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V, 11 1854

UNIVERSALIST QUARTERLY

AND

GENERAL REVIEW.

ARTICLE I.

The Bible a sufficient Revelation from God to Man.

CHRISTIANITY, as a distinct system of religion, is a divine, or a human, institution. It had its origin in heaven, and is the priceless gift of God to man; or, it originated wholly in the wisdom of this world, and is undeserving the regard of intelligent beings. If we receive it as a divine institution, it comes to us with an authority which no man may question; with sanctions which none can evade; with rich hopes and spiritual blessings which can flow from no other source. If it be of earth, it can claim no higher authority, and demand no greater respect or obedience from man, than any system of Paganism extant; its sanctions depend on mere human power; its hopes are all delusions; its promised blessings illusory and unreal. We cannot admit that God has furnished the frame-work, the mere outlines, of a system of religion, designed for universal prevalence in the earth, and for the acceptance of all mankind, and left the task of perfecting such system to human ingenuity. Nor can we believe that He has merely perfected that which man had begun, but found himself incapable of completing. Hence we are led to the conclusion that Christianity, as a system of religion, separate and distinct from all others,

VOL. XI.

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originated with, and was perfected by, that all-wise and beneficent Being who knows the nature, all the circumstances and necessities of the countless beings for whom it was designed; or that it owes its origin, progress, and present form, entirely to human ingenuity and effort. But, as this article is not designed for such as deny the divine origin and authority of the Christian religion, nothing more on this point will be necessary.

Admitting then that Christianity is a divine institution, that it originated with God, and has been introduced and established in the earth by his authority, it is obvious that it must have been originally communicated to man by direct revelation from heaven. Consequently all that has been thus revealed, pertaining to the Christian religion, is to be received as constituting the essential principles of that religion; and whatever has not been revealed may be rejected, as extraneous, constituting no portion of Christianity. There may be philosophical truths harmohizing with such as are revealed; but these, though not .ncongruous, constitute no portion of such revelation; nor can they be considered constituent principles of a religion thus revealed. Should it be contended that our Saviour adopted and inculcated some philosophical truths and moral maxims which were known and adopted by Jews and Pagans before his advent, it may be replied that all such come to us with the authority of direct revelation; as it was his province to decide on the truth or falsehood of the prevailing theology, philosophy and ethics of the age in which he lived. Whatever he sanctioned, therefore, became incorporated with his religion.

If we suppose that Christianity, as it was inculcated by its founder and his inspired apostles, is a perfect system of religion, adapted to the capacities, conditions and necessiies of the whole human family, we must admit that the revelations through which it was originally communicated to the world, and on which it rests, are equally perfect; and that they contain all which it is necessary for man to know, either to guide him in the duties of life, or to promote his happiness. Have we, then, in the Bible, such revelations as we need? Does that book, which has ever been received by the Christian world as a direct revelation from Heaven, or rather as the record of such reve

lation, contain all the revelations essential to human good, and the ultimate salvation of the world? It will be the object of these pages to sustain the truth of the proposition placed at the head of this article, that the Bible is a sufficient revelation from God to man.

That man needs a revelation from God is apparent, not only from his condition in life, constantly cherishing unconquerable desires for some good which this world can never supply, and endowed with a capacity for enjoyment which the whole world is not sufficient to fill, but from the operations and strivings of the human mind in all ages of the world. Hence the fact that the most eminent reformers and legislators of ancient times, as Zoroaster, Minos, Pythagoras, Solon, Lycurgus, Numa, etc., and Mahomet, at a later period, found it necesary to pretend to intercourse with, and direct revelations from heaven, for the purpose of confirming their systems of religion, or sanctioning their laws. All the oracles, divinations and auguries of the ancient Greeks and Romans, were legitimate results of a consciousness of human ignorance, and an almost universally prevailing belief that their gods held intercourse with men, in which they imparted to mortals a knowledge of coming events. Our need of a direct revelation from God, and the sufficiency of the Bible, as a record of such revelation, to meet the wants of humanity, will be rendered more apparent from the consideration of a few particulars.

I. Man needs a revelation to give him a true knowledge of God. The religious principle, implanted in his nature by the Author of his existence, seeks some object towards which it may exercise its powers, and on which it can repose with confidence; nor will it rest satisfied till it finds, or creates, such object. Hence, mankind, of all nations and in all ages, have rendered homage and some kind of obedience, to some being or beings they have deemed superior to themselves. But it is obvious that "the world by wisdom" has never known God, that, untaught by revelation, mankind have ever been idolators and polytheists1, rendering worship to the hosts

It has been said that the religion of the ancient Persians is an exception; that it was originally predicated on the belief in one God, who created and governs the universe. However this may have

of heaven, to "beasts, and creeping things," and to "dumb idols" which their own hands have made. Equally obvious is it that the worship thus rendered to those imaginary deities was not only debasing to those engaged in it, but a fruitful source of crime and suffering; and that the so-called duties performed were altogether unsuited to the nature and dignity of intelligent beings. Hence the necessity of a revelation to impart to man a knowledge of the only proper object of all religious homage; to teach him the nature and character of the one living and "only true God;" the relation He sustains to the workmanship of his hand, especially to his rational offspring, man; the kind of worship He requires; the character and design of the government He has instituted in the world, and the nature of the duties He demands of the subjects of that government.

The Bible supplies this great want of humanity. It reveals to us a God who is the Creator and Sustainer of all worlds and all beings; who " is a Spirit," infinite and incomprehensible in his being and perfections; the moral Governor of the universe; the all-wise controller of events in the natural and moral world, doing "according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth;" holding in his hand the interests and destinies, for time and eternity, of all subordinate beings; and constantly exercising over all his works that perfect superintending Providence without which not even a little sparrow falls on the ground. It teaches us that He is a being of infinite wisdom, power and goodness, "righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works." It makes known to us the perfect and endearing relationship He sustains to the intelligent creation; exhibits Him to us as the beneficent Father of all our spirits, regarding with parental solicitude our conditions and our wants; the preserver and benefactor of all his dependent creatures, been, it is evident that this belief, and the worship predicated on it, were lost at a very early period; for long before the age of Zoroaster their worship was exchanged (if exchanged at all) for the Sabian idolatry, the worship of the sun, stars, fire, water, and the winds. Should it be contended that Zoroaster taught the existence of but one supreme God, it will be sufficient to reply that this reformer of the Magian theology was perhaps acquainted with the Jewish scriptures, and derived this principle from them.

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