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Christians are accustomed to submit to the decision of Scripture-remains unalterably stamped with the seal of divine inspiration.

IV. We may now proceed briefly to consider some of the principal internal evidences of the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures.

The precision, in the first place, with which so many of the prophecies contained in the Bible have been fulfilled, not only affords a proof that the religion which these prophecies attest is divine, but may also be considered as strongly indicating, that the very words in which they have been handed down by Scripture, from generation to generation, proceeded from the Spirit of God.

On a similar ground, in the second place, the arguments employed to prove the divine origin of Christianity, from the wisdom of its moral law, and from the weight of its doctrines, evince with no less clearness, that of the Christian Scriptures. We believe that the Bible was given by inspiration, because, in the Bible only are originally recorded that pure and perfect law, those exalted principles of piety and devotion, and that Gospel placed far beyond the scope of human discovery, and yet entirely adapted to the wants of mankind, which are in themselves-from their own peculiar and intrinsic excellence-sufficient to satisfy every serious inquirer, that our religion has proceeded from God. Here, more especially, it ought to be remarked, that the Holy Scriptures are distinguished from all other writings, by the wonderfullycomprehensive information which they impart to us respecting the true character of the Supreme Being himself. Although some important traces of that character may be found, as has already been remarked,

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in the pages of ancient heathen philosophy, it is in the Bible only that the Deity is pourtrayed, with any thing like an adequate degree of clearness, in all his glorious attributes of omniscience, omnipotence, holiness, justice, wisdom, and love. And hence we derive a specific and very substantial evidence, that of this Sacred Volume, God himself was the author.

Another evidence that the Scriptures were given by inspiration, arises from that unbroken spiritual harmony which prevails among the sacred writers-a harmony the more astonishing, because those writers were numerous, lived at many and distant periods, and were often very little connected with one another. One sacred tone of sentiment pervades the whole volume of the Bible; and if there are any statements in it on points of doctrine apparently contradictory, (such as those of the apostles Paul and James, on the subject of justification) they are found, on closer investigation, to make up together a perfect whole, and to rest on the same unalterable principles. It forms no real exception to the observation now offered, that divine truth was progressive, and that more abundant light, on both moral and doctrinal points, was enjoyed by the writers of the New, than by those of the Old Testament. The progress of divine truth may, indeed, be regarded as one of the principal characteristics of the harmony of Scripture. How perfect, for example, is the adaptation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as it is revealed in the New Testament, to the injunctions of the law, and to the declarations of the prophets! In such an adaptation, and in the substantial accordance subsisting amongst all the component parts of the Bible, what Christian does not perceive a

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conclusive evidence, that the writers of that sacred volume, distinguished as they were from one another by differences of talent, character, and circumstance, were all instructed by the same Heavenly Guide to promulgate, in its several successive stages, the same essential and efficacious system of vital religion?

The harmony Scripture is the more admirable, because it accompanies an almost endless diversity of subject. In the history which the Bible presents to us of events connected with religion, and of the people of God, from the beginning of the world-in its account of the moral government of the Deity, commencing in this life, and completed in the life to come-in its representations of a multitude of characters, some intended for example, and others for warning-in its descriptions of religious experience-in its exercises of devotion, its prayers, praises, and thanksgivingsin its types, prophecies, and doctrines--in its holy and heavenly law-in its luminous statements respecting the attributes of the Almighty-in its manifold delineations of that Saviour, of whom the patriarchs, the prophets, and the apostles, unite in testifying-we are furnished with an inexhaustible variety of divine instruction, with which the spiritual mind is continually refreshed and nourished, but never satiated.

In accordance with this observation, it only remains for me to adduce, in evidence of the divine origin of the Scriptures, the practical effect which (under the influence of the Spirit) they actually produce: namely, the conversion of sinners, and the sanctification and edification of believers. As these effects are to be attributed primarily to God as their author, and secondarily to Christianity as the religious system

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which he has adapted to these ends, so are they found in a multitude of instances to arise immediately out of the use of that holy book, in which Christianity is embodied. The Scriptures are able to make wise unto salvation, "through faith which is in Christ Jesus." Such is the declaration of an apostle, and such is the fact. Now, the believer who experiences this effect to be produced in his mind, and is able to trace it to the Bible as the instrumental cause, enjoys an evidence that the Sacred Volume has proceeded from God, which is entirely satisfactory to himself, and of which the most ingenious arguments and cavils will never be able to dispossess him. He finds in that volume a mine of wisdom, from which he is constantly deriving instruction, consolation, and spiritual improvement. He resorts to it as to his daily food, he reverts again and again to the same passages, without any wearisome sense of sameness, and seldom without deriving from them important practical lessons, with which he was before less perfectly acquainted. Thus is he encouraged and strengthened to pursue his Christian course; and the more his knowledge of divine things, and the limits of his own religious experience, are extended—the more fully he is persuaded that the contents of Scripture are no cunningly devised fables, but celestial truths. He finds in himself a witness of their reality.

It may indeed be observed, that the evidence of the divine origin of Scripture, which the Christian derives from the source now mentioned, is, in some measure, confined to himself; because he obtains it chiefly by watching the condition and progress of his own mind. But, this is not the case altogether; for the tree is known by its fruits.

It is matter of external observ

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ation, when the sinner is turned from the error of his ways, the proud man humbled, and the Christian character formed. It cannot be concealed from others, when the designed effect of an acquaintance with Scripture is actually produced in the individual; when "the man of God is perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works :" nor can any one who entertains a just notion of the moral attributes of the Supreme Being, refuse under such circumstances to confess, that the writings from the use of which these consequences result, have originated in the power, the wisdom, and the love, of God.

Religious instruction is, indeed, communicated through a variety of channels besides the Scriptures; such as the more modern writings of pious Christians, and especially the ministry of the Gospel. But the good effect produced by these means, affords additional strength to the argument now stated; because they are found by experience to be efficacious for the purposes of conversion and edification, only in as much as they present to the mind, the truths already revealed to us in the Bible. It is no inconclusive evidence of the divine origin of the Scriptures, that in them we find both the foundation and the boundaries of all secondary means of religious improvement. That the ministry of the Gospel ought to be exercised under the immediate direction of the great Head of the Church, is a principle which will probably be allowed by many pious Christians; yet we are not to forget that when that ministry is most spiritual in its origin, it is still found to dwell on the declarations of Scripture. The purest gifts of the Spirit, as they are now administered, are almost exclusively directed to the application of those materials, which originated