sold into Egypt.-His Fornswered.................. 163 INTR THE important Volu That a volume which HISTORY OF THE BIBLE. INTRODUCTION. THE important Volume of the narrative of which it is purposed to give here a continuous outline, holds a place in the literature of this and of other Christian countries, totally distinct from that occupied by any other work, either of History or of Science. Besides a connected and faithful, though succinct account of the earliest ages of the world; of the reduction of chaos into order; of the creation of man and other animals; and of the consequences, moral as well as physical, which ensued: the Bible professes to give a detail of numerous occurrences, in which the Creator, not less than the creature, was an immediate actor, and of which the object is represented to have been uniformly the same, viz. the benefit of the human race. In few words, the Bible advances claims upon the notice of persons in all ranks of society, not merely as explaining the course of events of which, but for it, they could have known nothing; but as containing the substance of various dispensations, granted from time to time by God to man, for the purpose of instructing him in his duty as a moral and religious being, and, as a necessary consequence, of increasing his happiness. That a volume which makes such demands upon the consideration of mankind at large should have attracted the closest scrutiny, wherever it has been known, cannot by any means surprise us. The claim to a Divine original by any hunan performance is what enlightened men are always slow to admit, unless, indeed, the evidence on which it rests be of a nature not to be called in question; and hence the Bible, more than any other literary performance with which we are acquainted, has been the subject of minute examination and keen controversy. In every age daring spirits have arisen to question the justice of its title to the character which it assumes, while hosts of champions have at no period been wanting to meet the objections of the infidel, under whatever guise brought forward. It cannot be expected that, in a work like the present, we should enter much at large into the matter of these disputes; but it appears essential to the plan of every History of the Bible, that some, at least, of the many reasons extant should be given why the sacred records are to be received as authentic. No person who believes that God exists, and that he is a being of infinite power, wisdom, and knowledge, can reasonably deny that he may, if he think proper, make a direct and extraordinary revelation of himself and of his will to men, instead of leaving them, in matters so important, to the less certain guidance of their own rational faculties. God's power being almighty, it must extend to whatever does not imply a self-contradiction; and as there is no self-contradiction here to the possibility of such a revelation, no rational objection can be offered. In like manner, it appears the height of absurdity to affirm, that God, when communicating this revelation, does not possess the means of convincing those to whom it is granted, that they have been subject to no delusion: such advantages men every where enjoy when conversing, or otherwise negotiating the one with the other-it were strange to deny to the great Author of the universe a degree of power which is continually exercised by his creatures. Again, there are a variety of circumstances connected with the annals of our race, in themselves neither unimportant nor easily overlooked, which read to the conclusion not only that some such reve. lation is possible, but that its actual occurrence is in the highest degree probable. If any credit be due to the general sense of mankind, we shall scarcely find an individual in any age who, believing in the existence of a God or gods, did not also believe that some direct commerce subsisted between God and man. Hence it is that all popular religions, the most abominable as well as the most pure, have been said by their votaries to have been derived from the gods; and hence, also, the care with which the most eminent legislators of antiquity sought to impress the minds of the people with a persuasion that they held with their deities an intimate communication. Zoroaster, Minos, Pythagoras, Lycurgus, Numa, &c. &c., all thought it necessary to lay claim to immediate inspiration, and their claims were not disputed, because the persons to whom they addressed themselves felt that they stood in need of supernatural illumination, and fondly believed that their gods were willing to grant it. But it is not from a bare contemplation of the conduct of the illiterate among mankind, that we arrive at the conclusion which has just been drawn. It seems perfectly inconsistent with the tenor of God's dealings with the inferior animals, that he should place them at once in the highest state to which they are capable of attaining, yet leave man without the means of acquiring that knowledge in which his chief happiness centres; for that man is incapable by any exertion of his reasoning faculties, to discover such a religious system as shall satisfy his wants, or reconcile him to his destiny, we have the testimony of all experience for asserting. Let any man turn to the writings of the wisest and best of the heathen philosophers, and he will find there proofs innumerable that the statement which we have hazarded has not been rashly advanced, while a consideration of those gross and debasing fictions with which the vulgar VOL I.--B were deluded and deceived, will not, we presume, have a tendency to shake our argument. The possibility, and even the probability, of an event does not, however, furnish grounds for arbitrarily assuming that the event in question has actually occurred. To authorize such an assumption, it must be farther shown, that the event is in itself necessary for the attainment of some end, concerning which no doubts are entertained; and hence it becomes incumbent upon us to prove, that the great design of God in creating man could not be fully accomplished without an immediate revelation of himself and of his will to his creatures. Those who maintain that a revelation is not necessary to man, yet allow that man cannot attain to his highest state of perfection without a knowledge of God and of religion, rest their argument upon one or other of two grounds. They assert either that man is naturally endowed with an innate sense of Deity, which leads him to worship and obey his Maker; or that human reason is, of itself, and unassisted by a higher power, capable of discovering the great and fundamental truths of all religion. We, on the other hand, absolutely deny both propositions; and it remains that we demonstrate their fallacy. To overthrow the notion of an innate sense of religion, it is sufficient to observe, that instincts, where they exist, are never erroneous, nor lead such as obey them into absurdities. Instinct directs all animals to eat when they are hungry, and to drink when they are thirsty*-never to drink when they are hungry, or eat when they are thirsty; indeed, instinct, as far as it goes, is undeniably the most certain guide to which creatures endowed with vitality and sensation are subject. It is a well established * There is this difference between appetite and instinct, that whereas appetite advises animals of their wants, instinct, and instinct alone directs them how to satisfy those wants. |