SECTION VI. - Inability to answer all Objections, no just Cause for - Unbelievers in Divine Revelation more rejecting the Scriptures. credulous than Christians. Even though all the difficulties which are alleged to exist in the Sacred Writings could not be accounted for, yet this would be no just or sufficient cause why we should reject the Scriptures; because objections are, for the most part, impertinent to the purpose for which they are adduced; and if they were pertinent, yet, unless they could confute that evidence, they ought not to determine us against the Bible. If the various arguments by which our Religion appears to be true cannot be disproved (and disproved they cannot be), all the objections which can be conceived must proceed from some mistake; and those arguments, together with the conclusions deduced from them, ought not to be rejected on account of the objections, but such objections ought to be rejected on account of the arguments. There is no science without its difficulties; and it is not pretended that theology is without them. But difficulties can never alter the nature of things, and make that which is true to become false. To a considerate mind, all the objections which can be invented against the Scriptures, cannot seem nearly so great as that which arises against infidelity, from the supposition that God should not at all reveal himself to mankind; or that the heathen oracles or the Koran of Mohammed should be of divine revelation. Nothing is more frequent than the charge of superstition and credulity, which is brought by modern unbelievers against Christianity: and yet this charge attaches with no small force to the opposers of revelation. For it is much more easy to believe the facts recorded in the New Testament, than to suppose them false, and believe the absurd consequences which must follow from such a supposition. It is much more credible that God should work a miracle for the establishment of a useful system of religion, than that the first Christians should act against every principle that is natural to man. They who will not be convinced by the present evidence of the truth and certainty of the Christian Religion, would not be convinced by any other evidence whatever. No man of reason can pretend to say, but that God may require us to take notice of some things at our peril, to enquire into them, and to consider them thoroughly. And the pretence of want of greater evidence, which is sometimes made, will not excuse carelessness or unreasonable prejudices, when God has vouchsafed to us all that evidence which was either fit for him to grant or reasonable for men to desire, or of which the nature of the thing itself, that was to be proved, was capable. RECAPITULATION. CHAPTER VI. MORAL QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE STUDY OF THE I. SUCH are the principal proofs for the genuineness, authenticity, credibility, and inspiration of the Holy Scriptures: and, taking the whole together, every candid inquirer must be convinced, that we have every possible evidence for their truth and divinity which can be reasonably expected or desired. How absolutely NECESSARY a revelation was, in order to make known to mankind the proper object of their worship, and to communicate to them a just rule of life, is manifest from the deplorable state of religion and morals in the Heathen world, both antient and modern. II. The manner in which the sacred Scriptures have been transmitted to us, their language and style, together with the minute circumstantiality of the facts and doctrines recorded in them, added to the moral impossibility of imposing forged writings upon mankind-are all indisputable proofs of their GENUINENESS and AUTHENTICITY. III. Equally satisfactory is the evidence for the CREDIBILITY of the writers. For they had a perfect knowledge of the subjects which they have related, and their moral character was never impeached by their keenest opponents; their accounts were published among the people who witnessed the events which they have recorded, and who could easily have detected falsehood if any such there had been, but who did not attempt to question either the reality of those facts or the fidelity of the narrators; there is an entire harmony between the Sacred Writers and profane history, both natural and civil ; and the reality of the principal facts related in the Bible, is perpetuated and commemorated by monuments that subsist to this day, in every country where either Jews or Christians are to be found. IV. And that the Scriptures are not merely entitled to be received as credible, but also as containing the revealed will of God,-in other words, that they are divinely inspired, we have evidence of various kinds amounting to moral demonstration: for, on the one hand, their sacred origin is evinced by the most illustrious external attestations, viz. miracles and prophecy, which carry with them the most manifest proofs of a divine interposition; and which it cannot reasonably be supposed that God would ever give, or permit to be given, to an imposture; And, on the other hand, the Scriptures have the most excellent internal characters of truth and goodness, in the sublimity, excellence, and sanctity of the system of doctrines and morals which they announce, - in the harmony and connexion that subsist between all the parts of which they consist, in the preservation of the Sacred Scriptures, and in their admirable tendency (which is shown by its effects wherever the Scriptures are cordially and sincerely believed) to promote the glory of God and the good of mankind, and the cause of virtue and righteousness in the world, and to prepare men, by a life of faith and holy obedience upon earth, for the eternal en joyment of God in Heaven: - together with the peculiar advantages possessed by the Christian Religion over all other religions. On all these accounts the Holy Scriptures are thankfully to be received and embraced as the word of God, and as the rule of Christian faith and practice. "And till I can see the evidence of them disproved, or the religion of Christ demonstrated to be irrational and absurd, I am determined, by the grace of God, to hold fast my profession to the end, seeking after the kingdom of glory by the practice of that righteousness which prepares for and leads to it, in a firm dependence upon that comfortable declaration of Jesus Christ, That God so loved the world, that WHOSOEVER believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." * Since the Holy Scriptures contain all things necessary to salvation, it becomes the indispensable duty of all carefully and constantly to peruse these sacred oracles, that through them we may become perfect, thoroughly furnished to every good work. (2 Tim. iii. 17.) This, indeed, is not only agreeable to the divine command - Search the Scriptures, (John v. 39.) and to the design of the Sacred Writings, but is further commended by the practice of the Church in every age, and by the divine promise to all true believers, that they shall all be taught of God. (Isa. liv. 13.) The circumstances of every individual must regulate the portion of time that ought daily to be devoted to this important study; which should be undertaken with devout simplicity and humility, and prosecuted with diligence and attention, with a willingness to resort to all necessary helps for advancement in the truth, and for security against error. To these qualifications, especially, should be added prayer for divine aid and teaching, together with a sincere desire to know and perform the will of God, and, laying aside all prejudice, to follow the * Bishop Watson's Tracts, vol. iii. p. 484. Scriptures wherever conviction may lead our minds: for it is indubitable that persons of piety, who are anxiously desirous of the knowledge of divine truth, are aided by the Spirit of God, in searching out the meaning of Scripture, particularly in such subjects as have a special reference to faith and religious practice, |
