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at the same time it is certain, that if a little arsenic had been put into the composition of it, it would have effectu ally poisoned the soundest believer; and while we know that there can be but one whole Christ, though the Papists pretend to make a thousand Christs in a day; this is not to be considered as a difficult or mysterious point, but as a clear express contradiction both to sense and reason.

It is also proper here to mention, that whatever doctrine of religion (supposing it to be really genuine) is beyond the reach of human understanding, cannot be imagined necessary to be received, any farther than understood. For belief cannot be carried the least degree beyond conception. And it is to be remembered, that a doctrine may be contained in scripture, and yet not a necessary point of faith. For example: It is said in scripture, that the angels desired to look into the scheme of the redemption of mankind. But nobody has ever thought, of making an article of faith necessary to salvation, That we are to believe, that the angels are interested in the scheme of our redemption. Unless scripture itself expressly declares a doctrine necessary to be received, we cannot, without rashness, pretend to pronounce it absolutely necessary to be believed in any precise or determinate sense whatever.

It has been objected against the scheme of revelation which is received among us, That great part of the precepts contained in it are such as appear at first view agreeable to sound reason; whereas it might have been expected (say those objectors, or rather cavillers) that every article in it should be quite new and unheard of. At the same time the same gentlemen think proper likewise to object, That many of the scripture-expressions are very different from those used by other ancient authors. So that it is, it seems, an objection against scripture, That it is what it might have been expected to be; and that it is not what it might have been expected to be.

To the former of these cavils it may be briefly answered, That the general agreement between reason and revelation, shows both to be of Divine original; while revelation's being an improvement and addition to reason,* shows its usefulness and expediency. The latter difficulty

See page 408.

will vanish on considering that many of the scripture expressions are visibly accommodated to human apprehension, while others on the same subjects are raised to a sublimity suitable to the nature of the thing; by which means the narrowest mind receives an information suitable to its reach, whilst the most elevated conception is enlarged by views of the noblest and most sublime nature. Thus, to mention only one instance at present, the meanest reader of Scripture, is struck with fear of One, whose eye is quick and piercing, to search the hearts, and try the reins of the children of men, and whose hand is powerful, and his out-stretched arm mighty, to seize and punish offenders. At the same time the profound philosopher is in the same writings informed, that God is a spirit filling heaven and earth, and not contained within the limits of the heaven of heavens, but inhabiting immensity and eternity, in whom all live and move, and have their beings; necessarily Invisible, and alogether unlike to any of his creatures; having neither eyes, nor hands, nor passions like those of men; but whose ways are infinitely above our ways and his thoughts above our thoughts. Thus the Scripture language is such, as that of a revelation intended for the improvement of men of all different degrees of capacity, ought to be. It is, in short, fit for the use of a whole species.

That the Old Testament particularly, which is the only book extant in that language, should be so well preserved and understood as it is, so long after the Hebrew has ceased to be a living language: that we should at this time be able to make out a regular history, and a set of consistent thoughts and views, from writings of such antiquity, is much more to be wondered, than that there should be found in them difficulties, seeming contradictions, and thoughts or expressions different from those found in productions of a later date. But above all things, that the thoughts and expressions in Scripture should so far exceed in sublimity all other compositions, seems unaccountable upon every other scheme, but their being of Divine original. Of the truth of this assertion, let the following instance, among innumerable others, serve as a proof.

The loftiest passage, in the most sublime of all human productions, is the beginning of the eighth book of Homer's Iliad. There the greatest of all human imagina

tions labours to describe, not a hero, but a God; not an inferior, but the Supreme God; not to show his superiority to mortals, but to the heavenly powers; and not to one, but to them all united. The following is a verbal translation of it.

"The saffron coloured morning was spread over the whole earth; and Jupiter, rejoicing in his thunder, held an assembly of the gods upon the highest top of the manyheaded Olympus. He himself made a speech to them, and all the gods together listened.

"Hear me, all ye gods, and all ye goddesses, that I may say what my soul in my breast commands. Let not therefore any female deity, or any male, endeavour to break though my world; but all consent together, that I may most quickly perform these works. Whomsoever, there fore, of the gods I shall understand to have gone by himself, and of his own accord to give assistance either to the Trojans or the Greeks, he shall return to Olympus shame. fully wounded; or I will throw him, seized by me, into dark hell, very far off, whether the most deepabyss is under the earth; whether there are iron gates, and a brazen threshold, as far within hell, as heaven is distant from the earth. He will then know, by how much I am the most powerful of all the gods.

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"But come, try, O ye gods, that ye may all see. Hang down the golden chain from heaven, hang upon it all ye gods, and all ye goddesses; but ye shall not be able to draw from heaven to the ground Jupiter the great coun selior, though ye strive ever so much. But when I afterwards shall be willing to draw, I shall lift both the earth itself, and the sea itself. Then I shall bind the chain round the top of Olympus, and they shall all hang aloft. For so much am I above gods and above men."

With this most masterly passage of the greatest master of the sublime, of all antiquity, the writer, who probably had the greatest natural and acquired advantages of any mortal for perfecting a genius; let the following verbal translation of a passage from writings penned by one brought up a shepherd, and in a country were learning was not thought of, be compared; that the difference may appear. In this comparison, I know of no unfair advan tage given the inspired writer. For both fragments are

literally translated; and if the critics are right the Hebrew original is verse, as well as the Greek.

"O Lord, my God, thou art very great! Thou art clothed with honour and majesty! Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest. out the heavens like a canopy. Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariots: who =walketh upon the wings of the wind. Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flame of fire. Who laid

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the foundation of the earth, that it should not be moved for ever. Thou coveredst it with the deep, as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains. At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away. They go up by the mountains; they go down by the vallies unto the place thou hast founded for them. Thou hast set a bound, that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth.

"O Lord, how manifold are thy works? In wisdom hast thou made them all. The earth is full of thy riches. So is the great and wide sea, wherein are creatures, innumerable, both small and great. There go the ships. There is that leviathan, which thou hast made to play therein. These all wait upon thee, that thou mayest give them their food in due season. That thou givest them they gather. Thou openest thy hand: they are filled with good. Thou hidest thy face: they are troubled. They die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy spirit; they are created; and thou renewest the face of the earth. The glory of the Lord shall endure forever. The Lord shall rejoice in his works. He looketh on the earth, and it tremb leth. He toucheth the hills; and they smoke. I will sing unto the Lord as long as live. I will sing praise unto my God, while I have my being."

I appeal to every reader, whether the former of these two fragments is not, when compared with the latter, a school-boy's theme, a capucinade, or a Grub-street ballad, rather than a production fit to be named with any part of the inspired writings. Nor is it only in one instance, that the superiority of the Scripture stile to all human compositions appear. But taking the whole body of sacred poesy, and the whole of profane, and considering the character of the Jehovah of the former, and the Jupiter of the latter,

every one must see the difference to be out of all reach of comparison. And, what is wonderfully remarkable, Scrip ture poesy, though penned by a number of different hands, as, Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the rest, in very distant ages, gives a distinct and uniform idea of the Supreme Being, no where deviating into any thing mean, or unworthy of him; and still even where he is spoke of in a manner suited to the general apprehension of mankind, his dignity and majesty duly kept up. Whereas, there is not one of the ancient Heathen poets, who gives a consistent idea of the Supreme God, or keeps up his charac ter throughout, Homer, in the same poem, describes his Jupiter with a great deal of majesty, and in another represents him as deceived by his wife Juno, and overcome with lust and sleep, while the inferior deities are playing what tricks they please, contrary to his intention. In short, the Supreme God is by Homer described as a bully; by Virgil, as a tyrant; by Ovid, as a beastly voluptuary; and by Lucretius, as a lazy drone. So that, if the cavils of the opposers of Revelation, with respect to the style of Scripture, were of so much more consequence than they are; it would still be the easiest, and indeed the only rational way of accounting for the amazing superiority of those writings to the greatest human productions, in spite of the disadvantages, of want of learning, and the like, which the sacred penmen laboured under; to ascribe the senti ments in them to Divine Inspiration.

Other objections, as, that the genuineness of some of the books of the Bible has been disputed; those of various readings; of seeming contradictions; of doubtful interpretations; of obscurity in the Scripture Chronology, and the like; all these difficulties are sufficiently cleared up by the learned apologists for Revealed Religion. Nor does it suit the purpose of this work to obyiate all objections. Nor is it indeed necessary for the candid inquirer into the truth of Divine Revelation, to attend to the various difficulties started by laborious cavillers. It is of very small consequence, what circumstantial difficulties may be raised about a scheme, whose grand lines and principal figures show its Author to be Divine; as will, it is presumed, appear to every ingenuous mind, on a careful perusal of the following general view of the whole body of

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