The Identity of the Doctrine of Sensible Conversion Scripture NOTICES AND PROOFS. CHAPTER I. THE BIBLE. It seems scarcely possible that any one, capable of contemplating the contents of the Bible, can hesitate to admit that it is, what it professes to be, the word of God. The success with which the synthetic method of investigating the general characters of animals has of late been carried on, is well known; and it is admitted that a few detached bones, even in a petrified state, are sufficient to enable any one, conversant with such inquiries, to determine to what particular class, at least, of animals such bones belong. Something analogous to this may be predicated, with perfect confidence, of God's works generally, as set forth in the natural world. But of what book besides the Bible, treating too, as it does, of matters so far B beyond the ken of human intellect-of what other book can it be asserted, that each part is so interwoven with the rest, and such the intercommunity and mutual dependence of all the parts, as to establish an individuality, if I may be allowed so to express myself, of which a similar instance is not to be found in all the volumes of all the libraries in the world.* It may well be called a book sui generis. So conspicuously, in fact, is every part of the Bible in unison with the rest, that illustration of this truth is almost superfluous. "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion."-Ps. cxxxvii. 1. Will not, I would ask, mere reflection on the above plaintive verse, convey to the mind a train of thought so associated with the Bible throughout as to impress upon it an indelible stamp of truth? Now there are thousands, and tens of thousands of passages equally or more calculated to establish the same perception of * If there can be a consideration which convinces the mind, and leaves the heart in a state of tranquillity and satisfaction, it is that which shows us the perfect consistency with itself of all that God has revealed to us. If the Bible be His word, such a consistency must prevail in it; but if it be the work of numerous writers uninspired and untaught by him, then, however acute their intellect, however combined their plans, we could never find the same spirit running through the whole, or the same object in all its parts. The Koran, though the work of an individual, exhibits considerable inconsistencies which no ingenuity can clear up; but the Bible, though written at its unerring veracity. Circumstances connected with the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt are perpetually alluded to in a way which never could have happened, had there been no such departure, with all the tremendous miracles connected with it; and the advantage which Leslie has taken of such a chain of testimony, the first link of which is fastened to some miraculous event, so attested as the argument requires, cannot be too frequently adverted to in aid of Christianity, whenever doubts arise, as they often do, from the want of some plain confirmation of the truth of our holy religion. The method which he adopts is, " first, to lay down such rules, as to the truth of matters of fact in general, that where they all meet, such matters of fact cannot be false. And then, secondly, to show that all these rules do meet in the matters of fact, of Moses, and of Christ; and that they do not meet in the matters of fact of Mohammed, and the heathen deities, nor can possibly meet in any imposture whatsoever."* different periods during a lapse of nearly two millinaries, has the same aspect and the same end throughout; and though we cannot but have the difference of hands, the diversity of administration, no candid enquirer can doubt that it is one and the same spirit which worketh all in all.-Prize Dissertation on the Fulfilment of the Old Testament Prophecies, by E. Harold Browne, A.M. p.8. * Leslie on Deism. See also his "Truth of Christianity Demonstrated." Works which are said to have made more converts to Christianity, than any others that have been written in its defence. |