the future state, are all suited in the one case to Jehovah ; and in the other to Jupiter, united with the group of gods and goddesses.

II. We are furnished with powerful evidence, that the Scriptures are a revelation from God.

These different systems actually exist. One of them is actually found in the Scriptures. The others are all professedly, as well as really, schemes of human philosophy. For this difference between them there is a cause. What is that

cause?

It is not superiority of native talents. This infidels themselves will acknowledge. There is not, so far as I know, any reason to conclude, that any group of human beings have possessed greater native talents than can be found among the learned Greeks and Romans. Besides, we find the same system, in substance, exhibited by all the writers of the Old and New Testament. It certainly will not be pretended, that all these were superior to Homer and Aristotle, Cicero and Virgil, in original vigour of mind.

It cannot be superiority of education.

The arts and sciences of the Greeks and Romans were certainly far more advanced than those of the Jews. On moral subjects only do they write like children, and teach doctrines which children in this country, who are able to write at all, would be ashamed either to teach or believe. On all other subjects they write like men, and like men of capacious and superior minds. Even on moral subjects they write in one sense like men. The childish character they discover in embracing these errors; while in defending them they manifest the utmost strength and ingenuity of the human intellect.

At the same time, David, Amos, Christ, Matthew, Mark, John, James, Peter, and Jude were all uneducated peasants; unpossessed of a single advantage of education which is not enjoyed by the plainest, humblest people of this State, and destitute of some which they enjoy.

It is not the advantage of prior instruction, derived from men of superior minds, whose wisdom, and sublime discoveries they imbibed, and retailed to succeeding generations.

I admit that the Greeks were, to a considerable extent,

obliged to form their own philosophy on these subjects. But Moses and Job (whom I consider as the author of the book which bears his name,) are the two earliest writers whose works are now extant; and these men enter directly upon the subjects in question, with the same clearness and precision, with the same purity and sublimity, which are found in those who followed them. The same Jehovah reigns in their works, the same scheme of creation and providence, the same system of morals and religion, which prevail everywhere throughout the Scriptures.

Should it be said, that Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians;' it is readily acknowledged. But it must be acknowledged also, that the Egyptians had no such doctrines as these. The laws and government of the Egyptians appear to have been wise, and deserving of respect; while their religious philosophy was puerile and contemptible.

Should it be said, that the Persian and Hindoo writings are in some instances prior in time to those of Job and Moses; I answer, that this is said gratuitously, without the least support from evidence. But should it be granted, it will not at all affect the point in debate. The Brahminical and Persian systems are even more absurd and childish than those of the Egyptians and Greeks. All of them contain some just and sublime doctrines; but they are blended with such a mass of despicable rubbish, as to prove, on the one hand, the immeasurable superiority of the scriptural system to them all; and, on the other, that those who have delivered the superior parts of them to us, were not the discoverers of these just and sublime doctrines; but received them traditionally from revelations communicated to men of preceding ages.

It is here to be observed, that these philosophers, of every country, and of every age, differed endlessly from each other, concerning those parts of their respective systems which were of primary importance, as well as concerning others. The two most important of all subjects of contemplation are God and the supreme good. Concerning the former of these, Varro, who probably knew better than any other ancient, declares, that there were three hundred different opinions. In other words, there were three hundred different gods of the philosophy with which he was acquainted. Concerning

the latter, the diversities of opinions among the same men were, as he asserts, two hundred and eighty-eight. If they differed in this manner concerning these all-important objects, it will be easily believed, that in forming a system, into every part of which these must enter as constituent materials, they must differ in a similar manner. Accordingly, they differ, contend, and contradict each other with respect to almost every thing which has been called philosophy. Nor is this discordance found in different sects of philosophers only, but in different members also of the same sect, and in different discourses of the same writer.

How opposite to all this is the appearance of the Scriptures! They were written during the whole progress of fifteen centuries, with no considerable interval, except that between Malachi and Matthew; and were therefore liable to all the diversities of opinion, which could be supposed to arise during this long period in a single nation, from any source whatever. There were at least one hundred writers and speakers concerned in them, as teachers of Divine truth. They were of all classes of society, from the prince to the peasant. The modes in which they wrote may be considered as involving all those in which men have thought it desirable to write, except such as are professedly fictitious. The states of society and the spheres of life in which the writers lived, and the occasions which called forth their several compositions, were at least equally numerous and diverse. Still, an entire harmony runs through them all. Amos the herdsman, Matthew the toll-gatherer, and John the fisherman, exhibit the same just, clear, extensive, pure, and exalted views of divine subjects, the same religion, the same morality, and the same scheme of salvation, with those of Moses and Paul, notwithstanding all their learning, and those of Daniel and Isaiah, David and Solomon, notwistanding the high rank which they held in human society.

It is further to be observed, that the scriptural writers have taught all which mankind at present know concerning morals and religion. There is no rule of faith and no rule of practice known by men at the present time, and fairly defensible, which is not either expressly declared, or unquestionably implied, in the Scriptures.

It cannot here be said, that these defects of philosophy

arose from the want of sufficient numbers engaged in the pursuit of this great object; or of sufficient zeal, industry, and exertion on the part of those who were engaged. The number of men embarked in this pursuit was prodigious. Success in it was a source of distinction, coveted by kings and emperors. The zeal in which it was prosecuted was accordingly intense, and the labours employed in it extended through a long succession of ages.

For this mighty difference between the schemes of philosophy and the system of the Scriptures no infidel has hitherto accounted, and no rational account, it is presumed, can be given, not involving a cause which, if adequate to the effect, will be more difficult of admission, more miraculous, than inspiration.

SERMON CLXXIII.

CONCLUSION.

GENERAL REMARKS.

HEAR! FOR I WILL SPEAK OF EXCELLENT THINGS; AND THE OPENING OF MY LIPS SHALL BE RIGHT THINGS.

PROVERBS VIII. 6,

IN the preceding part of this Discourse, after recapitulating the great subjects, adopted as parts of a theological system in the series of Sermons, then brought to a close, and making a few observations on the import of the text, I proceeded to make some general Remarks on the subject at large.

I. I considered the superiority of the moral scheme of the Scriptures, which I had so long been employed in unfolding to this audience, to the moral schemes of philosophy.

II. I mentioned, that this view of theology furnished powerful evidence of the revelation of the Scriptures.

I shall now proceed to finish the Discourse with two other remarks, which I had not then sufficient time to consider; and observe,

III. How well does the theology of the Scriptures merit the diligent investigation of every man furnished with an enlightened education.

In periods not long past, a great proportion of those who were liberally educated in this country, regarded extensive