case, when attentively considered, will appear to be very different from those of the Scriptures. Against those books no person conceived any ill will, but on the contrary cherished a superstitious veneration for them; nor did any man feel himself interested in suppressing them, because they neither contradicted his prejudices, nor opposed any obstacle to the gratification of his passions, and the success of his schemes; whereas kings and emperors, both before and since the coming of Christ, have been the determined enemies of the Scriptures, and have employed all their authority, and the utmost severity of persecution to accomplish their destruction. Beside, the lusts of men have, in all ages, been at war with the Scriptures; and the patrons of heresies and errors have experienced them to be the chief impediment to the progress and triumph of their opinions. But for the Scriptures, the world would have been overrun with error, and not a single root or grain of truth would have been found. A book which pronounced the wisdom of the world to be folly, treated its most serious and important pursuits as childish and criminal, and branded with the odious name of vice its favorite indulgences, was likely to be proscribed with indignation, and persecuted with unrelenting revenge.

"Amidst so many enemies, we could not have been surprised if the Bible had shared the fate of many other books, once venerated and reputed divine, which have long since disappeared. Surely, had it been the work of man, its memorial must have perished from the earth. But of its preservation amidst the dangers which threatened it, we ourselves

are witnesses. With whatever earnestness multitudes may have wished to destroy a book which thwarted their measures, and disturbed them in the practice of iniquity, few have been so daring as to lay their hands upon it; those who have been guilty of this sacrilegious attempt, have been disappointed in their hopes whether they aimed at its total destruction or the adulteration of its contents; and it remains to this day an object of veneration and dread to the very men whose errors it condemns, and against whose evil ways it denounces the righteous vengeance of heaven.

"Notwithstanding the triumph of Arianism, we still meet with all those passages which were ever alleged to prove the equality of the Son with the Father; and though for several ages Antichrist reigned in the plenitude of his power, and enjoyed the most favorable opportunities, amidst the gross ignorance and unsuspecting credulity of mankind, to corrupt the Scriptures, we are able from them alone, without the aid of the writings of the fathers, to convict the church of Rome of apostacy, and to prove its peculiar doctrines and usages to be false and superstitious. Not one jot or one tittle of revelation hath perished."-(Dick on Inspiration.)

"It is apparent," says Dr. Owen, "that God in all ages hath had a great regard for the Bible, and exerted his power and care in its preservation. Were it not what it pretends to be, there had been nothing more suitable to the nature of God, and more becoming Divine Providence, than long since to have blotted it out of the world. For to suffer a book to be in the world, from the beginning al

most, falsely pretending his name and authority, seducing so great a portion of mankind into a pernicious and ruinous apostacy from Him, as it must do and doth, if it be not of divine original, and exposing inconceivable multitudes of the best, wisest, and soberest among them unto all sorts of bloody miseries which they have undergone in behalf of it, seems not so consonant unto that infinite goodness, wisdom and care wherewith this world is governed from above. But on the contrary, whereas the malicious craft of Satan, and the prevalent power and rage of mankind hath combined, and been set at work to the ruin and utter suppression of this book, proceeding sometimes so far that there seemed no possible way of its escape; yet through the watchful care and providence of God, sometimes putting itself forth in miraculous instances, it hath been preserved unto this day, and shall be so to the consummation of all things."

Let these general arguments for the inspiration of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament be well digested and thoroughly examined, giving to every single remark all the weight of which it is worthy, tracing it to its utmost consequences; bearing in mind also, the character of the penmen-the excellence of the doctrines-the style, and the language the ten thousand allusions to existing facts in surrounding nations-the imagery employed, evidently borrowed from the regions of Palestine, and the remote ages of antiquity-the historical, geographical, and geological situation of the earth-the physical and moral condition of man-the present condition of the Jews, the Ishmaelites, and the

children of Ham-the uninterrupted voice of tradition-the testimony of ancient heathen writers to the facts recorded in Scripture-the occasional testimony of infidels to the morality of the New Testament-the undesigned testimony of infidel historians to the truth of the Old Testament prophecies; and last, but not least, the experience, holy lives, and happy deaths of the firmest believers, and a volume of evidence will be found to exist, which never can be set aside, overturned, or disproved.

LECTURE VI.

THE WISDOM OF BELIEVING.

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"Thou, through thy commandments, hast made me wiser than mine enemies; for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all teachers; for thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts."Psalm cxix. 98-100.

IN nothing do the friends and enemies of divine revelation differ more than in their definitions of true wisdom. The authors of the book of Job, and of the Psalms, and of the Proverbs, (Job xxviii. 28; Psalm cxi. 10; Prov. ix. 10,) all assert that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," while Voltaire and his associates as fearlessly assert that "The fear of God, so far from being the beginning of wisdom, is the beginning of folly." Christ hesitates not to charge his disciples with folly when they show a reluctance to believe all that the prophets have spoken. (Luke xxiv. 25.) And infidels are as ready to charge Christians with folly when they show a readiness in believing the same things.