of human depravity, nor the possibility or means of the pardon of sin, nor the means of eradicating the evil propensities of our nature, or even of subduing their prevailing power: neither could it assure the most anxious mind of man the certainty, or even the probability, of a future life. Doubt, depravity, crime, and misery, necessarily arose from such a state of ignorance in fallen beings: their terrified imaginations prompted them to seek relief by imprecations addressed to divinities that had no existence; and their superstitious minds led them to contrive, or to yield to the contrivances of others, representations of supposed deities, existing only in their excited fancies, and to practise every species of abominable idolatry-hence the indispensable necessity of divine revelation.

DISSERTATION IV.

DIVINE REVELATION POSSIBLE AND PROBABLE.

GOD the Creator of our spirits is able to communicate with them-GoD's innumerable mercies to man lead us to expect à revelation of his will-Reflecting men in every nation have expected it -Eminent lawgivers have pretended to have been so favored-The best human laws have not prevented human depravity-Granting a revelation seems worthy of God.

EVERY believer in the omnipotence of the Deity, must admit the possibility of our possessing a Divine Revelation. The infinite Spirit, by whom the human mind was created, and by whose unceasing agency it is preserved in existence and exercise, must ever be intimately present with it; and, possessing a complete knowledge of all its faculties, states, and affections, exercising at the same time a perfect control over all its operations, for the purpose of securing the great ends of his moral government, he cannot fail to be able to communicate ideas to that mind for its benefit, or to impress upon it the certain knowledge of his holy will. The denial of such power would be consistent only with the gross absurdities of materialism, excluding from the universe the notion of an intelligent, almighty CREATOR.

Divine Revelation being admitted to be possible, no conclusive argument can be drawn against the probability of such a boon being given to man from any of the manifest works of GOD. And considering the infinitely various provisions of creation, manifestly formed for the accommodation of mankind, displaying the most consummate wisdom in their appropriate adaptation to our necessities, and infinite benevolence in their design, to support and comfort us with supplies of agreeable food, to relieve and heal our frequent maladies, and to afford us delight in the use of these benefits, as the dependant creatures of GOD, there appears the strongest reason for our expecting a revelation of his holy will, to instruct us how to enjoy his favors, and in what way to render him honor and worship which are his due, as our Creator and Preserver,

:

Besides, mankind have ever shown a disposition to expect a Divine Revelation. Every nation that has admitted the existence of GoD, believed that he really did afford to certain distinguished individuals some knowledge of his will. Hence the pagan priests pretended to have received divine instructions in imposing their various rites upon the people and hence also the most famous legislators of antiquity, besides Moses, who was really commissioned and inspired of GOD,-as Minos, Lycurgus, Numa, Solon, Zoroaster, Pythagoras, and others,-professed to hold intercourse with their gods, in establishing their laws and institutions. Several of the wisest of the pagan philosophers also,

acknowledging their need of a Divine revelation, expressed their hope that the Deity would grant such a favor, to lead them in the ways of truth and religion.

Human laws, however just, wise, and beneficial in their tendency, have ever been found inefficient to restrain from the commission of crimes, much less to engage mankind in the practice of perfect virtue. GOD himself must, therefore, interpose, and favor us with rules of virtue, and supply motives to the observance of them, such as it is difficult to withstand; or society would necessarily sink deeper and deeper into vice and misery. To maintain that GoD has not so interposed is to deny that the Supreme Being interests himself in the welfare of those whom he created, and whom he governs. But all our notions of the Deity lead us to contemplate him as a Being of inflexible justice, boundless goodness, and incessant beneficence, and, therefore, to regard it as extremely probable that he would favor us with the gift of a Divine Revelation.

DISSERTATION V.

ORIGIN OF DIVINE REVELATION.

GOD, at the creation, revealed his will to his intelligent creatures-This favor especially needful to man in his fallen state-GOD made known his purposes of mercy to the fathers, promising a Redeemer-Sacrifices by divine appointment-God gave a written revelation by Moses-and by him the knowledge of letters-Dr. Winder, Dr. Wall, and others, attribute alphabetical writing to the inspiration of GoD by Moses.

DIVINE Revelation commenced with the creation of man, as declared in the book of Genesis. GOD at that time inspired the intelligent, holy, and capacious minds of his perfect creatures, Adam and Eve, with all necessary knowledge, especially of himself, their glorious and bountiful Creator. This must have been the case with all intelligent creatures, from the essential relations subsisting between the infinite Spirit and the spirits of men and angels. GOD must have revealed to them a knowledge of his will, as they were his creatures, dependant, and therefore accountable to their blessed Author. GOD, at the creation, instructed Adam and Eve in the knowledge of himself their Creator, and gave them a law, on their obedience to which, the continuance of his favor and of the life which they were then enjoying was made to depend. Gen. xv. 15-17. This law was doubtless explained, more fully than is recorded, to our first parents, while they were obedient, experiencing the friendship of their Almighty Benefactor.

Divine Revelation became equally, or even more necessary to man after transgression had brought guilt upon his conscience, and filled his soul with terror: then the recollection of the Divine law, requiring perfect and continued obedience, could lead him only to despair; and a further revelation from GoD was required, possessing a new character, suitable to the condition of a guilty creature, giving information, not only concerning the rule and extent of human duty, but also the assurance of the Divine mercy: it was necessary for it to declare that sin could be forgiven, and the manner in which a criminal could be pardoned; and how a guilty, depraved creature could be re-established in the favor and image of GOD. This revelation was graciously afforded to our trembling first parents: GoD, in sovereign mercy, while pronouncing the curse, and declaring their misery and mortality, the fruit of their sin, gave them the consoling intimation of his compassion and favor, in the seasonable promise

of a Divine Redeemer, as "the seed of the woman, that should bruise the head of the serpent." Gen. iii. 17-19. This promise was, at the same time, illustrated by the institution of animal sacrifices; the design of which was to teach mankind their subjection to wrath because of sin,-that the penalty must be inflicted, if not on themselves, yet on a substitute, and that God had graciously appointed a substitute- the MESSIAH-the woman's seed, who should in due time make reconciliation for iniquity by the sacrifice of himself, thus destroying the work of the devil. This merciful declaration, as explained by the ordinance of sacrifice, was the foundation of hope to sinners in the primitive ages. It was repeated, and farther illustrated by successive heavenly communications, and became the means of salvation to all who believed it as the word of GOD. Thus "by faith Abel offered unto GoD a more excellent sacrifice than Cain,”-when "the LORD had respect unto Abel, and to his offering." Gen. iv.; 4 Heb. xi. 4. Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Job, and all the other pious patriarchs, believed the promises of GOD, evincing their faith in the expected Saviour by their various sacrifices, and proving by their holy lives that they had been favored with a Divine Revelation. These ancient believers handed down the doctrines which they had received, delivering them from age to age, in sacred tradition, which formed the basis and the subject of the faith of all the pious servants of GOD; for a period of about two thousand five hundred years, until the deliverance of Israel from Egypt.

Moses, the deliverer of Israel, was ordained to be the founder of a new dispensation of GoD to man; and that deliverance was to be its commencement. To preserve, therefore, the memory of that glorious event, GOD gave a marvellous proof of his merciful kindness, in an extended revelation of his holy will, not depending on tradition, but committed to writing-comprehending a code of moral, political, and ceremonial laws for the observance of the Israelites as a nation,-written by their inspired deliverer and lawgiver, Moses, prefixing, in the book of Genesis, a history of the original creation of all things, and of the providential government of the world by the CREATOR.

Moses, though "learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," (Acts vii. 22,) did not acquire from that people the art of alphabetical writing; neither was it an invention of his own ingenuity. Various expedients have been devised to solve the difficulties with which the subject is involved: by some, letters are supposed to have been a merely human invention, ingeniously contrived to facilitate the invaluable purposes of commerce; many of the heathen considered letters to have been the gift of their imaginary gods; but Christian and Jewish authors of the greatest judgment believe that letters were given to Moses by the immediate inspiration of JEHOVAH, the true GoD.

Speech, the power of communicating our ideas to each other by vocal sound, was unquestionably GoD's original gift to man,-distinguishing him from all other animals. Alphabetical writing resembles that wonderful gift of God: it is only the power of communicating our thoughts at all times, absent as well as present, after death as well as when alive! The great and extensive advantages, also, derived to mankind by written documents, as fixing the principles of legislation-recording the momentous events of political history, and of national and social transactions, may well vindicate that art as a divine gift. Surely matters of such high importance to the welfare of mankind, afford reason for believing that the art of alphabetical writing was a divine favor, worthy of the beneficence of GOD.

Pictorial representations were common, and engravings in hieroglyphical characters appear to have previously existed in Egypt and in Canaan; but there is no evidence of the prior existence of alphabetical writing. All the na

HISTORY OF THE SACRED BOOKS OF THE SCRIPTURES.

403

tions of Europe derive their letters from the ancient Latin; the Latin letters came from Greece; and the Greeks received them from the Phoenicians, by Cadmus; and they from the Hebrews after the time of Moses, "learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians:" but Egypt did not in his time possess the art of alphabetical writing, nor till after the reign of Solomon; nor, as many affirm, from an examination of their most ancient alphabet, till they received letters from the Greeks, with those who colonized that country after the death of Alexander the Great.

Many profoundly learned men have investigated this subject with the greatest care; and their examination of the most ancient testimonies leads them to this conclusion, that "till the time of Moses, the world knew nothing of letters; for we find not any laws of GoD or man written before. It is likewise most probable, that we owe them not, nor their use, to human invention, but to Divine Revelation. And it is a thing that offers itself fairly to our belief, that God himself, when he gave the Ten commandments, written by his oum finger, to Moses, introduced the first alphabet."

Dr. Winder remarks: "There is something so astonishing in alphabetical writing, as may justly authorize our calling it a Divine art. It was perfect at first; and it has never received what may be called any improvement of alphabet, from the beginning to this day. The alphabet for all languages, or what would accommodate itself to all articulate sounds, are found in the Hebrew Decalogue, and all the Hebrew letters except Teth." Besides these considerations, it is most remarkable that the writings of Moses are the most beautiful of any in the Sacred Scriptures; and that they only, the first and most ancient, contain the Hebrew language in its perfection! Hence, the period from Moses to David is called "The Golden Age of the Hebrew Language!"

Dr. Wall, in his recently published treatise on the "ORIGIN OF ALPHABETIC WRITING," after having examined the researches of the most learned antiquaries in Egyptian and Chinese science, arrives at the same conclusion, that Moses was the inventor of letters and alphabetic writing, which were given to him for the benefit of the world, by the immediate inspiration of God.

DISSERTATION VI.

HISTORY OF THE SACRED BOOKS OF THE SCRIPTURES.

Moses the author of Genesis, Job, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy-The rest of the historical books written by Joshua, Samuel, Nathan, Gad, Ezra, Nehemiah, and others-Proverbs and Ecclesiastes by Solomon-Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the other books of the prophets, by those whose names they bear-The Old Testament revised by Ezra, and completed by Simon the Just-Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John wrote the Gospels-Luke wrote the Acts-Paul wrote the fourteen Epistles, including that to the Hebrews-James, Peter, Jude, and John wrote the remaining books of the New Testament.

MOSES is universally acknowledged to have been the earliest of the sacred writers. Genesis and Job appear to have been compiled by him when an exile from Egypt, during his forty years' residence in Midian. They were probably sketched in hieroglyphical characters, and written out for the use of the people, while he was employed to lead and instruct the Israelites during forty years, in the deserts of Arabia. Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, were written by Moses some time before the close of his extraordinary ministry, A. M. 2453, B. C. 1551, for the instruction of the Israelites in their obedience to GOD, and for the regulation of their civil, judicial, and religious affairs.

Some few additions were made to the five books of Moses after his death, especially the last chapter of Deuteronomy, probably by Joshua or by Samuel.

Joshua wrote the former part of the book bearing his name, which Samuel completed; that venerable prophet compiled the books of Judges and Ruth, and commenced the first book of Samuel, the latter part of which, and the second book, were written by his successors in the prophetical office, probably by Nathan and Gad. The books of Kings and Chronicles are compilations from the national records, by various prophets and scribes, and from the public genealogical tables, made or completed by Ezra, on the return of the Jews from Babylon. Ezra and Nehemiah are historical collections from similar records, some of which were originally written by themselves. Esther was written by some distinguished Jew, perhaps Mordecai; though some conjecture that it was composed by Ezra. The Psalms were written mostly by David, and some by Asaph, Moses, and other pious persons: all, or most of the book of Proverbs, the Song of Solomon, and the book of Ecclesiastes, by king Solomon: the latter book was composed when that prosperous king, towards the latter end of his life, had been led to reflect upon the vanity of all human gratifications, and to repent of his foolish and criminal idolatry: his penitence and his writings were influenced by the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Isaiah, Jeremiah, with the book of Lamentations, Ezekiel, and the other books of the prophets, were written by the several holy men whose names they bear, on occasions arising from their connexion with the succeeding ages, as fore-appointed by the infinite wisdom of GOD. Ezra labored in revising the sacred books, aided by the Great Synagogue, consisting of one hundred and twenty of the elders, by whom the Jewish church was restored and reformed. "Simon the Just," who died in the year 292 B. c., was the last of them, a man of extraordinary wisdom and holiness: he is believed to have made the last revision of the Old Testament, completing the sacred canon, by adding the books of Esther and Malachi. See DISSERTATION X.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the four Gospels, were written by the evangelists whose names they bear. Matthew and John were apostles of CHRIST, and his personal attendants: Mark and Luke were intimately acquainted with some of the apostles, and the latter was a fellow-laborer and companion of Paul. Luke was also the writer of the Acts of the Apostles. Romans and the other books of the New Testament were written by the apostles to whom they are inscribed; there being the most satisfactory evidence that Hebrews was written by the apostle Paul, although it does not bear his name; and that the apostle John was the author of the book of the Revelation.

DISSERTATION VII.

INSPIRATION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

Inspired persons only could write Divine Revelation-Inspiration defined-By Dr. HendersonDr. O. Gregory-Dr. Stowe-Dr. Robinson-Dr. Gill-Hon. Robert Boyle-Dr. DoddridgeJESUS CHRIST promised this gift to his apostles-Dr. Gill on inspiration belonging only to the original Scriptures-Divine Providence in preserving the Scriptures.

DIVINE Revelation must necessarily be the gift of inspiration. Hence, therefore, the apostle Paul declares, concerning the books of the Old Testament, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of GoD." 2 Tim. iii. 16. Peter also, in agreement with his apostolic brother, states, "No prophecy of the Scriptures