"Thy rushing wing dark-mantled bird, And founts and flowing streams were dried; "From fields uncheered by rain or dew, "Dark-mantled bird, I'll welcome thee: "I turn with fond delight to trace And think how, in their hour of need, Review. We had begun to prepare a Review of a recent publication in our own country, when we received the number of the British Eclectic Review for July last; from which we have determined to extract the following article, which must extend to two numbers of our work-reserving our own article, not without some reluctance, to a future day. The present favourite infidel attack on the volume of divine inspiration is derived from the science (if science it may be called,) of Geology. For some time, the enemies of the Bible affected to triumph in the vaunted demonstration, as they hesitate not to call it, which had been effected by geolo gical discoveries, of the entire falsehood of the Mosaic account of the creation-affirming that they had proved conclusively, that some myriads of ages beyond the period of the cosmogony recorded in the first chapter of Genesis, the earth on which we dwell must have existed: And this is still the favourite topick of scepticism, among the fraternity of unbelieving naturalists. Of late, however, geologists, of reputation not inferior to any living or dead, have met this infidel objection on its own ground, and have shown clearly, that there is not a single well ascertained fact, which does in reality impugn the Mosaic record; and particularly, that one general deluge is suffi cient to account for all the geological phenomena for which infidel writers have laboured to show that many floods, at least of partial extent, must have taken place. Among the writers who have thus vindicated the Bible from the charge of error and falsehood, is the anonymous author of the work reviewed in the following article. formation. Adapted especially to guard the young against the too welcome theories of scepticism, it will also afford to the general reader both gratification and improvement. It chiefly consists of striking facts deduced from the labours of modern inquiry, of allusions gleaned from literature, of memorials of past events scattered over the relics of by-gone times, in sculptures, gems, and medals; and its object is, to apply these various materials to the illustration and establishment of the sacred records; as well as to impress the conviction, that the foundations of a scriptural hope are not to be shaken by advancing knowledge, nor ultimately injured by the rash assaults of a class of men, who, aspiring to be deemed the votaries of philosophy, give too much reason for the suspicion, that the stimulus by which their industry is excited, is the vain expectation of some discovery adverse to the Christian religion, rather than zeal for the promotion of science. But what has been written by the reviewer himself, we regard as not less valuable than the work on which he comments. What we publish this month is entirely from his pen; and it is, both in matter and manner, an essay of prime excellence. In a style exceedingly lucid, chaste, and forcible, he has given a view both of the internal and external evidence of the divine origin of our sacred books, which is peculiarly striking. It is a view which is presented in a novel form; although the substance of it could not be so, to any considerable extent; because the subject has been so often treated by writers of the greatest eminence, that it is difficult to suggest a thought upon it that is, strictly speaking, new.-blished upon evidences so various, We think it will be read with much pleasure, particularly by those whose attention has been specially drawn to the subject discussed; and we hope it may prove a seasonable antidote to the doubts which the sceptical writers of the day may have raised, in the minds of our juvenile readers of liberal minds and pursuits. The truth of the Bible is esta independent, and forcible, as to have been long since considered by men without superiors either in intellect or in learning, as fully adequate to set the question at rest; to justify secession from further strife with cavillers, to brand objectors as unreasonable, and to leave them without relief from the stings of conscience, or appeal from the already recorded judg ment of their Maker, that He who believeth not, is condemned already. Little new, indeed, can be advanced; and, were it not for the ever reiterated attacks of the ma lignant, and the necessity of vary ing in some degree the forms of argument, to meet the ever changing methods of presenting stale objections, the advocates of Heavenly Truth might, with all honour, lay down their pens. There is no line of investigation, in which the Scriptures have not been proved to be invincible. In general, that proof is distributed into the internal and the external; branching, in each kind, into many distinct topics of consideration. Into which of these, it may be asked, has there not been the keenest scrutiny which zeal could prompt? Which of them has not been repeatedly tested by whatever learning, science, or wit could bring to bear in opposition? Yet, in which of these has not the cause of Revelation triumphed? Were it to be admitted as possible, that a temperature of mind peculiarly addicted to scepticism, might, after due inquiry, be still assailed by honest doubts; yet, to disbelieve, or to arrive at a conviction that the Christian religion is false, even candour itself must pronounce to be impossible. Ignorance alone can shield the man who avows his belief, his positive belief, that the Scriptures are a counterfeit, from justly incurring imputations on his character for honour and honesty. How could falsehood have been so accredited? How could craft endure such sifting? Is the distinction between truth and cunning so impalpable? Can neither talent, time, subsequent discovery, application, nor sagacity, avail to mark it? Had the Scriptures been false, assailed as they have been, so long, so industriously, and from so many quarters, they must, without question, have been convicted long ago, and their support have been relinquished to human authority and state-craft. Before it can be positively believed that they are fabulous, it must be believed that falsehood is as strong as truth; that laws of evidence and rules of argument, which on every other subject are deemed to be just and safe, have, after all, no foundation; that we are wholly without landmarks for the mind; that history, reason, knowledge, are a blank; a mockery Ch. Adv.-Vol. X. rather, which may delude and bewilder, but can never guide to confidence. An attentive survey of the New Testament, must force upon every reader the conviction, that those parts of it which are most simple, which come within the compass of correct practical judgment, are indisputably true. The writers of it plainly display an accurate moral taste, a knowledge of what would be perfection in human character, which cannot be impeached, which was no where extant before, and to which nothing has been added since. Whence, then, could the human mind, all at once, attain to this justness of thought, this comprehension of the entire code of morals? No justice can be done to these writers, except they be compared with those who lived before the light which they themselves were the instruments of introducing, had illuminated the world. It cannot be questioned, that the judgments of men on the most important subjects, underwent an immense change after the reputed time when the New Testament was written; a change manifestly referrible to its authors. From whom then could they derive that light? Was it so easy of acquisition, that it needs excite no wonder? Where was the sage or philosopher who had made the attainment? By the infidel it has been deemed to be an achievement for the industry of his numerous associates, industry extended through several generations-to discover, not that any thing which the sacred authors have written on the duties of man to man, or of man to his Maker, is ill founded; not that any thing has been omitted by them which is essential; but that there might be found, scattered through the writings of all countries, a little here, and a little there, those truths, which, when collected, and separated from a thousand errors, would make up the Christian system of 3 E morality. Even the precepts, to do good to our enemies, and to do to others, as we would that they should do to us, they, in no measured terms of triumph, assure us, have at length been fished from ancient documents. Were the facts they state unquestionable, and the prior date of every precept clearly proved, (which, however, cannot be done,) yet, of what avail were it, for practical use, that a body of moral truth, dissevered limb from limb, lay scattered in innumerable fragments among a mass of writings of various ages, countries, and languages, buried also among pernicious errors, more completely than gold among the sands? Where was the unaided intellect which should be equal to the task of selecting all the good, and at the same time of rejecting all the evil? Where were the individuals, or combination of individuals, who, at that time, could have even taken a survey of the amorphous masses of fable and speculation, for the purpose? How, especially, could those who gave us the New Testament, have performed the enterprise? How came it that a few plain men living in despised Judea, should accomplish such a task? Can it be possibly accounted for, that they, without doubt or faltering, in clear, pointed directions, not as inquiring philosophers, but as authoritative lawgivers, should, at once and in brief, give to the world the whole of that practical, moral truth which, here a little and there a little, may have sparkled amongst the varied productions of all the powerful minds, the philosophers, poets, lawgivers, who had ever thought to instruct mankind? Let the unbeliever mark the position of which he incautiously vaunts, the humiliation of his glorying? Let him recollect besides, that both the beauty and the benefit of a rule of morals, consist, not in detached and widely dissevered precepts, but in their harmonious attemperament, in the exhibition of their due proportions and dependencies; and then, with all his names of pagan splendour, what becomes of rivalry with the Fishermen of Galilee? But, besides rules of duty, man requires to be made acquainted with those principles within him which war against it, and which, when he knows the right, still induce him to prefer the wrong; with the power and prevalence of those principles, and with the misery to which they lead; but above all, with the way by which that fearful issue may be averted. Let it be granted, that the necessary rules of duty might be found elsewhere; let it be also allowed, that in self-knowledge some discoveries, far from adequate, had been made by man's unassisted reason; still, on the last, incomparably the most important point, nature through all her works is dumb, and reason utterly foiled. How shall man escape the consequence of his sins? How shall his nature become duly upright, that so he may attain to the perfection of his being? These are questions to which no oracle professed to give an answer, which no philosophy pretended to resolve. These were questions often put, but all was silence; while hope would sometimes whisper, that the time would come when Heaven would reveal the glorious secret. When Socrates, Plato, Cicero, confessed themselves to be baffled, how came the Authors of the Christian Scriptures to grasp these questions? How came those uninstructed men to reach their depth and height, to understand their various bearings, and, with constant regard to justice, truth, and purity, without by the least shade obscuring the honours of the universal Lawgiver, or involving any of the interests of intelligent, accountable beings, exist in what world they may, to give explicit, unembarrassed answers? To conceive aright of what was due to Him who is at once the highest Legislator and the supreme Benefactor; to harmonize these characters, to adjust the several claims of each, of law, justice, and veracity, on the one hand; of mercy, grace, and love on the other; what an amazing attempt for uneducated men! Who, then, were these men, and whence their knowledge? To attack their system on these momentous topics, how often soever attempted, has been proved to be a hopeless undertaking; and to change or mutilate it but a little, has been shown to introduce confusion somewhere,--to dethrone the Heavenly Lawgiver, to impair the mercy of the universal Father, to endanger the safety of those spirits who still retain their allegiance, or to intercept recovering interference. How, again, are other subtile questions disposed of in the Scriptures, those of freedom and dependence?-questions full of mystery, giving rise to interminable discussions among ingenious men, and almost always dividing the disputants into opposite parties, of which the one virtually destroys the sovereignty of God, the other the moral agency of man? on the surface of the Scriptures, relating to the state and prospects of man, the methods of Providence towards him, the threatened results of his conduct hereafter, and its actual consequences in this life. But how stand the statements with the analogies of constituted nature, with the events occurring before our eyes, which implicate similar principles? How happens it, that the closer the comparison instituted between the God of nature and the God of Revelation, the more do they appear to be the same? Who gave to the sacred writers that glance so searching, through the vast field of operations in the world around them, especially as those operations bear on man and sentient beings? Who taught them not to err in drawing the portrait of their Deity, and of His various dealings with His creatures? Far from throwing themselves on the current of ordinary notions, their thoughts on these subjects have met the powerful tides of men's opinions; while yet, when tried by the only proper test, not by what man thinks, but what God actually does before our observation, they are found to bear down all resistance. Of the two portions of the Sacred Writings, the Old Testament Have the sacred writers, on any and the New, the diversity in many of the points which involve these respects is very striking; while abstruse inquiries, been at all con- yet, it seems impossible to deny, victed of error? Have not the fal- on close inspection, that there is lacies of every metaphysical sys- discovered, a singular uniformity tem which has impugned their of design, a gradual unfolding of dicta, been successively exposed? the same comprehensive scheme, And has it not been proved, after a constant keeping in view of the the most elaborate researches, that same purpose to be accomplished, man is, in fact, what the Scrip- a purpose of which, however, tures every where represent him as being, at once a free and accountable agent, and yet dependent upon his Maker for all the good he has or needs, moral as well as physical? Who taught the despised men of Galilee this profound philosophy? Many difficulties, indeed, appear the precise nature was hidden for ages. Had there from the beginning been some presiding intelligence perfectly acquainted with the facts and doctrines to be promulgated in a distant age, intending to announce them gradually, to interweave them with other matters, to introduce such notices |