CONCLUSION.

In the foregoing pages, I have shown that the Plenary Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, rests on four strong and massy pillars. The first is, the adaptedness of the system of religion which they reveal, to the circumstances and wants of men. This, I think, I have proved beyond question; and, also, that there is no other system of religion which answers this end. But this falls to the ground the moment the Plenary Inspiration of the Scriptures is given up. For those who regard the Scriptures at best as but partially inspired, invariably give up or deny what is essential to the grand system there revealed. Therefore, this

pillar, which supports the Plenary Inspiration of the Scriptures, likewise supports the Evangelical System, in distinction from Socinianism, or Unitarianism, Universalism, and kindred errors. None of these have any claim, on the score of adaptedness, to the wants of man. They are mere caricatures of Christianity; and they by no means form this pillar of which I speak. If they were put under the Plenary Inspiration of the Bible, they would be like a marred and broken column. They would not support it. They do not even profess to rest upon it, but reject it, as the only means of their own support. But evangelical Christianity is the system taught in the Bible, understood in its plain and obvious import; and what this system has done, and what it is capable of doing for mankind, show that it must be of God.

The Second Pillar is entirely different in its nature from the first. It is composed of the evidence of fact. It is a mere question of fact, not of opinion. And I think no fact, which depends on the testimony of credible witnesses, sustained by circumstantial evidence, is more clearly and fully established, than that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the infallible word of God, containing a perfect standard of truth and duty. This has been abundantly shown in the foregoing pages; though but a small part of the evidence has been exhibited. Yet if this is impartially examined, on the common principles of evidence, the witnesses will be found unimpeachable, their testimony consistent and fair, and every link in the chain of circumstances perfect and entire. This pillar cannot be shaken.

The Third Pillar is a marvellous one. To the eye of the unbeliever, it is nothing but an ill-shapen mass of ruins, which does not at all support the edifice. On the contrary, in his view, it appears certain that the building must fall, because it is supported by such a pillar. But to the believer, it is a column of massive strength and stupendous grandeur; and the more he examines it, the more he discovers the perfection of its parts and the beauty of its architecture. The unbeliever argues, from the nature of the things taught in the Bible, that it cannot be from God. He beholds in it nought but a mass of "contradictions and absurdities ;" while the believer is not only convinced in his understanding, but feels in his heart, that the things taught in the Scriptures must be a revelation from God. This strange fact is accounted

for in this same book; and this is a further evidence of its divine origin: "The natural man," says the Bible, "receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

Lead a blind man up before a piece of splendid architecture, and he cannot discern its beauty. So lead a natural man to contemplate the spiritual things revealed in the Bible, and he cannot see their beauty, because he has no spiritual discernment. But multitudes who reject the Bible on this very ground,-on account of what it teaches,-never carefully look into it with what discernment they have, to see what it does teach. They condemn it without examination. This is prejudice and injustice in the highest degree. But it is true of most of the champions of infidelity, who have written against the Scriptures. An English gentleman, in conversation with Thomas Paine, some time after the publication of his "Age of Reason," found him deplorably ignorant of the Scriptures, and drew out from him the confession, that he had never carefully studied them. And the assertions of those pretended Christians, who come out at this day against the Plenary Inspiration of the Scriptures, show that they have never given the Bible a thorough, impartial, and candid examination, in order to know what it does teach.

The Fourth Pillar is a column constructed of four pieces, most curiously wrought together, and so placed, that every one who examines it must see that it is impossible for the edifice which it supports, to fall. The two branches of prophecy, one relating to

the Jews, and the other to the rest of mankind, agree so perfectly with history, as to demonstrate the fact, that the prophecy must have been given by inspiration. And, then, the twofold predictions of the Messiah, contained in the prophecies and types, delivered generations before he came, and all so perfectly fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ, show beyond contradiction, both that these prophecies and types must have been given by inspiration, and that Jesus Christ must be a divine person.

In view of all this array of testimony, I cannot but admire and adore the condescension of the blessed God, that he has been pleased, in so diversified and conclusive a manner, to attest his revelation; adapting the evidence to the constitution of different minds. With what astonishment, then, must the angels look upon the stupidity and blindness of men, when they see this revelation rejected by such multitudes of the human race! And how aggravated must be the sin of unbelief, when committed against such testimony! Who can doubt that the Bible is rejected, not from want of evidence, but because the truths which it reveals are hated? And no wonder that the sin of unbelief is ranked among the most enormous crimes, and punished accordingly. Rejecters of the Bible are not merely mistaken; but they are criminal. It is not an error only, but a sin, to reject the Bible. And it is a great and aggravated sin in the sight of God. It casts contempt upon him, and openly sets his authority at defiance. It is sinning presumptuously, a sin which, by the law of Moses, was punished with death: "But the soul that doeth aught

presumptuously, the same reproacheth the Lord; and that soul shall be cut off from his people.”* YET THERE ARE MEN AMONG US, STANDING IN

PULPITS CONSECRATED BY OUR FATHERS TO THE

PROCLAMATION OF THE WORD OF GOD, AS CONTAINED IN THE HOLY SCRIPTURES, AND ACKNOWLEDGED BY A DELUDED PEOPLE AS CHRISTIAN MINISTERS, WHO PROCLAIM FROM THESE PULPITS THAT THE BIBLE IS NOT THE WORD OF GOD!

* Numb. xv., 30.