LECTURE IX.

THE BIBLE A REVELATION FROM GOD TO MAN.

WE have seen the impotency of reason and the light of nature to meet the exigencies of man, in time or eternity; and that the Bible, in its adaptations to our necessities, meets all our exigencies, personal, social, and civil, in a manner more rational and benignant than any other system that claims a parentage from God. So that, if God has given to man a revelation, the Bible has preeminently a claim to that distinction. And yet, strong as this presumptive evidence is, we admit that evidence more direct and unequivocal is desirable, and, if the Bible is a revelation from God, what we should strongly anticipate.

But how can the Bible be authenticated as a revelation from God? This is a very natural and proper question, and one which, we admit, we are bound to answer. For it is true that man cannot believe, or be obligated to believe, without evidence. Neither tradition, nor history, nor the church, nor the state, nor councils, nor the Pope, will avail. We must have somehow the testimony of God, to assure us of the inspiration of this Book. We must have the broad seal of Heaven, which none can counterfeit, set upon it, or we cannot give it credence. There must be actions performed, in attestation of its inspiration, of which none but God could be the author; and these actions must be so connected with the

testimony of those who claim to have been inspired, as to compromit the divine veracity, if their testimony is not true.

It is admitted, that He only who made the universe can

sustain and govern it ; there may have been many wonderful things done by finite beings of superhuman powers, but they can neither create, nor sustain, nor govern the world. He that created, and he that upholds and governs all things, is God.

We must admit also that the great laws of the material universe are so far uniform in their operations, as that, if any marked suspension takes place, if, in the midst of their even and regular career, they are suddenly stopped, and a power greater than their own interposes to control them,that power is God's. And, if the man in whose favor such interposition is granted claims to be commissioned to reveal the will of God to man, and, in support of his claim, adduces this divine interposition, which has been brought upon the laws of nature in connection with his testimony, then we must believe that God sanctions it as true: the interposition is the great seal of Heaven stamped upon his commission; it discloses the omnipotence of God, confirming the claim to inspiration.

A voice from heaven would not answer the purpose. If a man were to inform the world that he had heard a voice from heaven, how few would believe him! How much room would there be for scepticism and ridicule! "You heard a voice did you saying, 'I am God, and such is my will '? But how do you know it was the voice of God? Other invisible spirits, possibly, may speak; - how do you know but that it may have been they, that spoke? and how do we know that your testimony is true; that you heard a voice, and do not testify falsely?"

A bright angelic visitant, with sparkling eyes, and glittering

wings, and glowing tongue, would not suffice, without the proper signature of God to his mission. For, who can tell, whether he was truly an angel of light, or Satan transformed? Our faith would not rest on God, but on the angel; and whether he came from heaven or not, would rest on his own testimony, and not on the testimony of God.

Suppose a man should present himself to me, and say, "Sir, I perceive that you are in great darkness, and I am sent to teach you the way to God." I should reply, "I am much obliged to you, but what evidence have you to show that God has sent you? I am very much in the dark, and need teaching; but I want to know who my teacher is, and whence he derives his commission to teach me." He says, "I can perform a thousand wonderful things, which you cannot account for. I can perform things superhuman, and show you wonders which no mortal man can perform." "It may be so; and yet, these wonders may not surpass the powers of created agents; for both in heaven and hell there are mighty spirits: now, how am I to know that your aid is not from the father of lies to deceive me? Can you control the laws of nature? Can you call down or stop the showers of heaven? Can you send pestilence, and drive away disease? Can you raise the dead? Can you stop the sun? These are the seal of Heaven, unquestionably. Show me, then, this seal on your commission, and I will believe that you are sent of God, and authorized to teach his will. If, at your bidding, the sun stops in his course, and the rain for years is suspended, if volcanoes blaze, and earthquakes rock the solid world, at your command, — I have the evidence from God that you are sent by him to instruct me. I ask no more; I am sure that you, by your own power, could not do these things, and that none other but the power of God could do them, and that God, by

these interpositions, sustains your claim of being sent by him to instruct me."

But such are the evidences upon which we rely, to substantiate the Bible, as the word of God's revelation, for our guidance for time and eternity. And this evidence is contained in the miracles and prophecies connected with that book.

A miracle is such a control, or suspension, of the laws of nature, as none but God, who made the world, can accomplish; and in such relations to a revelation as give it the divine attestation.

Prophecy is a declaration of future events which no finite mind could foresee or conjecture, any more than it could work miracles.

These are evidence every way fitted to command attention, to make impression, and to produce conviction: so that, when a miracle is wrought, and it is witnessed by multitudes in open day, or when a prophecy is made, and it is found that the records of future history in all respects fulfil it, --such evidences of revelation demand the credence of men. There is, it is true, a certain credulity in the human mind, which, to a certain extent, and for a time, is satisfied with the mere supernatural appearance of what they cannot explain. But, when a real miracle is wrought, under the circumstances which prove it really a miracle, according to the definition given, it always carries conviction to the human mind.

But, to these considerations, it is objected:

1. That the laws of nature are perfect; that God made them for wise and benevolent ends, and adapted them to all the ends for which they are made; and that they do not need to be helped out by any innovations, and substitutions of God's power, to bring about results of his government; that we are

not to suppose that there could be occasion, in a perfect government of laws, for God's interposing to produce results which would not be reached by the comprehensive adaptation" of his laws to those objects. An alleged necessity for miracles, it is said, implies defect in the original plan, which needs to be helped out by a constant resort to expedients.

ANSWER. The laws of nature are perfect for all the ends they were established to accomplish; and if, to bring out those results, constant miracles were needed, it would imply defect. God made the earth to produce wheat, &c.; and if, nevertheless, it would not produce wheat without a miracle -- if the arteries would not carry the blood-if the lungs would not suffice for breathing, or the stomach for digestion - if the ox for the plough were not able to draw it, and the sun, which was made for light, were not able to shine, - and after all that God has done through all his works, an act of immediate omnipotence was indispensable to bring out the results intended, the laws of nature would then be like the machine for perpetual motion, which, when finished and ornamented, had but one defect, which was, that it would not go.

But, in the laws of nature there is no such defect, and miracles are intended to supply no such deficiency; and the laws of nature do move on in their regular course, and do accomplish all they were designed to accomplish. The attributes of matter, so far as we know them, are uniform in their properties, developments, and uses fire always burns, the sun always gives light; and all the elements which go to make up God's universe of matter are uniform, and perfectly efficient to all the great ends for which they were provided; so that miracles are not needed to mend them, nor do they help them out; they but interpose to accomplish a purpose which their