The Peculiar and Distinguishing Doctrines of the Bible, Evidence of Its Divine Origin
The Gospel which was preached by me,” says the great apostle, is not after man.’’ His appeal for proof of its divine origin, was to the Gospel he preached.
The peculiar and distinguishing doctrines of which this apostle was the advocate, are the doctrines of the entire Scriptures. We affirm concerning them, that they are doctrines which never could have originated with men.
The Scriptures not merely contain a code of morals, but a system of truth: great and distinctive doctrines. Nor may we abandon this position, because believers in the divine inspiration of the Scriptures are not themselves agreed in their statements of these doctrines. Truth is not dependent on the opinions of men; nor is it the less important because men differ in their views concerning it, or in their exposition of the Sacred Scriptures. The Scriptures contain truths that are their own; truths which none but God knew, and which none but God was able to reveal. We find them in the Bible, and must
allow the Bible to utter them in its own way. If the great doctrines of the Bible furnish any inherent evidence of their divine origin, it is because they are peculiar, and truths nowhere else revealed. Let them speak for themselves. We will not, in oui argument, put any construction of our own upon them, but merely present them in the language of the Scriptures, “without note or comment.”
One of these doctrines relates to the charade? of man befoie it is brought under the transforming power of Christianity. On this subject the representations of the Bible are plain, and easy to be understood. ‘^AU have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” ^’ Both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin. There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”
If from this universality of human sinfulness, we inquire for its degree of intensity and power, we are instructed by such declarations as the following: ‘^ And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” ^’ The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” ^’ The heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their hearts.” ‘^ When ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.” “I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.” ‘And you hath he quickenedj who were dead m trespasses and sins.” ^’ The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”
If we inquire for the origin of this depravity, the answer of the Bible is, “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.” ‘’ Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” ^’ The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.” “Thou wast called a transgressor from the womb.” ^’That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” ^’ And were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”
If we proceed to the question. How is this universal, this deep-seated, this native sinfulness to be accounted for? this problem also the Scriptures solve in declarations that are uniform and unequivocal. “In Adam, all die.” ‘’ By the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation.” “By one man’s disobedience, many were made sinners.”
Another great doctrine of the Bible relates to that moral t7^ansforination of character which is indispensable to salvation.
In regard to this, it teaches that this transforma-! tion is necessary. Make you a new heart, and a new spirit, for why will ye die? “^’ Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” “Cleanse that is within, that the outside may be clean also.” ‘’ Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.”
It teaches the nature of this change, in such declarations as these: “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling.” “Ye were once darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord.” ^’ A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take the hard and stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh.” “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” ‘^ I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
In regard to the means by which this transformation is produced, their language is, ‘^ The sower soweth the word.” “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” ‘^ It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe.” ‘^ In Christ Jesus have I begotten you through the Gospel.” ‘’ Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.”
Of the efficient cause of this change, they say, ‘’ Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” “I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.” ‘’ Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” ^’ So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.” You hith he quick-Bible aot of Mun. a
122 THE BIBLE Is^OT OF MAN.
ened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.” ^’ No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him.” ^’ Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.” ‘’ We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.”
Another important doctrine of which they speak, is the well-defined method of the sinne/^^s paidon and acceptance with God,
They teach what it is not, when they say, ‘’ It is not by works of righteousness which we have done.” “KnoY/ing that a man is not justified by the works of the law.” ^’ If righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.” ^’ Therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight.”
And they teach us what it is, when they say, ^’ Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” “Being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God which is by faith in Jesus Christ, unto all, and upon all them that believe.”
Another of the great doctrines of the Bible relates to the nature of true religion the distinctive character of Chinstian piety. On this subject its instructions are greatly extended, and exhibited in a great variety of forms.
It admonishes us of a religion that is spurious, in such declarations as these: ‘’ They have not turned unto me with their whole heart, but feignedly, saith the Lord.’’ “With their mouth, they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.” “Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were lilled.” ‘’ Many shall say unto me in that day, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name done many wonderful works? To whom the king shall say, I know you not, whence je are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.”
They also define and delineate the religion that is genuine. It is “the love of God shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost;” and the love of God that ‘keepeth his commandments.” It is the charity, without which all else “profiteth nothing.” It is “not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” These emotions they uniformly represent as supreme and paramount in every bosom where they exist. ‘^ If any man will be my disciple, let him take up his cross and follow me.” ^-He that will save his life, shall lose it; and he that will lose his life for my sake, the same shall find it.”
Another great and peculiar doctrine of the Bible relates to the purpose of God in extending his grace and salvation to a chosen people. Here its language is cautious, well selected, and emphatic. ^’ Many are called, but few are chosen.” ‘’ As many as were ordained to eternal life, believed.” ^’ Chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.” “Predestinated unto the adoption of children.” ‘’ The called of God according to his purpose; for whom he did foreknow, them also he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.’’ ‘^ The election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded.”
It is also among the cardinal truths of the Bible, that all the incorrigible enemies of God shall be punished with everlastijig destruction and that their sufferings shall be literally without end. “• Verily, thou shalt by no means come out thence, until thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.” “Some shall awake to shame and everlasting contempt.” “To whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.” “Punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and the glory of his power.” “The smoke of their torment ascendeth forever and ever.” “Cast into the fire that shall never be quenched.” ‘^ Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” “Nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned.”
Nor may we overlook the great truth, that the Bible enforces the duty of believifig the Gospel, on all men who hear, or have the opportunity of hearing it. ‘’ Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little,” ‘^ Ho every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money: come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk, without money, and without price.” ^’ Seek ye the Lord while he may be found; call ye upon him while he is near.” ‘’ Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” ‘^ While ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light.” ^’ This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” “Repent and believe the Gospel.” “God now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.” “If I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?” The Bible allows no excuse, and admits no delay in the performance of this reasonable duty. ‘’ When will ye be wise?” “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” ^’ We are ambassadors for Christ: as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” The end and object of preaching the Gospel is said to be, ‘^ for obedience to the faith among all nations.”
The preceding specifications are not designed to present even a summary of Christian doctrine; but merely some of those truths which have a strong prominence in the Bible, and the same prominence in this branch of our argument. The Bible contains these truths. It is not my object to expound them: let them be expounded by different denominations of Christendom, fairly and with an honest conscience. To say nothing of the construction which must, in our judgment, be put upon them, our position is, that these truths, put upon them what construction you will, could not have been of human invention, and that they clearly indicate a heavenly origi7i. We maintain this position by the following reasons.
In the first place, no false religion possesses such frank and unreserved honesty. Men are acute judges of everything in the form of religious imposture. Artifice in this matter, however ingenious, is very apt to be discovered; it cannot endure severe scrutiny. There are spurious productions in the world, which assume to be of Divine authority, which no sober man regards in any other light than mere fabrication, and which are distinguished by nothing more than the absence of every criterion of divine inspiration. False religions are proverbially systems of practised concealment; systems in which there is a designed immingling of truth and falsehood.
This remark is abundantly verified, both by the paganism of Greece and Rome, and the Koran of Mahomed. Neander, in his ^’ Ecclesiastical History of the first three centuries,” remarks, that “the ruling opinion of all the thinking men of antiquity was that pure, religious truth, could not be proposed to the multitude; but only such a mixture of fiction, poetry and truth, as would serve to represent religious notions in such a manner that they might make an impression on men whose only guide was their senses.” Paganism had its mysteries, of which all were ignorant except the initiated. Each of the heathen gods, besides the worship paid to him in public, had a secret worship, to which none were admitted but those who were prepared by previous
ITS DlSTliN:GUlSlimG DOCTRINES. 127
ceremonies. This secret worship was termed ‘- tho mysteries of the god,”’ and was always paid in the night. I cannot describe it better than by saying, it was a system of free masonry. The initiated were bound, under the severest penalties, to conceal the secrets of these nocturnal orgies. Whatever their religion was, it was not published to the world.
There is nothing of all this in the Bible. ¥f hatever else may be said concerning it, it is a bold and honest book. So every ingenuous mind decides that it should be. Of all subjects in the world, religion is one of universal concernment; if it possesses any vital importance, it is equally as important to one man as another: it admits of no concealment of any of its principles from any class, or part of mankind. Nor will it be denied that it is one of the distinctive features of the religion of the Scriptures, that it has no concealment. Its first messengers were commissioned to go publicly and boldly to proclaim their messages in the presence of the haughtiest monarchs and the proudest courts. The long succession of teachers and prophets under the Old Testament dispensation, addressed themselves to the entire Jewish nation. When the Founder of Christianity gave their commission to his apostles, he required them to “go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.” When the high priest ‘^ asked Jesus of his disciples and of his doctrine’^^ Jesus answered, “I spake openly to the world; I ever taught in the synagogue and in the temple, whither the Jews al ways resort, and in secret have I said nothing.”
Both Christ and his apostles everywhere uttered these great and distinguishing doctrines to which we have just referred. These truths are, and have been for centuries published to the world, without the least restriction or reserve, inviting scrutiny, and everywhere proclaiming, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear!” The Bible has not one concealed principle: it has no secret worship, no secret government or policy, and no society of men that are bound by vows of secrecy. Its laws are public; its institutions are established openly; its solemn assemblies, and all its rites and observances, have the nations for their witnesses. It has no stratagem, no management, no trimming, time-serving prudence, which reluctates at discovering its real sentiments. It has no Platonic distinction between exoteric and esoteric doctrines, or the doctrines that are taught to the multitude, and the doctrines that are taught to the few. It has no concern lest its claims should be too freely canvassed, or its principles too extensively or thoroughly understood. It discusses a great variety of topics of vital interest to men, but it does so without embarrassment. It is far from being a dull and tame book, for the reason that it is an honest book. It speaks the mind and will of its Author with so much frankness, that when once men are interested in it, their interest is sure to be deep and permanent. While it makes no boast of originality, and affects nothing of a self-glorying and sturdy independence of thought, it exhibits truth with a simplicity and fearlessness that are never controlled by the opinions of men, and that ask no indulgence. Every attentive reader must have been impressed with this peculiarity of the Scriptures; and have a strong conviction, that, in this respect, they differ from that caution and reserve which mark the productions of an impostor.
The object of an impostor is to practise deception; he could scarcely fail to wrap up his system in some disguise. He would never disclose such truths as those which we have specified even if they had a place in his system. It would have been a very easy thing for the authors of the sacred books to have suppressed these truths; and in so doing they would have silenced the cavils of a large class of opposers. But they were honest and truthful to the letter. Their object was truth — God’s truth; and therefore there is nothing kept back, nothing discolored, nothing softened by those delicate and deceptive touches of the pencil that suppress truth, or immingle truth with error.
2. Our next remark is, that no false religion would have given these great and peculiar doctrines the prominent place lohich they occupy in the Sacred Scriptures, Were we to adopt the loose notions of Christian doctrine which are adopted by some who call themselves Christians, we should feel that we had abandoned Christianity itself, and had become the advocates of a system but little in advance of natural religion. But in so doing, Ave should have an inward conviction that we had abandoned one of the strongholds of a supernatural revelation.
Bible not of Man. g#
While the truths we have specified bear strong marks of peculiarity, they are every where prominent, and enter deeply into the foundations of the Christian faith. They are represented in the Scriptures as revealed for the purpose of being believed; nor is there any injunction more explicitly enforced, than that which makes it the duty of men to believe, love, and obey them. We are nowhere instructed in this book that it is of no consequence what men believe; the Bible makes a true and cordial faith in God’s word the turning point of their salvation, ‘^ Whosoever will not hearken to my words, I will require it of him.” “See that ye refuse not him that speaketh; for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape who refuse him that speaketh from heaven.” It is a revealed principle of the Bible, that men reject its truths at their peril. To those who “do not obey the truth, God will render tribulation and anguish.” There may be ignorance of the cardinal truths of which we have spoken; there may be strong prejudices of education against them; there may be objections to the form of expression in which they are presented in human formularies; yet, the Bible itself being judge, no man can be at heart a Christian who rejects that revelatio7i of them which is made in the Scriptures.
Such is the importance which the Bible attaches, to these great truths as a matter of practice, and as furnishing a test of Christian character. Nor does it assign a less important place to them as a matter of theory, and as the standard of a true Christianity. It styles everything else that is inconsistent with these, ‘’ another gospel,’’ and imprecates God’s anathema upon those who preach it. These truths are represented as fundamental to the Gospel, as well as essential to piety. They hold the same place in the system of truth, which they hold in the system of grace and salvation. They are not points of mere abstract speculation, but constitute the sum and substance, the heart and soul, of all the instructions which the Bible contains. They maintain an indissoluble connection: if any one of them is fairly disproved, our confidence is lost in the whole. Take away the Scriptural doctrine of human sinfulness, and there is no need of the doctrine of regeneration; nor of the doctrine of redemption through the blood of Christ; nor of a preached Gospel; nor of the doctrine of discriminating and electing grace; nor of the doctrine of everlasting punishment. Take away the doctrine of everlasting punishment, and all the other doctrines fall with it. Deny the Divine purpose to save a part of mankind, and all the correlative truths which make up and fulfil that purpose, have no place in the sacred record. These great truths are therefore not only found in the Bible, but are essential to the existence of Christianity, and
He at the foundation of the whole method of grace
through the Redeemer.
We affirm, that no false religion would have
given such doctrines this prominence. An impostor
would have been too wary to have done this; he never could have been so insensate as to have insisted on these great pecuharitieSj as constituting the pith and marrow of his religion.
It is the object of false religions to make the way to heaven a broad and easy path, and strew it with flowers. On no subject were the writers of the sacred volume more strongly tempted to practise a sort of “pious fraud,” than by suppressing these pungent and heart-searching truths, and thus making the way of life easier than it is, and holding forth inducements to piety, that might be deceptive and ensnaring. But they never do this. False religions are anxious to multiply converts at the expense of truth; the Bible nowhere manifests any such solicitude. These great truths sound the note of caution and alarm, and bid men count the cost of becoming Christians. In no instance do the sacred writers conceal the trials or embarrassments that are incident on a firm attachment to the truth of God. A cautious and sagacious deceiver would never have deduced from the truths he had uttered, the practical result, “Straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it;” nor the equally solemn declaration, “Broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and “many there be which go in thereat.” Nor would ^1 truths that necessarily lead to such a result, ever have found a place in the Bible, had it been the production of a deceiver. False religions urge men to the adoption of their systems of error, from unhallowed and unworthy motives; the Bible, on the
Other hand, urges them to truth and duty, and for truth and duty’s sake. It nowhere instructs men, that if they receive these great truths and practise the duties they enjoin, it is of no consequence by what motives they are influenced. It deals frankly in this matter. It reveals great and cardinal truths; it urges them upon the conscience by the authority of God, and by their own intrinsic excellence, and then leaves them to do their own execution.
3. Another remark in relation to these truths is, that no false ieligioii would have disclosed truths that are so unwelcome and obnoxious to the human heart. The object of the Bible is not to please men, but to instruct and save them. Hence it withholds no truth, be it ever so unwelcome. While it evinces no desire to excite the hostility of men, or to excite, or confirm their prejudices against the truth; so far is it from shrinking from a disclosure of the most unwelcome truths, that these are the truths on which it insists with the greatest urgency. Instead of interesting men for an hour, its object is to interest them for eternity. Instead of fearing their displeasure, it lays its account for it, and proclaims these unwelcome truths “whether men will hear, or whether they will forbear.” Instead of offering incense to their pride, its object is to bring their hearts to the test of truths the most humbling. Instead of descanting, however wisely, and learnedly, and beautifully upon such truths as these, they simply hold them up to the inspection of men in all their transparency, and illumined by the lights of heaven.
Does it require any labored argument to prove that these truths are unwelcome and obnoxious to the human heart. We appeal to the nature of these ’ truths themselves, to the conscious hostility of rnqn i towards them, to the history of the past, and to all human observation, where these truths are faithfully exhibited, if it be not so? Men do not love to be told they are such sinners as the Bible represents them. Our race is a proud one. No child loves to be told its faults. Men who believe the Bible to be true, quarrel with its faithful delineations, and its unsparing rebukes of human wickedness. These representations are most humiliating to the self-com-, placent heart of man. The great mass of men cannot bear to be told that they are so vile. Not a few are there who, like the hearers of Stephen, almost “gnash upon” the preacher “with their teeth,” who boldly takes the part of the Bible, and tells them to their faces how vile they are in God’s sight. So of ’ every truth in detail, to which we have referred. The effect which these truths produce upon the minds of wicked men is a very powerful and painful effect, and they resist them as long as they can.. They are truths which do not allow the least apology for sin; they are strong and heavy truths; they are like the fire and the hammer which breaketh the rock in pieces; they axe the axe “laid at the root of the trees, and every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down and cast into the fire.”
Wicked men want a different sort of Bible from this. They suppress such Scriptures; they proscribe them; they forbid the reading of them in the vernacular tongue; they burn them by thousands; they say unto God, Depart from us; and to his ministers, ‘^ Speak unto us smooth things; prophecy unto us deceits.” They are inveterate enemies of these great truths, because these truths themselves make exhibitions of God such as the carnal mind has no delight in. They enforce claims which such a mind does not admit. They demand the sacrifices of its idols; they subject it to trials it cannot think of encountering. They would fain pull down and demolish the stately edifice of its pride; subdue its will to the will of the Great Supreme; and do actually throw all its interests and itself into the hands of God, as the clay is in the hands of the potter.
Hence the war — the bitter war, the everlasting war. They often so lash and scourge the sinner, that he is conscious of the conflict. His reason is enlisted against them; he summons all the powers of argument to show that they are not found in the Bible; and if found there, cannot be true; and if true, free him from his obligations. But above all, is his heart enlisted against them. He complains that he has a hard master. He rebels and replies against God; and with the sinners of other timxCs demands, “Who hath resisted his will?’’ There is no one of these great truths that accommodates itself to the wishes of men. They ever have been, and still are obnoxious, nay, nauseating truths. With all their boasted liberality, the most liberal are dissatisfied with them; nor is it any small cause of offence to them, that they are received by others. They are tolerant of error, but they have no tolerance for such truths as these. They have charity for all, for everything save these, and such as these. These are the truths for which they stoned the prophets, killed the apostles, and crucified the Lord of glory. These are the truths for which so many thousands have been burnt at the stake, and languished in dungeons, and been driven from among men like beasts of prey. They are among the severest tests of the moral state of the heart which can be applied to it, and when applied, never fail to indicate its hostility to God and righteousness. It is one of the most painful and self-denying duties imposed on the Christian ministry, to enforce these great truths; because there is not one of them which, when exhibited in its true light, is even tolerable to an earthly mind. Our argument, therefore, is no far-fetched argument. A religion got up by trick and imposture, never could have disclosed such truths. They are “made of sterner stuff” than that which the mind of an impostor would ever have thought of handling. It is impossible they could have been inwoven, ever so artfully, into a false religion. No impostor would ever have thought of palming them upon the world. He would not have ventured thus to expose his system and himself to infuriate hostility. Men do not like such leaders as these; and no smooth-faced and false-hearted impostor would have jeoparded such a revelation to such a world as this. Can it be conceived that such truths originated with men? Or if men could have revealed them, what inducement had they to make such a revelation, in opposition to all the favor and influence of those whose favor and kindness an impostor would desire to conciliate? It is puerile to deny that these truths are contained in the Bible; it is madness to suppose they originated with men. The unwelcome character of this class of truths, therefore, will forever stand a living monument of their heavenly origin.
4. The last remark in relation to these truths is, that they are fatal to the success of that religion of which they compose so important a part ujiless it be from, God, A religion which contains so many truths which men hate; truths so honestly and boldly revealed; truths which stand forth so unequivocally, and that are cemented with the deep foundations of Christianity; any impostor must have seen would be absolutely fatal to its extensive propagation in the world. If the Bible had been the work of men, one of the first objects at which its authors would have aimed, would have been to have constructed it in such a manner as not to be abhorrent to the views of its readers. It would seem to be indispensable to the success of such an imposture, not to pursue a course in which it must necessarily encounter vigorous, opposing influences.
One of the strong objections to Christianity of that champion of mfidelity, Lord Herbert, is that it contains what he is pleased to call “disgusting doc-, trines.” The use he would make of this fact is,j that the religion of nature is to be preferred to the] religion of Christ. The use we would make of it is, that a religion that contains these humbling andj self-denying truths, never could have been propounded by an impostor with any hope of thus imposing on the credulity of mankind.
There is no principle more clearly revealed in the Bible, than that if men become converts to its doctrines, they must become so, not by the power of the sword, not by the force of civil enactments, or ecclesiastical influence and authority, but freely, and on sober, deliberate conviction. ^’ My son, give me thine heart.” “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal.” There was nothing in the learning, or personal influence, either of the prophets of the Old Testament, or the apostles of the New, on which they could rely for the successful propagation of the doctrines they taught. They had no alliance with the power of civil governments; civil governments were opposed to them. They could not promise wealth, station, nor honor to their followers, but the rather, poverty, degradation, and suffering. If they were impostors, their only hope of success was in so framing their system of falsehood that men would naturally and easily fall in with it, and their pliant convictions be secured without any great sacrifice of their natural inclinations. This is the way in which false religions have ever obtained their
ITS DISTINGUISHING DOGTRINKS. ] 39
partial and temporary ascendancy. The only way in which they can hope for success is, by abstaining from all serious conflict with the prepossessions of men; by forbearing to contend with them; by freely accommodating themselves to their previous habits of thought.
The Scriptures pursue directly the opposite course; they do so deliberately, and with a full view of the difficulties which they must encounter. Instead of anticipating the kind regards and complacency of men, they count on their neglect, their disesteem; they even predict their hostility, their contempt. They have a controversy with men in the very doctrines they teach. ^’ Think not,” says Jesus of Nazareth, ‘^ that I am come to send peace on the earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.” In its own nature, his religion is a religion of peace; but it has warring elements to contend with. When we advert to the world to which it is addressed, to the spirit to which it is opposed, to the powers of darkness with which it is professedly brought into collision, we see that it has conflicts. It is the spirit of truth contending with every form of long sanctioned error; the spirit of good contending with the spirit of evil; the spirit of Christ contending with the spirit of the world. It is a remedial process; and in order to be effectual, the remedy is severe. It is a purifying process; there are filthy and stagnant waters that must be disturbed; their very stench must go up, before an unobstructed and deal* channel is made for the river of life to run through. It is a neutralizing process, in which heterogeneous and repulsive elements meet and effervesce, before the inwrought elements of evil in the human heart are worked off. It is not peace, so long as man is the enemy of God, and error is opposed to truth. It is not peace, so long as the prince of this world” erects his standard, and marshals his legions wherever the proclamation is made for the guilty and the lost to enlist under the banner of the redeeming Saviour.
It is not strange, therefore, that it contains truths which men are at war with. In resisting and repelling its claims, the learned have exhausted their learning, and the scoffing their wit and ridicule; the great and the mighty, their influence and power; while the mass of men to whom these truths have been addressed, have denounced them. It is scarcely conceivable that impostors would have proposed such a system of doctrines. It is impossible that they could have any hope of patronage in so doing. The most presumptuous impostor in the world could not hope, by such teaching, to carry the hearts of men. He must have known that such truths would have been everywhere spoken against, provoked opposition and obloquy, and been subversive of his object. It is absurd to suppose that an impostor would invent a religion, towards which the human heart exhibits such a morbid and hostile sensitiveness, that instead of falling in with it, it should uniformly fall out with it. Such a religion, instead of finding friends and patrons, would not find a nook or corner in the natural heart of man, where it would be greeted with an honest welcome.
If the writers of the Scriptures were impostors, not only was their enterprise desperate, but they must have foreseen it would be so. They might as well have undertaken to build a city on the waves of the ocean, as have hoped to establish such a religion in the hearts of men and in this apostate world, unless it were from God. The human heart never would have submitted to such truths as these, had they not come from God. No more than the ancient Hebrews would have submitted to have been conducted by Moses, unless God had been with him; no more than they would have submitted to their burdensome rites and ceremonies, their costly sacrifices and oblations, unless they had been of Divine appointment; no more than they would have consented to their reluctant invasion of the land of Canaan, and their slaughter of its inhabitants, unless they had been commanded, and scourged, and forced to it by the God of heaven — would such truths as those of which we have spoken have found a dwelling among men, had they not carried with them the evidence that they were not of human invention, but the truth of God. No more than Moses, if he had been an impostor, could have enforced his own personal authority upon the stiff-necked and rebellious Jews, could prophets and apostles, in revealing and enforcing such truths, have hoped for the least success, had they not come to men with the convincing demonstration that they came in the name, and by the authorityj of the great God. Just as Moses found it necessary to demonstrate his divine legation by signs and wonders, and by that memorable series of miracles, both of judgment and mercy; did the prophets and the apostles find it necessary to establish their commission by similar miracles, and thus give these unwelcome truths the sanction of Gods presence and authority.
The reason why these, and similar truths, are not fatal to the successful propagation of Christianity, is not that men naturally love them; it is beca.use they are not of human origin, and are associated with the mighty power of their Divine Author, giving all their splendid triumphs to truth and principle. If they are the life and vigor of Christianity, it is because they are ‘- the wisdom of God, and the power of God.’’ Upon the hypothesis that Christianity is a work of human invention, it is impossible to account for the fact, that it has triumphed over such internal obstacles. So far from possessing anything in common with the spirit and tendency of human nature, it is diametrically opposed to them; they are jarring, warring elements, nor do they come in contact without coming into a collision, in which the one or the other is the complete victor. Never was a system less conciliating to the human heart, or less accommodating to the deep-rooted prejudices of men. Never could it have found a resting place in the bosom of Jew or Gentile, had it not been associated with the power of God. Jewish Pharisees, and heathen sages, would never have become converts to it, had it been a mere hmnan production. It despoiled them of everything — their self-confidencej their public veneration, their wealth, their honors, their offices, and their employments; nor did any of them embrace it but at the expense of all that the world holds dear. It is because it was clothed with a divine commission, and came as the power of God to salvation, that in the hands of men who themselves were looked upon as the offscouring of their race, it made its way through the world; and contrary to all the forebodings of its enemies, and all the laws of a merely human probability, it became the religion of the lofty and the humble, of provinces and kingdoms, till it effected the most extraordinary revolution in human affairs, was reverenced by the common people, and enthroned in the palaces of princes. Its triumphs were triumphs over ignorance and knowledge, idolatry and superstition, power and weakness — in a word, over all the vices and all the passions of men, in those unholy combinations which gave a new direction to human thought, and exerted a paramount influence over all the secret springs of human conduct.
When the Founder of Christianity had completed his great work on the earth, and was about to return to the heaven from which he came, he left these and other kindred truths as the great moral machinery by which his kingdom was to be established. He had accomplished all that was necessary to be accomplished by his incarnation and death, and it only remained for him to give directions to his followers for the wise and successful conduct of this great enterprise in all future time. It is a beautiful view which here presents itself. It was his last direction; it was all he had to utter for the guidance of future ages. And what was it that he uttered? “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.” The instrumentality on which he relied for the progressive renovation of the world, was no other than the truths of his Gospel, He knew how unwelcome they were, and would be to the heart of man; but his language was, Go and preach them. He knew that the “heathen would rage, and the people imagine a vain thing;” he knew that these truths would be ‘^ despised and rejected of men,” a ^’ stone of stumbling and rock of offence:” still this was his language, Go and preach them. He knew that they would be ^’ a sign that shall be spoken against, that the thoughts of many hearts might be revealed;” he knew that they would be “seen and hated,” “hated without a cause;” but his only direction was. Go and preach them. He knew that they would encounter the sophisms of unbelief, the contempt and scorn, the unrelenting hostility, and the infuriate rage of a world that lieth in wickedness; but he did not modify the injunction. Go and preach them. He knew that different ages of the world, and different communities, would express their hostility to them in different forms. He knew that they would be subject to a chilling neglect and indifference, and a disheartening formality and worldliness; and he knew also that there would be seasons when hatred would be added to indiiference, indignity to hatred; when persecution would erect her gibbet, set up her rackj and light her fires; yet. Go and preach theiii was his unaltered command. But because he knew these things, he did not leave them to prosecute the work alone. No: the gates of hell would let out their legions, to quench their rage in the blood of the saints: truths that would provoke such enmity could be effectual only as they were associated with the power of their Divine Author: and though he altered not, relaxed not the command. Go preachy he superadded the promise, ‘^ Lo I am with you.^ even to the end of the world.” Never, if he were an impostor, did he act so weak a part as when he uttered such words as these. They were words, which to the eye of sense it was impossible to fulfil. If his immediate disciples might ever have been tempted to look upon him as a vile deceiver, it was then.
But he was no deceiver. Christianity is true; and he ‘^ who liveth and was dead, and is alive forevermore,” is with Christianity. As a system of truth, she is prepared for this collision with an opposing world. She looked for it then; she looks for it still. She meant to be the aggressor; this aggressive character has marked her entire progress. But it was then, and it is still, with the assured confidence, that though the pen and the sword would be wielded against her, and her progress
Bibl« not of Man Jwould be through deep waters, she would ultimately triumph.
Such is the argument, however imperfectly illustrated, for the divine origin of the Scriptures, from the peculiar and distinguishing doctrines they reveal. We have seen what these doctrines are, not in the form of any human expositions, but in the language of the Bible itself. We have seen the frankness, the unreserved honesty and boldness with which they are revealed. We have seen the prominent place they occupy in the sacred pages. We have seen how unwelcome and obnoxious they are to the human heart, and how absolutely fatal they are to the success of any system of religion that has not God for its author. We leave every fair and ingenuous mind to decide, whether an impostor would have been stupid enough to have inculcated such truths; and whether a religion, so humbling, that, had it been false, it could not have survived one poor hour, is not of God. Truths so opposed to the prejudices of men, so much at war with human selfishness and pride, could never have been of human invention. It is irrational to suppose that any man, or set of men, any one impostor, or succession of impostors, would have concocted a system of truths to which the human mind is, and ever has been, so hostile. These great doctrines of grace, so humbling to the sinner, and giving as they do all the glory to God, fully and faithfully exhibited and enforced, nmst be regarded ?ts among the strong proofs of the inspiration of the Scriptures.
The infidelity of the present age seems sensible of thiSj and betrays its weakness, and at the same time its subtilty, by assailing not so much the truth and authenticity of Christianity, as, by its altered mode of warfare, assailing these great and essential truths. Demolish these, and Christianity is no more. It is conceding too much to infidels to allow them to believe the Bible, and at the same time reject its fundamental truths. ‘^ If our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.” It is conceding too much for our argument to blink these truths. One of the best arguments for the divine origin of the Scriptures, will be found in a fearless exhibition of all their peculiar doctrines. The bold outlines, the energetic truths of the Bible, are essential to a clear and impressive statement of the argument itself. There are deep and difficult truths revealed in this Book of God, which some writers of great ability have taken leave to suppress; while the little which their argument gains in popularity by so doing, it loses in strength. To overlook them is but presenting the argument shorn of its glory. They are the key which introduces the reader to this temple of truth; shows its symmetry, strength, and beauty, and indicates its Divine Builder. An impartial and thinking reader, in inspecting the treatises to which we refer, cannot help feeling that their authors were embarrassed by their hesitation to give prominence to the great and distinguishing doctrines of supernatural revelation.
That men do not like these doctrines is no reason why they should not have a place in the argument, but a weighty reason why they ought not to be suppressed. The argument needs the augmented force of these doctrines; it is an emasculated argument without them. Without them, the evidence of its divine origin, that is inherent in the Bible itself, is essentially defective. To my own mind it seems as if the man who rejects these, must reject the Bible itself; without them, it is very little in advance of natural religion. Let a man call in question the infinite holiness and sovereignty of God; let him deny his comprehensive purposes; let him reject the Divinity and Atonement of Christ, and the sovereign and special influences of the Spirit in renewing and sanctifying the people of God; let him discard the essential difference between the righteous and the wicked, and suspend in an obscure and dubious atmosphere the doctrine of future and eternal rewards and punishments, and wherein will his Christianity differ from that of modern neologists? The true method of exhibiting the self-evidencing power of the Scriptures, is by faithfully unfolding ^Hhe whole mind of God.” Then only does the supreme intelligence of its Author exhibit itself, and his infinite greatness and goodness shine forth in tracing out new paths of thought, and opening channels of aff’ection, never discovered by human reason. Infidelity is perpetually changing its form. The truths which some modern infidels profess to learn from the Bible, Gibbon, Hume and Paine, learned from the light of nature. The same objections which these bold and old-fashioned infidels urged against the Bible itselfj modern neologists urge against these great and essential truths. These ancient and modern opposers of God’s truth are in closer alliance than the latter are willing to acknowledge; they are fellow-laborers in the same calling. It is no uncommon complaint from certain sources, that these great truths make men infidels, while they only show them to be so. Modern infidels have no quarrel with Christianity, when expurgated of these distinctive doctrines; for as long as these doctrines remain, they proclaim their Author to be Divine.