duced one first-rate scholar or genius. What are the names to be found in the lists of our adversaries, to weigh against your Newtons, your Boyles, your Bacons, your Lockes, your Miltons, your Joneses, and numbers more? You Christians can appeal to prophecies, many of which have been accomplished, and many of which are now fulfilling. You can appeal to miracles, numerous, performed in public, and in the presence of those who would have detected the imposture, if there had been any. You can appeal to the character of the penmen. And here you may say to the Deist, "Were these penmen good men or bad men? You can take your choice of the alternatives, for either one will equally support our argument. If you say they were good men, how came good men to tell lies, and profess that they had received a commission which they never had received, and to declare Thus saith the Lord,' when the Lord had not spoken? If you assert them to be bad men, how came bad men to enforce all holy tempers and conversations, and to censure and condemn themselves for ever in every line they wrote ?" cause. 6 Take up the Bible now, and examine it internally-is it not worthy of God? Upon the same principle that when I survey the works of creation I exclaim, "This is the finger of God;" so when I peruse the Scriptures, I feel the impress of the divine agency: I am perfectly sure, that whoever was the author of the Book, he was a holy being, he was a wise being, he was a benevolent being: I am sure he knew me perfectly, and was concerned for my welfare. The argument arising from the establishment and spread of the Gospel in the world, often engages your attention, and we have recently referred to it with the concession that success alone does not constitute a proof of the divinity of a For then where should we be with regard to Mahometanism and Popery? But here, we contend, such is the nature of the case, and the inadequacy of the means employed, that we must have recourse to a divine interposition. Who were the agents engaged? A number of fishermen, without power to compel, without riches to bribe, without philosophy to perplex, without eloquence to persuade. And what had they to overcome? The decrees of emperors, the persecutions of magistrates, the subtlety of philosophers, the craftiness and covetousness of priests, the profligacy of the common multitude. And what had they to enforce the success of those things which they had to declare? Doctrines that seemed incredible to human reason; and they were believed. They enforced duties which were repulsive to every natural disposition; and they were obeyed. They acknowledged that sufferings and death would immediately attend the adoption of their sentiments; and they were instantly adopted: and not by a few, but by men of all descriptions; men who were distinguished by every kind of moral excellence, who were examples of all good works. It cannot be expected that we should be able to do full justice to the evidences, external or internal, of the Gospel, in a branch of a single sermon; on the other hand, I hope none of you will consider what we have advanced as unnecessary, when you consider to what our youth, the hope of our churches and our country, are continually exposed now; and when you reflect that the subject can only impress us according to our impressions of the nature of its claims. If we receive the Gospel as human, we shall naturally regard it humanly if we receive it as divine, we shall regard it divinely. It was thus the Thessalonians received it; and the Apostle acknowledges the consequence. "Ye received," : says he, "the word of us, not as the word of man, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe." Let us notice, secondly, ITS PRECIOUSNESS. "Precious' means valuable; costly; something of great worth and importance. You will observe the preciousness of a thing is very distinguishable from the truth of it, in the former argument. Nothing can indeed be valuable and important that is not true; but a thing may be true without being valuable and important. But here both these are conjoined the veracity and the excellency-according to the word of the Apostle, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." This may be inferred, not only from the Author, but the design. What is the design now of the word of God, but the restoration of man from all the effects of moral evil, and placing him in a condition superior to that in which he was originally created? "These things are written," says the Apostle, "that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.” Here the mighty questions are answered, "What must I do to be saved?" "How shall I come before the Lord, and bow before the High God?" The most precious book in the world to me ought to be that which contains "the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord:" and this volume does contain it. We are commanded to search the Scripturés, for in them we think we have eternal life, and they are they that testify of him. The heathens knew something of the fall; they must have felt the effects of it, in the troubles of life, in the uneasiness of conscience, in the disorder of their passions, in the dread of futurity, and in what the Apostle calls, their "subjection all their life to bondage through fear of death.” We know that they did try to obtain relief; but they knew nothing of the balm in Gilead, and the Physician there they were without Christ, and therefore they were without hope and without God with them in the world. But, "to us is the word of this salvation sent." Now observe how David eulogizes it: "Thou hast magnified," says he, "thy word above all thy name." That is, above all other modes of manifesting himself: for God has displayed himself in various other ways. He has shown much of his power and his wisdom in the constitution of nature, and in the dispensations of his providence; yea, and much of his goodness too. Some contend, too, that he has shewn enough of his goodness there to answer all the purposes of religion; but very unjustly: for the display of his goodness there, you will observe, is intermingled with other effects, that more than neutralize it. You thus witness, not only zephyrs, but hurricanes; not only health, but sickness; not only ease, but cholera; not only life, but death. Where are you now? These awful appearances will always produce more fear in the guilty (and every mind is conscious of guilt) than the pleasing appearances will ever have power to produce hope. We see that this accords with the history of idolatry and superstition in every age of the world; it has not only been absurd and foolish, but also cruel and bloody and the character altogether upon which man must return to God as a sinner, to obtain pardon and peace, the only view we can have of God that will give us confidence, and bring us to himself—namely, as the Father of mercies, and God of all grace, as ready to forgive, as engaged to renew and sanctify us -this is only to be seen in the face of Jesus Christ. I have never met with one of our missionaries who has been abroad, without asking whether, while he was among the heathen, he ever perceived any thing in any of them like confidence in, or attachment to, the idols they adore? He has immediately replied, "Never; they only worship them from fear; and therefore they dislike to think of death. And this was an advantage in their conversion; for as soon as ever they were persuaded that they were safe from their anger, they would instantly tumble them into the sea, or cast them to the moles and bats, or burn them in the fire." O how precious is one declaration of this book! Read the testimony of John: "We have known and believed the love he hath to us; God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." How precious is it to have a standard of doctrine with regard to our belief; so that if we feel perplexities and perplexities there needs will be on such a subject-we may call in the judgment of God the Father himself. How satisfactory is it to have a rule of duty with regard to conduct. How wretched we must feel if we had been left to conjecture what God would have us to do, and how he would have us to walk. But this is not our case; he hath shewn us what is good; he has told us what he requires of us; he has furnished us with information, and this information is in proportion to the importance of the thing. As to matters of moment, here every thing is so legibly inscribed, that he may run that reads it. Where information is necessary to us, there the light of day is thrown upon the subject: where additional information would only amuse us, and draw us off from the one thing needful, there the Scripture becomes silent as death, and dark as the grave. And is not this an excellency? Thus the Bible teaches us by what it conceals, as well as by what it reveals: just as Lord Bacon observes, "The shade of the sun on the sun-dial, serves to show the hour as well as the sunshine." And how advantageous is it to have, also, a manual of piety, a vade mecum of devotion, with every thing comprised in it that is necessary to life, and in so small a compass that we can carry it conveniently along with us. "Ah," says Solomon, "take this book; bind it about thy neck; write it upon the tablet of thy heart: that where thou goest it may lead thee, and when thou sleepest it may keep thee, and when thou walkest it may talk with thee." We must not, before we dismiss this part of our subject, overlook its influence and efficacy. We do not mean now with regard to the illumination of the mind, or the relief of the pardoned conscience, or the setting of the man's poor heart at rest, so that he shall no longer run up and down this wide world, crying, "Who will shew us any good?" but we refer now to his moral transformation. "If any man be in Christ he is a new creature." And our Saviour, therefore, said unto the Jews, "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." We see that it did this on its original promulgation. We see that, though Plato complained that he could not prevail upon the inhabitants of a single village to walk according to his maxims and rules, the Fishermen of Galilee never complained so. Did not Corinth refuse? No. Did not Rome? No. Did not Thessalonica? No. Did not Ephesus? No. Did not all these places? No. The kingdom of God was not in word, but in power. They received the word; they became free from sin, and became the servants of God, had their fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. And the same effects arise from the same doctrines now. For God's grace and God's truth always go together: wherever the Gospel is received, it comes not in word only, but, as the Apostle says, both "in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance." The drunkard becomes sober; the swearer learns to fear an oath; the man who lived in chambering and wantonness, no longer follows the desires of the flesh; the proud are humbled; the avaricious become liberal; and they who walked by sight walk by faith. "We speak that we do know, and testify that which we have seen. And we must also observe the value of the Scriptures, as it appears, not only when personally, but relatively considered. You will observe, that where it is not available to renew, it restrains: where it does not sanctify, it civilizes. The Jews had the Oracles of God committed to them; this it was which humanized them. Ahab, and his predecessors, were far from being good men; and yet, you see, they had obtained the character, in all the surrounding nations, of merciful men : "The kings of Israel are merciful kings:" and so they were comparatively. You might have gone from one end of the pagan world to the other, and not have seen a hospital or a poor-house. What is it that, more than any thing else, has served to soften the fierceness of the passions, and correct the savageness of the manners of the multitude? What is it that will finally beat the sword into the plough-share, the spear into the pruning-hook, and put an end to war? What is it that has already softened its horrors so? If after a battle now prisoners were ever put to death in cold blood, if the meanest captive after an action now were to be maltreated, the earth would ring from one end to the other with the horror. What is it that will finally banish slavery? (the rectitude of which, by the way, none of the liberals of Rome and Greece ever questioned): yea, what is it that has abolished it, in the noblest and mightiest empire under heaven? I am persuaded," the glorious Gospel of the blessed God." What is it that has reduced marriage to its original institution, and by excluding polygamy and divorce, at once has reduced it to a state of purity, and peace, and happiness? And what is it that has so raised the tone of morals amongst us, that the very vices which the most admired characters of antiquity practised, and dared to avow themselves, now drive a man from the very dregs of society? What is it that makes us revere the memory of a Howard or a Wilberforce, because they pitied and relieved the distressed? How precious should the Scriptures be that have closed so many avenues of wretchedness, and opened so many scenes to them of comfort. I would only ask any candid individual, What now would be the state of every family, and every nation, if the precepts of this book were universally obeyed, and the spirit of this book was universally felt? Why our earth would be turned into a paradise. The few words of the apostle," By love serve one another," were they enthroned in every heart, soon the wilderness and solitary place would be made glad, and the desert would rejoice and blossom as the rose. It would be Thirdly, let us consider THE SEASON OF ITS PRECIOUSNESS. precious in itself, if no one ever regarded it: just as the jewel is equally valuable though the swine trample it under its hoofs. But it is with the word as it is with the Author of it; "to them that believe he is precious," and to them that believe it is precious. Good men have always been fond, (shall I say,) fond of the Word of God. Job said, "I esteem the words of thy mouth more than my necessary food." David says, "More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold :" he gives it as the character of the godly man, that "his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night." "I prefer," says the Hon. Mr. Boyle," one sprig of the tree of life to a whole wood of bay." You may meet with a great number of such expressions in "Simpson's Plea for Religion." But it would seem from our text, that there are seasons in which the word of the Lord is particularly precious. "The word of the Lord was particularly precious in those days." What days? First the days of destitution. Such were the days of Samuel: this was the case also in after times with the church, when they said, "We see not any signs: there is no more any prophet; neither is there among us, any that knoweth how long." This was implied in the prophecy, "The Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction; yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers: and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left." It is expressed in the threatening, "Behold the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land; not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: and they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it." Josiah had but once seen a copy of the law in his life; but a man who was employed to cleanse the temple found one, and it was soon carried to him, and the young prince ordered it to be read, and wept and wept again. How precious were the Scriptures before their translation; how many were there to whom the sacred treasure was inaccessible. Suppose now the word of God was remaining in the original Hebrew and Greek, what would it then be to you? Why, it would be like a spring shut up, a fountain sealed; like so many fine paintings hung up in a dark room. "The word of the Lord was precious in those days;" and therefore upon the completion of Luther's translation, an annual feast was instituted, which was called "The Feast of the Translation." And after its translation how precious was it, owing to the trouble and expense of transcription, before the invention of the art of printing. How precious was it in the days of Henry the Eighth; for though it was then in print, this detestable tyrant issued an order, that it should not be read by any children, or apprentices, or husbandmen, or mechanics, or women. In the days of Queen Mary the use of it was absolutely prohibited: we read of one farmer who gave a whole load of hay for a single leaf of one of the epistles. "The word of the Lord was precious in those days." When Elizabeth ascended the throne, the prisons resigned their victims; yet she received a petition, very numerously and respectably signed, beseeching her to release four very worthy and honest men, who were still in confinement, namely, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. When she passed through Cheapside, the citizens presented her with a New Testament; she kissed it, and pressing it to her bosom, said, "This shall be the rule of my government." Yet for a considerable time the word of God was so scarce, that a large Bible was ordered to be chained to a ledge in the aisle of every parish church; and there the |
