5. Their style.

6. Their doctrines.

7. The prophecies which they uttered.

8. Their substantial agreement with each other and with all known facts in history and science.

9. The purity, power, and success of their writings. These, when put and viewed together, will amount to a conclusive argument in favor of the inspiration of the scriptures.

FIFTH. Prove that the Bible is an inspired book.

1. By referring to the promises of Christ, when He first sent the Apostles forth to publish his religion. Mat. 10: 19, 20: "But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak; for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you."

2. When he gave them their commission. Luke 12: 11, 12. 3. When he predicted the destruction of Jerusalem. Mark 13: 1. Luke 21: 14-15.

4. In his last address to his disciples, in the 14th and 16th chapters of John.

5. Christ promised that the Spirit should reveal to them many things which he had not taught them. John 16: 12–15.

6. He promised that the Holy Spirit should instruct them in every thing. John 18: 26.

7. That he should reveal to them future events. John 16: 13. 8. That he would give them all the instruction they should need as Apostles and publishers of his religion. John 16: 12, & 14: 26, & 14: 17, & 15: 26, 27, & 16: 13.

9. Christ endued the Apostles with miraculous powers. Mat. Mark 16: 15, 17, 18. Luke 9: 1.

10: 1.

II. By the Apostles and writers of the New Testament.

1. The writers of the New Testament unqualifiedly assert their own inspiration, and God confirms their testimony by miracles. Gal. 1: 11, 12. 1 Cor. 2: 10, 12, 13, & 14: 37. 2 Cor. 2: 17. 1 Thess. 2: 13, & 4: 8. 1 John 4: 6.

2. The writers of the New Testament put their own writings upon a level with those of the prophets and Old Testament writers. Eph. 2: 20. 2 Pet 3: 15, 16.

3. It has been generally admitted, that the oral instructions of the Apostles were inspired. But they considered their writings as of the same authority with their oral instructions John 20: 31. 1 John 1: 1-4. 2 Thess. 2: 15. 1 Cor. 15: 1. Eph. 3: 3. Acts 15 28.

4. They consider their own writings as of such high authority that an unqualified reception of them and obedience to them, is every where made by them an indispensable condition of salvation.

5. The belief that the Old Testament was given by inspiration

of God was universal among the Jews, and Christ and the Apostles invariably confirm this opinion. Luke 24: 27, 44. 2 Pet. 1: 21. 2 Tim. 3: 16.

6. They speak of the Old Testament as the word of God. This is so common with them that I need not cite instances.

7. Christ and the Apostles speak of the entire Old Testament as of equal authority; quoting from all parts of the Old Testament, as from the word of God.

8. The Old Testament writings are called the commandments, testimonies, and ordinances of the Lord.

9. Every act of obedience or disobedience to the Old Testament writers, is considered by Christ and the Apostles as obedience or disobedience to God.

10. There is not an instance in which Christ or the Apostles intimate that a single sentence of the Old Testament is either spurious or uninspired.

11. This is incredible if both Christ and his Apostles did not regard the Old Testament as given by the inspiration of God.

12. It was also dishonest in them thus to treat those writings, if they were not what they were supposed by the Jews to be.

13. In addition to what has been said, let it be remembered that the strict integrity of the writers of the New Testament is admitted and if it were not, it is so apparent on the very face of their writings that it could not reasonably be questioned.

14. Add to this the fact that the style in which the scriptures are written, entirely favors the idea of their inspiration.

15. The doctrines contained in the Bible, must, to say the least, many of them have been given by inspiration, either to the Apostles, or to those from whom they received them, as without a direct revelation from God they could not have been known to men.

16. The prophecies both of the Old and New Testaments are a demonstration of the inspiration of the writers so far as those parts. of scripture are concerned.

17. There is beyond all contradiction a substantial agreement among all the writers of the Bible with each other, and with all known facts.

18. The purity, power, and success of the gospel, is corroborative of their claim to inspiration.

These facts when taken together seem to establish the inspiration of the scriptures, beyond doubt.

SIXTH. Answer objections.

I. Objection. It is objected that Mark and Luke were not Apostles, and therefore the promises of inspiration and of miraculous power, did not extend to them.

Answer.

1. That these promises of miraculous power, and of inspiration were not confined to the Apostles, is evident from the fact that

multitudes besides the Apostles, actually possessed the power of working miracles, and doubtless the gift of inspiration.

2. The gospels of Mark and Luke must have been written under the eye of the Apostles. Or at least the Apostles must have been familiar with them, as Luke was the companion of Paul, and I believe it is generally conceded that Mark was the companion of

Peter.

3. If the Apostles had not approved and confirmed these gospels, they could not have been so universally received by the Church as of divine authority from the very first. This seems to be evident from the fact that so many gospels or histories of Christ were at that time rejected by the Church as not inspired.

These considerations are to my own mind satisfactory in regard to these gospels.

II. Objection. It is objected, that the Apostles seldom make any direct claim to inspiration.

Answer.

This is easily accounted for by the fact that their claims were already so abundantly established as to render the frequent assertion of their inspiration, not only unnecessary, but improper, inasmuch as it would have had the appearance, either of ostentation or of suspicion that their claim to inspiration was doubtful.

III. Objection. It is objected, that Paul, in some instances, seems to declare that he was not inspired.

1 Cor. 7: 10, 12, 25, 40.—“ And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord."- "But to the rest speak I, not the Lord." "Now concerning virgins, I have no commandment of the Lord: yet I give my judgment, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful."- And I think also that I have the Spirit of God." 2 Cor. 8: 8, 10, 11, 17.-"I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love."-" And herein I give my advice.”. Upon these passages I remark,

1. If Paul really intended to notify his readers that in these instances, he did not write under the influence of a divine inspiration, it greatly confirms the fact of his actual inspiration in all other cases. For why should he be so careful in these particular instances, to guard his readers against the supposition that he spoke by divine authority, if in other cases, he did not in fact do so.

2. But Paul might, and probably did mean nothing more in these instances than that the Lord had given no express command in respect to these particulars, as no universal rule in relation to such matters could be adopted in the then circumstances of the Church, and that he therefore, as an inspired Apostle, did not mean to give a command in the name of the Lord, but simply give his inspired advice as one who had the Spirit of the Lord.

3. In 2 Cor. 11: 17, he says, "That which I speak, I speak it

not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting."

The Apostle seems here to have meant that he felt embarrassed by the circumstances under which they had placed him, and was constrained therefore to speak not after the example of the Lord, in respect to speaking in his own defence, but was obliged to speak as it were foolishly, as if he were a confident boaster. This does not imply that he did not consider himself inspired, but that his inspiration made it necessary under the circumstances, for him to say what might appear immodest, and as inconsistent with christian humility.

REMARKS.

1. The question of the inspiration of the Bible, is one of the highest importance to the Church and to the world.

2. The necessities of the Church plainly demand an authoritative, and unerring standard, to which they can appeal in all matters of faith and practice.

3. Those who have called in question the plenary inspiration of the Bible, have, sooner or later, frittered away nearly all that is essential to the christian religion.

4. Our faith in the divine inspiration of the Bible is so abundantly supported by evidence, that every christian should be able to give a reason for his confidence in its inspiration.

LECTURE VIII.

DEISM.

FIRST. Define Deism.

SECOND. Notice the different classes of Deists.

THIRD. Notice their principal objections to Christianity.
FOURTH. Consider some of the difficulties of Deism.

FIRST. Define Deism.

Deism is Godism, in opposition to no God or Atheism.

The

name Deist originated in France and was assumed by a class of infidels to avoid the stigma of Atheism.

SECOND. Different classes of Deists.

Although there are several modifications of Deism, they are, by their own writers, divided into two classes, and called mortal and immortal Deists. The mortal Deists admit the existence of God, but

deny his providential and moral government, the immortality of the soul, the distinction between virtue and vice, and of course future rewards and punishments, and, for the most part, nearly all the doctrines of natural religion. The immortal Deists profess a belief in all these. The peculiarity of all Deists is their rejection of Christianity and of the Bible as a revelation from God. They agree in discarding all pretences to divine revelation as either imposture or enthusiasm.

THIRD. Their principal Objections to Christianity.

Obj. I. They object that a revelation is unnecessary; that the powers of the human mind are such, and the light of nature so abundant, as to render any farther revelation of the character and will of God wholly unnecessary. This objection has been sufficiently answered in the preceding lecture. I will only add here, that the true question is not what the human mind, aided by the light of nature, is capable of doing, but what it really has done. Not what men might do were they disposed, but what they really have done in searching out the character and will of God, and in conforming themselves to it.

Obj. II. Another objection is, that a direct revelation from God, is highly improbable. To this I have already sufficiently replied in the preceding lecture.

Obj. III. Another objection is that a direct revelation is impossible that God is a Spirit, and that man is either wholly material or, at least shut up to the necessity of receiving all his ideas from sensation, and that as God is neither visible nor tangible—as he cannot approach our minds through the medium of our senses, he has no means of communicating directly with our minds, and that therefore a direct revelation, were it necessary, is impossible. To this I reply,

1. It is mere assumption. It is true that we receive our ideas of sensible objects from sensation, but it is not true that we can have no idea of spiritual beings except through sensation.

2. It is not only a gratuitous assumption, that God cannot communicate with minds because he is not a material being, but it is highly absurd. The very fact that he is a spirit, and not a material being, gives him direct access to our minds without either the formality or the difficulty of approaching our minds through our senses.

Obj. IV. Another objection is that there are so many pretended revelations from God, and they differ so fundamentally in their character, that it is the safest and most reasonable course to reject them all as unworthy of credit. To this I reply,

1. That counterfeits imply true coin.

2. That among all the pretended revelations from God, there is not one except our Bible whose claims are of any serious consider