moral knowledge, so
long as it is likely to be abused by its possessors,
must be admitted to be a fatal acquisition to any
beings, and especially to such as may have been placed
in that happy state of innocence enjoyed by our first
parents; it is still, in strictness, not only a good in
itself, when properly employed, but also a good, abso-
lutely necessary as a constituent for the happiness
and perfection of the higher order of beings. From
the certainty of this fact, then, we may, perhaps,
venture humbly to surmise why this seeming anomaly
was allowed by a wise and good Providence to occur
in his creation. Why, it is asked, was not man pre-
cluded from the possibility of t'aking the fatal step
which produced his fall ? It were presumptuous in
us to attempt to answer this question, excepting in
the strictest form of diffident conjecture. Still, how-
ever, we know from the words of the two inspired
apostles, Paul and Peter, that the expiatory atone-
ment of Christ was prepared in the councils of Infinite
Wisdom before the foundations of the world were
laid. We are, therefore, justified in inferring, that
when the Creator in his mercy condescended to
forewarn the parents of the human race of the immi-
nent peril in which their violation of a salutary
admonition would involve them and their posterity,
he not only foresaw their disobedience, but also pre-
pared an arrangement for averting from them the
6
62 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
consequences naturally resulting from it. And not
only may we, in conformity with the strict letter of
Scripture, infer thus much, but Ave may also indulge
in a reasonable expectation that the change which
has thus taken place in the allotment of mankind
will ultimately prove to have been rather a gain than
a loss to such persons as shall have duly availed
themselves of the means afforded for their restoration ,
and that the redeemed servants of Christ will be
found to have exchanged the humbler condition of
simply happy and innocent beings upon earth for a
preeminent state of moral apprehension, and of ex-
quisite enjoyment in heaven, far exceeding that of
the station which they have lost. It is very remark-
able that two favourite and ingenious apologues pre-
vailed among,the heathen philosophers of antiquity,
both of them having reference to the introduction of
evil by the acquisition of knowledge, and which
would seem to have been suggested to their inventors
by the scriptural narrative of the fall of our first
parents. The beautiful fable of the guilty curiosity
and subsequent wanderings of Psyche, until her final
reconciliation with her divine husband ; and that of
Prometheus, particularly as it is given in the terribly
splendid drama of jEschylus ; each of them clearly
point to this important fact. If not actually derived
from Scripture, they, at all events, show, by their
remarkable coincidence with one another, and with
the Mosaic history, that the hypothesis to which they
refer is a correct inference from the philosophy of
morals.
Such, then, is the account which the Bible gives of
the first origin of those strange anomalies in the moral
character of human nature, the real existence of
which, as essential phenomena demonstrably attach-
ing to us, the most determined infidel must at all
events admit, however he may be disposed to ques-
tion the mode of their first introduction. Here, then,
it remains to be asked whether, granting our consti-
WITH HUMAN REASON. 63
tution to be actually such, there is any intrinsic
improbability in the account thus given. The great
and staggering improbability is, that man should be
what we find that he is. This, however, is not a
point which admits of discussion. It is a simple
matter of fact, respecting the certainty of which it is
impossible to doubt. Such, then, being the case, the
question really at issue between the believer and the
sceptic is, whether it is more consistent with our
notions of the probable proceedings of Providence
that the discordant principles which are known to
exist within us should be supposed to have been su-
perinduced at a period subsequent to man's creation,
than that he should have originally proceeded, such
as he now is, from the hands of his Maker. This is
surely a point upon which, independently of the
authority of revelation, it were presumptuous to form
an opinion. But certainly there is nothing contradic-
tory to sound reason in supposing the former to have
been the fact. That the flesh is found experimentally
to be at variance with the spirit, suggests, at all events,
a presumption that they were not fitted originally
the one for the other ; whilst, at the same time, admit-
ting the truth of the scriptural theory, that this life
in its present modification is intended to be a state
of probation, the secondary arrangement which has
thus been allowed to come into operation is found to
harmonize with all that we can infer as the most
probable solution of other difficulties connected with
the mysterious dealings of Providence. To the mis-
representation, then, of the infidel, who asserts it to
be the doctrine of Scripture, that the eternal perdition
of all mankind is a just retribution attaching to each
individual of the human race for one single act of
disobedience committed in the persons of their first
parents, the answer is obvious. Scripture inculcates
no such doctrine. It tells us, indeed, (and every
Christian is bound to admit the strict accuracy of the
assertion,) that by one act of disobedience sin came
64 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
into the world, and by sin, death. But such would
also have been equally the case had the first human
beings derived to themselves, and transmitted through
their own persons to their descendants, a knowledge
of moral good and evil, with a mechanism of corrupt
passions, by any other specific process than that
recorded by Moses. So long as our sense of right
and wrong is accurate, whilst, at the same time, the
spirit of disobedience is strong within us, sin, how-
ever at first introduced, will continue to prevail ; and
where sin is, there its natural consequences must be
presumed to follow, unless such a result can be shown
to be superseded by some effectual counteraction,
such as every Christian believes to be afforded by the
expiatory merits of his Saviour. Of one thing we
may be quite certain, namely, that had any other
explanation of the first origin of sin and death been
given to us, it would have been as unsparingly cri-
ticised, and as dogmatically rejected by the sceptic,
as that Avhich we are taught to receive as the correct
historical fact. At the same time, we may venture
confidently to assert, that it would be difficult, if not
impossible, for the imagination to invent a theory
more exactly accordant with what we know by ex-
perience of our own nature, than that which has thus
come to us under the presumed sanction of revelation.
"WITH HUMAN REASON. 65
CHAPTER VIII.
Of the History of the general Deluge^ and the Confusion of Tongues,
Few, if any, physical facts appear more difficult to
account for, upon any known principles of experi-
mental science, than that of the general deluge, as
asserted in Scripture ; and yet, perhaps, there is not
one of those which do not fall within the course of
our own actual experience, the absolute certainty
of which is more completely demonstrated by the
traces left of its existence upon the surface of the
globe. It is the opinion of most geologists that
several submersions of the crust of the earth, in whole
or in part, have taken place from time to time in the
course of the order of nature. All of them, however,
appear to be unanimously agreed that one deluge at
least, answering exactly to that recorded by Moses,
did certainly prevail at a period subsequent to the
creation of the present races of animals, whose relics
are still found in vast abundance in the most recent
strata. It is, therefore, perfectly vain to start objec-
tions, derived from abstract speculations of our own
creation, against the physical possibility of an event,
the certainty of which has been thus substantiated by
irrefragable evidence. From the case in question,
however, we may at all events derive an important
lesson with regard to any sceptical doubts which,
from the presumed certainty of the conclusions of
experimental science, we may feel disposed to enter-
tain on the subject of other perternatural occurrences
related in the Holy Scriptures. Were we to have
recourse to theory alone, we no doubt should have
little hesitation in pronouncing upon the extreme
improbability, not to say the impossibility, of a deluge,
such as that which we read of in the writings of
6^
66 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
Moses. Voltaire, who took up this ground, but whose
knowledge in experimental philosophy was too super-
ficial to render his objections formidable, asserts boldly
the demonstration of the falsity of the scriptural nar-
rative. " The physical impossibility " he s-ays, "of a
universal deluge by any natural means is proveable by
the most rigorous demonstration.^^ It is amusing to
observe that he lays down, as the first principle on
which to build this rigorous course of proof, the pal-
pably unfounded assertion, that the average depth of
the ocean does not exceed 500 feet. Upon the as-
sumption of this position, accompanied by the gratui-
tous one that the relative depths and elevation of the
bed of the ocean, and of the adjoining continents are,
under all circumstances, incapable of any variation,
the necessity of the conclusion to which he would
arrive seems indeed sufficiently obvious. In answer
again to the supposition that the submersion of the
earth to the depth asserted by Scripture, could be
produced by rain discharged from the atmosphere, it
has been shown by other writers, (and in this case, on
correct philosophical principles) not only that the time
required to produce such a mass of water from that
source would be much longer that the scriptural
account would appear to allow, but also that even if
the entire atmosphere Avith all its contents, were
condensed into water, the whole volume, thus pro-
duced, would not occasion a deluge much exceeding
thirty feet in height. In the hope of meeting this
objection, other theories have been suggested from
time to time, such as that of a change in the inclina-
tion of the earth's axis, an alteration in the rate of
its diurnal rotation, the attraction of a comet, and
other causes of a similar nature, founded upon the
presumed established facts of modern experimental
science. It is, however, generally admitted that
none of these ingenious and well-intentioned sugges-
tions are in all respects satisfactory. After all we
must be content to learn on this, as on almost every
WITH HUMAN REASON. 67
Other theological subject, a lesson of salutary humility,
and to abide by the demonstration which we possess
of the actual certaintv of the recorded event, without
hoping to explain what resources Divine Providence
may have in store, in the magazine of secondary
causes for tbe operation of its ends.
" There are more things in Heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreampt of in your philosophy."
Still, however, without attempting to propose any
thing like a solution of the difficulties which beset
this subject, we may venture to observe, that the
assertion, which has been so confidently made, that
the whole globe of the earth, and the whole atmos-
phere united, do not contain a sufficient quantity
of fluid for such a submersion of the earth, as that
related in Scripture, is any thing rather than borne
out by the most accurate calculations of men of"
science. Scripture declares that the breaking up of
the fountains of the great deep was made to co-
operate on that occasion with the descent of rain ;
or, as it is styled in revelation, the opening of the
windows of heaven. The present proportion of the
surface of the sea, as compared with that of the land,
is generally estimated as two parts in three. With
regard to the actual extreme depth of the ocean,
nothing can be inferred beyond probable conjectures.
No soundings, from the operation of well known
causes, have ever descended much beyond a mile, but
there is strong reason for believing that the mean
depth very far exceeds that amount. There would,
perhaps, be no improbability in the supposition which
would consider six miles as the mean depth. Be
that, however, as it may, there is every reason to
suppose that the solid surface of the earth has, sub-
sequently to its creation, undergone violent changes
affecting its partial elevation and depression. Were
then the present bed of the ocean raised by any strong
subterranean action, to the level of the adjoining
68 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
continents, the deluge produced would most probably
at least equal that related by Moses ; or again the
same effect might in great measure be produced by
the depression of the land itself; or in the third place,
we may imagine both causes cooperating on the oc-
casion alluded to. The most plausible surmise we
can make, both with reference to the language of
Scripture, and in explanation of existing phenomena,
seems to be that some important change was pro-
duced at that important epoch upon the surface of the
globe, by which the relative proportion of land and
sea became permanently altered. What that change
was, hoAvever, it is difficult, if not impossible, to form
a well-grounded opinion. There appears to be some
warrant in Scripture for the supposition that rain was
unknown in the antediluvian ages. At least the
appearance of the rainbow upon the subsidence of
the waters of the deluge, is described in a manner to
leave the impression of its being the first occurrence
of that phenomenon ; and with regard to the state of
the world before the fall of our first parents, it is ex-
pressly asserted that "no rain fell from the heavens
in those days, but there went up a dew which watered
the ground," whilst no intimation is given that this
state of things was altered till the time of the deluge.
We can, however, account for the absence of rain
upon any known natural principles only, by the sup-
position that the prc^ortion of sea, as compared with
that of dry land was much less in the antediluvian
ages, than it has been subsequently to that crisis.
The diminished evaporation which would take place
under such circumstances, would apparently produce
the result now supposed. So long as the earth was
only thinly and partially peopled, such a state of things
as that here surmised would not be incompatible with
the wants of mankind, though it would be perfectly
inconsistent with the general diffusion of population
over the whole globe. The change which took place
at that same period, in the average duration of human
WITH HUMAN REASON* 09
life, would also seem to indicate some alteration of a
permanent character in the condition of man's abode
upon earth, less favourable to our animal powers.
That change, we may observe, though immediate in
a very great proportion, was not total and complete,
till after the lapse of a considerable time subsequent
to Noah : a circumstance which well accords with the
hypothesis above stated, since it is natural to suppose
that the stronger stimulus of vitality would not yield
immediately to the operation of changes in climate or
other similar causes, but would adapt itself gradually,
and through successive generations, to its new posi-
tion, until it had reached the maximum of depression,
at which it would remain stationary. This, however,
with all the foregoing conjectures, be it rememil>ered,
we give strictly and simply as such. Most probably,
after all, they are very far from meeting the real diffi-
culty of the case. The real and substantial proofs
of the Mosaic deluge are the records of its occurrence
indelibly and unanswerably impressed upon the
earth's surface ; and they are completely satisfactory.
If we have ventured to add any confirmatory sug-
gestions of our own, let them be considered as in-
tended rather to show the utter futility of the objec-
tions of the infidel, than to throw light upon what,
at least in the present state of science, must be con-
sidered an inexplicable mystery.
The confusion of languages at Babel is the first
important event related in Scripture, as occurring
after the period of the deluge. The Mosaic statement
is altogether so mysterious as scarcely to admit of
any explanatory conjecture. It may, however, be
incidentally observed, that if we take into considera-
tion the known instinctive attachment of mankind to
their native soil, their tendency to congregate toge-
ther in large communities, and the destructive feuds
which would arise in an overcrowded population,
where each person would be rather disposed to expel
his neighbour, at any cost, than to remove the incon-
70 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
venient pressure by his own voluntary emigration, we
can scarcely imagine any means so well adapted to
counteract what, at that peculiar period of the world,
would have operated as a mischievous propensity,
and to promote a voluntary colonization in other dis-
tricts without either animosity or bloodshed, as the
introduction of the momentary inconvenience result-
ing from the misapprehension of each other's lan-
guage. Scripture, it is true, does not assign this or
any reason, for the miracle ; of course, therefore, it
can be mentioned only as a mere surmise, founded
upon the known propensities of human nature, and
upon the assumption that Providence avails itself, for
the most part, of existing secondary causes, for the
furtherance of its ends, which it would be absurd to
advance with any degree of confidence.
CHAPTER IX.
Of the internal Prohahility of the peculiar Revelation of the Divine
Will confairied in t/ie Jewish Scriptures, and of the moral tendency
of that Revelation.
It is certain that the natural tendency of the
human heart, in the absence of any external religious
stimulus, such as that of a positive Divine revelation
existing under solemn and authoritative sanctions, is
to fall into a total forgetfulness of its Creator, and an
indifference to all but corporeal objects. This is one
of those truths, for the reality of which we may con-
fidently appeal to the whole past experience of man-
kind. Man, from the period of his first existence,
appears necessarily to have stood in need of some
mode of direct communication with his Maker, it
being perfectly demonstrable that there is nothing in
the resorts of unassisted reason capable of filling up
that void in our moral and intellectual faculties which
would be left by the substraction of the aids of reve-
WITH HUMAN REASON. 71
lation. When this last help is wanting, the total
degradation of our nature is the invariable conse-
quence. On the other hand, we must be prepared in
candour to admit, that as such a systematic commu-
nication with the Divine Being, as that now assumed
to be necessary, implies nothing less than the opera-
tion of a continuity of miracles, there is certainly, at
first sight, a semblance of improbability, and, as it
would almost appear, of clumsiness of contrivance, in
a system which would seem* to require the constant
direct interference of its Author for the preservation
of order, or the prevention of derangement. Here,
however, as before, we are precluded from the adop-
tion of our own more plausible theories, as to what
things ought to be, by the obstinacy of unanswerable
facts. In discussing the arguments for and against
revelation in general, we are reduced to the necessity
of choosing between two alternatives. We must
either, in the one case, suppose human nature to
have been left by its Creator entirely to its own
moral and intellectual resources, in which event we
see nothing before us but the most fearful state of
spiritual abandonment and degradation ; or, on the
other hand, we must be ready to admit the probability
of some direct interposition of Providence, incul-
cating some positive code of moral laws ; and thus
coming, to a certain degree, into collision with man's
free agency, and the seemingly established order of
the universe. Actual and uniform experience, we
repeat, has shown the total untenableness of any
intermediate theory. It is evident, however, that the
difficulty here is full as great (if not infinitely greater)
on tlie side of scepticism as on that which assumes
the necessity of a system of revelation for our spirit-
ual guidance. We see, it is true, no a priori reason
why man should have been created such as he is,
but being such, our course of argument, in order to be
correct, must adopt that admission as an elementary
truth. Now, if the report of Scripture be correct, the
72 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
course which Providence in its wisdom has pursuetl
from the first, has been to arrive at its important
object, the elevation and instruction of our species,
ty the least possible deviation from the ordinary
course of events, and by interfering, in the smallest
degree possible, with the free-will of man. A revela-
tion, under some form other, appears from the com-
mencement of the world to have been offered to, but
never obtruded upon, mankind. The human race
have ever been left free to adopt or to reject, to make
their election between good and evil. In every suc-
cessive age, accordingly, the primitive distinction
between the sons of God and the children of men
seems to have existed. The Almighty has uniformly
disclosed himself sufficiently to be found out by those
who seek him, but insufficiently for the apprehension
of those whose minds have been otherwise employed
in the selfish pursuits of mere worldly enjoyment.
Such, according to the Mosaic account, was undoubt-
edly the condition of the antediluvian generations ;
such was tha-t of the early patriarchal ages ; such
was that, on a more extended scale, of the Jews,
under the Levitical institutions ; and such it is at the
present moment in the consummation of revelation
under the Christian covenant. In no one period has
God left himself without some record of his existence
and attributes; the blessing, indeed, has been une-
qually diffused, and whilst a large portion of mankind
have been allowed to continue with no other spiritual
guidance than that of their own instinctive moral
sense, some few select communities have been set
as a beacon on a hill for the diffusion of the light of
revealed truth to all who were disposed to profit by it.
Now it were indeed presumptuous to say that Pro-
Tidence has selected this as the only possible course
between conflicting difficulties: but it is at least
incumbent upon those who calumniate this arrange-
ment as both partial and inadequate for the occasion,
to show how the first elements of sound religion
WITH HTTMAN REASON. 73
(Jould have been kept alive during a long course of
ages of comparative barbarism, with any thing less
than this presumed degree of direct Divine inter-
ference, or how human free agency, which constitutes
the basis of every rational notion of religion, could
have been compatible with more. Truth we know
to be uniform and self-consistent, but the human
powers of the apprehension of trutn vary with every
modification of society, and with every progress of
knowledge. What exact degree of revelation, there-
fore, is adapted to meet the circumstances and wants
of our nature, under all its possible varieties of aspect,
is a problem much too intricate for mortal wisdom to
solve. The divine mind, which knows all the internal
machinery of our hearts, is alone equal to that task.
One thing, however, even we may venture to assert,
namely, that the brightest effulgence of revealed truth
is not fitted for the earliest and rudest state of human
existence. Under such circumstances neither could its
momentous value be duly appreciated, nor its records
adequately and correctly transmitted, to succeeding
times. The very immensity of the importance of
Christianity, then, as a final and complete system of
revelation, would obviously seem to require that its
first communication to mankind should have been
postponed until the world, from the more advanced
state of knowledge, should be prepared to receive it.
But, upon this supposition, what might not be the
pernicious effects produced by a total suspension of
the communication of Divine knowledge upon the
religious habits of society in the ages antecedent to
such a communication ! We know sufficiently, from
past history, to what a thoroughly debasing state of
irreligion and idolatry the human mind necessarily
descends, in the absence of the adventitious help of
revelation. Here, then, appears the absolute neces*
sity of some intermediate form of revelation, of some
provisional system less perfect than that destined
ultimately to supersede it, but still worthy^ of Dhrine
7
74 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
providence, and vv^ell adapted to cooperate with tbe
existing state of knowledge, and the varied grada-
tions of society, in the earlier portion of man's history .
Such an arrangement, admitting the Divine origin
and the correctness of the history of Christianity, we
should naturally look for, and such an arrangement,
the Old Testament assures us, did accordingly exist.
But the system pursued by Providence is always one
of strict uniformity with itself, and the leading cha-
racteristic of that uniformity is the availing itself of
the operation of secondary causes, so long as those
causes are adequate, for the accomplishment of its
purpose. Even in a system, therefore, of positive
miraculous interventions, we should, in reason, ex-
pect to find no gratuitous or superfluous display of
miracles. This, again, accords exactly with what we
read in Scripture. The light of true religion was not
allowed to become extinct during the long course of
ages which preceded Christianity, but still the strict
necessity of the case was the measure of the actual
deviation from the ordinary course of natural events.
This remark will serve to account for, and to justify,
that appearance of partiality in the selection of indi-
vidual persons and tribes, as the vehicles of revelation,
which characterizes the earlier recorded intercourse
of God with his creatures. In the antediluvian and
patriarchal ages religion could have been diffused
over the whole human race, only by a series of con-
tinuous miracles, inconsistent, so far as we judge,
with the usual purposes of the Divine government.
On the other hand, the selection of first a single
family, and afterwards of a single nation, as the de-
positaries of religious knowledge, appears to be a far
less startling deviation from the usual order of nature,
whilst, from the singleness of purpose, of which such
an arrangement was more peculiarly capable, it was
likely to be more efficient for the preservation and
accurate transmission of those truths, the perpetua-
ting of which was so essentially important.
WITH HUMAN REASON. 75
If, however, there is nothing repugnant to reason
in the supposition that certain individuals, in the
earlier period of the world, might have been selected
as instruments for the guardianship of revealed truth,
it would also appear probable, that the rule which
would direct the choice of this or that person would
not be merely the moral excellence of the parties thus
chosen, but also their peculiar fitness, from other
adventitious circumstances, for the task thus entrusted
to them. This observation, if correct, will serve to
explain some apparent anomalies in Scripture, result-
ing from what is there related of the characters of
some of the influential personages whose history it
records. It is reasonable, indeed, to suppose, that the
Divine Being, in making his selection of the persons
whom he destined to be the depositaries of his will,
would give the preference to those whose piety and
^ood conduct would seem specially to entitle them to
hat high distinction. And such, in fact, appears to
ave been the case, with regard to his choice of the
rst founders of the Israelitish nation. In the cir-
imstances related of Abraham, we recognise the
aces of one of the most singularly amiable and
ous dispositions on record. Of Isaac little is related,
It that little is calculated to afford the same favour-
le impression of his character; and if in the early
5tory of Jacob we cannot but recognise some traits
(. human infirmity, all that is recorded of the latter
p "iod of his life is, at all events, precisely such as
y\ can imagine to be likely to conciliate the Divine
fa our. Still, however, we should recollect, that both
thi se men and their descendants were, in fact, only
the machinery by which the Almighty accomplished
his will, and that the distinction thus conferred upon
them had not any necessary and inseparable reference
to their personal deserts. This observation, so far
as it regards the Jews, the Old Testament, with a
remarkable caution, as if specially to guard against
the possibility of misapprehension, repeats again and
76 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
again, reminding them that they were a stiff-necked
generation, chosen for no merit of their own, but
merely as instruments in the hand of Divine power,
raised up for a specific purpose, and forming, almost
unconsciously, a necessary link in the chain of the
arrangements of Providence. The degree to which
this unquestionable fact has been overlooked by the
enemies of Christianity, is another strong proof, out
of the many, of the extreme unfairness with which
infidelity has brought its charges against revelation.
It is in vain that Scripture deprecates this misappli-
cation of its doctrine; that it asserts the absolute
equality and impartiality of God's moral government,
and that it relates from time to time the tremendous
penal inflictions which befel these seemingly favoured
men, where their moral demerits called down the
visitation. The handle is too plausible a one for
the adversaries of revealed truth to relinquish, and
they have, accordingly, down to our own time, uni»
formly availed themselves of it: with what regard to
accuracy and legitimate argument, let those judge
who have most anxiously studied that mysterious
volume so much calumniated, but so little understood.
Granting, then, the necessity of a series of pro-
visional and comparatively imperfect revelations of
the Divine will prior to the full developement of
Christianity, and assuming, as we have done through
the whole of the preceding argument, that God's
ordinary course of proceeding is that of availing him-
self of the established course of secondary causes,
and even of turning the bad passions of mankind to
account for the production of good, and the further-
ance of his own gracious designs, we surely cannot
but remark a consistency, and a strong confirmatory
internal evidence, in those peculiar modes of revela*
tion which the more ancient historical books of the
Old Testament assert to have taken place in the
early ages : a consistency, because it accords exactly
wiln what we have every reason to infer of the deal-
WITH HUMAN REASON. 77
ings of Providence at the present moment; and an
internal evidence, because, though we conceive the
system pursued to be entirely in harmony with the
real order of the universe, we admit it to be unlike
what any inventor of a fictitious revelation would be
disposed to have suggested as probable. There is a
homeliness in the aspect of real truth which almost
always startles us at the first aspect. It is only upon
collecting our thoughts, and taking into consideration
the whole bearing of the case, that we begin to see
its appositeness and intrinsic superiority to those
delusive creatures of our own imaginations, which
are so apt to impose themselves upon us as philoso-
phical principles. The question, then, now before
us is simply this. The sceptic objects to the Holy
Scriptures that they describe the Almighty as spe-
cially protecting, for a long succession of ages, select
bodies of men who, for aught that we can perceive,
had little in their personal characters to recommend
them to his favour above others, whom the sacred
historian passes over in silence. Even supposing
that we assent to the accuracy of his statement thus
far, we entirely deny the inference which he would
derive from it. We reply, that he himself, if he be
really a Theist, acknowledges the existence, at this
moment, of an all-wise and benevolent Ruler of the
universe, and we challenge him to try revelation by
the same test which he applies to the existing order
of nature. Does he profess to doubt whether it can
be consistent with the Divine perfection to bring
about its ultimate purposes by what we call natural
causes, and to avail itself of human passions, and
even the incidental infirmities of human nature for
the procuring of ultimate benefits ? We repeat, that
the whole chain of history, modern as well as ancient,
secular as well as scriptural, answers this question,
respecting the mode of God's government, in the
affirmative. It is no j ustification of human guiltiness
that the worst vices of mankind have often, in direct
7*
78 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
opposition to the intention of the parties, led to most
oeneficial effects upon society; but we know that
such have been the hinges upon which some of the
great influential epochs of human improvement have
turned. " It is necessary that offences should come,
but wo unto them by whom they come." Such is
the language of the book of revelation, whidi on this
point accords exactly with the book of nature. Few
stronger proofs, perhaps, of the predominance of the
good over the evil principle in the regulation of the
universe can be quoted, than this very tendency, by
which beneficial results are often seen to emanate
from the most apparently deleterious causes. Ad-
mitting that the Divine mind presides over, and
directs the current of human events (and on this
point the theistical sceptic and the Christian are alike
agreed,) what difference can it make with reference
to that substantial fact, in what form of words we
enunciate it as a certain proposition ; whether we
say with the secular historian, that particular events
followed particular causes, or with the inspired pen-
man, that God raised up this or that individual, this
or that nation, for the special accomplishment of his
will ? If we see nothing to stagger our reliance upon
the Divine goodness in the fact that the vices of the
Roman conclave raised up a Luther, or that the
licentious passions of Henry VIII. planted the Pro-
testant Reformation in England, why should we be
offended if we find revelation, when giving the de-
tails of the government of the same Almighty Being,
recognising a principle which presents no handle
for censure, when considered as a branch of natural
theology ?
" If plagues or earthquakes break not heaven's design,
Why then a Borgia, or a Catiline 1
Who knows but lie, whose hand the lightning formsy
Who heaves old Ocean, and who wings the storms,
Pours fierce ambition in a Caesar's mind,
Or turns young Ammon loose to scourge mankind?'*
Whea Bolingbroke suggested to Pope the sentiment
WITH HUMAN REASON. 79
contained in the foregoing lines, in support of his
theory of natural religion, he saw nothing in it which
his reason did not assent to. It was only when he
came to turn his attention to the evidences of revela-
tion that he perceived, or fancied that he perceived,
its unsoundness.
It is in vain, then, for the deistical impugners of
Scripture to profess to be offended by the admitted
vices of the Jewish people, or of some'of the remark-
able personages recorded in Holy Writ, as inconsistent
with the moral attributes of that Providence which is
there declared to have raised them to a high state of
temporal elevation, so long as they confine themselves
to that single charge. Were they, indeed, able to
point out in the sacred writings, anyone line express-
ing approbation of those vices, or attempting to throw
a veil over the occasional imperfections of even the
more brilliant characters of the inspired history, the
objection would be undoubtedly fatal. The direct
contrary is, however, notoriously the case. That
revelation gives an impartial portraiture of poor infirm
human nature is perfectly true, and the faithfulness
of the resemblance to what we have all experienced,
is a strong confirmation of the authenticity of the
description. True, indeed, it is that the successive
events there related are given simply and undis-
guisedly, as they appear to have occurred, precisely
as those of any other class of human beings, might be
delineated by their respective historians ; but the
narrative has this peculiarity, which, without dero-
gating from its accuracy, distinguishes it from all other
historical records whatever ; it never loses sight of the
great fact of a Providence which superintends all human
events : a fact, we repeat, which, if secular writers
believe in, they have no right to adduce as an argu-
ment against Scripture, and which if they do not
believe, then they do not come within that description
of persons to whom the present course of argument
is addressed.
80 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
Can, then, the sceptic produce an instance in which
the sacred writings speak of any positive deviation
from the rules of morality in any other terms than
those of censure ? That he can do so, we expressly
deny. Would he allege as an instance in point, the
intended sacrifice of Isaac by his father Abraham ? —
for even that noble and affecting example of holy
faith has been calumniated as a trait of ignorant and
sanguinary superstition. The answer here is obvious.
If Scripture be really what it asserts itgelf to be, the
word of God, the morality of this specific case at
once establishes itself by the mere statement of the
fact. Nothing can be more palpably certain, than
that He, who is the great author of life, has an un-
doubted right to resume his own gift; and, conse-
quently, that not only was that act of unshrinking
obedience meritorious in Abraham, as a proof of his
faith, but also that an exactly similar line of conduct
would, at this moment, be imperative upon ourselves,
provided the command could be as certainly and
explicitly conveyed to us in our own case as we believe
it to have been to him in his. Here the only point
at issue is, as to the degree of proof of the reality of
the Divine commission : admit that, and the scrip-
tural inference follows as a matter of course.
The sanguinary executions inflicted upon the
idolatrous Canaanites again have been dwelt upon
with persevering acrimony of vituperation by those
who would prove the Scriptures of the Old Testament
to be the production of a barbarous and cruel period,
and obviously unworthy of their assumed Divine
origin. Here the fallacy, as in the case of so many
other questions of this nature, depends entirely upon
a garbled and imperfect statement of the facts. If
the Israelites received no commission to inflict these
tremendous punishments upon their neighbours, then,
indeed, the charge against the Deity falls to the
ground, but upon that supposition the Scriptures have
misstated the fact, and the Israelites themselves
WITH HUMAN REASON. 81
deserve the deepest reprobation. If, however, on
the other hand, the assertion of a special commission
from the Almighty, for that purpose, has been cor-
rectly made, that admission at once justifies the fact.
Here, again, we refer the consistent Deist, to his own
principles. Granting that the destruction of the
Canaanitish idolaters must be referred directly to
God himself, and not merely to the appointed instru-
ments of his will, it remains for the unbeliever to
show in what single circumstance this occurrence
morally differs from other undoubted acts of Divine
Providence, where, for some great and perhaps un-
traceable purpose, the engines of destruction have
been extensively employed. Looking to the sacred
historian, why does the opponent of Christianity,
whilst he makes this specific charge, neglect to in-
clude, in the same censure, the almost entire extirpa-
tion of the human race, by the universal deluge, or
the overthrow of Sodom, Gomorrah, and the sur-
rounding cities? Looking to secular history, how
does he account for the occasional visitations of
pestilence, of famine, of earthquakes ? How does
he reconcile with the government of a wise and bene-
volent ruler of the universe, the destruction of Pom-
peii, of Herculaneum, of Stabii, in ancient times, and
of Messina and Lisbon in modern ? Will he argue,
that it aggravates the charge against Scripture, that
the Canaanites are declared to have been justly pun-
ished for their crimes^ whilst we know of no peculiar
enormities, beyond those attaching to their neigh-
bours, which we can lay to the account of the last-
mentioned cities, which have been thus consigned to
destruction ? Again we repeat, the interposition of
the mysterious veil which, in modern times, screens
from our view the direct workings of the Deity, and
obliges us to refer the course of events to contingent
and secondary causes, makes no real difference in the
practical argument. What is certainly true of the
God of nature, is as assuredly true of the God of the
82 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
Scriptures. If, notwithstanding the startling char-
acter of surrounding circumstances, the philoso-
phical rationalist can maintain his faith in the former
unshaken, he cannot, consistently with his own creed,
impugn the dispensations of the latter.
But let us examine this charge, which, by some
persons, is thought so seriously to shake the authority
of revelation, more in detail. The believer in Chris-
tianity maintains that it was absolutely necessary,
for the general welfare of mankind, that the last
remnant of the only true religion upon earth should
be kept from total extinction, either by the operation
of one continued miracle, or by the cooperation of
secondary causes, during that dark and protracted
period which was destined to intervene between the
first settlement of the Israelites in Palestine, and the
eventual promulgation of the covenant of the Gospel.
The prevention of the contagion of idolatry by the
extinction of the idolaters, he contends, was the only
really efficacious means for attaining this end, and
thus demonstrates, in the first place, the expediency
of the measures recorded to have been adopted.
That those measures were consistent with the rules
of morality, and with the Divine justice, he proves,
in the next place, by referring to the numerous acts
of infanticide, the human sacrifices, and other fearful
abominations, acknowledged to have been practised
by that denounced people ; and lastly, that the mea-
sure now under discussion was not a deviation from
the usual course of the government of Providence, he
shows, by referring to the extensive inflictions which,
on other occasions, and even within our own times,
have been allowed to befal various portions of the
human race. Unless the Deist can point out a sub-
stantial distinction between the admissions contained
in his own mode of belief, and these assumptions from
Scripture, his argument obviously proves nothing.
But, neither is the whole of his objections, nor the
whole of our vindication of this portion of revelation,
€TTiriv»ESi
WITH HUMAN REASO]
cotiiprehended in the preceding remarfes. He argues,
that the making any set of human beings delegated
commissioners for the execution of the divine judg-
ments, especially in the case of the speculative points
of theology, is, in itself, such a handle afforded to
religious persecution, that we cannot conceive so
dangerous a doctrine to have proceeded from the
hallow^ed source of inspiration. To this we answer
that the precedent here supposed could be in point
only upon the recurrence of exactly similar circum-
stances, and in the case of a special Divine warrant;
but the forraer of these suppositions implies an impos-
sibility, the latter an extreme improbability. Oa
slighter grounds than these, no real Christian would,
any more than the philosophical Theist, advocate the
right of extirpating by the sword erroneous doctrines
of religion. But it will be said that the parties
deputed on this occasion, as the ministers of ven-
geance, were themselves nearly equally culpable with
the very idolaters (and even in the self-same acts of
irreligion) for whose punishment they were sent.
Admitting this assertion to be correct, which, how-
ever, remains to be proved, still, if it mean any thing,
it would show that, as all human beings are liable
to error, therefore no human beings are capable, in
strict justice, of receiving a commission for inflicting
any penal retribution upon others. Here, again, we
appeal to those principles of common usage and obvi-
ous expediency, admitted equally by both parties.
Can the objector, in this case, recal to his recollec-
tion no instances perfectly accordant with the sound-
est reason and policy, of civil or military discipline,
where one peccant individual is made, for the sake
of the example which it affords to himself, the instru-
ment of punishment upon his more culpable confede-
rates ? It has been uniformly asserted through the
whole of the preceding arguments, and we see no
reason for being ashamed of the doctrine, that the
mode of Divine government, with reference to man-
S4 CONSISTENCY 01' REVULATtON
kind, as revealed to us in Scripture, is ever found to
be in strict conformity and adaptation to the ma-
chinery of human passions. In other words, that
God's dealings with mankind are fitted for mankinds
The mere punishment of the Canaanitish idolaters,
we have reason to believe, was not the sole nor the
main object of the awful executions now alluded to.
Other nations, both in ancient and modern times,
have, we know, grievously sinned as they had done,
and yet have been allowed to await the ordinary and
procrastinated course of the Divine judgments. The
real end aimed at on that occasion was, no doubt,
the warning and example afforded by these means to
the wavering Israelites themselves. And most fear-
ful and appalling must that example have proved to
their own chid^ing consciences. Whether the lesson
thus practically taught them, respecting the grievous
crime of idolatry, was more severe than the actual
circumstances required, is best shown by considering
to what degree, after all, they did really escape the
contagion of irreligion, communicated by their neigh-
bours. Now we know that the apostasy of even
these choseri delegates of Divine retrihution was, at
several periods of their history, all but complete.
As, during their wanderings in the desert, they looked
back, with regret and longing, to the coarse servile
fare of Egypt, so, during a large portion of their resi-
dence in the promised land, they envied and imitated
the gross worship of their idolatrous neighbours, and
were retained within the limits of something resem-
bling the pure religion taught from Mount Sinai,
only by an external circumvallation of rites, and
isolating usages, too well contrived for -even their
wayward obstinacy to break through. In the latter
period of their history, immediately preceding the
Chaldean captivity, to such an extent had the princi-
ple of irreligion prevailed, that if a remnant of true
believers still existed, it was a remnant in the strictest
application of the term ; men chased from society,
WITH HUMAN REASON. 85
and herding in woods and rocks, from the persecution
of their apostate sovereigns. Still it is remarkable
that the surrounding darkness never completely closed
over that remarkable country^ to the total ecclinction of
the light from heaven. The machinery employed by
Providence for the furtherance of its purpose exactly
•performed the work required and no more. Had one
degree less of severity been adopted, had the Mosaic
ritual been rendered less exclusive, and the spirit of
nationality less earnestly forced upon them, it cannot
be doubted but that the principle of evil would have
finally prevailed over them, and our blessed Saviour,
at his coming, would have had to preach the holy
doctrines of the Gospel to a people unimbued with
the first notions of sound theism. "When ye oJfTer
your gifts, when ye make your sons to pass through
the fire, ye pollute yourselves with all your idols, even
Unto this day. And shall I be inquired of by you, O
house of Israel ? As I live, saith the Lord God, I
will not be inquired of by you. And that which cometh
into your mind shall not be at all, that ye say, We wilt
be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve
wood and stone* As I live, saith the Lord God, surely
with a mighty hand, and a stretched out arm, and witn
fury poured out, ivill 1 rule over you." Before, then,
we charge the denunciations of the Mosaic code
against acts of idolatry, as sanguinary and unjustifia-
ble, or its ceremonial institutions, for the furtherance
of the same object, as vexatious and trifling, let it at
least be shown, that a slighter effort, on the part of
the legislator, would have attained the required object.
If this cannot, as assuredly it cannot, be proved, then
the only conclusion to which we can arrive, from the
whole bearings of the case, is, that after all, the means
adopted were only just adequate to the emergency,
and that what has been set up as an accusation against
the truth of revelation on this occasion is, in reality,
an additional argument of the wisdom in which its
various integral parts have been arranged.
8
86 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
CHAPTER X.
Of the Moral Tendency of the Levitical Institutiong.
But the defender of the inspiration of the Mosaic
Writings will not be content to rest his cause solely
upon exculpatory arguments. Those compositions
profess to be the dictation of almighty wisdom ; and
if that assertion be correct, we may reasonably expect
to find, in the character of their precepts, some inter-
nal proof and indication of the pure source from which
they emanated. Now, on this point, the course be-
fore us is an easy one. Christianity, we know, was
not introduced into the world until after the expira-
tion of at least four thousand years from the time
of its creation. During that long period, with the
single exception of the patriarchal families, previous
to the era of Moses, and of the Jewish nation, sub-
sequently to that time, the human mind had to form
its own opinions upon the great questions of religion
and morals, from the conclusions of the light of nature
only, unless we admit also the not improbable sup-
position, that some remnants of original tradition
contributed their aid towards the formation of the
schools of ancient philosophy. Let, then, the infidel
give us, in support of our argument, the single book
of the Old Testament, or even the writings of Moses
only, and let him take the full benefit of all the occa-
sional sublime morality, and all the theology, which
he can find in the works of the philosophers and
moralists of heathenism, from the earliest period of
history down to that of the ministry of Christ. No
doubt he will find there much which every Christian
will admire and approve, for we have St. PauPs own
warrant for the assertion, that there was enough of
WITH HUMAN REASON. 87
soundness in the wisdom of those remarkable men,
to render the plea of ignorance unavailable to those
who, notwithstanding such helps, continued in the
commission of sin. Still, however, we may confi-
dently challenge the Augustan age itself to produce,
if it can, by selection from all the works of all the
ancients, a code of morals and theology, at all ap-
proaching in excellence to that contained in the single
law of Moses, written, be it remembered, almost in
the world's very infancy, and when Greece and Italy
lay, as yet, immersed in the deepest barbarism. Had
we, in fact, nothing to produce but the Decalogue
itself, we should feel no anxiety for the issue of the
challenge. It may be said, indeed, with reference to
this last observation, that the doctrine of the unity of
the Godhead, and the great laws of social morality,
may be found as fully and explicitly stated in the
works of the better heathen ethical writers, as in
those Two Tables. But, admitting that the more
obvious injunctions and prohibitions may be as clearly
expressed elsewhere, the existence of the second and
tenth commandments would, we think, completely
bear out our case. Other legislators may have as-
serted the unity of the supreme Being, and his claim
to priority of worship : but we very much doubt
whether any precept, excepting that of Moses, can be
quoted, which anticipates the first commencing germ
of the principle of idolatry within the heart, by point-
ing out and guarding against the tendency to poly^
theism, produced by the toleration of a more limited
veneration of inferior beings ; or which, after de-
nouncing the various overt acts of positive and prac-
tical immorality, proceeds to subject the mere latent
wish, the unripened, and, as yet, unoperative desire
to the same uncompromising censure. We learn,
from Josephus, the strong effect produced upon the
Jewish nation, even at the latter period of their ex-
istence, by the prohibitive injunction of the second
commandment of the Decalogue, in the case of the
88 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
resistance which they made to the innovations of
Herod, upon the mere introduction by him of trophies,
bearing a very rude resemblance to the human form,
within the walls of Jerusalem ; and we cannot but
contrast the beneficial result of this feeling of extreme
caution on so nice a point in that people, with the
gross abuses which have eventually attended seem-
ingly harmless deviations from the strictness of this
rule in the instance of the Church of Rome. It was
surely no human wisdom which, at so early and
dark an era as that of Moses, detected one of the most
deceitful principles of the human breast, and antici-
pated the coming mischief by a cautious and effectual
prospective enactment. Let us take another instance
in point. Even in the writings of Cicero w^e find the
Stoic Balbus introduced, as maintaining the theory
of the divine nature of the sun, and the other heavenly
bodies, and of their claim to our reverence as such.
Such Avas the purest form of theology at Rome, at
a period little antecedent to our Saviour's nativity.
Nor can any one read the alleged conversations of
that truly remarkable man now alluded to, with his
contemporary philosophers, on these sublime sub-
jects, without perceiving how much more the great
questions of religion appear to have been considered
by them rather as matters of curious and abstract
discussion, than as any thing in which they, as re^
sponsible beings, had a vested and most momentous
interest. In opposition to such cold and unprofitable
skirmishing of the intellect, let us quote the surpris-
ingly vivid and soul-stirring appeal of the Jewish
legislator on this self-same point. " Behold, I have
taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord
my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the
land whither ye go to possess it. Keep, therefore,
and do them, for this is your wisdom and understand-
ing in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all
these statutes, and say. Surely this great nation is
a wise and understandmg people, For what nation
WITH HUMAN REASON. 89
is there so great, which hath God so nigh unto them,
as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon
him for? And what nation is there so great, and
hath statutes and judgments so righteous, as all this
law which I set before you this day ? Only take
heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest
thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen,
and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy
life : but teach them thy sons and thy son's sons.
Specially the day that thou stoodest before the Lord
thy God in Horeb, when the Lord said unto me.
Gather me the people together, and I will make them
hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all
the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that
they may teach their children. And ye came near
and stood under the mountain, and the mountain
burned with fire unto the midst of heaven, with dark-
ness, clouds, and thick darkness. And the Lord
spake unto you out of the midst of the fire. Ye
heard the voice of the words, but saiv no similitude:
only ye heard a voice. And he declared unto you
his covenant, which he commands you to perform,
even ten commandments, and he wrote them upon
two tables of stone. And the Lord commanded me
at that time to teach you statutes and judgments,
that ye might do them in the land whether ye go over
to possess it. Take ye, therefore, good need unto
yourselves ; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the
day that the Lord spake unto me in Horeh, out of the
midst of the fire, lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make
you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the
likeness of male or female, the likeness of any beast that
is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth
in the air ; the likeness of any thing that creepeth on the
ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters
beneath the earth, and lest thou lift up thine eyes unto
heaven, and when thou seest the sun and the moon and
the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven
to worship them, and serve them, which the Lord thy
8*
90 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
God hath divided unto all nations under the whole
heaven."'*''
" Crudele gladiatorum spectaculum et inhumanum
nonnullis videri solet, et hand sew an ita sit ut nunc
fit," is again the cold-blooded remark of the above-
mentioned accomplished Roman philosopher, on the
subject of the atrocious amusements of the amphi-
theatre, at the period of Rome's highest state of social
refinement. Compare with this the following noble,
sublime, and beautiful passages from the Mosaic
writings: ''Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man
shall his blood be shed."t " When ye reap the har-
vests of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the
corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the
gleanings of thy harvest ; and thou shalt not glean
thy vineyard : — thou shalt leave them for the poor
and stranger. I am the Lord your God. Thou shalt
not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him : the wages
of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all
night until the morning. Thou shalt not curse the
deaf, nor put a stumbling-block before the blind, but
shalt fear thy God. I am the Lord. Ye shall do
no unrighteousness in judgment ; thou shalt not re-«
spect the person of the poor, nor honour the person
of the mighty, but in righteousness shalt thou judge
thy neighbour. Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any
grudge against the children of thy people, but thou
shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. I am the Lord."t
*' Thou shalt not see thy brother's ass or his ox fall
down by the way, and hide thyself from them ; thou
shalt surely help him to lift them up again. If a
bird's nest chance to be before thee in the way in
any tree, or on the ground, whether they be young
ones or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young or
upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the
young ; but thou shalt in any wise let the dam go,
and lake the young to thee; that it may be well
• Deut. \v. tG«n. ix. 6. ^Lev. xlx.
M
WITH HUMAN REASON. 91
with thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days."*
" No man shall take the nether or the upper millstone
to pledge, for he taketh a man's life to pledge. When
thou dost lend thy brother any thing, thou shalt not
go into his house to fetch his pledge. Thou shalt
stand abroad, and the man to whom thou dost lend
shall bring out the pledge abroad unto thee. And if
the man be poor, thou shalt not sleep with his pledge :
in any case, thou shalt deliver him the pledge again
when the sun goeth down, that he may sleep in his
own raiment, and bless thee : audit shall be righteous-
ness unto thee before the Lord thy God, Thou shalt
not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy,
whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy strangers that
are in thy land within thy gates. At his day shalt
thou give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down
upon it; for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it :
lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto
Jthee. Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the
-stranger, nor of the fatherless, nor take the widow's
raiment to pledge ; but thou shalt remember that thou
wast a bondman in Egypt, and the Lord thy God
^redeemed thee thence : therefore I command thee to
do this thing. When thou cuttest down thine harvest
in thy field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou
shalt not go again to fetch it ; it shall be for the stran-
ger, for the fatherless, and for the widow ; that the
Lord may bless thee in all the work of thine hands.
When thou beatest thine olive-tree, thou shalt not go
over the boughs again : it shall be for the stranger,
for the fatherless, and for the Avidow. When thou
gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt not
glean it afterward : it shall be for the stranger, for
the fatherless^ and for the widow; and thou shalt
remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of
Egypt, therefore I command thee to do this thing."t
There is no need of apology for the length of these
• Dcut. xjii. t Deut. xuiv.
92 CONSISTENCT OF REVELATION
truly beautiful extracts. We will add one short pas-
sage more, which is remarkable, when we consider
the oppressive Egyptian bondage from which the
Israelites had recently escaped, for the truly Christian
feeling of generosity and forbearance which it ex-
presses. " Thou shah not abhor an Edomite, for he
is thy brother ; thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian,
because thou wast a stranger in his land.''^^
It is quite impossible, we conceive, to read these
splendid touches of kindly feeling and sublime piety
without acknowledging their immeasurable superior-
ity to any of the most elaborate prqductions of Pagan
civilization. And if so, the inquiry, naturally fol-
lows, " To what are we to attribute this superiority ?"
Grant the inspiration of the passages in question, and
the diflficulty is at once removed. But without the
aid of this satisfactory solution, the exquisite morality
which marks these most ancient of all human composi-
tions must be admitted to present an anomaly which
it seems perfectly impossible to account for upon any
natural principle.
We may observe, also, as another striking internal
evidence of the authenticity of these singular records,
that the beauty of the religious and social principles
which they inculcate is in direct contrast with what
we find, from the same sources of information, to have
been the practical habits of the parties to whom they
were addressed. Highly wrought and delicate senti-
ments of humanity and of chastened piety appear,
in the ordinary course of natural events, only among
nations very far advanced in intellectual improve-
ment ; because such productions grow out of the exist-
ing state of knowledge and manners ; or where the
literature of the people outsteps, by any accident, the
habitual state of manners then prevalent, some traits
of the general barbarism are, at all events, distin-
guishable in it. But what we read in the books of
• Deut. xxiii, 7.
WITH HUMAN REASON. 93
Moses of the moral and intellectual attainments of the
Israelites has nothing which at all harmonizes, or is
in keeping with the sublimity of their religious code.
Now this singular contrast between the sacred litera-
ture of that nation, and the character of the nation
itself, is precisely what we might expect to find, pro-
vided their alleged history be the true one. A system
of laws emanating from Heaven must necessarily be
supposed to be consistent with the soundest principles
of virtue and holiness. But it by no means follows,
that the habits of a semi-barbarous and profligate
people would immediately conform to the restraint of
obligations, so unlike to any thing which constituted
their previous standard of morals. The accuracy then
of the picture afforded us by Moses on this occasion
is, according to the established presumption of the
inspired character of his writings, perfectly correct.
But how are we to explain the difficulty, if Ave deny
that inspiration? Assume, for argument's sake, that
Moses, like some other subsequent legislators, pos-
sessed an understanding far in advance of the pre-
valent notions of his own period. What, in that case,
could have been his motive for composing those his-
torical works which bear his name ? It is evident
that, had his object been merely to make out a plau-
sible case, and to recommend the merits of his own
legislation, it would never have occurred to him to
state those mortifying facts, which form so large a
part of the subject matter of his history, with that
plainness of narrative which we find that he has
actually adopted. No original projector, and, more
than any other person, no legislator, likes to record
the failure of his own experiments ; much less, if
writing a narrative of his attempts to renovate the
character of the people with whom he has to deal,
does he love to register his own personal defects, and
the cases in which he has drawn down the Divine
vengeance upon his own head. As it is, the Mosaic
writings present a true, unfortunately too true, por»
G
94 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
traiture of the waywardness of huhaan nature, and of
the impenetrable surface presented by the heart of
man to the operation of the principle of holiness ; but
they suggest any idea rather than that of a success-
ful instructer of mankind attempting to exemplify the
importance of his own religious and moral precepts,
by showing their practical success in the amelioration
of the parties to whom they have been addressed.
But a principle of self-denial, and an unwilling-
ness to make the most of the means, obviously placed
within his reach, for the furtherance of his object, if
that object were to promote his own personal aggran-
dizement by the assumption of the legislative cha-
racter, pervades alike every part of the writings of
Moses. Arguing upon mere human feelings and
motives, this fact were perfectly inexplicable. The
silence, for instance, observed by him, with regard to
the hopes and fears of a future state, has given rise
to one of the most elaborate and ingenious arguments
contained in the whole compass of English literature.
And what makes his neglect of this great influential
argument the more remarkable, is the certainty of
the fact, as appears incidentally by his own allusions
to the sin of witchcraft and necromancy, that the
doctrine of the separate existence of the soul was
familiar to the minds of the people with whom he
had to deal. Why, then, did he abstain from urging
a dogma of which he could not be ignorant, and
which, as an inducement to obedience, is so far the
most powerful one that a legislator or moralist can
possibly advance ? Had self-interest or human policy
been his spring of action, it is quite impossible that
he should have exercised this forbearance. Admit-
ting, however, his inspiration to have been real,
this remarkable fact explains itself. This self-same
omission, which would present a strange anomaly
in any other code of religion and morals, is, if
Christianity be true, an absolutely necessary conse-
qoence of the peculiar relative position which Ju-
WITH HUMAN REASON. %
daism held, as connected, prospectively, with the
covenant of the Gospel. If eternal life be (as we are
assured that it is) the exclusive result of the ex-
piatory sacrifice of Christ, communicated to mankind
through the medium of faith, it is evident that no
incomplete and merely preparatory system of doc-
trine could consistently hold out the promise of that
reward wh' h is reserved as the especial sanction of
the higher and more perfect revelation. " If," says
St. Paul, " there had been a law given which could
have given life, verily, righteousness should have been
by the law; but the Scripture hath concluded all
under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ
might be given to them that believe." Had, then,
Moses inserted in his own legal code a promise of
eternal salvation as the reward of obedience to its
injunctions, that very promise would be fatal to its
authority as an integral portion of the entire ma-
chinery of Divine revelation. Taking it, on the
other hand, precisely as we find it, the remarkable
omission now alluded to is a striking evidence of
the strict consistency of the-various component parts
of Scripture one with another, and consequently a
strong mternal confirmation of their joint authen-
ticity.
Another very remarkable instance of the forbear-
ance, and (if we were to suppose him to have been
actuated only by human motives) of what might be
justly deemed the imprudence and inconsistency of
Moses, may be observed in the fact, that though
legislating for an infant people, whose future national
character was intended to be moulded entirely upon
the pattern of his institutions, and doing so under the
alleged sanction of Divine dictation, he still asserts
the mere provisional character of his own institutions,
and expressly declares that they were to be eventually
superseded by the enactments of some future and
more perfect legislator. Here is a contradiction
which it were quite impossible to reconcile with any
96 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
admitted and ordinary principles of action. "What
could possibly suggest to any reasonable person, pro-
fessing to be armed with the Divine authority, and
denouncing the most tremendous preternatural visita-
tions against any contingent breach of his enactments,
so strange an idea as that of asserting that, after all,
the rules which he thus peremptorily lays down are
destined to perish, not from the rnei^ destructive
influence of time, but from their own comparative
inferiority to others which are to be subsequently
introduced ? The anomaly, upon every view of the
question but one, is quite inexplicable. Admitting,
however, the truth of the whole series of revelation, as
contained in the entire Bible, not only are we obliged
to admit the necessity of such an explicit declaration ;■
but, also, we cannot but be struck Avith the nicety and
delicacy of arrangement with which it is introduced^
It was obviously desirable at the time of the first
promulgation of the Mosaic law, that no slur should
appear to be thrown upon the sanctity and solemnity
of an institution, which, however temporary in its
purpose, was still intended to form the habits and to
command the respect of the Israelites, for the space
of fifteen centuries, and, during that long period, to
serve as a substitute for the more spiritual dispensa-
tion, which was eventually destined to occupy its
place. Now, a prominent declaration of its merely
provisional character would have been, in great
measure, destructive of this necessary degree of
deferential respect ; and yet, on the other hand, had
it been held out as a system complete and perfect in *
itself, such an assertion would have been inconsistent
with the truth, whilst, also, it would have operated as
a complete vindication of the later Jews in their
eventual rejection of the promises of the Gospel.
This difficulty appears to have been met with that
exact degree of wise caution, which marks deliberate
and consistent contrivance. The introduction of the
Mosaic law, accordingly, was accompanied by thir
WITH HUMAN REASON* 97
most astounding miracles, and its obligatory charac-
ter established under the most terrific sanctions ; and
yet the fact of its beioig intended as a provisional
substitute onljr for a covenant, which was ultimately
to supersede it, though never brought prominently
forward, is still announced with a sufficient precision
of assertion to produce conviction in the mind of any
person, who, not content with a mere general survey,
would take the trouble of examining its less palpable
declarations. In this circumstance we recognise the
usual characteristic of prophecy : that is to say, we
find a statement not calculated to attract much atten-
tion before its completion, and yet which, when com-
pleted, is found to be sufficiently precise to satisfy us
that its insertion was the result of deliberate fore-
knowledge. *=
* That the future advent of Christ was foretold by Moses, as well as
by the later prophets, is not an assumption derived from any forced and
over- ingenious construction of those parts of the Mosaic writings which
are thus interpreted by Christians. The Samaritans, who acknowledged
no canonical books besides the Pentateuch, looked forward to the coming
of the promised Messiah no less confidently than the more orthodox Jews^
The inferences, therefore, which they derived from these respective
passages, were the same with our own. " I know,'' said the yoman of
Samaria, in conversation with our Lord, "that Messias cometh, which
is called Christ : when He is come, he will tell us all things." We find,^
also, in another passage of St. John's gospel, the Apostle Philip bearing
a like testimony to the prophetic declaration of Moses on this point.
" Philip findeth Nathaniel, and saith unto him, We have found him of
whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write." And, yet, not-
withstanding this undoubted explicitness of allusion to that important
event, so guarded is the language of the several passages which bear upon
the point, that it may he doubted whether any person unacquainted with
the books of the New Testament, and perusing the Mosaic writings for
the first time, would necessarily be led by them to cherish the same an-
ticipation. That conclusion would, upon a repeated perusal, be probably
found to be a necessary one, but still it would require a certain effort o«
the attention, and a balancing of consequences, to arrive at it.
y8 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
CHAPTER XL
Of the miraculous incidents recorded by Moses.
The many miraculous incidents which are so inse-
parably interwoven with the whole series of events
recorded in the historical books of the Old Testament,
and more especially in the writings of Moses, as to
leave no possibility of accounting for them from
natural causes, without destroying the whole history
itself, have ever, as a matter of course, been a mark
for the assaults and ridicule of infidelity. Nor is
this all. They have also been a subject of surprise
to many sincere believers in Christianity, under the
idea that, as the admitted system of Providence is
to govern the world by the operation of secondary
causes, such seemingly gratuitous instances of devia-
tion from that rule would appear at first sight to
convey the idea of the fictitious and exaggerated
traditions of a barbarian period, rather than of the
strictly accurate detail of real occurrences. But it
will be right, on this occasion, to observe, as a pre-
liminary fact, that with regard to the question respect-
ing the possibility or probability of miracles, it is not
within the power of even the strongest minds, at this
period of the world, to discuss the matter fairly. All
our established associations, derived from our un-
broken experience of the uniformity of the existing
operations of nature, are directly in the way of an
impartial conjecture as to what may, under peculiar
circumstances, and in a strong emergency, be most
probable in the dispensations of Providence. It is
a point completely established by metaphysicians,
that by a wise adaptation of the constitution of our
minds to the phenomena of the world in which we
are placed, we all of us have an instinctive tendency
to take as our standard of probability, with reference
WITH HUMAN REASON. 99
to future events, our actual experience of the past,
and to judge of abstract possibilities solely by the
occurrences which have fallen within our own know-
ledge. This is not the place to dilate upon the process
of reasoning, upon which this axiom is founded, nor
upon the inference derived from it, which would seem
to establish, as a no less certain truth, our utter in-
competence to trace any connexion between cause
and effect in any natural incidents whatever. Suffice
it to observe, that this predisposition in the human
mind to scepticism, with regard to any deviation
from the usual course of nature, exists within us in-
dependently of our reason, and in spite of our reason ;
aad that though it has been given to us as a neces-
sary instinct for our practical welfare in the business
of this life, it is one against which we cannot be too
much on our guard the moment that we turn our
attention to the discussion of the transcendental topics
of theology. Whilst under the influence of such a
bias as that now alluded to, it is obviously impossible
that the miracles recorded in the inspired writings
should be perused by us without some occasional
misgivings as to the accuracy of the narrative. And
yet, at the same time, nothing can be more certain
than that this instinctive scepticism is itself founded
upon a fallacious, though to us almost inevitable,
process of reasoning. When we consider over how
very confined an area, even of things as they now
are, our own personal knowledge can at the utmost
extend, it were obviously the extreme height of pre-
sumption in us to assert, that because particular oc-
currences have not manifested themselves within our
own time, therefore, they not only have never taken
place in any other period of the world, but are actually
to be considered in the light of impossibilities. But
we need not .rest the credibility of revelation upon
this negative argument only. If our present expe-
rience tells us one thing respecting natural causes,
we may affirm with certainty, that past experience, so
109 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
far as we can collect it from history or experimental
research into the phenomena of the globe, tells us
another. We ev^idently know nothing of the actions
and events of past times but from the records of con-
temporary writers, and those records expressly assert
'that deviations from what is now the established
course of nature did actually occur at the various
epochs to which many of those records refer. If we
are told that such testimony is insufficient, because
the admission of it would be to allow the assertions
of Scripture to prove themselves, and because the
events there alluded to were demonstrably impossible,
our answer is, that we have irrefragable proofs in the
book of creatitin itself, which the most determined
sceptic mast admit, that circumstances which would
now be deemed impossible have actually occurred at
no very remote period from our own time. No com-
bination of materials Avith which we are acquainted,
excepting the natural order of animal generation,
would, at this moment, produce the slightest approach
to organized life. Not a single feather, not a hair,
not a bone is now seen to originate from the spon-
taneous action of the elements; and yet we know
from positive research, that birds, quadrupeds, and
man, have been, at their respective periods, called
into being subsequently to the formation of the globe
which we inhabit, by some creative power, the peculiar
exercise of which seems to be no longer exhibited.
If we ask why animals are no longer produced by
some plastic energy of the vivifying principle, our
only answer can be, that for some reason unknown,
to us, the course of nature has undergone a change.
The negative argument then afforded by our own
actual experience of the existing order of things is
confessedly no refutation whatever of the preceding
supposition, supported as it is by incontrovertible
facts.
It is an obvious truth, though,, strange to say, con-
tinually overlooked in discussions of this nature, that
WITH HUMAN REASON. 101
the existence of a creation necessarily implies a
Creator, and that if its subsequent ordinary duration
may be kept up by seemingly natural causes, the
energy to which it owed its first production must have
been, in the usual meaning of the term, miraculous,
that is to say, a deviation from what are now deemed
to be the established laws of Providence. This obser-
vation may be applied, with almost equal certainty
of inference, to the moral phenomena of human his-
tory as to the physical. Prominent and peculiar effects
in the circumstances of this or that nation must have
had their peculiar and efficient causes. That Chris-
tianity exists at this moment is a self-decisive proof
that events must have occurred at some definite period,
which gave that peculiar direction and impulse to the
human character. The same argument extends with
equal force to the point more immediately under dis-
cussion at this moment, namely, the early history of
the Jews. That singular people exists at the present
day as a numerous nation, scattered over almost every
region of the earth, all of them bearing the same tes-
timony respecting their first origin, and still practising,
so far as circumstances will allow, the very rites which
the Scriptures declare to have been ordained by Moses
upwards of 3000 years ago. Now, as effects cannot
exist without their respective causes, " whence, we
ask, did this strange community originate, if not from
the stock, and under the peculiar agency, to which all
existing records whatevei agree in referring them ?"
If the received history is false, what is the true one,
and where is it to be found ? Should we be told that
the books which relate the miraculous events, con-
nected with their first establishment as a people, are
the productions of a later period, calculated, like the
histories of other dark ages, to gratify national vanity,
by the relation of exaggerated or fictitious wonders :
the question then occurs, to what period we are to
aissign these several productions, and how we are to
ftccouot, not only for the disappearance of all the
9*
102 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
really authenlic records, but for the substitution of
forged documents in their room, which, notwithstand-
ing, have been implicitly received as authentic by the
parties thus imposed on. Now, alloAving the utmost
possible latitude to the conjectures of scepticism on
this pomt, we have the strongest reasons for asserting
that the Mosaic writings were not only in existence,
but were acknowledged as ancient and authentic
documents, before the separation of the ten tribes
of Israel under Jeroboam from the two remaining
tribes of Judah and Benjamin. The 105th, 106th,
and 136th Psalms, which are little more than the
abridged details of those narratives, provided they
were really the composition of David, to whom uni-
form tradition has attributed them, would at once
warrant this conclusion. The 78th Psalm, a work
also of the same presumed date, affords a similar
evidence.^ But the history of those revolted tribes,
and of their successors, the Samaritans, supplies an
unanswerable argument on this point. That sepa-
ration, we know, took place during the reign of
Rehoboam, the son of Solomon. From that period
the most deadly hatred existed between these two
separated branches of the Israelitish family, and, ac-
cordingly, the subsequent prophetical writings, which
were received as inspired documents into the canon
of the two orthodox tribes of the kingdom of Judah,
were never acknowledged as such by their heretical
neighbours, the schismatics of Israel. Both parties,
however, received as authentic (with a few interpola-
tions, indeed, oil the part of the Samaritans, in con-
sequence of their political prejudices,) the writings of
Moses; a fact which would be perfectly inexplicable
in any other way than that of the supposition that
both equally believed them to be such at the time of
the commencement of their schism. But this suppo-
• In addition to the Psalms mentioned above, the 44th, 66th, 68th, 74th,
77th, 80th, 81st, 95th, 99th, 107th, 110th, 114th, I33d, and 135th, aU contain
distinct allusiona to soma of the facts related in the Mosaic history.
WITH HUMAN REASON. 103
sition at once carries the antiquity of those writings
far beyond the point of time to which most impugners
of their authority have been desirous of referring
them.* It is remarkable, that the modern descend-
ants of the ancient Samaritans still occupy the town
of Nablous, formerly Shechem, situated between
Mounts Ebai and Gerizim, where they were visited,
in the year 1823, by the Rev. W. Jowett, who gives
the following account of his conversation with their
priest. *' He (the priest) said they were all in expec-
tation of the Messiah — that the Messiah would be a
man, not the Son of God, and that this was the place
which he would make the metropolis of his kingdom :
this was the place of which the Lord had promised,
He would place his name there. We asked what
passages of the Pentateuch, according to their views,
spoke of the Messiah. He quoted, ' A prophet shall
the Lord your God raise up like unto 7ne, ^c*' This
promise of the Messiah was not fulfilled in Joshua,
lor he was not a prophet. Thursday, Nov. 20th
1823. — Early this morning, according to appointment,
we visited the Samaritan priest. We waited for him
some time, during which we placed in order our
Bibles, and selected some texts, on which we desired
to converse with him. At length he made his ap-
pearance, and accompanied us into the synagogue.
With great reverence, he produced the venerable
manuscript (the MS. of the law alluded to in Pri-
deaux's Connection, Part I. Book 2.,) which, he said,
was written by Abisha, grandson of Aaron, thirteen
years after the death of Moses, now three thousand
four hundred and sixty years ago. We were not per-
mitted to touch the sacred book, but only to look at
it, at about a foot distance. The page at which he
opened showed certainly a very ancient manuscript,
• The theory, that, the books which bear the name of Moges were, in
reality, a compilation made by Ezra after the Babylonish captivity, is
perfectly irreconcilable with the fact of the admission of the authenticity
of those books by the revolted inhabitants of Samaria.
104 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
with the characters yet sufficiently distinct. He then
showed us another, of a similar form, apparently an
exact copy, which, he said, was eight hundred years
old. He also produced a few tattered leaves of Wal-
ton's Polyglott — part of Genesis. We asked if they
did not consider the books of Joshua and Judges as
Bacred, in the same manner as the Torah ; he repjied,
' By no means : these two books we have, and we
reverence them ; but the Torah is our only sacred
book. Joshua was not a prophet, but the disciple of
a prophet; that is, of Moses.' We inquired in which
direction they turn their faces when they pray. He
waved his hand in the direction a little right of the
angle behind the altar, that is, nearly southward. In
this direction is the city of Luz, which was afterwards
called Bethel, the place which the Lord appointed to
set his name there. As to Jerusalem, they have no
respect for it as a holy city ; regarding the Jews as
their rivals, and speaking entirely in the spirit of the
woman of Samaria,^ Our fathers worshipped in this
mountain, ^^C't
It is superfluous to observe how exactly this state-
ment accords with the facts detailed in Scripture,
and how strongly it confirms the alleged antiquity
of the Mosaic books. It has been frequently, and
justly, remarked, that the circumstance of the Jews
being joint depositaries with the Christians of the
Scriptures of the Old Testament in general, is an
unanswerable evidence that those writings have not
been tampered with and altered by the latter. The
argument afforded in confirmation of the authenticity
of the Pentateuch, in particular, by this testimony of
a sect disposed to controvert that of every other por-
tion of the sacred canon, is precisely similar in kind,
and, as it appears to us, not less conclusive, with
jregard to the writings to which it refers. The pe-
• John iv. 20.
t JoweU^s Christian Researches in Syria and ike Holy Land, pp. 19$,
WITH HUMAN REASON- 105
culiar creed of this last lingering remnant of the ten
schismatic tribes, which is a natural result of the
events of their history, if that history be correctly
transmitted to us in the Old Testament, it would be
impossible to account for, on the opposite supposition
of that narrative being false. Admitting, however, its
accuracy, the antiquity of the Mosaic writings is at
once established, up to a period which scarcely leaves
room for the possibility even of their having been
nothing more than a successful forgery of some still
earlier epoch. The endeavour, therefore, to get rid
of the difficulty attending the admission of the
miraculous events of the Jewish history, by at once
denying their authenticity, will be found upon trial,
as in the case of all the other mysterious questions
of revelation, to introduce far greater perplexity than
it is calculated to remove. We can see, or at all
events, imagine, a sufficient reason why, in the course
of the dealings of a wise and merciful Providence,
such preternatural interferences should have been
allowed to occur ; but we can discover no end to the
embarrassment and entanglement which would be
the result of a system of general scepticism, or, in
other words, of a theory which would almost oblige
us to believe any thing, for no better purpose than that
of flattering us with the idea of believing nothing.
It cannot be too strongly impressed upon our minds
that, granting the mere fact of the genuineness of the
Mosaic writings, without insisting also upon their
inspiration, even that admission would involve, as a
necessary consequence, the reality of a large propor-
tion of the miracles there recorded. Moses could not,
like some modern fanatics, have been under a delu-
sion with regard to the reality of his mission, or of
the prodigies related respecting him. If he wrote
those books, he was either a deliberate impostor, or
a person really bearing God's commission, and endued,
upon special occasions, with perternatural power.
But we are not free to choose between even these
106 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
alternatives. He could not have been an impostor if
he would. The very nature of the miracles related
of him, and by him, were such as to render all imposi-
tion impossible. The whole body of the Israelites
are asserted by him to have personally witnessed
deviations from the ordinary course of nature, on a
Bcale far too great to have been by any supposition
within the limits of unassisted agency to effect; and
an appeal is repeatedly made to their testimony for
the accuracy of the respective statements. The
infliction of the plagues upon the Egyptians, the pas-
sage of the Red Sea, the miraculous production of
water in the Desert, the thunders and lightnings of
Mount Sinai during the delivery of the law, the gift
of manna, and the dreadful judgment overtaking
Dathan and his accomplices, are all related, not as
events of remote occurrence, and such as might be
safely invented, when the production of all contra-
dictory testimony should have been rendered impos-
sible by the lapse of time ; but as facts, for which the
great mass of the nation could vouch, as having been
themselves eye-witnesses of their reality. In such a
case, there is no tenable middle position between
absolute denial of the truth of the whole narrative,
and its absolute admission in all its parts. Any
attempt, therefore, at accommodation of the circum-
stances related, with the more tranquil course of ordi-
nary nature, is as unphilosophical as it is unsafe.
True, indeed, it is, that the prodigies related are of
the most astounding description. No consistent
advocate of revelation would seek to gloss over this
fact. But after all, what does this prove, excepting
what every believer in Christianity is, upon principle,
bound to admit ? namely, that the production of that
mysterious system of redemption has been, of all the
works of Providence with which we are acquainted,
the most important in its nature, and, therefore, if we
may venture so to speak of Almighty agency, the
most elaborate in its contrivance and appointed
WITH HUMAN REASON- 107
machinery. If our reason can see no possible means
of escaping from the recognition of the truth of the
inspired records, that same reason, then, must tell U3
that a dispensation so solemnly prepared, and so
consistently, so slowly, and so cautiously developed,
year after year, and century after century, must be
one, the paramount value oi which will be found to
justify the vast expenditure of means employed in its
production. In this view of the case, every miracle
recorded in the Old Testament is only an evidence
the more to the sanctity of the covenant of the Gos-
pel; and if so, let every well-wisher to that covenant
be careful how, in the vain hope of conciliating those
who are not to be conciliated, he adopts a course of
argument, the direct and obvious tendency of which,
indeed, is to attach suspicion to only one portion oi
the sacred writings, but which, if established, would
necessarily lower our estimate of them as a whole*
" Ne Deus intersit, nisi dignus vindlce nodus
Inciderit,"
is a rule of far more momentous application than
that of mere literary criticism. None but the wildest
fanatic Avill be disposed to believe hastily in every
alleged deviation from the established laws of nature ;
but that man, on the other hand, must have imbibed
little of sound philosophy who, looking round upon
all the mysteries by which we are environed, would
pronounce such deviations to be impossible ; or,
taking into consideration the concurrent testimony of
past ages, to be, under befitting circumstances, im-
probable. Surely the legitimate and most probable
conclusion, in the face of such evidence as that ad-
duced in support of the scriptural miracles, is not,
that the facts are themselves untrue, but that the
motives for their occurrence were urgent in exact
proportion to what may be presumed of the general
unwillingness of the Creator to disturb those laws
which, in his wisdom, he has thought fit to impose
. upon his creation.
108 CONSISTENCY OF EEVELATIOlT
CHAPTER Xn.
Of the internal Evidence of the Authenticity of the Books of MoseSf
and of the other Jewish Scriptures.
Bishop Watson has recorded an observation, made
by Sir Isaac Newton to Dr. Smith, Master of Trinity-
College, Cambridge, " that he found more sure marks
of authenticity in the Bible than in any profane history
whatever." To those vt^ho have been in the habit of
considering the books of the Holy Scriptures as a
mere tissue of astounding incidents, substantiated
only by a moderate weight of external evidence, this
assertion will appear in the highest degree para-
doxical. And yet it is one which every person will
feel the more disposed to admit, the more he ex-
amines and estimates the detail of those writings by
that intuitive apprehension, by which we all judge
instinctively of the truth or falsehood of any series of
facts which we hear related. Every one knows how
difficult it is to maintain such an entire consistency
through all the minor points of a fictitious narrative,
that no subsequent criticism should be able to detect
any incompatibility of fact, or confusion and contra-
diction in the delineation of character. This difficulty,
which increases in a compound proportion, according
to the length of the work in the hands of .a single
author, may and will amount to an actual impos-
sibility in the case of a variety of authors, each sepa-
rately contributing his share toward the construction
of one entire and consistent narrative, especially
where the facts to be related lie out of the ordinary
course of events. Where, then, as in the instance of
the historical books of the Old Testament, we find a
long succession of writers, living some of them at
remote int^^rvals from one another, each having their
WITH HUMAN REASON. 109
separate and distinct objects in the composition of
their respective works, and yet producing, without
any seeming intentional combination, a series of
compositions, which, when joined together, form one
continuous and consistent whole ; in which no viola-
tion of unity, in the delineation of natural manners,
or of individual character, no contradictions of chro-
nology, no anomaly of cause and effect, from first to
last, can be detected ; where the latter works neces-
sarily presuppose the existence of the earlier, and the
earlier would be incomplete unless succeeded by the
latter ; whilst all alike anticipate the developement
of some future system, which has folloAved in the due
course of events, as the final completion of the whole ;
and where statem^ents, which at first sight appear in
the light of contradictions, are discovered, upon a
second examination, to be real congruities; in such
a case, be the subject matter as marvellous as it may,
we have as strong internal evidence of the authen-
ticity and accuracy of those writings, as the nature
of things can possibly supply. It is not saying too
much to assert, that all these combinations of evidence
unite in vouching for the truth of the portions of
Scripture now alluded to. Admitting, as we neces-
sarily must do, that the history of the Jews, as con-
tained in the sacred writings, describes a certain part
of the human race as placed under very remarkable,
and in a certain sense of the term improbable, cir-
cumstances; still, that point once conceded by us, all
that follows in the filling up, as it may be called, of
the main design, is effected with a smgular air of
truth and reality, which it would be absolutely impos-
sible to account for on the supposition of the main
narrative being fictitious. It is evident, as has already
been observed, that it is no solution of the diflftculty
to suppose that the ground work of fact is correct,
but that the miraculous incidents are a superaddition
produced by fraud, superstition, or national vanity ;
because by far the greater portion of the prodigies
10
110 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
related are such as must be entirely true or entirely
false. We cannot account for them by supposing
them to have been natural incidents, elevated into
preternatural subjects of wonder by the exaggerations
of ignorance. The whole recorded series of events
requires, for the sake of their own consistency, that
the miracles should have been really such. Other-
wise the history itself becomes a tissue of inconsequen-
tial improbabilities. Unless, then, it can be shown
to be too incredible for the satisfaction of a rational
mind, to suppose that, all the strange circumstances
and anomalies of our nature considered, Providence
should ever condescend to afford a revelation of its
will to serve us as a guide through this life, and to
direct our hopes towards one in reserve ; — unless it
can be shown that, even admitting the probability of
the communication of some revelation, that revelation
is not Christianity ; — and again, unless, supposing
Christianity to be true, we still think it impossible
that an intermediate and provisional arrangement
should be vouchsafed to some one select portion of
mankind, for the express purpose of keeping alive the
remnant of true Theism from the abominations of
idolatry ;— unless, we repeat, all these assumptions
are manifestly such as no well-informed mind could
possibly admit, under any degree whatever of positive
evidence ; it seems to follow that, in a choice of con-
flicting difficulties, those attending a belief in the
Divine inspiration and consequent truth of the his-
torical parts of the Old Testament are far less than
those which necessarily accompany their rejection.
Once, however, proceed thus far, and the course
of the believer lies smooth during the remainder of
his progress. The intervention of the Deity once
admitted as probable, the inference is obvious, that
the same superintending care -vvould continue to in-
terpose till the final accomplishment of its object
should be achieved : and thus the miracles of the New
Testament would, by a direct implication, afford
WITH HUMAN REASON. Ill
confirmatory testimony to those of the Old, and the
miracles of the Old Testament to those of the New.
On the other side, the cause of infidelity is encum-
bered with accumulating difficulties at every step.
Get rid of the preternatural occurrences recorded by
Moses, as the mistakes of a barbarous and supersti-
tious age, still we are met by those connected with
the later portions of the Jewish history. Deny those,
and, in addition to the improbability that an ancient
and remarkable people should ever have existed, the
whole of whose presumed historical records should
essentially prove to have been a fiction ; we have
again all the miraculous occurrences connected with
the first establishment and subsequent propagation
of Christianity, to account for by the same theory
of ignorance or forgery. And, after all, if we ask
ourselves, what is the great point to be gained, by
thus questioning the records of past a^es, step by
step, and by attempting, at this late period, to prove
to be false, what the assertions of professed eye-wit-
nesses declare to have been true; the end and object
of this obstinacy of scepticism is nothing less than
the dissolution of all the highest sanctions of morality,
and the extinction of the hopes of a future life. Surely
so unworthy a conclusion, in want of other evidence,
would itself argue an unsoundness in the premises
upon which it is founded.
The argument, then, in favour of the authenticity
of the Jewish sacred history, derived from the inter*
nal air of probability which pervades the whole, is
one to which it is impossible to do justice, otherwise
than by referring each respective reader to the original
work, and recommending him to judge for himself
by the standard of his own intuitive common sense.
It may not, however, be amiss to point out some few
instances, selected at random, in illustration of this
view of the subject.
The theoretical perfection of the Jewish moral
code, and the singular contrast which it presents with
112 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
the rebellious and wayward disposition of the people
for whose use it was promulgated, has already been
alluded to. It has also been observed, on the same
occasion, that this opposition between the illumina-
tion of the legislator and the darkness of the governed
is precisely that which we might expect to find in the
case of the communication of a Divine law to a bar-
barous people. But upon the supposition that the
writings attributed to Moses are the exaggerated
statements of that remarkable person himself, or the
forgeries of a subsequent period, the fact now referred
to would be completely inexplicable. Upon the former
hypothesis, we must suppose that Moses, in order to
give an imposing air to the law, of which he was the
promulgator, was the inventor of that tissue of as-
serted miracles, which his writings declare to have
accompanied the Israelites in their progress from
Egyptian captivity to the promised land of Canaan.
But it is obviously inconceivable that the same person
who, by a wilful false statement, would attempt to
give to a law of his own invention the sanction of
Divine authority, by an audacious assertion of mira-
cles which had never really taken place, should at the
same time act so inconsequentially as to represent
that same law in that same narrative as failing of
its proposed salutary effect, through the folly and
obstinacy of those for whose improvement it was
intended. No impostor wilfully invents a falsehood
for the sake of proving the failure of his own favour-
ite theories ; yet if the miracles recorded in the books
of Moses were false, and still those writings were
really his, with this gratuitous folly he was undoubt-
edly chargeable. If, on the other hand, we suppose
what are called the Mosaic books to be the production
of a later period, the difficulty now stated is rather
increased than diminished. In the first place, it must
be pronounced to be next to an impossibility to palm
upon a whole nation, however barbarous, a Avritten
code of precise and often vexatious enactments, com.'^
WITH HUMAN REASON. 113
bined with the most exquisite moral beauty, as a real
work of antiquity, which, supposing the story related
of it to be true, would necessarily have been in prac-
tical operation before such a forgery could be pro^
duced ; and, secondly, this theory would still suppose
in the forger precisely the same act of folly which it
seems impossible to attribute, with the slightest pro-
bability, to any acknowledged human motives. If
those books were the coinage of a later age, and
intended to give celebrity to the name of Moses, on
the same principle which has led many superstitious
people to invent false legends for the sake of confier-
ring honour upon departed saints and legislators;
why did not the inventor make his panegyric more
valuable, by stating the success of the laws in ques-
tion, in ameliorating the morals of the Israelites, tq
have been in all respects complete ? How could the
same mind conceive the idea of the tremendous
thunders and lightnings and earthquakes of Mount
Sinai, and of the petulant murmurings and rebellions
of the Jews against a law thus awfully enforced? If
it be urged that such anomalous conduct accords ex-
actly with what we know of the strange contradictions
of human nature, we readily agree in the truth of that
observation ; but we reply, that, though perfectly in
keeping with reference to the practical follies of the
human breast, such a delineation is by no means
consistent with what an interested person would be
disposed to invent, whilst attempting to impose a false
and plausible statement upon others. A fabulous
writer represents his Orpheus, or whoever may be
the fictitious hero of his narrative, reducing men and
brutes from the savage to a civilized state by the
mere charm of his eloquence : he, on the contrary,
whose lot it is to relate the real history of the practical
effects of the most truly Divine philosophy upon the
stubborn materials of our fallen nature, will have a
far less pleasing, and as it may at first sight appear,
a far less plausible story to record,
10=*
114 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
It may be safely asserted that none of us know, or
possibly could anticipate from conjecture, the entire
degree of desperate resistance preseuted by the evil
principle to the good, in the history of the human
heart. We cannot conceive that the miracles, re-
corded to have taken place in the wilderness, were
compatible with the systematic spirit of disobedience
related of the followers of Moses. True ; we cannot
conceive it, a priori, and, therefore, it is to the highest
degree improbable that such a narrative should be
forged for the purpose of imposing upon mankind.
But neither can we conceive that the most awful
visitations of Providence should oftener have a tend-
ency to harden than to soften the feelings of irreligious
and profligate persons. We should never dare to an-
ticipate as a theory, what, unfortunately, we know to
be experimentally true, that the hardihood of human
wickedness is seldom more dreadfully displayed than
in the sinking of a crowded ship, at the execution of
a criminal, or during the ravages of pestilence in a
thickly peopled city.* There is a desperation of
* The tendency of temporal affliction in a mind thoroughly imbued
with the principles of Christianity is undoubtedly to invigorate the feel.
\ng of devotion, and to make the sufferer clin" with more eager reliance
to the protection of Heaven. But examples of this description constitute
the exception, not the rule, when applied to human nature in general.
The following is the description afforded by an eye-witness of the effect
produced upon the minds of the population of London by the plague, in
the year 1665. It unhappily accords too exactly with what we read of
other large communities which have been visited with the like scourge : —
"The people themselves did not see the hand of God, nor seek righte-
ousness, when God's hand was so dreadfully lifted up against us. In one
house you might hear them roaring under the pangs of death ; in the next
tippling, and belching out blasphemies against God; one house
shut up with a led cross and Lo7-d have mercy upon us ! the next
open to all uncleanness and impiety, being senseless of the anger of Grod.
In the very pest-houses such wickednesses committed as are not to be
named The hottest judgments did not teach many of us either
to pray or repent." — Life of General Monck, by T. Gamble, D.D.
Bourienne, in his memoirs of Napoleon, gives a no less striking delinea-,
tion of that atrocity of feeling which almost invariably accompanies the
extremity of human misery, wliere the counteraction of religion is want-
ing. The narrative refers to the disastrous retreat of the French arm7
from Syria after their discomfiture before the walls of Acre.
" A most intolerable thirst, the total want of water, and excessive heat.-
WITH HUMAN REASON. 115
principle in the thoroughly vicious, which hardens
Itself in exact proportion to the appeal which would
soothe its obduracy into gentleness ; and though the
average moral character of mankind may not deserve
the full severity of this description, still we know
that the waywardness of human nature at the mo-
ment of trial is far beyond what we conceive of our
feelings in their common and quiescent state. The
incredulity of the later Jews, who had been eye-
witnesses of our Saviour's miracles, has often been
mentioned with surprise, and by the impugn ers of
revelation has been referred to as an obvious impro-
bability. Yet this very character was given of them
by our Redeemer himself. " If they hear not Moses
and a fatiguing march over burning sandhills, quite disheartened the men,
and made every generous sentiment give way to feelings of the grossest
selfishness, and most shocking indifference. I saw officers with their
limbs amputated, thrown off the litters, whose removal in that way had
been ordered, and who had themselves given money to recompense the
bearers. I saw the amputated, the wounded, the infected, or those only
suspected of infection, deserted and left to themselves. The march was
illumined by torches, lighted for the purpose of setting fire to the httle
towns, villages, and hamlets which lay in their route, and the rich crops
with which the land was then covered. The whole country was in a
blaze. Those who were ordered to preside at this work of destruction
seemed eager to spread desolation on every side, as if they could,
thereby avenge themselves for their reverses, and find in such dread-
ful havoc an alleviation of their sufferings. We were constantly
surrounded by plunderers, incendiaries, and the dying, who, stretched on
the sides of the road, implored assistance in a feeble voice, saying, ' I am
not infected, I am only wounded ;' and to convince those whom they ad-
dressed, they re-opened their old wounds, or inflicted on themselves fresh
ones. Still nobody attended to them. 'It is all over with him,' was the
observation applied to the unfortunate beings in succession, while every'
one pressed onward. The sun which shone in an unclouded sky in all.
its brightness was often darkened by our conflagrations. On our
right lay the sea, on our left and behind us the desert made by our- '
selves, before were the privations and sufferings which awaited
us.^^— Memoirs of Napoleon, by Bourienne. English translation.
Chapter XX.
Surely if such is human nature in its unregenerate state, the religion
which teaches how these fearful and malignant passions may be subdued
into love of God and universal charity towards man ought to be a subject
of any feeling rather than that of contempt and aversion. It was a
striking observation of a French poet, in illustration of tiie extreme
wickedness of the human heart, " that at the very commencement of the
world, when as yet society consisted of only four or five persons, one
member of that small community was the murderer of his brotlier."
11^ CONSISTENCY OP REVELATION
and the Prophets^ neither will *they be persuaded
though one rose from the dead." This very experi-
ment was, we are assured, on two remarkable occa-
sions, made upon that stubborn people, and in both
cases the result was precisely what had been antici-
pated* Lazarus, the friend of our Redeemer, was pub-
licly raised from the dead; and the effect produced was,
that the Jewish rulers became alarmed, in consequence
of the increased number of converts to the new faith,
for the stability of their ancient institutions. The
resolution, accordingly, to which they came, was
entirely in unison with the spirit of this world. " The
chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus
also to death, because that by reason of him many of
the Jews went away and believed in Jesus." That
same Jesus was himself miraculously raised up from
the grave, and the truth of his doctrines confirmed
by a communication of preternatural gifts to his fol-
fowers ; and again the conduct of the same rulers was
consistent with itself. They admitted, because it was
impossible to deny, that " indeed a notable miracle
had been done," but so far from becoming converts
to a religion which they feared would supersede their
own, on the contrary, "when they had called the
Apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they
should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them
go." It cannot be denied that there is a strong resem-
blance between the obstinacy, for it can scarcely be
called disbelief, of the later Jews, notwithstanding
the notoriety of our Saviour's miracles, and that of
their forefathers, who so repeatedly witnessed those
of Moses ; and we know also from experience, that
it is a resemblance resulting from the principles of
our common nature, which is ever consistent even in.
its most anomalous inconsistencies. And it is by this
strong resemblance that we are satisfied of the truth
and justice of the drawing in both instances. But if
from these general and broad principles we proceed,
in the case of the early Jews, to a more minute
WITH HUMAN REASON. 117
and detailed examination of what is related of them
by their historian, the accuracy of the delineation
becomes more striking from the extreme air of pro-
bability with which he relates the oscillations of
feeling in that wayward people, according as they
chanced to be operated upon at the moment, by super-
natural or familiar objects. The rebellious spirit of
the Israelites was evidently not that which would be
the result of scepticism, with regard to the real nature
of the miracles which they had witnessed. On the
contrary, it was that alternation of opposite and con-
tradictory modes of excitement which is so often to
be found in an ill-regulated mind, which wants steadi-
ness of principle rather than reality of conviction,
and which relapses into sin from weakness and
coarseness of character, not from any disbelief in the
Divine sanctions of religion. Nothing, in fact, can
be more graphically or strikingly drawn than the
whole description of the migration of the Israelites as
given by their inspired historian. The little appre-
hension which they appear at first to have entertained
of the nature of the mission of their leader; the
reckless hurry with which they rushed from the terri-
tory of their oppressors to the confines of the Red
Sea ; the deep depression which they displayed upon
finding their retreat apparently cut off; the extrava-
gance of their joy upon their miraculous deliverance,
followed almost immediately by an impatience of
the privations of the desert, and a longing after the
degrading comforts of their recent state of slavery;
their awe-stricken apprehensions during the thunder-
ings from Mount Sinai, followed, after an extremely
short interval, by an act of the grossest idolatry;
their discontents, their jealousies, and heart-burnings
against Moses and their other rulers ; their exagge-
rated alarm respecting the physical powers and
prowess of the Canaanites, and their conspiracy to
abandon their leaders, and to return into Egyptian
captivity ; all these are traits of character in which
118 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
we recognise the fickleness of human nature at every
step, such as the governors of every large assemblage
of people have bitterly experienced ; and such as the
reports of travellers, whose wanderings have more
especially thrown them in the way of uncivilized
nations, describe to us at the present moment.
But it is one thing to recognise the characteristic
workings of our nature, when we find them faithfully
portrayed for us in any well-written record, and
another to anticipate, by the intuitive strength of our
own imagination, what those workings, under any
given modification of circumstances, would be. There
is a boldness and an individuality in the sketches of
real life which it is scarcely possible to invent, and of
which, accordingly, a happy and tolerably successful
imitation has ever been considered among the fore-
most proofs of literary talent. Now the question is,
whether, putting the preternatural incidents of the
Jewish history out of the question, the detailed nar-
rative does, or does not, contain strong internal evi-
dence of its own authenticity. This is a query as to
a point of fact, of which every reasonable person is a
competent judge, and which we cannot but think
would invariably be answered in the affirmative.
Perhaps we should correctly describe it in stating
it to be a surprisingly probable portraiture of human
nature, placed in an improbable position as to external
circumstances. The rebellions and cowardice attri-
buted to the Israelites, whilst under the guidance of
Moses, never, we repeat, appears to have been the
consequence of any disbelief of the miracles already
performed for their deliverence. On the contrary,
their conduct seems to have been precisely what
might have been expected from untrained minds ; held,
indeed, together by the terror and conviction result-
ing from occasional displays of superhuman power in
their conductors, but still sinking under the depression
and wear of animal spirits from the privations under
WITH HUMAN REASON. 119
which they were suffering, and the difficulty of cal-
culating upon miraculous assistance in future emer-
gencies, where all the physical powers of nature
seemed arrayed against them. It is easy for those
who have not been thus tried to say, that the expe-
rience of past miracles ou^ht to have given them a full
unshrinking confidence in the certainty of similar
support for the future. So in strict reason it ought.
But the question is, not what is reasonable, or what
appears to us, after the whole train of circumstances
has become matter of history, the most natural line
of conduct, but what would be the operation of
human passions, under the natural impatience pro-
duced by immediate hardship in a new and perfectly
unexampled position, when the scorching desert lay
before and behind them, and the confidence inspired
by the recollection of former deliverances was met
and counteracted by the scene of unvaried desolation
which met their eyes. *' Can God," they said, " furn-
ish a table in the wilderness ? Behold, he smote
the rock that the waters gushed out, and the streams
overflowed : can he give bread also ? can he provide
flesh for his people ?" What human being can look
into his own heart, and not feel that the despondency
which we charge as so heavy a sin upon the rude and
thoughtless Israelites would not, under similar cir-
cumstances, have been his own ? Scripture itself, we
should recollect, whilst it records the weaknesses and
caprices of this singular people, charges their failings
to no permanent doubt of the reality of the Divine
mission of Moses and of Joshua ; but to those fluctua-
tions of feeling under the operation of momentary
trials, which not less really and substantially, though
less palpably, afforded the explanation of all the
inconsistencies of human conduct among individuals
a thousand times better trained, and more advanced
in moral discipline, than the persons here described.
" And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua,
1S5 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua,
and which had known all the works of the Lord that
He had done for Israel."*-
CHAPTER Xni.
Of the internal Evidence of the Authenticity of the Historical Books
of the Old Testament subsequent to Moses.
^HE final extinction of that generation which had
witnessed the miracles attendant upon the first intro-
duction of the Israelites into Canaan was followed,
as the general habits and disposition of that people
would lead us to anticipate, by an increased apostasy
from the religion of Jehovah, and an adoption of the
idolatries of the neighbouring nations. From this
period to the point where the narrative of the books
of the Old Testament terminates, the recorded course
of events is precisely what might have been expected
from human nature placed in the very peculiar cir-
cumstances there described, but in those circum-
stances only. The rule of probability, as applicable
to this remarkable portion of history, must have refer-
ence to a condition of society which, at this moment,
it is scarcely possible for us adequately to conceive.
A small and by no means highly civilized nation,
miraculously supported in its political existence by
the occasional intervention of the Almighty himself,
to the almost total exclusion of the common and
regular modes of defence against hostile incursion,
and subjected to institutions not the natural growth
of the popular habits and character, but forcibly
imposed upon them by a fatality stronger than them-
selves, presents a picture so perfectly unlike any thing
which we are prepared to meet with in the history of
mankind, that we look with a natural curiosity for
' Joshua XXIV, 31.
WITH HUMAN REASON. 121
the recorded details of transactions so -extraordinary.
The result is still, as on the former occasion, humiliat-
ing to the human character from the scene of moral
degradation, mingled, indeed, with occasional beauti-
ful and sublime touches, which it presents ; and though
still remarkable for the air of reality with which the
successive incidents are related, is obviously such as
few impostors could, and none actuated by any known
motive of national variety or self-interest would, wish
to invent. The signal successes which, from time
to time, attended their military expeditions, were so
completely independent of the usual natural means
for their successful accomplishment, that nothing
short of occasional recurrences of the most implicit
faith in the Divine promises, and in the continuance
of that support which had never deserted their fore-
fathers in the hour of need, could have enabled them
to calculate upon similar interpositions, in those
impending perils which so repeatedly threatened them
v/ith extinction. And, accordingly, we find in the
history of that period a succession of alternations
between moments of extreme depression and of san-
guine confidence, whilst, at the same time, the moral
and religious character of the people was, from the
same causes, fluctuating between an inveterate hos-
tility to the idolatrous practices of their Canaanitish
neighbours, and an occasional adoption of their worst
abominations. Such, in fact, was, more or less, the
national character down to the tinxC of the Chaldean
captivity. That under any view of the case, it was
one by no means calculated to add to the credit of the
people thus portrayed, is perfectly clear. Our present
business, however, is not with the question, how far
the Israelites appear to have acted worthily of the
high position in which God's selection of them as the
depositaries of his will had placed them, but how far the
narrative which records these transactions comes to us
with the stamp and impress of authenticity. Now,
as the existence of that history as a work, at all events
11
122 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
of very high antiquity, must he admitted by all parties,
the only query is, "it'Ao were the historians?" were
they friends, or were they enemies, who have recorded
the circumstances in question ? Either supposition,
if by adopting it we mean to imply a bias in the mind
of the writer to exaggerate or to detract from the
merits of the people described, is equally inadmissible.
The Jewish history is, clearly, not the work of ene-
mies to their name, for they are ever spoken of as the
only observers of the true religion, and as the chosen
nation of the one true God. It can scarcely, on the other
hand, be said to be the production of friends, for its far
greater proportion is little more than a narrative of
the waywardness, ingratitude, and profligacy of that
self-same people. Again, it was not the composi-
tion of any political parly, advocating one set of state
maxims, to the exclusion of others, for it is equally
lavish of its censures upon democracy and monarchy,
whilst it records the transactions of both. It is not
the calculating panegyrist upon this or that individual,
for, with the exception of the few truly righteous
persons who were thinly scattered over that long
period, in relating the achievements of the most
eminent and laudable of their monarchs, it dwells
with, at least, an equal detail and minuteness upon
their failings and crimes, as upon their virtues. It
condemns the reprobate Saul, and yet it mourns over
his fallen fortunes with striking pathos : it eulogizes
the sanguine, open-hearted, and devout David, and
yet it denounces in the strongest language of censure,
his ingratitude, blood-guiltiness, and adultery. It
recites, with beautiful accuracy, the most eloquent
devotional composition on record, Solomon's dedica-
tion of the temple ; and expatiates, with delight, upon
his many accomplishments, and that various wisdom,
the fame of which attracted to his court the queen of
the south ; and yet it concludes by narrating his total
and inexcusable idolatry. It brands with the taint of
rebellion and heresy, the long succession of Israelitish.
WITH HUMAN REASON. 123
lings, and yet, on the other hand, where censure
appears to be called for by the conduct of the more
orthodox lineage of David, it applies that censure
without stint, and without any attempt at palliation.
It, surely, may be confidently asserted of any his-
tory, to which it seems quite impossible to attach the
charge of partiality, or of self-interest, in any shape,
that its real end and object must have been truth.
And such is, undoubtedly, the main impression which
the history of the Jewish people, as given in the Old
Testament, conveys to our minds. From first to last
there is nothing in the whole getting up of the nar-
rative which marks selection, or the grouping and
contrasting characters for the sake of effect, for sug-
gesting a political inference, or eliciting some favourite
prudential maxim. Its resemblance to real nature is
that of the faithful reflection of the mirror, and not
of the calculated arrangement of the imaginative
painter. Nor is this all. The portraiture given to
us is not only that of a far from perfect people, but
also the failings which we find successively attributed
to them are precisely such as assort with the respec-
tive periods described. Every event, every trait of
character, is in the strictest keeping with the existing
course of events. The sins of the earlier epochs in
the career of nations, like those in the history of indi-
viduals, are generally such as result from unsteady
principles and desultory passions acting in defiance
of better knowledge ; whilst the latter stage, in both
cases, is disfigured by an increasing spirit of worldli-
ness, and. the callousness of mind which so frequently
comes on when the season of novelty and excitement
is gone by. This gradual process of decay, which
constitutes the summary of the history of almost all
the extinct nations of antiquity, is, in a striking man-
ner, that of the fortunes of the Jewish people. From
the time of the revolt of the ten tribes, to that of the
captivity, the worst and most fatal symptom of ap-
proaching dissolution which can show itself in the
.1^ CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
body politic, namely, an increasing indifference to the
institutions which warmed the heart-blood of their
forefathers, became, from year to year, more mani-
fest. Though professedly subsisting upon a principle
of miraculous interference, their invocations of the
Divine protection seem gradually to have become less
and less earnest, and their reliance upon human
means of support, in spite of the strong remonstrances
of the law and of the later prophets upon those points,
more uniform."^ When we say that such conduct
was, at least, natural, and that, in proportion as such
prodigies as those which accompanied their first
growth became less frequent, their zeal might be
expected to decline from its original fervency, we are,
in fact, only adding the sanction of our judgment, as
to the internal probability of the narrative which
asserts it of them. The second book of Kings and
the. second book of Chronicles bear every mark of
their own authenticity, from the striking delineation
which they afford of a nation, Avhose patriotism and
religion were on the Avane, from the mere ordinary
tendency to degeneracy which is the fate of all human
institutions. In the history of the later kings of
Judah we read of occasional attempts made by the
sovereigns of the day to revive the dormant spirit of
the religion of Moses, by removing the pollutions of
* The book of Malachl, the valedictory remonstrance of the departing
spirit of Jewish prophecy, consists of little more than an eloquent ana
indignant delineation of the extreme selfishneas and worldliness of feeling
which at that late period, had succeeded in quenching all the higher prin-
ciples of devotion in the Israelitish nation. " A son honoureth his father,
and a servant his master. If, then, I be a father, where is mine honour?
and if I be a master, where is my fear ] saith the Lord of Hosts unto you,
O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised
thy name 1 Ye offer polluted bread upo)i mine altar, and ye say, Wherein
have we polluted thee 7 In that ye say, The table of the Lord is contempti-
ble. And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evill And if ye offer
the lame and the sick, is it not evil ? Offer it now unto thy governor : will
he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person 1 saith the Lord of Hosts.
.... Who is there, even among you, that would shut the doors for
naught? Neither do ye kindle fire on mine altar for naught. I have no
pleasure in you, saith the Lord of Hosts, neither willl accept an offering
at your hand." Malachi i. 6. &c.
WITH HUMAN REASON. 125
the temple, and reestablishing the sacrifices accord-
ing to the form prescribed by that legislator. But
these very attempts obviously mark the almost com-
plete disuse into which that religion had fallen . They
were not the mere correction of such abuses as, in
the course of time, might be supposed to have crept
in through the occasional ignorance or superstition
of the worshippers, but they were, in fact, the recon-
struction of ancient usages, which had, for a long
course of time, been completely lost sight of. It is
evident that the prevailing principles of the day were
those of total irreligion ; and though the influence of
a few well-disposed monarchs might succeed, for a
moment, in giving an external and transitory anima-
tion to the extinct spirit of true devotion, there was
no corresponding feeling on the part of the people.
We read of Hezekiah, that he celebrated a passover
far exceeding, in the solemnity of the ceremonies, and
in the assemblage of the Avorshippers, any which had
been known since the days of Solomon : but we do
not find the slightest proofs that the devotional excite-
ment, thus created, was attended with any permanent
or substantial effect. On the contrary, we read of
his son Manasseh, that he polluted himself with the
grossest idolatry ; and what is still more remarkable,
only two reigns later, from the surprise and conster-
nation which a discovery of a copy of the original law
created in king Josiah, and Hilkiah the high-priest,
by reference to which they learned how widely they
had deviated from the religion of their ancestors, we
find that that complex system of sacred legislation
had, for the space of one generation at least, been
preserved only in the form of general oral tradition.
In this last-mentioned circumstance we cannot but
remark the striking analogy which existed between
the neglect of the written law of Moses, which
prevailed in the latter period of the Jewish history
previous to the captivity, and the disregard of the Holy-
Scriptures in general, which so strongly characterized
IL*
126 CONSISTENCY OF KEVELATION
that languid and worn-out state of the Church of
Rome, which immediately preceded the establish-
ment of Protestantism. It was not, as we are in-
formed, until the second year after his entry into the
monastery of Erfurt, that Luther accidentally met
with a Latin Bible, and commenced that study of
original revelation which shortly afterwards produced
such important effects upon mankind: so like is
human nature in all ages to itself. In such a state
of moral lethargy as that w^hich prevailed among
the Jews at the period now described, it was, clearly,
not within the power of the sovereign, however Avell
disposed, to stimulate his subjects into a substantial
reformation. He seems, indeed, to have done all that
which the best principles could suggest ; " He sent
and gathered together all the elders of Judah and
Jerusalem. And the king went up into the house of
the Lord, and all the men of Judah, and the inhabit-
ants of Jerusalem, and the priests, and the Levites,
and all the people, great and small. And he read in
their ears all the words of the book of the covenant
that was found in the house of the Lord. And the
king stood in his place, and made a covenant before
the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his
commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes,
with all his heart, and with all his soul ; to perform
the words of the covenant which are written in this
book ; and he caused all that were present in Jerusa-
lem and Benjamin to stand to it. And the inhabitants
of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God,
the God of their fathers. And Josiah took away all
the abominations out of all the countries that per-
tained to the children of Israel, and made all that
were present in Israel to serve, even to serve the Lord
their God. And there was no passover like to that
kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet ;
neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a passover
as Josiah kept, and the priests, and the Levites, and
all Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabit-
WITH HUMAN REASON. 127
ants of Jerusalem." But the effort thus made was
only like the last convulsive struggle which precedes
dissolution in an exhausted frame. The next gene-
ration saw the extinction of the kingdom of Judah,
and the commencement of that series of tremendous
inflictions, which from that day to the present, with
the exception of a few more prosperous intervals,
have marked the fortunes of that singular and devoted
people.
CHAPTER XIV.
The same, subject continued.
Thus, then, there is from first to last a consistency
in the chain of events recorded in the Jewish Scrip-
tures, which would seem to be perfectly inexplicable
upon any other principle than that of their entire
genuineness and authenticity. The later writings,
whether we look to them for information on ques-
tions of natural polity, religious belief, or the ever
varying shades of manners and habitual impressions,
all pre-suppose the existence of the earlier ; and the
earlier, as obviously stamped with a prospective
character, were incomplete without the addition of
the latter. But as no hypothesis with which we are
acquainted will allow us to assign the date of their
respective compositions to one and the same period,
of course the theory that they were forged for a
specific purpose of imposition falls at once to the
ground. That from the miraculous incidents which
they relate they are unlike all other authentic his-
torical documents, is readily granted ; but it by no
means follows that the peculiarity of character which
attaches to them argues any real improbability in the
facts themselves. The abstract question of probable
or improbable, on those points, must rest entirely
128 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
upon the degree of our assent to the primary propo-
sitions with which we commenced this discussion.
If we deem an express revelation of the Divine Will,
in some form or other, as not inconsistent with the
arrangements of Providence ; if we admit, also, that
of all presumed revelations, Christianity is the one
preeminently borne out by a vast weight of external
and internal evidence ; and if we grant, also, that from
the late period at which the acknowledged circum-
stances of human nature required that the Christian
dispensation should be communicated to mankind, a
previous provisional and less perfect system of dis-
cipline might reasonably be looked for, — surely, with
these warrantable admissions, the preternatural cha-
racter of the fortunes connected Avith the Israelitish
family present no very formidable objection to the
really candid mind. It may sound paradoxical to
assert that the probability of the truth of that remark-
able portion of human history would be actually
diminished, were it found to be more analogous than
it actually is with that of other nations. Considered,
however, as an abstract proposition, unconnected
with that habitual bias and predisposition forced upon
us by our own individual experience, such undoubt-
edly would appear to be the legitimate assumption.
Certainly, if we are reduced to the alternative of
either discarding the momentous and cheering hopes
held forth by the Gospel, with its accompanying prac-
tical rule of life, or, on the other hand, of admitting
the fact that a visible Providence xlid, from the world's
beginning, prepare the way for that sublime dispen-
sation, and only ceased finally to interfere when such
interposition was no longer needed, the latter suppo-
sition, independently of the vast preponderance of
external testimony by which it is guaranteed, is a
thousand times the most intrinsically probable. With
this view of the question, 'then, we may surely be
content, without seeking to shelter ourselves in that
intermediate and most unphilosophical scheme which,
WITH HUMAN REASON. 129
admitting Christianity to be a gift from heaven, would
flinch from the supposition that the preparatory ar-
rangements for the communication of that gift could
possibly proceed from other than natural causes. If
we would preserve our consistency of argument, we
must either deny in toto xhe possibility of any mira-
culous intervention whatever in the case of the latter
no less than of the former covenant ; or, if we find
ourselves obliged, by the irresistible force of evidence,
to pass that line, we must be content to admit the
reality of such special acts of Providence, not in such
proportion only as our caprice or prejudices may
dictate, but as the only authentic writings extant
which have reference to the case appear broadly and
manifestly to assert. At the same time it is but
reasonable to observe, that the first impression con-^
veyed to our minds by the perusal of the inspired
historians is, perhaps, that of a state of things less
analogous to the ordinary course of human events
than was actually the case with regard to the trans-
actions related. The miraculous events related in
the Bible, in consequence of the condensation of the
narrative, often occupy a much nearer position, with
reference to one another, in the associations of our
minds, than would accord with the respective periods
of their occurrence. A few pages of the sacred his-
tory are, we should recollect, sometimes the register
of the events of several centuries. Miracles, even at
the period of their greatest frequency, must ever have
been thinly scattered among the habitual incidents
of human life. Most probably, by far the greater
portion of the express deviations from the established
laws of nature, permitted by Providence since the
creation of man, are enumerated in the Bible.
These, if spread over the long course of time which
the sacred narrative comprehends, will be found to
bear a very trifling proportion to the whole. It is
obvious, accordingly, that the most favoured of God's
saints must ever have had more to do with the cal-
130 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
culation of common contingences, and the making
provision for the supply of human want by human
means, than our habitual impressions, derived from
our study of the sacred writings, would suggest. The
Elijah of the Old, and the Paul of the New Testa-
ment, may be quoted as cases in point with reference
to this remark. Both these memorable personages,
if there is any truth in Holy Writ, had their respec-
tive Divine communications and their miraculous
powers. Yet both had, also, their long visitations of
alarm, of difficulty, of penury, and of danger. The
occasional helps afforded them seem to have been
intended almost for the sole purpose of substantiating
their title to the character of God's chosen messen-
gers, and only incidentally for the protection of the
body, and the furtherance of their personal comfort.
This observation has already been adduced, in order
to account for what many persons have considered
the remarkable phenomena of the very unsteady faith
produced in the minds of the persons who were eye-
witnesses of the miracles recorded in the sacred
writings. Even under the most extreme circum-
stances, the natural incidents produced by the esta-
blished course of events must numerically have far
exceeded the special deviations here alluded to. But
as our calculations for the future, by an admitted law
of our nature, are entirely regulated by our experience
of the past, it is evident that the main impression
left upon the minds, even of the most openly favoured
of God's servants, must ever have been the anticipa-
tion of natural, rather than of preternatural, occur-
rences in the yet unrevealed events of futurity.
Fictitious narratives of wonder, whether intended for
the purposes of amusement or imposture, whether in
the shape of the wild dreams of romance, or of the
legends of Romish hagiology, are ever prodigal of
their attempts to astonish us by the prodigies which
they relate. Scripture, on the contrary, never loses ^
sight of the analogy of common nature and of truth;
WITH HUMAN REASON. 131
but, with that harmony and simplicity of character
which pervades the material universe, ever produces
its great transcendental ends by the least possible
expenditure of means.
CHAPTER XV.
Further observations upon the moral tendency of the Levitical
Institutions.
The presumed argument against the Divine au-
thority of the Old Testament, derived from the very
low degree of moral merit manifested by the Jews
throughout their whole history, has been already
alluded to in some detail ; but it may not, perhaps,
be improper to revert to it, in this place, for the sake
of a few more observations which the subject will
admit. The great force of this objection is, as it
would seem, broken down at once, if we grant that,
presuming that God prefers accomplishing his ends
through the intervention of secondary, and, so far as
is possible, what are usually deemed natural causes,
the selection of at least one nation, as the deposita-
ries of his will, prior to the final communication of
the Christian system, was rendered absolutely neces-
sary by that tendency to idolatry which forms so
striking a characteristic of human nature in its
undisciplined state. Why man was* so created, as
to be liable to such aberrations, it is not for us to
discuss. The certainty of the fact is quite sufficient
for the present argument. Had the Mosaic law never
existed, in other words, had the Jewish nation never
been thus especially favoured, what, as has been
already asked, can we imagine would have been the
reception afforded to the preaching of Christ and of
his apostles, in the four thousandth year of the world ?
It is not too much to say, that the whole moral feel-
132 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
ing of mankind would have undergone a complete
wreck long before that time. The degrading effects
of barbarism, and the scarcely less pernicious conse-
quences of false philosophy and selfish casuistry,
would have succeeded in entirely obliterating all that
pure sensitiveness of principle on which all the inter-
nal evidences and all the practical value of religion
depend. This foremost, and otherwise inevitable,
evil, was undoubtedly obviated, in a great measure,
by the promulgation of the written Mosaic law, and
by the special sanctions given through it to the great
primary truths of religion and morals, and by the
executive enforcement of those sanctions, under a
theocratical government, for so many centuries. That
the nation, thus selected, fulfilled the task assigned
to it, by preserving entire the principles of true reli-
gion, is an indisputable fact. With the economy of
this arrangement, then, it appears impossible for our
reason to quarrel, especially as it appears probable
that, with all their defects, the Jews were still as fit
instruments for the purposes of Providence, and as
little objectionable, on the score of moral desert, as
any other people of that early period in which the
selection was made. Our knowledge of the state of
society at that epoch is confined to what we can col-
lect from the sacred writings, with, perhaps, a few
very uncertain conjectures, derivable from the preca-
rious testimony of early Pagan writers. Europe, if
inhabited at all, must at that time have been the resi-
dence of a mere horde of savages : the facts recorded
of the Egyptians are any thing rather than favourable
to them, as a humane and polished people, whilst the
inhabitants of Canaan are known to have been pol-
luted by the worst stains which can disfigure human
nature. Was, then, the scheme of Providence to be
suspended, because the history of mankind was thus
dark and uninviting? Because the whole existing
human race was vicious, was it therefore to be
allowed to continue so, or to sink still deeper in moral
WITH HUMAN EEASON. 133
degradation, rather than that the Divine wisdom
should avail itself of incidental causes for effecting a
cure ? This is the real question, which the urgers of
the above-mentioned objection are bound to answer,
or to abandon their position. The Deist himself
admits, that the system of God's government is to
make the machinery of human passions conduce to
the accomplishment of his wise purposes; but this
admission, if true, is not the less so because we may
chance to arrive at it through the declarations of an
inspired writer, rather than through the conclusions
of the moralist and philosopher. The very peculiar
position of the Je\yish people, with respect to the
singular covenant under which they were placed,
affords, however, another most important instruction
to mankind. In Judaism and Christianity we have
two parallel but opposed cases, of equally authentic
Divine revelation, professedly established upon dis^-
similar, though, with reference to their respective
objects, equally consistent, views of God's moral
government. The law of Moses displays to our con-
templation a perfectly just but strictly retributive
Governor of the universe : that of Christ, a reconciled
judge, not less intrinsically just, but shielding the
rigour of his justice in the attributes of unbounded
mercy. In order duly to appreciate the full beauty
of the latter dispensation, it is quite necessary that
we should previously have accustomed our minds to
contemplate the rigorous and inflexible enactments
of the former. No stronger appeal can possibly be
made to the feelings of a -human being, who has
recently been rescued from some dreadful impending
danger, than that afforded^ by the retrospect of the
very perils from which he has providentially escaped.
The mind, at such a moment, takes a natural delight
in representing to itself all the horrors with which it
had been threatened, and contrasting them with the
tranquillity and security of its present position. Such •
feelings, in a well-constructed nature, are invariably
12
134 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
accompanied by a sense of humility, of self-abase*
ment, and of gratitude to that power to which it is
indebted for protection. Now, if a Christian would
know the very exceeding value of the immense gifts
which have been conferred upon him by the covenant
of the Gospel, he must, for that purpose, study, in fear
and trembling, the books of the Old Testament. He
will there find the veil of mystery, which at this
moment conceals the really existing agency of Pro-
vidence upon his creatures, withdrawn, and the
whole mechanism of the Divine gonernment of the
aJBfairs of this world exposed bare to his view. He
will see the necessary connexion, as certain as that
of any other regular series of cause and effect, which
exist between obedience to God's will and happi-
ness, between disobedience and misery. It is true
that he can no longer calculate upon that immediate
temporal retribution which formed an essential part
of that system of theocracy which constituted the
national polity of the Jews, but he will see, with no
less certainty of conviction, that the delay of execu-
tion argues no forgetfulness in the Almighty mind,
nor any unsteadiness of purpose. Though sickened,
as he reads, by the details of human folly and wick-
edriess in their worst shapes, he will find the deep
abomination of sin denounced with no less fearful
energy of language in the Old Testament than in the
New, and the great Author of all things spoken of
with an awe-stricken solemnity of feeling, far exceed-
ing any thing which ever suggested itself to the
most eloquent of Pagan poets or philosophers, in their
sublimest moments of fancy. He will learn by what
an elaborate process of expiatory sacrifices and pur-
gations our fallen nature was ineffectually attempted
to be cleansed for a long succession of ages, before
the accomplishment of the one great and sufficient
sacrifice in the person of Christ. He Avill read with
what parental anxiety He, whom the heaven of
heavens cannot contain, watches over the smallest
WITH HUMAN REASON. 135
occurrences upon earth ; with what searching intui-
tiveness he looks into the most minute germs of
thought in the human breast; with what strict but
kind severity he checks man's deviations from recti-
tude; with what eagerness of affection he hails the
first symptoms of contrition and of practical amend-
ment. But the result of the inquiry will be that of
amazed self-abasement and humiliation, from the
conviction of the utter inability of unredeemed
human nature to stand in the presence of Him, in
whose sight the very heavens are unclean, and who
charges even his angels with folly. Human phi-
losophy, by lowering the standard of religious moral-
ity, may have some refuge of hope, in the idea that
a moderate, or, as it has been called, a congruous,
degree of merit will be all that will be required of us.
It may represent the Divine Being as good-natured,
if we may presume to use such an expression upon
such an occasion, rather than merciful ; and indiffer-
ent to the distinctions of human conduct, rather than
disposed to measure it by the rule of faultless perfec-
tion. But the Old Testament affords none of this
false and spurious consolation. It asserts, with all
the uncompromising severity of truth, the general
baseness and selfishness of the human heart ; and,
though it announces, in no less clear language, the
infinite benevolence of the Creator, it supplies no
solution of the difficulty, how the exercise of that
benevolence may be rendered compatible with the
workings of retributive justice, excepting by a few
occasional interspersed hints of some intended pro-
spective arrangement, by which, in the fulness of
time, this grand anomaly should be explained and
reconciled. And in this awful state of uncertainty
that earlier portion of the inspired Scriptures leaves
us, with our apprehensions awakened, with a con-
viction of the entire inadequacy of ritual expiations,
to accomplish their object, and with faint but inde-
finite hopes, that the concluding scene in this grand
136 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
and momentous drama may prove more satisfactory
than the preceding.
Now it is impossible to deny, that without such
thrilling conviction of the necessity of some scheme
of efficacious redemption, as is forced upon our feel-
ings by the awful system of preparation developed in
the Old Testament, and the fearful exposition of the
danger attaching to man's natural position, as a
moral and responsible agent, we should all of us
entertain very inadequate notions of the immense
value of that expiation afforded by the covenant of the
Gospel. No worldly blessing is duly appreciated by
us until its want has been severely felt, and a present
enjoyment is then only perceived in its full intensity,
when we contrast it with the lot which, under other
circumstances, might have been ours. Infinitely
beneficent, therefore, as the Christian dispensation is,
our Creator has wisely contrived all the avenues and
approaches to it, so as to afford the benefit of striking
and impressive contrast. He begins as the God of
terrors, he concludes as the God of mercy : he makes
his covenant a covenant of grace, not of works, in
order that no man may boast : he hath concluded all
under sin, that he might have mercy upon all.
. The place, then, occupied by the Mosaic ritual, in
the scheme of revelation, is precisely that which, if
Christianity be true, our retrospective review of the
whole system would naturally assign to it. As a
schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, it is most admira-
bly constructed in all its parts. As a code of reli-
gious morality it is, so far as it reaches, in all respects
worthy of the holy source from which it proceeded.
Still, however, it in some measure confessedly is, as
indeed from theory it might be expected to be, imper-
fect in the character of its enactments ; for were il
otherwise, the subsequent dispensation of the Gospel
would have been unnecessary. So far, then, from
wishing to draw a veil over this partial imperfection,
we may confidently refer to it as affording one proof
WITH HUMAN REASON. 137
the more of its Divine origin. Let not this observa-
tion be deemed paradoxical. No inference, from our
daily experience of the measures of Divine Provi-
dence, is more certain than that which assures us,
that however the Divine wisdom may contrive all
things relatively for the best, its system is that of
successive gradations, in no one stage of which, except,
perhaps, the very highest, our abstract notions of the
capability of good are effectively realized. The Le-
vitical institutions, we should recollect, were specially
adapted to meet the wants and to promote the prac-
tical moral habits of what, with reference to the
improved habits of modern times, we must consider
a subordinate state of society. Consequently, institu-
tions, which, at the present day, would certainly be
superfluous, and, probably, detrimental, may readily
be imagined, at that early period, to have been intro-
duced by Divine wisdom into a code, the object of
which was to operate beneficially upon the habits of
a peculiar people. It is not, therefore, only in its
obvious insufficiency as a means of spiritual grace
and expiation, that we willingly recognise the imper-
fection of the Mosaic ritual. Even its social enact-
ments, we readily acknowledge, are, in some cases,
stamped with an appearance of rudeness unseemly to
our present modes of thinking, and strongly charac-
teristic of an early stage of civil polity, and of com-
parative incivilization. As some of these points may
seem at first sight to trench upon some established
maxims of Christian morality, and have consequently
been often pointed out by the infidel as inconsistent
with the supposition, that institutions thus defective
could possibly be the work of a Divine legislator, it
may be €xpedient to examine them, on this occasion,
with some degree of detail.
The usage of polygamy, and the liberty of divorce,
are among the most prominent of these instances ; to
which may be added, the sanction given to domestic
slavery, and the severe punishments annexed to the
12*
138 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
want of chastity in females, and to the disobedience
of children toward their parents. The advancers of
these objections, however, have, unfortunately for
their argument, overlooked the important distinction
which exists between the law of Moses and that of
Christ, namely, that the former, especially and pro-
minently, is, wkat the latter certainly is not, a code
of civil polity, and of criminal jurisdiction, no less
than a system of religious doctrine. In the legislator
of the Jews, therefore, was necessarily blended the
sternness of the jurist and of the judge, together with
the more attractive meekness of the spiritual teacher.
This circumstance, of course, imposed upon him the
duty of enforcing many painful, though expedient,
regulations, from the inconvenience of which, in
consequence of its exclusively spiritual character, the
covenant of the Gospel escapes.* The Christian
student may, accordingly, peruse the whole of the
writings of the New Testament with no other feelings
than those of love to God and man in their purest and
most exalted state ; whilst the unattractive enact-
ments of a criminal code, entering, as such works
must do, into all the possible details of crime, and
imposing upon each their peculiar penalties, are kept
out of view, as belonging to the department of the
civilian, and not of the divine. The penal ordinances
of the Jewish law, on the contrary, intermingled, as
they are, with the warmest breathings of humanity
• Some of the civil institutions of Moses strongly remind us of the weU-
known apologue, in which a dying husbandman is related to have induced
his sons to bestow a complete course of manual labour upon the soil of
his v^ineyard, by exciting their hopes of discovering a concealed trea3ure.
Had the Jewish legislator contented hhnself with merely enjoining cleanly
and wholesome habits to his uncivilized countrymen, it is probable that
the mandate would have been disregarded, or, at all events, attended to
in a slovenly and perfunctory manner. But by consecrating cleanliness
by a course of ritual performances, and subjecting the slightest leprous
tendency upon their persons, or the stains of mildew on the walls of their
dwellings, to a series of religious expiations, the end and purpose of civil-
ization were secured, even before the feelings which accompany a more
advanced stage of society were developed. We surely cajinot deny the
praise of great secular wisdom to Buch an arrangement.
WITH HUMAN REASON. 139
and religious purity, contain much which, though
often necessary as provisionary regulations, even in
the most advanced age of human civilization, must
still be, after all, unpleasant subjects of perusal ;
whilst also, as intended for the instruction and coer-
cion of a semi-barbarous people, they exhibit views
of possible crime, which, in our more improved state
of manners, can be contemplated only with feelings
of repugnance. Common candour, however, and a
very little degree of reflection, will serve to show us
that the objections raised against the Divine origin of
the Mosaic institutions, on this account, are without
the slightest foundation of justice. Once admitting
the possibility of the Divine Being condescending to
legislate, in a secular sense, for any society of human
creatures, it appears to follow, as a matter of absolute
necessity, that the regulations intended to operate
practically upon the habits of the governed must have
reference to the existing state of manners and of
knowledge : and not only so, but (unless we would
assert, that a people thus divinely instructed should
also be forced, by a continued miracle, into a precocity
of civilization naturally unattainable by any other
than a very slow and tedious process,) we must admit,
also, that a legislature, even of this high order, must
be content to tolerate, for a while, those minor abuses
which, humanly speaking, it is impossible imme-
diately to eradicate. Under such circumstances, the
true wisdom would appear to be to soften, by the
interposition of salutary and sober precautions, the
rash impetuosity of rude justice, as usually adminis-
tered by nations so little advanced in cultivation as
that now alluded to ; and whilst appearing, perhaps,
to connive at usages which the highest reason cannot
altogether approve, to set quietly into action better
principles, the sure ultimate result of which would be
the eradication of the original abuse, by a necessary
improvement of the moral habits. This latter is the
precise vindication of the law of Moses with regard
140 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
to his permission of divorce adduced by our blessed
Saviour himself. " Moses, because of the hardness
of your hearts, suffered you to put away your wives :
but from the beginning it was not so." With regard
to the question of polygamy, in like manner we may,
perhaps, venture to observe that, although in an
advanced state of civilization, such as ours, a usage
of this description would completely unhinge society
by the jealousies it would introduce into families, the
neglect of education it would so frequently entail upon
the offspring, the heartlessness and selfishness it
would promote in the male sex, and the confusion of
relationship, w4th the minor inconveniences connected
with the transmission of property which it would
occasion, still, tjie evils resulting from such permis-
sion would certainly be far less prominent among the
less domestic habits and the less cultivated modes of
life of the earlier ages of the world. Under the last-
mentioned circumstances, it would also be attended
with something like a compensation for its own mis-
chief, by the incidental benefit which it might some-
times produce, In that low stage of society, where
the female sex has not yet attained to its proper influ-
ence, and where the practice of slavery, with its
general accompaniment of promiscuous concubinage,
might be expected to depress that more helpless por-
tion of the human race still lower from that point of
respectful attachment to which it is entitled, even
polygamy itself might often operate as a corrective
of the coarseness of an overbearing master, and might
tend to raise to a comparative elevation persons whose
lot might otherwise have been one of unmingled
abasement. The enactment contained in the 21st
chapter of Deuteronomy, and in verses from 10th to
14th, exactly corresponds with this view of the inten-
tion of the legislator, with respect to his toleration of
the usage in question. Admitting, however, the
truth of these observations, as resulting from the
acknowledged depravity of human passions, and the
WITH HUMAN REASON. 141
slow process through which they attain to a higher
state of refinement, still we cannot but place in an
advantageous contrast with a permission accorded
only to the low state of society which it implies, the
dignified and beneficent admonition above quoted, of
the Founder of faith, by which he asserts, in behalf
of the female sex, that equality of consideration to
which, upon every principle of reason, humanity, and
reciprocity of affection, they are so obviously entitled.
Of the enactments of the Jewish law respecting
the treatment of slaves, it may be briefly observed,
that all of them are such as, whilst they appear to a
certain degree to tolerate a necessary evil, in fact hold
out the strongest obstacle to its general prevalence,
and mitigate, in a great variety of Avays, the cruelty
and abuses which are too apt to accompany the pos-
session of this species of j^uhority. The necessary
manumission of all slaves of Jewish origin at the
return of the year of jubilee, by diminishing their
commercial value, must have operated as a strong
discouragement to the system of slavery in general;
whilst even during the continuance of their servitude,
the infliction upon them of even a slight bodily injury
by their owners gave them a title to the recovery of
their liberty. "If a man smite the eye of his ser-
vant, or the eye of his maid, that it perish, he shall
let him go free for his eye's sake : and if he smite out
his man-servant's tooth, or his maid-servant's tooth,
he shall let him go free for his tooth's sake."* Even
in our own days the existence of such a law as this
now quoted, would not probably be amiss in those
portions of the globe, which, by an unfortunate com-
bination of causes, are destined to witness a continu-
ance of a system of compulsory servitude, even
under the profession of the equalizing and beneficent
principles of Christianity. The following regulation,
extracted from the book of Deuteronomy, affords
another proof that it was from no friendly feeling
• Exodus xxi. 26, 27.
142 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
towards the usage of slavery that the toleration of it
was acknowledged by the Mosaic institutions. " Thou
shah not deliver unto his master the servant which is
escaped from his master unto thee. He shall dwell
with thee, even among you, in that place which he
shall choose in one of thy gates, where it liketh him
best: thou shalt not oppress him."*
The trial of female chastity, by the test of the
water of jealousy, as prescribed in Numb. v. 11, &c.
has been frequently compared to the custom of the
ordeal, as practised by our Saxon ancestors, and, of
course, the inference aimed at by the impugners of
revelation has been, that the former usage, like the
latter, is a proof of the ignorance and barbarous
superstition of the age which admitted it into its
legislative code. The cases, are, however, widely
different. The expectation of a continued miraculous
interference in our own days, so often as we might,
in our arrogance, challenge Heaven for the purpose,
would, indeed, denote either the darkest intellectual
blindness, or the grossest presumption ; but it would
be perfectly rational and consistent under the theo-
cracy which constituted the civil polity of the Jews.
There could be no arrogance in looking for the special
interposition of the Deity in cases where he himself
had solemnly promised it ; but there might be want
of faith, and consequently sin, in abstaining from a
usage thus solemnly instituted. It has also been
well observed, as an important distinction between
the two instances in question, that whereas, accord-
ing to the usage of the ordeal, a miracle was required
for the acquittal of the accused party; under the
Levitical rule, on the contrary, a miracle was neces-
sary for the purpose of condemnation. In the former
case, the failure of the experiment involved the
punishment of the innocent; in the latter it could
possibly lead only, at the very worst, to the acquittal
of the guilty.
• Deut. xxiii. 15.
WITH HUMAN REASON. 143
With regard to the last mentioned of the foregoing
objections, namely, the occasionally very severe ex-
ertion of parental authority, even to the extent of
taking away life, as sanctioned by the law of Moses,*
it cannot be better met than by extracting, in this
place, the words of Bishop Watson, as given in his
celebrated Apology for the Bible. " You think * that
law in Deuteronomy inhuman and brutal, which
authorizes parents, the father and mother, to bring
their own children to have them stoned to death, for
what it is pleased to call stubbornness.' — You are
aware, I suppose, that paternal power amongst the
Romans, the Gauls, the Persians, and other nations,
was of the most arbitrary kind : that it extended to
the taking away the life of the child. I do not know
whether the Israelites, in the time of Moses, exercised
this paternal power : it was not a custom adopted by
all nations, but it was by many ; and in the infancy
of society, before individual families had coalesced
into communities, it was, probably, very general.
Now Moses, by this law, which you esteem brutal
and inhuman, hindered such an extravagant power
from being either introduced or exercised amongst
the Israelites. This law is so far from countenancing
the arbitrary power of a father over the life of his
child, that it takes from him the power of accusing
the child before a magistrate. — The father and the
mother of the child must agree in bringing the child
to judgment, and it is not by their united will that
the child was to be condemned to death : the elders
of the city were to judge whether the accusation Avas
true ; and the accusation was to be not merely, as
you insinuate, that the child was stubborn, but that
he was ' stubborn and rebellious, a glutton, and a
drunkard.' Considered in this light, you must allow
the law to have been a humane restriction of a power
improper to be lodged with any parent."
* Deut. xxi. 18, <tc. ,
144 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
CHAPTER XVI.
Ofthe Evidence afforded to the authenticity of the Levitical InstU
tutions, by the onerous Nature of its Ritual, and the present
State of the Jewish People. ,
The whole series of the Jewish records, then, if
attempted to be accounted for by merely natural
causes, presents a tissue of difficulties which it would
he quite impossible to explain. The miracles, the
history of which constitutes so large a portion of their
subject matter, unlike those false prodigies, which
usually crowd the annals of dark and superstitious
periods, as has been already observed, so far from
bearing the appearance of a gratuitous super-addition
to common-place event, are absolutely necessary, as
fundamental facts, to give consistence and probability
to the whole narrative. The difficulty cannot be got
over by supposing the documents in question to be a
partial, much less an entire, forgery. The former
hypothesis does not meet the case, the latter presents
an absolute impossibility. It is contrary to all ex-
perience, as it would be contrary to all reason, that
any considerable and ancient nation should exist, the
whole of whose written annals should be false; and
yet, in the case of the Jews, to stop short at the par-
tial admission of the authenticity of their recorded
transactions, to the exclusion of any preternatural
agency in their production, would drive us into the
admission of positions not one degree more tenable.
The fact of the real occurrence of miracles, however,
once granted, there appears no reason why we should
attempt to set other limits to their extent than those
which the Scriptures expressly assign to them.
That this portion of history contains the records of a
nation very far from advanced in civilization is.
WITH HUMAN REASON. 145
indeed, obvious, from the slightest perusal. But, as
has been already remarked, this circumstance only
adds to our admiration of the awfully solemn theisti-
cal doctrines and the spirit of pure and benevolent
humanity which pervades so large a portion of it.
The exceptions to this indulgent spirit, where they
occur, have, indeed, been admitted to be striking; but
these very exceptions, as being directed, almost ex-
clusively, against the abominations of idolatry, which
nothing short of absolute extermination could have
prevented from rendering the whole of these admira-
ble enactments abortive, are themselves a strong
internal evidence of the wisdom in which they
were conceived, and of the high source from which
they emanate. Admit the Mosaic law really to have
been what it professes to be, and we see, at once,
the absolute necessity of these seemingly harsh pro-
visions ; consider it to be the work of a mere human
legislator, and we are at a loss to trace in them any
purposes of policy, or any features of consistency,
feishop Warburton is of opinion, that the single fact
of the silence of Moses, with regard to a future life
of rewards or punishments, is a sufficient proof of his
Divine legation. We may restate this argument
more palpably and broadly by asserting that no legis-
lator could, with the slightest chance of success,
assert the bold theory of a theocracy extending its
direct superintending care to the minutest circum-
stances of domestic life, and promising a special
miracle for almost every deviation from the law of
strict obedience, were not that assertion borne out by
fact. Not only, however, does Moses repeatedly
hazard this assertion, but he appeals, again and again,
to the positive experience of his people for the proof
of the reality of the miracles which he narrates. We
cannot meet this argument, and thus get rid of the
difficulty, by supposing that the books which bear his
name were the production of a later period. Such an
hypothesis has already been shown to be improbable
13
146 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
in the highest degree ; and even if granted, it would
create more perplexity than it would remove. The
later books of the Old Testament not only pre-suppose
the existence of the writings of Moses, such as they
have descended to our times, but they also, in their
turn, bear witness to other and subsequent miracles,
for the truth of which they make their own appeal
to the testimony of contemporary witnesses. To
suppose these last mentioned compositions, again, fo
be forgeries, is still rushing deeper and deeper into
impossibilities, for the sake of avoiding the one pri-
mary admission which explains the whole, namely,
the Divine origin of the Christian, and consequently
of the Levitical dispensation. It has been well ob-
served, that the annual celebration of stated festivals
and solemnities by any people is amongst the surest
guarantee which can possibly be given to later times
of the authenticity of the received traditions of their
early ancestry. Such institutions are, in fact, a
periodical reenactment of the most influential events
in the history of nations; and from the actual identity
of ceremonial which,, for the most part, accompanies
their repetition, they bring the usages of long extin-
guished ages more immediately, and more correctly,
before the eye than any other human contrivance
with which we are acquainted. But the whole
political history of the Jews was that of the regular
recurrence of religious festivals, all illustrating and
confirming each other, but each also having its own
respective and peculiar object of commemoration.
Many of them also, it should be observed, were of an
extremely onerous and costly character, such as no
people would willingly adopt, for a long succession
of ages, without some strong assignable reason,
whilst some of their habitual institutions seemed
almost to militate against their very existence as an
independent people. Of the former kind was the
Becessity imposed upon all persons adopting the
Mosaic ritual of repairing to Jerusalem annually, at
WITH HUMAN REASON. 147
the season of the great festivals : as instances of the
latter, may be mentioned the observance of the
sabbatical year, which, from the remission of taxes,
stated by Josephus to have been granted to the Jews,
on that account, by Alexander, appears, if we are to
give credit to that historian, to have been, in some
degree, maintained so late as the time of that
monarch ;* and the almost superstitious observance
of the weekly Sabbath, of which Pompey and others,
during the several sieges of Jerusalem, are said to
have taken such pernicious advantage, for the purpose
of urging their attacks.
Now surely, if we find a particular people, week
after week, year after year, and period after period,
with uniformity and precision, as well as with great
personal cost and inconvenience, repeating again and
again the same routine of social and religious cere-
monies, it would seem as certain as certainty can
make it, that some events must really have occurred,
in the early history of that nation, which rendered
such usages imperative upon their ancestors. No
assignable reason can be suggested why the later
Jews should be found annually celebrating their Pass-
over, their Pentecost, their feast of Tabernacles,
excepting the obvious one, that the recurrence of the
stated season, in each successive year, brought with
it the recollection of the important events to which
* It must be confessed, that the observance of the sabbatical year seems
never to have been very rigidly adhered to by the Jews ; probably, because
of all the Mosaic institutions it was the one which required the largest
degree of faith in the special protection of Providence, and which mili-
tated most against the natural principle of covetousness. It should be
remembered, however, that the disobedience of the nation on this point was
expressly foretold, and a future judgment denounced against them, on that
account, by Moses himself ; (Leviticus xxvi. 34, 35.) and that this specific
reason is assigned (2 Chronicles xxvi. 21.) for the infliction upon them of
the Babylonish captivity. The force of the argument contained in the
observation to which this note is appended is not, however, affected by
this admission. The Jews, at all events, acknowledged their conscientious
obligation to the observance of the sabbatical year as a Divine institu-
tion, which they certainly would not have done, had they not been con-
vincedj in spite of their own wishes and apparent interests to the contrary,
dmt eiich was really its character.
148 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
those institutions respectively referred, and to which
they might be continuously traced back. The same
course of argument, as demonstrative of the authen-
ticity of the Mosaic narrative, will apply, if possible,
with still greater force to the great standing miracle
of the present condition of the Jews, as we find them
scattered through almost every habitable portion of
the globe. Striking effects must have had adequate
cause. What, then, was the cause which placed, and
retains, that singular people in their present peculiar
and unparalleled circumstances ? By what theory,
if we discard that of a special Divine agency, and of
that obstinate tenacity of political life, produced by
the exclusive character of their traditional usages, are
we to explain a fact so completely at variance with
all our experience derived from other quarters ? The
name and traceable lineage of every other ancient
nation, with whose history we are acquainted, and,
amongst the rest, of the ten heretical Israelitish
tribes themselves, have disappeared from the research
of the antiquarian, at no long period after they have
ceased to exist as a separate body politic. And yet,
of the dynasties and nations which at the present
moment advance their claim to the highest antiquity,
not one was in political existence at the time of the
extinction of the Jews as a constituted people. The
Byzantine empire dated its birth nearly three hun-
dred years after that period, and yet it is now nearly
four hundred years since it has perished, with its long
line of emperors, by the natural process of decay.
The most ancient monarchy of Europe, that of France,
had its origin more than four hundred years sub-
sequent to the same epoch ; and if we look elsewhere
to the surrounding states, we find a similar spirit of
change giving a new form, at different and successive
intervals, to the language, habits, religion, and col-
lective character of every portion of the civilized world*
It is no answer to this remarkable peculiarity attach-
ing to the Jews to assert that they pwie their extra?
WITH HUMAN REASON. 149
ordinary vitality, as a people, to natural causes.
Those causes, ii they mean any thing, must be their
religion and social institutions. But whence did
institutions possessing this remarkable property of
making the actual decay of one nation more pro-
tracted than the whole date of the existence of any
other, derive their source ? Still we must revert to
the same, and the only satisfactory solution. Second-
ary causes have been more specially directed in their
instance, and throughout the whole of their history,
to the promotion. of some remarkable result, than m
that of any other branch of the human race. If it be
asked, why has this been so, the Christian stands in
no need of an explanation. On the contrary, he
sees in this fact only one link the more in the chain
of consistent events ; another proof of the Divine
superintendence, manifesting itself, as in the earlier
ages of the world so in the present, in confirmation
of the religion which he acknowledges. On the other
hand, the sceptic must add this to the already over-
charged list of difficulties with which his cold and
hopeless theory is encumbered, and which (as to us
it would seem so inconsequentially) he adopts, rather
than submit to acknowledge that the sublimest spe-
cimen of religious philosophy and of social ethics
which the history of human knowledge records could
possibly be, under any circumstances, the direct gift
of the Creator to his creatures.*
* The great Cond^ is said lo have replied to certain infidel arguments,
that it was perfectly vain to assail the credibility of the Christian revela-
tion, so long as so singular a miracle as that of the existing state of the
Jewish people could be appealed to in its support. The additional lapso
Cf a century and a half since the death of that eminent person has assuredly
act rendered the miracle to which he alluded less convincing.
13*
150 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
CHAPTER XVII.
Of the tendency of the prophetic Books of the Old Testament,
The object of this dissertation being chiefly to point
out the general congruity of the Holy Scriptures with
themselves., and with the universally acknowledged
phenomena o^ human nature, in other words, to dwell
more immediately upon the internal evidence w^hich
they bear of their own authenticity, it will scarcely
fall within its design to dwell upon the very strong
confirmation afforded by prophecy to the truth of
Christianity. In a work so limited in compass as the
present, it were impossible to do justice to so extensive
a subject, and which has already been cogently illus-
trated in many first-rate standard works:* nor would
the minute and circumstantial detail, which such an
examination would require, accord with the very
general view of the more superficial and popular
objections to the credibility of our religion, which is
all that is now attempted to be taken. With regard,
therefore, to this truly importaiit branch of the Chris-
tian evidences, it will be our object to dwell chiefly
upon the more broad and general character of the
writings of the Jewish prophets, as forming a kind
of intermediate dispensation between the Levitical
institutions, the strict and formalletterof which they
are calculated to spiritualize, and the covenant of the
Gospel, of the real nature and destination of which
they gave the first clear intimations.
Now, among the foremost impressions left upon
our minds by their perusal, is that of the internal
• Few more satisfactory works, in confirmation of the inspiration of
Scripture, have appeared within our own time, than that of the Rev.
Alexander Keith, entitled "Evidence of the truth of the Christian Religion,
derived from the literal fulfilment of prophecy." We know of no work
of the same length so well adapted to direct the attention of ecepticai
^inds to the serious investigat* .n of that subject.
WITH HUMAN UEASOlff^ "^^ <5 T \
proof which they bear of their own ivjlTienticity, from
the total want of system and definite purpose which A ;
they display, and the entire absence of any personal ^ •*
interest or advantage to their respective authors, if
we., put out of the question the appropriate position
which they are calculated to occupy between a reli-
gion of types and one of antitypes, between one of
ritual expiations and one of spiritual holiness ; and
the strong testimony which they thus afford retro-
spectively to the truth of the Mosaic, and prospec-
tively to that of the Christian covenant. It would
most assuredly be impossible to account for the com^
position of the larger and more prominent proportion
of these truly remarkable documents, by referring it
to the ordinary human motives of self-interest, or of
jiational or personal vanity. That they were not
written for the purpose of giving an additional sanc-
tion to the Levitical institutions is obvious from the
fact, that they frequently speak of them in language
so depreciating, as almost to imply a spirit of hos-
tility : whilst, on the other hand, that their object
was not that of casting any slur upon the authenticity
of that ritual is equally evident, from the fact that
they explicitly assert its Divine origin, and attribute
the severe visita;tions which befel their countrymen
to the wrath of Providence, for their continued viola^
tion of its enactments. Now, admitting that the
Jewish prophets were sent into the world at their
respective epochs, for the purpose of weaning the
public mind gradually from the provisional establish-
ment of Moses, and preparing it for the reception of
evangelical truth, all these characteristics which mark
their writings are precisely what might have been
expected : but, we repeat, no other solution with
which we are acquainted would meet the case. Any
idea of personal aggrandizement, as the motive of the
line adopted by their authors, was again obviously
out of the question. To tlxe Jewish community they
must have appeared, from ilijeir continued anticipa-
152 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
tions of national calamity and discomfiture, any thing
rather than patriotic ; and by the uncompromising
censure with which they lashed the vices of the sove-
reigns of the day, they must have expected to draw
down, as we know that they actually did, the most
violent persecution upon their own heads. Yet with
all these apparently unpopular characteristics, their
books (such we must presume was the unanswerable
evidence of their inspiration at the time of their pro-
duction) have been received as infallible oracles by
the very people whose crimes they denounced, whose
religious prejudices they offended, and whose political
ruin they foreboded ; and, from that day to the pre-
sent, have been reverentially transmitted from father
to son, through every change of evil and good fortune,
and referred to in their original language by that
inflexible people under almost every possible modifi-
cation of manners, and in almost every climate of the
earth.
The gradual preparation for a new and better
system than that of the provisional institutions of
Moses, as hinted at by himself, and slowly developed
in the subsequent writings of the prophets, seems to
have been admirably contrived by Providence, accord-
ing to the continually shifting circumstances of the
Jewish people. Moses, it has been already remarked,
alludes to the eventual abrogation of his own ritual
by the substitution of the covenant of the Gospel, in
language sufficiently precise to satisfy us that he was
fully aware that such would be the fact, though in a
manner not so prominent as to derogate from the
veneration claimed for his own enactments, by an-
nouncing more boldly than was expedient their real
character. But as time advanced, and when after
a course of successive ages the Levitical rites had
been suflRciently long established to have completely
identified themselves with the national habits, the
Almighty appears purposely to have become more and
more explicit in his intimation of his ultimate purpose.
WITH HUMAN REASON. 153
The substitution of spiritual, in the place of ritual,
holiness ; the one efficient expiation of sin, destined
to be once for all offered and completed in the suffer-
ings and subsequent glorifying of the Messiah, and
the communication of the blessings of the Gospel to
the G-entiles equally with the Jews, are expressly
alluded to so early as the time of David, in many of
the Psalms attributed to. that monarch and his con-
temporaries, in a manner obviously calculated to
subtract from the then existing reliance upon the
efficacy of the sacerdotal sacrifice. " I will not reprove
thee," are the words of the 50th Psalm, "for thy sacri-
fices, or thy burnt-offerings, have been continually
before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house,
nor he-goat out of thy folds ; for every beast of the
forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.
I know all the fowls upon the mountains, and the
wild beasts of the fields are mine. If I were hungry
I would not tell thee ; for the world is mine, and the
fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink
the blood of goats ?* Offer unto God thanksgivings
and pay thy vows unto the Most High^ and call upon me
in the day of trouble : I will deliver thee and thou shalt
glorify me." Again we read in the 40th Psalm,
^ Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire : mifie ears
hast thou opened : burnt- offering and sin-offering hast
thou not required. Then said t^lo I come : in the vol-
ume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy
* The words of Isaiah are exactly to the same purport. " To what pur-
pose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me 1 saith the Lord ; I am
full of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts ; and I delight
not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of goats. When ye come to
appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my
courts 1 Bring no more vain oblations ; incense is an abomination unto
mej the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot
away with : it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons
and your appointed feasts my soul hateth : they are a trouble unto me ;
I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will
hide mine eyes from you ; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not
hear : your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean, put
away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes : cease to do evil,
learn to do well ; seek judgment ; relieve the oppressed : judge the father*
less^ plead for the widow." — Isaiah i. 11. et. se^.
154 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
will, my God, yea thy law is within my heart. ^^ The
22d Psalai contains so minute a detail of some of the
circumstances attending our blessed Saviour's cruci-
fixion as to have the appearance rather of the clear
narrative of subsequent history, than the mysterious
allusive hints of prophecy ; whilst in the latter part
of that singular composition, the eventual extension
of the benefits of the Redeemer's expiatory atonement
to all the nations of the earth is expressly asserted.
" All the ends of the world shall remember and turn
unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations
shall worship before Thee. For the kingdom is the
Lord's, and he is the Governor among the nations.
All they that be fat upon earth (all the potentates of
the earth) shall eat and worship : all they that go
down to the dust shall bow before him : and none can
keep alive his own soul." In proportion as the com-
pletion of the time contemplated by Providence drew
nearer, this tendency to derogate from the efiective-
ness of their existing ritual, and to anticipate a more
perfect system still hidden in the womb of futurity,
becomes more and more evident in the writings of
the later prophets. And, accordingly, we know that
in consequence of these repeated allusions, all bearing
prospectively to the same point, and more especially
of those contained in the Book of Daniel, the appear-
ance of a Prince and Saviour was an object of earnest
expectation among the Jews at the time of our
Redeemer's birth ; though from feelings of nationality
they were disposed, in direct contradiction to the very
prophecies to which they referred, to restrict the
object of his mission to their own peculiar nation.
Now it cannot be denied that, upon the presumption
that the intentions of Providence were what the
Christian supposes, this gradual repeal of the earlier
covenant, and preparation of the human mind for the
promulgation of that which was to displace it, was
wisely contrived. The system pursued was like that
which we witness in some of the common operations
WITH HUMAN REASON. 155
of physical nature, where the effete animal organ,
which is to be superseded by the substitution of one
more complete, detaches itself slowly and almost
imperceptibly, and finally drops off when the process
for the production of that which is to follow is com-
pleted. Another, and no trifling advantage, also, was
obtained for the eventual advancement of Christianity
by this peculiar arrangement ; namely, the confirma-
tion of its authenticity subsequently to its promulga-
tion, by the evidence of previously received prophecy.
The same writings which, before the proclamation of
the Grospel covenant, seem to have been intended only
for the single purpose of weaning the minds of the
Jews from a too strong attachment to the mere cere-
monial of their law, and of inculcating principles of
more substantial holiness, served, after the coming of
Christ, to afford the most irrefragable proofs of the
reality of his mission. In consequence of this double
purpose, which has been answered by the prophetic
writings, it is that their importance, as means of
instruction, is at this moment as great to the society
of Christians as it was originally to the people for
whose use they appeared to be more immediately
intended : a circumstance in which we trace again
another close analogy with the general economy of
the Creator, almost all of whose visible works are
adapted for the promotion of other and secondary
purposes, after the first and more ostensible object has
been attained.
Without, then, carrying this part of our ar^ment
further than the foregoing observations, and leaving
the detailed examination of the actual fulfilment of
prophecy, with the unanswerable evidence which it
affords in confirmation of the truth of our religion, to
the admirable works which have already been written
on that subject, it will only be remarked, in this
place, with regard to this portion of the Old Testa-
ment, as has already been done with respect to the
historical books, that every possible theory which we
156 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
can suggest as the motive of their production, saving
and excepting that which presupposes the truth of
Christianity, and the consequent real reference of these
writings to that coming dispensation, is full of incon-
gruities and inconsistencies. Why, in the very com-
mencement of the Book of Genesis, a distinct hint
should have been given, that a descendant from the
first stock of the human lineage should one day prove
a means of a reconciliation of man with his Maker ;
why a repetition of the same promise, hut in still
more explicit language, should have been recorded as
having been made to Abraham and his immediate
descendants ; why Moses, in giving a law to his
people, which at the first aspect seemed destined for
perpetuity, and which was made imperative upon the
whole lineage of Israel, under the most fearful sanc-
tions, should have distinctly, though incidentally,
asserted that it was eventually to be cancelled by one
vested with still higher authority ; why, as time pro-
ceeded, subsequent presumed inspired writers should
agree in depreciating that very law, the Divine
authority of which they confidently asserted, and
finally should almost explicitly, and without disguise
or figure, announce the approach of a higher legislator,
who was to supersede all existing institutions, and
break down the partition wall between Jew and Gen-
tile ; why those books should have been received as
inspired documents by the very people whose sins
they denounced, and whose ruin they anticipated, and
why, as we know historically to have been the fact,
the expectation of the whole Jewish nation should
have been eagerly looking for the promised Messiah
at the very period of Christ's appearance in the human
form ; why all this chain of connected circumstances
should have existed, if there was really no connecting
principle in the actual state of things to produce it,
and no concert or combination in the respective
parties, it would seem perfectly impossible to explain.
If one main idea, not brought ambitiously and pro-
WITH HUMAN REASON. 167
minently forward, but couched often in allegorical
allusions, often in casual expressions, and in language
which until its fulfilment must often have been abso-
lutely inexplicable, be really traceable from first to
last, from almost the first page of the first Book of
Moses, down to the conclusion of Malachi : if with
this single key to decipher each respective composi-
tion, all separately become unambiguous in their
meaning, and collectively form one consistent whole;
and if without that key each part would be at once
at variance with itseli, and irreconcilable with the
others, a tissue of improbable legends, and of unreal,
bacause unnecessary, miracles ; and if, in addition to
this, the grand question of some religion, or no reli-
gion, be finally at stake in proportion as we incline
to this side, or its opposite, we surely must admit
• that the combination of probabilities thus arrived at
is fully sufficient to command our assent to the con-
fessedly astounding arrangement of human events,
which those documents agree in recording. It is not
for a moment our wish to deny or conceal what every
Christian must have felt, the startling sensation
which the recital of such preternatural occurrences as
those related in the Scriptures is calculated to produce
when considered separately from the great transcen-
dental* scheme of which they form the preparatory
means. But the cure for such doubts is to be found
in considering our religion as a whole ; in examining
the extent and character of our spiritual necessities ;
in weighing one seeming contradiction against its
contradictory opposite ; and in satisfying our minds,
that by the demonstrable constitution of our nature,
no other alternative is allowed us than that of choos-
ing between the lowest possible state of moral degra-
dation, namely, that of complete irreligion, and the
admission of the necessity of some specific Divine
arrangement, by which the acknowledged defects of
the existing order of things may be met and rectified.
If these, then, are the necessary conclusions to
14
158 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
which every earnest examination of our purest moral
tendencies, and of the phenomena of the creation,
must ultimately lead us, it is obvious that to minds
thus prepared the seemingly improbable, because
unusual, interferences of the Creator with the course
of his own laws, recorded in the sacred writings, lose
at once the g-eater portion of their powers of embar-
rassment. To a Christian and a Sceptic, accordingly,
even where the natural faculties of the understanding
may be granted to be essentially equal, the self-same
statement of facts upon these points will lead to
directly opposite impressions. The former, if he
reason conclusively, and with that masculine grasp
of mind which neither seeks after unnecessary para-
dox, nor flinches from the charge of credulity in com-
pliance with the prejudices of the indolent and half-
informed, will carefully examine, in the first place,
the main and primary propositions of religion, and,
if he find them established upon a basis which it is
absolutely impossible to overturn, will then be content
to take them with all their consequences and accom-
panying difficulties, and to pursue his course, step by
step, from the simplest principles of natural theology
to the highest facts of well-attested revelation. But
nothing, on the contrary, can be more inconsequential
than the reasoning of the anti-Christian Theist. He
admits the general proposition of the existence of a
Deity, but he ridicules as superstitious every practical
attempt to prove his moral superintendence over his
own works. He will grant that the universe is wisely
put together, yet he is offended at every attempt to
demonstrate the workings of that wisdom, by direct-
ing our attention to final causes. He is obliged, by
a weight of evidence which it is impossible to resist,
to admit that the world must have had a beginning,
and yet he argues as though the assertion of the pos-
sibility of any deviation from tlie present quiet course
of events were the highest absurdity. He is en-
tangled by difficulties at every step. He denies the
WITH HUMAN REASON. 159
mysterious facts of revelation, yet by his own admis-
sion he has assented to the far more portentous posi-
tions of natural religion, with all their formidable,
and, if Christianity be false, unexplained, anomalies.
If he can succeed in persuading himself that the
recorded miracles of one period are the inventions of
a barbarous people, or the fabrications of imposture,
he has still to prove the same proposition in like
manner of the next, and of the next after them, or he
does nothing. If he deny the authenticity of the
Jewish records in all their parts, he still has to account
for the remarkable fact of the past and present exist-
ence of the Jews themselves. If he make a like
attack upon the authenticity of the Christian Scrips
lures, he has again to explain, as he can, the undeni-
able phenomenon of the first origin and growth of the
Christian community itself, challenging inquiry, as
we know that it did, in the face of an enlightened and
inimical age, as to the reality of the miracles to which
it appealed for its warrant, and persevering in its faith
in defiance of the outstretched arm of secular power.
If, finally, taking the whole records of revelation to
pieces, he can establish a seeming detached and
occasional improbability in some one part severed
from the rest, he has still to explain how and why, by
what accident, for contrivance is evidently out of the
question, these apparently anomalous members, so
astounding when considered separately, should thus
happen to combine into one continuous and consistent
whole ; from what cause is it that, in a retrospect
made at this moment of the entire annals of our
religion, no contrariety of purpose should be observa-
ble in the series, no one link in the chain of contriv-
ance be missing ; but that all, from first to last, should
appear as the work of one single author, the elaborate
developement of one single pervading idea, which,
though never forming the ostensible subject matter,
should still be traceable alike through the history,
the poetry, the ritual, and the prophecies of the Jew
160 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
ish nation, till it finally expanded into the completion
of the presumed great scheme of Providence in the
form of the Christian revelation. Whilst such are
the acknowledged difficulties attendant upon theistical
scepticism, it surely is not for its professors to pride
themselves in their own clear and consistent views,
and to charge their believing opponents with credulity
and superstition.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Consiste7icy between the Covenant of Moses and that of Christ, as
having an expiation for Sin as their leading object. The Levitical
expiations were confessedly ineffectual. It must be presumed^
therefore, that the great purpose of the Gospel Dispensation was
to correct this deficiency. 1 he popular Objections to the Doctrine
of ChrisVs Atonement examined.
There is this very striking and obvious distinction
between the Mosaic covenant and that of Christ, that,
while both claim equally to be a communication from
heaven, the former is confessedly, and by its own
express admission, a mere preparatory arrangement,
adapted to the habits of a single people, for the intro-
duction of a more perfect system; whilst the latter,
addressing itself to the whole human race indiscrimi-
nately, is declared to be absolutely final, the grand
summary of all such theological knowledge as man in
this world can ever hope to attain to, and the com-
pletion of his reconciliation with God. It is thus
that, from their relative position, the one dispensation
bears reciprocal evidence to the authenticity of the
other. When considered as the nurse and forerunner
of Christianity, Judaism acquires a consistency of
character, which, if adduced as a dispensation com-
plete and entire in itself, it manifestly could lay no
claim to. Its perfection is altogether of a relative and
not of a positive character. It is precisely what might
have been expected of the Divine wisdom, when con-
WITH HUMAN REASON. 161
descending to legislate for the temporal, no less than
for the spiritual, concerns of an unpolished people,
and intent upon occupying a certain, otherwise com-
pletely dark, portion in the moral history of our nature,
by the establishment of provisional institutions,
especially adapted to that peculiar emergency. On
the other hand, it bears no one characteristic which
would justify us- in considering it as intended for the
benefit of the whole human race, or for any nation
very far advanced in spiritual holiness. Christianity,
then, thus considered, comes to us as the continuation
and completion of a course of Divine agency, which
had been in operation from the very beginning of the
world, and which, after a long series of delays and
impediments, the result of the opposition afforded to it
by man's vices and ignorance, was at length fully
developed at the earliest period which would admit
of its promulgation. It is thus that the same miracles
which originally bore evidence to the truth of the
Mosaic mission serve to confirm also that superior
form of religion which grew out of it, and finally-
superseded it ; whilst to that strong weight of previous
testimony must be added, as accessory and accumula-
tive proof, all the recorded miracles connected with
the coming of Christ ; those declared to have been
performed immediately by himself, and all those stu-
pendous events which were subsequently borne wit-
ness to by his first followers and the primitive Church.
If, then, the evidence of the authenticity of the Mosaic
law, when considered singly, is strong, and strong
assuredly it is, that of the certainty of the religion of
Christ is still more so, whether we look to the number
of miracles to which it can appeal, the intrinsic purity
of its precepts, the more spiritual character of the
devotional feeling which it inculcates, the advanced
state of human manners and knowledge which pre-
vailed at the time of its first establishment, and
the much more extensive theatre of human society
in which the phenomena of its promulgation were
14*
162 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
enacted. Considered, then, retrospectively, as the
slow developement of a long series of elaborate con-
trivances, purchased often by a suspension of the
established laws of the universe, and uniformly con-
ducted by the fostering care of its Divine Founder,
through every seeming fluctuation of fortune to its
final establishment, it suggests a truly awful and
appalling idea of the vast importance of the institu-
tions which were thus solemnly introduced. Pro-
vidence, for the most part, moves onward so quietly
and imperceptibly toward the accomplishment of its
designs, that we cannot but deem such a striking
departure from its usual simplicity of execution, as that
here contemplated, as arguing a far more imposing
solemnity of purpose than is referable to the ordinary
course of events. The vast length and majestic
character of the approach which leads to the shrine of
Christianity is the strongest possible proof of the
sanctity of the mysterious edifice itself. If that dis-
pensation, then, be authentic, it manifestly is one
which implies no trivial routine of moral duty or
common-place assent of the heart and understanding
• on our part, nor, in fact, any thing which could, in
the course of the workings of Divine wisdom, be
produced by a less intricate, and, humanly speaking,
more natural process. The inference resulting from
this last observation is one of vast importance in the
discussion of the question, — what the main object of
the Gospel is ? because it enaCbles us confidently to
pronounce (and that in exact accordance with the
most explicit and literal declarations of Scripture)
what it is not. Its main end and purport, then, as-
suredly, is not any thing which fell within the com-
petency of the law of Moses to attain : for, as that
law proceeded from the same Divine source, it is self-
evident that it would never have been superseded by
its Almighty framer, had it contained within itself
the means for the effective accomplishment of that
result which a revelation from heaven must be pre*
WITH HUMAN REASON. 163
sumed to have had in view. " If righteousness could
have been by the law," says St. Paul, "then it had
not been by laitli." This argument is perfectly un-
answerable. It is evident, therefore, that if we would
arrive at what must, necessarily, have been the great
and foremost purpose of the scheme of Christianity,
it must be found, by examining what was the specific
point which, notwithstanding the holy source from
which it proceeded, was left unaccomplished by the
ritual law of Moses. Now that mere morals, and,
in addition to what usually passes under that denom-
ination, a deep impression of the worship and rever-
ence due to the Supreme Being, were inculcated by
the Levitical law, almost as fully as in that of Christ
himself, is manifest upon the slightest perusal. If we
add to the declarations of the Decalogue the numerous
beautiful exhortations to acts of mercy and brotherly
love, and forgiveness of enemies, which we find inter-
spersed through the Jewish code, some specimens of
which have already been extracted in the preceding
pages, we arrive at a system of duty with reference
to God, and of practical morality with regard to man,
very little inferior to the most perfect injunctions
comprehended in the New Testament. And even
though we admit, as in some respects we are bound to
do, the inferiority of the former institutes to the latter
in that respect, still, at all events, we see no reason
why mere moral and devotional precepts, even of the
hignest possible perfection, might not, if that were
the sole object of the scheme of revelation, have been
included in them, without that vast expenditure (if
we may venture to use the expression) of continuous
miracle which is recorded in the whole series of
Scripture, both Jewish and Christian.
No conclusion, then, can be more certain than that,
as there is no superfluity in the workings of Divine
wisdom, the Christian dispensation must have com-
prised some ulterior object, higher even than that of
the instruction of mankind in its most imperative
164 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
principles of duty. But if so, what then was, or
what can be imagined to be, that still higher object ?
Scripture would answer this question for us, even if
the inferences of reason were silent. The Mosaic
institutions had confessedly two great ostensible pur-
poses in view. Its first and most prominent object
was, undoubtedly, the inculcation of holiness, —
understanding, by that expression, man's religious
submission to the Almighty, and his social morality
in the intercourse with his fellow-creatures. On these
points the Divine legislator addresses himself with
that impressive solemnity and awful purity of idea
which might be expected on such a subject, from so
august a quarter. But to apprehend our duty is one
thing, to perform it, duly and adequately, is another.
God may instruct us ; and in such a case the lesson
will, assuredly, be worthy of its author : but will man
always therefore obey ? This is the really vital point
on which every theory of religion, with the exception
of that of the Gospel, is found deficient. It is, in a
practical sense at least, necessary that offences should
come. What, then, is to be the consequence when
wretched human nature is the offender, and the
angust Maker of the universe the Judge ? With
reference, then, to this most perplexing question, the
Levitical ritual has a second object, scarcely less
elaborately provided for than the first, namely, a
system of sacrificial and oblatory expiations, profess-
edly intended for the removal of the spiritual conse-
quences of offences/springing from the natural cor-
ruption and waywardness of the human heart. It is
scarcely necessary to observe, that this part of the
Divine law entirely failed of its effect, plainly and
simply because, from its inherent worthlessness, it was
incompetent to accomplish it. It possessed merely
the secondary value of a type, and not the primary and
inherent efficacy of an antitype. *' It is not possible,"
says the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, " that
the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins/*
WITH HUMAN REASON. 165
The same language had been previously held by all
the later inspired penmen of the old covenant. And
yet, with the exception of this figurative deprecatory
rite, what had human infirmity to offer as the requi-
site propitiation ? God seems, on this occasion, pur-
posely to have called forth, and to have given a
momentary sanction to, the utmost of man's limited
means of reconciliation, in order that he might more
forcibly inculcate the humiliating lesson of its ineffi-
ciency, and, by a natural train of thought, eventually
lead kis mind onward to some more satisfactory
process of expiation. What, then, the law of Moses
manifestly, because confessedly, aimed at without
success, we may be perfectly certain that it was the
foremost object of the Christian dispensation to
achieve. It is to the atonement of Christ, there-
fore, (that mysterious doctrine so much ridiculed by
the professed Infidel, and so insidiously impugned by
the semi-Christian, that stumbling-block to the timid
rationalist of modern times, as it was to the Jew and
to the Gentile of old,) that we must look for the one
main and prominent idea which is to give consistency,
from first to last, to the whole series of revelation.
Without this connecting link, this harmonious con-
summation of a long tissue of preparatory contriv-
ances, Judaism and Christianity must have been
considered rather as rival systems, each laying claim
to the same miraculous sanctions, and contesting with
one another for the supremacy, than as graduated
stages in one vast and comprehensive purpose. Even
in this advanced period of the world, the purged and
scaled eye of the enlightened Christian moralist can
find little to amend in the didactic portions of the
Mosaic writings, and, considering them solely in this
point of view, would be disposed to place them, side
by side, with the moral precepts of the Gospel, as
concurrent oracles of the Divine will, both of them,
respectively, having a claim to his obedience. But
once admit the one preeminent and momentous truth
166 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
here alluded to, as the prominent aim of both the
former and the latter dispensations, and immediately
all the respective portions of both covenants fall, as
it were of their own accord, each into its proper rela-
tive position, and, without derogating from the wis-
dom of purpose displayed in either, contribute to the
symmetry of the whole design. On the other hand,
deny the j ustice^ of the inference, and from that mo-
ment it is impossible for us to surmise what was that
peculiar characteristic of the Gospel scheme which
the spirit of early prophecy so eagerly anticipated,
and which, in the fulness of time, was so triumph-
antly announced to mankind. *' Your Father, Abra-
ham," said our blessed Saviour, " rejoiced to see my
day; and he saw it, and was glad." What was it,
the anticipated sight of which, through a long vista
of nearly two thousand years, caused that holy person
thus to rejoice ? The communication of a mere law
of perfect morality, for the amendment of human
manners ? If so, he might have exulted in the antici-
pation of the coming of his descendant Moses almost
as justly as in that of the more remote Jesus. Was
it the revelation of the great doctrine of the soul's
immortality ? Setting aside the connexion between
the establishment of this doctrine and Christ's expia-
tory sacrifice for sin, there seems to be no assignable
reason why this important truth should not have been
directly communicated by revelation to Abraham
himself; and still less can we see why it should not
have been inserted among the acknowledged sanc-
tions of the Mosaic law. If, then, it was withheld
from the prior dispensations, whilst it formed an
integral constituent of the latter covenant of the
Gospel, the reason must have been, because the Gos-
pel contains what the ritual law does not contain.
But what was the distinguishing feature of the
Christian scheme must be admitted also to have
been its foremost purpose. The mysterious pro-
pitiation of Christ evidently constitutes the former]
WITH HUMAN REASON. 167
we, therefore, reasonably conclude it to have been
the latter*
Nothing, then, surely can be more inconsequential
than the reasoning of those persons who, assenting
to the general truth of the Holy Scriptures, would
cut out from them this their essential and peculiar
doctrine. Such inconsistency, however, exists, as we
all know, among many professed believers in revela-
tion. That it does so exist we can account for only
by that unfortunate tendency in mankind to measure
the extraordinary agency of Providence, in momentous
and extreme cases, by the standard of common occur-
rences, and more especially by the want of large and
comprehensive views of the general tenor of Scrip-
ture ; in other words, by the habit unhappily so preva-
lent with a large portion of readers, of selecting from
the whole mass of the sacred writings such passages
as accord with their own preconceived views, and
acknowledging nothing for revealed truth but what,
without the aid of revelation, might have been plausi-
bly assumed as the probable system of Providence,
by the mere effort of unassisted reason.
The great doctrine, then, of Christ crucified for the
sins of the whole world, being the one main proposi-
tion which constitutes the essential characteristic of
Christianity, it is obvious, that upon a right appre-
hension of this fundamental principle must depend
the accuracy and soundness of our conclusions, with
respect to all the collateral and consequential infer-
ences deducible from it. The chief cardinal point
being established, the harmonious connexion which
combines the whole theory of the Gospel covenant
into one consistent whole becomes immediately
traceable. This consideration will justify our reca-
pitulating, in this place, in some detail, and at the
risk of the charge of prolixity, the arguments deduci-
ble from reason and from Scripture in its support.
The books of the Old and of the New Testament
then, it may, in the first place, be observed, have
168 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
each their one peculiar and leading idea to establish,
which, like the respective portions of a tally, cor-
respond with and illustrate each other : that of the
former covenant is the fall of man, with all its conse-
quences of moral degradation and alienation from
God ; that of the latter is the mode adopted by our
Maker, for the ultimate correction of human depravity^
and for our final reconciliation with him. Now it
has been already laid down, as a preliminary rule, in
all theological discussions, that it is perfectly vain,
if not impious, in us, where the facts of our moraJ
position are palpably and demonstrably certain, to be
inventing theories and suggesting modes, by which
we conceive that the ends of Providence might have
been more cheaply and more expeditiously accom-
plished, than by those which we find experimentally
to have been adopted. With regard, therefore, ta
the continually recurring question, why man was not
originally placed, as we have reason to believe that
some higher orders of intellectual beings have been
placed, in a condition of sufficient moral elevation ta
secure him from the risk of forfeiture, and why it has
been so arranged that he should previously fall, and
be subsequently raised, only at the cost of much
painful discipline and hazard, to that very state in
which, had God so pleased, he might originally have
found himself, our answer is, that questions of this
nature are irrelevant to the real object of discussion.
A sound theory of religion, we repeat, is not that which
lends itself to all the caprices of a fantastic imagination
ranging through the vast field of presumed possibili-
ties, but which, taking for granted, and stating fairly
the undoubted phenomena of our nature, supplies from
some adequate, and therefore, as it would seem,
necessarily superhuman, source, the information how
such a state of things is compatible with the workings
of infinite wisdom and goodness. As, then, it were
mere captiousness to allege arguments against the
probability of the fact of man's first fall from a state
WITH HUMAN REASON. 169
of innocence, so long as we are practically certain
that at all events our present moral constitution
is precisely such as it would be, were that statement
demonstrably true, so assuredly it must be equally
unreasonable to adduce objections against the doctrine
of Christ's atonement, if the unanswerable test of
experiment unite with the express assertion of Scrip-
ture, in assuring us, that no means of extrication
from our present degraded condition ever have been,
or in the nature of things appear possible to be, sug-
gested, excepting such as have a vicarious expiation
for their base. That such is really the case will
perhaps appear probable from the following consi-
derations.
In the first place, it may be safely asserted, that
the obvious purport of a vast number of passages,
both of the Old and New Testament, when taken in
their most literal interpretation, suggests the theory
of an expiatory atonement for sin, independent, in
some degree, of the actual internal merit of human
actions; because thus much is confessed by even the
most strenuous impugners of this doctrine, who, in
other respects, profess to receive the Holy Scriptures
as the inspired Word of God. It is on the intrinsic
improbability of an arrangement which they assume
to be incompatible with the workings of infinite wis-
dom, that such persons almost uniformly found their
opposition to it ; and, on the strength of that principle,
they conceive themselves justified in explaining
away, or taking in a metaphorical sense, assertions,
the direct inference deducible from which they admit
would authorize the assumption of its truth. It
cannot, therefore, be considered as begging the ques-
tion, if we take the apparently affirmative language
of revelation for granted, leaving to our opponents the
salvo, if tenable, of considering those expressions as
merely figurative, which, unless we are willing to
deprive Holy Writ of most of its essential value, and
of all its consistency, we conceive must be receired as
15
170 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
literal. With this assumption, then, on our part, we
would ohserve, that the most hardy opponents of th©
doctrine of the atonement, who at the same time
profess their belief in a future state of rewards and
punishments, must necessarily rest their hostility to
it on one or more of the following grounds. Either
they must, in the first place, be ready to assert that
human nature can maintain that uniform degree of
innocence and holiness which Christianity requires,,
and which would serve to qualify the soul for a future
state of heavenly blessedness, by its own natural
powers of perfect obedience to an absolutely perfect
law, and thus that it stands in no need of an external
expiation : — or, secondly, they must show that re-
pentance, when sincere, is a sufficient substitute for
the before-mentioned qualities : — or, thirdly, that it
is not inconsistent with our notions of a perfect moral
and holy Creator to overlook, in some degree,, from
his mere grace and free-will, the distinctions between
vice and virtue, and to bestow upon the former the
rewards which would seem due only to the latter : —
or, fourthly, they must be content to suppose a con-
gruity between the ultimate destination of mankind
hereafter, and their present very imperfect arid sub-
ordinate position here : in other words, they must
depart from the broad principle of Christian belief,
and conceive the heaven, assigned even to the best
men in a future state, like the Elysiufti of the poets,
to be such merely as the experimentally feeble powers
of obedience allotted to our nature would be com-
petent to earn. The three former of these proposi-
tions, it will be readily observed, are encumbered each
with their respective difficulties, as completely re-
pugnant to our notions of the Divine attributes as
any which can be alleged against that doctrine which
they are intended to overthrow : the last of them is,
in tact, giving up the question altogether, since, as
was just now observed, it is nothing more than the
denial of a future state of perfection, such as the Gos-
WITH HUMAN REASON. 171
pel exhorts us to aspire to, and the substitution in its
place of a subordinate existence, little different in
character and circumstances from that through which
we are now passing.
Quae gratia cumaum
Armonimque fuit vivis, quae cura nitentea
Pascere equos, eadem sequitur tellure rejiostoe.
Now the first of the foregoing suppositions, namely,
that perfect obedience, and such a degree of holiness
as would qualify for the joys of the heaven revealed
in the Scriptures, are really within the reach of man's
natural powers to attain, is obviously one which
clashes with the uniform experience of mankind in
all ages : and even supposing it to be conditionally
and possibly true, is, at all events, known to be prac-
tically false. The presumed good man of such a
creed as that here assumed, would be like the wise
man of the Stoics, a mere abstract creature of the
imagination, of which we find nothing like a counter-
part in the existing order of things. Not only do we
find it impossible to point out, either in the records
of past history, or within our own times, any one
human being whom we should be justified in consider-
ing as a perfect specimen of what we ought to be,
taking the Christian code of morals as our standard;
but, in the next place, even if such a faultless monster
could here or there be found, it would still bv no
means prove the point in question. It is self-evident,
that perfect intrinsic holiness can deserve that appel-
lation only when it subsists independently of^ any
external help and excitement, and acts entirely by its
own free-will, unoperated upon either by the hope of
reward or the fear of punishment. But here is at
once the assumption of ap impossibility. We know,
practically, that the influence of external motives,
such as those now alluded to, extends frequently not
merely to the pr^evention of any positive overt acts
of sin, where the heart is confessedly hardened, but
that it also, by habitually checking the first com-
172 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
mencement of evil thoughts, creates within us a feel-
ing of innocence to which, in strictness, we can lay
no claim. The general conviction that, under the
actually existing circumstances which respectively
modify every man's power of action, the practical
commission of any gross overt act of sin is impossi-
ble, is generally quite enough to prevent, during the
continuance of that impossibility, the inclination to
sin from suggesting itself to the imagination. Pre-
cisely as the pressure of the atmosphere, by its action
upon the elastic and resisting forces of the compound
materials of the globe, keeps them in a state of per-
manent inaction, which appears natural to them only
because they have no opportunity of displaying the
powers of destruction with which they are really
invested, so in like manner the hopes and apprehen-
sions of religion, the powerful influence of public
opinion, and the consequently superinduced restraint
of habit, all silently combine to keep in a quiescent state
those turbulent passions of the human breast which,
were that influence removed, would assuredly break
out into impetuous action. The fact of our own
innocence, therefore, even when we feel ourselves
most justified in pleading it, is but a negative argu-
ment at the best. That we are ignorant of ourselves
is one of the most trite, because it is one of the most
certain, maxims of ethical wisdom. The fact is, that
no man knows the real and fearful extent of his own
v/eakness till he has been efiectually tried. But it is
obvious that in this world a complete trial of the
purity and strength of our principles is impossible,
because we have no means of acting independently
of those many restraints with which Providence has,
in its wisdom, surrounded us, and to which even the
best men must owe no small portion of their apparent
innocence. The more we know of our own nature,
by means of the melancholy conviction which is
occasionally forced upon us by our own lapses, and
the more we acquire the habit of measuring even our
WITH HUMAN REASON. 173
best motives by the standard of the eternal rules of
Divine morals, the more deeply are we necessarily
impressed with the conviction of one inability to
attain to any thing deserving the name of positive
holiness, by our natural powers. A person in fetters
mi^ht as justly boast of his abstaining from acts of
violence, as a human being, however innocent he
may appear externally, take merit to himself for that
•abstinence from guilt which the mercies of his Creator
have fortunately put out of his power, and perhaps
also, at the same time, refused him the inclination to
commit. Now that such a being, the greater part of
whose demerits are of a positive, whilst his apparent
merits are merely of a negative, character, should
aspire, through his exertions, to the, rewards of heaven,
appears a palpable absurdity. And yet such is the
absurdity maintained by those persons who teach that
the whole object of the Christian revelation is the
inculcation of a perfect law of morals, our complete
obedience to which is to be our passport to the joys
of eternity.
But this self-same argument is open to other, and
not less insuperable, objections. If one truth is more
certain than another, both from natural reason and
the express assertions of Scripture, it is this, that the
knowledge of the principles of morality and religion
is the cause, because without it we should not possess
the capability, of sin. The more perfect, therefore,
that knowledge is, provided the original waywardness
and perversity of our moral faculties remain unal-
tered, the more glaring will be our disobedience, and
consequently our guilt, and through that guilt, our
eventual responsibility. Need we ask, why we abomi-
nate in our fellow-creatures the self-same sanguinary
spirit which we pardon in the wild beast of prey ?
Wry we spare the mischievous idiot, whilst we punish
the deliberate robber and murderer ? This is a dis-
dnction which the lowest grade of uncivilized man is
pjgpabifi jof making, and the certainty of which the
15*
174 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
merest infant can perceive. The natural conscience
of mankind requires not to be told that a previous
acquaintance with a prohibitory rule, and a convic-
tion that that rule which we violate, has a claim to
our obedience, is necessary to constitute guilt; in
other words, that it is impossible to rebel against
authority, of the existence and legitimacy of which we
are ignorant. This argument, however, if correct, is
at once fatal to the theory of those persons who
would inculcate that the promulgation of the Gospel
covenant meant nothing more, and, in fact, is nothing
more, than the annunciation of a moral law, only
rendered more impressive and more binding upou
the conscience than any similar codes which have
preceded it, in consequence of its having been pro-
claimed by Divine authority, and ratified by the opera-
tion of miracles. What, it will naturally be asked ia
reply, is the benefit accruing to mankind from the
revelation of the Divine morality of the Gospel, if,
after all, it leaves man in point of practical obedience
precisely where it found him ? If, after having shown
his incompetency to obey an imperfect law, he finds
this elaborate arrangement of Providence only adding
to his task, and calling him to the performance of
still higher duties than those which have already been
found to exceed his strength ? In fact, the hypothesis
of the rationalist Christian, as he styles himself,
involves so many untenable propositions, that it is
perfectly surprising that it should be so confidently
urged as it has been, and still is, as a suflScient demon-
stration of the unreasonableness of the doctrine of
Christ's atonement. That its assertors, in order to
accommodate their principles to the declarations of
Scripture, are often reduced to the necessity of ex-
plaining away and distorting the literal expressions
of Holy Writ, they themselves, when urged, cai f)()t
but admit. But they plead the paradoxical character
attaching, as they conceive, to the notion of a vicari-
ous atonement as their justification. Let them, then,
WITH HUMAN REASON. 175
at least, be candid, and state paradox against paradox.
Let them weigh the merits and probability of the
theory which they would establish, against that which
they would propose to overthrow. So far as the
foregoing argument goes, it is clear that their attempt
at explanation is more perplexing and contradictory
than the original proposition. In reply, therefore, to
the arguments of the Socinian, our conclusion is, that
we adhere to the great dogma of Christ's expiatory
atonement as a necessary superaddition to the mere
practical morality of the Gospel ; in the first place,
because the admission of that doctrine is more con-
sistent with the literal assertions of the inspired books,
wherever they occur ; secondly, because it appears to
be the one connecting idea which pervades the Jewish
no less than the Christian Scriptures ; and, in the
third place, because, when fairly stated, it is more
satisfactory to our reason, than any rival theory built
upon the assumed effectiveness of human merit. We
do not, indeed, for a moment intend to assert that the
theory, the Divine truth of which we are now vindi-
cating, is not itself accompanied with many, and tons
inexplicable, difficulties : all that we wish to be under-
stood as saying is merely this, that under the present
view of the subject, the opposite opinion is per-
plexed with far more obvious and more unanswera-
able objections.
We have not, however, yet done with the argu-
ment of the Socinian rationalists. Granting that the
moral theory of the Gospel affords a rule of life too
perfect for human performance, and, consequently,
admitting as, at least, a practical truth, that even the
holiest individuals will occasionally be found charge-
able with the sin of disobedience, still they urge that
there are other modes of reconciliation with God, far
more consistent with the purity and benevolence of
the Divine attributes than that mysterious one which
we are now advocating. Sincere repentance, they
argue, seems to afford so natural and reasonable a
176 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
satisfaction for sin, as completely to preclude us from
supposing that Providence could possibly have adopted
so extremely elaborate and painful a process of recon-
ciliation as that now supposed, where the same end
might at once have been arrived at by far easier,
and as it would seem to our limited judgment, less
objectionable means. There, is, we readily concede,
much plausibility, and, to those who are content to
form their permanent opinions from their more ob-
vious 'prima facie impressions, we will add, much
appearance of probability in this statement : but, at
the same time, we are satisfied that, when duly ex-
amined, it will be found to be no less untenable and
unsatisfactory than the one which we have already
discussed in the preceding pages. Without dwelling
upon the fact of the probably extreme rarity, we might,
perhaps, say impossibility, of any sincere repentance
entirely uninfluenced by the fear of future punishment,
^nd such other external motives as would materially
deduct from its intrinsic desert ; but allowing their
fullest possible value to such sentiments of contrition
as our nature in its purest moments may be supposed
capable of feeling, still we can trace nothing in such
a state of mind which would, in the slightest degree,
justify us in cherishing, on that account, such exalted
hopes respecting our future destination as the cove-
nant of the Gospel warrants in the case of those who
teally adopt it as their only means of salvation. The
utmost value which can fairly be attributed to repent*
ance is^ after all, of a negative, not of a positive,
character, it may, perhaps, indeed, should it noj
happen through the admixture of human infirmity to
be of that equivocal kind which itself requires to be
repented of, replace us in a situation equivalent with
ihat of the innocence from which we have strayed.
But the very nature of the case here appears to draw
the boundary line which limits our admission. It
may, in the arrangements of the Divine mercy, cancel
,the pcBalties attached to disobedience, aad thus sav«
WITH HUMAN REASON. 177
US from punishment ; but under no probable supposi-
tion can it elevate itself into actual merit. David,
we can readily conceive, ceased, in consequence of
the sinceritv of his contrition, to be a murderer and
adulterer in the sight of God, but we cannot suppose
also that he therefore stood higher in the favour of
his Maker than he would have done had he never
sinned in that manner at all. The object of a broken
and repentant spirit is to solicit an amnesty, not to
earn a reward. Its inadequacy, therefore, to serve
as a qualification to fit us for sharing the inconceiv-
able joys prepared for the souls of just men made
perfect, is obvious. For such a qualification, if it
exist any where, we must look beyond the limits of
human nature, and of mere mortal excellence, for
assuredly it is not to be found within that line. But
if our appeal must be to external resources, it would
be diflfiicult to show in what consists the objection to
the doctrine of the expiation for sin purchased by the
merits and sufferings of Christ, as taught in the Holy
Scriptures ; or rather, it would be difficult to point
out any other possible means of reconciliation, which,
so far as human reason can venture to judge, would
seem so completely adequate to meet the exigency of
the case in question. Such, then, appears to be the
value of the argument which has been so confidently
advanced respecting the sufficiency of repentance
alone, as a means of effective righteousness, and for
the purpose of withdrawing our hope from him, " who,
being made perfect, became the author of salvation
unto all them that obey him."
Let us then pass on to the next assumption, by the
aid of which the impugners of the doctrine of the
atonement imagine that they can prove that myste-
rious arrangement to be an unnecessary, and, there-
fore, an improbable dispensation in the workings of
Providence. Admitting the defectiveness of all human
works on the score of merit, and the inadequacy of
mere repentance to do more than to avert the penalties
178 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
of misconduct, still it is asked, may not God, of his
own grace and free will, consistently bestow the
rewards of heaven upon such portions of mankind, as
by the comparative excellence of their conduct may
have approached most nearly to the standard of abso-
lute perfection ? Why should Divine wisdom prefer
the circuitous to the shorter and easier road to his
object, where the ultimate destination is in both cases
the same ? The first and fittest answer to such an
argument is still that which takes shelter in human
ignorance, and presumes not to pronounce upon what
may, or what may not, be compatible with the views
of the Creator of the universe. If, however, we are
called upon to reply to this statement of the question,
we need not hesitate for a moment in asserting, that
all which we can venture to surmise as probable on
these mysterious topics must be grounded upon our
own experience of the acknowledged order of things,
and that, building upon the data supplied by that
experience, we conceive the direct presumption in
in this case to be in favour of what we may main-f
tain to be the palpable scriptural doctrine, If we
can assume it as probable, that the Almighty Judge
will, in his future award of our eternal allotment,
proceed by any other than the inflexible rule of retri-
bution, and make our salvation depend rather upon a
gratuitous act of amnesty than upon the strict observ-
ance of some wisely arranged system, there seems to
be no assignable reason why we should have been
placed in this world of probation at all : and why,
without incurring the risk of possible failure, and
without any reference to our moral exertions, we
should not at once have had our allotment of heavenly
blessedness from the very commencement of our exists
ence. Now it is certain that God has not taken this
course with us up to the present moment ; it is, there-
fore, arguing in the very teeth of positive experience
to assume that he will pursue it in his dealings with
US hereafter. We are sure, as we are of the fact of
WITH HUMAN REASON. 179
our own existence, that he has placed us for the pres-
ent in a state of trial. The inference, therefore, is
direct, that upon that trial must, in some degree,
depend our ultimate destination. And yet the rigor-
ous enforcement of a retributive rule would obviously,
under the actual degraded circumstances of human
nature, be attended with the most fearful result. "If
thou. Lord! wilt be extreme to mark what is done
amiss, Lord, who may abide it ?" We see no pos-
sible escape from this dilemma, excepting in the hope
of some auxiliary arrangement, which, whilst it will
stamp every deviation from the rule of right with the
severest moral reprobation, may in crushing the
offence spare the offender. Here again, then, the
doctrine of Christ's atonement affords the only seem-
ing solution of the difficulty. In asserting thus much,
we do not pretend to shut our eyes to the startling
impression produced upon our minds by the first
exposition of the doctrine of a vicarious sacrifice for
sin ; but still we are deliberately convinced, that so
far as we can see our way through the maze of con-
flicting probabilities and improbabilities, which beset
the questions of theology, the adoption of the literal
interpretation of Scripture on this occasion as the
true one, is the theory which best accords with our
most reasonable assumptions respecting the Divine
arrangements.
It has, however, been repeatedly asserted that the
doctrine of Christ's atonement cannot possibly be true,
because its obvious tendency is to make men more
prone to commit sin, in proportion as it removes the
apprehension of subsequent punishment. This, un-
doubtedly, is a grave charge, and if well founded
would be fatal to the notion, that such a dispensation
could really proceed from the pure source of Divine
holiness. Plausible, however, as this assertion may
seem, it scarcely need to be remarked to any person
tolerably acquainted with the real tenor of Scripture,
and not deriving his opinions at second hand from the
180 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
partial statements of others, how totally remote this
allegation is from the real truth. If any one event,
among all the mysterious dealings of God's Provi-
dence, could more than any other mark his entire and
deep abomination of sin, it is that, that he has not
thought the personal sufferings of his only begotten Son
too high a price to pay for its expiation. Startled as
we may be at the awful nature of the sacrifice, there
is no escaping from the inference that, granting the
reality of the fact, nothing can be more irreconcilable
with tlie purity of the Divine mind than acts of wick-
edness in his intellectual creatures. If, then, he has
adopted this stupendous mode of displaying his ab-
horrence of sin, it is evident that the very means
which were intended by him to purge away the pol-
lution introduced by it cannot, without the most
heinous blasphemy, be supposed to operate positively
towards its encouragement. The truth, in reality, is
entirely on the opposite side. The doctrine of the
atonement, to those who apprehend it rightly, so far
from relaxing the obligations of morality, is, on the
contrary, the source of a great variety of virtues, of
which not only would our nature be otherwise inca-
pable, but of which it could not even conceive the
idea. And to this single fact, that it vastly enlarges
our original capability of moral improvement by the
holier motives and the sublimer views which it incul-
cates, we may confidently appeal, as a proof that it
has its foundation in truth ; it being impossible to
imagine that the faculties of either the head or the
heart could be permanently amended by a supersti-
tious fiction, or an impious falsehood. There is cer-
tainly no one dogma of revelation so entirely calcu-
lated to sober every feeling of arrogance respecting
our own deserts; — to sink us in the deepest humilia-
tion from the recollection that our sins have all of
them respectively had their share in producing the
fearful necessity of this great sacrifice ; — to teach us
to look with commiseration upon the infirmities of
WIT« HUMAN REASON. 181
Others, from the recollection that we ourselves are
common criminals together with them in the sight
of our Maker ; to impress us with a solemn conviction
of the duty of extending to the offences committed
against our own persons that mercy which we so
anxiously implore at the hands of the Almighty ; —
and to fill us with the warmest sentiments of grati-
tude for the immensity of the Divine goodness dis-
played in so remarkable a manner, as this article of
our belief which we are in the daily habit of hearing
vilified and misrepresented. Let it be observed,
moreover, that we may appeal also to one of the
most universal and most deep rooted moral instincts
of human nature in confirmation of the same doc-
trine. The general prevalence even of the grossest
abuse of a principle is justly considered by the sound-
est philosophers as confirmatory of the existence and
of the reasonableness of the principle itself. Now
the mortifications of asceticism, which have formed
so large a proportion of almost every modification of
religion in all ages, from the human sacrifices of the
idolatrous Canaanites, and the self-inflictions of the
Fakirs and Brahmins of the East, to the purgatorial
fires of the Platonists and of the Church of Rome, are
all pregnant with proof that the theory of an expiation
for sin, under some modification or other, is natural
to the mind of man. Once admit that any tendency
of the heart and understanding is nearly coextensive
with the whole human race, and we may safely lay
it down as a general rule, that a theory which asserts
the reality of the principle as a legitimate law of
Providence, and which only limits the abuse to which,
from the weakness of our intellect, it were otherwise
prone, is much more likely to be the true one than
that which would explain it away altogether. Thus,
the very abominations of idolatry, as it is found among
the most savage tribes, afford a strong confirmation
of the assertion that religion is natural to the human
reason ; and the fantastic terrors of superstition are
16
182 CONSISTENCY OT KEVELATION
only a perversion of the great truth, that there is a
retributive Being, who vv^ill one day judge the world
in righteousness. Why, then, may we not take a
lesson from the pertinacious principle of monkery*
itself, which assumes that moral guilt can be com-
pletely cancelled only by suffering in some shape or
other, and admit that it is right in its theory, though
it is mischievously wrong in its application? If we
will not be content without the why and the wherefore
in a»y of our religious opinions, it is not the doctrine
* Nothing more strongly marks the instinctive pertinacity with which
the human mind clings to the theory of the expiation of sin by the means
of corporeal inflictions than the fact that the Church of Rome, even while
acknowledging the all-suflicient sacrifice of Christ, has thought fit to assert
as equally necessary articles of belief the doctrine of purgatory "and that
of ascetic mortifications. The following melancholy anecdote, related by
Huei, the accomplished Bishop of Avranches, respecting one of his own
sisters, affords a singular illustration of the strength of this feeling, and
the frightful absurdity and misery to which it may lead when misdirected
from its legitimate object : — " Ce fut-ld (au monastei'e de SainteCroix) que
cette jeune fille renoncant au monde, se consacra a Dieu, et fut si p6n6ir6e
de son amour, que pour se rendre plus agreable d ses yeux, s'abandonnant
bien plus a son z61e qu'aux conseils de ses directeurs, elle chercha des
mortifications nouvelles ; les pratiques ordinaires ne lui semblant pas
remplir toute I'etendiie du desir qu'elle avoit de souffrir pour Dieu ;
sachant d'ailleui-s, que des Saints inspires de Dieu avoient pris qiielquefois
des routes 6cariees pour s'avancer oans les voiesdu ciel. Ayant ouidire
qu'une extreme soif ^toit une des plus grandes peines que la nature pikt
supporter, elle r^solut de s'abstenir enti^rement de boire. Pour garder
le secret sur C€t Strange dessein, elle renversoit ailroiiement sous la tabte
du refectoir la portion de breuvage qu'on lui avoit servie. Cette conduite
ne pouvoit pas aller loin, et la nature succomba bientot a une si ten'ible
^preuve; son temperament fut enti^remeut ruin6; toutes les parties dfe
son corps furent troublees dans leurs fonctions, et sa peau fut si brfll^e
qu'elle devoint noire et sdche comme un parchemin. Les m^ecins A
qu'il fallut avoir rocours, ne pouvoient deviner la cause des ^tranges
eymptdmes qu'ils remarq\ioiant, et ils ne la connurent que quand la
malade fut obligee, par I'autorit^ de ses sun^ri^urs, et par les devoirs de
ea conscience, de leur decouvrir le mystere. Mais elle le d^couvrit,
lorsque le mal 6toitsans remede, et i)eu de jours avant sa mort. Ce fut
alorsqu'en rendant comptede sa conduite et de ses mortifications, elle dit
qu'un jour dans la cruelle alteration qu'elle sentoit, voyant un jwrceau se
vautrer dans la boue, et avaler a pleine gorge I'eau mel^e avec la fange,
elle lui portoit envie, etsouhaitoit de pouvoir prendre part a cette boisi-on.
Dieu avoit doue cette sainte fille de rares talens. Elle avoit un esprit
transcendant, <kc." Ought we not to cherish with respect and gratitude
a doctrine of our faith which gives to these powerful and natural feelings
their proper direction, and erects into the sublimest devotional fervour of a
p,raiefiil and humble heart principles which, under the operation of au
ill-regulaied judgment, would lead only to misery and degradation?
WITH HUMAN REASON. 183
of Christ's atonement only which will be erased from
our rule of faith ; but every article of our belief, not
excepting those of natural religion itself, will succes-
sively disappear, till the whole superficies of our moral
character will, eventually, become one entire blank.
The more, then, we examine this first and main pro-
position of Christianity, the more deeply shall we find
Its roots to be fixed, not merely in the obvious phrase-
ology, of the sacred writings, and in the general con-
sistency of revelation with itself, but in the wants,
and tendencies, and instinctive aspirations of our
whole spiritual constitution. We find it to be accord-
ant with our nature in its present position, and the
inference is inevitable, that it forms an integral por-
tion of the arrangements of Providence, however
inadequate our understanding maybe to discover why
such was the peculiar mode by which our Creator
thought fit to work out the eventual happiness of his
creatures.
Finally, it maybe observed that this fundamental
dogma of the Christian dispensation exactly tallies
and harmonizes with what we read, as having con-
stituted the first recorded event of revealed religion in
the Old Testament : namely, the corruption of the
whole human race by the sin of Adam. If there is
any thing repugnant to our moral notions in the idea
of the communication of sin from one individual to
many, and such must be admitted to be the first
impression conveyed by a hasty glance upon this
mysterious topic, it at least affords some solution of
our perplexity, if we are bound, also, by the self-same
authority, to admit that a parallel course of arrange-
ment which permitted the introduction of the disease,
contrived by an exactly similar process to accomplish
the cure. If we grant the truth of the former of these
recorded events, it seems impossible to withhold our
assent as to the reality_of the latter. And such is the
view taken of the subject by St. Paul in his Epistle
to the Romans, wher^ he cogently argues that if the
184 CONSISTENCY OF EEVELATION
methods of the Divine government could allow sin
and death to spread over the v^hole human race
through the disobedience of one, much more may we
be assured that it cannot be incompatible with the
dispensations of the merciful Father of the human
race to permit a coextensive system of reconciliation
to be communicated to mankind through the imputed
righteousness of one.
CHAPTER XTX.
Of the Divinity of Christ.
The doctrine of the divinity of our blessed Saviour
appears naturally, even were the express affirmatory
declarations of Scripture out of the question, to grow
out of that of his satisfactory atonement for the sins
of mankind . Without presuming to speculate largely
upon the internal probability of these transcendental
problems, we may, perhaps, with all humility, venture
to observe thus much; that granting the reality of
that expiatory sacrifice, there would seem to be some*
thing less inconsistent with our first natural impres-
sions, in the idea of the Deity, himself submitting^
from a principle of mercy, to pay a penalty for the sins
of mankind in his own person, than in that of his
subjecting one of his own innocent creatures to pun-
ishment for the sake of other creatures confessedly
guilty. It also seems difficult to imagine that the
expiation afforded by any finite being could be so
extensive in its effects as that of Christ is stated by
revelation to be. Arguments, indeed, of this descrip-
tion ill become the spirit of diffidence with which it
behoves creatures like ourselves to approach to the
contemplation of thcAvritings of infinity. They are,
therefore, adduced in this place solely and merely for
the purpose, not of throwing light upon what is coii*
WITH HUMAN REASON. 185
fessedly inexplicable, but of meeting the conflicting
assertions of those, who, building their arguments
upon the presumed conclusions of their own intellect,
have assailed the doctrine of Christ's divinity as too
palpably improbable to be admitted by rational beings
under tlie guarantee of any external testimony what-
ever. Our wish is only to balance assumption against
assumption, and to repel the self-complacent opinion
of the followers of Socinus, that, however the letter
of Scripture maybe against them, its spirit and sound
reason are for them. Within these limits, and on
this defensive principle exclusively, can these high
topics afford matter for justifiable discussion. The
real appeal of every mind, duly sensible of its own
weakness, must, after all, be to what it finds expressly
written ; and we have no hesitation in asserting, that
we do find the doctrine now alluded to stated in holy
writ, with a decision and clearness of expression,
which, if we admit the authenticity of the various
passages in which it occurs, is at once decisive of the
fact in question.
CHAPTER XX.
Of Sanctijication by the Holy Spirit.
When Scripture inculcates the necessity of the
sanctification of the human soul, by the strengthen-
ing aid of the Holy Spirit, it adds another harmoni-
zing and consistent truth to the great and concurrent
doctrine of Christ's atonement. It has already been
observed, that, although our Redeemer came to recon-
cile God toman by annulling the penalties otherwise
consequent upon the inevitable infirmities of our
nature, it were to derive a blasphemous conclusion
from that doctrine, were we to assert that its practical
effect could possibly be that of relaxing prospectively
16*
j.86 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
the obligations of morality, or of rendering sin lesa
offensive to the Divine nature than it had previously
been. On the contrary, nothing, as we have shown,
could more completely demonstrate the imperative
duty imposed upon us of pursuing all attainable holi-
ness by every possible means, than the tremendous
cost which revelation teaches us has already been
incurred in consequence of man's past disobedience.
Rightly considered, then, the satisfaction afforded to
the inflexible principle of moral retribution, by the
expiatory merits of Christ, is one solemn obligation
tlie more to a course of undeviating obedience. But
if the corruption of the human heart continues after
the promulgation of the Gospel covenant precisely
what it was before that important epoch, the subse-
quent history of mankind Avould probably be little
more than that of a repetition of the same follies ancj
crimes which have already spread such extensive
devastation over the works of the Creator, The same
causes would naturally produce the same effects ; and,
therefore, whatever might be believed of the future
destination of man in another life, as a consequence
of the disarming of the Divine justice, his moral
character in this world would seem to derive little
apparent benefit from the institution of a purer code
of morality than that which he has already so auda-
ciously violated. Now the provision which Scripture
assures us has through the medium of the Gospel
dispensation, been made for us in this point, namely,
with reference to the actual improvement of our
spiritual nature in this world, appears exactly calcu-^
laied to meet this difficulty. The nearer any practi-
cal rule of life approaches toward the standard of per-
fection, the greater will, of course, be the degree of
moral exertion and self-possession necessary for the
accomplishment of the task which it imposes. The
provisions made for us by revelation here again are
remarkable for their admirable adaption to the wants
of our nature. In the Old Testament, and in the books
WITH HUMAN REASON. 187
of the Levitical law more especially, we find little
allusion to any other mode of justification than that of
ritual observances; and with regard to the sanctifica-
tion of the soul, in like manner the natural strength
of the human heart seems to be not unfrequently
appealed to, as possessing, within itself, the means of
obedience. In proportion, indeed, as the Jewish
Scriptures draw towards their close, the principles
which they inculcate gradually assume, in all respects,
a more evangelical character. Other and better expia-
tions than those prescribed by Moses begin to be anti-
cipated, and the accompanying Christian doctrine, of
the assistance afforded to the active powers of man
by the Divine grace, to be more prominently asserted.
The full and complete developement of this latter
doctrine, however, like the former one of the atone-
ment of Christ, is reserved for the Gospel dispensation
to inculcate. When, accordingly, we turn from the
Old to the New Testament, we there find the almost
entire moral helplessness of our nature laid down,
from first to last as a fundamental maxim. The
reward of our obedience, and the means of our obe-
dience, are both described as the unbought gift of
God. These are the two concurrent truths upon which
the whole structure of Christianity is built. The very
best actions of which we are capable have all of them
a taint of sin, and, therefore, in all we do, we stand in
need of an atonement to make our imperfect actions
acceptable with our Maker: — the thoughts of our
hearts are far gone from righteousness, and accord-
ingly we cannot elevate them to spiritual things, we
cannot apprehend nor love the new duties we are
called upon to perform, but through the co-operating
Divine assistance. It is thus that the ruling principle
of the Gospel is the direct reverse of that which
formed the basis of heathen, and in great measure of
Jewish virtue. The highest notions of moral excel-
lence entertained by the philosophers of Greece and
Kom^ were those of human nature pondering with
188 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
haughty self-complacence upon its own comparative
refinement, and looking proudly down upon the herd
of common beings still immersed in the follies and
vices of ignorance. The virtue of the good man of
the Old Testament is not, indeed, of this offensively
proud character, yet even there we occasionally meet
with an assumption of merit by individuals, which,
however accordant with the then acknowledged
standard of excellence, forms an unseemly contrast
with the meek principles of the religion of Christ.
Of this latter dispensation, unmixed humility is the
great, it may almost be said to be the only, rule of
conduct. " Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven." Such were the words with
which our Redeemer opened his commission, and to
the same purport was his final parting valediction.
It is manifest, then, that any claim advanced by
human beings on the score of actual desert to the
approbation of the Deity and the joys of heaven are
at complete variance with the Christian system. The
area of duty which is committed to the superintend-
ence of each of us by the sublime code of evangeli-
cal morals is confessedly larger than our scanty pow-
ers can occupy. In this state of original helplessness,
accordingly, one resource only remains open to us:
to throw ourselves, with all our infirmities, upon the
Divine help. To supplicate our Maker that he will,
in his mercy, enable us to do that which from our own
natural powers we are unable to perform. This is
what the dictates of plain reason would tell us is the
proper course to be pursued ; it is also what the Gos-
pel expressly urges us to do, whilst, at the same time,
it assures us, that they who ask for the aid of God's
strengthening Spirit shall never ask in vain. It is
thus, that in the spiritual world revealed to us by the
Gospel, precisely as in the natural world, the further
and the closer we examine, the more palpably we find
God to be all in all. Our first glance at the works of
the creation presents to us the idea of a series of
WITH HUMAN REASON. 189
efficient secondary causes all working by their own
agency their respective results. As we advance fur-
ther we find the existence of those presumed causes
inadequate to account for the stupendous results
which we had attributed to them, and are compelled
to acknowledge the finger of the Creator as the main
directing principle. So likewise in the contemplation
of the astounding problems of theology, in proportion
as our knowledge of the arrangements of Providence
dilates, our sense of our own importance dwindles,
till it shrinks actually into nothing. In every thing,
in our seeming strength no less than in our weakness,
we feel the necessity of the Divine support.
Now, it is self-evident, that if by the natural pow-
ers of the understanding we could work our way from
the first and simplest up to the highest and most
abstruse principles of religious morality, this conclu-
sion, which is precisely that of Christianity, the dis-
covery of this golden chain, which in all things con-
nects man indissolubly with his Maker, is what we
should eventually arrive at. We know, indeed, ex-
perimentally, that these truths are placed too high
for human attainment by the mere natural powers of
the intellect, because we know that their first disco-
very was contemporaneous with the promulgation of
Christianity: but still, looking back upon them as
matters of revelation, we cannot but perceive their
entire consistency, and feel that they are the points
where intellectual research ought in its happiest and
most illuminated moments to terminate. It is then,
assuredly, no small proof of the internal probability
of the truth of the Christian system, that the main
propositions which it asserts are those to which the
highest moral research would lead us ; and that the
helps which it pledges itself to supply are exactly
those which our spiritual wants and weaknesses
would most earnestly demand. We cannot perform
a perfect and spotless action if we would ; we, there-
fore, want a Redeemer : — we cannot detach our
190 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
thoughts from the ahsorhing influence of wordly mat-
ters and fix them steadily upon heavenly objects by
any natural power that we possess ; and we, therefore,
stand equally in need of assisting Grace.
Both these objects the Gospel declares it to be its
special purpose to obtain for us. How far it has
redeemed its pledge, with regard to the former, must
ever in this life be a mere matter of faith, building its
conclusions upon what we conceive to be the certainty
of the Divine promises, the reasonableness of the
object, and our urgent need of it. But of the latter,
if founded in truth, we ought to have experimental
proof in this life ; because the gifts of the Spirit, if
real, ought to have a perceptible influence on our con-
duct, and to place a visible and plain mark of distinc-
tion between those whom Scripture designates as the
children of this world, and those to whom it gives
the appellation of children of light. Does, then,
positive experience serve to confirm this undoubted
doctrine of revelation ? Do we find that our moral
nature undergoes a change for the better, in propor-
tion as we approximate by faith towards the terms of
acceptance held forth to us by the Gospel covenant ?
If it does, then there ought to be a decided difference
not merely between the external actions, but more
especially in the whole cast of mind and of sentiment
of the one party and the other. Such, undoubtedly,
ought to be, and such, there can be little doubt, is
actually the case. At the same time it must be
conceded, that the question does not admit of that full
clearness of proof of which it mi^ht at first sight be
deemed capable. Natural morality, we must recol-
lect, forms an integral portion of Christianity itself;
but a man, we know, may admit the inferences and
defer to the authority of the former, whilst he rdects
the latter. He may, therefore, be capable of perform-
ing actions which even to the most enlightened Chris-
tian may appear externally good, and even with respect
ID their internal character may, in a certain sense,
WITH HUMAN RFlASON. 191
be admitted to be such ; that is to say, in such a degree
at least as the inferior and defective motives from
which they proceed may justify our applying to them
that appellation . The purest Christian motives again
(on which the character of our actions must totally
depend) may not be, and in fact never are, always
equally influential in the conduct of the same indi-
vidual at all times; whilst, also, they may not always,
even when most sincere, be accompanied by an uner-
ring judgment, or that delicacy of tact which recom-
mends our conduct to the approbation of society. The
most sincere servant of Christ may be ignorant, timid,
fearful, and superstitious ; he may have to sustain
internal struggles which can never reach the eye of
the external observer, and which if laid open to the
apprehension of others would only provoke a smile
of pity or contempt. Most assuredly it is not for the
gross perceptions of worldly men to judge how much
of what is substantially estimable and heroic, in the
best sense of the term, may be disguised in this homely
and repulsive attire, and the due appreciation of
which must be reserved for the equitable and infalli-
ble tribunal of omniscience. Certain, at all events,
it is, that whilst outward appearances remain the
same, or even whilst the scale of merit may sometimes
appear to preponderate in favour of the less decidedly
religious character, the view taken by our Maker,
with whom the purity of the heart is all in all, and
xne glitter of the intellect as nothing, may be directly
the reverse of the world's judgment.
Still, however, though the mingling shades of
character, and the unequal distribution of those gifts
which recommend man lo society, may render it often
difficult, and sometimes impossible for us to recognise
the express workings of the Christian spirit, as dis-
tinguished from those of the natural and strictly human
propensities, we may confidently appeal to the broad
and palpable phenomena which distinguish the sin-
cere followers of Christ from the mere men of this
192 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
world, that the difference between them is not ima*
ginary, but permanent and real. The whole moral
value of human actions depending upon motives, and
it being the great practical object of Christianity to
supersede almost all those of our original nature, and
to substitute in their room others of a higher character,
it is obvious that the responsible being in whom this
change is wrought must, so far as his relative position
with respect to his Maker is taken into consideration,
be, in almost the literal interpretation of the words,
a new creature. His intellectual vision will be turned
in a completely opposite direction from that of the
persons whose standard of conduct is derived solely
from the perishable things of this life. The same
objects, consequently, as contemplated by them seve-
rally from different points of view, will appear to hira
and to them in extremely different proportions. Each
of them reasoning accurately from their respective
premises, will come to completely contrary conclu-
sions, with respect to the intrinsic value and the com-
parative innocence of their several pursuits. Sin,
which to the coarse and hackneyed feelings of the
worldly man appears a necessary part of his nature,
with which it is vain to struggle, and which he deems, '
after all, as below the dignity of Almighty wisdom
to regard or to punish, is to the quick and susceptible
touch of the spiritually-minded a pollution which can
be purged away only by the most solemn expiation*
He recollects the fearful derangement which it has
already occasioned in the works of Providence, and
the immense ransom which it has already cost ; and
whilst he feels his weakness and his continually
recurring propensity to it, as continually perseveres
to pray for support against it. His feelings, accord*
ingly, when they occur, for occur occasionally they
will, become, in a certain sense, rather infirmi-
ties than sins. He remembers that they who are
born of God commit no wilful sin whatever, and if
a hasty display of petulance, a selfish or impure
WITH HUMAN REASON. 193
thought escape for a moment from him, the humilia-
tion of his feelings and the increased energy with
which he supplicates for afresh portion of the Divine
support, sufficiently vouch for the heavenward pro-
gress which he is making. It is easy, no doubt, to
turn all these nice perceptions into ridicule, and to
ask, even admitting their reality, of what advantage
they are to ourselves or to society. To the mere
utilitarian of this world, who conceives that the exclu-
sive object of the stupendous scheme of the universe
is the production of a few personal comforts, and who
considers the soul as intended to cater for the body,
and not the body as an instrument given to the soul
for the exercise and developement of its noblest facul-
ties, such an objection as the foregoing will appear
decisive. But to the person whose mind is sufficiently
enlarged to take in all the known and all the probable
circumstances of our compound nature, such views
will appear any thing rather than trifling or super-
stitious. It is true that human life, when consi-
dered under the most encouraging aspect, presents us
only with the view of a hardly contested and half-
earned victory over the principle of corruption ; but,
then, this very imperfect success is in itself, if rightly
considered, a pledge affi)rded to us by Providence
that the allotment of the Christian is not confined to
what we see of him here. If those moral exertions,
to which the internal voice of conscience most elo-
quently responds, are unproductive of any substantial
fruit in this world, we can scarcely want a stronger
proof that what is so evidently an essential part of
our nature must be destined to find its due place and
correspondent allotment in another. Scripture tells
us that this life is a state of moral trial. It is quite
impossible to imagine any combination of circum-
stances better calculated for the promotion of that
end, if such be really its object. Were this world
all in all, we might naturally expect of our Maker
that the faculties with which we are endued should
17
194 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
be exactly adequate for the accomplishment of th^
work which it would then be our sole duty to per-
form. There would be a nicely balanced proportion
observed between our appointed business and the
machinery of our allotted powers. But a spiritual
probation, such as that which the Gospel scheme
supposes, in order to be complete for the accomplish-
ment of the whole of its purpose, requires that we
should be tasked beyond our strength, because with-
out such a demand upon us the full and entire whole
of what we can really achieve could never be called
into action. But this excess of trial beyond our
natural means of performance, almost presupposes,
in the case of a merciful and just Ruler of the Uni^
verse, the existence of such external and occasional
help as, whilst it would secure to us the full benefit
of the moral exercise, would at the same time inters
fere at the proper season, and prevent that which is
intended as a benefit from becoming an injury ; pre-
cisely as a kind and intelligent parent, whilst he'
encourages his children to the full exercise of their
strength, assists them at the moment when he sees
that they really stand in need of his interference.
The foregoing view of the question, then, may be
simply stated thus : — The acknowledged object of
our existence in this world being that of a spiritual
probation, and that probation being brought into full
action by the imposition of a task far exceeding our
natural powers of performance, the doctrines of
justification and of sanctification, the former by art
external expiation for sin, the latter by the commu-
nication of spiritual aid, to those who earnestly seek
for it by prayer, for the completion of their appointed
task, appear to be necessary inferences from that pri-
mary admission. God having, in his wisdom, endued
us with very imperfect capabilities of obedience, calls
us, notwithstanding, to regulate our lives by an
actualljr perfect rule of duty. The utmost which w^e
can do is, after all, to fall far short of the standard at
WITH HUMAN REASON. 195
which we aim; but we confidently believe, mean-
while, that the Divine arm is stretched out to assist
and lead us forward ; and although the closing scene
of our career is hid from our view, the inference
appears certain, that what is thus wisely begun will
be as wisely ended. The same admitted imperfection
of our nature exposes us not only to the negative
defect of failure, but also, as is too obvious, to the
positive one of occasional sin : here, again, the same
merciful Providence interferes, and pays for us, under
the stipulation of an express covenant, which we are
competent to accept or to decline, the price of those
aberrations which, though referrible, in great mea-
sure, to our own depravity, may, in a certain degree,
appear to follow necessarily from the inherent cor-
ruption of our minds. Now it is evident that this, if
rightly understood, is any thing rather than what it
has been asserted to be, an indolent system, encou-
raging us to throw equally our moral^ exertions and
the responsibility of our sins upon our Maker. On
the contrary, as we cannot without the grossest
impiety, accede to the inference of the Antinomian,
who, on the plea of the infinite operation of Christ's
atonement, argues that he may now offend with
impunity, thus making the most stupendous proof of
the deadliness of sin an encouragement for its
renewed commission; so we shall be reasoning as
falsely and profanely, if we derive from the scriptural
doctrine of cooperating grace the inference, that we
may safely suspend our own efforts, and trust for the
accomplishment of our task to the predominating and
irresistible influence of the Divine Spirit. Here,
indeed, we tread upon the verge of a nice and inter-
minable point of theological metaphysics, which it is
safer to decline touching upon than to discuss. The
question respecting the liberty of human actions is a
practical one, which we cannot mistake if we follow,
to the best of our power, the instinctive guidance of
our holiest impulses, however we may be perplexed
196 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
whilst viewing it as a philosophical problem. That
the obvious purport of Scripture with reference to
this mysterious topic, accords with our own internal
consciousness, and, whether we really are, or are not,
essentially free agents, at all events calls upon us to
act as though we were such, cannot be doubted. In
fact, the arguments generally alleged in support of
the doctrine of necessity, though often advocated by
sincerely pious and amiable men, are all of them
liable to the same objections which, at an early-
period of these observations, we have stated to attach
to the plausible but unsubstantial theories of infidelity ;
that is to say, they turn away our attention from
what we know experimentally of the arrangements
of Divine Providence, and rest their proofs upon a
priori assumption only ; a mode of discussion which,
however plausible, it is scarcely necessary to remark,
is almost always delusive and unsubstantial.
Without, then, attempting to enter upon the ex-
amination of the conflicting opinions respecting neces-
sity and free-will, we will merely venture to observe,
that if we will take into consideration the moral
purpose, which, so far as we can judge from the
general context of revelation, it is the object of the
operation of Divine grace to accomplish upon the
human heart, we cannot but suppose that the degree
of spiritual aid which it affords will necessarily be
such as would be compatible, in all respects, with the
full liberty of human actions : in other words, it will
be a cooperating and concurrent help, not a pre-
dominating and overpowering influence. We do not
pretend to shut our eyes to the apparent force of the
objections which maybe alleged on the opposite side.
It is, we know, confidently urged by the advocates of
necessity, that, as it is derogatory to the admitted
attributes of the Deity, that his interference with
human actions should be supposed capable of being
resisted by finite beings like ourselves, the admission
of the reality of such interference is necessarily
WITH HUMAN REASON. 197
destructive of the doctrine of man's free agency.
Plausible as this objection is, if considered as an
abstract proposition, we conceive that it stands in
need of no other refutation than that of a practical
appeal to every circumstance and phenomenon of the
creation which surrounds us. The argument upon
which it rests is, in fact, nothing more than an
assumption of the principle that all the works of
infinity are necessarily themselves infinite; a sup-
position which, if true, would be a virtual denial of
the liberty of the Divine Being himself, as it is also
obviously incompatible with the fact of the existence
of the graduated scale of subordinate creatures, which
we recognise in every direction, through the works
of Providence. God, we know, has distributed their
several faculties to the different races of animals pre-
cisely in the proportion in which they are wanted for
their defence and support, subjecting each several
gift to its peculiar modification, and withholding
those which are unnecessary. Why, then, if the
limitation of his own omnipotence is one of the most
prominent phenomena which characterize his crea-
tion, must we necessarily assume that the gift of his
assisting grace, the acknowledged object of which is
to render man capable of eflective righteousness, can,
in fact, be imparted in such overwhelming propor-
tions only as, by destroying that free agency which
is the very basis of morality, would render all real
righteousness impossible ? It is absurd, we are told,
to imagine that man can cooperate with his Maker in
the production of any given purpose. We own that
we do not see this absurdity, provided there is no
implied impossibility in the idea that it may have
been the will of our Creator to endow us with the
faculty of free agency. It is true, indeed, that that
very faculty itself must, under every view of the
subject, be admitted to depend upon the Divine per-
mi^ision for its continuance; but this admission
detracts nothing from the substantial reality of the
17*
198 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
gift, when once communicated. To deny that the
Almighty can annex liberty of will and action to his
creatures, is in fact subjecting him to the same
shackles of necessity which we are striving to im-
pose upon ourselves; if, on the other hand, we admit
that he can do so, the self-same inference which
establishes the fact of his omnipotence and moral
attributes is equally substantiative of our own rela-
tive dependence upon him as accountable beings.
That the control of our actions is in some degree, at
least, placed within our own power, our instinctive
apprehensions and belief, with the otherwise inexpli-
cable phenomena of an applauding or reproving con-
science, we repeat, unite with the whole tenor of
Scripture in uniformly asserting. To such cogency
of proof on the one side, it would seem perfectly
nugatory to oppose a mere metaphysical and equivo-
cal axiom on the other ; and yet it is on this single
substratum that a system of theology has been
erected, subversive, as at first sight it would nppear,
of almost all the great principles of Christianity, and
which probably has failed of producing very exten-
sive evil only from the fact that its advocates have
frequently counteracted by the exemplary holiness
of their lives the pernicious tendency of their doc-
trines. It is painful to speak in these terms of dis-
paragement of the tenets of a large body of Christians
whose mistakes, for such we believe them to be, are
at all events frequently accompanied by so much
warmth and rectitude of principle, and are the
result of an exaggerated statement, the consequence
of a deep conscientious impression, of a most
momentous truth, rather than of any unworthy
motive. As a system of belief, however, we cannot,
and ought not, to conceal our opinion that it is not
accordant with what we read in Scripture, and what
our instinctive moral sense, that witness of God
within our own hearts, would inculcate. At the
same time, we readily admit, that if erroneous, it is
WITH HUMAN REASON. 199
far less so than that opposite extreme which, hy
attempting to elevate unduly the moral faculties of
man, would teach him to look Tor salvation to the
merit of his own works, and to disclaim that reli-
ance upon the Divine aid which can alone expiate
our infirmities, and conduct us to effectual holiness.
CHAPTER XXI.
Of the practical Tendency of the Morality of the Gospel, and of the
extraordinary Gifts of t/ie Holy Spirit.
If then the preceding remarks are correct, the
Christian covenant is, of all the schemes of theology
and ethics which have ever been laid open to the ap-
prehension of mankind, that which tends to elevate our
nature the most, and to promote most largely a course
of pure and energetic action in its followers, whilst at
the same time, by a singularly uniform and pervading
analogy, it harmonizes with all that the best human
philosophy can infer respecting the presumed arrange-
ments of Providence. By the substitution of a vica-
rious atonement for sin, it may seem calculated at
the first glance to encourage laxity of morals, and by
the necessity of external spiritual aid which it asserts,
it may appear to have a tendency to paralyze our own
personal efibrts, but, in proportion as we examine it
more and more nearly, these objections not only
entirely disappear, but its real practical tendency ap-
pears to be directly the reverse of what we might
have hastily supposed. Whilst referring all things
to the free grace, and mercy, and purity of God, it
promotes, to a degree perfectly unexampled under
any other modification of belief, holiness of heart
and action in men. Fervent, practical righteous-
ness ; righteousness which in its reverential service
of our Maker is perfectly analogous with those feel-
ings of kindliness required of us toward our neigh-
200 CONSISTENCY OF KEVELATION
hour ; righteousness which, from a deep conviction
of humility and gratitude, looks firmly and cheer-
fully and submissively to the protection of a wise
and bounteous Providence, hoping all things, endur-
ing all things, and believing all things, is its great
aim and object. When that object is obtained (and
completely obtained it is not until the great twin
doctrines of justification and sanctification, as re-
vealed by Scripture, have become part and parcel of
our habitual impressions and given a decided charac-
ter to our minds,) human nature may be truly said to
have arrived at the highest possible moral elevation
of Avhich in this world it is capable. The refinements
of science may add much to its external appearance
in the intercourse of society, as they may add also to
the utility and individual comfort of their respective
possessors. But on these points God, we are
assured, sees not as man sees. Such accessory
qualities are after all, where the main tendency of
the mind is right, rather a superaddition of incidental
worldly advantage than indispensable constituents
of that class of blessings Avhich it is our primary
duty to aspire to. The first appeal of Christianity is
to our spiritual and moral feelings, because in pro-
portion as these are duly cultivated the faculties of
the understanding acquire their relative degree of
usefulness. This subjection of merely intellectual
to moral excellence, which is so offensive to the
vanity of men of this world as to account for no
small degree of the petulance with which they
regard revelation, is traceable from first to last
through the whole tenor of Scripture. That it indeed
in right reason ought to be so, is suflfiiciently obvious;
nor should we have deemed it necessary to make the
remark in this place, did it not serve to account for
what at first sight seems paradoxical in some portions
of the sacred writings, with reference to the preter-
natural gifts of the Holy Spirit alluded to in the books
both of the Old and of the New Testament.
WITH HUMAN REASON. 201
We are so apt to be struck with the splendour, and
consequent appearance of partial favour in the sight
of God, attaching to the miraculous powers of pro-
phecy and language distributed to individuals on
peculiar and remarkable occasions, that we feel dis-
posed to undervalue as inferior in* importance those
graces which, as instruments of salvation, are essen-
tial, and have, therefore, been made accessible to the
whole Christian world. Hence it is that in every
period of religious agitation since the first diffusion
of Christianity, individuals have been found who,
whether excited by fanaticism, vanity, or other less
objectionable motives, but, assuredly, in contradiction
to the prudential maxim quoted by our blessed
Saviour himself, that we should abstain from " tempt-
ing the Lord our God," have laid claim to these ex-
traordinary gifts, forgetting that, after all, the entire
submission of the will, with which we defer to the
providential arrangements of our Divine Master, is
the best proof as well of our favour with him as of
the rectitude of our own hearts. It is a salutary
lesson, accordingly, which* seems purposely to have
been given to us by Providence in order to correct
this prevailing misapprehension, that what we usually
styled the extraordinary operations of the Spirit
appear to have been occasionally conferred under
both the old and new dispensations upon persons
whose moral qualifications have been sometimes
more than questionable. Thus, in the Old Testa-
ment we read of the profligate and mercenary
Balaam, the reprobate Saul, and the vacillating and
apparently worldly-minded messenger of God's wrath
against the altar of Bethel, as severally endowed with
the gift of prophecy : and in the New Testament, to
look no further than the case of the litigious members
of the Corinthian Church addressed by St. Paul, we
find there the instance of a far from exemplary set
of members of the Christian community exercising
the miraculous faculty of languages, which they
202 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
seem undoubtedly to have possessed, for no better
purpose than that of personal ostentation and mutual
rivalry. It is clear from what we read of the nature
of these gifts, from the comparatively short period in
which they were allowed to continue, and their com-
plete cessation in the later ages, that they had nothing
to do with the essential qualifications of the Christiaa
character, but were intended solely as instruments
for affixing the sanction of Divine authority to the
doctrines then inculcated, or for the production of
some other specific occasional purpose. Such, ac-
cordingly, is St. Paul's judgment respecting them.
" Tongues," he observes, " are for a sign, not to them
that believe, but to them that believe not." They
were, therefore, with the other miraculous powers,
well adapted for the peculiar condition of an infant
Church, which had by its own intrinsic energy to
break its way through the strong resistance of pre-"
judice and existing institutions. But, assuredly,
they axe not suited for the general well-being of
human nature under other less critical circumstances.
As marks of God's peculiar favour to this or that
person, it is evident thai they could not long be
enjoyed without producing a demoralizing effect upon
the character of their possessor by the spiritual
vanijly which they are so obviously calculated to
promote. Consequently, in every instance in Avhich
we read of them, they appear never to have been
capable of being exercised in any uniform or perma-
nent degree ; never, in fact, in such a proportion as to
place the parties enjoying them, not even the fore-
most and holiest men under both dispensations,
above the pressure of incidental calamity, or the
operation of natural causes. That they did really
exist under both the early Jewish and the early Chris-
tian covenants is most certain, not only from the
contemporary and unanswerable records which have
been transmitted to our times, but also from the
lingering bjclief in the continued possession of those
WITH HUMAN REASON/ 203
gifts which, as we learn from the writings of the
early Fathers of the Church, prevailed even in their
days, and which disappeared only after a long nega-
tive experience had taught mankind no longer to cal-
culate upon such special interpositions. The cir-
cumstance of their having heen thus withdrawn is of
itself sufficient to convince us that we have no reason
to regret their loss. As gratuitous marks of God's
special favour and acceptance of persons, they would
be pernicious to the receiver, and contradictory to the
impartial tenor of the Gospel covenant; even as
proofs of the truth of the doctrines for which they
vouch, they would in our times be inefficacious, since
at a period when no really new communication of
the Divine Will -can be or ought to be expected,
the fact of their being laid claim to by this or that
individual would more naturally justify a suspicion
of fanaticism or imposture on his part, than of his
real and authoritative mission. That man was not
intended for the exercise of powers of this intoxi-
cating quality is evident from the fact that the pos-
session of it has, since the period of the apostolical
age, been asserted, for occasional and obviously infe-
rior purposes, only by persons of very excitable
minds, or the professed leaders of a party, whilst they
have been disclaimed successively by those foremost
lights and luminaries, the unassuming sanctity of
whose lives has reflected the purest splendour upon
the records of the Christian Church. We can, in
fact, imagine no possible gifts of Providence which
would operate so fatally as that now alluded to, upon
that humble and confiding faith which is the best
possession of a Christian whilst on earth : that faith
which " sees not, and yet has believed : " which
hopes almost against hope, and remains unshaken in
its firm reliance upon the mercies of the Almighty,
under the infliction of the heaviest personal calami-
lies, or the most overwhelming causes of mental
depression: and which, amid the immoveable uni-
204 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
formity of toe works of nature and the seduction
of physical causes, can still fix its eye upon those
remote but imperishable truths, the real value of
which those only can duly appreciate, who by the
blessed aid of the Divine Spirit, have overcome the
world.
CHAPTER XXII.
Recapitulation of some of the foregoing Observations — TVie scrip*
turul Doctrine of the Divinity of the Holy Spirit.
The doctrines of Christianity, thea, differ from the
conclusions of mere natural religion in its best and
purest form, in the fact that they occupy a more ex-
tensive range in their explanation of the mysteries-
of God's moral government than can be attempted
by our unassisted reason ; and that whilst the lattef
is obliged to stop short in the midst of its inquiries^
in consequence of the accumulating perplexities and
seeming anomalies which crowd in upon it front
every quarter, the former, by the adoption of the twa
great collateral truths of the atonement and of assist-
ing grace, is enabled to advance a step further, and to
reconcile, so far.as to our limited understanding such
high topics can be reconciled, the strange phenomena
of human nature with the unsullied attributes of the
Almighty. That these two momentous positions are
not gratuitous and superstitious superadditions to the
religion of nature, but, on the contrary, that the
exclusion of them would render every reasonable
view of religion incomplete, because irrelevant to
our acknowledged spiritual wants, must, we con-
ceive, be evident to all those who will take the trou-
ble of considering this intricate question in all its
bearings. It is true, indeed that the force of the
conclusion will be felt only by such persons as have
WITH HUMAN REASON. 205
impartially explored their way, step by step, through
the several stages of previous inquiry. To a mere
careless observer, we readily admit that pure and
unmixed Deism may, at first glance appear quite
sufficient to ansWer all the purposes which a large
portion of even the educated classes of mankind are
disposed to require from their religion. But still it
is only the careless observer who will be thus satis-
fied, because he alone is ignorant of the inexplicable
difficulties which surround natural religion, con-
sidered as a complete system in itself, and when
unaided by revelation. It is impossible to take a
comprehensive view around us, without coming to
the conviction that an arrangement, far more com-
plex than the simple principles afforded by the light
of nature, is absolutely necessary for meeting all the
consequences which such an inquiry suggests. It
is accordingly, on this account, we conceive, that
probably not one single instance can be quoted of a
really painstaking inquirer into the truths of Chris-
tianity having closed his studies with a mind uncon-
vinced by the force of the evidence on which they
rest. The further men proceed in such an investi-
gation, the more are they struck by the discovery of
coincidences, which completely escape the notice of
the less attentive observer. As they trace, link by
link, the chain of inferences, one fact leads to, and
implies the existence of, another; the detection of
an inveterate moral disease within themselves, of
which they were not previously aware, necessarily
suggests a solicitude after its cure; and thus the
inefficacy of the simple expedients which they once
deemed sufficient for the purpose becomes more pal-
pably evident, in proportion as they are more deeply
impressed with a conviction of their danger. Hu-
man reason, accordingly, as she advances with con-
science for her guide, through the lengthening series
of connected consequences, gradually approximates
to, though undoubtedly she could never originally
18
206 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
discover, by her own light, those very results which
revelation so broadly announces. She travels in the
right direction, but the barrier which interrupts her
course, and obstructs her view forward to more
remote truths, is removeable by inspiration only^
It is true that new and unforseen difficulties continue
to present themselves during the entire course of
her progress, but as a compensation, those more
early ones, which originally appeared to her as per-
fectly insuperable, satisfactorily adjust themselves,
and by the new position which they occupy, cease,
as formerly, to startle by their seeming anomaly.
It is, however, as has been already remarked, the
necessary character of all experimental induction,
to remove one source of embarrassment only by the
substitution of another, leaving always a residue
of mystery as perplexing to our apprehension as-
that which first stimulated our inquiry. And this
must more particularly be the case in theological
pursuits than in any other branch of science. The
real proof that we have made an actual progress is,
not that no difficulty lies before us, but that those
which we have already passed are thus far explained,
and, being explained, cohere, by a natural accord-
ance, the one with the other. Thus it is in the
instance now under discussion. Nothing, surely,
can be more satisfactory, as a practical vindication
of the mercy and wisdom of our Maker, in placing
us in our present singular position in this life, than
the certainty of the great truths connected with the
process of our redemption. So completely do they
appear to solve the most prominent enigmas which
present themselves at the very threshold of inquiry,
and to ratify the most reasonable postulates of na-
tural religion, that they may be said to carry their own-
proofs along with them. Still, however, we must
recollect, that we have no right or authority to avail
ourselves retrospectively of the solution afforded to
the difficulties of natural theology by the revealed
WITH HUMAN REASON. 207
facts of Scripture, and to decline, at the same time,
to admit prospectively the legitimate inferences from
those facts, he their character what they may. It
is the besetting error of all loose reasoners and half-
formed believers in the doctrines of Christianity,
to forget that the system of revelation is a consistent
and entire whole, and must be accepted by us as
such. We make this remark on the present occa-
sion for the purpose of observing, that if we once
admit the dogmas of justification and sanctification
as the two fundamental positions of the Gospel
covenant we are bound not to stop at this point, but
to advance forward to the strictly inferential but less
obvious truths inseparably connected with them.
Thus the doctrine of the divinity of Christ, as has
been already shown, would appear to follow from
the conclusions of reason alone, independently of
what we find directly asserted by Scripture to the
same effect, if we assent to that of his infinite atone-
ment for sin. In like manner the concurrent doc-
trine of assisting grace would lead us, by analogy,
to the same inference respecting the divine and per-
sonal nature of the Holy Spirit, even were revela-
tion silent on that subject: we cannot, therefore, be
surprised upon finding the express language of the
inspired writings conveying the same impression.
It is true, indeed, that we cannot, without gross pre-
sumption, assert that these two inferences might
actually have been arrived at by the natural powers
of the understanding tracing the succession of con-
nected consequences : all we mean to argue, there-
fore, is, that when revelation has once announced
them as facts, we can see retrospectively sufficient
grounds for admitting them as intrinsically proba-
ble. Thus far only we conceive that any reasoning
from internal probability can be legitimately car-
ried. On these high and transcendental questions
all a priori arguments, whether aftirmative or nega-
tive, are obviously irrelevant, unless made strictly
208 CONSISTENCY OF KEVELATION
subservient to the written declarations of the inspired
word of God. Points which are confessedly above
the reach of human reason, we should recollect, not
only may not, but in strictness cannot be contrary to
it. We possess no standard within our own minds
by which to measure their truth or falsehood, and
therefore as it is impossible, by mere argument, to
prove their accordance with probability, it is equally
so to demonstrate their discordance.
CHAPTER XXIII.
Of the Holy Trinity.
If, however, we admit that the personality and
divinity both of the Redeemer and of the Sanctifier
of mankind are positively asserted by Scripture, and
admit it we must, unless we would shut our eyes to the
general tendency of revelation, and the obvious pur-
port of common language, then the great Christian
doctrine of the Trinity would appear to follow, not
so much in the form of an inferential consequence
derivable from those premises, as in that of an iden-
tical proposition. So far from being an excrescence
unnecessarily superadded, by human invention, to
the more simple scheme of Christianity, and equally
repugnant, as has been alleged, to sound reason and
the declarations of Holy Writ, this final and moment-
ous truth appears, so far as we may, with all due
humility, venture to surmise, to suggest nothing at
all repugnant with the former, and to be explicitly
established by the latter. It stands, in fact, as the
crowning point in which all the converging parts of
God's revealed arrangements would seem to termi-
nate, and which once removed, would cause the beau-
tiful symmetry of that dispensation which Providence
had been, for the space of four thousand years, foster-
WITH HUMAN REASON. 209
iiQg and maturing, until the period of its final promul-
gation, to fall of itself piece-meal into a mass of
unconnected propositions and of intricate contriv-
ances, deprived of any definite end or object. The
slightest glance at the heads of the foregoing argu-
ments will show that this assertion is not lightly or
hastily made. It is, we repeat, evidently impossible
to deny the truth of the Trinitarian doctrine, and to
retain those of the atonement, and of sanctifying
:grace, as part and parcel of Christianity, because the
admission of the two latter, by an obvious implica-
tion, involves the certainty of the former. Again,
we cannot omit those two last-mentioned doctrines
from our system of faith, without at once reducing
the whole Gospel dispensation to a mere code of
morals, not only ineffectual as a practical instrument
of righteousness, but actually adding an accession of
weight to our already overcharged load of responsi-
bility. We cannot again take this very humble view
of the character of the great final consummation of
our Maker's direct intercourse with mankind, with-
out perceiving how very unlike it is, if true, in point
of simplicity and contrivance to all the other acknow-
ledged operations of Divine wisdom. If such a theory
:as that of the Unitarian be correct, then it is quite
impossible to reconcile with what we know of the
workings of the Almighty mind from the phenomena
of the material universe, the very elaborate and
intricate series of miracles and predictions which
form the subject matter of the Old Testament, and
the deviations from the ordinary course of nature
which marked the promulgation of the new covenant.
The whole system of revelation would, in that case,
appear to be a tissue of wonders without an adequate,
we might almost say without any, object. In the
inaterial creation it is never, so far as the researches
of philosophy extend, the apparently efficient cause,
but the resulting effects which are diversified and
intricate. From one single and often apparently
18*
210 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
trifling fact, that, for instance, of the obliquity of the
earth's axis, the all-wise Contriver knows how to
elicit the most important and multifarious conse-
quences, which branch out in every possible direction
to the production of beauty and usefulness. Is there,
then, any unsoundness in the argument which infers
unity of design in all the works of an all-wise Author ?
Is it reasonable to suppose that the arrangements of
the self-same all-comprehending mind would be found
to be at variance with one another? That in one,
the least valuable, portion of the universe, causes
should be simple, and effects intricate; in the other
and most important, that causes should be intricate
and effects simple ? The opposite assumption would
surely seem the most probable. Such, however,
would be the conclusion to which Unitarianism would
lead us. If, then, the course of God's spiritual pro-
vision for our eternal welfare has been marked, as it
assuredly has been, with a superabundant proportion
of preparatory contrivance, the inference, from analo-
gy, appears obvious, that the result will be found to
be in momentous importance proportionate to the
beginning; and that a system, the foundation of which
has been laid in an almost unbroken continuity of
miracles, cannot finally terminate in what might
have been accomplished by human means, without
the aid of miracle, namely, the inculcation of a mere
code of ethical philosophy, however, in itself, admira-
ble and perfect. Nothing, surely, according to this
view of the subject, can appear more irrational than
what is called rational religion. To those who deny,
altogether, the inspiration of Scripture, Unitarianism,
aided, as it still might be, by the splendid morality
of the Bible, is undoubtedly capable of affording a
piausible, though unsubstantial, rule of life which, as
calculated to please the eye and amuse the ear, and
to supply the tongue with well-sounding maxims,
may pass for real religion with the careless and lan-
guid votary of this world. But it is a perfect contra-
WITH HUMAN REASON. 211
diction to advance one step further than this point,
and, admitting the infallibility of the sacred writings,
to attempt to explain away their most unequivocal
declarations, solely because our natural understanding
cannot keep pace with the wonders which they
develope. Revelation professes to lead us beyond the
barrier which marks the confines of human know-
ledge, and to place, as it were, the very throne and
effulgence of the Divine Being almost within our
view. Is this the point, at the very moment when
human reason fails us, and when every scale and
standard of measurement by which we may iudge of
the internal truth or falsehood of a proposition becomes
inapplicable, where we ought to stop and discuss how
much of those hallowed oracles we shall receive, and
how much reject ? On questions like these the entire
submission of the understanding is assuredly the
mark of a strong and not of an infirm mind. The
anti-Trinitarian asserts the competency of human
reason to pronounce judgment upon even all the
transcendental topics which form the subject-matter
of revelation, and argues that no proposition which
involves a positive contradiction of terms can possibly
be true. The obvious answer to this argument is
that of inquiring, how he knows that the Trinitarian
doctrine does involve the contradiction which he sup-
poses. We know, experimentally, that were our
acquaintance with the points of secular science less
than it is, we should, without hesitation, pronounce
many things to be incompatible and contradictory the
one to the other which are found to be really congru-
ous and coexistent. General assertions are easily got
up, and always carry with them an imposing and
philosophical air. But a large proportion of the real
order of nature is made up of exceptions to such
general and comprehensive rules. Thus we often
hear it urged, that the acknowledged unity of the
Divine nature is manifestly irreconcilable with the
Trinitarian doctrine ; individuality of person and of
212 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
consciousness being capable, as it is alleged, under
no possible circumstances, of attaching to a Being
possessed of a complex mode of existence. The
objection, undoubtedly, at first sight, appears forcible.
And yet we reply, let the objector, before he proceeds
to reason confidently upon the universality of his
rule, refer to the fact of his own complex. constitution
as an .illustration of it. Man himself, we assert, is
in this respect a case in point. Compounded of body
and soul, of two substances, which we have the
strongest reason for considering as essentially distinct
in all their characteristics the one from the other, he
still is actually and experimentally one single indi-
vidual in the strictest meaning of the term. If, then,
we are met by so startling an exception to this seem-
ing general maxim at the very outset of our inquiry,
surely we can hope little from the guidance of mere
reason in the investigation of higher mysteries, where
any thing like experimental induction is manifestly
out of the question. And yet, strange it is to say,
that upon this single assumption, rendered untenable,
as it would seem to be, by the most familiar fact, and
so completely inapplicable when resorted to as a
principle by whicb to judge of the nature of the
incomprehensible Creator of the universe, the hypo*
thesis of Christian Unitarianism rests almost entirely
for its support, sacrificing to an equivocal a priori
dictum the whole consistency of the theory, and the
mpst direct assertions of the letter of revelation.
WITH HUMAN REASON. 21S
CHAPTER XXIV.
On the practical tendency of the Christian virtue of "Faith.**
We have now, then, taken a general and enlarged,
though a hasty, view of the entire scheme of God's
interposition for the salvation of mankind, as com-
municated to us in the books of the old and new
covenants, and we have remarked one uniform idea
pervading the whole, which, though developed piece-
meal, and at many distinct periods, clearly announ-
ces the superintending direction of an Almighty
Contriver. The great scope and object of the whole
appears to be the reconciling of the free agency and
moral training of the human soul with the abstract
principles of eternal justice and mercy, by a special
arrangement well calculated in this world to call
into action the highest quality of spiritual holiness
of which our present nature is capable, and in a
future state of existence to avert the otherwise
inevitable consequences of sin, and to purchase for
those, who sincerely conform to the conditions re-
quired of them, an eternal allotment of inconceiva-
ble felicity. In making this survey, one remarkable
circumstance has not failed to strike us; namely,
how great a demand is made upon our moral powers
of obedience and self-restraint, by a system which,
from the external aids both of sanctification and of
expiation, which it pledges itself to afford, would
appear above all other modes of religion calculated
to encourage personal indolence. This is one of
the most singular features of revelation, and strongly
illustrates the wisdom with which it has been con-
trived; namely, that its practical operation is inva-
riably found to steer clear of those defects to which,
when viewed as a mere theory, it would seem obvi-
214 CONSISTENCY OP REVELATION
ously to lead. No doctrine appears at first sight
more likely to suspend the exertion of every active
power within us than that which inculcates that all
our best endeavours are the special gift of an exter-
nal agency, and that our only hopes of external sal-
vation rest not upon our own personal merits, but
upon a vicarious expiation wrought for us, without
any effective assistance on our part. That such an
hypothesis would tend in its operation to depress
rather than to elevate the human character, seems,
we confess, a natural and almost inevitable inference ;
and that such actually is its tendency has been not
unfrequently asserted by its enemies. And yet we
find, experimentally, that nothing can be more re-
mote from the truth than such a conclusion. We
have reverted to these remarks, which have already
been advanced on a former occasion, for the sake of
the illustration they afford with respect to the value
and character of the one great and prominent Chris-
tian virtue — faith. The instrument by which alone
we are assured that we can lay hold of the benefits
proffered to our acceptance by the Gospel Covenant
is this quality of faith ; and, in order that we may
lie under no misapprehension with respect to the full
meaning of the term, we find it repeatedly described
by Scripture as being not merely an implicit belief
in the fact of Christ's mission, but also a reposing
confidence upon his atonement for sin, and an abso-
lute denial, and renunciation of any merit whatever
as attaching to our own actions. At the same time,
it is an undeniable truth, that the self-same Scrip-
tures, which appear thus to detract from the merit
of good works, are most peremptory and uncompro-
mising in the tone in which they demand them at our
hands. Here is every appearance of a direct contra-
diction ; and yet it is only one of those seeming con-
tradictions which, as if for the purpose of humilia-
ting human reason, are scattered, from time to time,
through the inspired volume, but which, practically,
WITH HUMAN REASON. 2l5
are found to be replete with profound wisdom. If
accordingly we will take a retrospective glance at
human history, and ask what single quality and
affection of the mind of man has achieved more acts
of real heroism, has more perse veringly compassed
sea and land in quest of works of charity, has more
uniformly subdued the natural arrogance of the heart
in the full tide of temporal prosperity, or armed it with
the most exemplary and cheerful patience under the
severest inflictions of adversity, we shall boldly an-
swer, faith. There is, in fact, no imaginable state
of mind, no circumstance or condition of life, to
which this foremost Christian principle is not calcu-
lated to extend a beneficial influence. Faith is the
appointed means by which we are enabled to avail
ourselves of the benefits intended to be conveyed to
mankind by the death of Christ ; and it is so for this
substantial reason, because it is the principle by the
adoption of which we can alone render ourselves like
unto him by the holiness and purity of our lives, by
the unaffected humility of our obedience, and by the
sublimity of our spiritual aspirations. Faith, far more
than any other spiritual operation with which we are
acquainted, extinguishes within us the corrupt appe-
tites of the flesh by approximating us to, and almost
indentifying us with, our great Exemplar and Pattern.
To have faith in Christ, in the full Scriptural sense,
is obviously, not merely to believe that he is, or that
he came into the world, and continued in it for a
definite period ; but it is the belief that he came to
save sinners, when no less a sacrifice could avert
from them the Divine wrath ; it is our conviction of
the extreme deadliness and abomination of sin which
could render so vast an expiation necessary, with the
consequent inference of the obligation of aiming at
the highest stage of holiness to Avhich our imperfect
nature can attain, and of cultivating the deepest
sentiments of gratitude to God, of distrust of our-
selves, and of charity towards our fellow-creatures,
216 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
who, having been involved in one common condem-
nation, are now, together with us, candidates for
our Maker's unearned and gratuitous mercy. It is
obvious, that nothing short of the high wrought
feeling now described can deserve to be designated
as that faith which the Gospel inculcates. To ima-
gine that the same awful Being who submitted to
pay the forfeiture of sin in his own person could
intend, by so doing, to sanction, and even encourage,
the renewed commission of it; that it is seemly, or
even possible, to know that we have received so vast
a benefit, and yet not to love the Benefactor ; that
loving him with all befitting fervour, we could deli-
berately wish to disobey his commands, and coun-
teract his holy purposes, or that such fervour of love
can be consistent with limited and desultory efforts
after righteousness, with cruelty, selfishness, and in-
solence towards others, or with an undue preference
of teinporal to spiritual objects, are all of them
manifest contradictions. " If ye love me," says our
blessed Saviour, " keep my commandments." Faith
then, so far from being a merely theoretical, is, in
the strongest meaning of the term, a practical excel-
lence. It is impossible substantially to possess it
without the adoption of that new life and that purity
and regeneration of the character which is the best
proof of the accompanying grace of God's Holy
Spirit, and which the Apostle so well describes when
he figuratively compares it to being dead with Christ
unto sin, and raised again with him to a life of spi-
ritual holiness ; and with reference to which happy
state he asserts, that he who is of Christ sins not.
Would men have early learned to distinguish be-
tween the very dissimilar ideas conveyed by the term
faith when intended merely to designate belief in a
purely historical fact, which is obviously compatible
with a very low grade of devotional feeling, and by
the same word when expressing a conscientious adop-
tion of all the momentous inferences above enu-
WITH HUMAN REASON. 217
merated, the false assumptions which have prevailed
on both sides of this important question could never
have thrown the stigma upon Christianity which,
unfortunately, they have done. But the fact is, that
nothing is so difficult in religious discussion as to
keep the middle road. The holiest truths ever lie
in close contact with the most pernicious falsehoods,
and it often requires no small nicety of moral discern-
ment to distinguish between them. Exaggerated
statements, and the predilection for one part of a
system, at the expense, and to the neglect of all the
rest, are the bane of Christianity, as they have been
the grand impediments in the way of man's advance-
ment in all wholesome science whatever. It is the
rectitude of the heart which can alone direct the
understanding safely amid the many conflicting
theories resulting from false ingenuity and partial
views of the spirit of revelation : and that rectitude
can be duly maintained only by keeping the devo-
tional feelings warm, and our carnal imaginations
cool and collected ; by enlarged and cheering views
of the arrangements of that great Being who, we are
assured, would not that any, the least of his creatures,
should perish, accompanied with the most unfeigned
humility with regard to our own personal merits;
and by a deep conviction, on the other hand, that not
even the plentiude of Divine mercy itself can release
us from that duty of purity and holiness which, even
were all future retribution out of the question, would
necessarily attach to us as moral and intellectual
beings.
19
218 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION??
CHAPTER XXV.
Of Ecclesiastical Authority and Ordinances.
In the foregoing remarks we have attempted tfy
trace the gradual growth and developement of the
great scheme of revelation from its first imperfect
commencement, as adapted to the wants of a compara-
tively low grade of society, to that later period when
it at length shone forth in full splendour, and, by its
overpowering brilliancy, extinguished, as it were,
all the weaker lights of human ethics, which the
researches of the wisest men of antiquity had set up
for the guidance of mankind. We have also endea-
voured to show that, perplexing as some of the facts
which it announces may be to our reason, and even
startling as some of its doctrines may at first sight
appear to our moral feelings, the practical operation
of that revelation upon the human character is what
we cannot possibly appreciate too highly ; and that,
under its auspicious influence, the soul of man is
capable, even in this world, of attaining to a moral
growth and elevation of which those who derive their
notions from other modifications of belief cannot form
the slightest idea. Such then, we repeat, is Chris-
tianity in its essentials, both with respect to faith and
practice; and suchj had human nature been disposed,
of its own accord, to choose the good and refuse the
evil, would it probably been left to us by Providence
in all its intrinsic simplicity, without those accom-
panying enactments and institutions which, in strict-
ness, are to be viewed rather as necessary defensive
accessories than as part and parcel of its original
structure. Such, however, unfortunately, is the per-
versity of our passions, that almost as much elaborate
contrivance is netiiessary to enable us to enjoy the
WITH HUMAN REASON. 219
best gifts of Providence, without abusing or diverting
them from their original purpose, as to purchase the
original possession of them. It is not enough that
God has filled this world with almost inexhaustible
blessings, but it is also necessary that coercive human
laws should regulate the mode of their fruition, should
restrain fraud and rapine, and prevent our perverting
them to our own injury, and to that of society in
general. So is it also with the important concerns
of religion. Were no mistaken views, the results of
carnal passion, likely to bias our opinions ; did no
hebetude of judgment continually interpose itself to
prevent our taking in the entire conception and the
exact proportions of the respective articles of our
faith ; were there no such a thing as a captious
ingenuity, which loves to overstate antagonist por-
tions of docrine, and no selfishness which shrinks
from the practice of every self-denying duty, then,
indeed, the beautiful system of Christian morals
might have stood unsupported by any external aid,
and have been left to the awakened good feelings of
mankind to attract their admiration and improve their
practice. But these visionary dreams of perfection
nave nothing to do with the present very humble
circumstances of our nature. The pure essentials of
religion can be no more maintained under the exist-
ing constitution of this world without the aid of dis-
cipline and an established ritual, than the political
welfare of society can remain flourishing without the
awe and deference attaching to the authority of the
magistrate. We are perfectly conscious of the deli-
cacy of the ground on which we are now treading.
It is, we admit, an obvious truth that no restraints
upon our presumed natural liberty can be designated
as really good in themselves, but only inasmuch
as they enable us to enjoy blessings which would be
otherwise inaccessible. We admit, also, the encroach-
ing nature of all human judgment when interfering
with the questions of religion, and the necessity of
220 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
maintaining a jealous caution that the word of God
shall not be rendered of none effect by becoming
intermingled with the traditions of man. But it
is certain, on the other hand, that even were the
word of God silent on this important question, the
whole history of the last eighteen centuries would
show that pure and unadulterated Christianity can
really flourish only where the waywardness and self-
will of individual caprice is subjected to the restraints
of wholesome and enlightened authority. It is not
indeed necessary, and it is far from our wish on this
occasion, to dwell in any length upon the very deli-
cate and much contested point respecting any pecu-
liar forms of ecclesiastical government, how far and
under what modification such systems existed in the
primitive Church, and may be considered as impera-
tive upon the consciences of succeeding generations.
In a dissertation, the express object of which is to
promote unity of spiritual faith among all denomina-
tions of Christians, by pointing out the remarkable
coherence of the respective parts of revelation one
with the other, and their concurrence in promoting
one grand and ultimate design, it cannot be expedient
to excite the feelings of party jealousy by speaking
invidiously on less essential topics, upon which we
may charitably presume that an erroneous opinion
may be maintained without a forfeiture of the funda-
mentals of sound belief. Respecting, therefore, and
admiring as we do that form of discipline more
especially recognised in this country, which we cer-
tainly conceive to approach as nearly to the apostoli-
cal model as the altered circumstances of mankind
will admit, we shall still content ourselves with
merely observing that even the most ardent champion
of Christian liberty must confess, if he reason fairly,
that a respectful deference to that system of authori-
tative restraint, be it what it will, which is found
practically necessary for the discouragement of here-
tical innovation, is as strictly a point of conscientious
WITH HUMAN REASON. 221
^Mgation as any other case of obedience to the
Divine Will. " God is not the author of confusion,
but of peace." Spiritual as the character of Chris-
tian worship is, and encouraging, as it undoubtedly
does, the most direct intercourse between the human
supplicant and the great object of his adoration, it is
quite evident that so long as it is intended for the
benefit of mankind it will require to be fenced round
with those precautionary outworks against the en-
croachments of fanaticism, superstition, and unauthor-
ized human interpretation, which if allowed full
liberty of action would shortly destroy its very
essence. It is in vain that we deprecate the existence
of ecclesiastical authority so far as its functions are
soberly exercised in promoting the solemnity, de-
cency, and evangelical purity of public worship, if .
the waywardness of human passion be such as to
Tender that authority imperatively necessary. Our
Blessed Saviour, himself, by the institution of the two
external rites of baptism and the Eucharist, and by
the solemn delegation of the ministerial functions to
his chosen apostles, clearly demonstrated that it was
not the object of the Gospel dispensation to super-
sede entirely the use of ritual observances, or the
exercise of wholesome interference when called for
by the waywardness of licentious opinion. In the
13th chapter of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles,
also, we find the rite of ministerial ordination by the
imposition of hands sanctioned by immediate inspira-
tion. "As they (the members of the Church of
Antioch) ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy
Ghost said, ' Separate me Barnabas and Saul, for the
work whereunto I have called them.' And when they
had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them,
they sent them away : So they, being sent forth by
the Holy Ghost, departed," &c. What proposition,
it might have been confidently asked, is more palpa-
bly self-evident, than that the choice of the Holy
Spirit would be a sufficient authority and qualifica'
19*
222 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
tion for its ministers, without the intervention of
human agency? Yet here that very Spirit is de-
scribed as requiring that the communication of its
gifts should be ratified by the delegation of the visible
Church. Again, Ave read in the same portion of
Sacred History that the assembled Church of Jerusa-
lem thought fit to resolve, authoritatively, the then
much agitated question respecting the expediency of
circumcision, and to issue at the same time other
rules for the spiritual direction of the new converts ;
and we learn also from the Apostolical Epistles that
the various Churches scattered over Greece and Asia
were severally placed under the guidance of their
respective Governors, who possessed and exercised
power for the ordination of well qualified teachers,
and the excommunication of the corrupters of the true
doctrine. The doubt, therefore, if any, respecting
Church authority is clearly not one of fact, for that is
admitted by all parties, but of degree only. But the
discussion and settlement of that precise degree which
shall be neither more nor less than what expediency
requires, is one of the most difficult problems which
the practical study of theology suggests. Certain,
however, it is that the line of demarcation which
separates the strict essentials of Christian faith from
those accessory rules and institutions which form its
outworks, and Avere intended solely for its protection,
from external injury, should never be lost sight of
by those who are anxious to imbibe the unadulterated
spirit of Christianity. Without a jealous vigilance
against the possible substitution of the dicta of
human judgment in the place of the inspired and
authoritative oracles of God, we know from expe-
rience that the introduction into the Church of super-
stitious formalities and of spiritual usurpation is
inevitable. But we know, also, on the other hand,
that nothing is more certain, than that if by advo-
cating Avhat is called Christian liberty it is intended to
introduce a complete emancipation from all right of
WITH HUMAN REA8(».»» ...
|[TT T7
dictation to the ignorant, or of ceMure^nd remon
strance to the fantastic pervertersXrf" ^)»pel truth,
human selfishness and presumption, should the at;
tempt be successful, would soon efi'eciually blot
all the distinctive characteristics of the religion of
Christ, and the inspired book of Scripture would be
made to mean every thing or nothing according as it
might chance to fall into the hand of this or that self-
constituted teacher.
These observations are introduced in this place
merely to show, that if at this late period of the world,
after eighteen centuries of discussion, too often carried
on under feelings of morbid excitement, the character
of our religion has become apparently less simple
than it was in the primitive ages of the Church, and
if theology has become in the course of that time
more of a science, and, therefore, as it might seem,
less the exclusive creature of our moral apprehen-
sions, the fault is one which it is much more easy to
lament than to correct. Heresies are seldom, if ever,
wilful perversions of Divine truth gratuitously intro-
duced, but are almost always the result of over-san-
guine tempers or contracted understandings partially
culling and selecting favourite passages from the
general context of revelation, according to the pecu-
liar tastes and prejudices of the disputant. And the
misfortune is, that the remedy adopted by the oppos-
ing party has loo often been of the same nature with
the original grievance. By inclining too strongly to
the side most removed from the princ.iples which
they have attempted to refute, the assailants of heresy
have themselves become heretical, and by deviating
from the narrow central line have fallen into errors
not less contrary to the tenor of revelation than those
of their adversaries. It is thus that the progress of
mankind, in the department of theology, has been
for the most part a series of oscillations betwixt
extreme opinions, rather than a cautious process of
induction founded upon comprehensive views of the
nB
224 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
"whole system of revelation. The consequence, ac-
cordingly, has been, that the simple and beautiful
scheme, which might originally have been brought
home to the breast of the most ignorant and illiterate,
when inculcating, exclusively, the two great funda-
mental truths of justification and sanctification, has,
from an inevitable necessity, become fenced round
with its peculiar technical phraseology and precise
definitions : and in proportion as experience has
shown how numerous are the passages to error, the
necessity of superintendence, not so much, indeed, for
the purpose of coercive control, as of ftiendly admo-
nition, has become daily more and more manifest.
it is on this account that the continual recurrence to
the first principles of Gospel truth, abstracted from
their incidental accompaniments, has become in later
times of increasing importance to the Christian stu-
dent. The complexity of character which attaches
to the modern science of theology can, as has been
already remarked, be effectually diminished only by
a due care in discriminating between the essentials of
religion as points of doctrine, and those accessories
which, however sanctioned by divine authority, are
are after all to be considered solely as defensive super-
additions.
The apostolical rule on the subject of minor differ-
ences in ecclesiastical opinions is a wise and salutary
one ; that we should keep the devotional feeling of
the heart right, and the judgment of the understand-
ing will, under the Divine blessing, follow in the right
direction. *' Let us, as many as be perfect, be thus
minded : and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded,
God shall reveal even this unto you." Attend mainly
to the great and essential propositions, and all the
minor inferences will, of their own accord, fall into
their proper place, and present themselves to our
view in their just proportions. The simplicity of the
primitive age, indeed, can be no more maintained in
this advanced period of the world, than the artless
WITH HUMAN REASON. 225
sentiments of boyhood can be retained in the busi-
ness-like maturity of life. But integrity of intention
may still enable us, to the last, to unite the harmless-
ness of the dove to the wisdom of the serpent. Even
now, notwithstanding the necessary complexity of our
knowledge, our faith may be as pure as that of the
early Christians, provided only that our devotional
feelings are as earnest as theirs : nor need the many
safeguards which legislative wisdom, having God's
oracles for its guide, has, from time to time, estab-
lished for the encouragement of the sound doctrine,
prove a greater cause of offence to the fervent believer
in revelation, than are the wholesome restraints of
secular law to those who voluntarily measure their
conduct by those great rules of morality, the practice
of which it is the object of the legislator and of the
magistrate to enforce.
CHAPTER XXVI.
Of the Miracles recorded in the New Testament.
The object of the present dissertation being to
remark upon the singular consistency of design and
contrivance which marks the whole system of revela-
tion, from first to last, it will be necessary, in order
to make our survey complete, that we should take
notice of that series of preternatural events which
accompanied the final promulgation of Christianity.
On the supposition that the covenant of the Gospel
is a continuation and the final completion of that
system of special providential interference which the
books of the Old Testament assert to have been in
operation from the very commencement of the world,
it might naturally be expected that its Almighty Con-
triver should signalize this momentous consummation
of his mysterious purpose by some display of his
226 CONSISTENCY OF KEVELATION
favour, not less striking than those attending on his
earlier and less perfect dispensations. This circum-
stance, in fact, would be nothing more than main-
taining that uniformity of general character which is
always found to pervade the different works of the
same author. Now, not only do the books of the
New Testament assert that such a course of miracles
as might, from analogy, have been presumed upon,
did actually take place on that latter occasion, but we
may observe also, that the actual miracles recorded,
"whilst they bear testimony to the reality of the Mosaic
dispensation, are distinguished from the earlier ones
hy a peculiar character of beneficence which exactly
accords with the more merciful purport of that purer
law which they were intended to confirm. The whole
design of the institutions of Moses was confessedly
of a harsher description than that of Christianity.
They required strict ritual obedience in all points.
*'The man that doelh them shall live in them," was
their unbending injunction ; and, accordingly, the
miraculous powers of the legislator were as often
employed in inflicting tremendous judgments upoa
the disobedience of his followers, as in rescuing them
from danger, or in relieving the pressure of their daily
wants. Christ came in a meeker and milder spirit,
announcing the great fact of man's reconciliation with
his Maker, by gratuitous redemption communicated
through the medium of faith ; and the miracles which
he performed were all of a benevolent description.
Both arrangements, therefore, were severally apposite
to the respective times, and circumstances, and
designs of the laws thus promulgated. The Levitical
ritual was given from Sinai, in thunders and earth-
quakes, and so terrible was the sight, that Moses
said, " I exceedingly fear and quake." The coming
of the Messiah was announced by angels proclaiming
*' peace on earth, and good will towards men," A
large portion of the miraculous machinery of the
earlier covenant, again, consisted of prophetic antici-
WITH HUMAN REASON, 227
pations of the future spiritual prospects of mankind.
This, as has been already observed, was peculiarly-
well fitted to the character of a merely provisional
law, the most important declarations of which were
all of them prospective. The prophecies of the New
Testament, on the contrary, with the exception of
the Apocalypse of St. John, are thinly scattered, and
even where they occur resemble rather the incidental
overflowings of a super-human knoAvledge, extending
over futurity, than special forewarnings, given for
some yet undeveloped purpose. The probable reason
of this would seem to be, that the Divine arrange-
ments being now complete, the attention of mankind,
which previously required to be turned in a forward
direction, was now more suitably rendered retro-
spective.
But if, for the causes now alleged, the gift of pro-
phecy would appear to have been a less appropriate
qualification of the inspired teachers of the new dis-
pensation than of those of the old, the same argument
would not apply to the question respecting miracles
of another description. It maybe confidently asserted
that the human mind could be aroused from the in-
veterate associations of worldly habits, and have its
attention turned away from that system of selfish
indulgence so natural to its feelings, to pursuits of a
directly opposite description, only by the astounding
thunder-clap of a voice confessedly speaking with
more than mortal authority. It is in vain to quote,
in contradiction to this remark, the trite aphorism,
that truth requires only to be stated in order to be
assented to. The whole history of human nature is
a refutation of this observation, if intended to apply
to the inculcation of moral and religious truth. The
conscience of every systematic sinner must be alarmed
before it can be effectively awakened : the appeal to
the attention of the worldly-minded must come in the
form of an authoritative demand, and not of an humble
request for a hearing. Far the truth of this remark
228 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
we challenge that intuitive knowledge of the heart of
man which every person who has heen thrown into
much practical intercourse with general society cannot
fail, in some degree, of possessing. Miracles, accord-
ingly, we are informed by Scripture, have, both under
the former and the latter covenants, accompanied all
special communications from heaven. Admitting the
fact of such communications being not otherwise
improbable, (a point which it has been the aim of the
foregoing observations to prove,) it is so far from
unreasonable that they should have been specially
ratified by the evidence of miracles, that, in fact, we
cannot conceive their effecting their intended object
without such adventitious aid. If such extraordinary
testimony was necessary for the establishment of the
religion of Moses, it was, clearly, not less so for the
supersedence of that same religion by the Gospel of
Christ. Institutions Avhich had been sanctioned by
the most portentous deviations from the ordinary
course of nature, could not, and in strictness ought
not, to be expected to give way to the preaching of a
few individuals, producing no equivalent authority in
proof of their Divine mission.
Thus much, then, may be confidently urged in reply
to the objections of those persons who profess to be
startled and offended by the miraculous phenomena
which we read of as having attended the appearance
of Christ. Grant his mission to have been a real
one, and it were a mere gratuitous scepticism to dis-
pute the supernatural powers either of himself or of
his authorized followers. The facts in question, be
it remembered, are vouched for, unless the whole
series of revelation be a fiction, not merely by their
own peculiar attesting witnesses, but substantially
also by those who bore testimony to the prodigies
wrought by Moses and the Jewish prophets. If the
attestation confirmatory of the miracles of the Old
Testament is strong, the affirmative inference is, by
a necessary course of argument, reflected onward
WITH HUMAN REASON. 229
from them upon those of the latter dispensation also,
as integral portions of the same continuous process
of Divine interference.
To this consistency, then, of the whole design, we
would appeal, for the purpose of removing from every
candid and impartial mind any involuntary prepos-
session occasioned by the survey of isolated and
detached parts. It is unfair to the infinitely accumu-
lated evidences of our religion to consider it as
depending for its proofs upon a series of unconnected
interpositions of Providence, each requiring to be
, separately vouched for by its own peculiarly and
entirely distinct arguments. The proper point of view
in which it ought to be regarded is that of one great
continuous miracle, to which, until the period of its
final completion, generation after generation of eye-
witnesses bore their successive but really concurrent
testimony.
There is, however, it must be at the same time
observed a degree of contemporaneous evidence
attaching to the miracles recorded in tlie New Testa-
ment, still niore cogent if possible, even than that
which obliges us to assent to the authenticity of those
related in the Jewish Scriptures. That is to say,
from the circumstance of their having been performed
at a later ])eriod of the world, and in an age of more
advanced literature, the idea of explaining them away
by referring them to mistake or deception is rendered
still more completely untenable. "These things,"
as St. Paul observed of them, " were not done in a
corner ;" >^nt the publicity to which they were ex-
posed, and which he so confidently challenges, Avas
that of jealous adversaries rather than of friends.
That they were able to stand the test of this search-
ing scrutiny is certain from the fact of the rapid
spread of the doctrines, in confirmation of which
those miracles were appealed to. Such is the obvious
conclusion which we are compelled to arrive at, when
we look to tlie singular- transactions related in the
20
230 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
historical books of the New Testament, and compare
them with what we there read respecting the other-
wise inexplicable growth, at the period referred to,
of the infant Christian Church. But it is not from
these perhaps partial sources alone that we are
obliged to derive our evidence. The allusions of
contemporary profane writers to the as yet small,
but rapidly increasing, community of Christians is
exactly what might be expected, on the supposition
that the account given by the New Testament is the
true one. They are merely incidental, indeed, and
give their testimony rather by implication than by
express and direct assertion, but this very circum-
stance only renders it more intrinsically probable.
In the first place, the broad outline of facts, as we
find them occasionally referred to in the works of
that period, though often vague, are all at least per-
fectly in harmony with the Scriptural account. We
know, for instance, as assuredly as we do any of the
transactions of modern history, that towards the close
of the reign of Tiberius a peculiar sect grew up
amongst the Jews, who confidently asserted that
occurrences of the most extraordinary description
had taken place at Jerusalem, and in the surrounding
territory, within an extremely short period from that
time, some of them in the presence of large multi-
tudes of witnesses, and one, the most remarkable,
in the face of the whole assembled population of
Judea. We know that, notwithstanding this appeal
to public notoriety, which, if the statement were
untrue, carried with it its own refutation, these
accounts were received as authentic by vast numbers
of persons competent to judge of the reality of the
facts, many of whom bore testimony, by their blood,
to the sincerity of their belief. We know that the
doctrines thus originating pervaded, within a very
short period of years, considerable portions of Asia,
of Greece, of Italy, and most probably of Spain and
Gaul ; and that though the most terrific persecutions
WITH HUMAN REASON, 231
awaited their professors, vast numbers were found
even in Rome itself, who submitted to endure the
most cruel deaths rather than abjure their faith.
But, as has just now been observed, some of the
casual circumstances, related incidentally, and with-
out any intended reference to the circumstances of
the early Christians, by contemporary profane his-
torians, afford, where they least intended it, a singu-
lar collateral confirmation of the truth of the Gospel
history. Thus we find, in the fourth book of Taci-
tus's history, a strange anecdote related of the Em-
peror Vespasian (who, be it remembered, had passed
a considerable portion of his military career in Judea,)
that when he visited Egypt, subsequently to his
accession to the empire, he cured by a touch a man
afflicted with total blindness. It is impossible to
read the original account of this transaction without
observing its strong resemblance to some of the
miracles performed by our Saviour. How, it natu-
rally occurs to us to ask, could so strange an idea
occur to a Roman Emperor, the occupier of a throne
which had so recently been filled by such profligate
characters as Vitellius, Otho, and Nero, as that of
attempting to perform a preternatural cure of this
description ? None of the most insanely arrogant of
his predecessors had ever made the like experiment.
We surely cannot doubt but that Vespasian's long
residence in Judea had made him familiar with the
recorded facts of our Saviour's history, and with the
more recent miracles of his disciples, and that he
was led by vanity, or curiosity, to attempt perform-
ing the like wonders. That he succeeded we of
course cannot believe ; though it is most probable
that plausible testimony would not be wanting to
support the claims of an emperor ambitious of this
peculiar kind of reputation. To the same effect are
the two memorable passages which occur in Tacitus
and Suetonius, where those writers apply to the
person of Vespasian the ancient Jewish prophecy
232 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
respecting the Messiah, whose advent was looked
for about that period. The words of the latter his-
torian are very remarkable. " Percrebuerat Oriente
toto vetus et constans opinio esse in fatis ut eo tempore
JiidcBa profecti rerum potirentur. Id de Imperatore
Romano quantum postea eventu patuit, prajdictum
Judfei ad se trahentes rebellarunt." In this state-
ment it is impossible not to recognise the expectatioQ
then prevalent among the Jews respecting the ap-
proaching accomplishment of the seventy weeks of
Daniel, which we learn from Josephus to have led to^
those many insurrections, under the guidance of
fanatics and impostors, which eventually caused the
destruction of Jerusalem and the dispersion of the
Jewish nation.
But (to return from the indirect testimony of pro-
fane to the direct evidence of sacred history) we
shall not, we conceive, be chargeable with the fallacy
of proving a thing by itself, if we appeal to the
inspired writers themselves, as affording the strong-
est possible confirmation of the truth of the miracles
they record. It has been already observed, that the
prophetic character, with the exception of the apoca-
lypse of St. John, attaches much less to the books of
the New than to those of the Old Testament. That
there are however, predictions contained in the
Christian Scriptures, the fulfilment of which has
been so literally accomplished as to leave no possi-
bility of doubt respecting the inspiration of their
authors, provided we admit the genuineness of the
works in question, is, on the other hand, perfectly
certain. Those of St. Paul, which allude to the cor-
ruptions which would one day prevail in the Christian
Church, and which so accurately describe some of the
leading abominations of Popery, cannot indeed be got
rid of even by the presumption of their being a
forgery, as they are, at all events, demonstrably of a
much earlier date than can be assigned to the first
origin of the abuses which they denounce. But
WITH HUMAN REASON^ 233
going farther back in time, and referring to the pro-
phetic denunciations of our Saviour respecting the
approaching destruction of Jerusalem, we may con-
fidently assert of them, that if the date assigned to
them be accurate, they prove to demonstration that
he who uttered them was possessed of more than
human knowledge. It is impossible to read the
twenty-first chapter of St. Luke's Gospel, and other
similar passages in the four Evangelists, respecting
the fearful calamities which were in preparation for
that devoted city, and then to compare them with the
account given by Josephus of what actually passed
during the horrible circumstances of the siege by
which it was overpowered, without assenting to the
certainty of this conclusion. In the twenty-third
chapter of St. Luke we read, for instance, that our
Redeemer addressed the following words to the
women who followed him with their lamentations to
the place of his crucifixion : — " Daughters of Jerusa-
lem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and
your children ; for, behold ! the days are coming in
which they shall say. Blessed are the barren, and the
wombs that never bare, and the paps which never
gave suck. Then shall they begin to say to the mouri'
tainSyfall on us^ and to the hills, cover us,^* If we wish
to understand the allusion contained in the latter
part of this address, we have only to turn to the
seventh, eighth, and ninth chapters of the sixth book
of Josephus's Wars of the Jews, and we there find
that when the siege of Jerusalem, under Titus, was
drawing to its last crisis, many of the mutineers
within the walls, who had first stirred up the rebel-
lion against the Roman power, and who had exercised,
in the course of the war, the most atrocious cruelties
against their own countrymen, desperate of pardon
from either party, betook themselves, as their last
resource, to the excavations formed under the town by
the working of the quarrieSy and there peHshed to the
number of more than two thousand by suicide^ by mutual
20*
234 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
violence^ and hy hunger. There is, assuredly, none
of ihe calculated ambiguity of false oracles, conceal-
ing their real iguorance under the shelter of equi-
vocal expressions, observable in this singular pro-
phecy. What proof, then, have Ave that this predic-
tion was uttered nearly forty years before the events
which it foretold, and that Jerusalem was still in
existence at the time that it was thus recorded by the
Evangelist in the Gospel which bears his name?
The argument, which lies in small compass, may be
shortly stated thus. The prophecy above quoted
occurs, as has been stated, in St. Luke's Gospel.
But the same author, in his preface to his book of the
Acts of the Apostles, refers to his Gospel as di former
treatise. The date of the book of the Acts, then, is
confessedly later than that of the Gospel of this
writer. But the book of the Acts itself breaks off
suddenly, after relating the conclusion of the first
imprisonment of Paul in Rome, which is gene-
rally supposed to have terminated about the year of
Christ 65 or QQ\ that is to say, four or five years
before the capture of Jerusalem. The proof, then,
of the real antiquity of the prediction contained in
the Gospel of St. Luke, w411 turn upon the evidence
which we have of that of the book of the Acts.
Now, that this latter work was written very soon
after the occurrence of the last events which it
records, is obvious from the strongest internal evi-
dence. It is impossible to suppose that the writer
was acquainted with the interesting transactions
which subsequently to the above date marked the
few closing years of the life of the great apostle of
the Gentiles, when he composed this history, and
that he purposely abstained from relating them.
We may confidently, then, assume the date of this
production to have been that just now stated ; whilst,
for the actual authenticity of the work, as the genuine
production of one who himself witnessed the events
which he relates, we may at once appeal to one of
WITH HUMAN REASON. 235
the ablest and most unanswerable arguments which
modern literature has produced. We know not, in
fact, how it is possible to escape from the demonstra-
tion afforded by Paley of the authenticity of the book
of the Acts of the Apostles, and of the Epistles of
St. Paul. But this proof, once established, extends
wider than the peculiar purpose, to establish which
that acute writer adduced it. These books, it should
be remembered, necessarily presuppose the existence
not of the Gospel of Luke only, but the authenticity
of at least a large portion of the miraculous facts
detailed by the other Evangelists, and of all the main
doctrines connected with the theory of our redemp-
tion. It is quite inconceivable that they should be
genuine, and that the histories to which they appear
uniformly to refer should be supposititious.* In fact,
* The following extracts from the general remarks subjoined bv the
fearned Dr. Laurence, the present Archbishop of Cashel, to his publica-
lion of the singular apocryphal work, " Ascensio Isaiae Vatis," contain so
■strong a confirmation of ihe Aict of the implicit belief attached, within
the limits of the apostolical age itself, to one of the most frequently ques-
tioned |)reterwatural events recorded by the Evangelists, namely, the
miraculous conception of Christ, that we shall make no apology for their
length.
"From internal testimony, of a still more definite description, I con-
ceive that even the specific time of its composition (that of the work hero
alluded to) may be satisfactorily ascertained. It speaks only of one per-
•secution of Christians as taking place between the establishment of Chris-
tianity and the day of Judgment. This must, necessarily, have been the
persecution under Nero. Had the author lived so late a.s the reign of
Domitian, he would scarcely have limited the scene of Christian suffer-
ing to a single persecution, and have foretold the dissolution of all things
as shonly succeeding it. Nor, indeed, are we left to mere conjecture
relative to the particular persecution alluded to ; but demonstrable proof
-exists, that it could only have been the firs'. For Isaiah is introduced as
prophesying, that at its commencement, ' Berial shall descend, the mighty
angel, the prince of this world, which he has posses.sed from its creation.
He' shall descend from the firmament in the form of a man, an impious
/monarch, the murJerer of his mother ; in the lorm of him, the sove-
reign of the tcorld.'' Now, it is evident that the singular circumstance
here stated of the arch fiend Berial, possessing the body of " an impious
monarch, the murderer of his mother," is only applicable to Nero, who
is recorded to have stabbed his mother, Agripoina. But something more
precise still follows. For we are further told, that he shall have power
" three years, seven 'months, and twenty-seven days." The burning
of Rome took place on the 19th .June, a.d. G4. The crime of this con-
flagration, which excited universal abhorrence, Nero imputed to the
Chrtstianfi and from hence sprung the first persecution. Historians are
236 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
from the first opening of the narrative of the Ner^
Testament down to the time when the canon of the
Christian Scriptures was universally acknowledged
to be such as we now receive it, there is no one open
not agreed as to the exact time of its commencement. But Mosheim,
upon authority which he respects, fixes it to the month of November,
A.D. 64. If, then, we compute bacicwards to the death of Nero, which
happened upon June 9, a.d. 68, the period of three years, seven monthSf
and twenty-seven days, (considering the months as lunar, and the year
68 as a leap year,) we shall rind, that the day allotted to the commence-
ment of Berial's power falls upon the 30th day of October, a.d. 64 ; a
coincidence, I apprehend, sufficiently close to prove that the persecution
referred to must, indisputably, have been the nrst.
"The conclusion, then, will be, that our author wrote after the death
of Nero; that is, after June 9, a.d. 68. But the most striking circum-
stance still remains to be noticed. For, from what immediately follow^
it appears, that although he must have written after the 9th of June,
A.D. 68, he must likewise have written before the close of the year 69.
In the very next verse but one to that, which relates the downfall of
Nero's tyranny, it is added, " After three hundred and thirty-two days
the Lord shaU come with his angels and holy powers, from the seventh
heaven, in iHe splendour of thatheaven and shall drag Berial and his
powers into Gehenna." And again, "Then shall the voice of the
Beloved rebuke in wrath the heaven, and the dry land, the mountains,
and the hills, the cities, and the deserts, the north, the angel of the
sun, the moon, and every thing where Berial has been seen and mani-
fested in this world. There shall also be a resurrection and judg-
ment in thoie days, while the Beloved shall cause to ascend from
him a fire to consume all the ungodly, who shall be as if they never
had been created." Had the work been written subsequently to the
three hundred and thirty-two days which followed the death of Nero,
the author of it could never, surely, have been absurd enough to fix
a time for the conclusion of the world, for the resurrection, and for
the day of Judgment, which time had a /ready elapsed ! In full persua-
sion that the Lord was indeed at hand, particularly after the bloodv
scenes of systematic torture which he had witnessed, he might, indeec^
have ventured to predict the almost immediate advent of Christ to judg-
ment : but it is impossible to conceive, tliat in his sober senses he could
have referred the consummation of all things to a past period. It seems
certain, therefore, if the pren.ises from which I have argued be correct,
that the book must have been composed to»A^ards the close of the year 68,
or in the beginning of the year 69."
The Archbishop, after some further observations, proceeds to state : —
" I would remark, that in the work before us, the miraculous concep-
tion is distinctly and unequivocally asserted: which circumstance aflbrds
incontestrble proof, if my previous reasoning be correct, that the fact was
on record at no great distance of time from the period when St. Matthew's
Gospel itself is said bv Irenaeus to have been written. Indeed, the author
of the "Ascension of isaiah" seems to have borrowed the outline of his
narrative from that very Gospel.
"The Evanselist thus expresses 'himself: "When his mother, Mary,
was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found
with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph, her husband, was minded
WITH HUMAN REASON. 237
interval, however short, in which we can, with the
slightest degree of probability, imagine the imposi-
tion of a set of forged documents upon mankind under
the form of authentic revelation. Some consider-
able period must always elapse before any unfounded
traditions could, under the most favourable circum-
stances, obtain any general belief. But the interval
which elapsed between the crucifixion of Christ and
that time when we find the early Christian writers
appealing to the Christian Scriptures, such as we noAV
possess them, with the most unsuspecting reliance
upon their authenticity, is much too short to admit,
with the remotest degree of probability, of this sup-
position. What possible combination of circum-
stances, for instance, could induce well-informed
Englishmen of the present day to receive implicitly
as true a series of forged documents, the production
of unknown persons, at some intermediate period,
which should positively assert that the most stupen-
dous miracles were publicly exhibited in London at
the time of the accession of the House of Hanover
to the British throne ; and could make them lay
down their live^ in confirmation of their belief?
to put her away privily." Our author relates the same occurrences,
almost in the same language : " I beheld a woman, by name Mary, who
toas a virgin, and betrothed to a man, by name Joseph. I saw, that
after she was betrothed she was found pregnant ; and that Joseph
was inclined to put her atoay." The latter part of the account is thus
related by the Evaniielist: "Then Joseph, being raised from sleep, did
as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife :
and knew her not till she had broughtforth her first-born son." With
a little variation, it is thus related by our author: " Then the Angel of
the Spirit appeared in the world ; after which Joseph did not put aioay
Mary, .... neither did he approach her, but preserved her as a
holy virgin^ notwithstanding her pregnancy."
"From a collation of these respective passages it must appear, I ap-
prehend, to every critic whose mind is not warped by theolog.cal preju-
dices, that the latter account was borrowed from the former. And if so,
it must be obvious, that the narrative of the miraculous conception extant
m all the manuscripts and veraions of St. Matthew's Gospel, was not a
subsequent interpolation, but an original part of that Gospel. Nor does
it seem less certain, that the same narrative was believed, as well by
Jewish as by Heathen converts, long before the termination of the first
century," &c.
238 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
And yet the period is not so long from the date of
the crucifixion to the time when Justin Martyr wrote
his Apologies for Christianity, (works teeming with
direct quotations from the New Testament, as we
now receive it, and with incidental allusions to the
sen tim ents of those inspired writings, which show how
completely they had become part and parcel of his
opinions,) as it is from the accession of George I. to
the present day. If, however, the writings of the
New Testament be really authentic, then we must
•confidently assert of them, as w^e have already done
on a former occasion, of the histories of the Old
Testament, that they afford irrefragable proof of the
reality of the miracles which they relate. It is im-
possible that the books themselves could be contem-
poraneous with the times, the history of which they
profess to record, that they should have been received
as worthy of credit by the parties to whom they
were addressed, and yet, that matters of such palpa-
ble and accessible notoriety should have been falsely
stated in them. " For revealed religion," said Dr.
Johnson, a few days before his death, and the dying
declarations of such a man surely ought to carry
with them no small authority, " for revealed religion
there is such historical evidence as, upon any subject
not religious, would have left no doubt. Had the
facts recorded in the New Testament been mere civil
occurrences, no one would have called in question
the testimony by which they are established ; but the
importance annexed to them, amounting to nothing
less than the salvation of mankind, raises a cloud
in our minds, and creates doubts unknown upon any
other subject. With respect to evidence, we have
not such evidence that Csesar died in the capitol as
that Christ died in the manner related."
WITH HUMAN REASON,.
CHAPTER XXVn.
Q^ the Evidence of the Truth of Revelation afforded by the low
Condition in Life, thf. absence of Literary Acquirements^ and the
impossibility of^ Confederacy in its respective Promulgators,
The character and condition in life of the iSrst
preachers of Christianity, and of revelation in general,
suggest, again, another argument in favour of the
truth of their doctrines, which it would perplex the
Infidel to overthrow. The following reply of Lac-
tarrtius, to the assertions of one of the early impugners
and persecutors of our faith, may be appositely applied,
not to the case of Peter and Paul only, but to that of
almost all the respective authors of the inspired books,
both Jewish and Christian. " Tantum abest a Divinis
literis repugilantia, quantum ille (adversarius vide-
licet) abfuit a veritate et fide. Prsecipue tamen
Paulum Petrumque laceravit ceterosque discipulos,
tanqxiam fallaciae seminatores, quos eosdem tamen
rudes et indoctos fuisse testatus est ; nam quosdam
eororm piscatorio artificio fecisse qua^stum : quasi
aegre ferret quod illam rem non Aristophanes aliquis
aut ArJstarchus comrmentatus sit. Abfuit ergo ab
his fingendi voluntas et astutia, quoniam rudes fue-
runt. Aut quis possit indoctus apta inter se et cohiE-
rentia fingere, quum philosophorum doctissimi Plato
et Aristoteles et Epicurus et Zcnon ipsi sibi repug-
nantia et contraria dixerint ? hsec est enim mendaci-
orum natura, ut cohaerere non possint. Illorum
autem traditio^ quia vera est, quadrat undique^ ac sibi
tola consentit ; et ideo persuadet quia constanti ra-
lione suffulta est." This observation, which carries
with it great weight, when directed to the various
component parts of Scripture individually, is per-
fectly unanswerable when applied to the entire and
consistent scheme of revelation as a whole. Seldom,
240 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
if ever, is any one single impostor entirely accordant
with himself: a succession of impostors, writing at
separate and remote periods the one from the other,
cannot hy any possibility be so. And yet where,
from the fall of Adam downwards, to the final close
of the work of inspiration, can we detect one single
violation of unity of purpose in the theory of God's
interferences for the redemption of mankind, —
where point out one absent link from the chain of
connected consequences ? The whole is obviously the
grouping and calculated contrivance of one master-
mind.
Had the self-same tenets, with those promulgated
in Holy Writ, been first taught by any of the great
moral sages of Greece or Rome, it is evident that,
although that circumstance ought not in reality to
have operated against the value of their instructions,
it would certainly have suggested a plausible argu-
ment against the Divine authority attaching to them,
of which the sceptic would not have failed to take
advantage. No reason, it might have been said, can
be adduced to show that a first rate understanding,
taking into consideration all the anomalous features
of man's moral constitution, might not, by a lucky
accident, have lighted upon such a plausible vindica-
tion of God's Providence, in his dealings with the
human race, as the Christian theory supposes. The
great superiority of such a theory over those invented
by the several founders of the other great schools of
philosophy, it might hav*e been urged, no more proves
the Divine inspiration of its promulgator, than the
superior beauties of the works of Homer or Shak-
speare, to those of most other poets, Avould neces-
sarily oblige us to attribute their peculiar degree of
genius to a like Divine source. Undoubtedly it would
have been difficult to meet successfully objections of
this nature. As there is no assignable and definite
limit to the inventive powers of the human mind, it
is evident that the production of any one work, of
WITH HUMAN REASON. 241
even unprecedented merit, by one individual, would
only be another and a new measure afforded us of
what the intellect of man can achieve, and would
supply no proof whatever that such individual was
inspired. But the whole canon of Scripture, as we
possess it, is a complete refutation of this objection
in every form in which it is capable of being put with
respect to the inspiration of the Bible. Nothing can,
it is true, be more entire and consistent with itself
than the scheme of revelation as a whole, but on the
other hand, it is equally certain that nothing can be
more seemingly desultory, can bear more positive
proofs of the absence of any thing like confederacy, or
be less set off by elaborate splendour of composition,
than the greater part of those writings through the
medium of which that revelation is conveyed. One
strong internal proof of the real inspiration attributa-
ble to the sacred authors, for instance, is the fact, that
many of them are not only known to have been
ignorant men in general, but also appear, on several
occasions, to have been perfectly unaware of the value
of the very facts which they were communicating.
With reference to one another, so far from appearing
to be united in a common combination to deceive,
they often seemingly, though perhaps never substan-
tially, contradict each other's statements, in minute
particulars, and sometimes even in momentous points
of doctrine. Not only do they not appear to wish to
theorize, but it may even be doubted how far many
of them, at the moment that their works were com-
posed, possessed any definite theory beyond that of
the single fact of the promised redemption of the
Israelitish people. In order to understand what
Christianity, in all its parts, really is, we must study
not one Gospel only, nor even the whole four Gos-
pels, but the entire book of the New Testament, from
the beginning to the end : and even then our conclu-
sions would be incomplete, as to its vast importance
and the elaborate contrivance of Providence for its
21
242 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
production, unless we extend our researches back-
ward, from the last book of the Old Testament to the
very first page of Genesis itself. And yet among the
great multitude of writers whose respective compo-
sitions constitute that single and consistent work
which we call the Bible, only two individuals, namely,
Moses and Paul, could for a moment, under any
circumstances, be suspected of a tendency or disposi-
tion to set up what might justly be denominated a
system. But Moses, if he systematized at all, must
obviously have had an eye to the permanence of his
own institutions, and have striven more to establish
his own efficiency, as a legislator, than to act in the
capacity of a mere forerunner of a code of doctrines
by which his own' were to be eventually superseded :
— whilst, again, Paul, however disposed he may have
been to concentrate the facts and doctrines con-
nected with Christ's advent into one consistent series
of propositions, at all events came after those facts
upon which he builds his conclusions had already
taken place, and after the greater portion of those
doctrines had been promulged and commented upon
by others.
If, then, there is, as there assuredly seems to be, a
traceable consistency in Scripture, which marks the
agency and dictation of one predominating mind, it
certainly is not to the ostensible authors of its seve-
ral component parts that such consistency can be
referred. If their pens were so guided that each indi-
vidual performed exactly his own necessary share in
the construction of the work, and no more, and if,
without natural eloquence, without the acquirements
of literature, and without any of the known qualifica-
tions by which sages and legislators have been occa-
sionally enabled to impress a new character upon
society, these men have operated the greatest change
in human manners recorded in history, we must surely
look elsewhere than to themselves for the great
moving principle. It is in vain for us to examine the
WITH HUMAN REASON. 243
Divine Scriptures with the fastidious eye of critics,
and to attempt to show that the work might have
been better and more systematically done. The best
answer to such objections is, that the work is done:
that the Bible has been the instrument, which has
rendered the manners of modern times, not excepting
those of many unbelievers themselves, more humane,
more polished, and ten thousand times more pure,
than those of the best periods of antiquity : and that
if, upon reference to the writings which have wrought
such wonders, we seem often to miss that elegance of
style and those nice accomplishments which mark
the highly-finished productions of professional men
of letters, it is, in fact, only one miracle the more,
and the more manifestly "the Lord's doing."
Those persons who are disposed to believe that
Providence has, from first to last, superintended
the developement and promulgation of Christianity,
taking care that the most important of all communi-
cations should be made as accessible as possible to the
whole human race, will probably be disposed to con-
sider the singular fact that the whole of the New
Testament has descended to us in the Greek and not
in the Aramaic language, as another internal proof
of the Divine benevolence and wisdom. Certain it
is, from the history of mankind subsequent to the
commencement of the Christian era, that no other lan-
guage would have supplied so universally convenient
a vehicle for the general transmission of truth as the
one which, for many centuries since the coming of
Christy was that of the predominant power of Europe,
and which is at this moment, as it is likely to con-
tinue to be, one of the foremost objects of the study
of men of letters throughout the civilized world.
244 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Conclusion.
Returning, then, to the main proposition with
which Ave set out, we have no hesitation in asserting
that, setting aside all gratuitous theories of what we
might conceive the system of the universe possibly
to have been, had it pleased God so to arrange it,
and taking the actual acknowledged facts of human
nature as the foundation of the argument, there is an
appositeness and relevancy to our moral wants in the
scheme of revelation, such as we have received it,
which affords a strong, we might surely add, an
overpowering, evidence of its Divine origin. Were it
confessedly the suggestion of philosophical ingenuity,
it would probably be acknowledged by every class of
men to be by many degrees the most plausible con-
jecture in the records of literature ; whilst, as a matter
of practice, it is undoubtedly calculated to extirpate
more of the evil propensities of the heart, and to
develope, or, to speak more properly, to create a
greater capability of virtue than all the united ethical
theories which human ingenuity has produced. The
experiment has now been made for the space of nearly
eighteen centuries, and it may confidently be asserted
of it, that where fairly tried, it has invariably suc-
ceeded in raising the standard of civilization, and
promoting social and domestic happiness. It is no
argument against it to allege, as the infidels are in the
habit of doing, the miseries produced during the same
period of time by the malignant passions of mankind
under the assumed sanction of its name. None but
those who are already predisposed from other causes
to calumniate revelation, would venture to attach any
weight to such uncandid allegations. " The time
WITH HUMAN BEASON. 245
Cometh that whosoever killelh you will think that he
doeth God service," was the prophetic remark of our
Saviour upon the abuses which he foresaw would one
day be perpetrated under the pretext of religion ; and
certain it is, that human cruelty seldom attains to so
acrimonious a perfection of bitterness as when con-
centrated and excited by the demoniacal spirit of
ignorant fanaticism. But the answer here is a short
and a plain one. Neither hatred, pride, ambition,
persecution, nor any other evil and carnal passion,
however plausibly disguised, can ever be otherwise
than directly opposed to the meek and unresisting^
principles of the Gospel ; and precisely in the same
proportion in which any taint of such propensities
shall have at any time been found to have influenced
the conduct of otherwise sincere Christians, must they
be considered to have retrograded from their faith.
The fact is, that the history of strongly excited human
passion, be th« ostensible exciting motive what it will,
is almost invariably the history of human crime.
Never is the understanding less fitted to judge calmly
and, therefore, soundly, — never is the heart less
accessible to the complacent feeling of devotion in all
its overflowing tenderness of universal charity, than
when religion is made a war cry, or the rallying
signal of a party. In order to know the immense
degree of temporal good which the doctrines of the
Gospel have wrought, and are at this moment work-
ing in society, we must look, then, not to the glare
of public events, where, perhaps, a few great and
triumphant examples of unshaken rectitude of prin-
ciple afford a poor consolation to the spectator for the
general scene of wretchedness and wickedness Avhich
he is compelled to witness, but to the noiseless
retirement of domestic life ; to those unobtrusive
circles in which the Christian virtues, as they are
expelled one by one from the arena of worldly clam-
our, take their final refuge. To this surest and most
unfailing test, every sincere believer will confidently
21*
846 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
appeal for the evidences of the soundness of those
principles which he acknowledges, against the taunts
of the unbeliever. He will point to the abode of
those whom the world deems unfortunate, but who
are inwardly conscious of possessing a treasure which
they would not exchange for all the external pros-
perity of those who despise them ; to the bedchamber,
of the invalid, who cheerfully recognises the hand of
a father and benefactor in the stroke which chastises
him; to traits of feminine and almost infantine hero-
ism, in comparison of which the legends of Pagan
antiquity fade away into nothing; and, as a case not
less in point, to the jaded feelings of the worn out
votary of wealth or amhition, who has at length
begun to perceive the vanity of all human pursuits,
excepting that of the one thing, w^hich in the sunny
season of life he had contemptuously overlooked.
The healing operation of the Gospel principles upon
all the weaknesses and infirmities and irritations to
which our nature is subject, cannot^ Ave repeat, he the
result of mere accident. There must be something in
them of Divine contrivance, some relevancy, how-
ever inexplicable, to the constitution of our hearts and
understanding. Falsehood and imposture are in their
very nature so repugnant to the general well-being
of mankind, and to our necessary apprehensions of
the Divine attributes, that to suppose them capable
of producing all the effects of the holiest truths, not
only in this or that instance, but in every department
and under every possible modification of society,
would be the greatest of absurdities. If it is alleged,
in reply to this observation, that Christianity is only
so far beneficial in its effects upon the human heart,
inasmuch as it comprehends all the principles of
natural religion, to the excellence and Divine origin
of which the sceptic professes to assent equally with
ourselves, our answer is, that we deny that mere
natural religion can produce the result now described.
We do not pretend nor wish to undervalue the prin-
WITH HUMAN REASON. 247
ciples of sound theism so far as ihey will go. They
constitute, we admit, integral portions of the truth,
but still, we assert, that they are not the whole truth ;
and we would add, also, that the points in which
they are defective are those very points in which the
weakness of human nature most earnestly requires
their help. In every thing that has reference to the
position of man with respect to his Creator, to the
peculiar difficulties connected with the undoubted
phenomena of the Divine government, and every
most earnest wish and want of the human heart, we
must have recourse solely and exclusively to the
peculiar doctrines of Christianity. The moral anoma-
lies which, in the midst of an astonishingly beautiful
material creation, we cannot but observe around us,
suggest the antagonist propositions against which the
Gospel revelations are placed in direct counteraction.
In admitting, then, the fact of the existence of the
former, it would seem impossible, if we would vindi-
cate to our reasons the ways»of Providence, to deny
the reality of the latter. Why, then, has this splen-
did doctrine been received with so much haughty
superciliousness, not to say with so much virulence
of hostility, as we know that it has been received, by
men of high acquirements in literature, and even
sometimes of correct moral habits ? The Gospel
itself will supply the answer, " that its kingdom is
not of this world ;" that it is not a mere ingenious
theory, in discussing which philosophical minds may
exercise their acuteness, but that it is a practical,
and often a painful, course of moral discipline, entail-
ing upon its professors no slight degree of self-
restraint, and the abjuration of no small proportion
of the more immediate attractions of this life. Nor
is this all. Calculated, as it really is, to meet and
satisfy our most urgent moral wants, still the truth
of this fact is far, very far, from being prominently
evident to all classes of persons. The patient requires
to be satisfied of tiie existence of the malady before
248 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
he calls in the aid of the physician. But such are the
distractions of society, and so numerous the occupa-
tions which divert us from the habit of deep spiritual
reflection, that the interior of their own breasts
remains to the last an unexplored region to the greater
portion of mankind. Let them, indeed, take the
trouble of tracing consequence after consequence as
they arise in necessary succession, from the acknow-
ledged principles of universal morals, and we have
no doubt that the uniform result to most minds would
be, a disposition to hail the communications of reve-
lation as bearing the decisive stamp of authenticity.
But this is a trouble which fev/ individuals imagine
that they have leisure, and still fcAver find that they
have the disposition, to undertake. To such men,
accordingly, Christianity comes as medicine tendered
to the sound, or the solution of an enigma to those
who are not conscious of the difficulty. Its first
impression, therefore, upon them is, that of its being
something superfluous, 'which they may well afford
to do without, and which, therefore, would argue a
meddlesome pertinacity in those who would anxiously
direct their attention to it.
The long continued operation of miracles, also,
of which the Bible requires our belief, and the tran-
scendental mysteries which it inculcates as matters
of faith, though involving no real improbability, if
rightly considered, must be confessed to be well cal-
culated to startle most persons, who come for the
first time to the consideration of its evidences. In
order fully to appreciate the physical difficulty which
€ven the most intelligent and well regulated minds
must have felt, to conquer their prepossession against
revelation, occasioned by the detail of preternatural
occurrences which it records, it will be proper, before
we conclude, to revert once more to the notice of one
of those instinctive operations of our minds, with
respect to the existence of which, as we have before
.observed, all metaphysicians appear to be agreed.
WITH HUMAN REASON. 249
The operation alluded to has been already stated to
be that by which, prior to, and independently of, all
systematic reasoning, we derive our belief in the
permanency and inviolability of the ordinary laws
of nature from the simple fact of our own past per-
sonal experience. It has been often and often re-
peated by those persons who have most studied the
phenomena of the human mind, that in consequence
of our inability to trace any connexion between cause
and effect, we can have no possible ground for anti-
cipating the recurrence of any, the most natural
incident, beyond that of our recollection of the uni-
formity of its past occurrence under analogous cir-
cumstances. Such are the stran»;e processes by which
we reason, that this axiom, which in fact supplies the
strongest theoretical argument in favour of what we
should deem miracles, (inasmuch as it would show
that, for any thing we know to the contrary, any
result whatever may be the result of any antecedent
operation,) still affords, practically, the most power-
ful though not the most sound, presumption against
them. " Such and such things happen in a certain
order; therefore they will always so happen." This
is, perhaps, the first general maxim at which the
human mind, in the commencement of life, arrives.
No doubt Providence has wisely contrived, not only
that every man, but probably, that every animal
endued with consciousness, in order that it may be
enabled to procure its own subsistence, should have
a necessary and instinctive impression, that certain
effects will invariably result from certain causes.
But it is obvious that this conclusion is the result
of no legitimate process of ratiocination. **'It is
impossible," says Hume, " that this inference of the
(brute) animal can be founded on any process of
argument or reasoning, by which he concludes, that
like events must follow like objects, and that the
course of nature will always be regular in its opera-
tions* For if there be, in reality, any arguments of
250 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
this nature, they surely lie too abstruse for the obser-
vation of such imperfect understandings; since it
may well employ the utmost care and attention of a
philosophic genius to discover and observe them.
Animals, therefore, are not guided in these inferences
hy reasoning; neither are children: neither are the
generality of mankind, in their ordinary actions and
conclusions : neither are philosophers themselves^ who,
in all the active parts of life, are, in the main, the
same with the vulgar, and are governed by the same
maxims. Nature must have provided some other
principle, of more ready and more general use and
application ; nor can an operation of such immense
consequence in life as that of inferring effects from
causes be trusted to the uncertain process of reason-
ing and argumentation. Were this doubtful with
regard to men, it seems to admit of no question with
regard to the brute creation ; and the conclusion
being once firmly established in the one, we have a
strong presumption, from all the rules of analogy,
that it ought to be universally admitted without any
exception or reserve. It is custom alone whicn
engages animals, from every object that strikes their
senses, to infer its usual attendant, and carries their
imagination, from the appearance of the one, to con-
ceive the other in that particular manner which we
denominate belief. No other explanation can be
given of this operation, in all the higher as well as
lower classes of sensitive beings which fall under
our notice and observation."* Without this power-
ful association here stated, it would undoubtedly be
impossible for us not only to provide for coming
occurrences, but even duly to avail ourselves of the
present blessings which the bounty of the Creator has
spread before us. The sceptical philosopher, however,
from whose writings the above extract is made, has
attached so much importance to this fact, that upon
• Jlurnk's Essay on the Reason of Animals,
WITH HUMAN REASON. 251
it, that is to say, upon our presumed incapability of
believing any thing which is contrary to our' uniform
past experience, he has built his celebrated dictum,
that " no testimony whatever is sufficient to establish
a miracle." It is, to be sure, somewhat inconsistent,
in a statement thus undoubtedly promulgated, that
this bold proposition should be admitted by its pro-
pounder to be founded, as is above seen, upon no
necessary, nor even probable, inference of the reason;
but to be a mere consequence of the arbitrary con-
struction of the mind; and that he should allow,
almost in the same breach, that no, however porten-
tous deviation from the general order of events, in-
dependently of that instinctive association, ought,
properly, to excite in us any surprise whatever.
*' The bread," says he, " which I formerly ate, nour-
ished me ; that is, a body of such sensible qualities
was, at that time, endued with such secret poAvers.
But does it follow that other bread must also nourish
me at another time, and that like sensible qualities
must always be attended with the like secret powers?
The consequence seems nowise necessary. ^^*^ "What is
this admission, then, but that there is nothing in
what we should grant to be a real miracle, that is to
say, a decided deviation from seemingly established
cause and effect, which, in strict reason, ought to sur-
prise us? But such contradictions are, perhaps, to
be expected the moment that we launch into the
region of metaphysical abstractions. In a certain
sense, however, the sincerest Christian believer will
readily' grant the greater part, though, assuredly, he
will not assent to the entire whole, of the foregoing
assertions. He will cheerfully acknowledge, with
Hume, that knowing really nothing of the necessary
connexion of causation, we have no reason, theoret-
ically, for supposing any miracle whatever (using
that word in its commonly received acceptation) to
' Hume's ^^^JjjJ^^I llll^^
OB*
252 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
be really impossible : but he will also allow, because
it is what every reasonable person must feel, that the
natural, an^ almost necessary presumption of our
minds is, that the order of nature, such as we know
it from experience to be, is, as a general rule, fixed
and permanent. It is obvious, however, and should
never be forgotten, that, whilst the former of these
propositions is a direct inference from the principles
of sound and laborious reasoning, the latter is. an
inert and involuntary animal impression only. We
believe in it, because we find ourselves, from the
constitution of our nature, impelled to do so; but we
can assign no other reason for it than that God, for
wise, practical, but secondary purposes, has so dis-
posed us. The fact is, that the moment that we
examine this last axiom^ the more we find our-
selves obliged to question its philosophical accuracy.
Nothing, assuredly, can be more experimentally cer-
tain, than that the phenomena of nature have not
always been what they are this moment. And
yet we can no more conceive the fact of a creation
of the universe, or that of the first production of any
single plant or animal, than we can any of the most
Astounding miracles of Scripture. Such occurrences
are certainly equally opposed, with those last mention-
ed, to our daily and uniform experience, and therefore,
according to Hume's argument, ought to be equally
revolting to the understanding. But with regard to
those former facts, they are as certain and demon-
strable as any the best attested occurrences of our
own times. That such things have been, is no longer
a doubt with the most hardened and pertinacious
sceptic. But if so, there is assuredly no reason why
"we should stop at this point, and, having admitted
the uncertainty of the test of mere experience thus
far, should deny that the same argument may be
legitimately extended much further.
Though, however, such an inference would seem
to b© nothing more than what is strictly reasonable*
WITH HUMAN REASON. 253
Still, we repeat, the blind and instinctive impression
of the human mind is on the other side. All persons
whatever in their ordinary, and the greater proportion
of mankind in their permanent, habits, are startled
and offended by any assertion of the reality of what,
in common language, and under common circum-
stances, would be deemed impossibilities. The
ignorant no less than the learned can say what is
accordant with, or contrary to, their personal experi-
ence, and by far the greater portion of mankind,
whether ignorant or learned, will reason no further.
It requires, in fact, no small degree of the power of
philosophical abstraction, to perceive that many things
which by the vulgar are considered as impossibilities,
are not only possible but necessary inferences from
undoubted premises. Until, however, this truth be
made not only demonstrable, but familiar to the
mind, a prejudice against the wonders related in
Scripture must ever, to a certain degree, exist in the
breasts of even the devout and well-disposed, whilst
the same facts will be exultingly selected from the
general context of revelation, by the thoughtless and
profane, as triumphant proofs of the credulity of the
single-minded, and the utter incredibility of the whole
theory of our faith. But the influential causes, to
which we must attribute the widely extending indif-
ference amongst worldly men with respect to evan-
gelical truth, do not terminate here. Christianity,
we should recollect, in addition to its being exposed
in limine to the strong involuntary objection above
alluded to, finds also a still more formidable, because
a far less innocent, predisposition of the human mind
arrayed against it, from the many sacrifices of pre-
sumed personal convenience it requires, and the
difficult course of spiritual discipline which it would
enforce. Here, again, every metaphysician will tell
us, that, independently of the moral disqualification
which licentious habits create for the perception of
the intrinsic beauty of true holiness, another objeo
''>5
254 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
tion to its reception occurs, founded like the former
rather upon the mechanism and original constitution
of our minds, than upon real exercise of the reason-
ing powers. The first and instinctive impulse of
every person, not with respect to religious questions
only, but in all the common transactions of life, is to
believe rather what he wishes to be true, than what
actually is so. This impression, an unreasonable
and a mischievous one no doubt, suggests itself un-
called for, and, in nine cases out of ten, influences
the choice and moulds the opinions of the average
members of society ; whilst, on the other hand, that
strength of mind, which, setting passion and prejudice
apart, withholds its judgment till it has found sub-
stantial reasons on which to found an inference, is
attained with difficulty, and consequently falls to the
lot of comparatively few. Tn no case, however, per-
haps, does the above-mentioned unreasoning preju-
dice operate more widely than in that of the forma-
tion of our religious opinions. A business-like, cal-
culating, and money-making community, do not
readily turn aside from their favourite course in pur-
suit of inquiries of this nature, where no immediate
worldly advantage is at hand to reward their labour.
So long, accordingly, as they can keep the momen-
tous questions of revelation at a distance, and by so
doing can contrive to know no more of it than that it
requires their belief in prodigies perfectly unlike to
any thing which has ever occurred within their own
knowledge, whilst they feel also that its entire adop-
tion Avould stand in the way of that self-indulgence
to which the corrupt human heart is so naturally
prone, religious belief in the full, strict, evangelical
sense of the term, must to them be really impossible.
Public decorum, and an idea that a professed defer-
ence to the established worship of the country is
required of them as citizens, may procure their external
assent to its forms ; and so long as that natural sense
of the rules of morality, which the Christian revela-
WITH HUMAN REASON. 255
tion has so much heightened and improved, even in
the case of those Avho deny its evidences, continues
to supply a general standard for their conduct, they
may pass through life perhaps not only plausibly, but
really usefully, as members of the social community.
Examples, however, such as these can never be quoted
as a realization of the blessed effects wrhich Chris-
tianity was intended to produce among the human
race.
We should form a very inadequate notion of the
value of the Gospel, were we to suppose that it had
completed its work when it had smoothed the rough
exterior of public manners, and, having inculcated a
certain series of moral maxims much too refined and
unearthly for the mere worldly mind to adopt, as a
rule of practice, or even to appreciate, that it has
left human nature as cold and as incapable of holy
aspirations as it found it. That stupendous dispen-
sation is assuredly, if true, far, very far, too elaborate
an arrangement of Providence to rest contented with
this humble result. It is either something vastly
superior to every possible worldly object, or it is
nothing. No reasonable Christian, any more than any
other reasonable person, believes gratuitously, unne-
cessarily, and from a natural predisposition, in mira-
cles. He knows, he sees as clearly as Hume or any
other sceptic, that God never disturbs the established
order of his own works, but for some truly extraor-
dinary and paramount object. If, then, notwithstand-
ing this original bias to the contrary, the overpower-
ing force of external and internal evidence obliges
him to admit that such preternatural interpositions
have really taken place ; and if he finds that the
choice between assent and unbelief is after all a choice
of difficulties, and yet that upon due and cautious
examination he cannot but admit that the affirmative
side of the question is, beyond comparison, the most
probable, still the very feeling of amazement with
which he concludes his inquiry leaves him under an
256 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
awe-Struck impression of the infinite importance of
the mysterious truths thus forced upon his conviction.
What, then, is the reasonable, the only conclusion,
to Virhich he can arrive ? That he cannot, consistently
with any rule of sound argument, any more than
conformably with what he conceives to be the un-
equivocal language of revelation, make common cause
with the Unitarian, the Socinian, or the Arian. He
feels that he has no alternative but that of receiving
Scripture as a whole, or of rejecting it as a whole.
He sees no diminution of the difficulty, if, discarding
as human superadditions the larger portion of the
recorded miracles of Holy Writ, he is compelled by
the cogency of proof to retain any. Granting the
reality of one, whether that one be the miracle of
inspiration, the miracle of prophecy, or the miracle of
the transmutation of natural objects, he knows that
he has conceded the great question at issue, and that
henceforward there remains no other point at which
he can reasonably stop in the course of his admis-
sions, than the full boundary line of Scripture itself.
But if he receive the whole of what we are taught
to acknowledge as God's word, it will, then, assuredly
be to him as the most stupendous and most excellent
of God's gifts. It will strictly be his "Emmanuel,
God with us." It will identify him in interests and
in feeling with every thing, however noble and tran-
scendental, which his imagination can conceive, or to
which his most rapturous wishes can aspire. It will
open all heaven before him, because he will know
that the price of heaven has already been paid on his
account ; and it will scale and purge his eyesight
with regard to every thing connected with the earth.
It will inculcate no fanaticism, no ascetic mortifi-
cations, no contemptuous disregard or hard-hearted
suppression of the charities of social and domestic
life ; for such are the false deductions of a morose
human philosophy, following up its own harsh and
narrow principles under the influence of superstitious
WITH HUMAN REASON. 257
terror and unenlightened reason. But he will, not-
withstanding, learn to see every thing in its proper
proportions, and in its true colours. He will think
less of this world, only because he will think of hea-
ven the more; but his dealings with mankind will
be in all fervour of affection, and cheerfulness, and
guileless simplicity of heart. He will love man,
because the principle of his religion is love, and
because he knows that for the sake of man his gra-
cious Redeemer quitted heaven and became a so-
journer and an outcast upon earth ; and he will love
God with an intensity of which every other modifica-
tion of religious belief is incapable, because no other
religion teaches that our Creator has done for us
what the Gospel assures us that he has done. Need
we, then, ask the superfluous question whether Chris-
tianity, thus considered and thus adopted, will make
him wiser and better? and if such be the certain
result of its adoption, need we again ask whether
that system of belief is really from God? " By their
fruits ye shall know them," is the infallible criterion
to which every Christian believer will confidently
appeal in vindication of the hope which is in him :
being fully assured that those tenets must be founded
upon an immoveable basis of truth, the necessary
consequence of which is to afford the best, or rather
the only, explanation of the mysteries of God's Provi-
dence, and, whilst it kills in their first growth every
germinating principle of vice, to develope a capability
of spiritual holiness in man, of the possibility of
which mere human reason could not have afforded
us the slightest conception.
In the preceding dissertation an attempt has been
made to give a summary sketch of the entire system
of revelation, by tracing the converging tendency of
its various integral parts from first to last, as they
22*
258 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
unite to form one consistent design, and terminate in
the establishment of a few most momentous proposi-
tions. The execution of the design has, from the
extensive nature of the subject, been necessarily
general and superficial : still, however, the mode of
treating it here pursued will not, it is trusted, be
without its use to many persons (whether coming
under the denomination of believers or sceptics)
whose attention may not have been accustomed to
consider the uniformity of plan which appears to
pervade the whole of God's dealings with mankind,
should they, and more especially should the latter,
be disposed to afford to it a small portion of their
consideration. To readers of the former description
it cannot, to say the least, be otherwise than bene-
ficial, to acquire the habit of taking larger and more
comprehensive views than they have yet done of the
subject matter of their belief, and of thus confirming
their previous impression of the truth of the various
component doctrines of their religion, by observing
how impossible it is to rest any of them singly and
severally from its general contexture without the
dislocation of the whole, and in fact without over-
turning the very fundamental principles of natural
theology itself. In this respect the design of the
comprehensive survey of the theory of Christianity
here attempted will bear some resemblance to that of
the blank outline maps which we place in the hands
of young students in geography, by the aid of which
the grouping and relative connexion of the several
districts are rendered more easy of apprehension,
than would be the case were they to commence by
entangling themselves in minute questions of detail.
In theology more especially, and more markedly than
in other pursuits, an acquaintance with the actual
location of a principle in the system of which it
forms a part, is absolutely necessary for the purpose
of its proper elucidation. A difliculty which would
be insuperable when considered as a detached propo-
'^9»mitUm ■ » "liiP
W^TH HUMAN REASON. 259
sition, often assumes the character of an obvious and
necessary inference, when viewed in its proper posi-
tion as a member of a connected series of correlative
axioms.
With the sceptic, again, the appeal here made to
principles recognised by himself, and to the test of
uniform experience, may, it is hoped, operate as an
inducement to commence a further and more elaborate
examination, in all its minuter details, of the great
question at issue, upon which he is imperatively
urged by every principle of duty, interest, and sober
reason, to return an impartial verdict. It is an ob-
vious truth, that with the active business-like man
of the world, the dogmatical inculcation of insulated
doctrinesof religion, however vital in themselves, and
however really substantiated by strong external evi-
dence, rarely succeeds. To minds thus preoccupied
by the speculations of the passing hour, the mysteri-
ous dicta of our faith necessarily announce them-
selves with an air of paradox, when presented one
by one, without reference to the other truths which
ought to precede or accompany them. Abstract and
impalpable doctrines are never accepted by us will-
ingly, nor considered impartially, where no previous
moral habits predispose us for their reception, and
no strongly marked semblance of probability gives
them an urgent claim upon our attention. Of all
subjects of intellectual research, accordingly, that of
theology, if we would ground our faith upon immove-
able principles, requires the widest process of induc-
tion and the most thorough investigation of the indu-
bitable principles of our own nature, and of the
general laws of God's moral government. Partial,
desultory, and confined views, whilst they present an
almost insurmountable stumbling-block in the path
of the sceptic, afford also an unsafe resting-place for
the faith of even the best disposed Christian believer.
It is only after a long and continuous effort of the
understanding that the mist which envelopes these
260 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
transcendental questions gradually disperses, and we
begin to perceive clearly, how, by the intimate inter-
lacement of doctrine with doctrine, the great truths
of revelation mutually aid and support one another.
When the mind, by habitual contemplation, has
become thoroughly familiarized with the wonders of
the spiritual world, then, and not till then, the neces-
sity not only of believing something, but of believing
what, if broadly stated to the indolent and indifferent,
will appear to be a degree of gratuitous credulity,
forces itself irresistibly on the conviction.
It is on this account that the singular intellectual
character of the age in which we live must tend to
fill every well-wisher to the cause of religion and to
mankind with feelings of anxiety, if not of alarm.
This observation is not made from any disposition to
augur altogether unfavourably of those habits of
mental enterprise which mark the present day. Con-
vinced, as we are, that the rapid movement which is
now taking place in the course of events is part of
that progressive system which the wisdom of Pro-
vidence has destined to lead to the ultimate benefit
of his creatures, we cannot doubt but that there
exists, somewhere or other, in the busy scene around
us, a sanative principle, which will deaden the energy
of much of that moral poison which at present seems
so copiously to infect the stream of science. It is the
almost exclusively earthly tendency of the intellec-
tual pursuits of the existing generation, and not the
pursuits themselves, which we fear and deprecate.
The evils resulting from the abuse of knowledge are
not, indeed, peculiar to our own age. So long as the
heart of man continues to be what it is, intelligence,
like every other power, will as often be converted
into a principle of mischief as of benefit. Be the
favourite science of the moment what it may, it will,
according to the opposite views of individuals, afford
implements for the attack, no less than arguments
for the defence, of religion. A century ago, when
WITH HUMAN REASON. 261
the comparative stagnation of the pubh'c mind, by
the greater degree of leisure which accompanied it,
impressed upon our literature a more abstracted and
visionary character than that which attaches to the
more practical studies of our present men of letters,
metaphysical studies, the legitimate pursuit of which
may be numbered among the most effective auxilia-
ries of sound theology, supplied, as is well known,
some of the most powerful aids to the genius of infi-
delity. A science which, as if by the touch of a
magician, could make the whole material universe,
as it were, disappear from 'our view, leaving to us
nothing but thin and impalpable abstractions in its
place, and which by attempting to explain the origin
and growth of our ideas, and even the nature and
constitution of the human soul, could contrive to
render the fundamental axioms of Theism and mo-
rality equivocal in the conceptions of the half-inform-
ed, was naturally laid hold of with eagerness, as an
excuse for their unbelief, by those persons whose
unaspiring object it was to confine the whole scope
ard energy of our spiritual faculties within the nar-
row boundaries of this world's business. The delu-
sion was strong whilst it lasted, but, like all other
systems of unsubstantial philosophy, was no less
transient. The age of unprofitable, and often of
mischievous, idealism is now gone by, and has left
little behind it to attract and interest the present
generation, except the recollection of undecided con-
troversies, and a few plausible ill-confirmed con-
jectures. The tendency of the literature of our own
times is, unfortunately, in some important respects,
of a directly contrary description. If the mysteries
of the immaterial world were formerly ransacked
with a petulant and profane curiosity, the fault now
lies in the opposite extreme. With a strong dislike
to every thing approaching to the reveries of abstrac-
tion, and, in fact, to every thing which does not con-
tribute its share to the business of the passing
262 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
moment, the public sentiment has adopted a con-
temptuous tone with respect to the merely contem-
plative sciences which inclines us occasionally to
look back almost with regret to the visionary studies
of our forefathers. If metaphysical pursuits did
nothing more than give us more accurate notions of
the real conditions of actual existence, and show us
how unlike our sensible and bodily perceptions are
to the mysterious and inaccessible objects which they
represent, they would, when duly cultivated, form no
unimportant preparative for the discussion of the
abstruse questions of theology. But it is rarely that
we are content thus to travel the middle and the
safest path. There is an exclusiveness in the tastes
of the human faculties which seldom contents itself
with the mere preference of one course of study to
another. The occupation of the moment must be as
every thing to us, and every other mode of mental
exercise as nothing. What Cicero so justly remarked
of the dangerous tendency of the epicurean doctrines,
namely, that by discussing too exclusively the pro-
perties of material objects, they almost, of necessity,
overlooked those spiritual entities the existence of
which they professed to acknowledge, may afford a
salutary hint to those persons Avho can anticipate no
danger to the cause of religion from that eager atten-
tion to secular concerns which marks the times in
which we live. " Cum in rerum natura duo quae-
renda sint, unum, quae materia sit ex qua quaeque res
efficiatur ; alterum, quae vis sit quae quidque efficiat,
de materifi disseruerunt, inm et causam efficiendi reli-
querunty It is not, we trust, speaking uncharitably,
to assert, that at the present moment, those sciences,
which have for their immediate object the investiga-
tion of material objects, have got more than their due
ascendency in general estimation ; and whilst that
state of things continues, infidelity of a certain kind
must be the necessary fconsequence. Infidelity, we
say, of a certain kind ; for that to which we allude is
WITH HUMAN REASON. 263
rather the negative unbelief resulting from indolence,
inattention, preoccupation, worldly views, and a
general distaste for the abstractions of speculative
research, than that of an elaborate and well-digested
system. The world, is at present, as little disposed
to lend an attentive ear to the metaphysical Atheist
as to the metaphysical Christian polemic. The infi-
delity, therefore, which we have reason to dread, is
more that of pampered and selfish internal sentiment
than that of open profession. The name of Christian
may not be disavowed as a generic appellation, but
the pure and high-minded feeling to which that de-
signation in strictness belongs would probably be
found to exist in far too weak a degree in the breasts
of a large portion of the active members of society at
present, to supply them with that energetic spirit of
resistance which is necessary to enable them to com-
pete successfully with the wordly tendencies too
natural to us all.
Few states of mind are, perhaps, less accessible to
conviction, in theological matters, than that which is
characterized by the languor and indifference now
described. The speculative student, who loves to
launch into the thin impalpabilities of the ideal
world, in order to make his meditations substantially
useful, requires only that the current of his thoughts
should be turned in the proper direction, and that he
should possess the soundness of principle necessary
to enable him to bestow upon each respective propo-
sition its fitting and impartial examination. Mean-
while, his habitual intercourse with spiritual things
supplies a proper training to fit him for the appre-
hension of religious topics. But the mind of the
professed utilitarian presents scarcely a single point
of approach for the arguments of the theologian.
Address to it singly the various constituent doctrines
of revelation, and they are instantaneously rejected
as resting upon little and equivocal external proof,
and unsupported \fy any collateral probabilities. Call
264 CONSISTENCY OF RETELATION
its attention to the theory and consistency of our
religion as a whole, and we challenge it to an inquiry
for which, as requiring an elaborate experimental
survey of all the multifarious circumstances of our
nature, it can afford neither sufficient time nor per-
severance. Such is the practical state of unbelief of
an active era like the present, which is the more
difficult to deal with, because, having no professed
theory of scepticism, there is no peculiar train of
argument more especially adapted to command its
notice. And yet we may confidently assert, that if
society is destined to escape from the dislocation
which threatens it, from the singular state of excite-
ment which, from a combination of causes, pervades,
at present, the whole civilized world, it will neither
be the labour of the legislator, nor the ingenuity of
the secular philosopher, but the corrective spirit of
religion, in other words, the kindly, the humble, the
self-denying principles of Christianity, which must
accomplish the object.
There is something necessarily solemn, under any
circumstances, in the idea of vast political commu-
nities, moving rapidly forward even in the course of
legitimate improvement ; but the feeling must be one
of terror, if we have reason to believe that the great
cement of the social system, the only effective bond
of union between the discordant elements of human
passion, is wanting at the very moment when its
presence is most needful. At such a crisis all may
look well for a short period of time, but the slightest
agitation may, in an instant, disperse the whole
intricate machinery into unseemly fragments. We
speak seriously, and from the deepest conviction,
when we say, that such is the kind of alarm which
the existing aspect of society is calculated to suggest.
With true piety for our load-star, and brotherly love
and forbearance for our principle of action, we feel
confident, not only that all may, but that all will, be
well. No friend to mankind can wish the human
WITH HUMAN REASON. 265
mind to retrograde in its movements ; but every well
disposed person must be deeply solicitous that tbe
sedative and salutary coercion resulting from a
paramount conviction of religious responsibility may
regulate and restrain every its slightest tendency to
deviate from the right and smooth path. If the next
generation be not destined to act a fearful and mel-
ancholy, we may venture to anticipate that it will
perform a comparatively enviable, part. The seeds
of good and evil are abundantly sown, and accord-
ingly, as the genial glow of Christianity, or the chill
season of scepticism, shall prevail, the better or the
worse principle will spring up.
Meanwhile, the theological disputant should recol-
lect, that the prepossessed and carnal mind is little
disposed to be won over to belief by undue severity
of objurgation, or dogmatism in argument. The
Christian revelation, we believe, from the sincerest
conviction, to afford by far the most probable exposi-
tion of the modes of the divine government ever
offered to the apprehension of man. Believing this,
then, we ought to be both willing and able to meet
the adversary upon his own ground ; to show him
that, even upon his own principles, the very points
against which he contends supply the most rational
solution of his difficulties ; and that, turn where he
will, whether to unassisted reason or to revelation,
he must either be contented with a faith which,
accepting much upon external testimony, and arriving
at something more by legitimate research, is disposed
to repose its main confidence upon a well-founded
presumption of the Divine goodness, or that, abandon-
ing that ground, he must be prepared to descend, step
by step, into the most gloomy abyss of hopeless scep-
ticism. False positions in theological argument,
however conscientiously maintained, false excitement
and over-statements, unseemly and unhallowed in-
struments at all times, and even bad taste and want
©f discrimination in the expression of our feelings,
266 CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION
are not likely to escape without censure or ridicule in
an acute and critical age, such as our own. A Chris-
tian teacher, accordingly, who, as such, would be
effectively useful to the busy community around him,
must, so far as his avocations will permit, keep pace
with the times in all the accomplishments of rational
and ornamental knowledge. He must not allow to
his opponents the ready and plausible subterfuge,
that his belief is the result of his ignorance, or of the
narrowness of his conceptions. According to the
description given of him by his Divine Master, he
must consider himself as " a light set upon a hill,"
towards which others are to look, and by which they
are to direct their steps. He must be ashamed neither
of his faith nor of his ignorance, where both one and
the other are in conformity with the Gospel standard.
He must not withhold, through an unworthy timidity,
the avowal of principles, of the solidity oi which he
is conscientiously convinced, nor, at the same time,
must he flinch from admitting that, with all his real
confidence and satisfaction in the correctness of his
own views, he is still, in many respects, walking
through life by faith only. Acting thus, he may be
assured, that from the moment that the world ceases
to treat him with scorn, as a visionary and an enthu-
siast, it will begin to turn towards him with feelings
of respect. And when this sentiment prevails, in its
turn, no small vantage ground is gained for the fur-
therance of his projects of usefulness. The first
object is to excite the sober attention of mankind ;
the second, to kindle a willingness and desire to be
better instructed. The point of repulsion once past,
the victory over, unbelief is half secured. The innate
principles of conscience and morality, and those
thrilling associations resulting from our connexion
with the things of the immaterial world, which exist
in every human breast, and require only to be roused
in order to make themselves perceived, will, with
God's blessing, do the rest. The evidences of our
WITH HUMAN REASON. 267
faith are, by the wisdom of Providence, so nicely
balanced, that they are never gratuitously obtruded
upon the mind which turns away from them, nor
withheld from those who perseveringly seek after
them. If scepticism is a sin against religious mo-
rality, it is because it is most frequently a consequence
of coldness of heart, and of an indifference to the
purest and noblest aspirations of our nature. Belief,
accordingly, depends upon the will and upon a
proper discipline of the affections much more than
worldly men are willing to allow: so much so, that
we may safely challenge the whole annals of scepti-
cism to produce a single example of a person, who,
having carefully examined all the arguments for and
against the credibility of revelation, and with a sin-
cere anxiety to arrive at the truth, has concluded his
course by deliberately, and from conscientious con-
viction, taking his part with the unbeliever.
THE END.
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surpass all dry encyclopedias, or diffuse and elaborate histories or biogra-
phies, miserably translated, and extejnd,ed to the very stretch of ver-
bosity ''—PbHaddphia Gazette
FAMILY CLASSICAL LIBRARY.
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" A series of works under the title of the Family Classical Library
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tion of all the admirers of elegant and polite literature— of that literature
which forms the solid and indispensable basis of a sound and gentlemanly
education." — Bath Herald.
" We are inclined to augur the most beneficial results to the rising
generation from the plan and nature of this puolication ; and we doubt not
that under the able superintendence of Mr. Valpy, the value of the present
work will not exceed its success as a mere literary speculation. It ought
to find a place in every school and private family in the kingdom." — BriS'
tol Journal.
" The design of this publication is highly laudable : if it be patronised
according to its deserts, we have no hesitation in saying that its success
will be very considerable." — Edinburgh Advertiser.
*' If we had been called on to state what in our opinion was wanted to
complete the several periodicals now in course of publication, we should
have recommended a translation of the most approved ancient writers, in
a corresponding style. This undertaking, therefore, of Mr. Valpy's, most
completely meets the view we had entertained on the subject. We
strongly recommend the production to the notice of schools, as its perusal
must tend to implant on the minds of the pupils a love for ancient lore.
In Ladies' Seminaries the series will, indeed, be invaluable — the stores of
antiquity being thus thrown open to them." — Plymouth and Devonport
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tenham Journal.
" We avail ourselves of the earliest opportunity of introducing to the
notice of our readers a work which appears to promise the utmost advan-
tage to the rising generation in particular. There is no class of people to
whom it is not calculated to be useful— to the scholar, it will be an agree-
able guide and companion ; while those to whom a classical education
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boasted refinement, we are proud to imiiate.'^— Aberdeen Chronicle.
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and Rome ; an acquaintance with whose writings is indispensable to every
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" This volume promises to be an invaluable acquisition to those but
partially acquainted with the Greek and Latin languages : such of the
fair sex more especially as direct their laudable curiosity in the channel
of classic literature must find in translation the very key to the knowledge
they seek. The mere trifle for which the lover of literature may now
furnish his library with an elegant and uniform edition of the best trans
lations from the classics, will, it cannot be doubted, ensure the Family
Classical Library a welcome reception."— VVboZ/Tier's Exeter Gazette.
" This work will supply a desideratum in literature ; and we hope it
will meet with encouragement. The translations of many of the ancient
authors, who may be looked on as the great storehouse of modern litera-
ture, are out of the reach of the English reader ; and this publication will
render them accessible to dW'— Yorkshire Gazette
NEW RELIGIOUS BOOKS, FOR GENERAL READING.
J. & J. HARPER NEW-YORK,
HAVE NOW IN THE COCRSE OF REPURLICATION,
THE
THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY.
THIS PUBLICATION WILL BK COMPRISKD IN A LIMITED NTTMBER Or
VOLUMES, AND IS INTENDED TO FORM, WHEN COMfLETKD,
A DIGESTED SYSTEM OF RELIGIOUS AND
KCCLESIASTICAL KNOWLEDGE.
THE FIRST NUMBER (nOW PUBLISHED) CONTAINS
THE LIFE OF WICLIF.
BY CHARLES WEBB LE BAS, M.A.
Profesflor in the East India College, Herts ; and late Fellow of Trinity
College, Cambridge.
■tl ONE VOLUME. EMBELLISHED WITH A PORTRAIT Of WICLIF.
VOLUMES IN PREPARATION.
THE CONSISTENCY OF THE WHOLE SCHEME OF REVELA.
TION WITH ITSELF, AND WITH HUMAN REASON.
By p. N. Shuttlkworth, D.D.
Warden of New College, Oxford. (In Press.)
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
By Joseph Blanco White, M.A.
Of the University of Oxford.
HISTORY OF THE PRINCIPAL COUNCILS.
Bv J. H. Newman, M.A.
Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford.
THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY {continued).
TIlE LIVES OF THE CONTIN*ENTAL REFORMERS.
No. I. LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.
By Hugh James Rose, B.D.
Christian Advocate in the University of Cambridge.
THE LATER DAYS OF THE JEWISH POLITY:
\\'ith a copious Introduction and Notes (chiefly derived from the Tal-
mudists and Rabbinical Writers). With a view to illustrate
the lianguage, the Manners, and general Ilistorv
cf the New Testament.
By Thomas Mitchell, Esq. A.M.
Late Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN IRELAND.
By C. R. Eluington, D.D.
Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Dublin.
THE DIVINE ORIGIN OF THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION
demonstrated in an analytical Inquiry into the Evidence on which the
Belief of Cliristianity has been established.
By William Rowe Lyall, M.A.
Archdeacon of Colchester, and Rector of Fairstead and Weeley in Essex.
HISTORY OF THE REFORMED RELIGION IN FRANCE.
By Edward Smedlky, M.A.
Late Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.
ILLUSTRATIONS OF EASTERN MANNERS, SCRIPTURAL
PHRASEOLOGY, &c.
By Samuel Lke, B.D. F.R.S. M.R.A.S.
Regius Professor of Hebrew in the University of Cambridge.
HISTORY OF SECTS.
By F. E. Thompson, M.A.
Perpetual Curate of Brentford.
SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF LITURGIES:
comprising a Particular Account of the Liturgy of the Church of
England.
By Henry John Rose, B.D.
Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
By Michael Russell, LL.D.
Author of the ** Connexion of Sacred and Profane History.
THE LIFE OF GROTIUS.
By James Nichols, F.S.A.
Author of •* Arminianism and CalvinisT romiwred."
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UNIVERSITY OF CAUFORNIA LIBRARY